Discovery BoxNumbers 10:36 
Context10:36 And when it came to rest he would say, “Return, O Lord, to the many thousands of Israel!” 1
Numbers 16:25
Context16:25 Then Moses got up 2 and went to Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of Israel went after him.
Numbers 20:29
Context20:29 When all the community saw that Aaron was dead, the whole house of Israel mourned for Aaron thirty days.
Numbers 21:6
Context21:6 So the Lord sent poisonous 3 snakes 4 among the people, and they bit the people; many people of Israel died.
Numbers 24:18
Context24:18 Edom will be a possession,
Seir, 5 his enemies, will also be a possession;
but Israel will act valiantly.
Numbers 25:1
Context25:1 6 When 7 Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality 8 with the daughters of Moab.
Numbers 31:4
Context31:4 You must send to the battle a thousand men from every tribe throughout all the tribes of Israel.” 9
Numbers 32:4
Context32:4 the land that the Lord subdued 10 before the community of Israel, is ideal for cattle, and your servants have cattle.”
1 sn These two formulaic prayers were offered by Moses at the beginning and at the end of the journeys. They prayed for the
2 tn Heb “rose up.”
3 tn Heb “fiery.”
4 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.
5 sn Seir is the chief mountain range of Edom (Deut 33:2), and so the reference here is to the general area of Edom.
6 sn Chapter 25 tells of Israel’s sins on the steppes of Moab, and God’s punishment. In the overall plan of the book, here we have another possible threat to God’s program, although here it comes from within the camp (Balaam was the threat from without). If the Moabites could not defeat them one way, they would try another. The chapter has three parts: fornication (vv. 1-3), God’s punishment (vv. 4-9), and aftermath (vv. 10-18). See further G. E. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation, 105-21; and S. C. Reif, “What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 (1971): 200-206.
7 tn This first preterite is subordinated to the next as a temporal clause; it is not giving a parallel action, but the setting for the event.
8 sn The account apparently means that the men were having sex with the Moabite women. Why the men submitted to such a temptation at this point is hard to say. It may be that as military heroes the men took liberties with the women of occupied territories.
9 sn Some commentators argue that given the size of the nation (which they reject) the small number for the army is a sign of the unrealistic character of the story. The number is a round number, but it is also a holy war, and God would give them the victory. They are beginning to learn here, and at Jericho, and later against these Midianites under Gideon, that God does not want or need a large army in order to obtain victory.
10 tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect of נָכָה (nakhah), a term that can mean “smite, strike, attack, destroy.”
