Numbers
Old Testament · translated from the Hebrew
Israel’s forty years in the wilderness: the census of the people, their complaints and rebellions, the judgment on the generation that did not believe, and the faithfulness of YHWH, who brings the new generation to the edge of the promised land.
How it is laid out
Key verses
- Numbers 14:18 — YHWH is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love
- Numbers 6:24 — The blessing: “May YHWH bless you and keep you”
- Numbers 21:9 — The serpent of bronze
- Numbers 23:19 — El is not a man, that he should lie
Who wrote it
The book says that Moses wrote down the stages of the journey at YHWH’s command (33:2). Jewish and Christian tradition attributes the whole book to him. Authorship is debated.
When it was written
Debated. If Moses wrote it, at the end of the forty years in the wilderness, around the 15th or 13th century BC.
For whom, and in what situation
The new generation of Israelites, camped in the plains of Moab opposite Jericho (22:1), who were about to enter Canaan after their fathers had died in the wilderness (14:33).
All the books
GenesisExodusLeviticusNumbersDeuteronomyJoshuaJudgesRuth1 Samuel2 Samuel1 Kings2 Kings1 Chronicles2 ChroniclesEzraNehemiahEstherJobPsalmsProverbsEcclesiastesSong of SongsIsaiahJeremiahLamentationsEzekielDanielHoseaJoelAmosObadiahJonahMicahNahumHabakkukZephaniahHaggaiZechariahMalachiMatthewMarkLukeJohnActsRomans1 Corinthians2 CorinthiansGalatiansEphesiansPhilippiansColossians1 Thessalonians2 Thessalonians1 Timothy2 TimothyTitusPhilemonHebrewsJames1 Peter2 Peter1 John2 John3 JohnJudeRevelation