1And it happened on the day Moses finished setting up the Tabernacle, that he anointed it and consecrated it and all its furnishings and the altar and all its furnishings, and he anointed them and consecrated them. 2And the chieftains of Israel—the heads of their fathers’ houses, they are the chieftains of the tribes, they are the ones who stand over the reckoning—3brought forward and set their offering before the LORD: six covered wagons and twelve oxen, a wagon for every two chieftains and an ox for each one, and they brought them before the Tabernacle. 4And the LORD said to Moses, saying, 5“Take from them, and they shall be for doing the work of the Tent of Meeting, and you shall give them to the Levites, each man according to his work.” 6And Moses took the wagons and the oxen and gave them to the Levites, 7the two wagons and the four oxen he gave to the Gershonites according to their work. 8And the four wagons and the eight oxen he gave to the Merarites according to their work in the hand of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest. 9And to the Kohathites he did not give, for the work of the sanctuary was upon them, on the shoulder did they carry. 10And the chieftains brought forward the dedication offering of the altar on the day it was anointed, and the chieftains brought forward their offering for the dedication of the altar. 11And the LORD said to Moses, “One chieftain each day, one chieftain each day, shall offer his offerings for the dedication of the altar.” 12And the one who brought forward his offering on the first day was Nahshon son of Amminadab of the tribe of Judah. 13And his offering was one silver bowl, a hundred thirty shekels its weight, one silver basin, seventy shekels by the sanctuary shekel, both of them filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering. 14One golden ladle of ten shekels filled with incense. 15One bull from the herd, one ram, one yearling lamb for the burnt offering. 16One goat for an offense offering. 17And for the communion sacrifice two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five yearling lambs. This is the offering of Nahshon son of Amminadab. 18On the second day Nethanel son of Zuar, chieftain of Issachar, brought forward his offering, 19and his offering was one silver bowl, a hundred thirty shekels its weight, one silver basin, seventy shekels by the sanctuary shekel, both of them filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering. 20One golden ladle of ten shekels filled with incense. 21One bull from the herd, one ram, one yearling lamb for the burnt offering. 22One goat for an offense offering. 23And for the communion sacrifice two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five yearling lambs. This is the offering of Nethanel son of Zuar. 24On the third day, the chieftain of the Zebulunites, Eliab son of Helon. 25His offering was one silver bowl, a hundred thirty shekels its weight, one silver basin, seventy shekels by the sanctuary shekel, both of them filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering. 26One golden ladle of ten shekels filled with incense. 27One bull from the herd, one ram, one yearling lamb for the burnt offering. 28One goat for an offense offering. 29And for the communion sacrifice two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five yearling lambs. This is the offering of Eliab son of Helon. 30On the fourth day, the chieftain of the Reubenites, Elizur son of Shedeur. 31His offering was one silver bowl, a hundred thirty shekels its weight, one silver basin, seventy shekels by the sanctuary shekel, both of them filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering. 32One golden ladle of ten shekels filled with incense. 33One bull from the herd, one ram, one yearling sheep for the burnt offering. 34One goat for an offense offering. 35And for the communion sacrifice two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five yearling lambs. This is the offering of Elizur son of Shedeur. 36On the fifth day, the chieftain of the Simeonites, Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai. 37His offering was one silver bowl, a hundred thirty shekels its weight, one silver basin, seventy shekels by the sanctuary shekel, both of them filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering. 38One golden ladle of ten shekels filled with incense. 39One bull from the herd, one ram, one yearling lamb for the burnt offering. 40One goat for an offense 41And for the communion sacrifice two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five yearling lambs. This is the offering of Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai. 42On the sixth day, the chieftain of the Gadites, Eliasaph son of Deuel. 43His offering was one silver bowl, a hundred thirty shekels its weight, one silver basin, seventy shekels by the sanctuary shekel, both of them filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering. 44One golden ladle of ten shekels filled with incense. 45One bull from the herd, one ram, one yearling lamb for the burnt offering. 46One goat for an offense offering. 47And for the communion sacrifice two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five yearling lambs. This is the offering of Eliasaph son of Deuel. 48On the seventh day, the chieftain of the Ephraimites, Elishama son of Ammihud. 49His offering was one silver bowl, a hundred thirty shekels its weight, one silver basin, seventy shekels by the sanctuary shekel, both of them filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering. 50One golden ladle of ten shekels filled with incense. 51One bull from the herd, one ram, one yearling lamb for the burnt offering. 52One goat for an offense offering. 53And for the communion sacrifice two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five yearling lambs. This is the offering of Elishama son of Ammihud. 54On the eighth day, the chieftain of the Manassites, Gamaliel son of Pedahzur. 55His offering was one silver bowl, a hundred thirty shekels its weight, one silver basin, seventy shekels by the sanctuary shekel, both of them filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering. 56One golden ladle of ten shekels filled with incense. 57One bull from the herd, one ram, one yearling lamb for the burnt offering. 58One goat for an offense offering. 59And for the communion sacrifice two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five yearling lambs. This is the offering of Gamaliel son of Pedahzur. 60On the ninth day, the chieftain of the Benjaminites, Abidan son of Gideoni. 61His offering was one silver bowl, a hundred thirty shekels its weight, one silver basin, seventy shekels by the sanctuary shekel, both of them filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering. 62One golden ladle of ten shekels filled with incense. 63One bull from the herd, one ram, one yearling lamb for the burnt offering. 64One goat for an offense offering. 65And for the communion sacrifice two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five yearling lambs. This is the offering of Abidan son of Gideoni. 66On the tenth day, the chieftain of the Danites, Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai. 67His offering was one silver bowl, a hundred thirty shekels its weight, one silver basin, seventy shekels by the sanctuary shekel, both of them filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering. 68One golden ladle of ten shekels filled with incense. 69One bull from the herd, one ram, one yearling lamb for the burnt offering. 70One goat for an offense offering. 71And for the communion sacrifice two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five yearling lambs. This is the offering of Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai. 72On the eleventh day, the chieftain of the Asherites, Pagiel son of Ochran. 73His offering was one silver bowl, a hundred thirty shekels its weight, one silver basin, seventy shekels by the sanctuary shekel, both of them filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering. 74One golden ladle of ten shekels filled with incense. 75One bull from the herd, one ram, one yearling lamb for the burnt offering. 76One goat for an offense offering. 77And for the communion sacrifice two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five yearling lambs. This is the offering of Pagiel son of Ochran. 78On the twelfth day, the chieftain of the Naphtalites, Ahira son of Enan. 79His offering was one silver bowl, a hundred thirty shekels its weight, one silver basin, seventy shekels by the sanctuary shekel, both of them filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering. 80One golden ladle of ten shekels filled with incense. 81One bull from the herd, one ram, one yearling lamb for the burnt offering. 82One goat for an offense offering. 83And for the communion sacrifice two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five yearling lambs. This is the offering of Ahira son of Enan. 84This is the dedication offering of the altar on the day of its anointing from the chieftains of Israel: twelve silver bowls, twelve silver basins, twelve golden ladles, 85one hundred thirty shekels each silver bowl and seventy each basin; all the silver of the vessels, two thousand four hundred by the sanctuary shekel. 86Twelve golden ladles filled with incense, ten shekels the ladle by the sanctuary shekel; all the gold of the ladles, one hundred twenty shekels. 87All the cattle for the burnt offering, twelve bulls, twelve rams, twelve yearling lambs and their grain offering, and twelve goats for an offense offering. 88And all the cattle for the communion sacrifice, twenty-four bulls, sixty rams, sixty he-goats, sixty yearling lambs. This is the dedication of the altar after it was anointed.
89And when Moses came into the Tent of Meeting to speak with Him, he would hear the voice being spoken to him from above the covering that is over the Ark of the Covenant, from between the two cherubim, and He would speak to him.
CHAPTER 7 NOTES
Click here to advance to the next section of the text.
1. on the day Moses finished setting up the Tabernacle. “On the day” (beyom) has the semantic force of “when” but conveys a sense of epic solemnity lacking in the more ordinary Hebrew term, kaʾasher. (Compare Genesis 2:5, “On the day the LORD God made earth and heavens.”) The meaning here is obviously not restricted to a single day because it will take the tribal chieftains twelve days to present their offerings. Abraham ibn Ezra, characteristically looking for literary linkages, connects this entire passage with the immediately preceding priestly blessing: once the threefold blessing was pronounced, the elaborate proceedings of the dedication offerings could begin.
2. stand over. That is, supervise.
3. six covered wagons. The translation follows the Septuagint and the Aramaic Targums in their understanding of ʿeglot tsav. They in turn seem to have based their construction on the amphibian tsav in Leviticus 11:29, which many think is a turtle. Some recent scholars instead connect tsav with a possible Akkadian cognate that, like ʿagalah, means “wagon.” It would then be an intensifier here.
5. each man according to his work. As the subsequent verses show, the wagons are not distributed equally but according to the weight of the portage that the various levitical groups are to bear. The Kohathites, who carry the relatively light sanctuary furnishings on their shoulders, get no wagons.
12–88. This is the one signal instance in the entire Bible of extensive verbatim repetition without the slightest variation. (The single exception is that in verses 72 and 78, the word “day,” yom, is—untranslatably—repeated after the formula “On the xth day,” a usage perhaps dictated by the fact that the numeration has gone beyond ten to numbers that are compound in form in the Hebrew. The language in verse 12 reporting the first set of offerings also differs slightly from the formulas at the beginning of the subsequent eleven sets of offerings, but that is simply because it introduces the whole series.) Biblical narrative, as we have had many occasions to see, characteristically deploys significant swerves from verbatim repetition as it approximately repeats strings of phrases and whole clauses and sentences. This passage, however, is manifestly not narrative but a kind of epic inventory. Each of the tribes, here accorded absolutely equal status before the sanctuary without political hierarchy, brings exactly the same offering. One can readily imagine that the members of each tribe in the ancient audience of this text would be expected to relish the sumptuousness of its own tribal offering exactly equal to all the others, as it hears the passage read. It is also well to remember that lists and the repetitions they entail constitute an established literary form with its own aesthetic pleasures—as, for example, in the catalogue of the ships in the Iliad or in the cumulative repetitive structures of songs like ḥad Gadya (“An Only Kid”) and, more apposite to this catalogue of gifts, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” The offerings of the tribes encompass animal, vegetable, and mineral gifts (the sacrificial beasts, the grain offerings, the precious vessels) and are punctuated by the solemn stipulation of weight and number. All this is then totaled up in verses 84–88, after the twelve verbatim repetitions. Baruch Levine notes, moreover, certain similarities in form with various West Semitic temple inventories that have been uncovered by archaeologists. (In the Hebrew, for example, the ordinal numbers uncharacteristically follow the nouns rather than precede them, evidently the set form for temple inventories.) This entire passage, like almost all of the first ten chapters of Numbers, is the product of Priestly writers, and it strongly reflects both their professional concerns and the literary antecedents on which they drew.
89. And when Moses came into the Tent of Meeting to speak with Him. This sentence about Moses’s mode of communication with God in the Tent of Meeting does not appear to be connected either with what precedes or what follows it. The sentence also exhibits three rather puzzling turns of speech. The masculine pronoun that is the object of “to speak with” has to refer to God, but God is not mentioned by name anywhere in this verse. One might have expected “to speak with the LORD” in the initial clause of this little unit. Perhaps it is absent because the unit has been excerpted from a larger literary document.
the voice being spoken. The second linguistic anomaly of this verse is the use of the reflexive form of the verb, midaber (instead of the usual medaber, “speaking”). Levine understands this form as an indication of “continually speaking,” though reflexive verbs in Hebrew are often used to indicate a passive sense. It is also possible that the meaning is genuinely reflexive: “the voice speaking itself.” There seems to be a theological impulse here to interpose some kind of mediation between the divine source of the speech and the audible voice that is spoken to Moses.
and He would speak to him. The third linguistic knot in the strand of this sentence is that the last two words, wayedabar ʾelaw, a verb and a preposition with no indication of proper nouns, could also be read the other way around: “and he [Moses] would speak to Him.” One wonders whether the cryptic style of this verse might reflect a certain nervousness about the fraught topic of direct communication between God and His prophet, as the highly cryptic language of the Bridegroom of Blood fragment (Exodus 4:24–26) reflects a nervousness about its potent mythic character.