Bilangan 3:10

3:10 So you are to appoint Aaron and his sons, and they will be responsible for their priesthood; ¹  but the unauthorized person ²  who comes near must be put to death.”

Bilangan 4:5

4:5 When it is time for the camp to journey, ³  Aaron and his sons must come and take down the screening curtain and cover the ark of the testimony with it.

Bilangan 4:19

4:19 but in order that they will live ⁴  and not die when they approach the most holy things, do this for them: Aaron and his sons will go in and appoint ⁵  each man ⁶  to his service and his responsibility.

Bilangan 4:32

4:32 and the posts of the surrounding courtyard with their sockets, tent pegs, and ropes, along with all their furnishings and everything for their service. You are to assign by names the items that each man is responsible to carry. ⁷ 

Bilangan 5:7

5:7 then he must confess ⁸  his sin that he has committed and must make full reparation, ⁹  add one fifth to it, and give it to whomever he wronged. ¹⁰ 

Bilangan 5:25-26

5:25 The priest will take the grain offering of suspicion from the woman’s hand, wave the grain offering before the Lord, and bring it to the altar. 5:26 Then the priest will take a handful of the grain offering as its memorial portion, burn it on the altar, and afterward make the woman drink the water.

Bilangan 5:30

5:30 or when jealous feelings come over a man and he becomes suspicious of his wife; then he must have the woman stand before the Lord, and the priest will carry out all this law upon her.

Bilangan 6:5

6:5 “‘All the days of the vow ¹¹  of his separation no razor may be used on his head ¹²  until the time ¹³  is fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord. He will be holy, ¹⁴  and he must let ¹⁵  the locks of hair on his head grow long.

Bilangan 6:18

6:18 “‘Then the Nazirite must shave his consecrated head ¹⁶  at the entrance to the tent of meeting and must take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire ¹⁷  where the peace offering is burning. ¹⁸ 

Bilangan 8:7

8:7 And do this ¹⁹  to them to purify them: Sprinkle water of purification ²⁰  on them; then have them shave ²¹  all their body ²²  and wash ²³  their clothes, and so purify themselves. ²⁴ 

Bilangan 9:12

9:12 They must not leave any of it until morning, nor break any of its bones; they must observe it in accordance with every statute of the Passover.

Bilangan 13:2

13:2 “Send out men to investigate ²⁵  the land of Canaan, which I am giving ²⁶  to the Israelites. You are to send one man from each ancestral tribe, ²⁷  each one a leader among them.”

Bilangan 18:1

Responsibilities of the Priests

18:1 ²⁸ The Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your tribe ²⁹  with you must bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, ³⁰  and you and your sons with you must bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

Bilangan 18:5

18:5 You will be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the care of the altar, so that there will be ³¹  no more wrath on the Israelites.

Bilangan 18:16

18:16 And those that must be redeemed you are to redeem when they are a month old, according to your estimation, for five shekels of silver according to the sanctuary shekel (which is twenty gerahs).

Bilangan 19:7

19:7 Then the priest must wash ³²  his clothes and bathe himself ³³  in water, and afterward he may come ³⁴  into the camp, but the priest will be ceremonially unclean until evening.

Bilangan 19:17

19:17 “‘For a ceremonially unclean person you must take ³⁵  some of the ashes of the heifer ³⁶  burnt for purification from sin and pour ³⁷  fresh running ³⁸  water over them in a vessel.

Bilangan 27:8

27:8 And you must tell the Israelites, ‘If a man dies ³⁹  and has no son, then you must transfer his inheritance to his daughter;

Bilangan 28:2

28:2 “Command the Israelites: ⁴⁰  ‘With regard to my offering, ⁴¹  be sure to offer ⁴²  my food for my offering made by fire, as a pleasing aroma to me at its appointed time.’ ⁴³ 

Bilangan 28:7

28:7 “‘And its drink offering must be one quarter of a hin for each lamb. ⁴⁴  You must pour out the strong drink ⁴⁵  as a drink offering to the Lord in the holy place.

Bilangan 28:15

28:15 And one male goat ⁴⁶  must be offered to the Lord as a purification offering, in addition to the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.

Bilangan 28:20

28:20 And their grain offering is to be of finely ground flour mixed with olive oil. For each bull you must offer three-tenths of an ephah, and two-tenths for the ram.

Bilangan 29:1

Blowing Trumpets

29:1 “‘On the first day of the seventh month, you are to hold a holy assembly. You must not do your ordinary work, for it is a day of blowing trumpets for you.

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; ⁴⁷  you must not do any work on it.

Bilangan 30:2

30:2 If a man ⁴⁸  makes a vow ⁴⁹  to the Lord or takes an oath ⁵⁰  of binding obligation on himself, ⁵¹  he must not break his word, but must do whatever he has promised. ⁵² 

Bilangan 35:2

35:2 “Instruct the Israelites to give ⁵³  the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites ⁵⁴  will possess. You must also give the Levites grazing land around the towns.

Bilangan 35:11

35:11 you must then designate some towns as towns of refuge for you, to which a person who has killed someone unintentionally may flee.

Bilangan 36:7-8

36:7 In this way the inheritance of the Israelites will not be transferred ⁵⁵  from tribe to tribe. But every one of the Israelites must retain the ancestral heritage. 36:8 And every daughter who possesses an inheritance from any of the tribes of the Israelites must become the wife of a man from any family in her father’s tribe, so that every Israelite ⁵⁶  may retain the inheritance of his fathers.

[3:10]  ¹ tc The LXX includes the following words here: “and all things pertaining to the altar and within the veil.” Cf. Num 18:7.

[3:10]  ² tn The word is זָר (zar), usually rendered “stranger, foreigner, pagan.” But in this context it simply refers to anyone who is not a Levite or a priest, an unauthorized person or intruder in the tabernacle. That person would be put to death.

[4:5]  ³ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive construct in an adverbial clause of time; literally it says “in the journeying of the camp.” The genitive in such constructions is usually the subject. Here the implication is that people would be preparing to transport the camp and its equipment.

[4:19]  ⁴ tn The word order is different in the Hebrew text: Do this…and they will live. Consequently, the verb “and they will live” is a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive to express the future consequence of “doing this” for them.

[4:19]  ⁵ tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive continues the instruction for Aaron.

[4:19]  ⁶ tn The distributive sense is obtained by the repetition, “a man” and “a man.”

[4:32]  ⁷ tn Heb “you shall assign by names the vessels of the responsibility of their burden.”

[5:7]  ⁸ tn The verb is the Hitpael perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive from the verb יָדָה (yadah), which in this stem means “acknowledge, confess sin,” but in the Hiphil (primarily) it means “praise, give thanks.” In both cases one is acknowledging something, either the sin, or the person and work of the Lord. Here the verb comes in the apodosis: “when…then he must confess.”

[5:7]  ⁹ tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect of שׁוּב (shuv, “return”). Here it has the sense of “repay” with the word “reparation” (traditionally rendered “guilt offering,” but now is understood to refer to what was defrauded). The Levitical rulings called for the guilty to restore what was taken, if it could be made right, and pay a fifth more as a surcharge.

[5:7]  ¹⁰ tn This is now the third use of אָשָׁם (’asham); the first referred to “guilt,” the second to “reparation,” and now “wronged.” The idea of “guilt” lies behind the second two uses as well as the first. In the second “he must repay his guilt” (meaning what he is guilty of); and here it can also mean “the one against whom he is guilty of sinning.”

[6:5]  ¹¹ tc The parallel expression in v. 8 (“all the days of his separation”) lacks the word “vow.” This word is also absent in v. 5 in a few medieval Hebrew manuscripts. The presence of the word in v. 5 may be due to dittography.

[6:5]  ¹² sn There is an interesting parallel between this prohibition and the planting of trees. They could not be pruned or trimmed for three years, but allowed to grow free (Lev 20:23). Only then could the tree be cut and the fruit eaten. The natural condition was to be a sign that it was the Lord’s. It was to be undisturbed by humans. Since the Nazirite was to be consecrated to the Lord, that meant his whole person, hair included. In the pagan world the trimming of the beard and the cutting of the hair was often a sign of devotion to some deity.

[6:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “days.”

[6:5]  ¹⁴ tn The word “holy” here has the sense of distinct, different, set apart.

[6:5]  ¹⁵ tn The Piel infinitive absolute functions as a verb in this passage; the Piel carries the sense of “grow lengthy” or “let grow long.”

[6:18]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ 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.

[8:7]  ¹⁹ tn Or, more literally, “and thus you shall do.” The verb is the imperfect tense of instruction or legislation. Here it introduces the procedures to be followed.

[8:7]  ²⁰ tn The genitive in this expression indicates the purpose of the water – it is for their purification. The expression is literally “the waters of sin.” The word “purification” is the same as for the “sin/purification offering” – חַטָּאת (khatta’at). This water seems to have been taken from the main laver and is contrasted with the complete washing of the priests in Lev 8:6.

[8:7]  ²¹ tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect with a vav (ו) of sequence. This verb, and those to follow, has the force of a jussive since it comes after the imperative. Here the instruction is for them to remove the hair from their bodies (“flesh”). There is no indication that this was repeated (as the Egyptian priests did every few days). It seems to have been for this special occasion only. A similar requirement was for the leper (Lev 14:7-9).

[8:7]  ²² tn Heb “flesh.”

[8:7]  ²³ tn Or “let/have them wash”; the priests were given new clothes (Lev 8:13), but the Levites simply washed their own.

[8:7]  ²⁴ tn The verb is a reflexive (or possibly passive) in this verse, indicating the summary of the process. The ritual steps that have been prescribed will lead to this conclusion. The verb could be treated as a final imperfect (being a perfect with vav [ו] consecutive), and so translated “that they may….” The major difference here is that the ritual made the Levites “clean,” whereas the ritual for the priests made them “holy” or “sanctified” (Lev 8:12).

[13:2]  ²⁵ tn The imperfect tense with the conjunction is here subordinated to the preceding imperative to form the purpose clause. It can thus be translated “send…to investigate.”

[13:2]  ²⁶ tn The participle here should be given a future interpretation, meaning “which I am about to give” or “which I am going to give.”

[13:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “one man one man of the tribe of his fathers.”

[18:1]  ²⁸ sn This chapter and the next may have been inserted here to explain how the priests are to function because in the preceding chapter Aaron’s position was affirmed. The chapter seems to fall into four units: responsibilities of priests (vv. 1-7), their portions (vv. 8-19), responsibilities of Levites (vv. 20-24), and instructions for Levites (vv. 25-32).

[18:1]  ²⁹ tn Heb “your father’s house.”

[18:1]  ³⁰ sn The responsibility for the sanctuary included obligations relating to any violation of the sanctuary. This was stated to forestall any further violations of the sanctuary. The priests were to pay for any ritual errors, primarily if any came too near. Since the priests and Levites come near all the time, they risk violating ritual laws more than any. So, with the great privileges come great responsibilities. The bottom line is that they were responsible for the sanctuary.

[18:5]  ³¹ tn The clause is a purpose clause, and the imperfect tense a final imperfect.

[19:7]  ³² tn The sequence continues with the perfect tense and vav (ו) consecutive.

[19:7]  ³³ tn Heb “his flesh.”

[19:7]  ³⁴ tn This is the imperfect of permission.

[19:17]  ³⁵ tn The verb is the perfect tense, third masculine plural, with a vav (ו) consecutive. The verb may be worded as a passive, “ashes must be taken,” but that may be too awkward for this sentence. It may be best to render it with a generic “you” to fit the instruction of the text.

[19:17]  ³⁶ tn The word “heifer” is not in the Hebrew text, but it is implied.

[19:17]  ³⁷ tn Here too the verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; rather than make this passive, it is here left as a direct instruction to follow the preceding one. For the use of the verb נָתַן (natan) in the sense of “pour,” see S. C. Reif, “A Note on a Neglected Connotation of ntn,” VT 20 (1970): 114-16.

[19:17]  ³⁸ tn The expression is literally “living water.” Living water is the fresh, flowing spring water that is clear, life-giving, and not the collected pools of stagnant or dirty water.

[27:8]  ³⁹ tn Heb “a man, if he dies.”

[28:2]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and say to them.” These words have not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[28:2]  ⁴¹ 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]  ⁴² tn The construction uses the imperfect tense expressing instruction, followed by the infinitive construct used to express the complement of direct object.

[28:2]  ⁴³ sn See L. R. Fisher, “New Ritual Calendar from Ugarit,” HTR 63 (1970): 485-501.

[28:7]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “the one lamb,” but it is meant to indicate for “each lamb.”

[28:7]  ⁴⁵ tn The word שֵׁכָר (shekhar) is often translated “strong drink.” It can mean “barley beer” in the Akkadian cognate, and also in the Hebrew Bible when joined with the word for wine. English versions here read “wine” (NAB, TEV, CEV); “strong wine” (KJV); “fermented drink” (NIV, NLT); “strong drink” (ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[28:15]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “one kid of the goats.”

[29:7]  ⁴⁷ 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.

[30:2]  ⁴⁸ tn The legal construction states the class to which the law applies, and then lays down the condition: “men [man] – if….”

[30:2]  ⁴⁹ tn The Hebrew text uses a cognate accusative construction to express this: “a man if he vows a vow.”

[30:2]  ⁵⁰ tn The expression is “swear an oath” (הִשָּׁבַע שְׁבֻעָה, hishava’ shÿvu’ah). The vow (נֵדֶר, neder) was a promise to donate something of oneself or one’s substance to the Lord. The solemn oath seals the vow before the Lord, perhaps with sacrifice. The vocabulary recalls Abraham’s treaty with Abimelech and the naming of Beer Sheba with the word (see Gen 21).

[30:2]  ⁵¹ tn The Hebrew text hasלֶאְסֹר אִסָּר (le’sor ’issar), meaning “to take a binding obligation.” This is usually interpreted to mean a negative vow, i.e., the person attempts to abstain from something that is otherwise permissible. It might involve fasting, or abstaining from marital sex, but it might also involve some goal to be achieved, and the abstaining from distractions until the vow is fulfilled (see Ps 132). The נֶדֶר (neder) may have been more for religious matters, and the אִסָּר more for social concerns, but this cannot be documented with certainty.

[30:2]  ⁵² tn Heb “according to all that goes out of his mouth.”

[35:2]  ⁵³ tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive: “command…and they will give,” or “that they give.”

[35:2]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[36:7]  ⁵⁵ tn Heb “turned aside.”

[36:8]  ⁵⁶ tn The subject is “Israelites” and the verb is plural to agree with it, but the idea is collective as the word for “man” indicates: “so that the Israelites may possess – [each] man the inheritance of his fathers.”