Bilangan 10:10

10:10 “Also in the time when you rejoice, such as ¹  on your appointed festivals or ²  at the beginnings of your months, you must blow with your trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, so that they may ³  become ⁴  a memorial for you before your God: I am the Lord your God.”

Bilangan 17:10

The Memorial

17:10 The Lord said to Moses, “Bring Aaron’s staff back before the testimony to be preserved for a sign to the rebels, so that you may bring their murmurings to an end ⁵  before me, that they will not die.” ⁶ 

Bilangan 24:13

24:13 ‘If Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond ⁷  the commandment ⁸  of the Lord to do either good or evil of my own will, ⁹  but whatever the Lord tells me I must speak’?

Bilangan 24:17

24:17 ‘I see him, but not now;

I behold him, but not close at hand. ¹⁰ 

A star ¹¹  will march forth ¹²  out of Jacob,

and a scepter ¹³  will rise out of Israel.

He will crush the skulls ¹⁴  of Moab,

and the heads ¹⁵  of all the sons of Sheth. ¹⁶ 

[10:10]  ¹ tn The conjunction may be taken as explicative or epexegetical, and so rendered “namely; even; that is,” or it may be taken as emphatic conjunction, and translated “especially.”

[10:10]  ² tn The vav (ו) is taken here in its alternative use and translated “or.”

[10:10]  ³ tn The form is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. After the instruction imperfects, this form could be given the same nuance, or more likely, subordinated as a purpose or result clause.

[10:10]  ⁴ tn The verb “to be” (הָיָה, hayah) has the meaning “to become” when followed by the preposition lamed (ל).

[17:10]  ⁵ tn The verb means “to finish; to complete” and here “to bring to an end.” It is the imperfect following the imperative, and so introduces a purpose clause (as a final imperfect).

[17:10]  ⁶ tn This is another final imperfect in a purpose clause.

[24:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “I am not able to go beyond.”

[24:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “mouth.”

[24:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “from my heart.”

[24:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “near.”

[24:17]  ¹¹ sn This is a figure for a king (see also Isa 14:12) not only in the Bible but in the ancient Near Eastern literature as a whole. The immediate reference of the prophecy seems to be to David, but the eschatological theme goes beyond him. There is to be a connection made between this passage and the sighting of a star in its ascendancy by the magi, who then traveled to Bethlehem to see the one born King of the Jews (Matt 2:2). The expression “son of a star” (Aram Bar Kochba) became a title for a later claimant to kingship, but he was doomed by the Romans in a.d. 135.

[24:17]  ¹² tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it is equal to the imperfect expressing the future. The verb דָּרַךְ (darakh), related to the noun “way, road,” seems to mean something like tread on, walk, march.”

[24:17]  ¹³ sn The “scepter” is metonymical for a king who will rise to power. NEB strangely rendered this as “comet” to make a parallel with “star.”

[24:17]  ¹⁴ tn The word is literally “corners,” but may refer to the corners of the head, and so “skull.”

[24:17]  ¹⁵ tc The MT reads “shatter, devastate.” Smr reads קֹדְקֹד (qodqod, “head; crown; pate”). Smr follows Jer 48:45 which appears to reflect Num 24:17.

[24:17]  ¹⁶ sn The prophecy begins to be fulfilled when David defeated Moab and Edom and established an empire including them. But the Messianic promise extends far beyond that to the end of the age and the inclusion of these defeated people in the program of the coming King.