Book of Numbers

Although the long-standing debate about the meaning of hilastērion in Rom. 3.25 has led to no consensus, readings are nearly always either (1) metaphorical (hilastērion as place of atonement/expiation) or (2) metonymic (hilastērion as a means of atonement/ expiation). However, in many Second Temple Jewish texts, the word refers to a place of divine revelation. Proposing a fresh semantic typology of the word’s usage, this article argues that there is no unambiguous metonymic usage of the word, and that references to atonement in Lev. 16 are secondary to the revelatory function of the 'mercy seat'. Attending to overlooked intertextual complexities, it suggests that the hilastērion was the site where God promised to reveal the definitive interpretation of his law. The revelatory function of the hilastērion possesses prima facie plausibility as a reading of Rom. 3.21-26, which is driven by the theme of God's self-revelation in Jesus.

The murmuring narratives of the books of Exodus and Numbers depict Israel in the desert as constantly complaining. By taking these ten narratives, Walter Bührer shows that and how Israel's murmuring is more and more negatively interpreted – both in canonical terms as well as regarding the formation of the texts, which become increasingly interwoven.

The little-read Numbers 31 recounts Moses’ command to the Israelites to “wreak the Lord’s vengeance on Midian”, and the subsequent slaughter of all Midianites except female children too young to have “known a man carnally”. The Midianites appear to be depicted here as an “Other not deserving of pity” (Niditch 1993, 45), an attitude scholars sometimes unwittingly echo in their analyses. Moses’ own family are Midianites. Numerous passages present a respectful image of his father-in-law Jethro, a Midianite priest, his wife Zipporah, the only woman to perform a circumcision, and their two sons. This article takes as its focus the leadership of Moses in Torah, and asks how Torah can present such conflictual Moseses, the liberator Moses and the genocidal Moses, the Moses of ‘interfaith’ and ‘interpartnering’, and the Moses of closed borders. Two responses are offered, first through source criticism and comparison with contemporaneous texts, and secondly through a narrative reading which traces Moses’ leadership from Exodus to the passage in question. It is the finding of this paper that the biblical redactors frame Moses’ actions in Numbers 31 as those of a Pharaoh, and in doing so both condemn the violence committed against the Midianites and caution against leadership predicated upon elevating the importance of one tribal, ethnic, or religious group over others.

Keywords: Womanist midrash; Numbers 31; Moses as political leader; psychology of racism; genocide

The Book of Numbers is famous for its mysterious numbers. This short note addresses mainly those of chapters 3 and 4. In the following, I propose that hosts set apart by YHWH for his service, such as the firstborn sons of the Israelites and the Levites (Num 3 and 4), or his punishment (Num 16 and 25) are numbered, explicitly or implicitly, by prime numbers. The number of the Levites was also determined by the special liturgical link between the Levites and Jacob. At Bethel, Jacob started the cult of the Temple, which was entrusted to the Levites at Sinai.
The use of several very large prime numbers shows mathematical capabilities unexpected during biblical times and probably took advantage of Babylonian arithmetics.

Keywords: Census of Levites, Num 3, Num 4, Num 15, Num 25, Num 26, Numerical symbolism, Prime numbers

God's presence in Israel's camp inspires faith in them to possess the land. Moses wrote the book of Numbers to persuade the second generation of Israelites after the exodus to enter and possess the promised land of Canaan by believing that God is in their camp to give them military victory, by overcoming the unbelief that brought death to the exodus generation, and by preparing for life in the land.

Nahum scholars typically interpret the reference to YHWH’s Thirteen Attributes of Mercy in Nah 1:3a as a re-reading meant to minimize YHWH’s mercy and emphasize his wrath. This article shows that the quote originates from Num 14:17–18 while maintaining an allusion to Exod 34:6–7. In this light, Nah 1:3a does not explain YHWH’s wrath against Assyria, rather it explains how YHWH could pardon Judah’s apostasy and deliver his people.

The rhetorical impact of the explicit and allusive references to Gerizim and Jerusalem in the first seven books of the Hebrew Bible (Genesis-Judges) implies that all these writings originate from the territory of Ephraim, and not from Judah. Their rhetoric consistently highlights the importance of the central sanctuary of Yahweh in the region of Shechem in the territory of the tribe of Joseph/Ephraim, more and more clearly pointing to its location on Mount Gerizim. On the other hand, their allusive rhetoric presents the tribe of Judah, especially its historical capital in Jerusalem, in negative terms, thus conveying the idea of the superiority of the sanctuary on Mount Gerizim over the rival sanctuary on Mount Zion, as well as that at Dan.

People these days know the Universe as a Whole, because not knowing the edge between This and That. Its secret is the secret of a forgotten body, the seventh in the series of multifaceted as Life, Seven. We know six of it now. But the Ancestors knew all seven. // Люди ныне не знают Вселенной как Целого, не зная грани меж Этим и Тем. Тайна  ее есть тайна забытого тела, седьмого в строю многогранных как Жизнь, Семь. Мы знаем шесть ныне. А Пращуры знали все семь.

In OT perspective, the high-handed sins of bloodshed, idolatry, and sexual immorality are most egregious for these three things also defile the land. Cleansing, however, is problematic; means available to people for removing geospatial defilement are not comprehensive. Nevertheless, several texts adopt ritual categories to hint that divine cleansing of land remains possible. Yet such means always entail significant human harm: banishment or death. A tension therefore remains in the apparent zero-sum game of (defiled) land versus (defiling) occupants. If YHWH is to have a people of his own, then what hope is there for the land?

RÉSUMÉ Le récit du don de l'esprit de Moïse aux soixante-dix anciens, en Nombres 11, participe à la mise en valeur de la figure de Moïse et fait partie des textes qui, en accordant au personnage prophétique de Moïse une haute autorité, contribuent à souligner l'autorité du Pentateuque lui-même. Cependant, la finale du récit, où interviennent les personnages d'Eldad et Medad, semble contester cette autorité. Nb 11,26-29 pourrait ainsi constituer une critique de la prétention de la Torah à constituer la source principale voire exclusive de la révélation. SUMMARY The narrative of the gift of the spirit to the seventy elders, in Numbers 11, highlights the character of Moses and belongs to the texts that, through this prophetic character, underline the high authority of the Pentateuch itself. In the contrary, the end of the narrative, through the characters of Eldad and Medad, criticizes the claim of the Torah to be the main source of the divine revelation. Comment appréhender la fonction prophétique dans la Bible hébraïque ? Marcel Gauchet évoque cette question dans le « désenchantement du monde », en décrivant la « dissidence du prophète » comme l'expression d'un ordre spirituel nouveau qui contraste avec l'ordre établi 1 et vient le critiquer au nom de Dieu lui-même. Cependant qu'en est-il de cet ordre

Classical Pentateuch research mainly dealt with the books of Genesis, Exodus and Deuteronomy and it is only in recent decades that the literary and theological meanings of Moses’ fourth book has been rediscovered. In this volume, Christian Frevel lets the interplay between narrative and legislative material – which is often not understood – emerge into new light, examining the texts of the Book of Numbers as inner-biblical interpretations and tradition-bound innovations. Cloaked in the Israelites’ 40-year long sojourn in the desert, the Book of Numbers presents a tightly-woven fabric of texts which reflect the social and cultic orders, discuss questions of leadership and explore the meaning of the Promised Land to Israel’s existence. The Book of Numbers is characterized in its entirety by transformations: for example, the exodus generation becomes the desert generation and leadership is transferred from Moses to Joshua, from Aaron to Eleazar. Important innovations such as the hierarchical organization of the cult including the role of the Levites or the hereditary law concerning daughters, are cultivated within these transformations. The people’s time in the desert (re)form their social frameworks and renders them sustainable for the existence in the Promised Land. Important themes such as community and cult organization, the enduring election of the Israelites, the meaning of the Promised Land for the collective identity, questions of hierarchical leadership and democratic participation, of collective guilt and individual liability, along with many other aspects, are dealt with in the texts. Without the literary traditions of the Book of Numbers, which were mostly set down around the 5th-4th centuries BCE, the formation of the Pentateuch as Torah would not have been conceivable. The studies of this volume reveal the thematic diversity of the book against a backdrop of its literary creation within the Penta- and Hexateuch.

Without recognition of the seriousness of sin in God’s eyes, and the lengths he is willing to go to wipe it out for the sake of His name and for our good, no amount of explanation will satisfy an offended reader standing to accuse God and the Israelites. This story is unintelligible if taken outside of its context. Wrongly looking at Num. 31:13-24 out of context is like walking into a movie we’ve missed the beginning of to see one character kill another and assuming the killer is the villain without effort to go back and understand how this situation came about or staying to see how the story ends. Sometimes, the one who takes life is doing what is necessary to save the world. Indeed, that’s the case in this passage.  God is a singularly focused being and His focus is the redemption of the world, which since Gen. 3, has been enslaved to sin.  In Christ, God’s redemption of His creation is already but not yet. Numbers 31 looks forward to a day when sin and death will be no more when Christ comes to be with the faithful and to destroy His and their enemies once and for all.

A copy of my latest Sermon, from my first church service conducted in the new Fale Iupeli of the CCCS in Samoa.  May God be praised for His continuing love and faith in my life and ministry.  May He bless His Word as it continues to be preached in this capacity.  All Glory, Honour and Power be His, now and forever more...Amen.

An examination of the purpose of the story of the Bronze Serpent with consideration to original pastoral purpose, additional usage in the Old and New Testaments and taking into account the hermeneutical process elaborated in Covenant Seminary's "Covenant Theology" class.

I contend that John’s record of Jesus’ reference to Numbers 21 in John 3 is an explicit allusion and the Midrashic technique of an argument by analogy for the purpose of showing the required response to believe in God’s singular provision for life as presented in the bronze serpent narrative as well as in Christ's call to believe in Him to receive eternal life.

In this article, the stories of Balaam's donkey (num. 22.22-35) and the man of God from Judah (1 Kgs 13) are analyzed independently and are also compared for similarities. Features that are common to both accounts include: the importance of the word of Yhwh, the employment of animals as literary characters, the motif of death, and the portrayal of animals as divine agents. This study argues that the literary function of animals as divine agents is a distinctive characteristic of the so-called preclassical phase of biblical prophecy.

This article responds to two gaps in the scholarship on the priestly or Aaronic blessing of Num 6,24-26. First, prior research has identified the later societal mediums through which the priestly blessing was performed, whereas the author of this article instead attempts to clarify the origins of the literary form of the blessing itself. Second, many have noticed that Num 6,24-26(27) diverges from P’s style, but have not provided a convincing argument for the tradition of its authors. Through a lexical and ideological analysis, the author argues that Holiness (H) priests adopted the form of a common divine blessing from the epistolary genre in order to supplement and revise P.

Summary:  Balaam’s story is a strange one.  Quite apart from its account of Balaam’s dialogue with his donkey, it includes a highly irregular incident, in which YHWH tells Balaam to go to Moab and then becomes angry with Balaam when he does so (Num. 22.22).  The irregularity of the aforementioned incident has often been explained by reference to the text’s (assumed) diachronic development and accrual of dissimilar sources/theologies.

In the present note, however, I want to proffer a different analysis of the story—one which focuses not on its supposed developed, but on its final form and resonance with the wider Biblical canon.  As readers of the Biblical narrative, we know YHWH to be a God of immense power who has greatly blessed his people, Israel.  By means of 22.20–22’s irregularity, the text raises an important issue:  the issue of whether YHWH’s commitment to his people is subject to change.  It does so in characteristically subtle fashion.  YHWH issues a command which seems to represent such a change of mind on his behalf;  Balaam finds the prima facie sense of YHWH’s command convenient (and hence ‘obeys’ it);  and, soon afterwards, Balaam discovers YHWH has not in fact changed his mind—a fact which leads him to bless Israel by means of his attempted curses.  Our text thus fulfils at least two important functions.  First (discussed last), it advances the story of Israel’s election as it unfolds on the pages of Scripture.  And, second (discussed first), it teaches us an important lesson about YHWH’s manner of communication.  Ambiguity in YHWH’s commands is only apparent.  It is not the hallmark of a deity who is unsure of his mind;  it is the hallmark of a deity who wants us to engage carefully and thoughtfully with his words.

Ingeniously, then, our text functions as its own object lesson, since it puts its readers in a similar position to Balaam.  Faced with an apparently inconsistent set of commands, what will we do?  Dismiss the text as incoherent or as a mere smorgasbord of ideas (from which we are free to take our pick), or engage with its details all the more determinedly?


Key words:  Balaam, Numbers 22–24, narrative, coherence, intertextuality, serpent, donkey, animals, typology

Citation:  Bejon, J., 2019.  ‘Balaam in Light of the Biblical Narrative’ in Plērōma anul XXI nr. 1 (2019), pp. 11–38.  «http://jurnalulpleroma.itpbucuresti.ro/revista-online/», accessed 2021.

There are two aspects of the work of the Spirit in the Book of Numbers: his activity in YHWH’s leadership of Israel and his activity in YHWH’s protection of Israel. After a relevant introduction to the Book of Numbers, the first segment of this study addresses the leadership issue and the second section addresses the protection issue. The material of the discussion contains commentary regarding possible implications for an overall biblical theology of the Holy Spirit and closes with a synopsis of its findings.

It is my intent in this thesis not only to establish the txyx as a tassel, which is symbolic of priesthood, which is bestowed on every member of a kingdom of priests, a symbol whose intent was to provide a mnemonic trigger linking the Israelites' privileged status with the responsibilities associated with that honor, but it is also my intent to carry the reader on a tour of the process involved in arriving at this conclusion. The txyx is an adornment on the Hebrew garment, which itself has a broad symbolic life in the Semitic world, and is immediately attached to the garment's hem, which has an even broader symbolic life, particularly in the pages of the Bible. As extensions of the garment and the hem, txyx are special adornments reserved for those whose lives and roles support such symbolism. For this, the art and literary treasures of the ancient world must be scoured. The whole world of the ancient Near East, its histories, business records, covenant texts, myths, songs, proverbs and worship rituals must be laid bare as concerns these three elements of life. The dye chosen for these txyx is as significant as their location on the garment, and finds itself in the midst of many controversial issues concerning the identification of ancient colors and the symbolic significance given to them generally. The dye at hand (tlkt tekhlet) is but one color issue amid many related issues, whose proper interpretation is frequently skewed through spiritualizing zealots whose chief desire is to find Jesus hidden in every text. Even the construction of the txyx bares upon its interpretation as a mnemonic trigger, forcing the student into the world of holiness restrictions, town prostitutes, cloth manufacturing, and dye procedures. Even beyond being a symbol of priesthood, this bestowal is entwined within a narrative web in which its significance and its implications can best be appreciated, and abused. Thus, several contextual connotations may be drawn, and some warnings be taken, based on the theological ramifications of the location of this narrative within the book of Numbers.

In 2015, my husband and I illustrated the book of Exodus, for ease in understanding and memorizing it.1 There was too much variation in the published literature for the modern equivalents of the Biblical measures of hin, omer, and ephah to portray confidently their volumes. Also, the ratios between the hin and the omer were such that a viable bread could not be made from the recipe in Exodus 29:40 that could be baked in two different thicknesses, and prepared two ways in a pan with oil, as described in Leviticus 2, and Exodus 29:2. We are proposing that these preparation methods were shallow-oil pan frying, and deep-fat-frying.

Therefore, we set out to determine the values for the hin, omer, and ephah that would comply with the various constraints set in the Bible. We determined by experimental evidence the maximum amount of olive oil that could be absorbed by modern wheat, with a minimum of water to make a viable bread prepared as described. It was 5 parts oil to 16 parts flour, to 4 parts water.

We then evaluated the remaining constraints we could find in the Bible for these units, and used the experimentally determined ratio to set upper and lower bounds on the other units. Our calculations and analysis show:
The range for the omer is 3.2C – 2.8 C.  From the table of possible values of the omer, we found the tightest range an omer could be by using the highest low value and the lowest high value.

The average is 3.4 C for the average mid range. This was found by taking the average of the mid-range column.

The reported range and average are a bit strange, due to the consequences of using the highest low value and the lowest high value. They did not end up being in the normal order of low-high range, and the
average was also not in the middle of the reported low and high. However, this represents the tightest value range that the omer could be, It is in the range of 2.8 -3.4 US Cups, with the average being 3.4 C.

Using the Biblical equivalent of 10 omer = 1 ephah, then
The range for the ephah is 2.0 US gallons - 1.75 US Gallons, with an average of the mid range of
2.1 US gallons.2 (or a modern peck.) These values were found by multiplying the omer ranges by 10.
The range for the hin is 4.0 C or less – 3.5 C or less, using the lowest low value and the lowest
high value. The average is 4.0 C or less for the average mid range.

Since the hin and the omer have the same ranges and basically the same average, there is a possibility that they are the same value, of approximately 3.5 C. However, bread can be made without any oil at all, and the values in our chart are maximums at each level. So, we could show the Egyptian value of a hin at 2.0 C, which corresponds to our modern US pint, and the omer at somewhere between 3-4 C, which corresponds to our modern quart, and the ephah as a large bowl with a capacity of close to 2 gallons, or our modern peck. This will satisfy all the Biblical constraints, and would provide a reasonable amount of Kcal as a daily ration for the omer, and also would produce loaves of bread that would fit on the showbread table.