Bilangan 6:18

6:18 “‘Then the Nazirite must shave his consecrated head ¹  at the entrance to the tent of meeting and must take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire ²  where the peace offering is burning. ³ 

Bilangan 15:36

15:36 So the whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, ⁴  just as the Lord commanded Moses.

Bilangan 16:16

16:16 Then Moses said to Korah, “You and all your company present yourselves before the Lord – you and they, and Aaron – tomorrow.

Bilangan 17:6

17:6 So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a staff, one for each leader, ⁵  according to their tribes ⁶  – twelve staffs; the staff of Aaron was among their staffs.

Bilangan 21:3

21:3 The Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, ⁷  and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of the place was called ⁸  Hormah.

Bilangan 21:33

21:33 Then they turned and went up by the road to Bashan. And King Og of Bashan and all his forces ⁹  marched out against them to do battle at Edrei.

Bilangan 25:8

25:8 and went after the Israelite man into the tent ¹⁰  and thrust through the Israelite man and into the woman’s abdomen. ¹¹  So the plague was stopped from the Israelites. ¹² 

[6:18]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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.

[15:36]  ⁴ tn Heb “stoned him with stones, and he died.”

[17:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “a rod for one leader, a rod for one leader.”

[17:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “the house of their fathers.”

[21:3]  ⁷ tc Smr, Greek, and Syriac add “into his hand.”

[21:3]  ⁸ tn In the Hebrew text the verb has no expressed subject, and so here too is made passive. The name “Hormah” is etymologically connected to the verb “utterly destroy,” forming the popular etymology (or paronomasia, a phonetic wordplay capturing the significance of the event).

[21:33]  ⁹ tn Heb “people.”

[25:8]  ¹⁰ tn The word קֻבָּה (qubbah) seems to refer to the innermost part of the family tent. Some suggest it was in the tabernacle area, but that is unlikely. S. C. Reif argues for a private tent shrine (“What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 [1971]: 200-206).

[25:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he thrust the two of them the Israelite man and the woman to her belly [lower abdomen].” Reif notes the similarity of the word with the previous “inner tent,” and suggests that it means Phinehas stabbed her in her shrine tent, where she was being set up as some sort of priestess or cult leader. Phinehas put a quick end to their sexual immorality while they were in the act.

[25:8]  ¹² sn Phinehas saw all this as part of the pagan sexual ritual that was defiling the camp. He had seen that the Lord himself had had the guilty put to death. And there was already some plague breaking out in the camp that had to be stopped. And so in his zeal he dramatically put an end to this incident, that served to stop the rest and end the plague.