A Commentary on Numbers Narrative, Ritual, and Colonialism Routledge Studies in the Biblical World Series

This book provides a new reading of the biblical book of Numbers in a commentary form. Mainstream readings have tended to see the book as a haphazard junkyard of material that connects Genesis?Leviticus with Deuteronomy (and Joshua), composed at a late stage in the history of ancient Israel. By contrast, this book reads Numbers as part of a wider work of Genesis?Joshua, a carefully crafted programmatic settler colonial document for a new society in Canaanite highlands in the late second millennium BCE that seeks to replace pre-existing indigenous societies. In the context of the tremendous influence that the biblical documents have had on the world in the last 2,000?3,000 years, the book also offers pointers towards reading these texts today. This volume is a fascinating study of this text, and will be of interest not only to biblical scholars, but to anyone with an interest in the history of the ancient Levant, and colonisation and colonialism in the ancient world more broadly.

Preface

Abbreviations and glossary

Introduction

Place in the Canon and the Interpretative Context of Numbers

History of scholarship

Main problems with the current state of Pentateuchal and Numbers research

Social processes and scholarship

Towards a new interpretation

The literary structures of Numbers as part of Genesis-Joshua

Legal backgrounds and implementation

Textual issues

Date, provenance and historicity

Message of the book and reading Numbers today

Commentary

1. Departure from Sinai (1:1-10:35)

1.1. Preparations for departure (1:1-10:10)

A. Census of the first (Exodus) generation (1:1-54)

B. Arrangement of the camp (2:1-34)

C. Priests and Levites (3:1-4:49)

D. Exclusions from the camp (5:1-4)

E. Interlude I: Miscellaneous laws/instruction (5:5-6:27)

F. Cultic actions and regulations (7:1-9:14)

G. Accoutrements during the march through the wilderness (9:15-10:10)

1.2. Departure (10:11-36)

A. Departure (10:11-28)

B. Moses’s brother-in-law (10:29-32)

C. The ark (10:33-36)

2. Between Sinai and Moab (11:1-22:1)

2.1. Rebellion and punishment (11-14)

A. People’s rebellion, help for Moses, quail and plague (11)

B. Miriam and Aaron’s rebellion and Miriam’s leprosy (12)

C. Spies sent, with rebellion and punishment of the first generation at Kadesh (13-14)

2.2. Interlude III: Miscellaneous laws (15)

2.3 Further rebellion: Korah, Dathan and Abiram’s rebellion against Moses and Aaron, their punishment and the confirmation of Aaron’s primacy (16-17)

2.4. Interlude IV: Priestly matters, purification (18-19)

2.5. Generational shift and departure towards the promised land by the second generation (20-21)

A. Kadesh, death of Miriam (20:1)

B. Water from the rock, the punishment of Moses and Aaron (20:2-13)

C. From Kadesh on, past Edom (20:14-21)

D. Kadesh to Hor, death of Aaron (20:22-29)

E. King of Arad (21:1-3)

F. The bronze serpent (21:4-9)

G. Northwards past Wadi Arnon, arrival at Moab (21:10-20)

H. Defeat of Sihon and Og (21:21-35)

3. At Moab (22:1-36:13)

3.1. Balaam (22-24)

3.2. Rebellion (via idolatry) at Baal Peor (25)

3.3. Census of the second (conquest) generation (26)

3.4. Land divisions I: Daughters of Zelophehad and female heirs I (27:1-11)

3.5 Joshua to succeed Moses (27:12-23)

3.6 Interlude V: Regular offerings and vows (28-30)

A. Offerings on various calendar based occasions (28-29)

B. Vows (30)

3.7. Vengeance on Midian (31)

3.8. Reuben and Gad settle in Gilead (32)

3.9. Summary of journey from Sinai to Moab (33:1-49)

3.10. Yahweh’s command to destroy the indigenous peoples of Canaan (33:50-56)

3.11. Land divisions II (34-36)

A. Boundaries of the land (34)

B. Levitical towns and towns of refuge (35)

C. Daughters of Zelophehad and female heirs II (36)

Bibliography

Select Commentaries on Numbers

Selection of Other Works

Index

Pekka Pitkänen is Senior Lecturer in the School of Liberal and Performing Arts at the University of Gloucestershire, UK. He is the author of Central Sanctuary and Centralization of Worship in Ancient Israel (2003) and Joshua (2010). His current interest remains in the study of Genesis–Joshua,together with the study of migration andcolonialism in the ancient Near East, ritual studies and other sociological and anthropological approaches to the study of the ancient world.