Numbers 7:2

7:2 Then the leaders of Israel, the heads of their clans, ¹  made an offering. They were the leaders of the tribes; they were the ones who had been supervising ²  the numbering.

Numbers 12:14

12:14 The Lord said to Moses, “If her father had only spit ³  in her face, would she not have been disgraced for seven days? Shut her out from the camp seven days, and afterward she can be brought back in again.”

Numbers 13:22

13:22 When they went up through the Negev, they ⁴  came ⁵  to Hebron where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, ⁶  descendants of Anak, were living. (Now Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan ⁷  in Egypt.)

Numbers 25:13

25:13 So it will be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of a permanent priesthood, because he has been zealous for his God, ⁸  and has made atonement ⁹  for the Israelites.’”

Numbers 26:64

26:64 But there was not a man among these who had been ¹⁰  among those numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they numbered the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai.

Numbers 34:2

34:2 “Give these instructions ¹¹  to the Israelites, and tell them: ‘When you enter Canaan, the land that has been assigned to you as an inheritance, ¹²  the land of Canaan with its borders,

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¹ tn Heb “the house of their fathers.”

² tn The form is the Qal active participle from the verb “to stand” (עָמַד, ’amad). The form describes these leaders as “the ones standing over [the ones numbered].” The expression, along with the clear indication of the first census in chapter 1, shows that this was a supervisory capacity.

³ tn The form is intensified by the infinitive absolute, but here the infinitive strengthens not simply the verbal idea but the conditional cause construction as well.

⁴ tc The MT has the singular, but the ancient versions and Smr have the plural.

⁵ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the following clause. The first verse gave the account of their journey over the whole land; this section focuses on what happened in the area of Hebron, which would be the basis for the false report.

⁶ sn These names are thought to be three clans that were in the Hebron area (see Josh 15:14; Judg 1:20). To call them descendants of Anak is usually taken to mean that they were large or tall people (2 Sam 21:18-22). They were ultimately driven out by Caleb.

⁷ sn The text now provides a brief historical aside for the readers. Zoan was probably the city of Tanis, although that is disputed today by some scholars. It was known in Egypt in the New Kingdom as “the fields of Tanis,” which corresponded to the “fields of Zoar” in the Hebrew Bible (Ps 78:12, 43).

⁸ tn The motif is reiterated here. Phinehas was passionately determined to maintain the rights of his God by stopping the gross sinful perversions.

⁹ sn The atonement that he made in this passage refers to the killing of the two obviously blatant sinners. By doing this he dispensed with any animal sacrifice, for the sinners themselves died. In Leviticus it was the life of the substitutionary animal that was taken in place of the sinners that made atonement. The point is that sin was punished by death, and so God was free to end the plague and pardon the people. God’s holiness and righteousness have always been every bit as important as God’s mercy and compassion, for without righteousness and holiness mercy and compassion mean nothing.

¹⁰ tn “who had been” is added to clarify the text.

¹¹ tn Or “command.”

¹² tn Heb “this is the land that will fall to you as an inheritance.”