Deuteronomy 10:8

10:8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi ¹  to carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand before the Lord to serve him, and to formulate blessings ²  in his name, as they do to this very day.

Deuteronomy 18:5

18:5 For the Lord your God has chosen them and their sons from all your tribes to stand ³  and serve in his name ⁴  permanently.

¹ sn The Lord set apart the tribe of Levi. This was not the initial commissioning of the tribe of Levi to this ministry (cf. Num 3:11-13; 8:12-26), but with Aaron’s death it seemed appropriate to Moses to reiterate Levi’s responsibilities. There is no reference in the Book of Numbers to this having been done, but the account of Eleazar’s succession to the priesthood there (Num 20:25-28) would provide a setting for this to have occurred.

² sn To formulate blessings. The most famous example of this is the priestly “blessing formula” of Num 6:24-26.

³ tc Smr and some Greek texts add “before the Lord your God” to bring the language into line with a formula found elsewhere (Deut 10:8; 2 Chr 29:11). This reading is not likely to be original, however.

⁴ tn Heb “the name of the Lord.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.