Numbers 9:13

9:13 But 1  the man who is ceremonially clean, and was not on a journey, and fails 2  to keep the Passover, that person must be cut off from his people. 3  Because he did not bring the Lord’s offering at its appointed time, that man must bear his sin. 4 

Numbers 16:5

16:5 Then he said to Korah and to all his company, “In the morning the Lord will make known who are his, and who is holy. He will cause that person 5  to approach him; the person he has chosen he will cause to approach him.

Numbers 21:34

21:34 And the Lord said to Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have delivered him and all his people and his land into your hand. You will do to him what you did to King Sihon of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.

Numbers 22:23

22:23 And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with 6  his sword drawn in his hand, so the donkey turned aside from the road and went into the field. But Balaam beat the donkey, to make her turn back to the road.

Numbers 27:21

27:21 And he will stand before Eleazar the priest, who 7  will seek counsel 8  for him before the Lord by the decision of the Urim. 9  At his command 10  they will go out, and at his command they will come in, he and all the Israelites with him, the whole community.”

1 tn The disjunctive vav (ו) signals a contrastive clause here: “but the man” on the other hand….

2 tn The verb חָדַל (khadal) means “to cease; to leave off; to fail.” The implication here is that it is a person who simply neglects to do it. It does not indicate that he forgot, but more likely that he made the decision to leave it undone.

3 sn The pronouncement of such a person’s penalty is that his life will be cut off from his people. There are at least three possible interpretations for this: physical death at the hand of the community (G. B. Gray, Numbers [ICC], 84-85), physical and/or spiritual death at the hand of God (J. Milgrom, “A Prolegomenon to Lev 17:11,” JBL 90 [1971]: 154-55), or excommunication or separation from the community (R. A. Cole, Exodus [TOTC], 109). The direct intervention of God seem to be the most likely in view of the lack of directions for the community to follow. Excommunication from the camp in the wilderness would have been tantamount to a death sentence by the community, and so there really are just two views.

4 tn The word for “sin” here should be interpreted to mean the consequences of his sin (so a metonymy of effect). Whoever willingly violates the Law will have to pay the consequences.

5 tn Heb “him.”

6 tn The word has the conjunction “and” on the noun, indicating this is a disjunctive vav (ו), here serving as a circumstantial clause.

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

8 tn Heb “ask.”

9 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.

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