Book of Numbers

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Book of Numbers

The Book of Numbers, (Hebrew , Bamidbar), is the fourth book of the Torah

Torah

The term "Torah" , or Five Books of Moses or Pentateuch, refers to the entirety of Judaism's founding Halakha and ethical religious texts....
, the Tanakh

Tanakh

The Tanakh is the Bible used in Judaism. The name "Tanakh" is a Hebrew language Acronym and initialism formed from the initial Hebrew alphabet of the Tanakh's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim - hence TaNaKh....
, and the Old Testament

Old Testament

In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christianity Bible Biblical canon. These works correspond to the Hebrew Bible , with some variations and additions....
. In the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
Septuagint

Septuagint

The Septuagint , or simply "LXX", is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the 3rd century BC and 1st century BC in Alexandria....
it is called Arithmoi, or Numbers.

This book may be divided into three parts:

The numbering of the people at Sinai, and preparations for resuming their march (1-10:10).
An account of the journey from Sinai to Moab, the sending out of the spies and the report they brought back, and the murmurings (eight times) of the people at the hardships by the way (10:11-21:20).
The transactions in the plain of Moab before crossing the Jordan River
Jordan River

The Jordan River is a river in Southwest Asia which flows into the Dead Sea. It is considered to be one of the world's most sacred rivers. It is 251 kilometers long....
(21:21-36).

The period comprehended in the history extends from the second month of the second year after the Exodus

The Exodus

The Exodus , is the term used for the escape, departure and emancipation of the enslaved Israelites freed from Ancient Egypt as described in the Hebrew Bible, mainly in the Book of Exodus....
to the beginning of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, in all about thirty-eight years and ten months; a dreary period of wanderings.

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Encyclopedia

The Book of Numbers, (Hebrew , Bamidbar), is the fourth book of the Torah

Torah

The term "Torah" , or Five Books of Moses or Pentateuch, refers to the entirety of Judaism's founding Halakha and ethical religious texts....
, the Tanakh

Tanakh

Old Testament

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
Septuagint

Septuagint

The numbering of the people at Sinai, and preparations for resuming their march (1-10:10).
An account of the journey from Sinai to Moab, the sending out of the spies and the report they brought back, and the murmurings (eight times) of the people at the hardships by the way (10:11-21:20).
The transactions in the plain of Moab before crossing the Jordan River
Jordan River

The Jordan River is a river in Southwest Asia which flows into the Dead Sea. It is considered to be one of the world's most sacred rivers. It is 251 kilometers long....
(21:21-36).

The period comprehended in the history extends from the second month of the second year after the Exodus

The Exodus

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
.

According to tradition, Moses

Moses

Moses is a Hebrew Bible Hebrews religious leader, lawgiver, prophet, to whom the Mosaic authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbeinu in Hebrew , he is the most important prophet in Judaism, and also an important prophet of Christianity, Islam, the Bah?'? Faith, Rastafari movement, Chrislam and many ot...
authored all five books of the Torah. According to the documentary hypothesis, Numbers, with its dry style and emphasis on censuses, derives from the priestly source, c. 550-400 BC, and was combined with the other three sources to create the Torah c. 400.

Title

The Hebrew title Bamidbar, meaning "in the desert", "serves to foreground the years of testing in the wilderness that make up the central section of the book (chapters 11-21)." The English title Numbers is derived from the Greek of the Septuagint, referencing the numbering of the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai

Sinai Peninsula

The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt. It lies between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, forming a land bridge between Africa and Southwest Asia....
and later on the plain of Moab

Moab

Moab is the historical name for a mountainous strip of land in modern-day Jordan running along the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. In ancient times, it was home to the kingdom of the Moabites, a people often in conflict with their Israelite neighbors to the west....
.

Summary

Numbering God's people

God orders Moses, in the wilderness of Sinai, to take the number of those able to bear arms—of all the men "from twenty years old and upward," the tribe of Levi

Levite

In Jewish tradition, a Levite is a member of the tribes of Israel of Levi. When Joshua led the Israelites into the land of Canaan, the Levites were the only Israelite tribe who received cities but no tribal land "because the Lord the God of Israel himself is their possession"....
being excepted, and to appoint princes over each tribe. The result of the numbering is that 603,550 Israelites are found to be fit for military service. Moses is ordered to assign to the Levites exclusively the service of the Tabernacle.

God prescribes the formation of the camp around the Tabernacle, each tribe being distinguished by its chosen banner. Judah

Tribe of Judah

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Judah was one of the twelve Israelites.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes....
, Issachar

Tribe of Issachar

The Tribe of Issachar was one of the Israelites. At its height, the territory it occupied was immediately north of Tribe of Manasseh, and south of Tribe of Zebulun and Tribe of Naphtali, stretching from the Jordan River in the east, to the coast in the west; this region included the fertile Esdraelon plain....
, and Zebulun

Tribe of Zebulun

The Tribe of Zebulun was one of the Israelites. At its height, the territory it occupied was at the southern end of the Galilee, with its eastern border being the Sea of Galilee, the western border being the Mediterranean Sea, the south being bordered by the Tribe of Issachar, and the north by Tribe of Asher on the western side and Tribe of...
encamp to the east of the Tabernacle; Reuben

Tribe of Reuben

The Tribe of Reuben was one of the Israelites.At its height, the territory it occupied was on the immediate east of the Dead Sea, reaching from the Arnon river in the south, and as far north as the Dead Sea stretched, with an eastern border vaguely defined by the land dissolving into desert; the territory included the plain of Madaba....
, Simeon

Tribe of Simeon

The Tribe of Simeon was one of the Israelites. At its height, the territory it occupied was in the southwest of Canaan, bordered on the east and south by the tribe of Judah; the boundaries with the tribe of Judah are vague, and it seems that Simeon may have been an enclave within the west of the territory of the tribe of Judah....
, and Gad

Tribe of Gad

The Tribe of Gad was one of the Israelites. At its height, Gad occupied a region to the east of the River Jordan, though the exact location is ambiguous; among the cities mentioned by the Bible as having at some point been part of Gad were Ramoth, Jaezer, Aroer, and Dibon, though some of these are marked elsewhere as belonging to Tribe of Re...
to the south; Ephraim

Tribe of Ephraim

The Tribe of Ephraim was one of the Israelites; together with the Tribe of Manasseh, Ephraim also formed the House of Joseph. At its height, the territory it occupied was at the center of Canaan, west of the Jordan, south of the territory of Manasseh, and north of the Tribe of Benjamin; the region which was later named Samaria mostly co...
, Manasseh

Tribe of Manasseh

The Tribe of Menasheh was one of the Israelites. Together with the Tribe of Ephraim, Menasheh also formed the House of Joseph. At its height, the territory it occupied spanned the Jordan River, forming two "half-tribes", one on each side; the eastern half-tribe was almost entirely discontinuity with the western half-tribe, only slightly...
, and Benjamin

Tribe of Benjamin

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Benjamin was one of the twelve Israelites.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes....
to the west; and Dan

Tribe of Dan

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Dan was one of the twelve Israelites.Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes....
, Asher

Tribe of Asher

The Tribe of Asher was one of the Israelites. At its height, Asher dwelled in The Western Galilee, a region with comparatively low temperature, and much rainfall, making it some of the most fertile land in Canaan, with rich pasture, wooded hills, and orchards; as such Asher was particularly prosperous, and known for its olive oil....
, and Naphtali

Tribe of Naphtali

The Tribe of Naphtali was one of the Israelites.At its height, Naphtali occupied the eastern side of the Galilee , in the areas now known as the Lower Galilee, and Upper Galilee, and was bordered on the west by Tribe of Asher, in the north by Tribe of Dan, in the south by Tribe of Zebulun, and by the Jordan River on the east; the most si...
to the north. The same order is to be preserved for the march.

Moses is ordered to consecrate the Levites for the service of the Tabernacle in the place of the first-born sons, who hitherto had performed that service. The Levites are divided into three families, the Gershonites, the Kohathites, and the Merarites, each under a chief, and all headed by one prince, Eleazar

Eleazar

Eleazar , was a son of Aaron, a Levite Kohen and Kohen Gadol. His wife, a daughter of Putiel, bore him Phinehas. After the death of Nadab and Abihu, he was appointed to the charge of the sanctuary....
, son of Aaron

Aaron

In the Hebrew Bible, Aaron , or Aaron the Levite , was the brother of Moses. He was the great-grandson of Levi and represented the priestly functions of his tribe, becoming the first Kohen Gadol of the Hebrews....
.

The Levites who are suited for the service of the Tabernacle—those from thirty to fifty years of age—were then numbered.

Preparations are then made for resuming the march to the Promised Land

Promised land

The Promised Land is a term used to describe the land promised by God, according to the Hebrew Bible, to the Israelites. The promise is made to Abraham and the descendants of his son Isaac, and Isaac's son Jacob, Abraham's grandson, as they are all given promises that their descendants will be given a territory from the River of Egypt to t...
. Various ordinances and laws are decreed.

Recommencement of the journey

Moses is ordered to make two silver trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest Register in the brass instrument family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC....
s for convoking the congregation and announcing the recommencement of a journey. The first journey of the Israelites after the Tabernacle had been constructed is commenced, and Moses requests Hobab to be their leader. The people murmur against God and are punished by fire; Moses complains of the stubbornness of the Israelites and is ordered to choose seventy elders to assist him in the government of the people

Miriam and Aaron insult Moses at Hazeroth, which angers God; Miriam is punished with leprosy

Leprosy

Leprosy , or Hansen's disease , is a Chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the Peripheral nervous system and Mucous membrane of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions are the primary external symptom....
and is shut out of camp for seven days, at the end of which the Israelites proceed to the desert of Paran

Desert of Paran

The Desert of Paran or Wilderness of Paran , is quite likely the place where the Israelites spent part of their 40 years of wandering. King David spent some time in the wilderness of Paran after Samuel died ....
.

The spies are sent out into the lands and come back to report to Moses. The spies have to see how fertile the ground is, how fortified the cites are and how strong the people are. Joshua

Joshua

Caleb

Caleb is a male given name....
, two of the spies, argue that the land is abundant and is "flowing with milk and honey." The other spies say that it is inhabited by strong and evil men, which causes the Israelites to want to return to Egypt. The Lord talks to Moses and says he will kill all of the Israelites. Moses pleads with God, saying that others would think badly of God for leading his people to the wilderness and abandoning them there. God speaks to Aaron of having to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.

Moses is ordered to make plates to cover the altar with the two hundred fifty censers left after the destruction of Korah's band. The children of Israel murmur against Moses and Aaron on account of the death of Korah's men and are stricken with the plague, with 14,700 perishing; Aaron's rod

Aaron's rod

Aaron's rod refers to any of the staffs carried by Moses' brother, Aaron, in the Old Testament of the Bible. The Bible tells how, along with Nehushtan, Aaron's rod was endowed with miraculous power during the Plagues of Egypt which preceded the Exodus....
is used to quell the destruction.

Aaron and his family are declared by God to be responsible for any iniquity committed in connection with the sanctuary. The Levites are again appointed to help him in the keeping of the Tabernacle. The Levites are ordered to surrender to the priests a part of the tithes taken by them.

Preparations for crossing the Jordan

After Miriam's death at Kadesh Barnea, the Israelites blame Moses for the lack of water. Moses, ordered by God to speak to the rock, disobeys by striking it, and is punished by the announcement that he shall not enter Canaan. The King of Edom refuses permission to the Israelites to pass through his land. Aaron dies on Mount Hor.

The Israelites are bitten by fiery serpent

Fiery flying serpent

The Fiery Flying Serpent is a creature or entity mentioned in the Bible. ....
s for speaking against God and Moses. A brazen serpent

Nehushtan

The Nehushtan was a sacred object in the form of a copper Serpent upon a pole. In the seventh century BC, King Hezekiah instituted a religious iconoclasm reform and destroyed the Nehustan ....
is made to ward off these serpents.

The new census, taken just before the entry into the land of Canaan, gives the total number of males from twenty years and upward as 601,730, the number of the Levites from a month old and upward as 23,000. The land shall be divided by lot. The daughters of Zelophehad

Zelophehad

The Daughters of Zelophehad were five sisters in the Hebrew Bible who lived during the Exodus of the Israelites from Ancient Egypt, and who raised before Moses the Legal case of a woman?s right and obligation to Inheritance property in the absence of a male heir in the family....
, their father having no sons, share in the allotment. Moses is ordered to appoint Joshua

Joshua

Joshua, Jehoshuah or Yehoshua , born in Egypt, was a biblical Israelite leader who succeeded Moses. His story is told in the Hebrew Bible, chiefly in the books Book of Exodus, Book of Numbers and Book of Joshua....
as his successor.

Prescriptions for the observance of the feasts, and the offerings for different occasions are remunerated: every day; the Sabbath; the first day of the month; the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread; the day of first-fruits; the day of the trumpets; the Day of Atonement; the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles; the day of solemn assembly.

The conquest of Midian

Midian war

The Midian War documented in the Hebrew Bible, Book of Numbers 31, was the final military action that Moses personally led. According to the Bible, the Midian War was intended to exterminate the Midianites, who had "led the people of Israel to sin against God"....
by the Israelites and the massacre of the Midian population is recounted. The Reubenites and the Gadites request Moses to assign them the land east of the Jordan. After their promise to go before the army to help in the conquest of the land west of the Jordan, Moses grants their request. The land east of the Jordan is divided among the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

The stations at which the Israelites halted during their forty years' wanderings in the wilderness are enumerated. While in the plains of Moab the Israelites are told that, after crossing the Jordan, they should expel the Canaanites and destroy their idols. The boundaries of the land of which the Israelites are about to take possession are spelled out. The land is to be divided among the tribes under the superintendence of Eleazar

Eleazar

Composition

The composition of Numbers 22-24 can be dated with reasonable certainty to c.840-760 BC on the basis of the Deir Alla

Deir Alla

Deir Alla, Jordan, was the site of a sanctuary and metal-working centre, ringed by smelting furnaces built against the exterior of the city walls, whose successive rebuildings, dated by ceramics from the Late Bronze Age, sixteenth century BCE, to the fifth century BCE, accumulated as a tell based on a low natural hill....
text, an inscription which tells a story of "Balaam

Balaam

Balaam is a diviner in the Torah, his story occurring towards the end of the Book of Numbers. The etymology of his name is uncertain, and discussed below....
Son of Beor," a seer apparently famed in the region at this time. There is little to date the book's composition beyond this. Wellhausen ascribed most of it to the Priestly source

Priestly source

The Priestly Source is posited as the most recent of the four chief sources of the Torah, as postulated by the long-established "standard" Wellhausen formulation of the Documentary Hypothesis ....
, and therefore the 6th century BC, with additional material (including the Balaam story) from the Elohist

Elohist

The Elohist is one of four sources of the Torah described by the Documentary Hypothesis. Its name comes from the term it uses for God: Elohim. It portrays a God who is less anthropomorphic than YHWH of the earlier Jahwist source ....
document (c.850 BC) and the Yahwist (c.950 BC); Richard Elliott Friedman

Richard Elliott Friedman

Richard Elliott Friedman is a biblical scholar and the Ann and Jay Davis Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Georgia. He joined the faculty of the in 2006....
gives a similar division in his The Bible with Sources Revealed
The Bible with Sources Revealed

The Bible with Sources Revealed is a book by American biblical scholar Richard Elliott Friedman dealing with the process by which the five books of the Torah came to be written....
. Modern scholars who do not follow Wellhausen's documentary hypothesis

Documentary hypothesis

The documentary hypothesis is the proposal that the first five books of the Old Testament represent a combination of documents from originally independent sources....
tend to see all the Pentateuchal books as made up of essentially undateable fragments or accretions, but there is general agreement that the Torah reached its final form no earlier than the 5th century BC.

External links

(Jewish Encyclopedia)

Online versions and translations

Original language:

(Hebrew
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
- English at Mechon-Mamre.org)

Jewish
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
translations:

(Jewish Publication Society translation)
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan
Aryeh Kaplan

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan was a noted United States Orthodox Judaism rabbi and author with a background in both physics and Judaism. He was lauded as an original thinker and prolific writer, from studies of the Torah, Talmud and Kabbalah to introductory pamphlets on Jewish beliefs and Jewish philosophy aimed at non-religious and Baal teshuva Jews....
's translation and commentary at Ort.org
translation with Rashi
Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, , better known by the acronym Rashi , , was a rabbi from France, famed as the author of the first comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, and Jewish commentaries on the Bible....
's commentary at Chabad.org

Christian
Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism#Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus and interpreted by Christians to have been prophesied in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament....
translations:

(King James Version
King James Version (disambiguation)

The Authorized King James Version is a translation of the Bible, first published in 1611.King James Version may also refer to:*Revised Version, a late 19th century revision of the King James Version....
)
(New Revised Standard Version
New Revised Standard Version

The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, released in 1989, is a thorough revision of the Revised Standard Version .There are three editions of the NRSV:...
)
(Anglicized New Revised Standard Version
New Revised Standard Version

The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, released in 1989, is a thorough revision of the Revised Standard Version .There are three editions of the NRSV:...
)
Numbers at Wikisource (Authorized King James Version)

Book of Numbers

Title

Summary

Numbering God's people

Recommencement of the journey

Preparations for crossing the Jordan

Composition

See also

External links

Online versions and translations