Numbers 13:2

13:2 “Send out men to investigate ¹  the land of Canaan, which I am giving ²  to the Israelites. You are to send one man from each ancestral tribe, ³  each one a leader among them.”

Numbers 17:2

17:2 “Speak to the Israelites, and receive from them a staff from each tribe, ⁴  one from every tribal leader, ⁵  twelve staffs; you must write each man’s name on his staff.

Numbers 18:1

Responsibilities of the Priests

18:1 ⁶ The Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your tribe ⁷  with you must bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, ⁸  and you and your sons with you must bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

Numbers 31:6

Campaign Against the Midianites

31:6 So Moses sent them to the war, one thousand from every tribe, with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, who was in charge ⁹  of the holy articles ¹⁰  and the signal trumpets.

Numbers 36:6

36:6 This is what ¹¹  the Lord has commanded for Zelophehad’s daughters: ‘Let them marry ¹²  whomever they think best, ¹³  only they must marry within the family of their father’s tribe.

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¹ tn The imperfect tense with the conjunction is here subordinated to the preceding imperative to form the purpose clause. It can thus be translated “send…to investigate.”

² tn The participle here should be given a future interpretation, meaning “which I am about to give” or “which I am going to give.”

³ tn Heb “one man one man of the tribe of his fathers.”

⁴ tn Heb “receive from them a rod, a rod from the house of a father.”

⁵ tn Heb “from every leader of them according to their fathers’ house.”

⁶ sn This chapter and the next may have been inserted here to explain how the priests are to function because in the preceding chapter Aaron’s position was affirmed. The chapter seems to fall into four units: responsibilities of priests (vv. 1-7), their portions (vv. 8-19), responsibilities of Levites (vv. 20-24), and instructions for Levites (vv. 25-32).

⁷ tn Heb “your father’s house.”

⁸ sn The responsibility for the sanctuary included obligations relating to any violation of the sanctuary. This was stated to forestall any further violations of the sanctuary. The priests were to pay for any ritual errors, primarily if any came too near. Since the priests and Levites come near all the time, they risk violating ritual laws more than any. So, with the great privileges come great responsibilities. The bottom line is that they were responsible for the sanctuary.

⁹ tn The Hebrew text uses the idiom that these “were in his hand,” meaning that he had the responsibility over them.

¹⁰ sn It is not clear what articles from the sanctuary were included. Tg. Ps.-J. adds (interpretively) “the Urim and Thummim.”

¹¹ tn Heb “the word that.”

¹² tn The idiom again is “let them be for wives for….”

¹³ tn Heb “to the one who is good in their eyes.”