Numbers 4:13

4:13 Also, they must take away the ashes from the altar and spread a purple cloth over it.

Numbers 6:6

6:6 “‘All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he must not contact a dead body.

Numbers 6:16

6:16 “‘Then the priest must present all these before the Lord and offer his purification offering and his burnt offering.

Numbers 8:25

8:25 and at the age of fifty years they must retire from performing the work and may no longer work.

Numbers 10:3

10:3 When they blow them both, all the community must come to you to the entrance of the tent of meeting.

Numbers 10:5

10:5 When you blow an alarm, then the camps that are located 10  on the east side must begin to travel. 11 

Numbers 15:16

15:16 One law and one custom must apply to you and to the resident foreigner who lives alongside you.’”

Numbers 15:19

15:19 and you eat 12  some of the food of the land, you must offer up a raised offering 13  to the Lord.

Numbers 15:27

15:27 “‘If any person 14  sins unintentionally, then he must bring a yearling female goat for a purification offering.

Numbers 17:4

17:4 You must place them 15  in the tent of meeting before the ark of the covenant 16  where I meet with you.

Numbers 23:12

23:12 Balaam replied, 17  “Must I not be careful 18  to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?” 19 

Numbers 23:26

23:26 But Balaam replied 20  to Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘All that the Lord speaks, 21  I must do’?”

Numbers 26:53

26:53 “To these the land must be divided as an inheritance according to the number of the names.

Numbers 26:55

26:55 The land must be divided by lot; and they will inherit in accordance with the names of their ancestral tribes.

Numbers 28:18

28:18 And on the first day there is to be a holy assembly; you must do no ordinary work 22  on it.

Numbers 28:23

28:23 You must offer these in addition to the burnt offering in the morning which is for a continual burnt offering.

Numbers 28:25

28:25 On the seventh day you are to have a holy assembly, you must do no regular work.

Numbers 29:17

29:17 “‘On the second day you must offer twelve young bulls, two rams, fourteen lambs one year old, all without blemish,

Numbers 29:20

29:20 “‘On the third day you must offer 23  eleven bulls, two rams, fourteen lambs one year old, all without blemish,

Numbers 29:23

29:23 “‘On the fourth day you must offer ten bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs one year old, all without blemish,

Numbers 29:26

29:26 “‘On the fifth day you must offer nine bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs one year old, all without blemish,

Numbers 29:29

29:29 “‘On the sixth day you must offer eight bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs one year old, all without blemish,

Numbers 29:32

29:32 “‘On the seventh day you must offer seven bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs one year old, all without blemish,

Numbers 29:35

29:35 “‘On the eighth day you are to have a holy assembly; you must do no ordinary work on it.

Numbers 31:4

31:4 You must send to the battle a thousand men from every tribe throughout all the tribes of Israel.” 24 

Numbers 32:6

Moses’ Response

32:6 Moses said to the Gadites and the Reubenites, “Must your brothers go to war while you 25  remain here?

Numbers 32:30

32:30 But if they do not cross over with you armed, they must receive possessions among you in Canaan.”

Numbers 34:18

34:18 You must take one leader from every 26  tribe to assist in allocating the land as an inheritance. 27 

Numbers 35:24

35:24 then the community must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these decisions.

Numbers 35:29

35:29 So these things must be a statutory ordinance 28  for you throughout your generations, in all the places where you live.


tc The Greek text has “and he must place the cover upon the altar” instead of “and they must take away the ashes from the altar.” The verb is the Piel form; its nuance seems to be privative, i.e., stating that the object is deprived of the material – the ashes are removed. This is the main altar in the courtyard.

tn The Hebrew verb is simply “enter, go,” no doubt with the sense of go near.

tn The Hebrew has נֶפֶשׁ מֵת (nefesh met), literally a “dead person.” But since the word נֶפֶשׁ can also be used for animals, the restriction would be for any kind of corpse. Death was very much a part of the fallen world, and so for one so committed to the Lord, avoiding all such contamination would be a witness to the greatest separation, even in a family.

tn “all these” is supplied as the object.

tn Heb “make.”

tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated as a temporal clause to the following similar verbal construction.

tn The verb תָקַע (taqa’) means “to strike, drive, blow a trumpet.”

tn Heb “the assembly shall assemble themselves.”

tn The word for an alarm is תְּרוּעָה (tÿruah). The root verb of this word means “to give a blast on the trumpet.” It may also on occasion mean “give a shout” in battle (Josh 6:10). In this passage it must refer to the sound of the trumpet.

10 tn Heb “the camps that are camping.”

11 tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive functions as the equivalent of the imperfect tense. Here the emphasis is on the start of the journey.

12 tn The verse has a temporal clause that actually continues or supplements the temporal clause of the preceding verse. It is made up of the temporal indicator, the infinitive construct with the preposition, and the suffixed subjective genitive: “and it shall be when you eat.” Here it is translated simply “and eat” since the temporal element was introduced in the last verse.

13 tn This is the תְּרוּמָה (tÿrumah), the “raised offering” or “heave offering” (cf. KJV, ASV). It may simply be called a “contribution” (so NAB). The verb of the sentence is from the same root: “you shall lift up/raise up.” It was to be an offering separated from the rest and raised up to the Lord in the sight of all. It was designed to remind the Israelites that the produce and the land belonged to God.

14 tn The Hebrew text hasוְאִם־נֶפֶשׁ אַחַת (vÿim-nefeshakhat), sometime translated “and if any soul.” But the word describes the whole person, the soul in the body; it refers here to the individual who sins.

15 tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect of נוּחַ (nuakh, “to rest”), and so “to set at rest, lay, place, put.” The form with the vav (ו) consecutive continues the instruction of the previous verse.

16 tn The Hebrew text simply reads “the covenant” or “the testimony.”

17 tn Heb “he answered and said.” The referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

18 tn The verb שָׁמַר (shamar) means “to guard, watch, observe” and so here with a sense of “be careful” or even “take heed” (so KJV, ASV). The nuance of the imperfect tense would be obligatory: “I must be careful” – to do what? to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth. The infinitive construct “to speak” is therefore serving as the direct object of שָׁמַר.

19 tn The clause is a noun clause serving as the direct object of “to speak.” It begins with the sign of the accusative, and then the relative pronoun that indicates the whole clause is the accusative.

20 tn Heb “answered and said.”

21 tn This first clause, “all that the Lord speaks” – is a noun clause functioning as the object of the verb that comes at the end of the verse. It is something of an independent accusative case, since it is picked up with the sign of the accusative: “all that the Lord speaks, it I must do.”

22 tn Heb “any work [of] service”; this means any occupational work, that is, the ordinary service.

23 tn The words “you must offer” are implied.

24 sn Some commentators argue that given the size of the nation (which they reject) the small number for the army is a sign of the unrealistic character of the story. The number is a round number, but it is also a holy war, and God would give them the victory. They are beginning to learn here, and at Jericho, and later against these Midianites under Gideon, that God does not want or need a large army in order to obtain victory.

25 tn The vav (ו) is a vav disjunctive prefixed to the pronoun; it fits best here as a circumstantial clause, “while you stay here.”

26 tn This sense is created by repetition: “one leader, one leader from the tribe.”

27 tn The sentence simply uses לִנְחֹל (linkhol, “to divide, apportion”). It has been taken already to mean “allocate as an inheritance.” Here “assist” may be added since Joshua and Eleazar had the primary work.

28 tn Heb “a statute of judgment” (so KJV).