Baruch A. Levine has written a masterful study of��the first half of the Book of��Numbers for the Anchor Bible Commentaries.��The Book of Numbers--from the numbering��or census of the people in the opening��chapters--is a much-neglected part of the Torah, the five��books of Moses, which constitutes the heart of Holy��Scriptures for Jews, while also forming an integral��part of the Bible for��Christians.The Book of Numbers is an account��of the young would-be nation of Israel's wanderings��in the Wilderness after the magnificent event at��Sinai, where Moses speaks with God face-to-face and��receives the Ten Commandments. Throughout this��time of trial, the people complain, sensing the��contrast between the relative security of slavery in��Egypt, from which they have fled, and the��precarious insecurity of freedom in the��Wilderness.Numbers is a book filled��with power struggles, raising questions about who��speaks for God, along with personal and communal��crises of faith and rumors of revolt. Yet despite��the people's blindness and rebelliousness, God��remains faithful to the promises made to Israel's��ancestors--Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and now Moses--and��remains at Israel's side, guiding her slowly but��surely to the Promised Land. In all,��Numbers describes a terrific journey of��discipline and dependence upon the God who liberated��the Hebrews from bondage in Egypt: a journey to��strengthen Israel for the challenge of a new and��wondrous land and the battle