Discovery BoxNumbers 5:14 
Context5:14 and if jealous feelings 1 come over him and he becomes suspicious 2 of his wife, when she is defiled; 3 or if jealous feelings come over him and he becomes suspicious of his wife, when she is not defiled –
Numbers 5:30
Context5:30 or when jealous feelings come over a man and he becomes suspicious of his wife; then he must have the woman stand before the Lord, and the priest will carry out all this law upon her.
Numbers 7:1
Context7:1 4 When Moses had completed setting up the tabernacle, 5 he anointed it and consecrated it and all its furnishings, and he anointed and consecrated the altar and all its utensils.
Numbers 14:24
Context14:24 Only my servant Caleb, because he had a different spirit and has followed me fully – I will bring him into the land where he had gone, and his descendants 6 will possess it.
Numbers 15:28
Context15:28 And the priest must make atonement for the person who sins unintentionally – when he sins unintentionally before the Lord – to make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven.
Numbers 21:9
Context21:9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole, so that if a snake had bitten someone, when he looked at the bronze snake he lived. 7
Numbers 22:22
Context22:22 Then God’s anger was kindled 8 because he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose 9 him. Now he was riding on his donkey and his two servants were with him.
Numbers 23:3
Context23:3 Balaam said to Balak, “Station yourself 10 by your burnt offering, and I will go off; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever he reveals to me 11 I will tell you.” 12 Then he went to a deserted height. 13
Numbers 23:21
Context23:21 He 14 has not looked on iniquity in Jacob, 15
nor has he seen trouble 16 in Israel.
The Lord their God is with them;
his acclamation 17 as king is among them.
Numbers 24:1
Context24:1 18 When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, 19 he did not go as at the other times 20 to seek for omens, 21 but he set his face 22 toward the wilderness.
Numbers 30:2
Context30:2 If a man 23 makes a vow 24 to the Lord or takes an oath 25 of binding obligation on himself, 26 he must not break his word, but must do whatever he has promised. 27
Numbers 30:8
Context30:8 But if when her husband hears it he overrules her, then he will nullify 28 the vow she has taken, 29 and whatever she uttered impulsively which she has pledged for herself. And the Lord will release her from it.
Numbers 35:23
Context35:23 or with any stone large enough that a man could die, without seeing him, and throws it at him, and he dies, even though he was not his enemy nor sought his harm,
1 tn The Hebrew text has the construct case, “spirit of jealousy.” The word “spirit” here has the sense of attitude, mood, feelings. The word קִנְאָה (qin’ah) is the genitive of attribute, modifying what kind of feelings they are. The word means either “zeal” or “jealousy,” depending on the context. It is a passionate feeling to guard or protect an institution or relationship. It can also express strong emotional possessiveness such as envy and coveting. Here there is a feeling of jealousy, but no proof of infidelity.
2 tn The word is now used in the Piel stem; the connotation is certainly “suspicious,” for his jealousy seems now to have some basis, even if it is merely suspicion.
3 tn The noun clause begins with the conjunction and the pronoun; here it is forming a circumstantial clause, either temporal or causal.
4 sn This long and repetitious chapter has several parts to it: the introduction (vv. 1-3), the assigning of gifts (vv. 4-9), the time of presentation (vv. 10-11), and then the tribes (vv. 12-83), and then a summary (vv. 84-89).
5 tn The construction of this line begins with the temporal indicator (traditionally translated “and it came to pass”) and then after the idiomatic “in the day of” (= “when”) uses the Piel infinitive construct from כָּלָה (kalah). The infinitive is governed by the subjective genitive, “Moses,” the formal subject of the clause. The object of the infinitive is the second infinitive, “to set up” (לְהָקִים, lÿhaqim). This infinitive, the Hiphil, serves as the direct object, answering the question of what it was that Moses completed. The entire clause is an adverbial clause of time.
sn This chapter belongs chronologically after Lev 8:11, because Aaron and his sons were not yet made the celebrants and officiants of the new shrine (completed in Exodus). Here then chapters 7-9 are actually earlier than chapters 1-6, and form a supplement by adding information not found in Exodus and Leviticus. The first verse here recapitulates the first act of Moses in consecrating the shrine (Exod 30:23-31).
6 tn Heb “seed.”
7 sn The image of the snake was to be a symbol of the curse that the Israelites were experiencing; by lifting the snake up on a pole Moses was indicating that the curse would be drawn away from the people – if they looked to it, which was a sign of faith. This symbol was later stored in the temple, until it became an object of worship and had to be removed (2 Kgs 18:4). Jesus, of course, alluded to it and used it as an illustration of his own mission. He would become the curse, and be lifted up, so that people who looked by faith to him would live (John 3:14). For further material, see D. J. Wiseman, “Flying Serpents,” TynBul 23 (1972): 108-10; and K. R. Joines, “The Bronze Serpent in the Israelite Cult,” JBL 87 (1968): 245-56.
8 sn God’s anger now seems to contradict the permission he gave Balaam just before this. Some commentators argue that God’s anger is a response to Balaam’s character in setting out – which the Bible does not explain. God saw in him greed and pleasure for the riches, which is why he was so willing to go.
9 tn The word is שָׂטָן (satan, “to be an adversary, to oppose”).
10 tn The verb הִתְיַצֵּב (hityatsev) means “to take a stand, station oneself.” It is more intentional than simply standing by something. He was to position himself by the sacrifice as Balaam withdrew to seek the oracle.
11 tn Heb “and the word of what he shows me.” The noun is in construct, and so the clause that follows functions as a noun clause in the genitive. The point is that the word will consist of divine revelation.
12 tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. This clause is dependent on the clause that precedes it.
13 sn He went up to a bald spot, to a barren height. The statement underscores the general belief that such tops were the closest things to the gods. On such heights people built their shrines and temples.
14 tn These could be understood as impersonal and so rendered “no one has discovered.”
15 sn The line could mean that God has regarded Israel as the ideal congregation without any blemish or flaw. But it could also mean that God has not looked on their iniquity, meaning, held it against them.
16 tn The word means “wrong, misery, trouble.” It can mean the idea of “disaster” as well, for that too is trouble. Here it is parallel to “iniquity” and so has the connotation of something that would give God reason to curse them.
17 tn The people are blessed because God is their king. In fact, the shout of acclamation is among them – they are proclaiming the
18 sn For a thorough study of the arrangement of this passage, see E. B. Smick, “A Study of the Structure of the Third Balaam Oracle,” The Law and the Prophets, 242-52. He sees the oracle as having an introductory strophe (vv. 3, 4), followed by two stanzas (vv. 5, 6) that introduce the body (vv. 7b-9b) before the final benediction (v. 9b).
19 tn Heb “it was good in the eyes of the
20 tn Heb “as time after time.”
21 tn The word נְחָשִׁים (nÿkhashim) means “omens,” or possibly “auguries.” Balaam is not even making a pretense now of looking for such things, because they are not going to work. God has overruled them.
22 tn The idiom signifies that he had a determination and resolution to look out over where the Israelites were, so that he could appreciate more their presence and use that as the basis for his expressing of the oracle.
23 tn The legal construction states the class to which the law applies, and then lays down the condition: “men [man] – if….”
24 tn The Hebrew text uses a cognate accusative construction to express this: “a man if he vows a vow.”
25 tn The expression is “swear an oath” (הִשָּׁבַע שְׁבֻעָה, hishava’ shÿvu’ah). The vow (נֵדֶר, neder) was a promise to donate something of oneself or one’s substance to the
26 tn The Hebrew text hasלֶאְסֹר אִסָּר (le’sor ’issar), meaning “to take a binding obligation.” This is usually interpreted to mean a negative vow, i.e., the person attempts to abstain from something that is otherwise permissible. It might involve fasting, or abstaining from marital sex, but it might also involve some goal to be achieved, and the abstaining from distractions until the vow is fulfilled (see Ps 132). The נֶדֶר (neder) may have been more for religious matters, and the אִסָּר more for social concerns, but this cannot be documented with certainty.
27 tn Heb “according to all that goes out of his mouth.”
28 tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive from the verb פָּרַר (parar, “to annul”). The verb functions here as the equivalent of an imperfect tense; here it is the apodosis following the conditional clause – if this is the case, then this is what will happen.
29 tn Heb “which [she is] under it.”
