Fourth book of the Pentateuch, known in Hebrew as Be-Midbar ("In the [Sinai] Wilderness") from the fifth word of its opening verse. The sages, as well as Origen, refer to it as the "HĚŁummash [i.e., Pentateuchal volume] of the Numbered," as both at the beginning and toward the end there is a census of the Israelites. Ancient commentators also referred to it as Sefer Va-Yedabber ("The Book of 'And He Spoke'"), on the basis of its first word. According to the Masoretic tradition, Numbers contains 36 chapters and 1,288 verses. The Babylonian cycle of readings (which is followed today by all Jewish communities) divides the book into ten pericopes (sedarot), but according to the Palestinian Triennial Cycle, it contains 32 sections.
The book is divided into three parts, each being related to one of the major camp sites of the Israelites: 19 days in the Sinai wilderness (Num. 1:1-10:10); 38 years between the wilderness and the plains of Moab (10:11- 21:35); and about five months in the plains of Moab (22:1-36:13). Thus, according to tradition, the volume encompasses a period of about 38 1/2 years, from the second year of the Exodus until after the death of Aaron.
Included in Numbers are the Priestly Blessing (6:24-26) and the third paragraph of the Shema (15:37-41). Traditionally, verses 35-36 of chapter 10 constitute a separate unit. In the Hebrew text, these verses are preceded and followed by an inverted letter nun. According to the Babylonian Talmud, they are not in their proper place and really belong in another section describing how the camp was arranged according to tribes.
Jewish tradition maintains that Numbers, like the other books of the Pentateuch, was dictated by God to Moses. According to the Documentary Hypothesis (see Bible under
Scientific Study), most of the volume is from sources J or E, as well as a combination of the two (JE). Those sections which deal with Sacrifices, the Priests, and the Levites, as well as numbers and dates, are all from source P.
The New Encyclopedia of Judaism. Copyright © 1989, 2002 by G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House, Ltd. All rights reserved.
