NUMBERS

(Answers)

 

Updated 12/2023

CHAPTER 1

  1. a. Moses was to number all males twenty years old and above who were able to go to war. b. 603,550.males twenty years old and above who were able to go to war. c. The Levites were selected by God to do His work in the tabernacle.

CHAPTER 2

  1. Moses was to arrange the tribes in four groups (3 tribes in each group), one group north, south, east, and west.

CHAPTER 3

  1. God chose the Levites as His, instead of the firstborn of all Israel, man or beast.
  2. a. There were 273 in difference. b. The other tribes had to pay five shekels for each one to Aaron and his sons.

CHAPTER 4

  1. The sons of Kohath carried all the holy items of the tabernacle.
  2. The articles of the tabernacle were holy and could not be touched, or someone would die.
  3. The sons of Gershon were to carry all the curtains of the tabernacle.
  4. The sons of Merari carried all the framework of the tabernacle.
  5. The sons ranged from 30-50 years old.

CHAPTER 5

  1. a. The husband would take his wife to the priest and she would be tested there by drinking holy water mixed with dust from the tabernacle. b. The guilty woman's thigh would rot and her belly would swell. She also would not be able to have children.

CHAPTER 6

  1. A Nazirite could not cut his hair, drink wine or grape juice, eat grapes or raisins, or touch any defiled thing for an appointed time.
  2. A Nazirite wholly served the Lord and remained pure for his appointed time.

CHAPTER 7

  1. Twelve leaders, one from each tribe brought offerings to anoint the tabernacle.
  2. The oxen and carts were used to carry the curtains and framework of the tabernacle.
  3. The sons of Kohath were to carry the holy things used in the tabernacle on their shoulders.

CHAPTER 8

  1. The Levites became God’s in place of all the firstborn of Israel, man or beast.
  2. The Levites aged 25-50 years old.

CHAPTER 9

  1. An unclean or unavailable person would keep the Passover in the second month.
  2. Israel would move when the cloud above the tabernacle moved, no matter when or how long.

CHAPTER 10

  1. Israel had stayed at Mt. Sinai for eleven months (See Exodus 19:1).
  2. The trumpets were blown to let the people know to meet at the tabernacle and to let the Israelites know when to journey.

CHAPTER 11

  1. The people complained they had no meat to eat.
  2. a. Moses was to choose seventy proven and known men of God who could help him.  b. God put His Spirit on the men who would help Moses.
  3. Quail were provided for the Israelites.
  4. Those who thought they were better off in Egypt were killed with a plague, even while they ate.

CHAPTER 12

  1. Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Ethiopian wife he had taken and were envious of his position.
  2. God made Miriam a leper (for seven days) foe speaking against Moses.
  3. God described Moses as the most humble man in all the earth, faithful, and to whom He spoke plainly.

CHAPTER 13

  1. a. Twelve men went to spy out the land of Canaan, one from each tribe. b. The men saw the land was fertile, flowing with milk and honey.
  2. a. Most of the men reported the land was good but there were giants there who were stronger than they. b. They were afraid of the people there and had no trust in God.

CHAPTER 14

  1. Caleb and Joshua came back with a good report and wanted to go in and take it.
  2. God wanted to disinherit the people.
  3. He pleaded for God's mercy and reasoned that the nations would say that God was not able to bring His people up to the land.
  4. God decided that all those who had been numbered in the census, twenty years and older, would not enter into the land of Canaan.
  5. It would be forty years before Israel would enter the Promose Land, one year for each day the spies had been in the land.
  6. Caleb and Joshua would be the only two of the spies who would enter the land.
  7. They spies who gave the bad report were killed by a plague sent from God.
  8. a. The people decided to go into the land of Canaan on their own. b. They were attacked by the Amalekites and the Canaanites and driven back.

CHAPTER 15

  1. There was one law and one custom for both the stranger in Israel and the Israelites.
  2. The congregation would offer a young bull for the burnt offering, the grain offering and the drink offering according to ordinance, and a kid goat for the sin offering for unintentional sin.
  3. An individual who sinned unintentionally would offer a female goat in its first year as a sin offering.
  4. A person, native or stranger, who sinned intentionally, would be completely cut off from his people.
  5. A man picking up sticks was commanded by God to be stoned to death for not keeping the Sabbath holy.
  6. Tassels were attached to their garments to remind them to obey the commandments of God and not to follow their own hearts.

CHAPTER 16

  1. a. Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and 250 elders rebelled against Moses and Aaron. b. God wanted to kill the whole congregation of Israel.  c. Moses pleaded with God to punish only the ones who had sinned.  d. God opened the ground up underneath the ones who had rebelled and they and their families and all that they had went into the pit alive. The 250 elders with censers were consumed with fire.
  2. a. Moses and Aaron were blamed for their brothers’ deaths. b. God sent a plague to kill the ones who complained.
  3. a. 14,700 people died in the plague God sent.  b. Moses sent Aaron to offer atonement to God, and then it stopped.

CHAPTER 17

  1. The rod that budded would be the person God had chosen to serve between He and the Israelites.

CHAPTER 18

  1. All the offerings would be for the use of the Levites. It would be their inheritance from the Lord.
  2. A tithe of the best of all that the Levites received would go to the priests.

CHAPTER 19

  1. a. Ashes of a red heifer was mixed with water for purification of sins. b. The ashes of the heifer for the purification mixture were stored outside the camp of Israel in a clean place.

CHAPTER 20

  1. Miriam died at Kadesh.
  2. The people had no water to drink.
  3. a. God sent Moses to a rock to receive water out of it.  b. Moses was angry at Israel's complaining and did not hallow God before them as the One who is providing the water for them. c. Moses and Aaron would not lead the people into the land promised to them.
  4. a. The people of Edom.did not let Israel cross the Jordan.  b. Edom is the descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother. (Gen 25:30)
  5. Aaron died at Mount Hor.

CHAPTER 21

  1. a. The people had no food and water and were tired of the manna.  b. God sent snakes to kill the people.
  2. a. The Amorites would not let Israel pass through their land. b. The Amorites attacked Israel but were severely defeated.
  3. a. Og, king of Bashan came out against Israel.  b. The people of Bashan were defeated by Israel. There were no survivors.

CHAPTER 22

  1. Balak wanted to hire Balaam to curse the Israelites so he could defeat them.
  2. Balaam did not do as God had instructed him but rose to leave with the last group of men instead of waiting on them to come to him.
  3. The Angel of the Lord spoke to Balaam through the donkey.
  4. The Lord came to kill Balaam.

CHAPTER 23

  1. Balaam could not curse anyone God would not curse. He continued to bless Israel.

CHAPTER 24

  1. Balaam desired to have the gifts and honor that Balak would give him.
  2. Balaam attempted to use sorcery the first two times to curse Israel but it did not work. He would then turn to God to listen to Him perhaps to entice God to curse Israel.
  3. The star to come is King David but also is a reference to the Messiah.

CHAPTER 25

  1. The people of Israel married the Moab women and fell into worshiping Baal.
  2. The leader or judge of each tribe was to kill all those under them who had committed harlotry.
  3. Phinehas the son of Eleazar had great zeal for God.
  4. 24,000. people died in God’s anger.
  5. Phinehas received an eternal priesthood and a covenant of peace.

CHAPTER 26

  1. Moses and Aaron were to take a new census of the Israelites who are old enough to go to war.
  2. The children of Korah remained. (These must have heeded the warning of Moses when he told them to get away or be consumed with Korah).
  3. There were 601,730 males old enough to go to war.
  4. According to the size of their tribe they would receive their portion of the inheritance.
  5. a. Only two people remained of the first census.  b. Caleb and Joshua were the two that remained since the first census. Everyone else had died.  c.  Joshua and Caleb were the two zealous for God and did not bring back a bad report on the land that had been spied out.

CHAPTER 27

  1. a. The daughters of Zelophehad had no inheritance because there were no sons of their father among them.  b. If a man had no sons, his inheritance would go to his daughters or the closest living relative.
  2. a. Joshua would lead the people into the land of promise. b. Moses had not hallowed God at the rock in Kadesh and was soon to die.

CHAPTER 28-29

  1. The people were reminded of each offering they were to observe; the daily offering, the Sabbath offering, the monthly offering, the Passover offering, the feast of first fruits, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.
  2. One hundred ninety-nine animals were sacrificed during the Feast of Tabernacles - Thirty on day one; twenty-nine on day two; twenty-eight on day three; twenty-seven on day four; twenty-six on day five; twenty-five on day six; twenty-four on day seven; ten on day eight.
  3. Moses was going to die. A new leader and a new generation of people were about to go into the Promised Land. They needed to be reminded of the ordinances of the offerings.

CHAPTER 30

  1. A man who made a vow unto the Lord had to do according to his word.
  2. If a woman, under her father’s authority, makes a vow only her father could break her vow.
  3. The daughter must keep her vow if her father does not overrule her vow.
  4. A husband can overrule his wife’s vow as soon as he hears of it.
  5. The divorced and the widowed woman have no man over them to overrule their vow.
  6. If a husband does not respond to his wife’s vow, he allows her vow to be kept.

CHAPTER 31

  1. a. The men brought back all of the women of Midian who had caused them to sin by worshiping idols. b. Balaam counseled the people of Midian to commit this harlotry with Israel. c. They were to keep alive only the women who had not known a man.
  2. The spoils were shared equally between those who had fought the battle and those who did not go to fight.
  3. The men gave a special offering to the Lord because they had come back with no one missing.

CHAPTER 32

  1. a. The tribes of Rueben, Gad, and the ½ tribe of Manasseh. wanted their inheritance early  b. The three tribes would fight the enemy first with Israel on the other side of the Jordan so Israel could take possession of the promised land..

CHAPTER 33

  1. Israel was to drive out all the inhabitants of the land and destroy all their molded images, idols, and places of worship.
  2. If Israel did not completely drive out the inhabitants and destroy their idols, they would be harassed by the people and destroyed by God.

CHAPTER 34

  1. The tribes of Rueben, Gad, and a half tribe of Manasseh settled on the east side of the Jordan.
  2. Eleazar the priest, Joshua, and one leader of each tribe were used to divide the land.

CHAPTER 35

  1. The Levites were given cities to dwell in and land for their cattle, herds, and animals.
  2. The Levites would be distributed proportionally throughout all the land of each tribe. (Today, Christians are distributed as the salt and light all over the world.)
  3. a. A city of refuge was where a person could seek protection if they had accidentally killed someone.  b. There were six cities set up for refuge. (Three on the east side of the Jordan and three oin the west.)

CHAPTER 36

  1. The daughters of Zelophehad faced a diminishing inheritance. If they married outside their own tribe, their inheritance would be drawn away from their father's tribe. They would eventually have no inheritance for their father's tribe. It would go to the new tribe of whom they married.
  2. The daughters of Zelophehad were to marry only within their father's tribe. This became a statute for a daughter who received an inheritance whose father had no sons.