The Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries provide compact, critical commentaries on the books of the Old Testament for the use of theological students and pastors. The commentaries are also useful for upper-level college or university students and for those responsible for teaching in congregational settings. In addition to providing basic information and insights into the Old Testament writings, these commentaries exemplify the tasks and procedures of careful interpretation, to assist students of the Old Testament in coming to an informed and critical engagement with the biblical texts themselves.
The present volume gives an up-to-date, readable commentary on the book of Numbers. The commentary covers critical issues section by section while emphasizing the larger theological and literary issues in Numbers and illustrating its relevance for modern readers.
The Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries provide compact, critical commentaries on the books of the Old Testament for the use of theological students and pastors. The commentaries are also useful for upper-level college or university students and for those responsible for teaching in congregational settings. In addition to providing basic information and insights into the Old Testament writings, these commentaries exemplify the tasks and procedures of careful interpretation, to assist students of the Old Testament in coming to an informed and critical engagement with the biblical texts themselves.
The present volume gives an up-to-date, readable commentary on the book of Numbers. The commentary covers critical issues section by section while emphasizing the larger theological and literary issues in Numbers and illustrating its relevance for modern readers.
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Overview
The Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries provide compact, critical commentaries on the books of the Old Testament for the use of theological students and pastors. The commentaries are also useful for upper-level college or university students and for those responsible for teaching in congregational settings. In addition to providing basic information and insights into the Old Testament writings, these commentaries exemplify the tasks and procedures of careful interpretation, to assist students of the Old Testament in coming to an informed and critical engagement with the biblical texts themselves.
The present volume gives an up-to-date, readable commentary on the book of Numbers. The commentary covers critical issues section by section while emphasizing the larger theological and literary issues in Numbers and illustrating its relevance for modern readers.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781501846540 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Abingdon Press |
| Publication date: | 10/17/2017 |
| Series: | Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries Series |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 342 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
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Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
COMMENTARY
NUMBERS 1 AND 2
Identity and Order
Numbers begins with the headcounts that give the book its name. YHWH commands Moses to appoint tribal leaders to conduct a census of men of military age in their ancestral houses (i.e., their tribes). The totals are then reported — twice, once in chapter 1 and again in chapter 2. The apparently dry nature of the narrative belies its theological significance, however. These chapters convey a sense of divinely granted order, leadership, and purpose that would have sounded a note of hope to Persian-period Judah, a battered and fragmented people.
Literary Analysis
Numbers is an integral part of Israel's larger story, leading from Genesis through Deuteronomy, from creation to the emergence of Israel on the edge of its promised land. It is also a literary unit with its own integrity. Consideration of Numbers 1 in its context thus requires looking at the chapter in relationship to the preceding books of the Pentateuch, as well as its relationship to Numbers as a distinct book.
Numbers 1:1 links the chapter firmly to the exodus and prior wilderness narratives. God instructs Moses to carry out a census "on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt." The chronological note is one of a series of dates that provide continuity and structure to the story of the tribes' wilderness journey. The date especially connects the events in Numbers to Israel's escape from Egypt. Much as using AD and BC marks the birth of Jesus as the center of Christian history, the chronological notes in the Pentateuch ground Israel's subsequent history in the exodus event.
Numbers 1:1 also establishes the geographical setting of the narrative: "the wilderness of Sinai." This setting constitutes another tie to the overarching pentateuchal story. Exodus 19:1-2 explains that the Israelites came to "the wilderness of Sinai"; their departure from Sinai will be narrated in Numbers 10:11.
But if verse 1 indicates continuity with what has gone before, it also signals an important movement in the story. The chronological notes demarcate particularly significant events: the first Passover (Exod 12:3), the arrival at Sinai (Exod 19:1), the construction and dedication of the tent of meeting (Exod 40:2, 17), the second Passover (Num 9:3), and the departure from Sinai (Num 10:11). The reader is thus alerted: what comes next matters. Moreover, except for the geographical references in Exodus 19:1-2, the texts consistently identify the story's setting as "Mount Sinai," a set place, immobile, a mountain. With the construction and dedication of the tabernacle, the locus of divine revelation shifts. YHWH will now encounter the people at the tabernacle, which Jacob Milgrom has aptly deemed the "mobile Sinai" (Milgrom 1990, 4). No longer bound to the mountain, the people can prepare to leave for the promised land.
The topic and wording of the census in Numbers 1 also link the book to its larger pentateuchal context. The census of the tribes recalls the last enumeration of Jacob's descendants, when the family consisted of seventy members (Gen 46:8-27; Exod 1:5; Olson, 1996, 9). Given the connections between Numbers 1 and the previous books of the Pentateuch, the chapter, and, indeed, the whole of Numbers may be read against the background of the blessing in creation, the promise to the ancestors, descent into Egypt, deliverance from bondage there, and the revelation at Mount Sinai.
Numbers may also be read as a distinct literary unit. The initial chapters are key to the structure of that unit. The book is organized in the first place by generation. Numbers 1–2 introduce the first part of Numbers, which concerns the exodus generation, and its ultimate disobedience and failure. The second census, Numbers 26, which counts the next generation, introduces part two (Olson, 1985). Another, geographical principle organizes Numbers into three parts; Numbers 1–2 establish the setting of the first of those units, when Israel is encamped in the wilderness of Sinai (Num 1:1–10:10; see introduction, pp. 5–6). Within that initial unit, Numbers 1–2 comprise the first half of a subsection describing the organization of the tribes, in this case, of the twelve secular tribes. Chapters 3–4 will recount the ordering of Israel's priests and Levites.
Divine instruction followed by Israelite fulfillment of God's commands provides the organizing principle for chapters 1 and 2. In Numbers 1, God's speech (vv. 2-16) includes the command to engage in a census of the tribes (vv. 2-4) and names precisely the tribal representatives who are to help Moses with the task (vv. 5-15). Here, as in such late texts as 1–2 Chronicles, the term "ancestral houses" (bet 'abot) refers to the tribes. In earlier materials, "father's house" (bet 'ab) denotes the extended family.
Verses 17-19 report Moses's and Aaron's obedience; the results of the census are then spelled out in formulaic detail (vv. 20-46). Verses 47-53 appear to have been inserted by a later Priestly redactor in order to emphasize the special role of the Levites, who are exempt from the census of lay tribes. These verses introduce multiple themes taken up more fully in chapters 3 and 4. A third divine speech comprises the bulk of chapter 2. YHWH again instructs Moses, this time with Aaron, on organizing the tribes. The final verse reports their obedience (v. 34).
The narrative overlay of divine speech and Mosaic compliance is thin, so much so that in chapter 2, the end of YHWH's speech is not clearly demarcated. Instead, the chapters are dominated by the lists that give the book of Numbers its name (1:5-15, 20-46; 2:3-32). The lists are highly formulaic, leading Baruch Levine to propose that tabular accounts have been taken up and minimally adapted into prose (Levine, 1993, 126; 259–66). Still, the divine command/human fulfillment structure is significant. Regardless of the rebellions that take place later in the book, the beginning of Israel's organized tribal life is characterized by obedience.
The similarities between Numbers 1 and 2 bear comment. Tribal lists enumerating military strength dominate each chapter, and the lists are worded and organized similarly. Both chapters portray the tribes readying themselves to move out under God's command. The chapters, however, do have different emphases: Numbers 1 focuses on the numerical strength of Israel's militia; Numbers 2 sets out the organization of the camp and the order of the march.
Exegetical Analysis
Verse 1 quickly establishes the story's setting and time frame, the wilderness of Sinai thirteen months after the exodus, and introduces the two main characters of the book, YHWH and Moses. One month has elapsed since the account of the construction and dedication of the tent of meeting. Presumably the reader is to understand that this month was the time in which YHWH revealed the laws found in Leviticus. Now the tent sanctuary is set up, and the laws have been given. It is time for the people to prepare to move from the mountain where they have encamped for nearly a year.
The tent of meeting from which God speaks to Moses is a key symbol of God's presence in Israel's midst. It is the place of encounter, of divine self-revelation. The multiple traditions about the tent of meeting or tabernacle will be discussed more fully in the commentary on chapters 3–4. For now, what matters is its mobility and its importance to the Priestly writers who compiled Numbers.
The chapter begins with divine speech; YHWH commands Moses to take a census (literally "lift the head") of males of military age. Census-taking is well attested in the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia and the Levant, including Israel; documents from Mari, Ugarit, and elsewhere refer to census lists or data. David is supposed to have been divinely punished for conducting a census (2 Sam 24:9-15), but other texts report without censure Judahite kings taking a census (2 Chron 24:9; 17:14-18; 25:5; see also Luke 2:1).
These censuses were not like modern efforts to collect demographic data on entire populations; rather, they entailed lists of names or count totals of populations or subsections of the population. Such population counts functioned as the bases for taxation, rationing, drafting laborers for state projects, and mustering troops. The census in Numbers 1 serves a military purpose. Moses is to count not the whole population but only males twenty years and older who are able to go to war. That is, he is to assess the military strength of the tribes as part of Israel's preparation to face the dangers of a wilderness march, and especially as Israel looks ahead to the battle to conquer Canaan.
According to Numbers 1, taking a census involves using tribal representatives to gather data from the various clans (mišpahot) in each tribe, which in turn have been collected from each of the households (bet 'abot) comprising the clan. A representative of the administrative district then collects totals from each of the villages in the district. Documents from Mari record similar processes, as does an Israelite ostracon (i.e., writing on a potsherd, the ancient equivalent of scrap paper, published by Izhaq Beit-Arieh, 1987, 105–8).
Comparisons with extrabiblical documents do not attest to the historicity of the census lists in Numbers. In fact, census documents from surrounding cultures raise questions about the historical plausibility of Numbers 1–2: all of the historical census documents derive from settled states with more centralized governments than the tribes are depicted as having.
Verses 2-4 echo passages in Exodus in a way that exposes a redactional problem in the narrative. A divinely given case law found in Exodus 30:11-16 instructs Moses that whenever there is a census (literally, "when you lift the head"), each person enrolled must pay a half-shekel as ransom. Exodus 38:25-31 assumes that the poll tax collected from a census had provided the quantities of silver required for building the tabernacle. That census enrolled "every male twenty years and upwards." The total (603,550 males) is the same as the total of males reported in Numbers 1:46. Since the census in Exodus took place before the building of the tabernacle as a prerequisite for its construction, and the census in Numbers 1 occurs one month after the tabernacle is dedicated, the two references cannot refer to the same event. It is only slightly more plausible to imagine that the authors wanted to say that Moses counted all of his troops twice within a few weeks. Most likely, editors have taken up the tradition of a census found in Exodus and repurposed it here. That is, they used it to demonstrate Israel's military strength and hence its readiness for the wilderness march. Doing so, they left a glitch in the story line.
In the next section, verses 5-15, a detail-oriented God provides Moses with a list of the twelve tribal representatives who are to help him conduct the census. Study of the list has focused on two issues. The first is the relationship of this passage to the many other biblical enumerations of the twelve tribes or their eponymous ancestors, the sons of Jacob. The lists vary. C. Wulf identifies over twenty variant lists in the Bible (Wulf, 1962, 700). Some include Levi among the twelve tribes (e.g., Gen 29:32–30:24; 35:22-26; 46:8-27; 49:327; Exod 1:1-5). Lists in 1 Chronicles 2–3 and 6:54-80 maintain the number twelve by counting both half-tribes of Manasseh. This first list and most other lists in Numbers omit Levi but count both of Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, in order to maintain a total of twelve tribes (e.g., Num 1:5-15, 20-43; 2:3-31; 7:12-83; 10:14-28; 13:4-15; 26:5-51; 34:16-29). The order of the tribal names also varies from list to list.
Scholars have long recognized that the description of the twelve tribes of Israel and their descent from Jacob's sons is an idealized and simplified schema. Descriptions of the kinship ties within and among the tribes express social realities more than biological facts. Variations in tribal lists have intrigued scholars as possible evidence of changes in tribal relationships. Unfortunately, there is so far no consensus of the relative dating of the lists. Moreover, some variations may reflect the different ways in which some of the lists functioned before they were included in their current contexts, rather than the period from which they emerged. Literary factors may account for other variations. Efforts to use the lists as sources to learn more about the earliest period of Israel's life on the land have thus been inconclusive. More recently, scholars have focused on their literary and theological significance. (For more discussion of the tribal lists, see Olson, 1985, 79.)
Numbers 1:5-15 seems to rely on the birth narratives in Genesis 29:31–30:24 and the related tribal list in Genesis 35:22-26. It begins with the tribes attributed to Leah's five sons; the sixth Leah tribe, Levi, is deliberately excluded. Next come the Rachel tribes: Ephraim and Manasseh, traditionally held to be descendants of Joseph's two sons, and Benjamin. The last four tribes, Gad, Asher, Dan, and Naphtali, were considered offspring of Jacob and his concubines, that is, secondary wives.
Mary Douglas, an anthropologist noted for her work with biblical texts, persuasively argues that the tribal lists in Numbers function to offer an inclusive vision of Israelite identity. At the time Numbers was compiled, some sectors of the Persian colony of Judah wanted to define the boundaries of the community narrowly, excluding from membership Samaritans (descendents of the northern tribes) and even those Judahites whose families had not gone through exile. Especially in light of tensions between Jerusalem and Samaria, the former capital of the northern kingdom, Douglas argues that the repeated listing of all twelve tribes in the stories of Israel's history asserts an inclusive identity (Douglas, 1993, 35–41).
The setting and date of the names is the second issue that has dominated study of verses 5-15. The list appears to have had an independent existence prior to its inclusion in Numbers. Scholars have variously sought to bolster arguments for an earlier or later dating of the Priestly materials by showing that the names derived from a particular time period. Unfortunately, it is not possible to establish the origin or date of the list; the data are too mixed. The lack of a Yahwistic element in the names and the preference for certain patterns that were most common during the early monarchy support an early date. Other characteristics of the list suggest that it is late; some names are of a type that was popular after the exile. Moreover, while most of the names are found only in Numbers, the ones that occur elsewhere in the Bible appear primarily, though not exclusively, in Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, which are very late texts.
Examining the literary-theological function of the names is likely to prove a more fruitful direction of study. Dennis Olson's work is particularly helpful in this regard. The list of tribal representatives' names does not vary in Numbers 2, 7, and 10, chapters that are part of the story of the exodus generation that dies in the wilderness. Except Caleb and Joshua, none of the names of the older generation are included in the census found in Numbers 26 (Olson, 1996, 163). The repetition of the names in the first part of the book and their absence from the second part stress the movement from the older, rebellious generation, which dies in the wilderness, to the new generation, which obeys and thus lives.
YHWH's instructions to Moses (vv. 2-16) are followed by three verses that show Moses's and the Israelites' complete obedience. Verses 17-18 report that Moses and Aaron thoroughly carry out God's instructions. The chronological note emphasizes that they conduct the census the same day they are told to do so (v. 18). Verse 19 is a formulaic assertion of their obedience.
The census results are given in verses 20-46. The tribes appear in the same order as the list in verses 5-15, except that Gad has moved up to the third slot. In Numbers 2, Gad and Simeon will be part of the contingent led by Reuben. The compilers have moved Gad up to follow Reuben and Simeon to prepare for that (1:24-25).
A great deal of scholarly attention has been paid to the huge numbers given in the census report. A population that boasted over 600,000 adult men would include an equal number of adult women, an equal number of underage boys, and an equal number of girls, implying that Israel was comprised of more than 2.4 million people. That figure is impossibly large. The idea of over two million people escaping Egypt and living together in the Sinai wilderness is inherently implausible; it exceeds the total estimated population of the combined kingdoms of Israel and Judah at their height. It is also far more people than the Sinai desert could possibly sustain. Moreover, as Eyrl Davies demonstrates, the large figures, though repeated in chapter 2, are incompatible with other Priestly population figures in Numbers. For example, Numbers 3:43 indicates that there were 22,273 firstborn males in the congregation. Assuming an equal number of firstborn girls, that would mean only 44,546 of nearly 600,000 Israelite women had given birth, and it would require each of those mothers to have had fifty children (Davies 1995b, 451)!
(Continues…)
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Table of Contents
Foreword,
Acknowledgments,
Abbreviations,
Introduction,
Commentary,
Numbers 1 and 2: Identity and Order,
Numbers 3 and 4: Hierarchy and Holiness,
Numbers 5:1-6:21: Ambiguous Purity,
Numbers 6:22-27: The Priestly Blessing,
Numbers 7: Generosity and Inclusion,
Numbers 8: Two Cultic Matters: Orienting the Lampstand and Dedicating the Levites,
Numbers 9:1-14: Passover,
Numbers 9:15-23: The Fiery Cloud,
Numbers 10:1-10: The Priests' Silver Trumpets,
Numbers 10:11-36: The Journey Begins,
Numbers 11: Rebellion,
Numbers 12: Rebellion Among the Leaders,
Numbers 13-14: Dissent and Disaster,
Numbers 15: When You Come into the Land,
Numbers 16 and 17: A Widening Rebellion,
Numbers 18: The Priestly Power Struggle in the Form of Laws,
Numbers 19: Death and Impurity,
Numbers 20: "I May Not Get There with You",
Numbers 21:1-22:1: The Tide Begins to Turn,
Numbers 22-24: What the Seer Sees,
Numbers 25: Apostasy,
Numbers 26: A New Generation, a New Chance,
Numbers 27:1-11: Daughters of Zelophehad,
Numbers 27:12-23: A Shepherd for Israel,
Numbers 28-29: Calendar of Sacrifices for Israel's Public Cult,
Numbers 30 [Heb. 30:2-17]: Asserting (Patriarchal) Family Order,
Numbers 31: War with Midian,
Numbers 32: Negotiated Settlement,
Numbers 33: A Look Backward, A Look Ahead,
Numbers 34: Defining and Dividing the Land,
Numbers 35: Promise and Threat Continue,
Numbers 36: Daughters of Zelophehad, the Sequel,
Works Cited,