Numbers 1:1-54, Triennial Bamidbar, “In the desert” Outline

Read Numbers 1:1-54 at Bible Gateway.

The Teaching Tools of Scripture
Genesis 1:1-2:3, The Teaching Tools of Scripture, part one and part two
Genesis 6, And the Strong Themes Teaching Tool
Genesis 1:1-6:8, Finding the Topic Themes of Scripture

Hebrew paragraph divisions

1:1-19 {s} Leaders chosen by fathers’ tribes to number Israel
1:20-21 {p} Number of the army of Reuben: 46,500
1:22-23 {p} Number of the army of Simeon: 59,300
1:24-25 {p} Number of the army of Gad: 45,650
1:26-27 {p} Number of the army of Judah: 74,600
1:28-29 {p} Number of the army of Issachar: 54,400
1:30-31 {p} Number of the army of Zebulun: 57,400
1:32-33 {p} Number of the army of Ephraim: 40,500.
1:34-35 {p} Number of the army of Manasseh: 32,200
1:36-37 {p} Number of the army of Benjamin: 35,400
1:38-39 {p} Number of the army of Dan: 62,700
1:40-41 {p} Number of the army of Asher: 41,500
1:42-43 {p}Number of the army of Naphtali: 53,400
1:44-47 {p} Number of the armies of Israel: 603,550
1:48-54 {p} Levites not numbered as they have charge of the tabernacle

Strong themes of the parashah

1:1-21 {s+p} Leaders of the tribes to number Israel, so Reuben was numbered
1:22-54 {px13] Number of the armies of Israel, but Levites not numbered

Numbers 1:1-54 Chiastic structure

Download the fully expanded Numbers 1:1-54 Triennial Bamidbar chiasm pdf (Coming …).

Theme of the parashah

Israel will serve in the army, Levi will serve in the tabernacle.

Finding Messiah in Triennial Bamidbar

But you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony, and over all its vessels, and over all things that belong to it; they shall bear the tabernacle, and all its vessels; and they shall minister unto it, and shall encamp round about the tabernacle. Num 1:50

But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of testimony, that there shall be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel; and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of testimony. Num 1:53

The majority of the time in Torah, the tabernacle is called, the tent or tabernacle of meeting. Here in this passage, it is called the tabernacle of testimony, three times. Three, a sign of Messiah.

“Testimony” is from עוד uwd, Strong’s H5749, a verbal root meaning, “to repeat.” The pictographs are ayin + vav + dalet.

ayin ע = eye, thus watch, know, shade
vav ו = tent peg, thus add, secure, hook
dalet ד = door, thus enter, move, hang

The parable being told is of what one has seen or witnessed (ayin), which he has verified (vav, by securing the veracity of the claim with an oath) at the patriarch’s door (dalet, or at the city gate, the door to the city). All judgments and binding contractual business in the patriarchal era was conducted either at the door of the tribal authority, who was the patriarch of the tribe, where he sat in the shade of his tent door to decide family matters, or at the gate of the city, where the elders congregated.

And YHVH appeared unto him [Abraham] in the plains of Mamre, and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him. And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground. Gen 18:1-2

And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. And he talked with them, saying, “If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he has, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it to me for a possession of a burying place among you.” And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city … Gen 23:7-10

In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king’s gate, two of the king’s chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were angered, and sought to lay hands on king Ahasuerus. Est 2:21

The tabernacle itself is bearing a securely verified witness of Messiah. And what is its witness? The next triennial portion declares it.