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Texts -- Numbers 4:1-17 (NET)

Context
The Service of the Kohathites
4:1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron : 4:2 “Take a census of the Kohathites from among the Levites , by their families and by their clans , 4:3 from thirty years old and upward to fifty years old , all who enter the company to do the work in the tent of meeting . 4:4 This is the service of the Kohathites in the tent of meeting , relating to the most holy things . 4:5 When it is time for the camp to journey , Aaron and his sons must come and take down the screening curtain and cover the ark of the testimony with it. 4:6 Then they must put over it a covering of fine leather and spread over that a cloth entirely of blue , and then they must insert its poles . 4:7 “On the table of the presence they must spread a blue cloth , and put on it the dishes , the pans , the bowls , and the pitchers for pouring , and the Bread of the Presence must be on it continually . 4:8 They must spread over them a scarlet cloth , and cover the same with a covering of fine leather ; and they must insert its poles . 4:9 “They must take a blue cloth and cover the lampstand of the light , with its lamps , its wick-trimmers , its trays , and all its oil vessels , with which they service it. 4:10 Then they must put it with all its utensils in a covering of fine leather , and put it on a carrying beam . 4:11 “They must spread a blue cloth on the gold altar , and cover it with a covering of fine leather ; and they must insert its poles . 4:12 Then they must take all the utensils of the service , with which they serve in the sanctuary , put them in a blue cloth , cover them with a covering of fine leather , and put them on a carrying beam . 4:13 Also, they must take away the ashes from the altar and spread a purple cloth over it. 4:14 Then they must place on it all its implements with which they serve there– the trays , the meat forks , the shovels , the basins , and all the utensils of the altar – and they must spread on it a covering of fine leather , and then insert its poles . 4:15 “When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary , when the camp is ready to journey , then the Kohathites will come to carry them; but they must not touch any holy thing , or they will die . These are the responsibilities of the Kohathites with the tent of meeting . 4:16 “The appointed responsibility of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest is for the oil for the light , and the spiced incense , and the daily grain offering , and the anointing oil ; he also has the appointed responsibility over all the tabernacle with all that is in it, over the sanctuary and over all its furnishings .” 4:17 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron :

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Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • The title the Jews used in their Hebrew Old Testament for this book comes from the fifth word in the book in the Hebrew text, bemidbar: "in the wilderness."This is, of course, appropriate since the Israelites spent most of th...
  • To formulate a statement that summarizes the teaching of this book it will be helpful to identify some of the major revelations in Numbers. These constitute the unique values of the book.The first major value of Numbers is th...
  • I. Experiences of the older generation in the wilderness chs. 1-25A. Preparations for entering the Promised Land from the south chs. 1-101. The first census and the organization of the people chs. 1-42. Commands and rituals t...
  • The first 10 chapters in Numbers describe Israel's preparation for entering the land.". . . just as the way from Goshen to Sinai was a preparation of the chosen people for their reception into the covenant with God, so the wa...
  • Note the recurrance of a key word in the Pentateuch in verse l: toledot."For the first time after the formative events of the Exodus deliverance and the revelation on Mount Sinai, the people of Israel are organized into a hol...
  • Moses did not arrange the three Levitical families in the text here in the order of the ages of their founders. He arranged them in the order of the holiness of the articles that they managed.The Kohathites--who included Mose...
  • The consecration of the priests had taken place earlier (cf. Lev. 8). Then the people only looked on (Lev. 8:3-4). On the present occasion God set apart to His service the whole tribe of Levi that He had taken in place of the...
  • Before going into battle against the Midianites as God commanded (25:18), the Lord directed Moses to take another census of the Israelites. Evidently the 24,000 who died in the recent plague (25:9) were the last of the genera...
  • "Just as the censuses of chs. 1, 3, and 4 led to a flurry of preparations for departure from Sinai, so the second censuses in ch. 26 lead to preparations for departure from the plains of Moab and entry into the land of Canaan...
  • Bethshemesh was the closest Israelite town to Ekron. It stood about 12 miles east-southeast of Ekron. To get there the cows walked east up the Sorek Valley, Samson's home area. Evidently the Israelites who were reaping their ...
  • Not all the people who later assembled to see the ark were as careful as those from Bethshemesh, however. The Mosaic Law specified that no one was to look into the ark or that person would die (Num. 4:5, 20; cf. 2 Sam. 6:6-7)...
  • In 1004 B.C. David became king of all Israel and Judah.50This was his third anointing (cf. 1 Sam. 16:13; 2 Sam. 2:4). The people acknowledged David's previous military leadership of all Israel as well as God's choice of him t...
  • The lesson the writer intended this incident to teach the readers is that Yahweh is holy and His people should not take His presence among them lightly (cf. Lev. 10:1-11; Num. 16). God's presence is real, and His people must ...
  • Verses 1 and 2 of chapter 23 provide an outline for what follows in chapters 23-27 but in reverse order. After David appointed Solomon as his coregent in 973 B.C., he began the preparations the writer described here.David ada...
  • As Solomon had done, these Jews contracted with the Phoenicians to the north to supply wood for the temple (cf. 2 Chron. 2:16). The people needed several months of preparations before actual construction began on the site in ...
  • "The setting of the Mesopotamian dream-visions--which occurred in both the Assyrian period and the Babylonian period . . . --consisted of four elements: (1) the date, (2) the place of reception, (3) the recipient, and (4) the...
  • Why did Luke place his genealogy of Jesus at this point in his Gospel? Probably he did so because this was the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. Matthew recorded Jesus' genealogy to show that He had a legitimate right by b...
  • 8:48 Since the Jews could not refute Jesus' challenge they resorted to verbal abuse (cf. 7:52). Perhaps they called Him a Samaritan because He had questioned their ties to Abraham. This may have been a Samaritan attack agains...
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