Bilangan 17:8

17:8 On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony – and ¹  the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted, and brought forth buds, and produced blossoms, and yielded almonds! ² 

Bilangan 30:2

30:2 If a man ³  makes a vow ⁴  to the Lord or takes an oath ⁵  of binding obligation on himself, ⁶  he must not break his word, but must do whatever he has promised. ⁷ 

Bilangan 31:28

31:28 “You must exact ⁸  a tribute for the Lord from the fighting men who went out to battle: one life out of five hundred, from the people, the cattle, and from the donkeys and the sheep.

[17:8]  ¹ tn Here too the deictic particle (“and behold”) is added to draw attention to the sight in a vivid way.

[17:8]  ² 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).

[30:2]  ³ tn The legal construction states the class to which the law applies, and then lays down the condition: “men [man] – if….”

[30:2]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses a cognate accusative construction to express this: “a man if he vows a vow.”

[30:2]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “according to all that goes out of his mouth.”

[31:28]  ⁸ tn The verb is the Hiphil, “you shall cause to be taken up.” The perfect with vav (ו) continues the sequence of the instructions. This raised offering was to be a tax of one-fifth of one percent for the Lord.