Bilangan 1:53

1:53 But the Levites must camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that the Lord’s anger ¹  will not fall on the Israelite community. The Levites are responsible for the care ²  of the tabernacle of the testimony.”

Bilangan 16:46

16:46 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take the censer, put burning coals from the altar in it, place incense on it, and go quickly into the assembly and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord – the plague has begun!”

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 ³  no more wrath on the Israelites.

Bilangan 18:1

Responsibilities of the Priests

18:1 ⁴ The Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your tribe ⁵  with you must bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, ⁶  and you and your sons with you must bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

1 Samuel 6:19

6:19 But the Lord ⁷  struck down some of the people of Beth Shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord; he struck down 50,070 ⁸  of the men. The people grieved because the Lord had struck the people with a hard blow.

1 Samuel 6:2

6:2 the Philistines called the priests and the omen readers, saying, “What should we do with the ark of the Lord? Advise us as to how we should send it back to its place.”

1 Samuel 26:16-20

26:16 This failure on your part isn’t good! ⁹  As surely as the Lord lives, you people who have not protected your lord, the Lord’s chosen one, are as good as dead! ¹⁰  Now look where the king’s spear and the jug of water that was by his head are!”

26:17 When Saul recognized David’s voice, he said, “Is that your voice, my son David?” David replied, “Yes, it’s my voice, my lord the king.” 26:18 He went on to say, “Why is my lord chasing his servant? What have I done? What wrong have I done? ¹¹  26:19 So let my lord the king now listen to the words of his servant. If the Lord has incited you against me, may he take delight in ¹²  an offering. But if men have instigated this, ¹³  may they be cursed before the Lord! For they have driven me away this day from being united with the Lord’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go on, serve other gods!’ 26:20 Now don’t let my blood fall to the ground away from the Lord’s presence, for the king of Israel has gone out to look for a flea the way one looks for a partridge ¹⁴  in the hill country.”

[1:53]  ¹ tc Instead of “wrath” the Greek text has “sin,” focusing the emphasis on the human error and not on the wrath of God. This may have been a conscious change to explain the divine wrath.

[1:53]  tn Heb “so that there be no wrath on.” In context this is clearly the divine anger, so “the Lord’s” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[1:53]  ² tn The main verb of the clause is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive, וְשָׁמְרוּ (vÿshamÿru) meaning they “shall guard, protect, watch over, care for.” It may carry the same obligatory nuance as the preceding verbs because of the sequence. The object used with this is the cognate noun מִשְׁמֶרֶת (mishmeret): “The Levites must care for the care of the tabernacle.” The cognate intensifies the construction to stress that they are responsible for this care.

[18:5]  ³ tn The clause is a purpose clause, and the imperfect tense a final imperfect.

[18:1]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “your father’s house.”

[18:1]  ⁶ 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.

[6:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:19]  ⁸ tc The number 50,070 is surprisingly large, although it finds almost unanimous textual support in the MT and in the ancient versions. Only a few medieval Hebrew mss lack “50,000,” reading simply “70” instead. However, there does not seem to be sufficient external evidence to warrant reading 70 rather than 50,070, although that is done by a number of recent translations (e.g., NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). The present translation (reluctantly) follows the MT and the ancient versions here.

[26:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “Not good [is] this thing which you have done.”

[26:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you are sons of death.”

[26:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “What in my hand [is] evil?”

[26:19]  ¹² tn Heb “may he smell.” The implication is that Saul should seek to appease God, for such divine instigation to evil would a sign of God’s disfavor. For a fuller discussion of this passage see R. B. Chisholm, Jr., “Does God Deceive?” BSac 155 (1998): 19-21.

[26:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “but if the sons of men.”

[26:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the calling [one],” which apparently refers to a partridge.