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 4:14

4:14 Then they must place on it all its implements with which they serve there – the trays, the meat forks, the shovels, the basins, and all the utensils of the altar – and they must spread on it a covering of fine leather, and then insert its poles. ³ 

Bilangan 5:27

5:27 When he has made her drink the water, then, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, the water that brings a curse will enter her to produce bitterness – her abdomen will swell, her thigh will fall away, and the woman will become a curse among her people.

Bilangan 11:20

11:20 but a whole month, ⁴  until it comes out your nostrils and makes you sick, ⁵  because you have despised ⁶  the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why ⁷  did we ever come out of Egypt?”’”

Bilangan 11:26

Eldad and Medad

11:26 But two men remained in the camp; one’s name was Eldad, and the other’s name was Medad. And the spirit rested on them. (Now they were among those in the registration, ⁸  but had not gone to the tabernacle.) So they prophesied in the camp.

Bilangan 16:30

16:30 But if the Lord does something entirely new, ⁹  and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up ¹⁰  along with all that they have, and they ¹¹  go down alive to the grave, ¹²  then you will know that these men have despised the Lord!”

Bilangan 16:47

16:47 So Aaron did ¹³  as Moses commanded ¹⁴  and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague was just beginning among the people. So he placed incense on the coals and made atonement for the people.

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, ¹⁵  and the firstborn males of unclean animals you must redeem.

Bilangan 18:26

18:26 “You are to speak to the Levites, and you must tell them, ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you are to offer up ¹⁶  from it as a raised offering to the Lord a tenth of the tithe.

Bilangan 22:18

22:18 Balaam replied ¹⁷  to the servants of Balak, “Even if Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I could not transgress the commandment ¹⁸  of the Lord my God ¹⁹  to do less or more.

Bilangan 27:14

27:14 For ²⁰  in the wilderness of Zin when the community rebelled against me, you ²¹  rebelled against my command ²²  to show me as holy ²³  before their eyes over the water – the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.”

Bilangan 35:25

35:25 The community must deliver the slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the community must restore him to the town of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there ²⁴  until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the consecrated oil.

[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.”

[4:14]  ³ tc For this passage the Greek and Smr have a substantial addition concerning the purple cloth for the laver and its base, and a further covering of skin (see D. W. Gooding, “On the Use of the LXX for Dating Midrashic Elements in the Targums,” JTS 25 [1974]: 1-11).

[11:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “a month of days.” So also in v. 21.

[11:20]  ⁵ tn The expression לְזָרָה (lÿzarah) has been translated “ill” or “loathsome.” It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. The Greek text interprets it as “sickness.” It could be nausea or vomiting (so G. B. Gray, Numbers [ICC], 112) from overeating.

[11:20]  ⁶ sn The explanation is the interpretation of their behavior – it is in reality what they have done, even though they would not say they despised the Lord. They had complained and shown a lack of faith and a contempt for the program, which was in essence despising the Lord.

[11:20]  ⁷ tn The use of the demonstrative pronoun here (“why is this we went out …”) is enclitic, providing emphasis to the sentence: “Why in the world did we ever leave Egypt?”

[11:26]  ⁸ tn The form of the word is the passive participle כְּתֻבִים (kÿtuvim, “written”). It is normally taken to mean “among those registered,” but it is not clear if that means they were to be among the seventy or not. That seems unlikely since there is no mention of the seventy being registered, and vv. 24-25 says all seventy went out and prophesied. The registration may be to eldership, or the role of the officer.

[16:30]  ⁹ tn The verb בָּרָא (bara’) is normally translated “create” in the Bible. More specifically it means to fashion or make or do something new and fresh. Here the verb is joined with its cognate accusative to underscore that this will be so different everyone will know it is of God.

[16:30]  ¹⁰ tn The figures are personifications. But they vividly describe the catastrophe to follow – which was very much like a mouth swallowing them.

[16:30]  ¹¹ tn The word is “life” or “lifetime”; it certainly means their lives – they themselves. But the presence of this word suggest more. It is an accusative specifying the state of the subject – they will go down alive to Sheol.

[16:30]  ¹² tn The word “Sheol” in the Bible can be used four different ways: the grave, the realm of the departed [wicked] spirits or Hell, death in general, or a place of extreme danger (one that will lead to the grave if God does not intervene). The usage here is certainly the first, and very likely the second as well. A translation of “pit” would not be inappropriate. Since they will go down there alive, it is likely that they will sense the deprivation and the separation from the land above. See H. W. Robinson, Inspiration and Revelation in the Old Testament; N. J. Tromp, Primitive Conceptions of Death and the Netherworld in the Old Testament (BibOr 21), 21-23; and A. Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic, especially ch. 3.

[16:47]  ¹³ tn Heb “took.”

[16:47]  ¹⁴ tn Or “had spoken” (NASB); NRSV “had ordered.”

[18:15]  ¹⁵ 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).

[18:26]  ¹⁶ tn The verb in this clause is the Hiphil perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive; it has the same force as an imperfect of instruction: “when…then you are to offer up.”

[22:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[22:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “mouth.”

[22:18]  ¹⁹ 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.

[27:14]  ²⁰ tn The preposition on the relative pronoun has the force of “because of the fact that.”

[27:14]  ²¹ tn The verb is the second masculine plural form.

[27:14]  ²² tn Heb “mouth.”

[27:14]  ²³ 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.

[35:25]  ²⁴ tn Heb “in it.”