Bilangan 2:17

The Tribe in the Center

2:17 “Then the tent of meeting with the camp of the Levites will travel in the middle of the camps. They will travel in the same order as they camped, each in his own place ¹  under his standard.

Bilangan 2:32

Summary

2:32 These are the Israelites, numbered according to their families. ²  All those numbered in the camps, by their divisions, are 603,550.

Bilangan 4:3

4:3 from thirty years old and upward to fifty years old, all who enter the company ³  to do the work in the tent of meeting.

Bilangan 4:23

4:23 You must number them from thirty years old and upward to fifty years old, all who enter the company to do the work of the tent of meeting.

Bilangan 4:30

4:30 You must number them from thirty years old and upward to fifty years old, all who enter the company to do the work of the tent of meeting.

Bilangan 5:17

5:17 The priest will then take holy water ⁴  in a pottery jar, and take some ⁵  of the dust ⁶  that is on the floor of the tabernacle, and put it into the water.

Bilangan 6:18

6:18 “‘Then the Nazirite must shave his consecrated head ⁷  at the entrance to the tent of meeting and must take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire ⁸  where the peace offering is burning. ⁹ 

Bilangan 7:1

The Leader’s Offerings

7:1 ¹⁰ When Moses had completed setting up the tabernacle, ¹¹  he anointed it and consecrated it and all its furnishings, and he anointed and consecrated the altar and all its utensils.

Bilangan 10:11

The Journey From Sinai to Kadesh

10:11 ¹² On the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle of the testimony. ¹³ 

Bilangan 11:19

11:19 You will eat, not just one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days,

Bilangan 12:10

12:10 When ¹⁴  the cloud departed from above the tent, Miriam became ¹⁵  leprous ¹⁶  as snow. Then Aaron looked at ¹⁷  Miriam, and she was leprous!

Bilangan 16:18

16:18 So everyone took his censer, put fire in it, and set incense on it, and stood at the entrance of the tent of meeting, with Moses and Aaron.

Bilangan 16:37

16:37 “Tell ¹⁸  Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to pick up ¹⁹  the censers out of the flame, for they are holy, and then scatter the coals of fire ²⁰  at a distance.

Bilangan 17:8

17:8 On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony – and ²¹  the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted, and brought forth buds, and produced blossoms, and yielded almonds! ²² 

Bilangan 18:21

18:21 See, I have given the Levites all the tithes in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they perform – the service of the tent of meeting.

Bilangan 18:30

18:30 “Therefore you will say to them, ²³  ‘When you offer up ²⁴  the best of it, then it will be credited to the Levites as the product of the threshing floor and as the product of the winepress.

Bilangan 22:20

22:20 God came to Balaam that night, and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, get up and go with them; but the word that I will say to you, that you must do.”

Bilangan 22:38

22:38 Balaam said to Balak, “Look, I have come to you. Now, am I able ²⁵  to speak ²⁶  just anything? I must speak ²⁷  only the word that God puts in my mouth.”

Bilangan 26:64

26:64 But there was not a man among these who had been ²⁸  among those numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they numbered the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai.

Bilangan 28:2

28:2 “Command the Israelites: ²⁹  ‘With regard to my offering, ³⁰  be sure to offer ³¹  my food for my offering made by fire, as a pleasing aroma to me at its appointed time.’ ³² 

Bilangan 29:7

The Day of Atonement

29:7 “‘On the tenth day of this seventh month you are to have a holy assembly. You must humble yourselves; ³³  you must not do any work on it.

Bilangan 31:6

Campaign Against the Midianites

31:6 So Moses sent them to the war, one thousand from every tribe, with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, who was in charge ³⁴  of the holy articles ³⁵  and the signal trumpets.

[2:17]  ¹ tn The Hebrew expression is עַל־יָדוֹ (’al-yado, “upon his hand”). This clearly refers to a specifically designated place for each man.

[2:32]  ² tn Heb “the house of their fathers.” So also in v. 34.

[4:3]  ³ tn The word “company” is literally “host, army” (צָבָא, tsava’). The repetition of similar expressions makes the translation difficult: Heb “all [who] come to the host to do work in the tent.”

[5:17]  ⁴ tn This is probably water taken from the large bronze basin in the courtyard. It is water set apart for sacred service. “Clean water” (so NEB) does not capture the sense very well, but it does have the support of the Greek that has “pure running water.” That pure water would no doubt be from the bronze basin anyway.

[5:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “from.” The preposition is used here with a partitive sense.

[5:17]  ⁶ sn The dust may have come from the sanctuary floor, but it is still dust, and therefore would have all the pollutants in it.

[6:18]  ⁷ tn Some versions simply interpret this to say that he shaves his hair, for it is the hair that is the sign of the consecration to God. But the text says he shaves his consecrated head. The whole person is obviously consecrated to God – not just the head. But the symbolic act of cutting the hair shows that the vow has been completed (see Acts 21:23-24). The understanding of the importance of the hair in the ancient world has been the subject of considerable study over the years (see R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 436; and J. A. Thompson, “Numbers,” New Bible Commentary: Revised, 177).

[6:18]  ⁸ sn Some commentators see this burning of the hair as an offering (McNeile, Numbers, 35; G. B. Gray, Numbers [ICC], 68). But others probably with more foundation see it as destroying something that has served a purpose, something that if left alone might be venerated (see R. de Vaux, Israel, 436).

[6:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “which is under the peace offering.” The verse does not mean that the hair had to be put under that sacrifice and directly on the fire.

[7:1]  ¹⁰ sn This long and repetitious chapter has several parts to it: the introduction (vv. 1-3), the assigning of gifts (vv. 4-9), the time of presentation (vv. 10-11), and then the tribes (vv. 12-83), and then a summary (vv. 84-89).

[7:1]  ¹¹ tn The construction of this line begins with the temporal indicator (traditionally translated “and it came to pass”) and then after the idiomatic “in the day of” (= “when”) uses the Piel infinitive construct from כָּלָה (kalah). The infinitive is governed by the subjective genitive, “Moses,” the formal subject of the clause. The object of the infinitive is the second infinitive, “to set up” (לְהָקִים, lÿhaqim). This infinitive, the Hiphil, serves as the direct object, answering the question of what it was that Moses completed. The entire clause is an adverbial clause of time.

[7:1]  sn This chapter belongs chronologically after Lev 8:11, because Aaron and his sons were not yet made the celebrants and officiants of the new shrine (completed in Exodus). Here then chapters 7-9 are actually earlier than chapters 1-6, and form a supplement by adding information not found in Exodus and Leviticus. The first verse here recapitulates the first act of Moses in consecrating the shrine (Exod 30:23-31).

[10:11]  ¹² sn This section is somewhat mechanical: It begins with an introduction (vv. 11, 12), and then begins with Judah (vv. 13-17), followed by the rest of the tribes (vv. 18-27), and finally closes with a summary (v. 28). The last few verses (vv. 29-36) treat the departure of Hobab.

[10:11]  ¹³ tc Smr inserts a lengthy portion from Deut 1:6-8, expressing the command for Israel to take the land from the Amorites.

[10:11]  tn The expression is difficult; it is מִשְׁכַּן הָעֵדֻת (mishkan ha’edut). The reference is to the sacred shrine that covered the ark with the commandments inside. NEB renders the expression as “tabernacle of the Token”; NAB has “the dwelling of the commandments.”

[12:10]  ¹⁴ tn The disjunctive vav (ו) is here introducing a circumstantial clause of time.

[12:10]  ¹⁵ tn There is no verb “became” in this line. The second half of the line is introduced with the particle הִנֵה (hinneh, “look, behold”) in its archaic sense. This deictic use is intended to make the reader focus on Miriam as well.

[12:10]  ¹⁶ sn The word “leprosy” and “leprous” covers a wide variety of skin diseases, and need not be limited to the actual disease of leprosy known today as Hansen’s disease. The description of it here has to do with snow, either the whiteness or the wetness. If that is the case then there would be open wounds and sores – like Job’s illness (see M. Noth, Numbers [OTL], 95-96).

[12:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “turned to.”

[16:37]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “say to.”

[16:37]  ¹⁹ tn The verb is the jussive with a vav (ו) coming after the imperative; it may be subordinated to form a purpose clause (“that he may pick up”) or the object of the imperative.

[16:37]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew text just has “fire,” but it would be hard to conceive of this action apart from the idea of coals of fire.

[17:8]  ²¹ tn Here too the deictic particle (“and behold”) is added to draw attention to the sight in a vivid way.

[17:8]  ²² sn There is no clear answer why the tribe of Levi had used an almond staff. The almond tree is one of the first to bud in the spring, and its white blossoms are a beautiful sign that winter is over. Its name became a name for “watcher”; Jeremiah plays on this name for God’s watching over his people (1:11-12).

[18:30]  ²³ tn The wording of this verse is confusing; it may be that it is addressed to the priests, telling them how to deal with the offerings of the Levites.

[18:30]  ²⁴ tn The clause begins with the infinitive construct with its preposition and suffixed subject serving to indicate the temporal clause.

[22:38]  ²⁵ tn The verb is אוּכַל (’ukhal) in a question – “am I able?” But emphasizing this is the infinitive absolute before it. So Balaam is saying something like, “Can I really say anything?”

[22:38]  ²⁶ tn The Piel infinitive construct (without the preposition) serves as the object of the verb “to be able.” The whole question is rhetorical – he is saying that he will not be able to say anything God does not allow him to say.

[22:38]  ²⁷ tn The imperfect tense is here taken as an obligatory imperfect.

[26:64]  ²⁸ tn “who had been” is added to clarify the text.

[28:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and say to them.” These words have not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[28:2]  ³⁰ tn Th sentence begins with the accusative “my offering.” It is suspended at the beginning as an independent accusative to itemize the subject matter. The second accusative is the formal object of the verb. It could also be taken in apposition to the first accusative.

[28:2]  ³¹ tn The construction uses the imperfect tense expressing instruction, followed by the infinitive construct used to express the complement of direct object.

[28:2]  ³² sn See L. R. Fisher, “New Ritual Calendar from Ugarit,” HTR 63 (1970): 485-501.

[29:7]  ³³ tn Heb “afflict yourselves”; NAB “mortify yourselves”; NIV, NRSV “deny yourselves.”

[29:7]  sn The verb seems to mean “humble yourself.” There is no explanation given for it. In the days of the prophets fasting seems to be associated with it (see Isa 58:3-5), and possibly the symbolic wearing of ashes.

[31:6]  ³⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses the idiom that these “were in his hand,” meaning that he had the responsibility over them.

[31:6]  ³⁵ sn It is not clear what articles from the sanctuary were included. Tg. Ps.-J. adds (interpretively) “the Urim and Thummim.”