Numbers

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There is also a Targum for this book, a translation-as-commentary, or a paraphrase

Numbers is the is the fourth book of the Bible and is neatly split into the last section of the Treaty at Sinai and the first section of the Historical Conclusion of the Book of the Law. Taken by itself, Numbers the story of two generations of Israelites, the first the generation that came out of Egypt at the exodus, the second the descendants of that first generation. It begins and ends in the wilderness. The Hebrew title for the book, taken from its fifth word, is בְּמִדְבַּר (bəmiðəbar) "In the Wilderness." The English title, is a translation of the Latin title (Numeri) which was taken from the Greek title (ΑΡΙΘΜΟΙ arithmoi) given to the book by the Septuagint translators.

Contents


The LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,

Taken Alone

Numbers beings by throwing us into a story in medias res. If one hasn't already read Exodus, one would not know who these people were or why they were where they were: a people en route, presently in the wilderness. Where did they come from? Where are they going? There is not really a separate beginning to Numbers and there really is not much of an end to it either. Indeed, Numbers seems to peter out with the account of Zelophehad's daughters requesting a share in their father's inheritance. Hardly a resounding conclusion! There is an important point to that ending, but, the point is that Numbers is obviously and intentionally part of a larger narrative; part, indeed, of a larger book, the book we call the Hexateuch, or the Book of the Law.

As Numbers begins, that first generation only a little more than a year removed from Egypt, is being prepared to march from Sinai to the Promised Land. The tribes are counted, their arrangement on the march and in camp is determined, the unclean are expelled from the community, the altar and the Levites are dedicated, and a second Passover is celebrated. Everything is got ready for the next step on the way to the Promised Land. [1] All of this in the first ten chapters. Twenty days later the nation set out and in short order came to Kadesh on the border of the Promised Land. Spies were sent out to reconnoiter and their report so discouraged the people that there was a serious proposal made to return to Egypt. Yahweh, infuriated by the people's ingratitude and unbelief, at least this is the way the narrative reads, was only finally persuaded not to annihilate the people by the intercession of Moses. Instead those people who were brought out of Egypt on eagles' wings were condemned never to see the Promised Land, to wander in the wilderness for 40 years until they had all died off. Their fortunes are described through chapter 25. In fact, the remainder of that generation doomed to die in the wilderness was finally extinguished by a plague at Baal Peor (25:9). [2]

A second census follows immediately upon the plague and it makes clear that we have come to a new beginning. This is the census of the second generation, the Israelites who will take possession of the Promised Land. Indeed, at the end of this second census we read:

But among these there was not a man of them who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.For the LORD had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. There was not left a man of them, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

The final eleven chapters of Numbers are taken up with preparations for the conquest of the Promised Land. Interestingly, following upon the census itself, the final section begins and ends with the question of the inheritance of Zelophehad's daughters. We have learned to call such a literary device an inclusio, a device by which the author indicates the theme of a work or a particular section of a work. This section of Numbers begins and ends with the same thing, the question of whether these daughters in a family with no sons, will have an inheritance in the Promised Land. These women, in other words, unlike their parents, were deeply concerned that they and their heirs would have an inheritance in Canaan even though at the time they made their request not one inch of the Promised Land was yet in Israelite hands. They are, in this, exemplars of that faith in Yahweh and his promises that the previous generation, the generation of these daughters parents had conspicuously lacked. So you have these two groups of Israelites – one is lacking faith and the other with faith and Numbers tells their story one after another.

Themes

The original Hebrew title of the book, as with other books of the Pentateuch, was simply the first word of the book. "And he said." In Hebrew the first word of the book is "And he said," that is one word in Hebrew (וַיְדַבֵּר). This is a book of revelation and that word in Hebrew is also a major marker of the books interior divisions, as you will see in 4:1; 5:1; 6:1. A key thought of the book is that God has spoken and made his will known to his people. His presence with them is mediated as it is to us today in large part through his Word. We know of God's presence with us first and foremost because of the promises of his Word and because he meets us when we are reading and hearing that Word.

NT Description

Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

Apostle Paul describes in his first epistle tot he Corinthians three separate incidents of Israelite unbelief recorded in Numbers and then he says again, "These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us..." He then urges his hearers, "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall.' The story of Numbers, in other words, is a cautionary tale of the life of the people of God in the world and of how a good beginning can be squandered by the end. It also teaches us what is required finally to reach the Promised Land. Listen to this excellent summary of the book understood in this way.

"The story of the book of Numbers is written to a people whose lives are lived between the accomplishing of their redemption and its consummation, between the exodus and the Promised Land. The Lord has done what he promised Abraham in bringing his descendants out of their bondage – but he has not yet brought them into the Promised Land. They live in between the times, and their present experience is not one of the fullness of salvation but rather of the wilderness along the way."[3]

Sound familiar? That is our position, precisely! We are between Egypt and the Promised Land. We have been redeemed but we are not yet in heaven. We are on pilgrimage and find ourselves in the wilderness of this world. "In this world you will have tribulation," Jesus promised his disciples, and being "In the wilderness" is just a more colorful way of saying that we live with tribulation. But then the Lord Jesus promised his followers that he would be with them always, even to the end of the age, and that reality, the reality of God's presence with his people, his faithfulness to them in the midst of their pilgrimage that also is the story of Israel in the wilderness. The importance of God's presence with us on our pilgrimage through the wilderness is, for example, expressed in the early chapters of Numbers by the tribes being arranged in camp around the Tent of Meeting, the symbol and the instrument of Yahweh's presence with Israel.

That failure that led the exodus generation to her spiritual catastrophe was a failure of faith. She lost sight of the Promised Land and any hope of reaching it. She could see and feel the wilderness and began to think she would have been better off had she remained in bondage in Egypt. She hadn't the faith to grasp the reality of what had been promised to her and so she stopped seeking it. The next generation, on the other hand, had faith in God's promise and prepared herself for what was to come in the confidence that the Lord would be as good as his Word. In other words Numbers is for us. It is about our life, about our calling, about our temptations, just as Paul said it was, and the book is a clear summons, both negatively and positively, to live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.

Outline

In Itself

  • A. Census and Legal Matters
    • B. Traveling to the Land of Promise and Committing Sins
      • C. Sacrifice and Sinning (zabach/bishgagah/beyad ramah)
    • B'Traveling to the Land of Promise and Committing Sins
  • A'Census and Legal Matters

As Part of the the Book of the Law

Book of the Law:Treaty at Sinai - Blessings, Curses and Witnesses

  • A. Covenant Blessings and Curses (26:3-46)
    • B. Laws About Vows (27:1-34)
      • C. Censuses at Sinai - The People and the Levites (Numbers 1:1-5:4)
    • B. Vows and Faithfulness - Nazirite vow (5:5-6:21)
  • A' Aaronic Blessing - Blessing of God (6:22-27)
  • A. Offering from the 12 Tribes (7:1-89)
    • B. The Lamps - Burns continually (8:1-4)
      • C. The Levites Cleansed (8:5-22)
    • B' The Levites get to retire (8:23-26)
  • A' Passover - everyone, even the late (9:1-14)
Clouds (9:15-23) and Trumpets (10:1-10)

Book of the Law:Historical Conclusion - Wilderness Journey

  • A. Departure from Sinai (10:11-36)
    • B. Complaint about food (11:1-35)
      • C. Miriam punished for sin (12:1-16)
        • D. Rebellion at Kadesh (13:1-14:45)
          • E. Ritual Regulations (15:1-36)
            • F. Holiness of Aaron challenged (15:37-16:50)
              • G. Budding of Aaron's rod (17:1-13)
            • F' Holiness of Aaron explained (18:1-32)
          • E' Ritual Regulations (19:1-22)
        • D' Rebellion at Kadesh (20:1-21)
      • C' Aaron punished for sin (20:22-29)
    • B' Complaint about food (21:4-9)
  • A' Arrival at Moab (21:10-20)

Conquest of Transjordan under Moses

  1. ↑ G. Wenham, Numbers (TOTC), 13
  2. ↑ J. Milgrom, Numbers: The JPS Torah Commentary, xiii
  3. ↑ Iain Duguid, Numbers: God's Presence in the Wilderness (PTW), 19
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