Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- CONTENTS -- List of figures -- List of tables -- Preface -- Abbreviations and glossary -- 1 Introduction -- Place in the canon and the interpretative context of Numbers -- History of scholarship -- Main problems with the current state of Pentateuchal and Numbers research -- Social processes and scholarship -- Towards a new interpretation -- The literary structures of Numbers as part of Genesis-Joshua -- Legal backgrounds and implementation -- Textual issues -- Date, provenance and historicity -- Message of the book and reading Numbers today -- 2 Commentary -- Departure from Sinai (1:1-10:36) -- Preparations for departure (1:1-10:10) -- Census of the first (Exodus) generation (1:1-54) -- Arrangement of the camp (2:1-34) -- Priests and Levites (3:1-4:49) -- Exclusions from the camp (5:1-4) -- Interlude I: miscellaneous laws/instruction (5:5-6:27) -- Cultic actions and regulations (7:1-9:14) -- Accoutrements during the march through the wilderness (9:15-10:10) -- Departure (10:11-36) -- Departure (10:11-28) -- Moses's brother-in-law (10:29-32) -- The ark (10:33-36) -- Between Sinai and Moab (11:1-22:1) -- Rebellion and punishment (11-14) -- People's rebellion, help for Moses, quail and plague (11) -- Miriam and Aaron's rebellion and Miriam's leprosy (12) -- Spies sent, with rebellion and punishment of the first generation at Kadesh (13-14) -- Interlude III: miscellaneous laws (15) -- Further rebellion: Korah, Dathan and Abiram's rebellion against Moses and Aaron, their punishment and the confirmation of Aaron's primacy (16-17) -- Interlude IV: priestly matters, purification (18-19) -- Generational shift and departure towards the promised land by the second generation (20-21) -- Kadesh, death of Miriam (20:1) -- Water from the rock, the punishment of Moses and Aaron (20:2-13)