1. Note too that just as Lev. 23 has two introductions, it has two final sections dealing with the Feast of Booths, one before the conclusion proper (vv. 33–36) and one after (vv. 39–43).
2. Cf. ANET, 320 (the Gezer Calendar).
3. The Boethusians, Samaritans, and Karaites counted from the morrow of the first Sabbath after Passover, the Pharisees counted from the morning after the Passover, and for the sectarians the date of the sheaf ceremony was Nisan 26 (Y. Yadin, The Temple Scroll, 1:117; J. M. Baumgarten, Studies in Qumran Law [Leiden: Brill, 1977], 111).
4. Ramban on Lev. 23:17; Knohl, The Sanctuary of Silence, 25.
5. Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2004.
6. W. G. Lambert and A. R. Millard, Atra-ḫasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, repr. 1999 [orig. 1969]), 54–59 (esp. tablet I, lines 191, 195–97, 240–41).
7. J. Skinner, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis, 2d ed. (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1930), 35; Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants, 68–69.
8. Compare J. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch As Narrative (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), 96–97.
9. On the uniqueness of Sabbath and the weekly cycle, which are not defined by movement of any celestial body, see U. Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus, transl. I. Abrahams (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1967), 244; N. Sarna, Exodus (JPS Torah Commentary; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1991), 111.
10. Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants, 69.
11. R. Gane, “Sabbath and the New Covenant,” JATS 10 (1999): 315.
12. A. Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1951), 10.
13. Cf., e.g., Davidson, Typology in Scripture, 346–47, 351–52.
14. James Moffatt, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1924), 51; F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), 73–75.
15. Cf. 2 Chron. 2:4; 8:13, referring to Sabbaths, new moons, and festivals.
16. Paul Giem, “Sabbatōn in Col 2:16,” AUSS 19 (1981): 195–210.
17. NASB “in respect to”; NKJV “regarding”; NIV “with regard to”; NRSV “of observing”; NJB “about observance of”; BAGD (507) renders “in the matter of, literally ‘in the part of.’ ”
18. Gane, “Sabbath and the New Covenant,” 322.
19. G. MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1984), 162–63.
20. Ibid., 162.
21. Ibid., 161.
22. Ibid., 164; cf. 163, 165–69. On Sabbath rest as good news for modern Christians, see S. Bacchiocchi, Divine Rest for Human Restlessness (Rome: S. Bacchiocchi, 1980).
23. See M. Dawn, Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 70.
24. Ibid., xii–xiii.
25. MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World, 171.
26. Ibid., 175.
27. Dawn, Keeping the Sabbath Wholly, 65–66.
28. MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World, 167.
29. Luther, A Simple Way to Pray, 29.
30. Meenakshi Ganguly, “In the Heart of Hate,” Time (March 11, 2002): 51.
1. For teruʿah in the context of God as king, see also Ps. 47:5; cf. 2 Sam. 6:15 of bringing the Lord’s ark up to Jerusalem.
2. See m. Roš. Haš. 4:5–6, 9; b. Roš. Haš. 16a; cf. Agnon, Days of Awe.
3. Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2018; cf. 2043–46; S. Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel’s Worship, transl. D. R. Ap-Thomas (Oxford: Blackwell, 1962), 1:122.
4. This mood is similar to that which prevailed during much of the Babylonian New Year Festival of Spring. Cf. K. van der Toorn, “Form and Function of the New Year Festival in Babylonia and Israel,” in J. A. Emerton, ed., Congress Volume: Leuven, 1989 (Leiden: Brill, 1991), 6–8.
5. Cf. Agnon, Days of Awe, 186, 220–21.
6. Gane, Cult and Character, ch. 17. Cf. Levine’s observation that the Day of Purgation “ensured that the sanctuary and, hence, the people would be restored to a state of fitness in time for the celebration of the autumn Sukkot festival” (Leviticus, 162).
7. Cf. Ex. 19:15, where abstinence from sexual relations was part of preparation for the Lord’s appearance on Mount Sinai.
8. Cf. Harrison, Leviticus, 175.
9. Philo, Special Laws 2:196; Péter-Contesse and Ellington, Handbook on Leviticus, 258.
10. Cf. m. Yoma 8:8–9; b. Yoma 86a-b; Kellogg, The Book of Leviticus, 261; Noordtzij, Leviticus, 171.
11. Cf. Gane, Cult and Character, ch. 14. See also H. Cohen, “The Day of Atonement: I,” Judaism 17 (1968): 357; idem, “The Day of Atonement: II,” Judiasm 18 (1969): 86–87.
12. W. Heimpel, “The Nanshe Hymn,” JCS 33 (1981): 65–119. Jacobsen, The Harps That Once . . . : Sumerian Poetry in Translation, 125–42.
13. For detailed analysis and comparison with the Israelite Day of Purgation, see Gane, Cult and Character, ch. 17.
15. For detailed analysis and comparison with the Israelite Day of Purgation, see Gane, Cult and Character, ch. 17.
16. Cf. b. Roš. Haš., 16a-b; y. Roš. Haš., 1:3; Regarding judgment in connection with New Year’s celebrations in the ancient Near East, see M. Weinfeld, “Social and Cultic Institutions in the Priestly Source Against Their Ancient Near Eastern Background,” in Proceedings of the Eighth World Congress of Jewish Studies; Panel Sessions: Bible Studies and Hebrew Language (Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies/Perry Foundation for Biblical Research, 1983), 116–17.
17. Transl. J. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 1011.
18. Ibid., 258–61.
19. C. H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening Daily Readings (Books for the Ages; Version 2.0 on CD-ROM; Albany, Ore.: Ages Software, 1996, 1997), 7.
20. Gane, Altar Call, 340.
21. Ibid., 316, 322.
22. Cf. Brand and Yancey, In His Image, 79.
23. Griffith, Looking Up, 62.
1. See Haran, Temples and Temple-Service in Ancient Israel, 216–19; M. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (Oxford: Clarendon, 1972), 191–92.
2. Gorman, “Priestly Rituals of Founding: Time, Space, and Status,” 47–64.
3. Cf. Lev. 2:11, where leaven was forbidden in grain offerings burned on the outer altar. Tradition holds that the “bread of the Presence” was unleavened (m. Menaḥ. 5:1; b. Menaḥ. 57a).
4. B. Mitchell, “Leviticus 24:6: The Bread of the Presence—Rows or Piles?” BT 33 (1982): 447–48.
5. On possible locations of the frankincense, see Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2097–98.
6. Ibid., 2102.
7. Douglas, Leviticus As Literature, 207.
8. This “tetragrammaton,” consisting of four consonants, may have been pronounced something like “Yahweh.” “Jehovah” is an old transliteration of this name, which is often rendered “the Lord,” following the LXX.
9. Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2113.
10. Cf. Deut. 13:5; 17:7, 12; 19:13, 19, etc.
11. On the process by which ancient Near Eastern law was formed from case to code, see R. Westbrook, “Biblical and Cuneiform Law Codes,” RB 92 (1985): 247–64, esp. 261–64 regarding Lev. 24:10–23; Num. 9:6–14; 15:32–37; 27:1–11; 31:25–28.
12. R. Gane, “Temple and Sacrifice,” JATS 10 (1999): 358.
13. Lines 12, 32–33; transl. W. Heimpel, “The Nanshe Hymn,” JCS 33 (1981): 83, 85.
14. A. L. Oppenheim, Ancient Mesopotamia (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1964), 194–97.
16. Ibid., 268.
17. V. Fritz, “Temple Architecture: What Can Archaeology Tell Us About Solomon’s Temple?” BAR 13 (1987): 38–49.
18. Compare household use of incense in secular life (K. Nielsen, Incense in Ancient Israel [VTSup 38; Leiden: Brill, 1986], 90).
19. Gane, “ ‘Bread of the Presence’ and Creator-in-Residence,” 190. For an example of a Babylonian regular presentation offering that includes twelve loaves of bread and incense on a golden table, plus libations, see ANET, 334.
20. Atraḫrasis III v 30–36; W. G. Lambert, and A. R. Millard, Atra-Ḫasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, repr. 1999; orig. 1969), 98–99.
21. Gane, “ ‘Bread of the Presence,’ ” 179–203.
23. Gane, “Bread of the Presence,” 199–203.
24. For the connection between Melchizedek’s bread and that of the Last Supper, see M. Douglas, “The Eucharist: Its Continuity with the Bread Sacrifice of Leviticus,” 209.
25. Aristotle, The Politics, in O. A. Johnson, ed., Sources of World Civilization (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1994), 1:155.
26. See D. Daube, Studies in Biblical Law (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1947), 103–15.
27. We will deal with the penalty for assault here and capital punishment in the context of Num. 35.
28. Milgrom shows that vv. 17–21 form the heart of a larger introversion that embraces vv. 13–23, integrating the laws with the narrative (Leviticus 23–27, 2128–33).
29. Ibid., 2131–33.
30. A. S. Diamond, “An Eye for an Eye,” Iraq 19 (1957): 153.
31. S. Paul, Studies in the Book of the Covenant, 76. However, the Laws of Hammurabi prescribe talion inequitably: An awīlum status individual who blinds the eye or breaks the bone of another awīlum receives the same injury as punishment, but if the victim is of lesser status, only monetary compensation is required (laws 196–99; ANET, 175; Roth, Law Collections, 121).
1. See, e.g., CAD, 1/2:115–17.
2. Gaster, Festivals of the Jewish Year, 183.
3. Cf. m. Roš. Haš. 1:1; b. Roš. Haš. 8b.
4. R. Gane, “The Laws of the Seventh and Fiftieth Years,” JAGNES 1 (1990): 6. For a brief review of some other theories, which do not adequately account for all the data, see 4 n. 4. My conclusion agrees with that of R. Judah against the sages with whom he disputed, who held that the succession of sabbatical years would be interrupted by interpolation of the Jubilee year (b. Ned. 61a).
5. See Yadin, The Temple Scroll, 1:104. On such overlapping in the sectarian Book of Jubilees, see J. Baumgarten, Studies in Qumran Law (Leiden: Brill, 1977), 139.
6. C. Carmichael, “The Sabbatical/Jubilee Cycle and the Seven-Year Famine in Egypt,” Bib 80 (1999): 228–30.
7. Ramban on Lev. 25:20; Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2181–83; revising my explanation in “The Laws of the Seventh and Fiftieth Years,” 7.
8. For critique of other theories, see Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2181–83.
9. Carmichael, “The Sabbatical/Jubilee Cycle,” 229–32.
10. On legal dynamics of land redemption in Lev. 25 and Ruth 4 and preemption (before sale) in Jer. 32:6–15, see R. Westbrook, “Redemption of Land,” ILR 6 (1971): 367–75.
11. For details, see J. Milgrom, “The Levitic Town: An Exercise in Realistic Planning,” JJS 33 (1982): 185–88.
12. I. Mendelsohn, Legal Aspects of Slavery in Babylonia, Assyria and Palestine (Williamsport, Pa.: Bayard, 1932), 7, 14.
13. A. Levy, “Aspects of Bondage and Release in the Bible: Comparative Studies of Exodus 21:2–6; Leviticus 25:25–55; Deuteronomy 15:12–18” (Hebrew) (Ph.D. dissertation, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1981).
14. J. Joosten, People and Land in the Holiness Code (VTSup 67; Leiden: Brill, 1996), 198; see also 196–97.
15. Cf. the progression of events during the Egyptian famine in Joseph’s time (Gen. 47:13–26).
16. See Westbrook, “Redemption of Land,” 369.
17. Cf. the Laws of Hammurabi, law 117, which limited bondage of a wife and children to three years (ANET, 170–71).
18. A. Schenker, “The Biblical Legislation on the Release of Slaves: The Road from Exodus to Leviticus,” JSOT 78 (1998): 33, 36.
19. Gane, “The Laws of the Seventh and Fiftieth Years,” 13.
20. J. Locke, The Second Treatise of Government, ed. T. P. Peardon (LLA; Indianapolis: BobbsMerrill, 1952), 17.
21. Cf. C. Wright, Living As the People of God: The Relevance of Old Testament Ethics (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1983), 37–38.
22. K. Marx and F. Engels, The Communist Manifesto (New York: Bantam, 1992 [repr. of 1888]), 17–18, 34.
23. For example, Reggae artist Ziggy Marley (son of the legendary Bob Marley) is attempting to popularize the idea of debt relief “by joining U2’s Bono in asking the world’s richest countries to forgive the debts of poorer nations like Marley’s native Jamaica” (D. Philadelphia, “Global Briefing,” Time [September 2, 2002]: A7).
24. Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2270–71.
25. E. Gargan, “A Single-Minded Man Fights to Free India’s Slaves,” New York Times (June 4, 1992).
26. See practical suggestions by P. Spray, “Five Areas for Jubilee Today,” in H. Ucko, ed., The Jubilee Challenge: Utopia or Possibility? (Geneva: WCC, 1997), 134–39.
27. Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2271.
28. Ibid., 2248, 2271.
29. L. S. Fried and D. N. Freedman, “Was the Jubilee Year Observed in Preexilic Judah?” in Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2257–70.
30. For a list of practical challenges involved in applying the biblical law, see N. Gottwald, “The Biblical Jubilee: In Whose Interests?” in Ucko, ed., The Jubilee Challenge, 38–40.
31. See N. Solomon, “Economics of the Jubilee,” in Ucko, ed., The Jubilee Challenge, 154–55.
32. See also Ex. 22:25; cf. Deut. 23:19–20.
33. C. Young, Nothing to Do but Stay: My Pioneer Mother (New York: Dell, 1991), 24–25.
34. M. Lucado, When God Whispers Your Name (Dallas: Word, 1994), 68.
35. Ibid., 69.
36. Wright, Living As the People of God, 34–35.
37. On social equality during the sabbatical year, see G. Blidstein, “Man and Nature in the Sabbatical Year,” Tradition 9 (1966): 48–55.
38. A. J. Heschel, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism (New York: Noonday, 1955), 417.
1. V. Hurowitz, “Wish Upon a Stone: Discovering the Idolatry of the Even Maskit,” BRev (October 1999): 51.
2. Compare M. Farbridge, Studies in Biblical and Semitic Symbolism (LBS; New York: KTAV, 1970), 137–9.
3. The first are 11:44–45; 18:2, 4, 5, etc.
4. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 1038–39.
5. On seven as the “prime sacred number,” see M. Tilley, “Typological Numbers: Taking a Count of the Bible,” BRev 8 (1992): 48–49.
6. Cf. Warning, Literary Artistry in Leviticus.
7. Transl. J. Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 1941. For explanation, see 2342.
8. The word is distributed between the contexts of blessing (v.9), curse (vv. 15, 25), and restoration (vv. 42 [3×], 44, 45).
9. Then NIV omits one of the “I will remember” verbs.
10. Wright, Living As the People of God, 34–35.
11. Walton, Covenant: God’s Purpose, God’s Plan, 65. Compare the prologue to the Laws of Hammurabi, which makes clear that the purpose of the laws was to express the king’s justice (ANET, 164–165; Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, 76–81.
12. For a convenient comparison between the biblical and other ancient Near Eastern treaty formats, see Walton, Ancient Israelite Literature in Its Cultural Context, 101–5.
13. See Watts, Reading Law, 45–48.
14. Note that in contrast to our English Bibles, in which the Old Testament ends with Malachi, the last four books of the Hebrew Bible are: Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 and 2 Chronicles.
15. J. Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), 140.
16. Blackaby and King, Experiencing God, 15–16.
17. Gane, God’s Faulty Heroes, 34.
18. U.S. News & World Report (September 26, 1994): 82.
1. E.g., Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2401–2.
2. Carmichael, “The Sabbatical/Jubilee Cycle and the Seven-Year Famine in Egypt,” 235–36.
3. Transl. Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 1941. For explanation see 2368–73.
4. T. Cartledge, Vows in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East (JSOTSup 147; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992), 142.
5. Transl. Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 1942.
6. M. Haran, “
” in EM, 6:394 (Hebrew). W. Houston agrees with this against other proposed solutions, but without knowing of Haran’s discussion (“Contrast in Tense and Exegesis,” 418–20).
7. See Bridging Contexts section of Num. 31. The Mesha inscription (9th century B.C.) attests sacral ḥerem annihilation of Israelites by the Moabites (lines 16–17; transl. ANET, 320; for detailed discussion, see P. Stern, The Biblical Ḥerem: A Window on Israel’s Religious Experience [BJS 211; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1991], 19–56).
8. Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2396.
10. See ʿArak. 5:1.
11. C. Meyers, “Procreation, Production, and Protection: Male-Female Balance in Early Israel,” JAAR 51 (1983): 584–87; idem, Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1988), 170–71.
12. G. Wenham, “Leviticus 27:2–8 and the Price of Slaves,” ZAW 90 (1978): 264–5; idem, Leviticus, 338. For prices of slaves in ancient Mesopotamia, see Mendelsohn, Slavery in the Ancient Near East, 117–19.
13. See Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2370–71.
14. Philo, The Special Laws, 2.32–34; cf. the United States “Declaration of Independence.”
15. Greenberg, “Some Postulates of Biblical Criminal Law,” 13–17.
1. See Ex. 19–40, minus the affair with another “lover” (the golden calf in chs. 32–33), which threatened to annul the marriage while the wedding was still in progress.
2. Cf. J. Milgrom, Numbers (JPS Torah Commentary; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), xvi.
3. H. H. Guthrie, Theology As Thanksgiving: From Israel’s Psalms to the Church’s Eucharist (New York: Seabury, 1981), 42–43.
4. D. Olson, The Death of the Old and the Birth of the New: The Framework of the Book of Numbers and the Pentateuch (BJS 71; Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1985), 163; cf. 151, 183–84, 196.
5. C. Stuhlmueller, “ ‘Would That All Were Prophets!’ (Numbers 11:29),” in F. C. Holmgren and H. E. Schaalman, eds., Preaching Biblical Texts: Expositions by Jewish and Christian Scholars (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 132.
6. J. Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), 143.
7. P. Yancey, Reaching for the Invisible God: What Can We Expect to Find? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 19.
8. Cf., e.g., R. D. Cole, Numbers (NAC 3B; Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2000), 34.
9. Cf., e.g., J. Magonet, “The Korah Rebellion,” JSOT 24 (1982): 10.
10. E.g., B. Levine, Numbers 1–20 (AB 4; New York: Doubleday, 1993), 48–84, 89–109. Levine insists on the importance of “identifying significantly different perceptions of the wilderness experience, perceptions that might be lost to us were we to study only the final product of the biblical process at the expense of the phases reflected in its literary development” (49). He also maintains that “the historicity of the Tabernacle traditions is highly questionable to start with” (172). On modern interpretation of the book of Numbers, see T. B. Dozeman, “Numbers, Book of,” in J. H. Hayes, ed., in Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation, ed. J. H. Hayes (Nashville: Abingdon, 1999), 2:216–17.
11. E.g., Milgrom, Numbers, xvii–xxi.; I. Knohl, The Sanctuary of Silence: The Priestly Torah and the Holiness School (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995).
12. Milgrom, Numbers, xiii.
13. Cf. Olson, The Death of the Old, 48–49.
14. Ibid., 83–125.
15. K. Sakenfeld, “Zelophehad’s Daughters,” PRSt 15 (1988): 38.
16. D. Olson, Numbers (IBC; Louisville: John Knox, 1996), 5–6.
17. For a survey of proposed outlines of Numbers and Olson’s own outline, see Olson, The Death of the Old, 31–37, 118–20. Cf. Cole, Numbers, 36–52. Y. Radday suggests an overall tripartite structure (see his “Chiasmus in Hebrew Biblical Narrative,” in J. W. Welch, ed., Chiasmus in Antiquity (Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 1981), 89:
A Events that occurred and commandments given at Mount Sinai (1:1–10:11)
B The thirty-eight years in the desert (10:12–21:35)
A1 Events that occurred and commandments given in the Plains of Moab (22:1–36:13)
18. For some other introverted, chiastic, and inclusio/frame patterns in the book of Numbers, see, e.g., Radday, “Chiasmus in Hebrew Biblical Narrative,” 89–90; Milgrom, Numbers, xxii–xxvi, xxviii–xxix.
19. M. Douglas, In the Wilderness: The Doctrine of Defilement in the Book of Numbers (JSOTSup 158; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), esp. 118.
20. On this relationship between narrative and law, see ibid., 102–4, 117; J. W. Watts, Reading Law: The Rhetorical Shaping of the Pentateuch (BSem 59; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), 36–60; Levine, Numbers 1–20, 78–79; Milgrom, Numbers, xv–xvi.
21. X. J. Kennedy and D. Gioia, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, 2d compact ed. (New York: Longman, 2000), 798.
1. Milgrom, Numbers, 336–37.
2. On the meanings of the names of these chieftains, see R. Brown, The Message of Numbers: Journey to the Promised Land (BST; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 31.
3. See, e.g., J. H. Walton, V. H. Matthews, and M. W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 86, 88; Y. Shiloh, “The Population of Iron Age Palestine in the Light of a Sample Analysis of Urban Plans, Areas, and Population Density,” BASOR 239 (1980): 25–35.
4. N. Sarna, Exodus: The Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation (JPSTC; Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1991), 62.
5. Cf. the meaning of ʾelep as “clan” in Judg. 6:15; 1 Sam. 10:19; Mic. 5:2.
6. G. Mendenhall, “The Census Lists of Numbers 1 and 26,” JBL 77 (1958): 52–66.
7. B. Scolnic, “Theme and Context in Biblical Lists” (Ph.D. dissertation, Jewish Theological Seminary, 1987), 63.
8. Ibid., 47–53.
9. Cf. ibid., 66–70. For “thousand” also in numbers of fighting men in the Gideon story (Judg. 6–8), see 43–47.
10. Walton, Matthews, and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary, 144.
11. Scolnic, “Theme and Context,” 68. Cf. Olson, The Death of the Old, 76.
12. Scolnic, “Theme and Context,” 90–91; Olson, The Death of the Old, 79; W. H. Bellinger, Leviticus and Numbers (NIBC 3; Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2001), 182.
13. Cf. H. Wolf, An Introduction to the Old Testament Pentateuch (Chicago: Moody Press, 1991), 150–51.
14. Cf. the conclusion of T. Ashley at the end of his detailed critique of the various proposals: “In short, we lack the materials in the text to solve this problem” (The Book of Numbers [NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993], 66; cf. 60–65).
1. Y. Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands in the Light of Archaeological Study (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963), 1:236–37; K. Kitchen, “The Tabernacle—A Bronze Age Artifact,” Bible and Spade 8 (1995): 36.
2. Oriental Institute Prism Inscription, col. I, lines 1–4, 7–16; transl. D. Luckenbill, The Annals of Sennacherib (OIP 2; Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1924), 23–24.
3. Cf. P. Borgman, Genesis: The Story We Haven’t Heard (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 22–39.
4. Dr. Seuss, Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories (New York: Random House, 1958).
1. See J. Milgrom, Studies in Levitical Terminology, I: The Encroacher and the Levite; the Term ʿAbode (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1970), 16–21; R. Gane and J. Milgrom, “
qārab,” in TDOT, 13:140, 143.
2. On tekelet as violet (i.e., blue-purple, from dye extracted from the gland of the murex snail), see Milgrom, Numbers, 411.
3. From another variety of the murex snail, see ibid.
4. A. Einstein, “My Views,” in E. Knoebel, ed., Classics of Western Thought: Volume III—The Modern World, 4th ed. (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), 3:539.
5. D. L. Moody, The Home Work of Dwight L. Moody (Books for the Ages; Version 1.0 on CD-ROM; Albany, Ore.: Ages Software, 1997), 70.
6. J. Ortberg, If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get out of the Boat (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 58.
7. Cf. N. Herman, Brother Lawrence: The Practice of the Presence of God the Best Rule of a Holy Life (New York: Revell, 1958), 26.
1. Cf. Milgrom, Numbers, 33.
2. On equivalent spatial gradations established by the rabbis for the temple, Temple Mount, and Jerusalem and by the Qumranites for the Temple City and ordinary cities, see H. Harrington, The Impurity Systems of Qumran and the Rabbis: Biblical Foundations (SBLDS 143; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993), 57–58.
3. J. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16 (AB 3; New York: Doubleday, 1991), 178.
4. Using the Greek word for sexual immorality, we could call this “porneia paranoia.”
5. J. Milgrom, “A Husband’s Pride, a Mob’s Prejudice,” BRev 12 (1996): 21.
6. See H. Orlinsky, “The Hebrew Root škb,” JBL 63 (1944): 40.
7. See also BDB, 966, 1065; Milgrom, Numbers, 40.
8. Cf. also Gen. 34:5, 13, 27; Lev. 18:23, 24; Ezek. 18:6, 11, 15; 22:11; 23:17; 33:26.
9. H. C. Brichto, “The Case of the Sōṭā and a Reconsideration of Biblical ‘Law,’ ” HUCA 46 (1975): 66.
10. Compare: “in Egypt ‘the most approved mode of charming away sickness or disease is to write certain passages of the Ḳorān on the inner surface of an earthenware cup or bowl; then to pour in some water, and stir it until the writing is quite washed off: when the water, with the sacred words thus infused in it, is to be drunk by the patient’ ” (G. B. Gray, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Numbers [ICC; New York: Scribner’s, 1903], 54).
11. For an analysis of this ritual and some ancient parallels, see J. M. Sasson, “Numbers 5 and the ‘Waters of Judgement,’ ” BZ 16 (1972): 249–51.
12. Cf., e.g., Lev. 7:20–21 regarding ritual impurity.
13. Compare trial by the divine Euphrates River in Laws of Hammurabi, law 2 (transl. ANET, 166; M. T. Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor [SBLWAW 6; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995], 81). Drowning established guilt, but surviving proved innocence.
14. Cf. Brichto, “The Case of the Sōṭā,” 67; Milgrom, Numbers, 350; idem, “A Husband’s Pride,” 21.
15. Cf. N. Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (New York: Signet Classic, 1999), e.g., 46–48.
16. NPNF1: Volume XIV—Saint Chrysostom: Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and the Epistle to the Hebrews, 227 (Homily LXII).
17. J. Calvin, A Harmony of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke, transl. T. H. Parker (CC; Edinburgh: Saint Andrew, 1972), 2:62.
18. J. Donne, in M. Water, compiler, The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), 215.
19. M. L. King, in ibid., 215.
1. See, e.g., m. Nazir 3:6; 6:11.
2. For reasons why people took Nazirite vows during the latter part of the Second Temple period, including faulty reasons (asceticism, wagers, fits of temper), see Milgrom, Numbers, 358.
3. Ibid., 355.
4. Elsewhere the word nezer can refer to the crown of a monarch (e.g., 2 Sam. 1:10; 2 Kings 11:12).
5. Milgrom, Numbers, 355.
6. J. Milgrom, Cult and Conscience: The Asham and the Priestly Doctrine of Repentance (SJLA 18; Leiden: Brill, 1976), 66–70; idem, Leviticus 1–16, 357–58.
7. Milgrom, Numbers, 48.
8. Milgrom convincingly counters the theory of A. Marx (“Sacrifice pour les péchés ou rite de passage? Quelques réflexions sur la fonction du ḥaṭṭāʾt,” RB 96 [1989]: 37–48) that this and other purification offerings are “rites of passage” (J. Milgrom, “The Ḥaṭṭāʾt: A Rite of Passage?”RB 98 [1991]: 120–24; idem, Leviticus 1–16, 289–92). Milgrom tentatively follows Ramban in regarding this sacrifice as uniquely functioning for the purpose of desanctification as the Nazirite removed himself or herself from the sacred domain (Milgrom, Numbers, 48). But the text provides no evidence that the ritual has a kind of goal outside the scope of purification offerings in general.
9. On this question regarding the priests’ purification offering, which also decontaminates the outer altar (Lev. 8:15), cf. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 521–22.
10. On hair, which grows throughout life, representing vitality and offered in place of whole persons in ancient rituals, see Milgrom, Numbers, 356–57.
11. B. G. Webb, The Book of Judges: An Integrated Reading (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1987), 169.
12. If so, it is ironic that Eli mistakenly thought she was intoxicated (1 Sam. 1:13–14).
13. Milgrom, Numbers, 355.
14. Gane, God’s Faulty Heroes, 107.
1. See M. Korpel, “The Poetic Structure of the Priestly Blessing,” JSOT 45 (1989): 3–13.
2. The idea of putting/giving (Qal of śym) peace/well-being (šalom) also appears in Ps. 147:14.
3. P. Kyle McCarter, Ancient Inscriptions: Voices from the Biblical World (Washington, D.C.: Biblical Archaeology Society, 1996), 121–22; E. Puech, “Palestinian Funerary Inscriptions,” ABD, 5:127.
4. Milgrom, Numbers, 360–61.
5. Ibid., 360.
6. Gane, Altar Call, 152.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid., 158.
1. R. Gane, Ritual Dynamic Structure (Piscataway, N.J.: Gorgias, forthcoming), ch. 6.
2. Cf. Milgrom, Numbers, 53.
3. Rashi on Gen. 14:14; Deut. 20:5; see S. C. Reif, “Dedicated to 
,” VT 22 (1972): 495–501.
4. On this problem, see P. J. Budd, Numbers (WBC 5; Waco, Tex.: Word, 1984), 85–87.
5. Cf. 1 Kings 4:7; 5:13 of King Solomon’s requirements for resources. However, notice that he did homage to the Lord by providing offerings to initiate the temple that he built (1 Kings 8:62–64). In a sense the human king replaced the tribal chieftains (see also Ezek. 45:17).
6. S. Richards, ed., Best Plays of the Sixties (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1970), 252.
1. Milgrom, Numbers, 62.
2. Ibid., 342–43.
3. Ibid., 371; cf. 369–70.
4. See Bridging Contexts section of Lev. 4.
5. Pointed out to me by J. H. Walton of Wheaton College.
6. For preposition l + infinitive construct to express purpose, see GKC §114g. An alternate reading, “and Aaron effected purgation on their behalf, purifying them” (cf. GKC §114o), would have the same net effect.
7. See, e.g., t. Šeqal. 3:26; Sipre Numbers 62.
8. Compare 1 Chron. 23:3, where the starting age is thirty, with no upper limit.
9. Cardinal John Henry Newman, in R. Atwan & L. Wieder, eds., Chapters into Verse: Poetry in English Inspired by The Bible (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1993), 125.
10. For human beings as “lamps” or having metaphorical “lamps,” cf., e.g., 2 Sam. 21:17; 1 Kings 11:36; Job 21:17; Ps. 132:17; Prov. 13:9; 20:20; 24:20.
11. Sanctuary class lecture, Jon Paulien, Andrews University, 2002.
12. Cf. the Code of Justinian, according to which a man could not become a Christian deacon before the age of twenty-five (M. C. Mirow and K. A. Kelley, “Laws on Religion from the Theodosian and Justinianic Codes,” in R. Valantasis, ed., Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice [PRR; Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2000], 267–68), the same age at which an ancient Levite could go on active duty (Num. 8:24).
1. Cf. nepeš met (“dead person,” NASB) in Lev. 21:11; Num. 6:6.
3. Milgrom, Numbers, 67.
4. On this literary pattern, see M. Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel (Oxford: Clarendon, 1985), 98–102.
5. Cf. R. Westbrook, “Biblical and Cuneiform Law Codes,” RB 92 (1985): 261–64. On the dynamic relation between sin and law, in which sin creates the need for additional expressions of law to control human behavior, see, e.g., J. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch As Narrative (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), 312–13.
6. Cf. J. Hartley, Leviticus (WBC 4; Dallas: Word, 1992), 406.
7. See Milgrom, Numbers, xv–xvi; Douglas, In the Wilderness, 102–4, 117.
8. J. Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27 (AB 3B; New York: Doubleday, 2001), 2102.
9. R. Cover, “Nomos and Narrative,” HLR 97 (1983): 4–5.
10. Watts, Reading Law, 32–60.
11. Cf. the thick cloud on Mount Sinai that veiled the divine glory (Ex. 19:9, 16; 24:15, 16, 18; 34:5).
12. Cf. E. Feldman, “The Second Pesaḥ: Mitzvah As Paradigm,” Tradition 24 (1989): 43.
13. J. Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), 142.
14. H. T. Blackaby and C. V. King, Experiencing God: How to Live the Full Adventure of Knowing and Doing the Will of God (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1994), 20–21.
15. Ibid., 15.
1. According to postbiblical tradition in m. Roš. Haš. 4:9.
2. Milgrom, Numbers, 80, lists three traditions “concerning the nature of Israel’s divinely designated guide: a cloud-encased fire (Num. 9:15–23; 14:14; Deut. 1:33); the Ark (Num. 10:33; Josh. 3:3, 6, 11); and an angel (Ex. 14:19a; 23:20–23).”
3. Milgrom takes 10:35–36 as comprising a poetic unit that he calls “The Song of the Ark” (ibid., 81).
4. Cf. W. Dumbrell, “Midian—A Land or a League?” VT 25 (1975): 331.
5. Milgrom, Numbers, 79.
6. On divine-human cooperation in the book of Judges, see R. Gane, God’s Faulty Heroes (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald, 1996), 39–40, 43, 51–52, 56, 71–73, 127–28.
7. A. Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer (Springdale, Pa.: Whitaker House, 1981), 142.
8. Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, 135.
9. Ibid., 150.
10. M. Luther, A Simple Way to Pray (London: Westminster John Knox, 2000), 30.
1. Manna was introduced in Ex. 16. For detailed discussion of theories regarding the name and nature of this food, see P. Maiberger, “mān,” TDOT, 8:389–95.
2. Author’s translation here.
3. Author’s translation here.
4. Notice the correspondence in Heb.: “gather” (ʾsp, v.16) in response to the “riffraff/gathering” (ʾasapsup, v. 4).
5. A. J. Heschel, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism (New York: Noonday, 1955), 416.
6. M. A. Powell, “Weights and Measures,” in ABD, 6:903–4. For the homer as a priestly dry measure of 117.5 liters (about 3.5 bushels), see S. Rattray, “The Biblical Measures of Capacity,” in J. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 895.
7. See, e.g., Ashley, The Book of Numbers, 217; J. Wilkinson, “The Quail Epidemic of Numbers 11:31–34,” EvQ 71 (1999): 196–97.
8. J. Gray, “The Desert Sojourn of the Hebrews and the Sinai-Horeb Tradition,” VT 4 (1954): 148.
9. Wenham, Numbers, 109; cf. Gray, “The Desert Sojourn,” 148–49.
10. Cf. Milgrom, Numbers, 91; Wilkinson, “The Quail Epidemic,” 208.
11. With the Targums and the LXX. Some interpret krt here as cutting, i.e., chewing, between teeth (e.g., BDB, 504; NASB, NKJV, NJPS).
12. Of makkah with reference to divine punishments, such as plagues, see also Lev. 26:21; Deut. 28:59, 61; 29:22; 1 Sam. 4:8. The Hiphil of nkh + makkah can also refer to a military force inflicting severe defeat (e.g., Josh. 10:10, 20).
13. Wilkinson, “The Quail Epidemic,” 201–8; cf. Ashley, The Book of Numbers, 219.
14. “The Holy One of Israel” occurs in all major portions of Isaiah (1:4; 5:19, 24; 10:20; 12:6; 17:7; 29:19; 30:11, 12, 15; 31:1; 37:23; 41:14, 16, 20; 43:3, 14; 45:11; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7; 54:5; 55:5; 60:9, 14), serving as a major factor in unifying the book.
15. Budd, Numbers, 128. For human beings as metaphorical victims of sacrifice, see Jer. 46:10; Ezek. 39:17, 19; Zeph. 1:7.
16. See the Bridging Contexts section of Num. 22, regarding Balaam.
17. M. Lucado, He Still Moves Stones (Dallas: Word, 1993), 116–17.
1. Taking ki here to introduce the direct speech, as in Gen. 21:30; 29:33; Ex. 3:12. The NIV reads ki as introducing an explanation: “. . . for [ki] he had married a Cushite.”
2. So D. Adamo, “The African Wife of Moses: An Examination of Numbers 12:1–9,” AfTJ 18 (1989): 230–37; B. P. Robinson, “The Jealousy of Miriam: A Note on Num 12,” ZAW 101 (1989): 428–32; Levine, Numbers 1–20, 328.
3. In a broader sense Jacob and the Israelites saw God face to face (Gen. 32:30; Deut. 5:4; cf. Num. 14:14—lit., “eye to eye”).
4. N. G. Cohen, “ ‘
. . . 
’: An ‘Enthusiastic’ Prophetic Formula,” ZAW 99 (1987): 221–23.
5. With Robinson, “The Jealousy of Miriam,” 430–32, and P. Trible, “Bringing Miriam out of the Shadows,” BRev 5 (1989): 21–22, notwithstanding the contention of N. Graetz that Miriam was no more responsible than Aaron, but was discriminated against because she was a woman (“Miriam: Guilty or Not Guilty?” Judaism 40 (1991): 184–92.
6. Cf. S. Dawes, “Numbers 12.3: What Was Special About Moses?” BT 41 (1990): 338–39.
7. Cf. C. Rogers, “Moses: Meek or Miserable?” JETS 29 (1986): 257–63.
8. VAT 7525 col. II, lines 42–45, transl. J. V. Kinnier-Wilson, “Leprosy in Ancient Mesopotamia,” BA 60 (1966): 50.
9. E. V. Hulse, “The Nature of Biblical ‘Leprosy’ and the Use of Alternative Medical Terms in Modern Translations of the Bible,” PEQ 107 (1975): 103.
10. See also 14:49, 51, 52 in the ritual for a fungous house.
11. Trible, “Bringing Miriam,” 23.
12. Robinson, “The Jealousy of Miriam,” 431–32; Trible, “Bringing Miriam,” 22.
13. In M. Water, compiler, The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), 854.
14. Ibid.
15. A. Einstein, “My Views,” in E. Knoebel, Classics of Western Thought: Volume III—The Modern World, 4th ed. (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), 3:538.
16. Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, transl. L. Sherley-Price (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1993), 96.
1. Cf. the book of Job, which demonstrates that causality can be complex. The suffering that Job assumed to have come from God, the ultimate Cause, actually came from Satan, whom God permitted to test him (see esp. Job 1–2).
2. It was even older than Zoan, i.e., Tanis, the capital of Egypt (v. 22b; see N. Naʾaman, “Hebron Was Built Seven Years before Zoan in Egypt [Numbers 13:22],” VT 31 [1981]: 488–92). On the geography of the scouts’ itinerary, which would take about forty days on foot, see Ashley, The Book of Numbers, 235–38.
3. “Moses asked about the population density, hydrology, urbanization, and agricultural quality. But the spies’ answers were in this order: hydrology, agricultural potential, urbanization, and population density” (J. A. Beck, “Geography and the Narrative Shape of Numbers 13,” BSac 157 [2000]: 279).
4. Ibid., 273–80.
5. Milgrom, Numbers, 107.
6. Beck, “Geography,” 280.
7. Compare J. N. Griffith, Looking Up (Macon, Ga.: Mercer Univ. Press, 1993), 34.
8. Quoted in J. C. Maxwell and J. Dornan, Becoming a Person of Influence: How to Positively Impact the Lives of Others (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997), 72.
9. Griffith, Looking Up, 63.
10. M. Lucado, When God Whispers Your Name (Dallas: Word, 1994), 44.
11. Cf. Wenham, Numbers, 125.
12. R. Gane, “Caleb’s Finest Hour,” CUD 13 (2001): 24.
13. J. M. McPherson, “Antietam, Battle of [1862],” in J. W. Chambers, ed., The Oxford Companion to American Military History (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1999), 32.
14. Griffith, Looking Up, 20.
15. Ibid.
16. P. Yancey, Reaching for the Invisible God: What Can We Expect to Find? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 17.
17. Quoted in Maxwell and Dornan, Becoming a Person of Influence, 67.
18. George Herbert, in R. Atwan & L. Wieder, eds., Chapters into Verse: Poetry in English Inspired by The Bible (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1993), 148.
1. See Levine, Numbers 1–20, 364.
2. Maxwell and Dornan, Becoming a Person of Influence, 69–70.
3. Milgrom takes “them” in “the whole assembly talked about stoning them” (v. 10) as referring to Moses and Aaron (cf. v. 5; Numbers, 109).
4. So Milgrom, ibid.
5. K. Sakenfeld, “The Problem of Divine Forgiveness in Numbers 14,” CBQ 37 (1975): 325–27.
6. For instances of Israel explicitly testing (Piel of nsh) the Lord, see Ex. 17:2, 7; Deut. 6:16; Ps. 95:8–9. The Lord also tested Israel: see Ex. 15:25; 16:4; 20:20; Deut. 8:2, 16; cf. 33:8, of God’s testing Aaron at Massah = the waters of Meribah.
7. Cf. Neh. 4:12; Job 19:3.
8. Aside from introductions to Balaam’s oracles in Num. 24 (vv. 3, 4, 15, 16), neʾum appears in the Pentateuch only in the opposing contexts of Gen. 22:16 and Num. 14:28. Also notice the contrast between Ex. 6:8 and Num. 14:30.
9. Cf. chs. 27, 36, where there is no Mrs. Zelophehad.
10. In M. Water, compiler, The New Encyclopedia of Christian Quotations (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), 863.
11. Notice the alliteration in v. 44: The ark and Moshe (Moses) did not depart (Qal of mwš) from the midst of the camp.
12. For a similar idea in Ezekiel regarding God’s postexilic restoration of the Israelites, in spite of their lack of repentance, see B. Schwartz, “Ezekiel’s Dim View of Israel’s Restoration,” in M. Odell and J. Strong, eds., The Book of Ezekiel: Theological and Anthropological Perspectives (SBLSymS 9; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000), 43–67.
13. D. Gowan, “Changing God’s Mind (Exodus 32:7–14),” in F. C. Holmgren and H. E. Schaalman, eds., Preaching Biblical Texts: Expositions by Jewish and Christian Scholars (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 104.
14. Cf. G. Olafsson, “The Use of nśʾ in the Pentateuch and Its Contribution to the Concept of Forgiveness” (Ph.D. dissertation, Andrews University, 1992), 208, 274–75.
15. Cf. the suggestion of Y. Muffs on 14:20 that “the author does not imply a total forgiveness, but rather the divine resolve to bear the sin of a sinful generation until the time He actually punishes them, in other words, until they die a natural death” (Love and Joy: Law, Language and Religion in Ancient Israel [New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1992], 22).
16. R. Gane, Cult and Character: Purification Offerings, Day of Atonement, and Theodicy (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, forthcoming), ch. 16.
17. G. MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1984), 59, speaking of John the Baptist’s preparation in the desert.
18. Ibid., 60.
19. M. Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (Boston: Little, Brown, 2002), 9.
20. Gane, “Caleb’s Finest Hour,” 25.
21. C. Pinnock, R. Rice, J. Sanders, W. Hasker, and D. Basinger, The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of God (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 162.
22. Ibid., 161.
1. On the function of law in Num. 15 within its context between the preceding and following narratives, see Olson, The Death of the Old, 170–74.
2. Never on the incense altar (Ex. 30:9).
3. An ephah = 11.75 liters, about a peck, and a hin = 1.17 liters, about a quart (S. Rattray, “The Biblical Measures of Capacity,” in Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 895–98).
4. Although scholars have not settled on the definite meaning of this word, it clearly refers to some aspect of the bread-making process.
5. See Milgrom, Numbers, 121–22.
6. On Num. 15:22 see, e.g., Ibn Ezra (performative) versus Ramban (idolatry).
7. Cf. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 264–69.
8. Wenham, Numbers, 130.
9. For more detailed analysis and interaction with scholarly theories, see Gane, Cult and Character, ch. 4.
10. Cf. Wenham, Numbers, 130.
11. Here is the fortieth and last occurrence of the word tekelet in the Pentateuch.
12. Milgrom, Numbers, 127.
13. Violet was also used for the sanctuary fabrics (Ex. 26:1, 4, 31, 36; 27:16), including those that covered sacred objects when they were transported (Num. 4:6, 7, 9, 11, 12).
14. Tablet 14 Rev. IV 23’–25’; author’s transl. (Gane, Ritual Dynamic Structure, ch. 6). Another example is the second (afternoon) regular meal for Bēl/Marduk, the city god of Babylon, on the fifth day of the Babylonian New Year festival of spring (see ibid., ch. 5; cf. ANET, 334).
15. See Gane, Altar Call, 166.
16. For a fuller discussion, see R. Gane, “Numbers 15:22–31 and the Spectrum of Moral Faults,” in G. Klingbeil, ed., Inicios, paradigmas y fundamentos: Estudios teologicos y exegeticos en el Pentateuco (River Plate Monograph Series in Biblical and Theological Studies 1; Libertador San Martin: Editorial Universidad Adventista del Plata, 2004), 149–56.
17. Cf. Ps. 19:12–13; J. Calvin, Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony (Grand Rapids: Baker, repr. 1996), 341.
18. K. Koch, “Sühne und Sündenvergebung um die Wende von der exilischen zur nachexilischen Zeit,” EvT 26 (1966): 331–32.
19. So, e.g., G. A. Anderson, “The Interpretation of the Purification Offering (
) in the Temple Scroll (11QTemple) and Rabbinic Literature,” JBL 111 (1992): 19, 30–31.
20. See, e.g., P. Saydon, “Sin-Offering and Trespass-Offering,” CBQ 8 (1946): 397.
21. A. Schenker, “Das Zeichen des Blutes und die Gewissheit der Vergebung im Alten Testament,” MTZ 34 (1983): 205; idem, “Interprétations récentes et dimensions spécifiques du sacrifice ḥaṭṭāt,” Bib 75 (1994): 65, 69; idem, Recht und Kult, 121.
22. See Gane, Cult and Character, ch. 9.
23. A. Büchler, Studies in Sin and Atonement in the Rabbinic Literature of the First Century (LBS: New York: KTAV, 1967), 307–8, 456; R. K. Harrison, “Leviticus: An Introduction and Commentary” (TOTC; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1980), 31, 172.
24. C. Labuschagne, “The Meaning of beyād rāmaā in the Old Testament,” Von Kanaan bis Kerala (Festschrift for J. P. M. van der Ploeg; AOAT 211; Kevelaer/Neukirchen-Vluyn: Butzon & Bercker/Neukirchener, 1982), 146; cf. 145, 148.
25. Transl. A. L. Oppenheim, Letters from Mesopotamia (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1967), 190.
26. Cf. K. Kinghorn, “Biblical Concepts of Sin,” WesTJ 1 (1966): 22, 25–26.
27. Cf. Wenham, Numbers, 130–31; Budd, Numbers, 173–74.
28. M. Haran, “The Disappearance of the Ark,” IEJ 13 (1963): 50–51. The fact that Manasseh was a vassal of Assyria does not excuse him. Second Kings 21 and 2 Chron. 33 do not mention Assyrian imposition of idolatry (R. Gane, “The Role of Assyria in the Ancient Near East During the Reign of Manasseh,” AUSS 35 [1997]: 31) and deities worshiped in Judah during Manasseh’s reign were Canaanite and Aramean rather than Assyrian (M. Cogan, “Judah under Assyrian Hegemony: A Reexamination of Imperialism and Religion,” JBL 112 [1993]: 411).
29. Cf. Gane, Altar Call, 42, 149–50, 212. On direct forgiveness, see also A. P. Ross, Holiness to the Lord: A Guide to the Exposition of the Book of Leviticus (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 130.
30. F. Maass, “
kpr pi. to atone,” TLOT, 2:631.
31. Gane, Altar Call, 213.
32. A. Stanley Kramer, Three Rabbis in a Rowboat: The World’s Best Jewish Humor (New York: Citadel Press, 1996), 28.
33. Cf. Gane, Altar Call, 191–95. For detailed analysis, see idem, Cult and Character, ch. 16.
34. David had pardoned Shimei (2 Sam. 19:18–23) for cursing him (16:5–13), but later he did not regard him as worthy of clemency (1 Kings 2:8–9).
1. Lit., “Is it [too] much for you . . . ?”
2. For a summary of proposed solutions, see Milgrom, Numbers, 312–13.
3. Cf. Magonet, “The Korah Rebellion,” 22.
4. Ibid., 16.
5. Comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schulz, cited by Maxwell and Dornan, Becoming a Person of Influence, 67.
6. See Levine, Numbers 1–20, 414.
7. Only this verse and Ex. 32:19 (the golden calf episode) refer to Moses’ anger by the Qal of ḥrh, which usually describes God’s wrath (e.g., Ex. 32:11; Num. 11:1, 10, 33; 12:9). Elsewhere Moses’ anger is expressed with the verb qṣp (Ex. 16:20; Lev. 10:16; Num. 31:14).
8. With M. Noth here (Numbers [OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1968], 126–27), against the interpretation of A. Noordtzij, that the “assembly” here consists of the Israelite representatives and leaders rather than the entire community (Numbers, transl. E van der Maas [BSC; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983], 149).
9. See D. Daube on what he terms “ruler punishment,” in which a guilty person’s punishment involves “taking away or damaging his free subjects” (Studies in Biblical Law [Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1947], 163). For example, the first infant son of David and Bathsheba died as part of David’s punishment for adultery (2 Sam. 12:13–23).
10. Later in history, unauthorized King Uzziah is also punished when he tries to offer incense, but he is smitten with scale disease rather than divine fire (2 Chron. 26:19–21).
11. Magonet, “The Korah Rebellion,” 21.
12. Milgrom, Numbers, 342–43.
13. G. MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1984), 13.
14. Ibid., 14.
15. Confucius, The Analects 12.7, cited in M. P. Green, ed., 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1989), 215.
1. Compare J. Sturdy, Numbers (CBC; Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1976), 124.
2. B. Maarsingh, Numbers: A Practical Commentary (transl. J. Vriend; TI; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 63.
3. Compare R. K. Harrison, Numbers: An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992), 244.
4. Milgrom, Numbers, 144–5.
5. On nonritual incense, see K. Nielsen, Incense in Ancient Israel (VTSup 38; Leiden: Brill, 1986), 90.
6. Lucado, He Still Moves Stones, 102.
7. R. Pritchard, And When You Pray: The Deeper Meaning of the Lord’s Prayer (Nashville: Broad-man & Holman, 2002), 20.
8. M. Mead, “Family System and Society,” in G. Pirooz Sholevar, ed., Changing Sexual Values and the Family (Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1977), 33–35.
9. P. Tillich, Theology of Culture, ed. R. C. Kimball (New York: Galaxy/Oxford Univ. Press, 1964), 201.
1. Milgrom, Numbers, 145, 424.
2. Without qualification, “the altar” denotes the outer altar.
3. J. D. Livingston, “A Critical Study of the Greek Words Translated ‘Veils’ and an Application to the Book of Hebrews” (M.A. thesis; Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, 1949), 34–36, 39–45.
4. R. Gane and J. Milgrom, “
pāroket,” TDOT, 12:95–97.
5. See also Lev. 21:23, if NJPS is correct in rendering, “but he shall not enter behind the curtain,” i.e., into the Most Holy Place.
6. R. Gane, “Re-Opening Katapetasma (‘Veil’) in Hebrews 6:19,” AUSS 38 (2000): 6–7 n. 5.
7. E.g., M. Weinfeld, “
berît,” in TDOT, 2:263; Walton, Matthews, and Chavalas; The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament, 122.
8. Levine, Numbers 1–20, 449.
9. Compare Levine, Numbers, 450–51; Milgrom, Numbers, 432–36.
1. J. Milgrom, “Impurity Is Miasma: A Response to Hyam Maccoby,” JBL 119 (2000): 731; idem, Leviticus 23–27, 2460.
2. T. Frymer-Kensky, “Pollution, Purification, and Purgation in Biblical Israel,” in C. L. Meyers and M. O’Connor, eds., The Word of the Lord Shall Go Forth (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1983), 399–400. On the rabbinic assessment of the corpse as “the Father of Fathers of Impurity,” see H. Harrington, The Impurity Systems of Qumran and the Rabbis: Biblical Foundations (SBLDS 143; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993), 147–50.
3. R. Brown, The Message of Numbers: Journey to the Promised Land (BST; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 2002), 161.
4. Compare the early stages of purification from scaly skin disease (Lev. 14:1–8).
5. Cf. F. Gorman, The Ideology of Ritual: Space, Time and Status in the Priestly Theology (JSOTSup 91; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1990), 196, 199.
6. Not purification/sacrifice from sin (against NIV; NKJV; NASB; NJB). NJPS is more accurate—“It is for cleansing”—but still misses the fact that in ritual texts the verbless clause ḥaṭṭʾat huʾ/hiʾ, “it (is) a ḥaṭṭʾat,” is always the label for a particular kind of sacrificial ritual, i.e., the “purification offering” (Ex. 29:14; Lev. 4:24; 5:9, 11–12).
7. J. Philip, Numbers (ComC 4; Waco, Tex.: Word, 1987), 216.
8. Cf. Wenham, Numbers, 146.
9. Noth interprets this to mean that the animal was unprofaned by common work (Numbers, 140).
10. Contrast nonsacrificial slaughter by breaking the neck in Deut. 21:4.
11. On this ritual as a sacrifice, see, e.g., J. H. Kurtz, Sacrificial Worship of the Old Testament, transl. J. Martin (Minneapolis: Klock & Klock, 1980 [repr. of 1863]), 423; J. Milgrom, “The Paradox of the Red Cow (Num. XIX),” VT 31 (1981): 63–68; against those who have maintained that the red cow is not a sacrifice, e.g., G. B. Gray, Sacrifice in the Old Testament: Its Theory and Practice (Oxford: Clarendon, 1925), 59–60; S. Wefing, “Beobachtungen zum Ritual mit der roten Kuh (Num 19.1–10a),” ZAW 93 (1981), 349, 354.
12. Milgrom, “The Paradox,” 63.
13. Levine, Numbers 1–20, 463–64; for another derivation of niddah—“that which makes one flee”—see Ashley, The Book of Numbers, 367.
14. See comments on Lev. 6:27 regarding the polluting quality of purification offering blood in relation to its contact with the altar.
15. See Bridging Contexts section of Lev. 8.
16. D. P. Wright, “Heifer, Red,” ABD, 3:116.
17. Gane, Cult and Character, ch. 8.
18. Cf. J. Milgrom, “Confusing the Sacred and the Impure: A Rejoinder,” VT 44 (1994): 557–58.
19. G. André and H. Ringgren, “
ṭāmēʾ,” TDOT, 5:333.
20. See further Gane, Cult and Character, ch. 8; against A. Baumgarten, “The Paradox of the Red Heifer,” VT 43 (1993): 442–47.
21. The ritual in Deut. 21 for an unsolved murder is not a sacrifice (see D. P. Wright, “Deuteronomy 21:1–9 as a Rite of Elimination,” CBQ 49 [1987]: 387–403).
22. Against J. Milgrom, “Israel’s Sanctuary: The Priestly Picture of Dorian Gray,” RB 83 (1976): 393; Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 257.
23. Against Kiuchi, The Purification Offering, 124.
24. J. Malino misses this powerful line of application, becoming sidetracked by the theory that the sacrifice represented a transition from magic to religion, and by the misconception that it had to do with morality (“The Ashes of the Red Heifer: Religious Ceremonies and Obedience to Torah [Numbers 19:1–22],” in Holmgren and Schaalman, eds., PREACHING BIBLICAL TEXT, 144–48), 673.
1. Milgrom, Numbers, 164.
2. Cf. ibid., 164. On the problem of Kadesh, see Original Meaning section of Num. 33.
3. Cf. Ex. 17:5; M. Margaliot, “The Transgression of Moses and Aaron—Num. 20:1–13,” JQR 74 (1983): 210–11; against W. Propp, “The Rod of Aaron and the Sin of Moses,” JBL 107 (1988): 22–26.
4. Pockets of water collected in sedimentary rock would yield insufficient water (Walton, Matthews, and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary, 157).
5. Against N. Helfgot, “ ‘And Moses Struck the Rock’: Numbers 20 and the Leadership of Moses,” Tradition 27 (1993): 55–56.
6. Cf. 17:12–13; 20:3 of gwʿ as death inflicted by God. Outside Numbers it can denote natural death (Gen. 25:8, 17; 35:29; 49:33).
7. Called Meribah of Kadesh in 27:14; cf. Massah/Meribah as names for Rephidim in Ex. 17:7.
8. For various possible interpretations of these words, see Margaliot, “The Transgression of Moses and Aaron,” 212–15.
9. Ibid., 224; cf. 225.
1. Regarding ḥrm (dedication to God), see comments on Lev. 27:28–29. When the Israelites defeated the Amalekites decades earlier (Ex. 17:8–13), they did not devote them to utter destruction. However, the Lord later commissioned King Saul to carry out that kind of vengeance on them (1 Sam. 15).
2. W. Churchill, Never Give In!: The Challenging Words of Winston Churchill, compiled by D. Price and D. Walley (Kansas City: Hallmark Editions, 1967), 26.
3. Cf. Judg. 10:16; 16:16; Zech. 11:8.
4. Notice the chiastic relation between qṣr nepeš and nepeš qwṣ, linking the people’s impatience to their revulsion toward the manna.
5. Lev. 10:2; Num. 11:1; 16:35, 39 (Qal passive participle of śrp, referring to the rebels “who had been burned up”). On poisonous snakes in this region even today, see Noordtzij, Numbers, 186.
6. B. Levine, Numbers 21–36 (AB 4A; New York: Doubleday, 2000), 89.
7. On the route of Israel in relation to Moabite geography, see J. M. Miller, “The Israelite Journey Through (Around) Moab and Moabite Toponymy,” JBL 108 (1989): 577–95.
8. For linguistic, historical, and archaeological details regarding this poem and Heshbon, with its environs, see Levine, Numbers 1–36, 101–9, 113–25; Ashley, The Book of Numbers, 421–28. The Madaba Plains Project, an archaeological consortium sponsored by Andrews University and other institutions, has been carrying out excavations in this region, including at Tall Hisban, formerly thought to be Sihon’s Heshbon.
9. M. Lucado, When God Whispers Your Name (Dallas: Word, 1994), 44.
10. Cf. J. D. Derrett, “The Bronze Serpent,” EstBib 49 (1991): 321.
11. Lucado, When God Whispers Your Name, 52.
12. P. J. Wilson, “Snake on a Stick,” ChrCent (March 2, 1994): 223.
13. Gane, Altar Call, 77.
14. J. Stott, Basic Christianity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, repr. 1997), 92.
15. S. M. Peck, People of the Lie (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983), 269.
16. Pronounced Be-er, not like an alcoholic beverage.
17. Maxwell and Dornan, Becoming a Person of Influence, 70.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid., 70–71.
20. Milgrom, Leviticus 23–27, 2018.
21. J. Donne, The Works of John Donne (WPL; Ware, Hertfordshire, UK: Wordsworth Editions, 1994), 252.1.
1. On the Transjordanian monarchies as tribal kingdoms rather than true nation-states, see O. LaBianca and R. Younker, “The Kingdoms of Ammon, Moab and Edom: The Archaeology of Society in Late Bronze/Iron Age Transjordan (ca. 1400–500 BCE),” in T. Levy, ed., The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land (New York: Facts on File, 1995), 401–15; R. Younker, “Moabite Social Structure,” BA 60 (1997): 237–48.
2. For detailed discussion of the Deir ʿAllā inscriptions, see, e.g., Levine, Numbers 21–36, 241–75; Milgrom, Numbers, 473–6; J. T. Greene, Balaam and His Interpreters: A Hermeneutical History of the Balaam Traditions (BJS 244; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992), 2–3.
3. S. C. Layton, “Whence Comes Balaam? Num 22, 5 Revisited,” Bib 73 (1992): 32–61.
4. Noordtzij, Numbers, 200–201. On apparently contradictory cues for Balaam’s geographic origin, see also Levine, Numbers, 145–49.
5. About 360 miles from Moab (Noordtzij, Numbers, 200).
6. Because of an accumulation of such correspondences between the binding of Isaac story in Gen. 22 and the story of Balaam’s donkey in Num. 22, J. Safren regards the latter as a “reflection story,” in which Balaam appears as the antithesis of Abraham (“Balaam and Abraham,” VT 38 [1988]: 105–13).
7. Compare Gen. 22:11–12, where an angel of the Lord called to Abraham at the climax of the binding of Isaac story (ibid., 106–7). Although these passages lack the definite article before “angel,” Christian versions render “the angel (or Angel) of the Lord (or LORD)” (e.g. NIV, NASB, NKJV, NRSV), implying a special theophanic angel, i.e., a manifestation of the deity himself as an angel.
8. For śaṭan as a human person who acts as an adversary, see 1 Sam. 29:4; 2 Sam. 19:22; 1 Kings 5:4; 11:14, 23, 25.
9. Compare Milgrom, Numbers, 320, citing rabbinic sources.
10. Levine, Numbers, 5, 159.
11. Many Christians have understood such striking identifications between the/an angel of the Lord and the Lord himself to mean that the angel spoke as the Lord = the pre-incarnate Christ, but W. G. MacDonald has disputed this interpretation (“Christology and ‘The Angel of the Lord,’ ” in G. F. Hawthorne, ed., Current Issues in Biblical and Patristic Interpretation [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975], 324–35).
12. J. H. Walton, Genesis (NIVAC; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 610.
13. A. S. Kramer, Three Rabbis in a Rowboat: The World’s Best Jewish Humor (New York: Citadel Press, 1996), 29.
14. R. Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative (New York: Basic Books, 1981), 106. Here Alter notes the midrash Bemidbar Rabbah, 20:21, which points out the irony of the fact that Balaam wanted a sword to kill a donkey when he is setting out to defeat an entire nation with only his words.
15. J. Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), 141–42.
16. Aesop’s Fables, transl. G. F. Townsend (Books for the Ages, Version 1.0 on CD-ROM; Albany, Ore.: Ages Software, 1997), 45.
17. S. Gaukroger and N. Mercer, eds., A–Z Sparkling Illustrations (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), 76–77.
18. J. Ortberg, If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get out of the Boat (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 65.
1. J. H. Walton, private communication.
2. Milgrom, Numbers, 197.
3. Lit., “high points,” cf. “peaks” of mountains in Ps. 95:4.
4. Alternatively, “He [Israel] has [strength] like the horns of a wild ox” (cf. NIV; Ps. 92:10). Outside Israel, either humans or deities could be depicted this way: “King Hammurabi of Babylon proclaims himself as ‘the fiery wild ox who gores the foe.’ In the ancient Near East, gods were depicted with horns or wearing horned crowns. On a bas-relief from Ugarit, Baal is pictured wearing the horns of a wild ox” (Milgrom, Numbers, 200).
5. Cf. the divine command, “Do not practice divination” (Piel of nḥš; Lev. 19:26).
6. In May, 1844, Samuel F. B. Morse sent these words in the KJV—“What hath God wrought!”—as the first formal message from Washington, D. C. to Baltimore on the first inter-city telegraph line in the world.
7. Cf. Ps. 22:21, reversing the order of lion and wild ox.
8. Cf. the definition of magical ritual by R. Grimes: “Insofar as it is a deed having transcendent reference and accomplishing some desired empirical result, a rite is magical” (Beginnings in Ritual Studies [Washington, D. C.: Univ. Press of America, 1982], 45).
10. According to E. Leach, “whereas the primitive technician is always in direct mechanical contact with the object which he seeks to change, the magician purports to change the state of the world by action at a distance” (Culture and Communication: The Logic by Which Symbols Are Connected [Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1976], 30).
11. Col. William Kirby, personal communication.
12. Cf. Sailhamer, The Pentateuch As Narrative, 405–6.
13. Ibid., 406–7.
14. See Walton, Covenant: God’s Purpose, 100.
15. Yancey, Reaching for the Invisible God, 266–67.
16. Schlessinger and Vogel, The Ten Commandments, xxiii.
1. Against the idea of B. Levine that Balaam is voluntarily acting in harmony with what he knows to be the Lord’s will (Numbers 21–36, 191).
2. Notice that 24:8b is a triplet rather than a couplet.
3. Cf. the book of Esther, where the enemy of the Jews is Haman, an “Agagite” (Est. 3:1, 10; 8:3, 5; 9:24), which could be taken to imply that he was somehow descended from the Amalekite royal line.
4. Cf. Akkadian maḫāṣu, “to hit, to wound, to kill, to strike” (CAD, 10:71).
5. “Sons of Sheth” for the Moabites or as their counterparts appears only here. Elsewhere the proper name Šet refers to Seth, the son of Adam (Gen. 4–5; 1 Chron. 1:1).
6. Cf. Nah. 3:16, where the prophet Nahum says of Nineveh, capital of Assyria: “You have increased the number of your merchants till they are more than the stars of the sky.”
7. In the Bible, see Deut. 4:19; 17:3; 2 Kings 17:16; 21:3, 5; 23:4–5; Jer. 8:2; 19:13; Amos 5:26; Zeph. 1:5; Acts 7:42–43.
8. R. Labat, Manuel d’épigraphie Akkadienne, 5th ed. (Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1976), 1, 48–49.
9. Noordtzij, Numbers, 236–37.
10. Cf. Dan. 4:17, 25; 5:21.
1. A. Adler, quoted in Kramer, Three Rabbis in a Rowboat, 21.
2. Olson, The Death of the Old, 159.
3. Cf. Cole, Numbers, 441.
4. J. Sturdy, Numbers (CBC; Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1976), 184–85.
5. So Cole, Numbers, 441; Budd, Numbers, 280.
6. Cf. Ashley, The Book of Numbers, 521.
7. Cf. the Day of Atonement, on which rebellious faults are purged from the sanctuary for the benefit of the Israelite community even though the sinners do not receive the benefit (see Bridging Contexts section of Lev. 16).
8. Cf. Jer. 33:17–22, where the Lord reaffirms his covenants both with David and with the Levitical priests.
9. Other biblical examples of pejorative personal names are “Cushan-Rishathaim” (“Cushan of the Double Wickedness”; Judg. 3:8, 10) and Ishbosheth (“Man of Shame”; 2 Sam. 2:8, 10, 12, 15, etc.; but see 1 Chron. 8:33). See also the pejorative derivation of the geographic name “Babel” (Akkadian Bab-ili, “gate of god[s]”) from the root bll (“confuse”; cf. Gen. 11:9).
10. On the relationship between their nefarious deployment for the purpose of luring Israelite men to commit sacrilege and subsequent deployment of Israelite troops in retaliation (v. 5), see Levine, Numbers 21–36, 455–56.
11. Echoed by King Jeroboam I of the northern kingdom of Israel (1 Kings 12:28).
12. S. Terrien, Till the Heart Sings: A Biblical Theology of Manhood & Womanhood (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985), 60.
13. See Bridging Contexts section of Lev. 24; R. Gane, “Temple and Sacrifice,” JATS 10 (1999): 362.
14. R. M. Davidson, Flame of Yahweh: A Theology of Sexuality in the Old Testament (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2007), 100.
15. Elsewhere this sexual term appears only in the prophetic books, where it can be used metaphorically for unfaithfulness to the Lord through polytheism and idolatry (e.g., Jer. 3:2, 9; 13:27; Ezek. 23:27).
16. L. Crabb, Finding God (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993), 20.
17. S. Erlandsson, “
zānāh,” TDOT, 4:102.
18. Cf. D. Daube on “ruler punishment” (Studies in Biblical Law [Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1947], 163).
19. J. Stott, Basic Christianity, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 94.
20. Cf. ibid., 94–95.
21. For parallels between the golden calf and Baal of Peor narratives, see Wenham, Numbers, 184–85. For example, both involve idolatry, slaughter of idolaters, and divine reward for faithful members of the tribe of Levi, who carry out divine retribution.
22. On the long and fascinating paradigmatic role of Balaam in biblical and extrabiblical literature, see Greene, Balaam and His Interpreters.
23. Remember the story of three rabbis in a rowboat (see Contemporary Significance section of Num. 15).
24. Dan Oliver, “As God Is My Savior,” in CD titled “Desert of Exile” (Deer Park, Calif.: Silk Road Records, 1997); used by permission.
1. Compare the nes (“pole/standard”) on which Moses displayed the bronze serpent that he made (Num. 21:8–9).
2. T. Campolo, “Just a Kid with Cerebral Palsy,” in A. Gray, ed., Stories for the Heart: Over 100 Stories to Encourage Your Soul (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah, 1996), 60–61.
1. Remember that while Joshua was a generation younger than Moses, he belonged to the same generation as Zelophehad, but was exceptionally permitted to enter Canaan (14:30).
2. K. Sakenfeld, “Zelophehad’s Daughters,” PRSt 15 (1988): 41.
3. He and Aaron had used similar language at Kadesh under extreme circumstances when they cried out for God to spare his mutinous people (16:22).
4. H. Minkoff, “Moses and Samuel: Israel’s Era of Charismatic Leadership,” JBQ 30 (2002): 257–61.
5. For analysis of this ceremony, see K. Mattingly, “The Laying on of Hands on Joshua: An Exegetical Study of Numbers 27:12–23 and Deuteronomy 34:9” (Ph.D. dissertation, Andrews University, 1997).
6. If Moses and Joshua were monarchs whose reigns overlapped (e.g., the Neo-Babylonian kings Nabonidus and Belshazzar), this arrangement would be called a “coregency.”
7. (No listed author), Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age: A Brief History of A.A. (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1985), 74–75.
8. As Sir Edmund Gosse, an English critic and translator (1849–1928) said of Sturge Moore, a poet.
9. Cf. the prologue to the Laws of Hammurabi: “I am Hammurabi, the shepherd, selected by the god Enlil, he who heaps high abundance and plenty” (transl. M. T. Roth, Law Collections from Mesopotamia and Asia Minor (SBLWAW 6; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995), 77.
10. Dr. Seuss, Seuss-Isms: Wise and Witty Prescriptions for Living from the Good Doctor (New York: Random House, 1997), 8.
11. Ibid.
3. J. P. Smith, ed., A Compendious Syriac Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon, 1957; founded on the Thesaurus Syriacus of R. P. Smith), 577.
4. Milgrom, Leviticus 1–16, 188–90.
5. R. Gane, “ ‘Bread of the Presence’ and Creator-in-Residence,” VT 42 (1992): 187.
6. So m. Zebaḥ. 10:1; Gane, Ritual Dynamic Structure, ch. 7.
7. Ibid., 88–92.
8. See Lev. 23:15–16.
9. Cf. A. J. Heschel, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism (New York: Noonday, 1955), 417.
10. See Bridging Contexts of Lev. 23:1–22.
11. Griffith, Looking Up, 52.
12. R. Gane, “Sabbath and the New Covenant,” JATS 10 (1999): 317.
13. Cf. U. Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus, transl. I. Abrahams (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1967), 244.
14. Cf. Robertson, The Christ of the Covenants, 27–52; Walton, Covenant: God’s Purpose, 49–50.
15. Gane, “Sabbath and the New Covenant,” 328.
16. Cf. W. Specht, “The Sabbath in the New Testament,” in K. Strand, The Sabbath in Scripture and History (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1982), 105.
17. P. Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 182–83.
18. Luther, A Simple Way to Pray, 18.
19. See Num. 6:23–27; 1 Sam. 1:10–11; 2:1–10; 1 Kings 8:22–54; 1 Chron. 6:31–46; 16:4–37, 41–42; 25:1–31.
20. For detailed analysis, including development of criteria for determining whether or not sacred occasions remain in force, see R. Cole, “The Sacred Times Prescribed in the Pentateuch: Old Testament Indicators of the Extent of Their Applicability” (Ph.D. dissertation, Andrews University, 1996), esp. 335–53.
21. Griffith, Looking Up, 57.
22. Ibid., 26.
1. Milgrom, Numbers, 252; idem, Leviticus 1–16, 245.
3. Rather than referring to the only kind of vow that a husband could annul (see L. Schiffman, “The Law of Vows and Oaths [Num. 30, 3–16] in the Zadokite Fragments and the Temple Scroll,” RevQ 15 [1991]: 211).
4. Against D. Marcus, Jephthah and His Vow (Lubbock, Tex.: Texas Tech Press, 1986), 48. See R. Gane, God’s Faulty Heroes (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald, 1996), 87–98.
5. Cf. P. Bird, “Images of Women in the Old Testament,” in R. R. Ruether, ed., Religion and Sexism: Images of Woman in the Jewish and Christian Traditions (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974), 51.
6. Ibid., 51, 56.
1. Cf. the last lines of Robert Frost’s poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.”
2. Compare this army of 12,000 (12 × 1,000) equally representing the Israelite tribes with the perfectly symmetrical group of 144,000 (12 × 12 × 1,000) in Rev. 7:4; 14:1, 3.
3. Other examples include the wars by which the Israelites conquered Canaan (book of Joshua), battles for deliverance recorded in the book of Judges, Saul’s war against the Amalekites (1 Sam. 15), and attacks by Mesha (King of Moab) on Israelites, which he claims that his god Chemosh commanded (Mesha Stele, lines 14, 32; transl. ANET, 320–21).
4. Against S. Niditch, War in the Hebrew Bible: A Study in the Ethics of Violence (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1993), 89; idem, “War, Women, and Defilement in Numbers 31,” Semeia 61 (1993): 53.
5. Wright, “Purification from Corpse-Contamination in Numbers XXXI 19–24,” 218–19.
6. Ibid., 221–23.
7. See comments on Lev. 27 regarding ḥerem (devotion to God for destruction).
8. C. Cowles, “The Case for Radical Discontinuity,” in Show Them No Mercy: Four Views on God and Canaanite Genocide (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), 13–44; J. J. Collins, “The Zeal of Phinehas: The Bible and the Legitimation of Violence,” JBL 122 (2003): 3–21.
9. Cf. E. Merrill, “The Case for Moderate Discontinuity,” in Show Them No Mercy, 63–94; D. Gard, “The Case for Eschatological Continuity,” in Show Them No Mercy, 113–41; Tremper Longman III, “The Case for Spiritual Continuity,” in Show Them No Mercy, 161–87.
10. M. Kline, The Structure of Biblical Authority (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972), 163.
11. See the extensive bibliography on this fascinating subject compiled by B. L. Whitney: Theodicy: An Annotated Bibliography on the Problem of Evil 1960–1990 (New York: Garland, 1993).
12. See Bridging Contexts section on Num. 16:1–35; Gane, God’s Faulty Heroes, 21–22.
13. Aesop, Aesop’s Fables, 13.
14. A. Einstein, “My Views,” in E. Knoebel, ed., Classics of Western Thought: Volume III—The Modern World, 4th ed. (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), 3:539.
15. Küng, Global Responsibility, 73–74.
16. R. Firestone, “Conceptions of Holy War in Biblical and Qurʿānic Tradition,” JRE 24 (1996): 105–7, 111–18.
17. Question formulated by a rabbi at an interfaith meeting in New Orleans with Jews, Muslims, and Christians, cited by P. Yancey, Finding God in Unexpected Places (Ann Arbor: Servant Publications, 1997), 56.
18. Küng, Global Responsibility: In Search of a New World Ethic, 76.
19. Pope John XXIII, “Pacem in Terris,” in D. Gochberg, ed., Classics of Western Thought: Volume IV—The Twentieth Century (Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980), 4:463.
20. Yancey, Finding God in Unexpected Places, 54–55.
1. See R. de Vaux, “Le pays de Canaan,” JAOS 88 (1968): 23–30; Milgrom, Numbers, 501–2; M. Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1–11 (AB 5; New York: Doubleday, 1991), 174–75.
2. The only other instances of nwʾ in the Pentateuch are in Num. 30, referring to a father or husband restraining a daughter or wife by annulling her privilege and obligation to fulfill a vow (30:5, 8, 11).
3. Levine, Numbers 21–36, 489–90.
4. Scolnic, “Theme and Context in Biblical Lists,” 137.
5. J. N. Griffith, Looking Up (Macon, Ga.: Mercer Univ. Press, 1993), 31.
6. For detailed discussion, including comparison with other biblical passages regarding the Israelite itinerary, see Scolnic, “Theme and Context,” 112–241.
7. For identifications of locations named in the biblical text, see, e.g., Cole, Numbers, 518–28, with a helpful table comparing Pentateuchal itineraries and identifying locations if possible; Ashley, The Book of Numbers, 627–33; Levine, Numbers 21–36, 514–22; Milgrom, Numbers, 278–82.
8. C. R. Krahmalkov, “Exodus Itinerary Confirmed by Egyptian Evidence,” BAR 20 (1994): 58; cf. 57.
9. Milgrom, Numbers, 83.
10. On difficulties fitting the accounts of Numbers and Deuteronomy into a single, coherent picture, cf. ibid., 164, 281.
11. On these boundaries, see Cole, Numbers, 532–38, with comparison between boundary and territorial lists in Num. 34; Josh. 14–19; and Ezek. 47; Ashley, The Book of Numbers, 639–642; Levine, Numbers 21–36, 532–36; Milgrom, Numbers, 284–87.
12. Judg. 9:57; 1 Sam. 25:39; 2 Sam. 1:16; 1 Kings 2:32–33, 44; 8:32; 2 Chron. 6:23. Abimelech’s punishment literally came down on his head in the form of an upper millstone (Judg. 9:53, 56). In Obad. 15 the talionic formula, “As you have done, it will be done to you” (cf. Lev. 24:19; Deut. 19:19; Judg. 1:7; 15:11), parallels “your deeds will return upon your own head.” Since R. Yaron has found the same pattern of expression in the Egyptian “Judicial Papyrus of Turin” from the reign of Rameses IV, he suggests that it is a kind of fixed formula (“A Ramessid Parallel to 1 K ii 33, 44–45,” VT 8 [1958]: 432–33). See Bridging Contexts section of Lev. 16 regarding “The mysterious Azazel.”
13. K. Koch, “Is There a Doctrine of Retribution in the Old Testament?” transl. T. Trapp, in J. Crenshaw, ed., Theodicy in the Old Testament (IRT 4; Philadelphia/London: Fortress/SPCK, 1983), 60–82.
14. Ibid., 75–78.
15. Cf. Gane, God’s Faulty Heroes, 19–20, 24–25, 27–30.
16. D. L. Moody, cited by H. Finzel, The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make (Colorado Springs: Victor, 1994), 100.
17. Ibid., 99–101.
18. Ibid., 108–9.
19. P. Hersey and K. Blanchard, Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources, 5th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1988), 170–94.
20. J. C. Maxwell and J. Dornan, Becoming a Person of Influence: How to Positively Impact the Lives of Others (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997), 67.
21. T. Roosevelt, cited by Finzel, The Top Ten Mistakes, 101.
22. Ibid., 103–5.
23. Ibid., 106.
1. Regarding the layout, see J. Milgrom, “The Levitic Town: An Exercise in Realistic Planning,” JJS 33 (1982): 185–88; idem, Numbers, 502–4.
2. Sakenfeld, “Zelophehad’s Daughters,” 45–46; R. Gane, “The Laws of the Seventh and Fiftieth Years,” JAGNES 1 (1990): 10.
3. Patrick, Old Testament Law, 53.
4. Compare the fact that words from the root ḥṭʾ can refer either to sin (e.g., Lev. 4:27–28) or to purification from evil (8:15) by a purification offering (ḥaṭṭaʾt; 8:14).
5. Isa. 41:14; 43:14; 44:6, 24; 47:4; 48:17; 49:7, 26; 54:5, 8; 59:20; 60:16; 63:16; see also Ps. 19:14; 78:35.
6. Augustine wrote: “He who alone was free among the dead, for he was free to lay down his life and free to take it up again, was for us both Victor and Victim in your sight, and it was because he was the Victim that he was also the Victor. In your sight he was for us both Priest and Sacrifice, and it was because he was the Sacrifice that he was also the Priest. By being your Son, yet serving you, he freed us from servitude and made us your sons” (Confessions, transl. R. Pine-Coffin [New York: Barnes & Noble, 1992], 10.43 [p. 251]).
7. J. S. Feinberg and P. D. Feinberg, Ethics for a Brave New World (Wheaton, Ill.: Cross-way, 1993), 138.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. According to tradition, the right of the Sanhedrin to impose capital punishment was annulled by the Romans forty years before the Second Temple was destroyed (b. Sanh. 41a; i.e., during the time of Jesus’ ministry).
11. Feinberg and Feinberg, Ethics, 138–39.
12. For Lawal’s story, see S. Robinson, “Casting Stones,” Time (Sept. 2, 2002): 36–37.
13. “Notebook: Milestones” page, Time (Oct. 6, 2003): 25.
14. Feinberg and Feinberg, Ethics, 139.
15. Patrick, Old Testament Law, 54.
16. See Bridging Contexts section of Lev. 20 regarding sexual offenses.
17. M. Greenberg, “Some Postulates of Biblical Criminal Law,” in M. Haran, ed., Yehezkel Kaufmann Jubilee Volume (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1960), 13–20; idem, “More Reflections on Biblical Criminal Law,” in S. Japhet, ed., Studies in Bible (ScrHier 31; Jerusalem: Magnes, 1986), 1–17 (responding to criticism by B. Jackson, “Reflections on Biblical Criminal Law,” JJS 24 [1973]: 8–38).
18. Feinberg and Feinberg, Ethics, 139.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. According to Eusebius (Church History 2.25), Paul was beheaded.