Discovery BoxNumbers 3:31 
Context3:31 Their responsibilities included the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, and the utensils of the sanctuary with which they ministered, 1 the curtain, and all their service. 2
Numbers 3:45
Context3:45 “Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn males among the Israelites, and the livestock of the Levites instead of their livestock. And the Levites will be mine. I am the Lord.
Numbers 14:2
Context14:2 And all the Israelites murmured 3 against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died 4 in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished 5 in this wilderness!
Numbers 14:11
Context14:11 The Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise 6 me, and how long will they not believe 7 in me, in spite of the signs that I have done among them?
Numbers 14:29
Context14:29 Your dead bodies 8 will fall in this wilderness – all those of you who were numbered, according to your full number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me.
Numbers 16:16
Context16:16 Then Moses said to Korah, “You and all your company present yourselves before the Lord – you and they, and Aaron – tomorrow.
Numbers 16:34
Context16:34 All the Israelites 9 who were around them fled at their cry, 10 for they said, “What if 11 the earth swallows us too?”
Numbers 31:20
Context31:20 You must purify each garment and everything that is made of skin, everything made of goat’s hair, and everything made of wood.” 12
Numbers 33:3
Context33:3 They departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the day 13 after the Passover the Israelites went out defiantly 14 in plain sight 15 of all the Egyptians.
1 tn The verb is יְשָׁרְתוּ (yÿsharÿtu, “they will serve/minister”). The imperfect tense in this place, however, probably describes what the priests would do, what they used to do. The verb is in a relative clause: “which they would serve with them,” which should be changed to read “with which they would serve.”
2 tn The word is literally “its [their] service.” It describes all the implements that were there for the maintenance of these things.
3 tn The Hebrew verb “to murmur” is לוּן (lun). It is a strong word, signifying far more than complaining or grumbling, as some of the modern translations have it. The word is most often connected to the wilderness experience. It is paralleled in the literature with the word “to rebel.” The murmuring is like a parliamentary vote of no confidence, for they no longer trusted their leaders and wished to choose a new leader and return. This “return to Egypt” becomes a symbol of their lack of faith in the
4 tn The optative is expressed by לוּ (lu) and then the verb, here the perfect tense מַתְנוּ (matnu) – “O that we had died….” Had they wanted to die in Egypt they should not have cried out to the
5 tn Heb “died.”
6 tn The verb נָאַץ (na’ats) means “to condemn, spurn” (BDB 610 s.v.). Coats suggests that in some contexts the word means actual rejection or renunciation (Rebellion in the Wilderness, 146, 7). This would include the idea of distaste.
7 tn The verb “to believe” (root אָמַן, ’aman) has the basic idea of support, dependability for the root. The Hiphil has a declarative sense, namely, to consider something reliable or dependable and to act on it. The people did not trust what the
8 tn Or “your corpses” (also in vv. 32, 33).
9 tn Heb “all Israel.”
10 tn Heb “voice.”
11 tn Heb “lest.”
12 sn These verses are a reminder that taking a life, even if justified through holy war, still separates one from the holiness of God. It is part of the violation of the fallen world, and only through the ritual of purification can one be once again made fit for the presence of the
13 tn Heb “morrow.”
14 tn Heb “with a high hand”; the expression means “defiantly; boldly” or “with confidence.” The phrase is usually used for arrogant sin and pride, the defiant fist, as it were. The image of the high hand can also mean the hand raised to deliver the blow (Job 38:15).
15 tn Heb “in the eyes.”
