Bilangan 5:6

5:6 “Tell the Israelites, ‘When ¹  a man or a woman commits any sin that people commit, ²  thereby breaking faith ³  with the Lord, and that person is found guilty, ⁴ 

Bilangan 6:12

6:12 He must rededicate ⁵  to the Lord the days of his separation and bring a male lamb in its first year as a reparation offering, ⁶  but the former days will not be counted ⁷  because his separation ⁸  was defiled.

Bilangan 11:21

11:21 Moses said, “The people around me ⁹  are 600,000 on foot; ¹⁰  but you say, ‘I will give them meat, ¹¹  that they may eat ¹²  for a whole month.’

Bilangan 15:25

15:25 And the priest is to make atonement ¹³  for the whole community of the Israelites, and they will be forgiven, ¹⁴  because it was unintentional and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire to the Lord, and their purification offering before the Lord, for their unintentional offense.

Bilangan 15:39

15:39 You must have this tassel so that you may look at it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and obey them and so that you do not follow ¹⁵  after your own heart and your own eyes that lead you to unfaithfulness. ¹⁶ 

Bilangan 20:24

20:24 “Aaron will be gathered to his ancestors, ¹⁷  for he will not enter into the land I have given to the Israelites because both of you ¹⁸  rebelled against my word ¹⁹  at the waters of Meribah.

Bilangan 22:4

22:4 So the Moabites said to the elders of Midian, “Now this mass of people ²⁰  will lick up everything around us, as the bull devours the grass of the field. Now Balak son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at this time.

Bilangan 25:11

25:11 “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites, when he manifested such zeal ²¹  for my sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my zeal. ²² 

Bilangan 35:15

35:15 These six towns will be places of refuge for the Israelites, and for the foreigner, and for the settler among them, so that anyone who kills any person accidentally may flee there.

[5:6]  ¹ sn This type of law is known as casuistic. The law is introduced with “when/if” and then the procedure to be adopted follows it. The type of law was common in the Law Code of Hammurabi.

[5:6]  ² tn The verse simply says “any sin of a man,” but the genitive could mean that it is any sin that a man would commit (subjective genitive), or one committed against a man (objective genitive). Because of the similarity with Lev 5:22, the subjective is better. The sin is essentially “missing the mark” which is the standard of the Law of the Lord. The sin is not in this case accidental or inadvertent. It means here simply failing to live up to the standard of the Lord. Since both men and women are mentioned in the preceding clause, the translation uses “people” here.

[5:6]  ³ tn The verb is מַעַל (ma’al), which means to “defraud, violate, trespass against,” or “to deal treacherously, do an act of treachery.” In doing any sin that people do, the guilty have been unfaithful to the Lord, and therefore must bring him a sacrifice.

[5:6]  ⁴ tn The word used here for this violation is אָשָׁם (’asham). It can be translated “guilt, to be guilty”; it can also be used for the reparation offering. The basic assumption here is that the individual is in a state of sin – is guilty. In that state he or she feels remorse for the sin and seeks forgiveness through repentance. See further P. P. Saydon, “Sin Offering and Trespass Offering,” CBQ 8 (1946): 393-98; H. C. Thompson, “The Significance of the Term ’Asham in the Old Testament,” TGUOS 14 (1953): 20-26.

[6:12]  ⁵ tn The same idea is to be found now in the use of the word נָזַר (nazar), which refers to a recommitment after the vow was interrupted.

[6:12]  ⁶ tn The necessity of bringing the reparation offering was due to the reinstatement into the vow that had been interrupted.

[6:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “will fall”; KJV “shall be lost”; ASV, NASB, NRSV “shall be void.”

[6:12]  ⁸ tc The similar expression in v. 9 includes the word “head” (i.e., “his consecrated head”). The LXX includes this word in v. 12 as well.

[11:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “the people who I am in their midst,” i.e., among whom I am.

[11:21]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew sentence stresses the number. The sentence begins “600,000….”

[11:21]  ¹¹ tn The word order places the object first here: “Meat I will give them.” This adds to the contrast between the number and the statement of the Lord.

[11:21]  ¹² tn The verb is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the sequence from the preceding imperfect tense. However, this verb may be subordinated to the preceding to express a purpose clause.

[15:25]  ¹³ tn The verb is the Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive (וְכִפֶּר, vÿkhipper) to continue the instruction of the passage: “the priest shall make atonement,” meaning the priest is to make atonement for the sin (thus the present translation). This verb means “to expiate,” “to atone for,” “to pacify.” It describes the ritual events by which someone who was separated from the holy Lord God could find acceptance into his presence through the sacrificial blood of the substitutionary animal. See Lev 1 and Num 17:6-15.

[15:25]  ¹⁴ tn Or “they will be forgiven.”

[15:39]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “seek out, look into.”

[15:39]  ¹⁶ tn This last clause is a relative clause explaining the influence of the human heart and physical sight. It literally says, “which you go whoring after them.” The verb for “whoring” may be interpreted to mean “act unfaithfully.” So, the idea is these influences lead to unfaithful activity: “after which you act unfaithfully.”

[20:24]  ¹⁷ sn This is the standard poetic expression for death. The bones would be buried, often with the bones of relatives in the same tomb, giving rise to the expression.

[20:24]  ¹⁸ tn The verb is in the second person plural form, and so it is Moses and Aaron who rebelled, and so now because of that Aaron first and then Moses would die without going into the land.

[20:24]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “mouth.”

[22:4]  ²⁰ tn The word is simply “company,” but in the context he must mean a vast company – a horde of people.

[25:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “he was zealous with my zeal.” The repetition of forms for “zeal” in the line stresses the passion of Phinehas. The word “zeal” means a passionate intensity to protect or preserve divine or social institutions.

[25:11]  ²² tn The word for “zeal” now occurs a third time. While some English versions translate this word here as “jealousy” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), it carries the force of God’s passionate determination to defend his rights and what is right about the covenant and the community and parallels the “zeal” that Phinehas had just demonstrated.