E- Num_4:1-49; Num_5:1-31; Num_6:1-27; Num_7:1-89

Pgs. 351-362

Ch. 4-7

SECTIONXXXV.

NASA. AND theLord spake with Mosheh, saying: Take the account of the Beni Gershon also, fromthirty years to fifty years, of all who come by bands to do the work of thetabernacle of ordinance. And this is the service of the family of Gershon, toserve and to carry. They shall carry the curtains of the tabernacle, thetabernacle of ordinance, its covering, and the hyacinth covering which is uponit above; and the hanging of the gate of the tabernacle of ordinance; and thecurtains of the court, and the hanging for the gate of the court which is bythe tabernacle round about, and their cords and all the vessels of theirservice, and all that is delivered to them to serve with. Upon the word ofAharon and his sons shall be all the service of the Beni Gershon, for all theirburdens and service, and of their whole work shalt thou ordain the charge uponthem. This is the ministry of the family of the Beni Gershon, in the tabernacleof ordinance; and the care of them shall be in the hand of Ithamar bar Aharonthe priest. The sonsof Merari shalt thou number, from thirty years to fifty years, everyone whocometh with the band to minister in the work of the tabernacle of ordinance.And this shall be the charge of the burdens of all their service in thetabernacle of ordinance, the boards of the tabernacle, its bars, pillars, andbases; the pillars of the court also round about, their pins and their cords,with all the instruments of their whole service, and all those of the charge oftheir burdens, thou shalt number by their names. This is the work of the familyof Merari, according to all their service in the tabernacle of ordinance, underthe hand of Ithamar bar Aharon the priest. And Mosheh arid Aharon numbered the sons of Kehath by their families,and by the house of their fathers, from thirty years to fifty years; every onewho came with the band to serve in the tabernacle of ordinance; and the sums ofthem were two thousand seven hundred and fifty. These are the numbers of thefamily of Kehath, of all who ministered in the tabernacle of ordinance; whomMosheh and Aharon numbered upon the mouth of the Word of the Lord by Mosheh. The numbers of the Beni Gershon, after the families of their father’shouse from thirty years to fifty years, every one who who came with the band toserve in the tabernacle of ordinance; the sums of them were two thousand sixhundred and thirty. These are the numbers of the Beni Gershon, of all whoministered in the tabernacle of ordinance, whom Mosheh arid Aharon numberedupon the mouth of the Word of the Lord by Mosheh. And the numbers of the Beni Merari, by the families of their father’shouse, from thirty to fifty years, every one who came with the band to theservice of the tabernacle of ordinance, were three thousand two hundred. Theseare the numbers of the Beni Merari, whom Mosheh and Aharon numbered upon themouth of the Word of the Lord by Mosheh.

Thewhole sum of the Levites whom Mosheh arid Aharon and the princes of Israelnumbered, from thirty to fifty years, all coming by bands to fulfil the chargeand service of the porterage of the tabernacle of ordinance, was eight thousandfive hundred arid eighty. By the mouth of the Word of the Lord were theynumbered by Mosheh, every man according to his service and burden; and thenumbering of them was as the Lord commanded Mosheh.

V. And the Lord spake with Mosheh, saying: Command the sons of Israelto send away from the camp every one who is leprous, or who hath an issue, oris unclean by having defiled himself (by touching) the dead. From a male to afemale thou shalt send them away, and separate them without the camp, that theymay not defile their tents; for the Shekinah of My Holiness dwelleth among you.And the sons of Israel did so, and sent them away from the camp; as the Lordhad commanded Mosheh, so did the sons of Israel. And the Lord spake with Mosheh, saying: Say to the children of Israel:A man or a woman who committeth any human sin, in acting perversely before theLord, and hath become guilty; they shall make confession of their sins whichthey have committed. If he hath extorted money from his neighbour, he shallrestore (the amount of) his sin in the principal thereof, and add to it a fifthof its value, and give (both) principal and fifth to him against whom be hathsinned. And if the man (hath died and) hath no kinsman to whom the debt may berendered, the debt to be restored (shall he render) before the Lord; he shallgive it to the priest, besides the ram for his atonement, by which atonement isto be made for him. And every separation of all consecrated things of thechildren of Israel which they bring to the priest shall be his. The consecratedtithe, also, of any man shall be his, that his substance may not fail; whatevera man giveth unto the priest shall be his. And theLord spake with Mosheh, saying: Speak with the sons of Israel, and say to them:If the wife of any man go astray and commit wrongness against him, and anotherman lie with her, and it be hidden from her husband’s eyes, and be concealed,and she be contaminated: or, if the testimony be not clear which is witnessedagainst her, and she be not convicted; or, if the spirit of jealousy come uponhim, and he be jealous of his wife, that she hath been defiled, or the spiritof jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, though she hath notbeen defiled; and though that man may have not brought separation or tythe,there is constraint upon him to bring his wife unto the priest. Now, becauseshe may have brought delicacies to the adulterer, she ought to bring anappointed oblation of her own, a tenth of three sata of barley flour, thatbeing the food of beasts: he shall not pour oil, nor put frankincense thereon;for it is a mincha (on account) of jealousy, a mincha of a memorial whichcalleth guilt to mind. And the priest shall bring her near, and cause her to stand before theLord. And the priest shall take holy water from the laver with an ewer, andpour it into an earthen vessel; because she may have brought the adulterersweet wine to drink in precious vases; and he shall take of the dust that isupon the ground of the tabernacle,-because the end of all flesh is dust,- andput it into the water. And the priest shall cause the woman to stand before theLord, and bind a cord over her loins and upon her breast,- because she shouldhave bound her loins with a girdle; and he shall uncover the woman’s head,because she had tied a fillet upon her hair. And he shall put the mincha of memorial, the mincha of jealousy, intoher hand; while in the hand of the priest shall be the bitter water of thetrial. And the priest shall adjure her by the adjuration of the Great andGlorious Name, and shall say to the woman:

If thou hast not turned aside, to defile thyself by acting against theright of thy husband, be thou unhurt by these bitter waters of trial.[JERUSALEM. Be thou made innocent by these waters of trial by their probation.]But if thou hast turned aside against the right of thy husband, and art defiledin having shared the bed with a man against thy husband’s right:-Then shall thepriest adjure the woman by the oath of malediction, and say to the woman,-TheLord make thee a curse and an execration among the children of thy people, in causingthy thigh to corrupt, and thy belly to swell;. and may these waters of trialenter into thy bowels, to cause thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to corrupt. And the woman shall answer and say: Amen, if I was polluted whenbetrothed; Amen, if I have been polluted since my marriage. [JERUSALEM. And thewoman shall answer, Amen, because I have not been unclean; Amen, if ever Ishall have wrought uncleanness.] And the priest shall write these maledictions upon a parchment, andwash it out with the water of trial, and cause the woman to drink the bittertrial water: the trial water of malediction shall be received by her. But thepriest shall (first) take from the woman’s hand the mincha of jealousy, anduplift the mincha before the Lord, and lay it on the side of the altar. And thepriest shall take a handful of the portion for its memorial, and burn it at thealtar; and after that the woman shall drink the water. And whenhe hath caused her to drink the water, it will be that if she hath been defiledby adultery, and hath acted with wrongness against her husband, those provingwaters will enter into her with a curse, and her belly will swell, and herthigh become corrupt, and the woman will be an execration among the children ofher people. The adulterer as well will be detected by these waters ofprobation, in whatever place he may be. But if the woman hath not been defiledby adultery, but is innocent, they will enter without harm, and her brightnesswill shine forth, and she will find affection before her husband, and becomethe mother of a son. This is the declaration of the law of jealousy, when a woman hathfallen away from the right of her husband, and become defiled by adultery; orwhen the spirit of jealousy cometh upon a man, that he be so jealous of hiswife as to make her stand before the Lord, then shall the priest perform allthis law. But if the man be innocent of transgressions, then let that womanbear her iniquity.

VI. Andthe Lord spake with Mosheh, saying: Speak with the children of Israel, and sayto them: When a man or, woman, seeing her who had gone astray in hercorruption, shall (resolve to) become abstinent from wine, or for any othercause shall make the vow of a Nazir in separating one’- self unto the Name ofthe Lord, he shall abstain from wine, new and old, he shall drink neithervinegar of old wine or new; neither may he drink liquor in which grapes havebeen crushed, nor eat of grapes either fresh or dried. [JERUSALEM. From wine,new or old, be shall abstain, (keep apart,) and vinegar of old wine he may notdrink, nor any liquor. of grapes.] All the days of his vow he shall not eat ofthe tree which maketh wine, from the husks of grapes even to the kernels withinthem. All the days of his nazir-vow the razor shall not pass upon hishead until the time when the days of his separation to the Name of the Lord befulfilled; he shall be consecrate, letting the hair of his head grow. All thedays of his separation to the Name of the Lord he shall not go in where thereis a dead man. For his father, or his mother, his brother, or his sister, heshall not make himself unclean through their decease; for the crown of Eloah isupon his head; all the days in which he is a Nazir lie shall be sacred beforethe Lord. But if a person die near him suddenly, and he unawares defile the headof his vow, let him shave his head on the day of his purification; on theseventh day let him shave it. And on the eighth day let him bring two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, unto the priest at the door of the tabernacle ofordinance. And the priest shall make one a sin offering, and one a burntoffering, and atone for him on account of that in which be hath sinned, indefiling himself by the dead: and he shall consecrate his head on that day. Andlet him dedicate before the Lord the days of his nazirate (afresh), and bring alamb of the year for a trespass offering; but the former days will have been invain, because he had defiled his nazirate. And this is the law of theNazir on the day when his separation days are fulfilled: Let him presenthimself at the door of the tabernacle of ordinance, and bring his oblationbefore the Lord, one lamb of the year unblemished for a burnt offering, and oneewe Iamb of the year unblemished for a sin offering, and one ram unblemishedfor the consecrated oblation; and a basket of unleavened cakes of flour witholive oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with olive oil, their minchas andlibations. And the priest shall offer before the Lord, and perform the sin offering, and the burnt sacrifice; and makethe ram a consecrated victim (peace offering) before the Lord, with the basketof unleavened; and the priest shall make its mincha and its libation. And theNazir shall shave his consecrated head, without, after the offering of theholy oblations at the door of the tabernacle of ordinance, and take the hair ofhis consecrated head, and lay iton the fire that is under the cauldron of the peace offering. And the priestshall take the shoulder that is boiled, entire from the ram, and one unleavenedcake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and put upon the hands of theNazirite, after he hath shaved his head of the consecration. And the priestshall uplift them for an elevation. It is sacred; it belongeth to the priest,with the breast of the elevation, and the separated shoulder. And after thatthe Nazirite may drink wine. This is the declaration of the law of the Nazir who shall have vowedhis oblation before the Lord for his separation, besides what may come into hishand according to the rule (or measure) of his vow, to bring that which he hadvowed; so shall he do according to the law of his nazirate. And theLord spake with Mosheh, saying: Speak with Aharon and his sons, saying: Thusshall you bless the children of Israel, while spreading forth the hands fromthe high place;^{[1] <l >} in this tongue.^{[2] <l >} TheLord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make His face to shine upon thee, andgracious unto thee. The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and grant theepeace. The Lord bless thee in all thy business, and keep) thee from demons^{[3] <l >}of the night, and things that cause terror, and from demons of the noon^{[4] <l >}and of the morning, and from malignant spirits arid phantoms. The Lord make Hisface to shine upon thee, when occupied in the law, and reveal to thee itssecrets, and be merciful unto thee. The Lord lift up His countenance upon theein thy prayer, and grant thee peace in thy end. And they shall bestow thebenediction of My Name upon the children of Israel, and I, by My Word, willbless them.

VII. Andit was on the day which begins the month of Nisan, when Mosheh had finished touprear the tabernacle, he took it not in pieces again, but anointed andconsecrated it and all its vessels, the altar and all the vessels thereof, andhe anointed them and hallowed them; then the leaders of Israel, who were thechiefs of the house of their fathers, brought their offerings. These were theywho had been appointed in Mizraim chiefs over the numbered, and they broughttheir offering before the Lord; six waggons covered and fitted up, and twelveoxen; one waggon for two princes and one ox for each. [JERUSALEM. Six waggonsyoked.] But Mosheh was not willing to receive them, and they brought thembefore the tabernacle. And the Lord spake with Mosheh, saying: Take them, andlet them be used for the need of the appointed (work), and let the oxen and thewaggons be for the work of the service of the tabernacle of ordinance, and givethem to the Levites, to each according to the measure of his work. And Moshehtook the waggons and the oxen, and gave them to the Levites. Two waggons andfour oxen he gave to the sons of Gershon, according to the amount of theirservice, and four waggons and eight oxen gave be to the sons of Merari, accordingto the measure of their service, by the band of Ithamar bar Aharon the priest.But to the sons of Kehath he gave neither waggons nor oxen, because on them waslaid the service of the sanctuary, to be carried on their shoulders. And theprinces offered at the dedication of the altar by anointing, on the day that heanointed it did the princes present their oblations before the altar. And theLord said unto Mosheh, Let the princesoffer each, one prince on one day, their oblations at the dedication of thealtar by anointing.

He who on the first daypresented his oblation was Nachshon bar Amminadab, prince of the house of thefathers of the tribe Jehudah: and his oblation which he offered was one silverbow, thickly embossed, (or, crusted,) in weight one hundred and thirty shekels,in shekels of the sanctuary; one silver vase, slightly embossed, of seventyshekels, in shekels of the sanctuary; both of these vessels he brought filledwith flour of the separation, sprinkled with olive oil for a mincha; one pan(censer) weighing ten silver shekels, but it was itself of good gold; and hebrought it full of good sweet incense of the separation; one young bullock ofthree years, one ram of two years, and one lamb of the year. These three didthe chief of the tribe Jehudah bring for a burnt offering; one kid of the goatshe brought for a sin offering; and for consecrated victims, two oxen, fiverams, five goats, lambs of the year five: this is the order of the oblationwhich Nachshon bar Amminadab offered of his wealth. [JERUSALEM. And theoblation which he offered was one silver dish, &c., in the same words asabove.] On the second day, Nethanel bar Zuar, chief of the house of the fathersof the tribe Issakar, brought his oblation. He brought his oblation afterJehudah by commandment of the Holy: one silver dish thickly embossed, onehundred and thirty shekels, &c., as the first.^{[5] <l >} On thethird day, Eliab bar Helon, prince of the Beni Zebulon, offered. On the fourth,Elizur bar Shedeur, prince of the Beni Reuben; on the fifth, Shelumiel barZurishaddai, prince of Shemeon; on the sixth, Eljasaph bar Dehuel, prince ofthe Beni Gad; on the seventh, Elishama bar Ammihud, prince of the Beni Ephraim;on the eighth, Gamaliel bar Pedazur, prince of Menasheh; on the ninth, Abidanbar Gideoni, prince of Benjamin; on the tenth, Achiezer bar Amishaddai, princeof the Beni Dan; on the eleventh, Pagiel bar Achran, prince of Asher; and onthe twelfth day, Achira bar Enan, prince of the Beni Naphtali, offered. This isthe oblation at the anointing of the altar, on the day that they anointed it,from the riches of the princes of Israel: twelve silver bowls, answering to thetwelve tribes; twelve silver vases, answering to the twelve princes of the BeniIsrael; twelve golden pans, answering to the twelve signs (mazalia^{[6] <l >}). One hundred and thirty shekels was the weight ofeach silver bowl, answering to the years of Jokebed when she bare Mosheh; andseventy shekels was the weight of each vase, answering to the seventy elders ofthe great Sanhedrin: all the silver vessels, two thousand four hundred shekels,in shekels of the sanctuary. The golden pans were twelve, answering to theprinces of Israel, full of good sweet incense; the weight of ten shekels wasthe weight of each pan, answering to the Ten Words; all the gold of the pans,one hundred and and twenty (shekels), answering to the years lived by Moshehthe prophet. All the bullocks for the burnt offering, twelve, a bullock for aprince of the house of the fathers; twelve rams, because the twelve princes ofIshmael would perish; twelve lambs of the year, because the twelve princes ofPersia would perish; and their minchas, that famine might be removed from theworld; and twelve kids of the goats for the sin offering, to atone for the sinsof the twelve tribes. And all the oxen for consecrated victims,twenty-four, answering to the twenty-four orders (of the priests);the rams, sixty, answering, to the sixty years which Izhak had lived when hebegat Jakob; the goats, sixty, answering to the sixty letters in thebenediction of the priests; lambs of the year, sixty, to atone for the sixty myriadsof Israel. This was the dedication of the altar by anointment on the day thatthey anointed it. And when Mosheh entered into the tabernacle of ordinance to speak withHim, he heard the voice of the Spirit who spake with him descending from theheaven of heavens upon the Mercy Seat which was upon the Ark of the Testimonybetween the two Cherubim, and from thence was the Oracle speaking with him.

^[1] Or,"place of speaking."

^[1] TheHebrew, which the Targumist gives textually, and then paraphrases in Chaldee.See the Glossary.

^[1]Liliths ^[1] Psalm xci.6. Vulg. et Sept.

^[1] Theoblation of each of the twelve tribes was precisely the same. I have thereforeomitteds the details after the first, and given only the name of the offerer.The Targumist abridges here, also.

^[1] Signs ofthe Zodiac.

^{[1] <l >} Or, "place of speaking."

^{[2] <l >} The Hebrew, which the Targumist givestextually, and then paraphrases in Chaldee. See Glossary.

^{[3] <l >}Lihths ^{[4] <l >} Psalm xci. 6. Vulg. et Sept.

^{[5] <l >} The oblation of each of the twelvetribes was precisely the same. I have therefore omitteds the details after thefirst, and given only the name of the offerer. The Targumist abridges here,also.

^{[6] <l >} Signs of the Zodiac.