Numbers 4:16

4:16 “The appointed responsibility of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest is for the oil for the light, and the spiced incense, and the daily grain offering, and the anointing oil; he also has ¹  the appointed responsibility over all the tabernacle with ²  all that is in it, over the sanctuary and over all its furnishings.” ³ 

Numbers 5:8

5:8 But if the individual has no close relative ⁴  to whom reparation can be made for the wrong, the reparation for the wrong must be paid to the Lord ⁵  for the priest, in addition to the ram of atonement by which atonement is made for him.

Numbers 5:15

5:15 then ⁶  the man must bring his wife to the priest, and he must bring the offering required for her, one tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he must not pour olive oil on it or put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of suspicion, ⁷  a grain offering for remembering, ⁸  for bringing ⁹  iniquity to remembrance.

Numbers 5:19

5:19 Then the priest will put the woman under oath and say to the her, “If no other ¹⁰  man has had sexual relations with you, and if you have not gone astray and become defiled while under your husband’s authority, may you be free from this bitter water that brings a curse. ¹¹ 

Numbers 5:21

5:21 Then the priest will put the woman under the oath of the curse ¹²  and will say ¹³  to the her, “The Lord make you an attested curse ¹⁴  among your people, ¹⁵  if the Lord makes ¹⁶  your thigh fall away ¹⁷  and your abdomen swell; ¹⁸ 

Numbers 6:19

6:19 And the priest must take the boiled shoulder of the ram, one cake made without yeast from the basket, and one wafer made without yeast, and put them on the hands of the Nazirite after he has shaved his consecrated head; ¹⁹ 

Numbers 15:25

15:25 And the priest is to make atonement ²⁰  for the whole community of the Israelites, and they will be forgiven, ²¹  because it was unintentional and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire to the Lord, and their purification offering before the Lord, for their unintentional offense.

Numbers 27:21

27:21 And he will stand before Eleazar the priest, who ²²  will seek counsel ²³  for him before the Lord by the decision of the Urim. ²⁴  At his command ²⁵  they will go out, and at his command they will come in, he and all the Israelites with him, the whole community.”

Numbers 35:25

35:25 The community must deliver the slayer out of the hand of the avenger of blood, and the community must restore him to the town of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there ²⁶  until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the consecrated oil.

---

¹ tn This is supplied to the line to clarify “appointed.”

² tn Heb “and.”

³ sn One would assume that he would prepare and wrap these items, but that the Kohathites would carry them to the next place.

⁴ sn For more information on the word, see A. R. Johnson, “The Primary Meaning of גאל,” VTSup 1 (1953): 67-77.

⁵ tc The editors of BHS prefer to follow the Greek, Syriac, and Latin and not read “for the Lord” here, but read a form of the verb “to be” instead. But the text makes more sense as it stands: The payment is to be made to the Lord for the benefit of the priests.

⁶ tn All the conditions have been laid down now for the instruction to begin – if all this happened, then this is the procedure to follow.

⁷ tn The Hebrew word is “jealousy,” which also would be an acceptable translation here. But since the connotation is that suspicion has been raised about the other person, “suspicion” seems to be a better rendering in this context.

⁸ tn The word “remembering” is זִכָּרוֹן (zikkaron); the meaning of the word here is not so much “memorial,” which would not communicate much, but the idea of bearing witness before God concerning the charges. The truth would come to light through this ritual, and so the attestation would stand. This memorial would bring the truth to light. It was a somber occasion, and so no sweet smelling additives were placed on the altar.

⁹ tn The final verbal form, מַזְכֶּרֶת (mazkeret), explains what the memorial was all about – it was causing iniquity to be remembered.

¹⁰ tn The word “other” is implied, since the woman would not be guilty of having sexual relations with her own husband.

¹¹ sn Although there would be stress involved, a woman who was innocent would have nothing to hide, and would be confident. The wording of the priest’s oath is actually designed to enable the potion to keep her from harm and not produce the physical effects it was designed to do.

¹² sn For information on such curses, see M. R. Lehmann, “Biblical Oaths,” ZAW 81 (1969): 74-92; A. C. Thiselton, “The Supposed Power of Words in the Biblical Writings,” JTS 25 (1974): 283-99; and F. C. Fensham, “Malediction and Benediction in Ancient Vassal Treaties and the Old Testament,” ZAW 74 (1962): 1-9.

¹³ tn Heb “the priest will say.”

¹⁴ tn This interpretation takes the two nouns as a hendiadys. The literal wording is “the Lord make you a curse and an oath among the people.” In what sense would she be an oath? The point of the whole passage is that the priest is making her take an oath to see if she has been sinful and will be cursed.

¹⁵ sn The outcome of this would be that she would be quoted by people in such forms of expression as an oath or a curse (see Jer 29:22).

¹⁶ tn The construction uses the infinitive construct with the preposition to form an adverbial clause: “in the giving of the Lord…,” meaning, “if and when the Lord makes such and such to happen.”

¹⁷ tn TEV takes the expression “your thigh” as a euphemism for the genitals: “cause your genital organs to shrink.”

¹⁸ sn Most commentators take the expressions to be euphemisms of miscarriage or stillbirth, meaning that there would be no fruit from an illegitimate union. The idea of the abdomen swelling has been reinterpreted by NEB to mean “fall away.” If this interpretation stands, then the idea is that the woman has become pregnant, and that has aroused the suspicion of the husband for some reason. R. K. Harrison (Numbers [WEC], 111-13) discusses a variety of other explanations for diseases and conditions that might be described by these terms. He translates it with “miscarriage,” but leaves open what the description might actually be. Cf. NRSV “makes your uterus drop, your womb discharge.”

¹⁹ tn The line does not include the word “head”; it literally has “after the consecrating of himself his consecrated [head].” The infinitive construct is here functioning in the temporal clause with the suffix as the subject and the object following.

²⁰ tn The verb is the Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive (וְכִפֶּר, vÿkhipper) to continue the instruction of the passage: “the priest shall make atonement,” meaning the priest is to make atonement for the sin (thus the present translation). This verb means “to expiate,” “to atone for,” “to pacify.” It describes the ritual events by which someone who was separated from the holy Lord God could find acceptance into his presence through the sacrificial blood of the substitutionary animal. See Lev 1 and Num 17:6-15.

²¹ tn Or “they will be forgiven.”

²² tn The passage simply has “and he will ask,” but Eleazar is clearly the subject now.

²³ tn Heb “ask.”

²⁴ sn The new leader would not have the privilege that Moses had in speaking to God face to face. Rather, he would have to inquire of the Lord through the priest, and the priest would seek a decision by means of the Urim. The Urim and the Thummim were the sacred lots that the priest had in his pouch, the “breastplate” as it has traditionally been called. Since the Law had now been fully established, there would be fewer cases that the leader would need further rulings. Now it would simply be seeking the Lord’s word for matters such as whether to advance or not. The size, shape or substance of these objects is uncertain. See further C. Van Dam, The Urim and Thummim.

²⁵ tn Heb “mouth,” meaning what he will say.

²⁶ tn Heb “in it.”