About This Text
Numbers (“Bamidbar”) is the fourth book of the Torah, Judaism’s foundational text. It describes events from 40 years of the Israelites’ wanderings in the desert, beginning with a census and preparations for entering Israel. The book continues to detail a series of complaints, sins, punishments, and an attempted rebellion. Commandments are interspersed throughout, and the book ends by listing places that the Israelites traveled and delineating Israel’s boundaries.