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Introduction to Numbers
The title "Numbers," derives from the Vulgate and the Septuagint, named as such due to the two censuses of the Israelites that bookmark the narrative of the book. Another title, "In the wilderness," comes from the Masoretic Text.
The Oxford commentary provides a graph to illustrate three ways in which one can analyse the structure of the book, I copy it here in text form:
Chs 1-25: First Generation.
Chs 26-36: Second Generation.
The first segmentation highlights the two-part structure that emerges from the census of the first and second generations.
Chs 1.1-10.10: Wilderness of Sinai.
Chs 10.10-21.35: Wilderness Journey.
Chs 22.1-36.13: Plains of Moab.
The second segmentation clarifies the three-part geographical structure of the wilderness journey.
Chs 1.1-6.27: Holiness and Camp.
Chs 7.1-10.10: Holiness and Tabernacle.
Chs 10.11-36: Departure from Sinai.
Chs 11.1-21.35: Rebellion and Death.
Chs 22.1-25.18: Threats on the Plains of Moab.
Chs 26.1-36.13: Preparation for the Promised Land.
The third segmentation breaks down the book into smaller thematic units.
Numbers acts as a narrative bridge between Leviticus (from which it directly follows) and Deuteronomy, linking the Priestly legislation that came before with the laws expounded by Moses in Deuteronomy, helping to bring together the two law collections into a single Torah, even though contradictions between the two books are common.
The book of Numbers follows two generations of Israelites, those that experienced the Exodus from egypt and head the law at Sinai firsthand, and those born after that must be prepared for entry into the Promised Land.
As in other parts of the Torah, the composition of Numbers took place over an extended period of time, and thus contains three distinct bodies of literature: independent poems and records; non-Priestly literature about the wilderness journey; and Priestly literature and law from several different authors.
Numbers
Num 1.1-10.10: The wilderness camp.
Num 1.1-6.27: The community and the camp. Camp layout has degrees of holiness indicated by proximity to the tabernacle.
Num 1.1-47: Census of the first generation.
Num 1.3: "Enroll" indicates a miltiary census for war; thus only males twenty and older are counted.
Num 1.17-47: The Levites are excluded because of their special priestly functions, and the number of twelve tribes is maintained by separating the tribe of Joseph into Ephraim and Manasseh.
Num 2.1-34: Arrangement of the camp.
Num 3.1-10: Genealogy and duties of the Levites. Genealogy is narrowed in focus here to highlight Aaron.
Num 3.5-10: Levites, subservient to Aaronide priests, act as guards of the tabernacle.
Num 3.11-13: Levites as substitutes for firstborn. The claim God made on the firstborn in Exodus is replaced here with the Levites acting as substitutes.
Num 3.14-51: First census of the Levites.
Num 3.38: Aaronide priests camp on the east and most significant side of the tabernacle; their labor is within the sanctuary separate from the Levites who work outside.
Num 4.1-49: Second census of the Levites for work. Now that all are assigned, the camp is ready for the journey.
Num 5.1-6.27: Laws to protect the camp.
Num 5.1-10: Purity laws for the camp.
Num 5.1-4: Three types of impurity threaten the camp: skin disease, genital discharges, and contact with a corpse.
Num 5.6: Breaking faith with the Lord through wronging another incurs guilt that must be purified via confession.
Num 5.11-31: Law regulating a woman accused of adultery. These are the so-called "abortion" verses of Numbers: if a man believes his wife to have been unfaithful, he presents a grain offering and a Priest shall make the wife drink the bitter potion; if the woman has been faithful, nothing will happen, but if she has been unfaithful or has lied, her womb will drop and discharge—a miscarriage, essentially. Interestingly, this is the only ritual regarding holy water in the Hebrew Bible; holy water in this instance likely means running water from a spring.
Num 6.1-21: Law of the nazirite. Nazirites ("nazar" probably meaning "to abstain") are a voluntary class of Israelites that act as a form of ascetic, temporary Priests; one undertakes the vow of the nazirite and thus takes on a number of prohibitions in order to afford them holiness and social status. In order to revoke the vow one must offer various sacrifices to the tabernacle/temple; due to this, the vow of the nazirite today is considered permanent, as there is no way to offer sacrifice as described without a temple.
Num 6.22-27: Priestly blessing. Safeguard of divine blessing afforded to the congregation. The discovery of a form of this blessing on a sixth-century BCE silver amulet from a burial cave (the Ketef Hinnom scrolls) underscores its central role in Ancient Israel.
Num 7.1-10.10: Tabernacle.
Num 7.1-88: Offerings of dedication. Names and tribe order mirror that of their initial introduction. That sure is a lot of gifts.
Num 8.1-4: Lampstand. The lampstand is depicted as a stylized tree, perhaps symbolizing a tree of life.
Num 8.5-26: Dedication of the Levites. The Levites are purified, so as to become separated from the Israelites, but they are not consecrated as the Aaronite priests were.
Num 9.1-14: Passover. This is the second passover, the first taking place in Egypt. This marks the conclusion of the revelation at Mount Sinai.
Num 9.15-23: Cloud and wilderness march. The rest periods of this march may reflect the Priestly ritual calendar, where distinct sacrifices and feasts require different periods of time.
Num 10.1-10: Trumpets. Trumpets used to summon the congregation, prepare camp for travel, and to summon the people to war and feasts.
Num 10.11-22.1: The wilderness journey. The murmuring of the Israelites arises from threatening situations in the wilderness over lack of food and water, disease, or fear of the inhabitants of Canaan, all of which cause the Israelites to protest their present condition. The complaint is accompanied by a longing to return to slavery in Egypt, which shows a lack of faith in the leadership of the Lord and Moses and eventually leads to the death of the generation that had escaped from Egypt.
Num 10.11-36: Leaving Sinai. Two accounts here, Priestly and not.
Num 10.11-28: Organization of the wilderness march.
Num 10.29-36: The ark leading the people. Jethro doesn't want to go a-marching!
Num 11.1-12.15: The prophetic spirit of Moses.
Num 11.1-3: Complaint at Taberah. This complaint lacks specific details. Moses intercedes.
Num 11.4-35: Moses and the seventy elders.
Num 11.12: God is described as the mother who conceived and gave birth to the people, and Moses is their wet nurse.
Num 11.15: Moses requests death if the mistreatment is continued.
Num 11.16-17: God instructs Moses to select seventy elders to share his spirit so as to aid him in leadership. Calls back to the elders mentioned in Ex 24.1,9, as well as to Jethro's advice in Ex 18.
Num 11.25-30: Prophetic inspiration of others is distinguished here as being temporary, and it can also be transferred without intent.
Num 12.1-15: Conflict between Miriam and Aaron, and Moses. Moses is challenged because he married a Cushite woman.
Num 12.3: The humble (Hebrew: "Anaw") seek God (Ps 22.27), rejoice in God (Ps 63.33), and do justice (Isa 11.14), so that God hears (Ps 10.17), instructs (Ps 25.9), and saves them (Ps 76.10).
Num 13.1-14.45: Story of the scouts and its consequences. Combining two different sources.
Num 13.1-20: Selection of the scouts and their instructions.
Num 13.16: Joshua gets his name changed from Hoshea.
Num 13.21-33: Mission and report of the scouts.
Num 13.22: Anakites, a race of fearful giants.
Num 13.25: Forty days.
Num 14.1-45: Responses to the report of the scouts.
Num 14.9: The people of the land of Canaan have had the protection (Hebrew: "shadow", "shade") of their Gods removed from them; protection in this manner is used as such to describe the Lord's actions also (Pss 91.1; 121.5).
Num 14.13-19: Moses intercedes for the nation with two arguments: killing the Israelites would lead the nations to judge the Lord to be unreliable (see Ex 32.11-14); and the central characteristic of the Lord is mercy (see Ex 34.6-7).
Num 14.20-24: God forgives; the nation will not be destroyed, but the inheritors of the land will be the second generation.
Num 14.34-35: For every day of scouting, there is one year of marching in the wilderness.
Num 14.39-45: Unsuccessful war against the Canaanites; Yahweh, represented by the ark, is not with the people.
Num 15.1-3: Legislation for Israel's future life in the land.
Num 15.22-31: Rules regarding forgiveness from three distinct transgressions: unintentional communal sin (vv. 22-26); unintentional individual sin (vv. 27-29); intentional sin, which cannot be forgiven (vv. 30-31).
Num 15.32-41: Further legal material. Collecting sticks on the sabbath results in consultation with the Lord, the answer is the death penalty (such consultations are made in cases that lack legal precedent, e.g. Lev 24.10-23).
Num 16.1-17.13: Conflicts over priestly leadership.
Num 16.1-40: Conflict with Korah and Dathan and Abiram. Two narratives interwoven. God sends the families to Sheol and likewise consumes the incense holders with fire due to their transgression. Interestingly, the censers of these incest were made holy 'at the cost of their lives.' The metal is hammered into a covering for the altar so as to remind the faithful.
Num 16.41-17.13: Special status of Aaron. Aaron atones for the people, stoping the plague with his own incense, and he also has a magical staff.
Num 17.2: Election of Aaron once more via this staff lot, another sign of his holiness.
Num 18.1-19.22: Responsibilities and rights of priests and Levites.
Num 18.1-32: Rules for priests and Levites.
Num 18.1-7: A divine speech to Aaron, rather than to Moses, outlines the safeguards to protect the people from perisihing in the presnce of God; Aaronide priests and Levites protect the Israelites from divine holiness.
Num 18.1: Direct address to Aaron is rare, though all instances are associated with danger to the sanctuary, thus accentuating the authority of the priesthood.
Num 18.19-21: Priests own no territory due to their 'covenant of salt' with the Lord, instead they receive tithes and offerings for their devoted service.
Num 19.1-22: Cleansing from corpse contamination. Postulated in footnote that corpse contamination may stem from a rejection of ancestor worship; the dead are a danger to divine holiness.
Num 20.1-21.35: Leaving the wilderness. As before, two narratives here.
Num 20.1-13: Sin of Moses and Aaron. Individual responsibility of Moses and Aaron for not being allowed to enter the land due to disobedience regarding divine command. Different explanations are given in Deut 1.37; Ps 106.32-33.
Num 20.7-8: Moses is instructed to use his staff; this staff may be Aaron's from the prior story, but it could also be the staff from Exodus.
Num 20.9-11: Moses judges the complaint of the people as an instance of disobedience, accusing the people of being "rebels"; as a consequence he does not follow the divine instructions exactly, and strikes the rock twice rather than speaking to it.
Num 20.14-21: Conflict with Edom.
Num 20.14: "Brother," reflecting the genealogy of Genesis; Esau, brother of Jacob is the ancestor of the Edomites.
Num 20.18-21: Here, Israel is forced to go around Edom under threat of the sword, later in Deut 2.3-13 the Isrealites are said to have travelled through Edom.
Num 20.22-29: Death of Aaron. Robing Eleazar with Aaron's vestments signals the transfer of the priestly office. Thirty days of morning rather than the normal seven-day period indicated prior.
Num 21.1-3: War against the king of Arad. The lands and property is given to God through destruction rather than spoil for the Israelite warriors. Hormah mentioned here is the same as in the unsuccessful war fought prior in 14.39-45, reversing the negative account.
Num 21.4-9: The bronze serpent. Serpents, "seprahim," could refer either to dangerous desert reptiles, or to members of the divine council. The serpent of bronze Moses fashions was said to exist in the Jerusalem temple (2 Kings 18.4)
Num 21.10-35: Journey north through Transjordan. In these narratives the Amorites control territory later controlled by the Ammonites.
Num 21.14-15: Book of the Wars of the Lord once more, funny how a book, presumably written later, is cited here as if Moses has precognition given the tradition of his writing of Numbers is taken to be fact.
Num 21.17-18: Ancient work song celebrating the digging of a well. Cute!
Num 21.21-26: Israelites ask to pass through the territory of Sihon, king of the Amorites; Siohn wages war on the Israelites and is defeated. The subsequent poem may originally have been used by Sihon in his defeat of the Moabites (as quoted in Jer 48.45), repurposed and placed here as a taunt from Israel in their defeat of Sihon. Chemosh is mentioned, the principal Moabite god.
Num 22.1-36.13: Preparing for entry into Canaan. Set in the plains of Moab, conflicts with other nations continue, and we get laws for Israel's future life in the land.
Num 22.1-24.25: Balak and Balaam. Balak, king of Moab fears Israel's strength; he requests the seer Balaam to curse them. Israel plays no active role in the mounting threat of Balak, but the Lord is an active participant in the drama.
Num 22.1-14: First mission. In this account, Balaam is depicted positively.
Num 22.5: "Balaam son of Beor" is also featured in an eighth-century BCE text from Tell Deir Alla in the Jordan Valley. That text indicates that Balaam was a well-known prophetic figure, and recounts his vision of a natural disaster brought on by Shagar, a fertility goddess, and the Shaddai-gods. We can take this to mean that the character of Balaam predates this story, or at least existed alongside the development of it as a general figure.
Num 22.7: Balaam has the power of divination, condemned elsewhere in the bible, it proves to be efficacious.
Num 22.9-11: Balaam's dialogue with the Lord shows that although he is a non-Israelite, Balaam has a relationship with the Lord.
Num 22.15-21: Second mission. This narrative was likely immediately followed by vv. 36-38, instead, a separate story interrupts the sequence of events (see next note).
Num 22.22-35: Balaam and the angel of the Lord. This interruption of the narrative is an accont of Balaam's journey to Balak; the Lord is angry at this journey despite being the one that had just instructed him to go with the men. The central theme of the story is the blindness of the seer to the threat of the divine being in his path, but which his donkey sees clearly. The story presents Balaam negatively, which becomes the dominant interpretation elsewhere in the Bible (see 31.8,16; Deut 23.5; Josh 13.22; 24.10; Neh 13.2).
Num 22.22: "Adversary" (Hebrew: "Satan"), the angel of the Lord acts as the adversary to Balaam.
Num 22.23: "Drawn sword," see Josh 5.13; 1 Chr 21.16.
Num 22.36-23.12: First oracle.
Num 23.7-10: The oracle consists of three stanzas: vv. 7-8: the inability of Balaam to curse if it not God's will; v. 9: the distinctive character of Israel; v. 10: reference to the Israelites' fertility. Funny for God through Balaam to note "a people living alone, and not reckoning itself among the nations!" right after the wars against Arad and Sihon.
Num 23.13-26: Second oracle. The oracle has three stanzas: vv. 18-19: the contrast between Balak and God underscores that the human attempt to manipulate the future is useless since God fulfills all divine promises; vv. 20-22: Israel's history of deliverance as an outgrowth of divine blessings; vv. 23-24: shift from the past to the present by comparing Israel to a lion that eats its prey.
Num 23.27-24.13: Third oracle.
Num 24.2: "Spirit of God," suggests that Balaam achieves a new level of revelation in the third oracle.
Num 24.5-9: Balaam describes the Israelite nation with fertility imagery of palm trees, gardens, aloe tree, and cedars, before concluding with the ominous statement that those who curse Israel will be cursed and those who bless Israel will be blessed. Echoing Gen 12.3.
Num 24.14-25: Balaam's fourth oracle has a future prophetic orientation not present in the first three, making predictions on events to come regarding the nations surrounding Israel.
Num 24.15-17: The vision about Moab is eschatological; destruction is not now, and it is not near. The royal imagery may point to the victory of an Israelite king over Moab; it also influences expectations for a future leader, such as Bar Kokhba in the revolt against Rome (132-135 CE), and Jesus, "the bright morning star" in Rev 22.16. In the view of some schools of textual criticism, the oracles narrative, excepting the episode involving the donkey, is simply a framework invented in order to be able to insert much older poems.
Num 25.1-19: Sin of Israel at Baal-peor. Narrative has two versions, one about sexual relations and idolatry with the Moabites, the other about intermarriage with the Midianites.
Num 25.4: Divine anger requiring impalement to abate.
Num 25.6: Marriage between Israelites and Midianites condemned here, but worth noting that Moses married Zipporah, a Midianite.
Num 25.16-18: This divine command to Moses points ahead to the war against Midian in ch 31.
Num 26.1-36.13: Generation of the conquest and instructions for inheritance. The central theme is the inheritance of the Promised Land by the second generation after the death of the first, signaled by a new census (ch 26) and a change of leadership; Eleazar replaces Aaron as high priest (26.1), and Joshua succeeds Moses as Israel's leader into the Promised Land (27.12-13).
Num 26.1-65: Census of the second generation.
Num 26.52-55: Inheritance of land for each tribe is determined by lot, emphasizing that the result is determined by God.
Num 27.1-11: Daughters of Zelophehad
Num 27.3: Zelophehad died "for his own sin," suggesting the principle of individual responsibility in which successive generations should not be punished for the sins of a single member of the family. Again, contradicting the notion of generational guilt.
Num 27.6-11: God instructs Moses to transfer the inheritance of Zelophehad to his daughters. "Equal" opportunity inheritance, baby.
Num 27.12-23: Leadership of Joshua.
Num 27.12-14: Divine announcement of Moses's impending death.
Num 27.15-21: Transfer of Moses's authority to Joshua, accomplished through the laying on of hands under the supervision of Eleazar.
Num 28.1-29.40: Prescribed sacrifices. Sacrifices to be offered by priests for "appointed times," sacred moments in the day, week, and month.
Num 29.1-21: More festivals. I'm sure I will be forgiven for not going into extensive detail here.
Num 30.1-16: Vows. The central topic in the chapter is vows by women, in which a wife or daughter promises to do something for God in exchange for divine help. Autonomy of women is called into question here; the father or husband of a woman can disapprove of any vow, thus nullifying it, and the Lord will forgive such a nullification.
Num 31.1-54: War against Midian. A fictional account of the destruction of the entire Midiante nation by the Israelites without a single casualty. This Priestly story is a sequel to the account of the intermarriage between the Israelite man Zimri and the Midianite woman Cozbi (25.6-18). The story provides the Priestly interpretation on a range of topics associated with war, including the role of priests, the evaluation of male and female captives, spoils, and the purity of soliders. Moses and the priests oversee the event, Eleazar the high priest determines acceptable spoils from holy war, and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, leads the troops.
Num 31.6: Phinehas takes the vessels of the sanctuary into battle, thus making it a holy war.
Num 31.8: Rest in peace Balaam.
Num 31.16: "On Balaam's advice," not found in chapter 25 or elsewhere. The women are slaughtered due to their actions at Baal-Peor; Balaam's supposed influence here acts as the post hoc scapegoat.
Num 32.1-42: Inheritance east of the Jordan. Extended exchange between the tribes of Gad and Reuben and Moses regarding land distribution.
Num 33.1-56: A summary of the wilderness journey, includes minutia on each and every stop, then a proclamation of continued holy war in crossing the Jordan.
Num 34.1-29: Boundaries of the land west of the Jordan.
Num 35.1-15: Levitical cities of refuge. The Levites are separated from the other tribes in the Promised Land, as in the wilderness camp. They receive no contiguous block of land, because they are a divine possession, instead they receive cities; Deut 18.6 suggests that Levites are scattered throughout all of the cities of the Promised Land; see also Judg 17.7-8.
Num 35.16-34: Laws of homicide.
Num 35.33-34: The rationale for the laws regarding homicide is that shed blood pollutes the land (Ezek 36.17-18) causing it to vomit out its inhabitants (Lev 18.28).
Num 36.1-12: Daughters of Zelophehad. The question of intermarriage and the inheritance of lands is raised; if the daughters of Zelophehad marry into other tribes, does the land they had inherited change tribes? Moses answers in the negative, revising the previous law with an addendum that says in the land must be retained by the tribe in collective, therefore such women may only marry one of their father's tribe, so as to negate the issue entirely. Placed at the end of Numbers as this is, this was likely a later addition tacked on to address such cases.
And that is Numbers done. Can't lie, this one was a bit of a slog, felt my desire to continue reading during my sessions wane, as is evident in the length of my reading sessions. Interesting structure, the narrative sections interspersed with sudden bouts of law and ritual and the like. Feeling the cast of characters begin to diversify a bit, with Moses as figurehead being joined by Aaron's descendants in Eleazar, Phinehas and Joshua, making the wider arc of the Israelites seem less of a point-to-point prophet-to-porphet affair. Good fun! Deuteronomy, then.
Wander, O' Carnelians, deprived of birthright;
Wander, O' Peridots, divided and scattered;
Wander, O' Carbuncles, praised whelps of martyr's wine;
Wander, O' Sapphires, seekers of Enoch's pavement;
Wander, O' Diamonds, farers of the firmament;
Wander, O' Onyxes, of those that are fruitful;
Wander, O' Onyxes, of those that help forget;
Wander, O' Jaspers, ravenous wolves, left of hand;
Wander, O' Jacinths, black sheep, serpent of my kin;
Wander, O' Lapides, innocent of ill intent;
Wander, O' Amethysts, triumphant with fortune;
Wander, O' Agates, goodly hinds let loose to fear.
Introduction to Numbers
The title "Numbers," derives from the Vulgate and the Septuagint, named as such due to the two censuses of the Israelites that bookmark the narrative of the book. Another title, "In the wilderness," comes from the Masoretic Text.
The Oxford commentary provides a graph to illustrate three ways in which one can analyse the structure of the book, I copy it here in text form:
Chs 1-25: First Generation.
Chs 26-36: Second Generation.
The first segmentation highlights the two-part structure that emerges from the census of the first and second generations.
Chs 1.1-10.10: Wilderness of Sinai.
Chs 10.10-21.35: Wilderness Journey.
Chs 22.1-36.13: Plains of Moab.
The second segmentation clarifies the three-part geographical structure of the wilderness journey.
Chs 1.1-6.27: Holiness and Camp.
Chs 7.1-10.10: Holiness and Tabernacle.
Chs 10.11-36: Departure from Sinai.
Chs 11.1-21.35: Rebellion and Death.
Chs 22.1-25.18: Threats on the Plains of Moab.
Chs 26.1-36.13: Preparation for the Promised Land.
The third segmentation breaks down the book into smaller thematic units.
Numbers acts as a narrative bridge between Leviticus (from which it directly follows) and Deuteronomy, linking the Priestly legislation that came before with the laws expounded by Moses in Deuteronomy, helping to bring together the two law collections into a single Torah, even though contradictions between the two books are common.
The book of Numbers follows two generations of Israelites, those that experienced the Exodus from egypt and head the law at Sinai firsthand, and those born after that must be prepared for entry into the Promised Land.
As in other parts of the Torah, the composition of Numbers took place over an extended period of time, and thus contains three distinct bodies of literature: independent poems and records; non-Priestly literature about the wilderness journey; and Priestly literature and law from several different authors.
Numbers
Num 1.1-10.10: The wilderness camp.
Num 1.1-6.27: The community and the camp. Camp layout has degrees of holiness indicated by proximity to the tabernacle.
Num 1.1-47: Census of the first generation.
Num 1.3: "Enroll" indicates a miltiary census for war; thus only males twenty and older are counted.
Num 1.17-47: The Levites are excluded because of their special priestly functions, and the number of twelve tribes is maintained by separating the tribe of Joseph into Ephraim and Manasseh.
Num 2.1-34: Arrangement of the camp.
Num 3.1-10: Genealogy and duties of the Levites. Genealogy is narrowed in focus here to highlight Aaron.
Num 3.5-10: Levites, subservient to Aaronide priests, act as guards of the tabernacle.
Num 3.11-13: Levites as substitutes for firstborn. The claim God made on the firstborn in Exodus is replaced here with the Levites acting as substitutes.
Num 3.14-51: First census of the Levites.
Num 3.38: Aaronide priests camp on the east and most significant side of the tabernacle; their labor is within the sanctuary separate from the Levites who work outside.
Num 4.1-49: Second census of the Levites for work. Now that all are assigned, the camp is ready for the journey.
Num 5.1-6.27: Laws to protect the camp.
Num 5.1-10: Purity laws for the camp.
Num 5.1-4: Three types of impurity threaten the camp: skin disease, genital discharges, and contact with a corpse.
Num 5.6: Breaking faith with the Lord through wronging another incurs guilt that must be purified via confession.
Num 5.11-31: Law regulating a woman accused of adultery. These are the so-called "abortion" verses of Numbers: if a man believes his wife to have been unfaithful, he presents a grain offering and a Priest shall make the wife drink the bitter potion; if the woman has been faithful, nothing will happen, but if she has been unfaithful or has lied, her womb will drop and discharge—a miscarriage, essentially. Interestingly, this is the only ritual regarding holy water in the Hebrew Bible; holy water in this instance likely means running water from a spring.
Num 6.1-21: Law of the nazirite. Nazirites ("nazar" probably meaning "to abstain") are a voluntary class of Israelites that act as a form of ascetic, temporary Priests; one undertakes the vow of the nazirite and thus takes on a number of prohibitions in order to afford them holiness and social status. In order to revoke the vow one must offer various sacrifices to the tabernacle/temple; due to this, the vow of the nazirite today is considered permanent, as there is no way to offer sacrifice as described without a temple.
Num 6.22-27: Priestly blessing. Safeguard of divine blessing afforded to the congregation. The discovery of a form of this blessing on a sixth-century BCE silver amulet from a burial cave (the Ketef Hinnom scrolls) underscores its central role in Ancient Israel.
Num 7.1-10.10: Tabernacle.
Num 7.1-88: Offerings of dedication. Names and tribe order mirror that of their initial introduction. That sure is a lot of gifts.
Num 8.1-4: Lampstand. The lampstand is depicted as a stylized tree, perhaps symbolizing a tree of life.
Num 8.5-26: Dedication of the Levites. The Levites are purified, so as to become separated from the Israelites, but they are not consecrated as the Aaronite priests were.
Num 9.1-14: Passover. This is the second passover, the first taking place in Egypt. This marks the conclusion of the revelation at Mount Sinai.
Num 9.15-23: Cloud and wilderness march. The rest periods of this march may reflect the Priestly ritual calendar, where distinct sacrifices and feasts require different periods of time.
Num 10.1-10: Trumpets. Trumpets used to summon the congregation, prepare camp for travel, and to summon the people to war and feasts.
Num 10.11-22.1: The wilderness journey. The murmuring of the Israelites arises from threatening situations in the wilderness over lack of food and water, disease, or fear of the inhabitants of Canaan, all of which cause the Israelites to protest their present condition. The complaint is accompanied by a longing to return to slavery in Egypt, which shows a lack of faith in the leadership of the Lord and Moses and eventually leads to the death of the generation that had escaped from Egypt.
Num 10.11-36: Leaving Sinai. Two accounts here, Priestly and not.
Num 10.11-28: Organization of the wilderness march.
Num 10.29-36: The ark leading the people. Jethro doesn't want to go a-marching!
Num 11.1-12.15: The prophetic spirit of Moses.
Num 11.1-3: Complaint at Taberah. This complaint lacks specific details. Moses intercedes.
Num 11.4-35: Moses and the seventy elders.
Num 11.12: God is described as the mother who conceived and gave birth to the people, and Moses is their wet nurse.
Num 11.15: Moses requests death if the mistreatment is continued.
Num 11.16-17: God instructs Moses to select seventy elders to share his spirit so as to aid him in leadership. Calls back to the elders mentioned in Ex 24.1,9, as well as to Jethro's advice in Ex 18.
Num 11.25-30: Prophetic inspiration of others is distinguished here as being temporary, and it can also be transferred without intent.
Num 12.1-15: Conflict between Miriam and Aaron, and Moses. Moses is challenged because he married a Cushite woman.
Num 12.3: The humble (Hebrew: "Anaw") seek God (Ps 22.27), rejoice in God (Ps 63.33), and do justice (Isa 11.14), so that God hears (Ps 10.17), instructs (Ps 25.9), and saves them (Ps 76.10).
Num 13.1-14.45: Story of the scouts and its consequences. Combining two different sources.
Num 13.1-20: Selection of the scouts and their instructions.
Num 13.16: Joshua gets his name changed from Hoshea.
Num 13.21-33: Mission and report of the scouts.
Num 13.22: Anakites, a race of fearful giants.
Num 13.25: Forty days.
Num 14.1-45: Responses to the report of the scouts.
Num 14.9: The people of the land of Canaan have had the protection (Hebrew: "shadow", "shade") of their Gods removed from them; protection in this manner is used as such to describe the Lord's actions also (Pss 91.1; 121.5).
Num 14.13-19: Moses intercedes for the nation with two arguments: killing the Israelites would lead the nations to judge the Lord to be unreliable (see Ex 32.11-14); and the central characteristic of the Lord is mercy (see Ex 34.6-7).
Num 14.20-24: God forgives; the nation will not be destroyed, but the inheritors of the land will be the second generation.
Num 14.34-35: For every day of scouting, there is one year of marching in the wilderness.
Num 14.39-45: Unsuccessful war against the Canaanites; Yahweh, represented by the ark, is not with the people.
Num 15.1-3: Legislation for Israel's future life in the land.
Num 15.22-31: Rules regarding forgiveness from three distinct transgressions: unintentional communal sin (vv. 22-26); unintentional individual sin (vv. 27-29); intentional sin, which cannot be forgiven (vv. 30-31).
Num 15.32-41: Further legal material. Collecting sticks on the sabbath results in consultation with the Lord, the answer is the death penalty (such consultations are made in cases that lack legal precedent, e.g. Lev 24.10-23).
Num 16.1-17.13: Conflicts over priestly leadership.
Num 16.1-40: Conflict with Korah and Dathan and Abiram. Two narratives interwoven. God sends the families to Sheol and likewise consumes the incense holders with fire due to their transgression. Interestingly, the censers of these incest were made holy 'at the cost of their lives.' The metal is hammered into a covering for the altar so as to remind the faithful.
Num 16.41-17.13: Special status of Aaron. Aaron atones for the people, stoping the plague with his own incense, and he also has a magical staff.
Num 17.2: Election of Aaron once more via this staff lot, another sign of his holiness.
Num 18.1-19.22: Responsibilities and rights of priests and Levites.
Num 18.1-32: Rules for priests and Levites.
Num 18.1-7: A divine speech to Aaron, rather than to Moses, outlines the safeguards to protect the people from perisihing in the presnce of God; Aaronide priests and Levites protect the Israelites from divine holiness.
Num 18.1: Direct address to Aaron is rare, though all instances are associated with danger to the sanctuary, thus accentuating the authority of the priesthood.
Num 18.19-21: Priests own no territory due to their 'covenant of salt' with the Lord, instead they receive tithes and offerings for their devoted service.
Num 19.1-22: Cleansing from corpse contamination. Postulated in footnote that corpse contamination may stem from a rejection of ancestor worship; the dead are a danger to divine holiness.
Num 20.1-21.35: Leaving the wilderness. As before, two narratives here.
Num 20.1-13: Sin of Moses and Aaron. Individual responsibility of Moses and Aaron for not being allowed to enter the land due to disobedience regarding divine command. Different explanations are given in Deut 1.37; Ps 106.32-33.
Num 20.7-8: Moses is instructed to use his staff; this staff may be Aaron's from the prior story, but it could also be the staff from Exodus.
Num 20.9-11: Moses judges the complaint of the people as an instance of disobedience, accusing the people of being "rebels"; as a consequence he does not follow the divine instructions exactly, and strikes the rock twice rather than speaking to it.
Num 20.14-21: Conflict with Edom.
Num 20.14: "Brother," reflecting the genealogy of Genesis; Esau, brother of Jacob is the ancestor of the Edomites.
Num 20.18-21: Here, Israel is forced to go around Edom under threat of the sword, later in Deut 2.3-13 the Isrealites are said to have travelled through Edom.
Num 20.22-29: Death of Aaron. Robing Eleazar with Aaron's vestments signals the transfer of the priestly office. Thirty days of morning rather than the normal seven-day period indicated prior.
Num 21.1-3: War against the king of Arad. The lands and property is given to God through destruction rather than spoil for the Israelite warriors. Hormah mentioned here is the same as in the unsuccessful war fought prior in 14.39-45, reversing the negative account.
Num 21.4-9: The bronze serpent. Serpents, "seprahim," could refer either to dangerous desert reptiles, or to members of the divine council. The serpent of bronze Moses fashions was said to exist in the Jerusalem temple (2 Kings 18.4)
Num 21.10-35: Journey north through Transjordan. In these narratives the Amorites control territory later controlled by the Ammonites.
Num 21.14-15: Book of the Wars of the Lord once more, funny how a book, presumably written later, is cited here as if Moses has precognition given the tradition of his writing of Numbers is taken to be fact.
Num 21.17-18: Ancient work song celebrating the digging of a well. Cute!
Num 21.21-26: Israelites ask to pass through the territory of Sihon, king of the Amorites; Siohn wages war on the Israelites and is defeated. The subsequent poem may originally have been used by Sihon in his defeat of the Moabites (as quoted in Jer 48.45), repurposed and placed here as a taunt from Israel in their defeat of Sihon. Chemosh is mentioned, the principal Moabite god.
Num 22.1-36.13: Preparing for entry into Canaan. Set in the plains of Moab, conflicts with other nations continue, and we get laws for Israel's future life in the land.
Num 22.1-24.25: Balak and Balaam. Balak, king of Moab fears Israel's strength; he requests the seer Balaam to curse them. Israel plays no active role in the mounting threat of Balak, but the Lord is an active participant in the drama.
Num 22.1-14: First mission. In this account, Balaam is depicted positively.
Num 22.5: "Balaam son of Beor" is also featured in an eighth-century BCE text from Tell Deir Alla in the Jordan Valley. That text indicates that Balaam was a well-known prophetic figure, and recounts his vision of a natural disaster brought on by Shagar, a fertility goddess, and the Shaddai-gods. We can take this to mean that the character of Balaam predates this story, or at least existed alongside the development of it as a general figure.
Num 22.7: Balaam has the power of divination, condemned elsewhere in the bible, it proves to be efficacious.
Num 22.9-11: Balaam's dialogue with the Lord shows that although he is a non-Israelite, Balaam has a relationship with the Lord.
Num 22.15-21: Second mission. This narrative was likely immediately followed by vv. 36-38, instead, a separate story interrupts the sequence of events (see next note).
Num 22.22-35: Balaam and the angel of the Lord. This interruption of the narrative is an accont of Balaam's journey to Balak; the Lord is angry at this journey despite being the one that had just instructed him to go with the men. The central theme of the story is the blindness of the seer to the threat of the divine being in his path, but which his donkey sees clearly. The story presents Balaam negatively, which becomes the dominant interpretation elsewhere in the Bible (see 31.8,16; Deut 23.5; Josh 13.22; 24.10; Neh 13.2).
Num 22.22: "Adversary" (Hebrew: "Satan"), the angel of the Lord acts as the adversary to Balaam.
Num 22.23: "Drawn sword," see Josh 5.13; 1 Chr 21.16.
Num 22.36-23.12: First oracle.
Num 23.7-10: The oracle consists of three stanzas: vv. 7-8: the inability of Balaam to curse if it not God's will; v. 9: the distinctive character of Israel; v. 10: reference to the Israelites' fertility. Funny for God through Balaam to note "a people living alone, and not reckoning itself among the nations!" right after the wars against Arad and Sihon.
Num 23.13-26: Second oracle. The oracle has three stanzas: vv. 18-19: the contrast between Balak and God underscores that the human attempt to manipulate the future is useless since God fulfills all divine promises; vv. 20-22: Israel's history of deliverance as an outgrowth of divine blessings; vv. 23-24: shift from the past to the present by comparing Israel to a lion that eats its prey.
Num 23.27-24.13: Third oracle.
Num 24.2: "Spirit of God," suggests that Balaam achieves a new level of revelation in the third oracle.
Num 24.5-9: Balaam describes the Israelite nation with fertility imagery of palm trees, gardens, aloe tree, and cedars, before concluding with the ominous statement that those who curse Israel will be cursed and those who bless Israel will be blessed. Echoing Gen 12.3.
Num 24.14-25: Balaam's fourth oracle has a future prophetic orientation not present in the first three, making predictions on events to come regarding the nations surrounding Israel.
Num 24.15-17: The vision about Moab is eschatological; destruction is not now, and it is not near. The royal imagery may point to the victory of an Israelite king over Moab; it also influences expectations for a future leader, such as Bar Kokhba in the revolt against Rome (132-135 CE), and Jesus, "the bright morning star" in Rev 22.16. In the view of some schools of textual criticism, the oracles narrative, excepting the episode involving the donkey, is simply a framework invented in order to be able to insert much older poems.
Num 25.1-19: Sin of Israel at Baal-peor. Narrative has two versions, one about sexual relations and idolatry with the Moabites, the other about intermarriage with the Midianites.
Num 25.4: Divine anger requiring impalement to abate.
Num 25.6: Marriage between Israelites and Midianites condemned here, but worth noting that Moses married Zipporah, a Midianite.
Num 25.16-18: This divine command to Moses points ahead to the war against Midian in ch 31.
Num 26.1-36.13: Generation of the conquest and instructions for inheritance. The central theme is the inheritance of the Promised Land by the second generation after the death of the first, signaled by a new census (ch 26) and a change of leadership; Eleazar replaces Aaron as high priest (26.1), and Joshua succeeds Moses as Israel's leader into the Promised Land (27.12-13).
Num 26.1-65: Census of the second generation.
Num 26.52-55: Inheritance of land for each tribe is determined by lot, emphasizing that the result is determined by God.
Num 27.1-11: Daughters of Zelophehad
Num 27.3: Zelophehad died "for his own sin," suggesting the principle of individual responsibility in which successive generations should not be punished for the sins of a single member of the family. Again, contradicting the notion of generational guilt.
Num 27.6-11: God instructs Moses to transfer the inheritance of Zelophehad to his daughters. "Equal" opportunity inheritance, baby.
Num 27.12-23: Leadership of Joshua.
Num 27.12-14: Divine announcement of Moses's impending death.
Num 27.15-21: Transfer of Moses's authority to Joshua, accomplished through the laying on of hands under the supervision of Eleazar.
Num 28.1-29.40: Prescribed sacrifices. Sacrifices to be offered by priests for "appointed times," sacred moments in the day, week, and month.
Num 29.1-21: More festivals. I'm sure I will be forgiven for not going into extensive detail here.
Num 30.1-16: Vows. The central topic in the chapter is vows by women, in which a wife or daughter promises to do something for God in exchange for divine help. Autonomy of women is called into question here; the father or husband of a woman can disapprove of any vow, thus nullifying it, and the Lord will forgive such a nullification.
Num 31.1-54: War against Midian. A fictional account of the destruction of the entire Midiante nation by the Israelites without a single casualty. This Priestly story is a sequel to the account of the intermarriage between the Israelite man Zimri and the Midianite woman Cozbi (25.6-18). The story provides the Priestly interpretation on a range of topics associated with war, including the role of priests, the evaluation of male and female captives, spoils, and the purity of soliders. Moses and the priests oversee the event, Eleazar the high priest determines acceptable spoils from holy war, and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, leads the troops.
Num 31.6: Phinehas takes the vessels of the sanctuary into battle, thus making it a holy war.
Num 31.8: Rest in peace Balaam.
Num 31.16: "On Balaam's advice," not found in chapter 25 or elsewhere. The women are slaughtered due to their actions at Baal-Peor; Balaam's supposed influence here acts as the post hoc scapegoat.
Num 32.1-42: Inheritance east of the Jordan. Extended exchange between the tribes of Gad and Reuben and Moses regarding land distribution.
Num 33.1-56: A summary of the wilderness journey, includes minutia on each and every stop, then a proclamation of continued holy war in crossing the Jordan.
Num 34.1-29: Boundaries of the land west of the Jordan.
Num 35.1-15: Levitical cities of refuge. The Levites are separated from the other tribes in the Promised Land, as in the wilderness camp. They receive no contiguous block of land, because they are a divine possession, instead they receive cities; Deut 18.6 suggests that Levites are scattered throughout all of the cities of the Promised Land; see also Judg 17.7-8.
Num 35.16-34: Laws of homicide.
Num 35.33-34: The rationale for the laws regarding homicide is that shed blood pollutes the land (Ezek 36.17-18) causing it to vomit out its inhabitants (Lev 18.28).
Num 36.1-12: Daughters of Zelophehad. The question of intermarriage and the inheritance of lands is raised; if the daughters of Zelophehad marry into other tribes, does the land they had inherited change tribes? Moses answers in the negative, revising the previous law with an addendum that says in the land must be retained by the tribe in collective, therefore such women may only marry one of their father's tribe, so as to negate the issue entirely. Placed at the end of Numbers as this is, this was likely a later addition tacked on to address such cases.
And that is Numbers done. Can't lie, this one was a bit of a slog, felt my desire to continue reading during my sessions wane, as is evident in the length of my reading sessions. Interesting structure, the narrative sections interspersed with sudden bouts of law and ritual and the like. Feeling the cast of characters begin to diversify a bit, with Moses as figurehead being joined by Aaron's descendants in Eleazar, Phinehas and Joshua, making the wider arc of the Israelites seem less of a point-to-point prophet-to-porphet affair. Good fun! Deuteronomy, then.
Wander, O' Carnelians, deprived of birthright;
Wander, O' Peridots, divided and scattered;
Wander, O' Carbuncles, praised whelps of martyr's wine;
Wander, O' Sapphires, seekers of Enoch's pavement;
Wander, O' Diamonds, farers of the firmament;
Wander, O' Onyxes, of those that are fruitful;
Wander, O' Onyxes, of those that help forget;
Wander, O' Jaspers, ravenous wolves, left of hand;
Wander, O' Jacinths, black sheep, serpent of my kin;
Wander, O' Lapides, innocent of ill intent;
Wander, O' Amethysts, triumphant with fortune;
Wander, O' Agates, goodly hinds let loose to fear.