Numbers

The book of Numbers is the story of the people of Israel in the wilderness as they departed from slavery in Egypt to the freedom of the promised land of Canaan. It contains a variety of materials relating to this transition from the old generation of Israel to the new, including stories and laws, census lists, instructions for worship, reports of military battles, and accounts of legal disputes. Numbers chronicles a community faced with many competing interests, groups, and issues, endeavoring to define itself and its mission in the world. Dennis Olson offers readers a comprehensive interpretation of this often overlooked book. He provides a thoroughly contemporary reading of Numbers that enlightens the modern church as it navigates the contemporary wilderness of pluralism, competing voices, and shifting foundations in the journey toward the twenty-first century.

Interpretation is a set of full-length, practical, and clearly written commentaries that help teachers and preachers in their educational and homiletic work -- and laypersons in their study of the Bible. Interpretation bridges the gap between critical and expository commentaries and combines the most exciting biblical scholarship with illuminating textual expositions.