Discovery BoxNumbers 5:12 
Context5:12 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them, ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and behaves unfaithfully toward him,
Numbers 5:31
Context5:31 Then the man will be free from iniquity, but that woman will bear the consequences 1 of her iniquity.’” 2
Numbers 15:32
Context15:32 When the Israelites were 3 in the wilderness they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. 4
Numbers 27:16
Context27:16 “Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all humankind, 5 appoint 6 a man over the community,
Numbers 31:17-18
Context31:17 Now therefore kill every boy, 7 and kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse with a man. 8 31:18 But all the young women 9 who have not had sexual intercourse with a man 10 will be yours. 11
1 sn The text does not say what the consequences are. Presumably the punishment would come from God, and not from those administering the test.
2 tn The word “iniquity” can also mean the guilt for the iniquity as well as the punishment of consequences for the iniquity. These categories of meanings grew up through figurative usage (metonymies). Here the idea is that if she is guilty then she must “bear the consequences.”
3 tn The preterite of the verb “to be” is here subordinated to the next, parallel verb form, to form a temporal clause.
4 sn For this brief passage, see A. Phillips, “The Case of the Woodgatherer Reconsidered,” VT 19 (1969): 125-28; J. Weingreen, “The Case of the Woodgatherer (Numbers XV 32-36),” VT 16 (1966): 361-64; and B. J. Bamberger, “Revelations of Torah after Sinai,” HUCA 16 (1941): 97-113. Weingreen argues that there is something of the Rabbinic method of setting a fence around the Law here; in other words, if this sin were not punished, the Law would have been violated in greater ways. Gathering of wood, although seemingly harmless, is done with intent to kindle fire, and so reveals a culpable intent.
5 tn Heb “flesh”; cf. NAB, NIV “all mankind”; NCV “all people”; NLT “all living things.”
6 tn This is the same verb פָּקַד (paqad) that is used throughout the book for the aspect of “numbering” the people.
7 tn Heb “every male among the little ones.”
sn The command in holy war to kill women and children seems in modern times a terrible thing to do (and it was), and something they ought not to have done. But this criticism fails to understand the situation in the ancient world. The entire life of the ancient world was tribal warfare. God’s judgment is poured out on whole groups of people who act with moral abandonment and in sinful pursuits. See E. J. Young, My Servants, the Prophets, 24; and J. W. Wenham, The Enigma of Evil.
8 tn Heb “every woman who has known [a] man by lying with a man.”
9 tn Or “girls.” The Hebrew indicates they would be female children, making the selection easy.
10 tn Heb “who have not known [a] man by lying with a man.”
11 sn Many contemporary scholars see this story as fictitious, composed by the Jews during the captivity. According to this interpretation, the spoils of war here indicate the wealth of the Jews in captivity, which was to be given to the Levites and priests for the restoration of the sanctuary in Jerusalem. The conclusion drawn from this interpretation is that returning Jews had the same problem as the earlier ones: to gain a foothold in the land. Against this interpretation of the account is a lack of hard evidence, a lack which makes this interpretation appear contrived and subjective. If this was the intent of a later writer, he surely could have stated this more clearly than by making up such a story.
