Bilangan 3:12

3:12 “Look, ¹  I myself have taken the Levites from among the Israelites instead of ²  every firstborn who opens the womb among the Israelites. So the Levites belong to me,

Bilangan 7:12

The Tribal Offerings

7:12 The one who presented his offering on the first day was Nahshon son of Amminadab, from the tribe of Judah. ³ 

Bilangan 9:14

9:14 If a resident foreigner lives ⁴  among you and wants to keep ⁵  the Passover to the Lord, he must do so according to the statute of the Passover, and according to its custom. You must have ⁶  the same ⁷  statute for the resident foreigner ⁸  and for the one who was born in the land.’”

Bilangan 18:15

18:15 The firstborn of every womb which they present to the Lord, whether human or animal, will be yours. Nevertheless, the firstborn sons you must redeem, ⁹  and the firstborn males of unclean animals you must redeem.

Bilangan 20:12

The Lord’s Judgment

20:12 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust me enough ¹⁰  to show me as holy ¹¹  before ¹²  the Israelites, therefore you will not bring this community into the land I have given them.” ¹³ 

Bilangan 21:5

21:5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, for there is no bread or water, and we ¹⁴  detest this worthless ¹⁵  food.”

Bilangan 22:18

22:18 Balaam replied ¹⁶  to the servants of Balak, “Even if Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I could not transgress the commandment ¹⁷  of the Lord my God ¹⁸  to do less or more.

Bilangan 23:3

23:3 Balaam said to Balak, “Station yourself ¹⁹  by your burnt offering, and I will go off; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever he reveals to me ²⁰  I will tell you.” ²¹  Then he went to a deserted height. ²² 

Bilangan 29:2

29:2 You must offer a burnt offering as a sweet aroma to the Lord: one young bull, one ram, and seven lambs one year old without blemish.

[3:12]  ¹ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) here carries its deictic force, calling attention to the fact that is being declared. It is underscoring the fact that the Lord himself chose Levi.

[3:12]  ² tn Literally “in the place of.”

[7:12]  ³ sn The tribe of Judah is listed first. It seems that it had already achieved a place of prominence based on the patriarchal promise of the Messiahship in Judah (Gen 49:10).

[9:14]  ⁴ tn The words translated “resident foreigner” and “live” are from the same Hebrew root, גּוּר (gur), traditionally translated “to sojourn.” The “sojourner” who “sojourns” is a foreigner, a resident alien, who lives in the land as a temporary resident with rights of land ownership.

[9:14]  ⁵ tn The verb is the simple perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. It is therefore the equivalent to the imperfect that comes before it. The desiderative imperfect fits this usage well, since the alien is not required to keep the feast, but may indeed desire to do so.

[9:14]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text has “there will be to you,” which is the way of expressing possession in Hebrew. Since this is legal instruction, the imperfect tense must be instruction or legislation.

[9:14]  ⁷ tn Or “you must have one statute.”

[9:14]  ⁸ tn The conjunction is used here to specify the application of the law: “and for the resident foreigner, and for the one…” indicates “both for the resident foreigner and the one who….”

[18:15]  ⁹ tn The construction uses the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense of the verb “to redeem” in order to stress the point – they were to be redeemed. N. H. Snaith suggests that the verb means to get by payment what was not originally yours, whereas the other root גָאַל (ga’al) means to get back what was originally yours (Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 268).

[20:12]  ¹⁰ tn Or “to sanctify me.”

[20:12]  sn The verb is the main word for “believe, trust.” It is the verb that describes the faith in the Word of the Lord that leads to an appropriate action. Here God says that Moses did not believe him, meaning that what he did showed more of Moses than of what God said. Moses had taken a hostile stance toward the people, and then hit the rock twice. This showed that Moses was not satisfied with what God said, but made it more forceful and terrifying, thus giving the wrong picture of God to the people. By doing this the full power and might of the Lord was not displayed to the people. It was a momentary lack of faith, but it had to be dealt with.

[20:12]  ¹¹ sn Using the basic meaning of the word קָדַשׁ (qadash, “to be separate, distinct, set apart”), we can understand better what Moses failed to do. He was supposed to have acted in a way that would have shown God to be distinct, different, holy. Instead, he gave the impression that God was capricious and hostile – very human. The leader has to be aware of what image he is conveying to the people.

[20:12]  ¹² tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[20:12]  ¹³ tn There is debate as to exactly what the sin of Moses was. Some interpreters think that the real sin might have been that he refused to do this at first, but that fact has been suppressed from the text. Some think the text was deliberately vague to explain why they could not enter the land without demeaning them. Others simply, and more likely, note that in Moses there was unbelief, pride, anger, impatience – disobedience.

[21:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “our souls.”

[21:5]  ¹⁵ tn The Israelites’ opinion about the manna was clear enough – “worthless.” The word used is קְלֹקֵל (qÿloqel, “good for nothing, worthless, miserable”).

[22:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[22:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “mouth.”

[22:18]  ¹⁸ sn In the light of subsequent events one should not take too seriously that Balaam referred to Yahweh as his God. He is referring properly to the deity for which he is acting as the agent.

[23:3]  ¹⁹ tn The verb הִתְיַצֵּב (hityatsev) means “to take a stand, station oneself.” It is more intentional than simply standing by something. He was to position himself by the sacrifice as Balaam withdrew to seek the oracle.

[23:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and the word of what he shows me.” The noun is in construct, and so the clause that follows functions as a noun clause in the genitive. The point is that the word will consist of divine revelation.

[23:3]  ²¹ tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. This clause is dependent on the clause that precedes it.

[23:3]  ²² sn He went up to a bald spot, to a barren height. The statement underscores the general belief that such tops were the closest things to the gods. On such heights people built their shrines and temples.