Numbers 36

Numbers 36:1 The heads of the fathers’ houses of the clan of the people of Gilead the son of Machir, son of Manasseh, from the clans of the people of Joseph, came near and spoke at the face of Moses and in the sight of the leaders, the heads of the fathers’ houses of the people of Israel.

Numbers 36:2 They said, “Yahveh commanded my lord to give the land for inheritance by lot to the people of Israel, and Yahveh commanded my lord to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters.

Numbers 36:3 But if they are married to any of the sons of the other tribes of the people of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers and added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry. So, it will be taken away from the lot of our inheritance.

Numbers 36:4 And when the liberation of the people of Israel comes, then their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe into which they marry, and their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers.”

Numbers 36:5 Moses commanded the people of Israel according to Yahveh’s word, and he said, “The tribe of the people of Joseph is right.

Numbers 36:6 This is what Yahveh commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad: ‘Let them marry whom they think best; only they will marry within the clan of their father’s tribe.

Numbers 36:7 The inheritance of the people of Israel will not be transferred from one tribe to another because every one of the people of Israel will hold on to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.

Numbers 36:8 And every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the people of Israel will be wife to one from the clan in the tribe of her father, so that every one of the people of Israel may possess the inheritance of his fathers.

Numbers 36:9 So no inheritance will be transferred from one tribe to another because each of the tribes of the people of Israel will hold on to its inheritance.'”

Numbers 36:10 The daughters of Zelophehad did as Yahveh commanded Moses,

Numbers 36:11 for Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to sons of their father’s brothers.

Numbers 36:12 They were married into the clans of the people of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in the tribe of their father’s clan.

Numbers 36:13 These are the commandments and the rules that Yahveh commanded through Moses to the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.

Numbers 36 quotes:

“These are the commandments and the judgments,etc. The distinction between these two terms is probably that between precepts relating to worship , and precepts relating to civil ordinances, both which classes we find in the preceding chapters, from ch . 26 to1 ch . 36.”

Bush, George. Notes Critical and Practical on the Book of Numbers. New York: [publisher not identified], 1858. p. 475.

“The particular direction which was given in the case of the daughters of Zelophehad is extended in these verses into a general and permanent law that no heiress in Israel should marry out of her father’s tribe, in order that the inheritance might not be transferred from one tribe to another, and thus, in process of time, the division of the land amongst the tribes, which was made under Divine direction , be materially changed.”

Ellicott, C. J. The Fourth Book of Moses, Called Numbers. London: Cassell & Co, 1850. p. 221.

“This closing section of (he book of Numbers may seem in the eyes of modern critics, as a mere unimportant notice, or incident; but it forms, viewed in its typical tendency, and according to the character of the Book of Numbers, a proper and fitting completion of the organization of the people of God, the hosts of Jehovah. Under the form of an occasional and special law, it establishes the typical perpetuity of the tribes of Israel and their inheritance in Canaan. The essential elements have already been considered in the comment upon chap, xxvii. The conditional gift of Canaan to Israel for all time is here presupposed. The consequence of this grant was the division of the land among the particular tribes by lot. Jehovah gave to each tribe its inheritance by lot. And as the inheritance must remain in its integrity, so also must the tribe; and indeed as the tribe, so also the individual family and the individual household, as the ordinance with respect to the levirate marriage, and the year of jubilee, clearly prove.”

Lange, Johann Peter, and Samuel T. Lowrie. Numbers: Or, the Fourth Book of Moses. New York: C. Scribner, 1899. p. 191.

Numbers 36 links:

a protective walk
free, but disciplined

The NUMBERS shelf in Jeff’s library

Numbers 35

Numbers 35:1 Yahveh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, and this is what he said,

Numbers 35:2 “Command the people of Israel to give to the Levites some of the inheritance they possess as cities for them to stay in. And you will give to the Levites pasture-lands around the towns.

Numbers 35:3 The cities will be theirs to stay in, and their pasturelands will be for their herds and their flocks and all their animals.

Numbers 35:4 The pasturelands of the cities, which you will give to the Levites, will reach from the wall of the city outward a thousand cubits all around.

Numbers 35:5 And you will measure, outside the city, on the east side two thousand cubits, and the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the middle. This will belong to them as pasture-land for their towns.

Numbers 35:6 “The cities that you give to the Levites will be the six cities of refuge, where you will permit the person who unintentionally kills someone to run away, and in addition to them you will give forty-two cities.

Numbers 35:7 All the cities that you give to the Levites will be forty-eight, with their pasturelands.

Numbers 35:8 And as for the cities that you will give from the possession of the people of Israel, from the larger tribes you will take many, and from the smaller tribes you will take few; each, in proportion to the inheritance that it inherits, will give of its cities to the Levites.”

Numbers 35:9 And Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said,

Numbers 35:10 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

Numbers 35:11 then you will select cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the killer who strikes down any throat inadvertently may escape there.

Numbers 35:12 The cities will be for you a refuge from the avenger, that the killer may not die until he stands at the face of the congregation for judgment.

Numbers 35:13 And the cities that you give will be your six cities of refuge.

Numbers 35:14 You will give three cities beyond the Jordan and three cities in the land of Canaan to be cities of refuge.

Numbers 35:15 These six cities will be for refuge for the people of Israel, and for the foreign guest and the temporary resident among them, that anyone who strikes down any throat inadvertently may escape there.

Numbers 35:16 “But if he struck him down with an iron object so that he died, he is a murderer. The murderer will be put to death.

Numbers 35:17 And if he struck him down with a stone tool that could cause death, and he died, he is a murderer. The murderer will be put to death.

Numbers 35:18 Or if he struck him down with a wooden tool that could cause death, and he died, he is a murderer. The murderer will be put to death.

Numbers 35:19 The avenger of blood will himself put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he will put him to death.

Numbers 35:20 And if he pushed him out of hatred or hurled something at him, lying in wait, so that he died,

Numbers 35:21 or in animosity struck him down with his hand so that he died, then he who struck the blow will be put to death. He is a murderer. The avenger of blood will put the murderer to death when he meets him.

Numbers 35:22 “But if he pushed him suddenly without animosity, or hurled anything on him without lying in wait

Numbers 35:23 or used a stone that could cause death, and without seeing him dropped it on him, so that he died, though he was not his enemy and did not seek his harm,

Numbers 35:24 then the congregation will judge between the killer and the avenger of blood, in accordance with these rules.

Numbers 35:25 And the congregation will rescue the killer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation will restore him to his city of refuge to which he had escaped, and he will live in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.

Numbers 35:26 But if the killer will at any time go beyond the boundaries of his city of refuge to which he ran away,

Numbers 35:27 and the Avenger of Blood find him outside the boundaries of his city of refuge, and the Avenger of Blood kills the killer; he will not be guilty of blood.

Numbers 35:28 Because he must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest, but after the death of the high priest, the killer may return to the land of his possession.

Numbers 35:29 And these things will be for a prescription and rule for you throughout your generations in all your staying places.

Numbers 35:30 “If anyone kills a throat, the murderer will be put to death on the evidence of witnesses. But no throat will be put to death on the testimony of one witness.

Numbers 35:31 Moreover, you will accept no ransom for the throat of a murderer, who is guilty of death, but he will be put to death.

Numbers 35:32 And you will accept no ransom for him who has run away to his city of refuge, that he may return to stay in the land before the death of the high priest.

Numbers 35:33 You will not pollute the land in which you live because blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

Numbers 35:34 You will not defile the land in which you live, in the midst of which I stay, because I Yahveh stay in the midst of the people of Israel.”

Numbers 35 quotes:

“… the Levites were not to own the towns, but only to live in them. They were perhaps also not to be the sole residents in these towns, since passages like Lev. 25:32-35 speak only of the Levites’ redemption of houses in these towns, not the towns themselves.”

Ashley Timothy R. The Book of Numbers. Eerdmans 1993. p. 645.

” The lawgiver thus found in Israel the law of retribution in conjunction with the ancient tribal organization, and he had to take that which existed as his starting point. But God’s intention for Israel was its development into a people in which all parts functioned harmoniously; this included centralized authority, i.e. its development into an ordered state.”

Noordtzij, A. Numbers. Zondervan Pub. House, 1983. p. 298.

“Another section of case-law made the refugee cities available for aliens who had killed someone accidentally. It also makes a differentiation between manslaughter, where the death of the victim was not premediated, and murder, where the victim dies as a result of malice aforethought.”

Harrison, R.K. The Wycliffe Exegetical Commentary: Numbers. Moody Press. 1990. p. 419.

“There has been considerable discussion why the high priest’s death plays a part in these legal provisions. In God’s mercy and sovereignty, it may indicate, for the offender, the commencement of a new era.”

Brown Raymond. The Message of Numbers : Journey to the Promised Land. InterVarsity Press 2002. p. 300.

“There is a sense in which God cannot afford a strong concentration of His servants in one place, when a whole land, and a whole people, have to be served in the gospel.”

Philip James and Lloyd John Ogilvie. Numbers. Thomas Nelson 1987. p. 318.

“The Levites are associated with issues of crossing and negotiating boundaries. This case involves boundaries between purity and impurity of the land. But the Levitical cities of refuge also wrestle with the boundary between murder and manslaughter in the borderline cases of unintentional killing.”

Olson, Dennis T. Numbers. John Knox Press. p. 190.

Numbers 35 links:

a protective walk
accept no ransom
Dead souls, dying souls
invaded
learning consideration
the congregation will rescue

The NUMBERS shelf in Jeff’s library

Numbers 34

Numbers 34:1 Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said

Numbers 34:2 “Command the people of Israel, and say to them, When you enter the land of Canaan (this is the land that will fall to you for an inheritance, the land of Canaan as defined by its borders),

Numbers 34:3 your south side will be from the open country of Zin alongside Edom, and your southern border will run from the end of the Salt Sea on the east.

Numbers 34:4 And your border will turn south of the ascent of Scorpions, and cross to Zin, and its limit will be south of Kadesh-barnea. Then it will go on to Hazar-addar, and pass along to Azmon.

Numbers 34:5 And the border will turn from Azmon to the Brook of Egypt, and its limit will be at the sea.

Numbers 34:6 “For the western border, you will have the Great Sea and its coast. This will be your western border.

Numbers 34:7 “This will be your northern border: from the Great Sea you will draw a line to Mount Hor.

Numbers 34:8 From Mount Hor you will draw a line to Lebo-hamath, and the limit of the border will be at Zedad.

Numbers 34:9 Then the border will extend to Ziphron, and its limit will be at Hazar-enan. This will be your northern border.

Numbers 34:10 “You will draw a line for your eastern border from Hazar-enan to Shepham.

Numbers 34:11 And the border will go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain. And the border will go down and reach to the shoulder of the Sea of Chinnereth on the east.

Numbers 34:12 And the border will go down to the Jordan, and its limit will be at the Salt Sea. This will be your land as defined by its borders all around.”

Numbers 34:13 Moses commanded the people of Israel, and this is what he said, “This is the land that you will inherit by lot, which Yahveh has commanded to give to the nine tribes and to the half-tribe.

Numbers 34:14 Because the tribe of the people of Reuben by fathers’ houses and the tribe of the people of Gad by their fathers’ houses have received their inheritance, and also the half-tribe of Manasseh.

Numbers 34:15 The two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan east of Jericho, toward the sunrise.”

Numbers 34:16 Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said,

Numbers 34:17 “These are the names of the men who will divide the land to you for inheritance: Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun.

Numbers 34:18 You will take one leader from every tribe to divide the land for inheritance.

Numbers 34:19 These are the names of the men: Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.

Numbers 34:20 Of the tribe of the people of Simeon, Shemuel, the son of Ammihud.

Numbers 34:21 Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad, the son of Chislon.

Numbers 34:22 Of the tribe of the people of Dan, a leader, Bukki, the son of Jogli.

Numbers 34:23 Of the people of Joseph: of the tribe of the people of Manasseh a leader, Hanniel the son of Ephod.

Numbers 34:24 And of the tribe of the people of Ephraim a leader, Kemuel, the son of Shiphtan.

Numbers 34:25 Of the tribe of the people of Zebulun, a leader, Elizaphan, the son of Parnach.

Numbers 34:26 Of the tribe of the people of Issachar, a leader, Paltiel, the son of Azzan.

Numbers 34:27 And of the tribe of the people of Asher a leader, Ahihud, the son of Shelomi.

Numbers 34:28 Of the tribe of the people of Naphtali, a leader, Pedahel, the son of Ammihud.

Numbers 34:29 These are the men whom Yahveh commanded to divide the inheritance for the people of Israel in the land of Canaan.”

Numbers 34 quotes:

“The Lord having in the previous chapter given the Israelites a strict charge respecting their treatment of the conquered nations, proceeds in the present to fix and determine the boundaries of the land promised ages before to Abraham and his seed.”

Bush, George. Notes Critical and Practical on the Book of Numbers. New York: [publisher not identified], 1858. p. 462.

“It was important for the Israelites to be taught that, whilst divinely commissioned to exterminate the idolatrous inhabitants of the land of Canaan, they had no commission to make aggressive wars upon the surrounding nations which were eyond the confines of the land which was allotted to them.”

Ellicott, C. J. The Fourth Book of Moses, Called Numbers. London: Cassell & Co, 1850. p. 209.

“The lawgiver now passes in the most logical method, to define the limits of the land which Israel should regard as its inheritance, so that it should not seek to go out beyond these limits and found a world empire (2 Sam. xxiv. ), nor rest within these boundaries until it has acquired and occupied all the territory within them. The foundation for this direction is contained in Gen. XV. 18-21 ; Ex. xxiii, 31—and their actual application of them is related in Josh. xiii. sqq. It is assumed that the east Jordan region belongs within these limits.”

Lange, Johann Peter, and Samuel T. Lowrie. Numbers: Or, the Fourth Book of Moses. New York: C. Scribner, 1899. p. 181.

Numbers 34 links:

a God who acts for his people
a specific walk
border words

The NUMBERS shelf in Jeff’s library

Numbers 33

Numbers 33:1 These are the phases of the people of Israel, when they went out of the land of Egypt by their companies, being guided by Moses and Aaron.

Numbers 33:2 Moses wrote down their starting places, phase by phase, by command of Yahveh, and these are their phases according to their starting places.

Numbers 33:3 They advanced from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the day after the Passover, the people of Israel went out triumphantly in the sight of all the Egyptians,

Numbers 33:4 while the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whom Yahveh had struck down among them. Yahveh also executed judgments against their gods.

Numbers 33:5 So the people of Israel advanced from Rameses and camped at Succoth.

Numbers 33:6 And they advanced from Succoth and camped at Etham, which is on the edge of the open country.

Numbers 33:7 And they advanced from Etham and turned back to Pi-hahiroth, which is east of Baal-zephon, and they camped at the face of Migdol.

Numbers 33:8 And they advanced from where Hahiroth could be seen and passed through the midst of the sea into the open country, and they went a three days’ journey in the open country of Etham and camped at Marah.

Numbers 33:9 And they advanced from Marah and came to Elim; at Elim, there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there.

Numbers 33:10 And they advanced from Elim and camped by the Red Sea.

Numbers 33:11 And they advanced from the Red Sea and camped in the open country of Sin.

Numbers 33:12 And they advanced from the open country of Sin and camped at Dophkah.

Numbers 33:13 And they advanced from Dophkah and camped at Alush.

Numbers 33:14 And they advanced from Alush and camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.

Numbers 33:15 And they advanced from Rephidim and camped in the open country of Sinai.

Numbers 33:16 And they advanced from the open country of Sinai and camped at Kibroth-hattaavah.

Numbers 33:17 And they advanced from Kibroth-hattaavah and camped at Hazeroth.

Numbers 33:18 And they advanced from Hazeroth and camped at Rithmah.

Numbers 33:19 And they advanced from Rithmah and camped at Rimmon-perez.

Numbers 33:20 And they advanced from Rimmon-perez and camped at Libnah.

Numbers 33:21 And they advanced from Libnah and camped at Rissah.

Numbers 33:22 And they advanced from Rissah and camped at Kehelathah.

Numbers 33:23 And they advanced from Kehelathah and camped at Mount Shepher.

Numbers 33:24 And they advanced from Mount Shepher and camped at Haradah.

Numbers 33:25 And they advanced from Haradah and camped at Makheloth.

Numbers 33:26 And they advanced from Makheloth and camped at Tahath.

Numbers 33:27 And they advanced from Tahath and camped at Terah.

Numbers 33:28 And they advanced from Terah and camped at Mithkah.

Numbers 33:29 And they advanced from Mithkah and camped at Hashmonah.

Numbers 33:30 And they advanced from Hashmonah and camped at Moseroth.

Numbers 33:31 And they advanced from Moseroth and camped at Bene-jaakan.

Numbers 33:32 And they advanced from Bene-jaakan and camped at Hor-haggidgad.

Numbers 33:33 And they advanced from Hor-haggidgad and camped at Jotbathah.

Numbers 33:34 And they advanced from Jotbathah and camped at Abronah.

Numbers 33:35 And they advanced from Abronah and camped at Ezion-geber.

Numbers 33:36 And they advanced from Ezion-geber and camped in the open country of Zin (that is, Kadesh).

Numbers 33:37 And they advanced from Kadesh and camped at Mount Hor, on the edge of the land of Edom.

Numbers 33:38 And Aaron the priest went up Mount Hor at the command of Yahveh and died there, in the fortieth year after the people of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, on the first day of the fifth month.

Numbers 33:39 And Aaron was 123 years old when he died on Mount Hor.

Numbers 33:40 And the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev in the land of Canaan, heard of the coming of the people of Israel.

Numbers 33:41 And they advanced from Mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah.

Numbers 33:42 And they advanced from Zalmonah and camped at Punon.

Numbers 33:43 And they advanced from Punon and camped at Oboth.

Numbers 33:44 And they advanced from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the territory of Moab.

Numbers 33:45 And they advanced from Iyim and camped at Dibon-gad.

Numbers 33:46 And they advanced rom Dibon-gad and camped at Almon-diblathaim.

Numbers 33:47 And they advanced from Almon-diblathaim and camped in the mountains of Abarim, at the face of Nebo.

Numbers 33:48 And they advanced from the mountains of Abarim and camped in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho;

Numbers 33:49 they camped by the Jordan from Beth-jeshimoth as far as Abel-shittim in the plains of Moab.

Numbers 33:50 And Yahveh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, and this is what he said,

Numbers 33:51 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,

Numbers 33:52 then you will drive out all the inhabitants of the land from in the sight of you and destroy all their sculptured images and destroy all their metal images and exterminate[1] all their high places.

Numbers 33:53 And you will take possession of the land and settle in it because I have given the land to you to possess it.

Numbers 33:54 You will inherit the land by lot according to your clans. To a large tribe, you will give a large inheritance, and to a small tribe, you will give a small inheritance. Wherever the lot falls for anyone, that will be his. According to the tribes of your fathers, you will inherit.

Numbers 33:55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from in the sight of you, then those of them whom you let remain will be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land where you stay.

Numbers 33:56 And I will do to you as I thought to do to them.”

[1] שָׁמַד = exterminate.

Numbers 33 quotes:

The present chapter is mainly devoted to an account of the various stages and stations, the encampments and removals, of the children of Israel on their march through the wilderness, embracing the time from their depart ure from Egypt to their entrance into Canaan . Thus was intrinsically a very memorable part of their history, and divine wisdom saw fit thatMoses should write and transmit to posterity a journal of their extraordinary travels. In executing this order he recapitulates the principal stopping-places on their long journey , amounting to forty-two in number, occasionally reciting the important events that occurred here and there at different points in their progress.”

Bush, George. Notes Critical and Practical on the Book of Numbers. New York: [publisher not identified], 1858. p. 457.

“These journeys were not so long; but what principally characterized them was their crookedness, their zigzag course. They might have reached Canaan in a brief time had they fully believed and obeyed the Lord ; but unbelief and disobedience made their journeys through the wilderness long and tedious.
In three short months they could easily have reached Canaan from Egypt, with all their flocks and herds and all that they possessed ; but they were forty long years in their journeys thitherward. Nor did they dwell very long in one place. The pillar of cloud and of fire was ever directing them to a change in the place of their encampment. Perhaps they made only an average stay of about a year in one place ; and this was all the rest they were permitted to have. How truly do these facts illustrate the Christian’s character and course! How many after their conversion never seem to push on or to march right forward into Canaan!”

DUNN, Lewis R. The Gospel in the Book of Numbers. Hunt & Eaton: New York, 1889. p. 246.

“The word which is rendered journey appears to denote primarily the breaking up of the encampments, which lasted for very different periods, and which, during the protracted wanderings in the wilderness, may have been of the average duration of a twelvemonth. The list of the encampments is expressly said to have been written by Moses, and it served as a permanent memorial, on the one hand, of the sin and rebellion of the nation, and, on the other hand, of the faithfulness and longsuffering of God in leading and sustaining His people throughout their sojourn in the wilderness.”

Ellicott, C. J. The Fourth Book of Moses, Called Numbers. London: Cassell & Co, 1850. p. 203.

Numbers 33 links:

a specific walk
against their gods
discovered
exterminate!
history recommenced
leaving room for the enemy
looking back as we walk
Perish the thought

Maranatha Daily Devotional – Friday, May 7, 2021
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Tuesday, May 9, 2023

The NUMBERS shelf in Jeff’s library