8:15 “After this, the Levites will go in 1 to do the work 2 of the tent of meeting. So you must cleanse them 3 and offer them like a wave offering. 4
31:6 So Moses sent them to the war, one thousand from every tribe, with Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest, who was in charge 5 of the holy articles 6 and the signal trumpets.
1 tn The imperfect tense could also be given the nuance of the imperfect of permission: “the Levites may go in.”
2 tn Heb “to serve.”
3 tn The two verbs in the rest of this verse are perfect tenses with vav (ו) consecutive constructions, making them equal to the imperfect. Some commentators try to get around the difficulty of repetition by making these future perfects, “and you will have cleansed,” as opposed to a summary statement, “for thus you will cleanse….”
4 tc The Greek text adds “before the
5 tn The Hebrew text uses the idiom that these “were in his hand,” meaning that he had the responsibility over them.
6 sn It is not clear what articles from the sanctuary were included. Tg. Ps.-J. adds (interpretively) “the Urim and Thummim.”