Numbers 31

Numbers 31:1 Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said,

Numbers 31:2 “Avenge the people of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward, you will be gathered to your people.”

Numbers 31:3 So Moses spoke to the people, and this is what he said “Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute Yahveh’s vengeance on Midian.

Numbers 31:4 You will send a thousand from each of the tribes of Israel to the war.”

Numbers 31:5 So there were provided, out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.

Numbers 31:6 And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand from each tribe, together with Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the priest, with the vessels of the sanctuary and the signal trumpets in his hand.

Numbers 31:7 They warred against Midian, as Yahveh commanded Moses, and killed every male.

Numbers 31:8 They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. And they also killed Balaam, the son of Beor, with the sword.

Numbers 31:9 And the people of Israel took captive the women of Midian and their little ones, and they took as plunder all their animals, their flocks, and all their goods.

Numbers 31:10 All their cities in the places where they lived, and all their encampments, they burned with fire,

Numbers 31:11 and took all the spoil and all the plunder, both of human and animal.

Numbers 31:12 Then they brought the captives and the plunder and the spoil to Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the people of Israel, at the camp on the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.

Numbers 31:13 Moses, Eleazar, the priest, and all the leaders of the congregation went to meet them outside the camp.

Numbers 31:14 And Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who had come from service in the war.

Numbers 31:15 Moses said to them, “Have you let all the women live?

Numbers 31:16 Notice that these, due to Balaam’s advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against Yahveh in the incident of Peor, and this caused the plague to come to the congregation of Yahveh.

Numbers 31:17 Now, therefore, kill every male among the little ones and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him.

Numbers 31:18 But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.

Numbers 31:19 Encamp outside the camp for seven days. Whoever of you has killed any throat and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves and your captives on the third day and the seventh day.

Numbers 31:20 You will purify every garment, every article of skin, all work of goats’ hair, and every article of wood.”

Numbers 31:21 Then Eleazar the priest said to the men in the army who had gone to battle: “This is the prescription of the instruction that Yahveh has commanded Moses:

Numbers 31:22 only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead,

Numbers 31:23 everything that can stand the fire, you will pass through the fire, and it will be pure. Nevertheless, it will also be purified with the water for impurity. And whatever cannot stand the fire, you will pass through the water.

Numbers 31:24 You must wash your clothes on the seventh day, and you will be pure. And afterward, you may come into the camp.”

Numbers 31:25 Yahveh said to Moses,

Numbers 31:26 “Take the count of the plunder that was taken, both of human and of animal, you and Eleazar the priest and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the congregation,

Numbers 31:27 and divide the plunder into two parts between the warriors who went out to battle and all the congregation.

Numbers 31:28 And levy for Yahveh a tribute from the men of war who went out to battle, one out of five hundred, of the humans and the oxen and the donkeys and the flocks.

Numbers 31:29 Take it from their half and give it to Eleazar, the priest, as a contribution to Yahveh.

Numbers 31:30 And from the people of Israel’s half you will take one drawn out of every fifty, of the humans, of the oxen, of the donkeys, and of the flocks, of all the animals, and give them to the Levites who keep guard over the tabernacle of Yahveh.”

Numbers 31:31 And Moses and Eleazar the priest did as Yahveh commanded Moses.

Numbers 31:32 Now the plunder remaining of the spoil that the army took was 675,000 sheep,

Numbers 31:33 72,000 animals,

Numbers 31:34 61,000 donkeys,

Numbers 31:35 and 32,000 throats in all, women who had not known man by lying with him.

Numbers 31:36 And the half, the portion of those who had gone out in the army, numbered 337,500 sheep,

Numbers 31:37 and Yahveh’s tribute of sheep was 675.

Numbers 31:38 The animals were 36,000, of which Yahveh’s tribute was 72.

Numbers 31:39 The donkeys were 30,500, of which Yahveh’s tribute was 61.

Numbers 31:40 The throats were 16,000, of which Yahveh’s tribute was 32 throats.

Numbers 31:41 And Moses gave the tribute, which was the contribution for Yahveh, to Eleazar, the priest, as Yahveh commanded Moses.

Numbers 31:42 From the people of Israel’s half, which Moses separated from that of the men who had served in the army —

Numbers 31:43 the congregation’s half was 337,500 sheep,

Numbers 31:44 36,000 animals,

Numbers 31:45 and 30,500 donkeys,

Numbers 31:46 and 16,000 throats —

Numbers 31:47 From the people of Israel’s half, Moses took one of every 50, both humans and animals and gave them to the Levites who kept guard over the tabernacle of Yahveh, as Yahveh commanded Moses.

Numbers 31:48 Then the officers who were over the thousands of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, came near to Moses

Numbers 31:49 and said to Moses, “Your servants have counted the men of war who are under our command, and there is not a man missing from us.

Numbers 31:50 And we have brought Yahveh’s offering, what each man found, articles of gold, armlets and bracelets, signet rings, earrings, and beads, to provide reconciliation for our throats to the face of Yahveh.”

Numbers 31:51 And Moses and Eleazar, the priest, received from them the gold, all crafted articles.

Numbers 31:52 And all the gold of the contribution that they presented to Yahveh, from the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, was 16,750 shekels.

Numbers 31:53 (The men in the army had each taken plunder for himself.)

Numbers 31:54 And Moses and Eleazar,, the priest, received the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the conference tent, as a memorial for the people of Israel to the face of Yahveh.

Numbers 31 quotes:

“The people of Israel were not hereby commanded to enter upon this work with vindictive feelings, but as the instruments of a just retribution upon a guilty race who had incurred the divine displeasure by “ the wiles wherewith they had beguiled Israel in the matter of Peor,” ch. 25:18 .”

Bush, George. Notes Critical and Practical on the Book of Numbers. New York: [publisher not identified], 1858. p. 443.

“The justice of God is absolute and equal. He had punished his own people severely for sinning against him, through the temptations of the women of Midian. Now he punishes their tempters and deceivers. His hand smites sins unrepented of, both among his own people and among his enemies. It is probable, if they had surrendered to his people the men and the women who had been guilty of the idolatry and adultery, most probably at the suggestion of Balaam, that they would have been satisfied, and the Lord’s anger might have been turned away from them. But this they failed to do, as Benjamin did in the after years, and so there was nothing left for them but to slay and destroy them.”

DUNN, Lewis R. The Gospel in the Book of Numbers. Hunt & Eaton: New York, 1889. p. 234.

“The time had now come for the fulfilment of the command which had already been given (see chap. xxv. 16-18). after which Moses was to be gathered unto his people, as it had been revealed to him (chap. xxvii. 13).”

Ellicott, C. J. The Fourth Book of Moses, Called Numbers. London: Cassell & Co, 1850. p. 190.

Numbers 31 links:

“To be gathered to his people”
a nation that turned away
a victorious walk
Dead souls, dying souls
end of a conspiracy
Excursus- “To Be Gathered”
let my soul live
staying on his good side

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The NUMBERS shelf in Jeff’s library

Numbers 30

Numbers 30:1 Moses spoke to the leaders of the tribes of the people of Israel, and this is what he said “This is what Yahveh has commanded.

Numbers 30:2 If a man pledges a solemn pledge to Yahveh, or swears an oath to bind his throat by a pledge, he will not break his word. He will do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

Numbers 30:3 “If a woman pledges a solemn pledge to Yahveh and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father’s house in her youth,

Numbers 30:4 and her father hears of her solemn pledge — of her pledge by which she has bound her throat and says nothing to her, then all her solemn pledges will stand, and every pledge by which she has bound her soul will stand.

Numbers 30:5 But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no solemn pledge of hers, no pledge by which she has bound her throat will stand. And Yahveh will forgive her because her father opposed her.

Numbers 30:6 “If she marries a husband, while under her solemn pledges or any thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she has bound her throat,

Numbers 30:7 and her husband hears of it and says nothing to her on the day that he hears, then her solemn pledges will stand, and her pledges by which she has bound her throat will stand.

Numbers 30:8 But if, on the day that her husband comes to hear of it, he opposes her, then he makes void the solemn pledge that was on her, and the thoughtless utterance of her lips by which she bound her throat. And Yahveh will forgive her.

Numbers 30:9 (But any solemn pledge of a widow or of a divorced woman, anything by which she has bound her throat, will stand against her.)

Numbers 30:10 And if she solemnly pledged in her husband’s house or bound her throat by a pledge with an oath,

Numbers 30:11 and her husband heard of it and said nothing to her and did not oppose her, then all her solemn pledges will stand, and every pledge by which she bound her throat will stand.

Numbers 30:12 But if her husband makes them null and void on the day that he hears them, then whatever proceeds out of her lips concerning her solemn pledges or concerning the pledge of her throat will not stand. Her husband has made them void, and Yahveh will forgive her.

Numbers 30:13 Any solemn pledge and any binding oath to discipline her throat, her husband may establish, or her husband may make void.

Numbers 30:14 But if her husband says nothing to her from day to day, then he establishes all her solemn pledges or all her pledges that are upon her. He has established them because he said nothing to her on the day that he heard of them.

Numbers 30:15 But if he makes them null and void after he has heard of them, then he will bear her violation.”

Numbers 30:16 These are the prescriptions that Yahveh commanded Moses regarding a man and his wife and a father and his daughter while she was in her youth within her father’s house.

Numbers 30 quotes:

“It is easily conceivable that under the influence of the fervent zeal inspired by the festivals enjoined in the preceding chapter, there would be prompted many of those voluntary gifts and services which are alluded to ch. 29:30.”

Bush, George. Notes Critical and Practical on the Book of Numbers. New York: [publisher not identified], 1858. p. 438.

“To vow means to give, dedicate, or consecrate to God by solemn promise. Such vows are frequently made. There are two kinds of vow spoken of in verse 2 ; namely, the neder, which denotes, primarily, a positive vow, or a vow of performance, and the issar, which denotes a negative vow, or a vow of abstinence. In all ages, among all people, and in all religions, such vows have been uttered, at times with solemnity, and in other instances thoughtlessly and recklessly. Religious vows are more common
than others ; and yet men and women will vow on very small occasions and for very small purposes.
Very many are often entirely indifferent as to the performance of their vows.”

DUNN, Lewis R. The Gospel in the Book of Numbers. Hunt & Eaton: New York, 1889. p. 230.

“It is natural to suppose that at the expiration of the protracted wanderingsin the wilderness the pious Israelites would be desirous of testifying their gratitude by dedicating themselves, or some portion of their substance beyond that which the law demanded, to the service of the Lord.”

Ellicott, C. J. The Fourth Book of Moses, Called Numbers. London: Cassell & Co, 1850. p. 183.

Numbers 30 links:

a responsible walk
I promise

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The NUMBERS shelf in Jeff’s library

Numbers 28

Numbers 28:1 Yahveh spoke to Moses, and this is what he said,

Numbers 28:2 “Command the people of Israel and say to them, ‘My offering, my food for my fire offerings, my pacifying aroma, you will be careful to offer to me at its appointed time.’

Numbers 28:3 And you will say to them, This is the fire offering that you will offer to Yahveh: two perfect male lambs a year old, day by day, as a regular offering.

Numbers 28:4 The one lamb you will offer in the morning, and the other lamb you will offer at twilight;

Numbers 28:5 also a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a tribute offering, mixed with a quarter of a hin of beaten oil.

Numbers 28:6 It is a regular ascending offering, which was ordained at Mount Sinai for a pacifying aroma, a fire offering to Yahveh.

Numbers 28:7 Its drink offering will be a quarter of a hin for each lamb. In the Holy Place, you will pour out a drink offering of strong drink to Yahveh.

Numbers 28:8 The other lamb you will offer at twilight. Like the tribute offering of the morning, and like its drink offering, you will offer it as a fire offering, with a pacifying aroma to Yahveh.

Numbers 28:9 “On the Sabbath day, two perfect male lambs a year old, and two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a tribute offering, mixed with oil, and its drink offering:

Numbers 28:10 this is the ascending offering of every Sabbath, besides the regular ascending offering and its drink offering.

Numbers 28:11 “At the beginnings of your months, you will offer an ascending offering to Yahveh: two bulls from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old — all perfect;

Numbers 28:12 also three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a tribute offering, mixed with oil, for each bull, and two-tenths of fine flour for a tribute offering, mixed with oil, for the one ram;

Numbers 28:13 and a tenth of fine flour mixed with oil as a tribute offering for every lamb; for an ascending offering with a pacifying aroma, a fire offering to Yahveh.

Numbers 28:14 Their drink offerings will be half a hin of wine for a bull, a third of a hin for a ram, and a quarter of a hin for a lamb. This is the ascending offering of each month throughout the months of the year.

Numbers 28:15 Also one male goat for a failure offering to Yahveh; it will be offered besides the regular ascending offering and its drink offering.

Numbers 28:16 “On the fourteenth day of the first month is Yahveh’s Passover,

Numbers 28:17 and on the fifteenth day of this month is a feast. Seven days will unleavened bread be eaten.

Numbers 28:18 On the first day there will be a sacred convention. You will not do any ordinary work,

Numbers 28:19 but offer a fire offering, an ascending offering to Yahveh: two bulls from the herd, one ram, and seven male lambs a year old; see that they are perfect;

Numbers 28:20 also their tribute offering of fine flour mixed with oil; three-tenths of an ephah will you offer for a bull, and two-tenths for a ram;

Numbers 28:21 a tenth will you offer for each of the seven lambs;

Numbers 28:22 also one male goat for a failure offering, to provide reconciliation for you.

Numbers 28:23 You will offer these besides the ascending offering of the morning, which is for a regular ascending offering.

Numbers 28:24 In the same way you will offer daily, for seven days, the food of a fire offering, with a pacifying aroma to Yahveh. It will be offered besides the regular ascending offering and its drink offering.

Numbers 28:25 And on the seventh day, you will have a sacred convention. You will not do any ordinary work.

Numbers 28:26 “On the day of the firstfruits, when you offer a tribute offering of new grain to Yahveh at your Feast of Weeks, you will have a sacred convention. You will not do any ordinary work,

Numbers 28:27 but offer an ascending offering, with a pacifying aroma to Yahveh: two bulls from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old;

Numbers 28:28 also their tribute offering of fine flour mixed with oil, three-tenths of an ephah for each bull, two-tenths for one ram,

Numbers 28:29 a tenth for each of the seven lambs;

Numbers 28:30 with one male goat, to provide reconciliation for you.

Numbers 28:31 Besides the regular ascending offering and its tribute offering, you will offer them and their drink offering. See that they are perfect.

Numbers 28 quotes:

“As the people are now approaching Canaan, they are once more numbered; the sacrifices and burnt offerings again enjoined; and the several services for every day, the Sabbath day, and the new moons, and the day of Passover, particularly again appointed.”

Hawker, Robert. The Poor Man’s Commentary on the Bible London: Printed by W. Nicholson, Warner Street, for Williams and Smith, stationers’ court, 1805. p. 412.

“In this and the next chapter the laws for the ordering of the worship of the people in their sacrifices and on their great festivals, most of which had been given already, are completed and presented in regular order. During the wanderings in the wilderness the Israelites could not have carried out fully so elaborate a system of ceremonial worship. And now, with their settlement in Canaan so near, the whole law for their sacrificial worship is appropriately promulgated.”

Jones, William. A Homiletical Commentary on the Book of Numbers: With Critical and Explanatory Notes, Indices, Etc, Etc. Pentateuch. 1880. p. 516.

“In these sacrifices the whole of time, measured out by the alternation of light and darkness, was acknowledged to be God’s ; through the priesthood the nation declared His right to each day, confessed obligation to Him for the gift of it.”

Watson, Robert A. The Book of Numbers. 1894. p. 344.

Numbers 28 links:

a costly walk
all the significance
God still matters

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Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, May 6, 2019
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, May 8, 2023
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Thursday, May 6, 2021

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The NUMBERS shelf in Jeff’s library

Numbers 27

Numbers 27:1 Then the daughters of Zelophehad the son of Hepher came near, Zelophehad was a son of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, from the clans of Manasseh, the son of Joseph. The names of his daughters were: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

Numbers 27:2 And they stood at the face of Moses and the face of Eleazar, the priest and the face of the leaders and all the congregation, at the entrance of the conference tent, and this is what they said,

Numbers 27:3 “Our father died in the open country. He was not among the collection of those who collected themselves together against Yahveh in the collection of Korah but died for his failure. And he had no sons.

Numbers 27:4 Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan because he had no son? Give us a possession among our father’s brothers.”

Numbers 27:5 Moses brought their case to the face of Yahveh.

Numbers 27:6 And Yahveh said to Moses,

Numbers 27:7 “The daughters of Zelophehad are correct. You will give them possession of an inheritance among their father’s brothers and transfer the inheritance of their father to them.

Numbers 27:8 And you will speak to the people of Israel, and this is what he you will say, ‘If a man dies and has no son, then you will transfer his inheritance to his daughter.

Numbers 27:9 And if he has no daughter, then you will give his inheritance to his brothers.

Numbers 27:10 And if he has no brothers, then you will give his inheritance to his father’s brothers.

Numbers 27:11 And if his father has no brothers, then you will give his inheritance to the nearest kinsman of his clan, and he will possess it. And it will be for the people of Israel a prescription and rule, as Yahveh commanded Moses.'”

Numbers 27:12 Yahveh said to Moses, “Go up into this mountain of Abarim and see the land that I have given to the children of Israel.

Numbers 27:13 When you have seen it, you also will be gathered to your people, like your brother Aaron was,

Numbers 27:14 because you rebelled against my word in the open country of Zin when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the water in the sight of their eyes.” (These refer to the water of Meribah of Kadesh in the open country of Zin.)

Numbers 27:15 Moses spoke to Yahveh, and this is what he said,

Numbers 27:16 “Let Yahveh, the God of the breath of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation

Numbers 27:17 who will exit in the sight of them and enter in the sight of them, who will lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of Yahveh may not be like sheep that have no shepherd.”

Numbers 27:18 So Yahveh said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Breath, and lay your hand on him.

Numbers 27:19 Make him stand at the face of Eleazar, the priest, and all the congregation and you will commission him to their face.

Numbers 27:20 You will invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey.

Numbers 27:21 And he will stand at the face of Eleazar the priest, who will inquire for him by the judgment of the Lights[1] at the face of Yahveh. At his word, they will go out, and at his word, they will come in, both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation.”

Numbers 27:22 And Moses did as Yahveh commanded him. He took Joshua and made him stand at the face of Eleazar, the priest, and the whole congregation,

Numbers 27:23 and he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as Yahveh directed through Moses.

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[1] אוּרִים = lights.

Numbers 27 quotes:

“They were happy in being able to make this plea on the ground of the good character nof their faither. … Here we may see what a comfort, what a credit and glory, honest parents be to their children”

Bush, George. Notes Critical and Practical on the Book of Numbers. New York: [publisher not identified], 1858. p. 424.

“All efforts to exclude woman from her properly adjusted rights must fail. God is on her side, and his word is on her side. The efforts of some Churches to padlock their lips, to refuse them permission to say, even in the house of God, that Christ died for them, or to speak upon religious questions in the presence of their lords must come to an end.”

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

“It is to be observed that the spiritual qualifications of Joshua did not supersede the necessity of an outward consecration to his office. Nay, more ; it seems that pecial qualifications for the office were bestowed in connection with the imposition of the hands of Moses (Deuteronomy 34:9).”

Ellicott, C. J. The Fourth Book of Moses, Called Numbers. London: Cassell & Co, 1850. p. 179.

“Blessed Lord ! make me as anxious for an inheritance among all them that are sanctified , as those daughters of Israel were for an inheritance among their brethren.”

“Hawker, Robert. The Poor Man’s Commentary on the Bible. London: Printed by W. Nicholson, Warner Street, for Williams and Smith, stationers’ court, 1805. p. 411.

Numbers 27 links:

“To be gathered to his people”
a cooperative walk
Excursus- “To Be Gathered”
introducing the breath of God
the weight of leadership
they are right

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The NUMBERS shelf in Jeff’s library