Discovery BoxNumbers 5:18 
Context5:18 Then the priest will have the woman stand before the Lord, uncover the woman’s head, and put the grain offering for remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of suspicion. The priest will hold in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse. 1
Numbers 6:20
Context6:20 then the priest must wave them as a wave offering 2 before the Lord; it is a holy portion for the priest, together with the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the raised offering. 3 After this the Nazirite may drink 4 wine.’
Numbers 10:9-10
Context10:9 If you go to war in your land against an adversary who opposes 5 you, then you must sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the Lord your God, and you will be saved 6 from your enemies.
10:10 “Also in the time when you rejoice, such as 7 on your appointed festivals or 8 at the beginnings of your months, you must blow with your trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, so that they may 9 become 10 a memorial for you before your God: I am the Lord your God.”
Numbers 14:14
Context14:14 then they will tell it to the inhabitants 11 of this land. They have heard that you, Lord, are among this people, that you, Lord, are seen face to face, 12 that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them by day in a pillar of cloud and in a pillar of fire by night.
Numbers 15:25
Context15:25 And the priest is to make atonement 13 for the whole community of the Israelites, and they will be forgiven, 14 because it was unintentional and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire to the Lord, and their purification offering before the Lord, for their unintentional offense.
Numbers 16:9
Context16:9 Does it seem too small a thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the community of Israel to bring you near to himself, to perform the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the community to minister to them?
Numbers 16:38
Context16:38 As for the censers of these men who sinned at the cost of their lives, 15 they must be made 16 into hammered sheets for covering the altar, because they presented them before the Lord and sanctified them. They will become a sign to the Israelites.”
Numbers 16:40
Context16:40 It was a memorial for the Israelites, that no outsider who is not a descendant of 17 Aaron should approach to burn incense before the Lord, that he might not become like Korah and his company – just as the Lord had spoken by the authority 18 of Moses.
Numbers 18:19
Context18:19 All the raised offerings of the holy things that the Israelites offer to the Lord, I have given to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual ordinance. It is a covenant of salt 19 forever before the Lord for you and for your descendants with you.”
Numbers 20:8
Context20:8 “Take the staff and assemble the community, you and Aaron your brother, and then speak 20 to the rock before their eyes. It will pour forth 21 its water, and you will bring water out of the rock for them, and so you will give the community and their beasts water to drink.”
Numbers 33:55
Context33:55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, then those whom you allow to remain will be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your side, and will cause you trouble in the land where you will be living.
1 tn The expression has been challenged. The first part, “bitter water,” has been thought to mean “water of contention” (so NEB), but this is not convincing. It has some support in the versions which read “contention” and “testing,” no doubt trying to fit the passage better. N. H. Snaith (Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 129) suggests from an Arabic word that it was designed to cause an abortion – but that would raise an entirely different question, one of who the father of a child was. And that has not been introduced here. The water was “bitter” in view of the consequences it held for her if she was proven to be guilty. That is then enforced by the wordplay with the last word, the Piel participle הַמְאָרֲרִים (ham’ararim). The bitter water, if it convicted her, would pronounce a curse on her. So she was literally holding her life in her hands.
sn This ancient ritual seems to have functioned like a lie detector test, with all the stress and tension involved. It can be compared to water tests in the pagan world, with the exception that in Israel it was stacked more toward an innocent verdict. It seems to have been a temporary provision, for this is the only place that it appears, and no provision is made for its use later. It may have served as a didactic force, warning more than actually legislating. No provision is made in it for a similar charge to be brought against the man, but in the case of the suspicion of the woman the man would be very hesitant to demand this test given the harshness on false witnessing in Israel. The passage remains a rather strange section of the Law.
2 sn The ritual of lifting the hands filled with the offering and waving them in the presence of the
3 sn The “wave offering” may be interpreted as a “special gift” to be transferred to the
4 tn The imperfect tense here would then have the nuance of permission. It is not an instruction at this point; rather, the prohibition has been lifted and the person is free to drink wine.
5 tn Both the “adversary” and “opposes” come from the same root: צָרַר (tsarar), “to hem in, oppress, harass,” or basically, “be an adversary.”
6 tn The Niphal perfect in this passage has the passive nuance and not a reflexive idea – the Israelites would be spared because God remembered them.
7 tn The conjunction may be taken as explicative or epexegetical, and so rendered “namely; even; that is,” or it may be taken as emphatic conjunction, and translated “especially.”
8 tn The vav (ו) is taken here in its alternative use and translated “or.”
9 tn The form is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. After the instruction imperfects, this form could be given the same nuance, or more likely, subordinated as a purpose or result clause.
10 tn The verb “to be” (הָיָה, hayah) has the meaning “to become” when followed by the preposition lamed (ל).
11 tn The singular participle is to be taken here as a collective, representing all the inhabitants of the land.
12 tn “Face to face” is literally “eye to eye.” It only occurs elsewhere in Isa 52:8. This expresses the closest communication possible.
13 tn The verb is the Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive (וְכִפֶּר, vÿkhipper) to continue the instruction of the passage: “the priest shall make atonement,” meaning the priest is to make atonement for the sin (thus the present translation). This verb means “to expiate,” “to atone for,” “to pacify.” It describes the ritual events by which someone who was separated from the holy
14 tn Or “they will be forgiven.”
15 tn The expression is “in/by/against their life.” That they sinned against their life means that they brought ruin to themselves.
16 tn The form is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. But there is no expressed subject for “and they shall make them,” and so it may be treated as a passive (“they shall [must] be made”).
17 tn Heb “from the seed of.”
18 tn Heb “hand.”
19 sn Salt was used in all the offerings; its importance as a preservative made it a natural symbol for the covenant which was established by sacrifice. Even general agreements were attested by sacrifice, and the phrase “covenant of salt” speaks of such agreements as binding and irrevocable. Note the expression in Ezra 4:14, “we have been salted with the salt of the palace.” See further J. F. Ross, IDB 4:167.
20 tn The verb is the Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive, following the two imperatives in the verse. Here is the focus of the instruction for Moses.
21 tn Heb “give.” The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive, as are the next two in the verse. These are not now equal to the imperatives, but imperfects, showing the results of speaking to the rock: “speak…and it will…and so you will….”
