Numbers 11:16
Hebrew Bible
15 But if you are going to deal with me like this, then kill me immediately. If I have found favor in your sight then do not let me see my trouble.” 16 The Lord said to Moses, “Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know are elders of the people and officials over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting; let them take their position there with you. 17 Then I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take part of the Spirit that is on you, and will put it on them, and they will bear some of the burden of the people with you, so that you do not bear it all by yourself.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Judges 12:14
Hebrew Bible
12 Then Elon the Zebulunite died and was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun. 13 After him Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite led Israel. 14 He had 40 sons and 30 grandsons who rode on 70 donkeys. He led Israel for eight years. 15 Then Abdon son of Hillel the Pirathonite died and was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Moses will be able to choose seventy elders who will assist him. Yahweh will take of the spirit that is on Moses – that is undoubtedly the spirit of Yahweh – and put it on these elders so as to share in carrying the burden of the people. The number seventy is well attested in the ancient Near East and should in many cases be considered symbolic. It can be used of a family group, including the “seventy sons of Athirat” in the Ugaritic pantheon, seventy “brothers” of Barrakab king of Yaudi (located in northern Syria) in the eighth century BCE who were murdered, the seventy descendants of Jacob who went to Egypt (Genesis 46:7; Exodus 1:5), of Jerubbaal and his seventy sons (Judges 9:5), and on other occasions (Judges 1:7; 2 Kings 10:6). The leading members of Emar (late second millennium BCE) are referred to as “the seventy sons of Emar”. The number seventy, if not the institution of elders described here, also survived in the seventy-member Sanhedrin, which was the supreme political, religious and legal body at the time of Jesus ..."
Pitkänen, Pekka
A Commentary on Numbers: Narrative, Ritual, and Colonialism
(p. 109) Routledge, 2018
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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