Discovery BoxNumbers 9:10 
Context9:10 “Tell the Israelites, ‘If any 1 of you or of your posterity become ceremonially defiled by touching a dead body, or are on a journey far away, then he may 2 observe the Passover to the Lord.
Numbers 11:12
Context11:12 Did I conceive this entire people? 3 Did I give birth to 4 them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your arms, as a foster father 5 bears a nursing child,’ to the land which you swore to their fathers?
Numbers 11:20
Context11:20 but a whole month, 6 until it comes out your nostrils and makes you sick, 7 because you have despised 8 the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why 9 did we ever come out of Egypt?”’”
Numbers 14:34
Context14:34 According to the number of the days you have investigated this land, forty days – one day for a year – you will suffer for 10 your iniquities, forty years, and you will know what it means to thwart me. 11
Numbers 15:15
Context15:15 One statute must apply 12 to you who belong to the congregation and to the resident foreigner who is living among you, as a permanent 13 statute for your future generations. You and the resident foreigner will be alike 14 before the Lord.
Numbers 15:20
Context15:20 You must offer up a cake of the first of your finely ground flour 15 as a raised offering; as you offer the raised offering of the threshing floor, so you must offer it up.
Numbers 18:6
Context18:6 I myself have chosen 16 your brothers the Levites from among the Israelites. They are given to you as a gift from the Lord, to perform the duties 17 of the tent of meeting.
Numbers 18:16
Context18:16 And those that must be redeemed you are to redeem when they are a month old, according to your estimation, for five shekels of silver according to the sanctuary shekel (which is twenty gerahs).
Numbers 18:23
Context18:23 But the Levites must perform the service 18 of the tent of meeting, and they must bear their iniquity. 19 It will be a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations that among the Israelites the Levites 20 have no inheritance. 21
Numbers 18:28
Context18:28 Thus you are to offer up a raised offering to the Lord of all your tithes which you receive from the Israelites; and you must give the Lord’s raised offering from it to Aaron the priest.
Numbers 20:16
Context20:16 So when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice and sent a messenger, 22 and has brought us up out of Egypt. Now 23 we are here in Kadesh, a town on the edge of your country. 24
Numbers 20:19
Context20:19 Then the Israelites said to him, “We will go along the highway, and if we 25 or our cattle drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We will only pass through on our feet, without doing anything else.”
Numbers 22:13
Context22:13 So Balaam got up in the morning, and said to the princes of Balak, “Go to your land, 26 for the Lord has refused to permit me to go 27 with you.”
Numbers 22:30
Context22:30 The donkey said to Balaam, “Am not I your donkey that you have ridden ever since I was yours until this day? Have I ever attempted 28 to treat you this way?” 29 And he said, “No.”
Numbers 22:32
Context22:32 The angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? Look, I came out to oppose you because what you are doing 30 is perverse before me. 31
Numbers 22:34
Context22:34 Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood against me in the road. 32 So now, if it is evil in your sight, 33 I will go back home.” 34
Numbers 23:3
Context23:3 Balaam said to Balak, “Station yourself 35 by your burnt offering, and I will go off; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever he reveals to me 36 I will tell you.” 37 Then he went to a deserted height. 38
Numbers 24:14
Context24:14 And now, I am about to go 39 back to my own people. Come now, and I will advise you as to what this people will do to your people in the future.” 40
Numbers 28:26
Context28:26 “‘Also, on the day of the first fruits, when you bring a new grain offering to the Lord during your Feast of Weeks, you are to have a holy assembly. You must do no ordinary work.
Numbers 29:1
Context29:1 “‘On the first day of the seventh month, you are to hold a holy assembly. You must not do your ordinary work, for it is a day of blowing trumpets for you.
Numbers 31:19
Context31:19 “Any of you who has killed anyone or touched any of the dead, remain outside the camp for seven days; purify yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day.
Numbers 34:12
Context34:12 Then the border will continue down the Jordan River 41 and its direction will be to the Salt Sea. This will be your land by its borders that surround it.’”
1 tn This sense is conveyed by the repetition of “man” – “if a man, a man becomes unclean.”
2 tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive functions as the equivalent of an imperfect tense. In the apodosis of this conditional sentence, the permission nuance fits well.
3 sn The questions Moses asks are rhetorical. He is actually affirming that they are not his people, that he did not produce them, but now is to support them. His point is that God produced this nation, but has put the burden of caring for their needs on him.
4 tn The verb means “to beget, give birth to.” The figurative image from procreation completes the parallel question, first the conceiving and second the giving birth to the nation.
5 tn The word אֹמֵן (’omen) is often translated “nurse,” but the form is a masculine form and would better be rendered as a “foster parent.” This does not work as well, though, with the יֹנֵק (yoneq), the “sucking child.” The two metaphors are simply designed to portray the duty of a parent to a child as a picture of Moses’ duty for the nation. The idea that it portrays God as a mother pushes it too far (see M. Noth, Numbers [OTL], 86-87).
6 tn Heb “a month of days.” So also in v. 21.
7 tn The expression לְזָרָה (lÿzarah) has been translated “ill” or “loathsome.” It occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible. The Greek text interprets it as “sickness.” It could be nausea or vomiting (so G. B. Gray, Numbers [ICC], 112) from overeating.
8 sn The explanation is the interpretation of their behavior – it is in reality what they have done, even though they would not say they despised the
9 tn The use of the demonstrative pronoun here (“why is this we went out …”) is enclitic, providing emphasis to the sentence: “Why in the world did we ever leave Egypt?”
10 tn Heb “you shall bear.”
11 tn The phrase refers to the consequences of open hostility to God, or perhaps abandonment of God. The noun תְּנוּאָה (tÿnu’ah) occurs in Job 33:10 (perhaps). The related verb occurs in Num 30:6 HT (30:5 ET) and 32:7 with the sense of “disallow, discourage.” The sense of the expression adopted in this translation comes from the meticulous study of R. Loewe, “Divine Frustration Exegetically Frustrated,” Words and Meanings, 137-58.
12 tn The word “apply” is supplied in the translation.
13 tn Or “a statute forever.”
14 tn Heb “as you, as [so] the alien.”
15 tn Or “the first of your dough.” The phrase is not very clear. N. H. Snaith thinks it means a batch of loaves from the kneading trough – the first batch of the baking (Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 251).
16 tn Heb “taken.”
17 tn The infinitive construct in this sentence is from עָבַד (’avad), and so is the noun that serves as its object: to serve the service.
18 tn The verse begins with the perfect tense of עָבַד (’avad) with vav (ו) consecutive, making the form equal to the instructions preceding it. As its object the verb has the cognate accusative “service.”
19 sn The Levites have the care of the tent of meeting, and so they are responsible for any transgressions against it.
20 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Levites) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
21 tn The Hebrew text uses both the verb and the object from the same root to stress the point: They will not inherit an inheritance. The inheritance refers to land.
22 tn The word could be rendered “angel” or “messenger.” Some ambiguity may be intended in this report.
23 tn The Hebrew text uses הִנֵּה (hinneh) to emphasize the “here and now” aspect of the report to Edom.
24 tn Heb “your border.”
25 tn The Hebrew text uses singular pronouns, “I” and “my,” but it is the people of Israel that are intended, and so it may be rendered in the plural. Similarly, Edom speaks in the first person, probably from the king. But it too could be rendered “we.”
26 tc The LXX adds “to your lord.”
27 tn The main verb is the Piel perfect, “he has refused.” This is followed by two infinitives. The first (לְתִתִּי, lÿtitti) serves as a complement or direct object of the verb, answering the question of what he refused to do – “to give me.” The second infinitive (לַהֲלֹךְ, lahalokh) provides the object for the preceding infinitive: “to grant me to go.”
28 tn Here the Hiphil perfect is preceded by the Hiphil infinitive absolute for emphasis in the sentence.
29 tn Heb “to do thus to you.”
30 tn Heb “your way.”
31 tn The verb יָרַט (yarat) occurs only here and in Job 16:11. Balaam is embarking on a foolish mission with base motives. The old rendering “perverse” is still acceptable.
32 sn Balaam is not here making a general confession of sin. What he is admitting to is a procedural mistake. The basic meaning of the word is “to miss the mark.” He now knows he took the wrong way, i.e., in coming to curse Israel.
33 sn The reference is to Balaam’s way. He is saying that if what he is doing is so perverse, so evil, he will turn around and go home. Of course, it did not appear that he had much of a chance of going forward.
34 tn The verb is the cohortative from “return”: I will return [me].
35 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.
36 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.
37 tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. This clause is dependent on the clause that precedes it.
38 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.
39 tn The construction is the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) suffixed followed by the active participle. This is the futur instans use of the participle, to express something that is about to happen: “I am about to go.”
40 tn Heb “in the latter days.” For more on this expression, see E. Lipinski, “באחרית הימים dans les textes préexiliques,” VT 20 (1970): 445-50.
41 tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
