10:4 “But if they blow with one trumpet, then the leaders, the heads of the thousands of Israel, must come to you. 15
24:4 the oracle of the one who hears the words of God,
who sees a vision from the Almighty,
although falling flat on the ground 20 with eyes open: 21
1 tn Heb “a man by his own standard.”
2 tn The imperfect tense is to be taken in the nuance of instruction.
3 tn Heb “of/for the house of their fathers.”
4 tn The Hebrew expression מִנֶּגֶד (minneged) means “from before” or “opposite; facing” and “at some distance” or “away from the front of” (see BDB 617 s.v. נֶגֶד 2.c.a; DCH 5:603-4 s.v. 3.b).
5 sn The Israelites were camping as a military camp, each tribe with the standards and emblems of the family. The standard was the symbol fastened to the end of a pole and carried to battle. It served to rally the tribe to the battle. The Bible nowhere describes these, although the serpent emblem of Numbers 21:8-9 may give a clue. But they probably did not have shapes of animals in view of the prohibition in the Decalogue. The standards may have been smaller for the families than the ones for the tribes. See further K. A. Kitchen, “Some Egyptian Background to the Old Testament,” TynBul 5 (1960): 11; and T. W. Mann, Divine Presence and Guidance in Israelite Tradition, 169-73.
6 tn The verb again is the perfect tense in sequence; the meaning of “take” may be interpreted here with the sense of “collect.”
7 tn The idea is expressed simply by repetition: “take five, five, shekels according to the skull.” They were to collect five shekels for each individual.
8 tn The verb form now is the imperfect of instruction or legislation.
9 tn Heb “them,” referring to the five shekels.
10 sn The sanctuary shekel was first mentioned in Exod 30:13. The half-shekel of Exod 38:26 would then be 10 gerahs. Consequently, the calculations would indicate that five shekels was about two ounces of silver for each person. See R. B. Y. Scott, “Weights and Measures of the Bible,” BA 22 (1951): 22-40, and “The Scale-Weights from Ophel, 1963-1964,” PEQ 97 (1965): 128-39.
11 tn The verb is the Hitpael perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive from the verb יָדָה (yadah), which in this stem means “acknowledge, confess sin,” but in the Hiphil (primarily) it means “praise, give thanks.” In both cases one is acknowledging something, either the sin, or the person and work of the
12 tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect of שׁוּב (shuv, “return”). Here it has the sense of “repay” with the word “reparation” (traditionally rendered “guilt offering,” but now is understood to refer to what was defrauded). The Levitical rulings called for the guilty to restore what was taken, if it could be made right, and pay a fifth more as a surcharge.
13 tn This is now the third use of אָשָׁם (’asham); the first referred to “guilt,” the second to “reparation,” and now “wronged.” The idea of “guilt” lies behind the second two uses as well as the first. In the second “he must repay his guilt” (meaning what he is guilty of); and here it can also mean “the one against whom he is guilty of sinning.”
14 tn The distributive sense is achieved by repetition: “one leader for the day, one leader for the day.”
15 tn Heb “they shall assemble themselves.”
16 sn The drink-offering was an ancient custom, mentioned in the Ugaritic tablets of Ras Shamra (14th century
17 tn Heb “for the one lamb,” but it clearly means “for each lamb.”
18 tn Heb “one rod for the head of their fathers’ house.”
19 sn Here the text makes clear that he had at least one assistant.
20 tn The phrase “flat on the ground” is supplied in the translation for clarity. The Greek version interprets the line to mean “falling asleep.” It may mean falling into a trance.
21 tn The last colon simply has “falling, but opened eyes.” The falling may simply refer to lying prone; and the opened eyes may refer to his receiving a vision. See H. E. Freeman, An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophets, 37-41.
22 tn Heb “one kid of the goats.”
23 tn Heb “to Moses”; the proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
24 tn Heb “lifted up the head.”
25 tn Heb “in our hand.”
26 tn Heb “turned aside.”