3:40 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Number all the firstborn males of the Israelites from a month old and upward, and take 1 the number of their names.
8:3 And Aaron did so; he set up the lamps to face toward the front of the lampstand, as the Lord commanded Moses.
9:1 11 The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they had come out 12 of the land of Egypt:
10:13 This was the first time they set out on their journey according to the commandment 14 of the Lord, by the authority 15 of Moses.
12:4 The Lord spoke immediately to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam: “The three of you come to the tent of meeting.” So the three of them went.
12:11 So Aaron said to Moses, “O my lord, 17 please do not hold this sin against us, in which we have acted foolishly and have sinned!
14:10 However, the whole community threatened to stone them. 21 But 22 the glory 23 of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the tent 24 of meeting.
14:13 Moses said to the Lord, “When the Egyptians hear 25 it – for you brought up this people by your power from among them –
14:44 But they dared 29 to go up to the crest of the hill, although 30 neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp.
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.
15:30 “‘But the person 31 who acts defiantly, 32 whether native-born or a resident foreigner, insults 33 the Lord. 34 That person 35 must be cut off 36 from among his people. 15:31 Because he has despised 37 the word of the Lord and has broken 38 his commandment, that person 39 must be completely cut off. 40 His iniquity will be on him.’” 41
16:16 Then Moses said to Korah, “You and all your company present yourselves before the Lord – you and they, and Aaron – tomorrow.
21:2 So Israel made a vow 55 to the Lord and said, “If you will indeed deliver 56 this people into our 57 hand, then we will utterly destroy 58 their cities.”
21:8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous snake and set it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks 59 at it, he will live.”
“Waheb in Suphah 60 and the wadis,
the Arnon
21:16 And from there they traveled 61 to Beer; 62 that is the well where the Lord spoke to Moses, “Gather the people and I will give them water.”
22:24 Then the angel of the Lord stood in a path 63 among the vineyards, where there was a wall on either side. 64
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?”
23:8 How 67 can I curse 68 one whom God has not cursed,
or how can I denounce one whom the Lord has not denounced?
24:6 They are like 70 valleys 71 stretched forth,
like gardens by the river’s side,
like aloes 72 that the Lord has planted,
and like cedar trees beside the waters.
27:12 75 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go up this mountain of the Abarim range, 76 and see 77 the land I have given 78 to the Israelites.
27:18 The Lord replied 79 to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is such a spirit, 80 and lay your hand on him; 81
27:22 So Moses did as the Lord commanded him; he took Joshua and set 82 him before Eleazar the priest and before the whole community.
30:3 “If a young 84 woman who is still living 85 in her father’s house makes a vow to the Lord or places herself under an obligation,
31:3 So Moses spoke to the people: “Arm 86 men from among you for the war, to attack the Midianites and to execute 87 the Lord’s vengeance on Midian.
31:21 Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone into the battle, “This is the ordinance of the law that the Lord commanded Moses:
32:23 “But if you do not do this, then look, you will have sinned 90 against the Lord. And know that your sin will find you out.
36:5 Then Moses gave a ruling 93 to the Israelites by the word 94 of the Lord: “What the tribe of the Josephites is saying is right.
1 tn The verb נָשָׂא (nasa’, “take”) has here the sense of collect, take a census, or register the names.
2 tn The perfect tense is here given a past perfect nuance to stress that the word of the
3 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.
4 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
5 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
6 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.
7 tn The distributive sense is achieved by repetition: “one leader for the day, one leader for the day.”
8 sn The consecration ceremony was to be done in full view of the assembled people. In all probability the laying on of the hands was done through representatives of the tribes, and not all the people. This ritual of the imposition of hands showed that the people were taking part in the consecration, and that the Levites represented them in the service of the
9 tc The Greek text adds the
10 tn The verb is the Hitpael of חָטָּא (khatta’). In this stem the meaning of the root “to sin” is likely to be connected to the noun “sin/purification” offering in a denominative sense, although some would take it as a privative usage, “to remove sin.” The idea is clear enough: They performed all the ritual in order to purify themselves ceremonially.
11 sn The chapter has just the two sections, the observance of the Passover (vv. 1-14) and the cloud that led the Israelites in the wilderness (vv. 15-23). It must be remembered that the material in vv. 7-9 is chronologically earlier than vv. 1-6, as the notices in the text will make clear. The two main discussions here are the last major issues to be reiterated before dealing with the commencement of the journey.
12 tn The temporal clause is formed with the infinitive construct of יָצָא (yatsa’, “to go out; to leave”). This verse indicates that a full year had passed since the exodus and the original Passover; now a second ruling on the Passover is included at the beginning of the second year. This would have occurred immediately after the consecration of the tabernacle, in the month before the census at Sinai.
13 tn This is the same Hebrew expression that was used earlier for the Levites “keeping their charge” or more clearly, “fulfilling their obligations” to take care of the needs of the people and the sanctuary. It is a general expression using שָׁמַר (shamar) followed by its cognate noun מִשְׁמֶרֶת (mishmeret).
14 tn Heb “mouth.”
15 tn Heb “hand.”
16 tn Heb “and it shall be.”
17 tn The expression בִּי אֲדֹנִי (bi ’adoni, “O my lord”) shows a good deal of respect for Moses by Aaron. The expression is often used in addressing God.
18 tn Heb “mouth.”
19 tn Heb “heads.”
20 tn The subjective genitives “milk and honey” are symbols of the wealth of the land, second only to bread. Milk was a sign of such abundance (Gen 49:12; Isa 7:21,22). Because of the climate the milk would thicken quickly and become curds, eaten with bread or turned into butter. The honey mentioned here is the wild honey (see Deut 32:13; Judg 14:8-9). It signified sweetness, or the finer things of life (Ezek 3:3).
21 tn Heb “said to stone them with stones.” The verb and the object are not from the same root, but the combination nonetheless forms an emphasis equal to the cognate accusative.
22 tn The vav (ו) on the noun “glory” indicates a strong contrast, one that interrupts their threatened attack.
23 sn The glory of the
24 tc The Greek, Syriac, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “in the cloud over the tent.”
25 tn The construction is unusual in that we have here a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive with no verb before it to establish the time sequence. The context requires that this be taken as a vav (ו) consecutive. It actually forms the protasis for the next verse, and would best be rendered “when…then they will say.”
26 sn Here again is the oath that God swore in his wrath, an oath he swore by himself, that they would not enter the land. “As the
27 tn The word נְאֻם (nÿ’um) is an “oracle.” It is followed by the subjective genitive: “the oracle of the
28 tn Heb “in my ears.”
sn They had expressed the longing to have died in the wilderness, and not in war. God will now give them that. They would not say to God “your will be done,” so he says to them, “your will be done” (to borrow from C. S. Lewis).
29 tn N. H. Snaith compares Arabic ’afala (“to swell”) and gafala (“reckless, headstrong”; Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 248). The wordעֹפֶל (’ofel) means a “rounded hill” or a “tumor.” The idea behind the verb may be that of “swelling,” and so “act presumptuously.”
30 tn The disjunctive vav (ו) here introduces a circumstantial clause; the most appropriate one here would be the concessive “although.”
31 tn Heb “soul.”
32 tn The sin is described literally as acting “with a high hand” – בְּיָד רָמָה (bÿyad ramah). The expression means that someone would do something with deliberate defiance, with an arrogance in spite of what the
33 tn The verb occurs only in the Piel; it means “to blaspheme,” “to revile.”
34 tn The word order in the Hebrew text places “Yahweh” first for emphasis – it is the
35 tn Heb “soul.”
36 tn The clause begins with “and” because the verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. As discussed with Num 9:13, to be cut off could mean excommunication from the community, death by the community, or death by divine intervention.
37 tn The verb בָּזָה (bazah, “to despise”) means to treat something as worthless, to treat it with contempt, to look down the nose at something as it were.
38 tn The verb פָּרַר (parar, “to break”) can mean to nullify, break, or violate a covenant.
39 tn Heb “soul.”
40 tn The construction uses the Niphal imperfect with the modifying Niphal infinitive absolute. The infinitive makes the sentence more emphatic. If the imperfect tense is taken as an instruction imperfect, then the infinitive makes the instruction more binding. If it is a simple future, then the future is certain. In either case, there is no exclusion from being cut off.
41 sn The point is that the person’s iniquity remains with him – he must pay for his sin. The judgment of God in such a case is both appropriate and unavoidable.
42 tn The sentence begins with the emphatic use of the infinitive absolute with the verb in the Hophal imperfect: “he shall surely be put to death.” Then, a second infinitive absolute רָגוֹם (ragom) provides the explanatory activity – all the community is to stone him with stones. The punishment is consistent with other decrees from God (see Exod 31:14,15; 35:2). Moses had either forgotten such, or they had simply neglected to (or were hesitant to) enact them.
43 sn The question indicates that they had been murmuring against Aaron, that is, expressing disloyalty and challenging his leadership. But it is actually against the
44 tn This clause is clearly foundational for the clause that follows, the appearance of the
45 tn Heb “if like the death of every man they die.”
46 tn The noun is פְּקֻדָּה (pÿquddah, “appointment, visitation”). The expression refers to a natural death, parallel to the first expression.
47 sn The whole congregation here is trying to project its guilt on Moses and Aaron. It was they and their rebellion that brought about the deaths, not Moses and Aaron. The
48 tn The temporal clause is constructed with the temporal indicator (“and it was”) followed by the Niphal infinitive construct and preposition.
49 tn The verse uses וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh, “and behold”). This is the deictic particle – it is used to point things out, suddenly calling attention to them, as if the reader were there. The people turned to look toward the tent – and there is the cloud!
50 tn The words “at them” are not in the Hebrew text, but they have been added in the translation for clarity.
51 tn The construction is “every raised offering of the
52 tn Or “its hallowed thing.”
53 tn Heb “and why….” The conjunction seems to be recording another thing that the people said in their complaint against Moses.
54 tn The clause uses the infinitive construct with the lamed (ל) preposition. The clause would be a result clause in this sentence: “Why have you brought us here…with the result that we will all die?”
55 tn The Hebrew text uses a cognate accusative with the verb: They vowed a vow. The Israelites were therefore determined with God’s help to defeat Arad.
56 tn The Hebrew text has the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense of נָתַן (natan) to stress the point – if you will surely/indeed give.”
57 tn Heb “my.”
58 tn On the surface this does not sound like much of a vow. But the key is in the use of the verb for “utterly destroy” – חָרַם (kharam). Whatever was put to this “ban” or “devotion” belonged to God, either for his use, or for destruction. The oath was in fact saying that they would take nothing from this for themselves. It would simply be the removal of what was alien to the faith, or to God’s program.
59 tn The word order is slightly different in Hebrew: “and it shall be anyone who is bitten when he looks at it he shall live.”
60 tc The ancient versions show a wide variation here: Smr has “Waheb on the Sea of Reeds,” the Greek version has “he has set Zoob on fire and the torrents of Arnon.” Several modern versions treat the first line literally, taking the two main words as place names: Waheb and Suphah. This seems most likely, but then there would then be no subject or verb. One would need something like “the Israelites marched through.” The KJV, following the Vulgate, made the first word a verb and read the second as “Red Sea” – “what he did in the Red Sea.” But subject of the passage is the terrain. D. L. Christensen proposed emending the first part from אֶת וָהֵב (’et vahev) to אַתָּה יְהוָה (’attah yehvah, “the
61 tn The words “they traveled” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied here because of English style. The same phrase is supplied at the end of v. 18.
62 sn Isa 15:8 mentions a Moabite Beerelim, which Simons suggests is Wadi Ettemed.
63 tn The word means a “narrow place,” having the root meaning “to be deep.” The Greek thought it was in a field in a narrow furrow.
64 tn Heb “a wall on this side, and a wall on that side.”
65 tn Heb “word.”
66 tn Heb “and thus you shall speak.”
67 tn The figure is erotesis, a rhetorical question. He is actually saying he cannot curse them because God has not cursed them.
68 tn The imperfect tense should here be classified as a potential imperfect.
69 tn Heb “word.”
70 tn Heb “as valleys they spread forth.”
71 tn Or “rows of palms.”
72 sn The language seems to be more poetic than precise. N. H. Snaith notes that cedars do not grow beside water; he also connects “aloes” to the eaglewood that is more exotic, and capable of giving off an aroma (Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 298).
73 tn Heb “flee to your place.”
74 tn “Number the people” is added here to the text for a smooth reading.
75 sn See further J. Lindblom, “Lot Casting in the Old Testament,” VT 12 (1962): 164-78; E. Lipinski, “Urim and Thummim,” VT 20 (1970): 495-96; and S. E. Loewenstamm, “The Death of Moses,” Tarbiz 27 (1957/58): 142-57.
76 tc The Greek version adds “which is Mount Nebo.” This is a typical scribal change to harmonize two passages.
sn The area is in the mountains of Moab; Deut 34:1 more precisely identifies it as Mount Nebo.
77 tn The imperative could be subordinated to the first to provide a purpose clause, although a second instruction fits well enough.
78 tn This perfect tense would best be classified as a perfect of resolve: “which I have decided to give.” God had not yet given the land to them, but it was certain he would.
79 tn Or “said.”
80 sn The word “spirit” probably refers to the Holy Spirit, in which case it would be rendered “in whom is the Spirit.” This would likely be a permanent endowment for Joshua. But it is also possible to take it to refer to a proper spirit to do all the things required of such a leader (which ultimately is a gift from the Spirit of God). The Hebrew text simply says “in whom is a spirit.”
81 sn This symbolic act would indicate the transfer of leadership to Joshua.
82 tn Heb “stood.”
83 tn Heb “one kid of the goats.”
84 tn The qualification comes at the end of the verse, and simply says “in her youth.”
85 tn The Hebrew text just has “in her father’s house” and not “who is still living,” but that is the meaning of the line.
86 tn The Niphal imperative, literally “arm yourselves,” is the call to mobilize the nation for war. It is followed by the jussive, “and they will be,” which would then be subordinated to say “that they may be.” The versions changed the verb to a Hiphil, but that is unnecessary: “arm some of yourselves.”
87 tn Heb “give.”
88 sn Or about 420 imperial pounds.
89 tn Heb “heart.” So also in v. 9.
90 tn The nuance of the perfect tense here has to be the future perfect.
91 tn Heb “their goings out.”
92 tn Heb “mouth.”
93 tn Heb “commanded.”
94 tn Heb “mouth.”