Numbers 4:28

4:28 This is the service of the families of the Gershonites concerning the tent of meeting. Their responsibilities will be under the authority of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest.

Numbers 5:17

5:17 The priest will then take holy water in a pottery jar, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle, and put it into the water.

Numbers 5:30

5:30 or when jealous feelings come over a man and he becomes suspicious of his wife; then he must have the woman stand before the Lord, and the priest will carry out all this law upon her.

Numbers 6:11

6:11 Then the priest will offer one for a purification offering and the other as a burnt offering, and make atonement for him, because of his transgression 10  in regard to the corpse. So he must reconsecrate 11  his head on that day.

Numbers 6:17

6:17 Then he must offer the ram as a peace offering 12  to the Lord, with the basket of bread made without yeast; the priest must also offer his grain offering and his drink offering.

Numbers 15:28

15:28 And the priest must make atonement for the person who sins unintentionally – when he sins unintentionally before the Lord – to make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven.

Numbers 16:37

16:37 “Tell 13  Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to pick up 14  the censers out of the flame, for they are holy, and then scatter the coals of fire 15  at a distance.

Numbers 18:28

18:28 Thus you are to offer up a raised offering to the Lord of all your tithes which you receive from the Israelites; and you must give the Lord’s raised offering from it to Aaron the priest.

Numbers 19:4

19:4 Eleazar the priest is to take 16  some of its blood with his finger, and sprinkle some of the blood seven times 17  directly in front of the tent of meeting.

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 18  for my sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my zeal. 19 

Numbers 26:64

26:64 But there was not a man among these who had been 20  among those numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they numbered the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai.

Numbers 31:6

Campaign Against the Midianites

31:6 So Moses sent them to the war, one thousand from every tribe, with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, who was in charge 21  of the holy articles 22  and the signal trumpets.

Numbers 31:12

31:12 They brought the captives and the spoils and the plunder to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the Israelite community, to the camp on the plains 23  of Moab, along the Jordan River 24  across from Jericho. 25 

Numbers 31:54

31:54 So Moses and Eleazar the priest received the gold from the commanders of thousands and commanders 26  of hundreds and brought it into the tent of meeting as a memorial 27  for the Israelites before the Lord.

Numbers 33:38

33:38 Aaron the priest ascended Mount Hor at the command 28  of the Lord, and he died there in the fortieth year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt on the first day of the fifth month.

Numbers 35:32

35:32 And you must not accept a ransom for anyone who has fled to a town of refuge, to allow him to return home and live on his own land before the death of the high priest. 29 


tn Or “the direction” (NASB, TEV); Heb “under/by the hand of.” The word “hand” is often used idiomatically for “power” or “authority.” So also in vv. 33, 37, 45, 48.

sn The material here suggests that Eleazar had heavier responsibilities than Ithamar, Aaron’s fourth and youngest son. It is the first indication that the Zadokite Levites would take precedence over the Ithamar Levites (see 1 Chr 24:3-6).

tn This is probably water taken from the large bronze basin in the courtyard. It is water set apart for sacred service. “Clean water” (so NEB) does not capture the sense very well, but it does have the support of the Greek that has “pure running water.” That pure water would no doubt be from the bronze basin anyway.

tn Heb “from.” The preposition is used here with a partitive sense.

sn The dust may have come from the sanctuary floor, but it is still dust, and therefore would have all the pollutants in it.

tn The traditional translation of חַטָּאת (khattat) is “sin offering,” but it is more precise to render it “purification offering” (as with the other names of sacrifices) to show the outcome, not the cause of the offering (see Lev 4). Besides, this offering was made for ritual defilements (for which no confession was required) as well as certain sins (for which a confession of sin was required). This offering restored the person to the ritual state of purity by purifying the area into which he would be going.

tn The repetition of “the one…and the one” forms the distributive sense of “the one…and the other.”

tn The burnt offering (Lev 1) reflects the essence of atonement: By this sacrifice the worshiper was completely surrendering to God, and God was completely accepting the worshiper.

tn The verb וְכִפֶּר (vÿkhipper) is the Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive. The meaning of the verb is “to expiate, pacify, atone.” It refers to the complete removal of the barrier of fellowship between the person and God, and the total acceptance of that person into his presence. The idea of “to cover,” often linked to this meaning, is derived from a homonym, and not from this word and its usage.

10 tn The verb “to sin” has a wide range of meanings, beginning with the idea of “missing the way or the goal.” In view of the nature of this case – the prescribed ritual without confession – the idea is more that he failed to keep the vow’s stipulations in this strange circumstance than that he committed intentional sin.

11 tn The verb simply means “to consecrate,” but because it refers to a vow that was interrupted, it must here mean to “reconsecrate.”

12 tn The “peace offering” is usually written as “a sacrifice of peace” (זֶבַח שְׁלָמִים, zevakh shÿlamim). The word “sacrifice” is related to the word “to slaughter,” and so indicates that this is a bloody offering in celebration of peace with God.

13 tn Heb “say to.”

14 tn The verb is the jussive with a vav (ו) coming after the imperative; it may be subordinated to form a purpose clause (“that he may pick up”) or the object of the imperative.

15 tn The Hebrew text just has “fire,” but it would be hard to conceive of this action apart from the idea of coals of fire.

16 tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it functions here as the equivalent of the imperfect of instruction.

17 sn Seven is a number with religious significance; it is often required in sacrificial ritual for atonement or for purification.

18 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.

19 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.

20 tn “who had been” is added to clarify the text.

21 tn The Hebrew text uses the idiom that these “were in his hand,” meaning that he had the responsibility over them.

22 sn It is not clear what articles from the sanctuary were included. Tg. Ps.-J. adds (interpretively) “the Urim and Thummim.”

23 tn Or “steppes.”

24 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

25 tn Again this expression, “the Jordan of Jericho,” is used. It describes the intended location along the Jordan River, the Jordan next to or across from Jericho.

map For the location of Jericho see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.

26 tn The Hebrew text does not repeat the word “commanders” here, but it is implied.

27 tn The purpose of the offering was to remind the Lord to remember Israel. But it would also be an encouragement for Israel as they remembered the great victory.

28 tn Heb “mouth.”

29 tn Heb “the priest.” The Greek and the Syriac have “high priest.” The present translation, along with many English versions, uses “high priest” as a clarification.