Discovery BoxNumbers 1:19 
Context1:19 just as the Lord had commanded Moses. And so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.
Numbers 3:16
Context3:16 So Moses numbered them according to the word 1 of the Lord, just as he had been commanded. 2
Numbers 3:49
Context3:49 So Moses took the redemption money 3 from those who were in excess of those redeemed by the Levites.
Numbers 4:34
Context4:34 So Moses and Aaron and the leaders of the community numbered the Kohathites by their families and by clans,
Numbers 8:14
Context8:14 And so 4 you are to separate the Levites from among the Israelites, and the Levites will be mine.
Numbers 9:8
Context9:8 So Moses said to them, “Remain 5 here and I will hear 6 what the Lord will command concerning you.”
Numbers 11:3
Context11:3 So he called the name of that place Taberah 7 because there the fire of the Lord burned among them.
Numbers 11:34
Context11:34 So the name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, 8 because there they buried the people that craved different food. 9
Numbers 12:3
Context12:3 (Now the man Moses was very humble, 10 more so than any man on the face of the earth.)
Numbers 13:21
Context13:21 So they went up and investigated the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, 11 at the entrance of Hamath. 12
Numbers 15:36
Context15:36 So the whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, 13 just as the Lord commanded Moses.
Numbers 20:2
Context20:2 And there was no water for the community, and so they gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron.
Numbers 20:27
Context20:27 So Moses did as the Lord commanded; and they went up Mount Hor in the sight 14 of the whole community.
Numbers 21:6
Context21:6 So the Lord sent poisonous 15 snakes 16 among the people, and they bit the people; many people of Israel died.
Numbers 21:35
Context21:35 So they defeated Og, 17 his sons, and all his people, until there were no survivors, 18 and they possessed his land.
Numbers 22:14
Context22:14 So the princes of Moab departed 19 and went back to Balak and said, “Balaam refused to come with us.”
Numbers 22:21
Context22:21 So Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab.
Numbers 23:30
Context23:30 So Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Numbers 32:24-25
Context32:24 So build cities for your descendants and pens for your sheep, but do what you have said 20 you would do.”
32:25 So the Gadites and the Reubenites replied to Moses, “Your servants will do as my lord commands.
Numbers 35:20
Context35:20 “But if he strikes him out of hatred or throws something at him intentionally 21 so that he dies,
Numbers 35:29
Context35:29 So these things must be a statutory ordinance 22 for you throughout your generations, in all the places where you live.
1 tn Heb “at the mouth of the
2 tn The Pual perfect may be given the past perfect translation in this sentence because the act of commanding preceded the act of numbering.
3 sn The word used is “silver.” Coins were not in existence until after 700
4 tn The vav (ו) consecutive on the perfect tense not only carries the nuance of instruction forward to this clause, but also marks this clause out as a summary of what has taken place, i.e., by doing all this ritual Moses will have separated the Levites from the people for God’s own possession.
5 tn The verb is simply “stand,” but in the more general sense of waiting to hear the answer.
6 tn The cohortative may be subordinated to the imperative: “stand…[that I] may hear.”
7 tn The name תַּבְעֵרָה (tav’erah) is given to the spot as a commemorative of the wilderness experience. It is explained by the formula using the same verbal root, “to burn.” Such naming narratives are found dozens of times in the OT, and most frequently in the Pentateuch. The explanation is seldom an exact etymology, and so in the literature is called a popular etymology. It is best to explain the connection as a figure of speech, a paronomasia, which is a phonetic wordplay that may or may not be etymologically connected. Usually the name is connected to the explanation by a play on the verbal root – here the preterite explaining the noun. The significance of commemorating the place by such a device is to “burn” it into the memory of Israel. The narrative itself would be remembered more easily by the name and its motif. The namings in the wilderness wanderings remind the faithful of unbelief, and warn us all not to murmur as they murmured. See further A. P. Ross, “Paronomasia and Popular Etymologies in the Naming Narrative of the Old Testament,” Ph.D. diss., University of Cambridge, 1982.
8 sn The name “the graves of the ones who craved” is again explained by a wordplay, a popular etymology. In Hebrew קִבְרוֹת הַתַּאֲוָה (qivrot hatta’avah) is the technical name. It is the place that the people craved the meat, longing for the meat of Egypt, and basically rebelled against God. The naming marks another station in the wilderness where the people failed to accept God’s good gifts with grace and to pray for their other needs to be met.
9 tn The words “different food” are implied, and are supplied in the translation for clarity.
10 tc The spelling of the word is a Kethib-Qere reading with only a slight difference between the two.
tn The word עָנָו (’anav) means “humble.” The word may reflect a trustful attitude (as in Pss 25:9, 37:11), but perhaps here the idea of “more tolerant” or “long-suffering.” The point is that Moses is not self-assertive. God singled out Moses and used him in such a way as to show that he was a unique leader. For a suggestion that the word means “miserable,” see C. Rogers, “Moses: Meek or Miserable?” JETS 29 (1986): 257-63.
sn Humility is a quality missing today in many leaders. Far too many are self-promoting, or competitive, or even pompous. The statement in this passage would have been difficult for Moses to write – and indeed, it is not impossible that an editor might have added it. One might think that for someone to claim to be humble is an arrogant act. But the statement is one of fact – he was not self-assertive (until Num 20 when he strikes the rock).
11 sn Zin is on the southern edge of the land, but Rehob is far north, near Mount Hermon. The spies covered all the land.
12 tn The idiom uses the infinitive construct: “to enter Hamath,” meaning, “on the way that people go to Hamath.”
13 tn Heb “stoned him with stones, and he died.”
14 tn Heb “eyes.”
15 tn Heb “fiery.”
16 tn The designation of the serpents/ snakes is נְחָשִׁים (nÿkhashim), which is similar to the word for “bronze” (נְחֹשֶׁת, nÿkhoshet). This has led some scholars to describe the serpents as bronze in color. The description of them as fiery indicates they were poisonous. Perhaps the snake in question is a species of adder.
17 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Og) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 tn Heb “no remnant.”
19 tn Heb “rose up.”
20 tn Heb “that which goes out/has gone out of your mouth.”
21 tn The Hebrew text is more vivid: “by lying in wait.”
22 tn Heb “a statute of judgment” (so KJV).
