1:16 These were the ones chosen 1 from the community, leaders 2 of their ancestral tribes. 3 They were the heads of the thousands 4 of Israel.
1:44 These were the men whom Moses and Aaron numbered 5 along with the twelve leaders of Israel, each of whom 6 was from his own family.
2:32 These are the Israelites, numbered according to their families. 7 All those numbered in the camps, by their divisions, are 603,550.
3:21 From Gershon came the family of the Libnites and the family of the Shimeites; these were the families of the Gershonites.
3:36 The appointed responsibilities of the Merarites included the frames of the tabernacle, its crossbars, its posts, its sockets, its utensils, plus all the service connected with these things, 8
15:13 “‘Every native-born person must do these things in this way to present an offering made by fire as a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
22:28 Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?”
26:35 These are the Ephraimites by their families: from Shuthelah, the family of the Shuthelahites; from Beker, the family of the Bekerites; from Tahan, the family of the Tahanites.
26:63 These are those who were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the Israelites in the plains of Moab along the Jordan River opposite Jericho. 17
33:1 18 These are the journeys of the Israelites, who went out of the land of Egypt by their divisions under the authority 19 of Moses and Aaron. 33:2 Moses recorded their departures 20 according to their journeys, by the commandment 21 of the Lord; now these are their journeys according to their departures.
35:7 “So the total of the towns you will give the Levites is forty-eight. You must give these together with their grazing lands.
1 tc The form has a Kethib-Qere problem, but the sentence calls for the Qere, the passive participle in the construct – “the called of….” These men were God’s choice, and not Moses’, or their own choice. He announced who they would be, and then named them. So they were truly “called” (קָרָא, qara’). The other reading is probably due to a copyist’s error.
2 tn The word is נָשִׂיא (nasi’, “exalted one, prince, leader”). Cf. KJV, ASV, NAB “princes.” These were men apparently revered or respected in their tribes, and so the clear choice to assist Moses with the leadership. See further, E. A. Speiser, “Background and Function of the Biblical na„sÃþá,” CBQ 25 (1963): 111-17.
3 tn Heb “exalted ones of the tribes of their fathers.” The earlier group of elders was chosen by Moses at the advice of his father-in-law. This group represents the few leaders of the tribes that were chosen by God, a more literate group apparently, who were the forerunners of the שֹׁטְּרִים (shottÿrim).
4 tc The Hebrew text has אַלְפֵי (’alfey, “thousands of”). There is some question over this reading in the MT, however. The community groups that have these leaders were larger tribes, but there is little certainty about the size of the divisions.
5 tn The construction uses both the passive participle הַפְּקֻדִים (happÿqudim) and the verb פָּקַד (paqad), giving a literal translation of “these were the numbered ones, whom Moses and Aaron numbered.”
6 tn Heb “they were one man for the house of his fathers.”
7 tn Heb “the house of their fathers.” So also in v. 34.
8 tn Heb “and all their service.” This could possibly be a hendiadys: “and all their working tools.” However, the parallel with v. 26 suggests this is a separate phrase.
9 sn The difference in the names is slight, a change from “he saves” to “the
10 tn The vav (ו) disjunctive on the noun at the beginning of the clause forms a strong adversative clause here.
11 tn Heb “if like the death of every man they die.”
12 tn The noun is פְּקֻדָּה (pÿquddah, “appointment, visitation”). The expression refers to a natural death, parallel to the first expression.
13 tn Heb “its daughters.”
14 tc Many commentators consider אוּלַי (’ulay, “perhaps”) to be a misspelling in the MT in place of לוּלֵי (luley, “if not”).
15 tn The verb simply says “they called,” but it is a feminine plural. And so the women who engaged in immoral acts with Hebrew men invited them to their temple ritual.
16 sn What Israel experienced here was some of the debased ritual practices of the Canaanite people. The act of prostrating themselves before the pagan deities was probably participation in a fertility ritual, nothing short of cultic prostitution. This was a blatant disregard of the covenant and the Law. If something were not done, the nation would have destroyed itself.
17 map For the location of Jericho see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.
18 sn This material can be arranged into four sections: from Egypt to Sinai (vv. 1-15), the wilderness wanderings (vv. 16-36), from Kadesh to Moab (vv. 37-49), and final orders for Canaan (vv. 50-56).
19 tn Heb “hand.”
20 tn Heb “their goings out.”
21 tn Heb “mouth.”
22 tn The verb can be translated simply as “divide,” but it has more the idea of allocate as an inheritance, the related noun being “inheritance.”