Numbers 3:41

3:41 And take ¹  the Levites for me – I am the Lord – instead of all the firstborn males among the Israelites, and the livestock of the Levites instead of all the firstborn of the livestock of the Israelites.”

Numbers 8:16

8:16 For they are entirely given ²  to me from among the Israelites. I have taken them for myself instead of ³  all who open the womb, the firstborn sons of all the Israelites.

Numbers 8:20

8:20 So Moses and Aaron and the entire community of the Israelites did this with the Levites. According to all that the Lord commanded Moses concerning the Levites, this is what the Israelites did with them.

Numbers 9:17

9:17 Whenever the cloud was taken up ⁴  from the tabernacle, then after that the Israelites would begin their journey; and in whatever place ⁵  the cloud settled, there the Israelites would make camp.

Numbers 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 ⁶  for my sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my zeal. ⁷ 

Numbers 26:62

26:62 Those of them who were numbered were 23,000, all males from a month old and upward, for they were not numbered among the Israelites; no inheritance was given to them among the Israelites.

Numbers 35:2

35:2 “Instruct the Israelites to give ⁸  the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites ⁹  will possess. You must also give the Levites grazing land around the towns.

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¹ tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it carries forward the instructions from the preceding verse. The verb “take” now has the sense of appointing or designating the Levites.

² tn As before, the emphasis is obtained by repeating the passive participle: “given, given to me.”

³ tn Or “as substitutes” for all the firstborn of the Israelites.

⁴ tn The verb in this initial temporal clause is the Niphal infinitive construct.

⁵ tn Heb “in the place where it settled there”; the relative clause modifies the noun “place,” and the resumptive adverb completes the related idea – “which it settled there” means “where it settled.”

⁶ 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.

⁷ 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.

⁸ tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive: “command…and they will give,” or “that they give.”

⁹ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.