The JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers
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THE JPS TORAH COMMENTARY

Numbers במדבר

Commentary by JACOB MILGROM

THE JEWISH PUBLICATION SOCIETY

philadelphia · new york

5750 / 1990

Numbers Commentary © 1989 by The Jewish Publication Society

Masoretic Hebrew text, Codex Leningrad B19A, taken from Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) © 1967/77, 1983, by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart Synagogue adaptation and revised format © 1989 by The Jewish Publication Society

English translation of the Torah © 1962, 1985, 1989 by the Jewish Publication Society

All rights reserved First edition

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Milgrom, Jacob, 1923–

Numbers = [Ba-midbar]: the traditional Hebrew text with the new JPS translation / commentary by Jacob Milgrom.

p. cm.—(The JPS Torah commentary)

English and Hebrew; commentary in English

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-8276-0329-0.—ISBN 9-8276-0331-2 (set)

1. Bible. O.T. Numbers—Commentaries. I. Bible. O.T. Numbers. Hebrew. 1989. II. Bible. O.T. Numbers. English. Jewish Publication Society. 1989. III. Title. IV. Title: Ba-midbar. V. Series.

BS1265.3.M55 1989 89-38431

222’.14077—dc20

CIP

HE

GENESIS ISBN 0-8276-0326-6

EXODUS ISBN 0-8276-0327-4

LEVITICUS ISBN 0-8276-0328-2

DEUTERONOMY ISBN 0-8276-0330-4

Five-volume set ISBN 0-8276-0331-2

THE JPS COMMENTARY PROJECT

JEROME J. SHESTACK Chairman

JOSEPH L. MENDELSON Vice Chairman

Designed by ADRIANNE ONDERDONK DUDDEN

The author wishes to thank Rabbi Israel Stein for his careful reading and excellent suggestions.

In the last century, a new way of looking at the Bible developed. Research into the ancient Near East and its texts recreated for us the civilizations out of which the Bible emerged. In this century, there has been a revival of Jewish biblical scholarship; Israeli and American scholars, in particular, concentrating in the fields of archaeology, biblical history, Semitic languages, and the religion of Israel, have opened exciting new vistas into the world of the Scriptures. For the first time in history, we have at our disposal information and methodological tools that enable us to explore the biblical text in a way that could never have been done before. This new world of knowledge, as seen through the eyes of contemporary Jewish scholars and utilizing at the same time the insights of over twenty centuries of traditional Jewish exegesis, is now available for the first time to a general audience in The JPS Torah Commentary.

The Commentary is published in five volumes, each by a single author who has devoted himself to the study of the text. Given the wide range of perspectives that now exist in biblical scholarship, the JPS has recognized the individual expertise of these authors and made no attempt to impose uniformity on the methodology or content of their work.

The Hebrew text is that of the Leningrad Codex B 19A, the oldest dated manuscript of the complete Hebrew Bible. Copied from a text written by the distinguished Masoretic scholar Aaron ben Moses ben Asher, who ...

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About The JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers

Milgrom’s exhaustive commentary on Numbers offers penetrating insights into this sacred book. Throughout, he maintains respect for classical Jewish commentators, but does not hesitate to incorporate modern Biblical research. The commentary itself is divided into two parts, “The Generations of the Exodus” and “The Generations of the Conquest,” which are both supplemented by additional forays deeper into the text. These include sections on the census in the wilderness, purification from contamination by a corpse, the war against Midian, and many others. And all this is over and above the line-by-line analysis, the informative introduction, the footnotes, the charts, the maps, and the 77 excursuses to the commentary.

Jacob Milgrom is a scholar and professor emeritus in the field of Biblical Studies at the University of California. He is most known for his research on the book of Leviticus and the purity regulations of the Torah.

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