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 18:15

18:15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you – from your fellow Israelites; ³  you must listen to him.

Deuteronomy 18:1

Provision for Priests and Levites

18:1 The Levitical priests ⁴  – indeed, the entire tribe of Levi – will have no allotment or inheritance with Israel; they may eat the burnt offerings of the Lord and of his inheritance. ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 6:20

Exhortation to Remember the Past

6:20 When your children ⁶  ask you later on, “What are the stipulations, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord our God commanded you?”

Deuteronomy 6:2

6:2 and that you may so revere the Lord your God that you will keep all his statutes and commandments ⁷  that I am giving ⁸  you – you, your children, and your grandchildren – all your lives, to prolong your days.

Deuteronomy 29:11

29:11 your infants, your wives, and the ⁹  foreigners living in your encampment, those who chop wood and those who carry water –

Psalms 106:23

106:23 He threatened ¹⁰  to destroy them,

but ¹¹  Moses, his chosen one, interceded with him ¹² 

and turned back his destructive anger. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 15:19

15:19 Because of this, the Lord said, ¹⁴ 

“You must repent of such words and thoughts!

If you do, I will restore you to the privilege of serving me. ¹⁵ 

If you say what is worthwhile instead of what is worthless,

I will again allow you to be my spokesman. ¹⁶ 

They must become as you have been.

You must not become like them. ¹⁷ 

Ezekiel 44:11

44:11 Yet they will be ministers in my sanctuary, having oversight at the gates of the temple, and serving the temple. They will slaughter the burnt offerings and the sacrifices for the people, and they will stand before them to minister to them.

Ezekiel 44:15

The Levitical Priests

44:15 “‘But the Levitical priests, the descendants of Zadok ¹⁸  who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, will approach me to minister to me; they will stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, declares the sovereign Lord.

Luke 21:36

21:36 But stay alert at all times, ¹⁹  praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that must ²⁰  happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

[10:8]  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.

[10:8]  ² sn To formulate blessings. The most famous example of this is the priestly “blessing formula” of Num 6:24-26.

[18:15]  ³ tc The MT expands here on the usual formula by adding “from among you” (cf. Deut 17:15; 18:18; Smr; a number of Greek texts). The expansion seems to be for the purpose of emphasis, i.e., the prophet to come must be not just from Israel but an Israelite by blood.

[18:1]  ⁴ tn The MT places the terms “priests” and “Levites” in apposition, thus creating an epexegetical construction in which the second term qualifies the first, i.e., “Levitical priests.” This is a way of asserting their legitimacy as true priests. The Syriac renders “to the priest and to the Levite,” making a distinction between the two, but one that is out of place here.

[18:1]  ⁵ sn Of his inheritance. This is a figurative way of speaking of the produce of the land the Lord will give to his people. It is the Lord’s inheritance, but the Levites are allowed to eat it since they themselves have no inheritance among the other tribes of Israel.

[6:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “your son.”

[6:2]  ⁷ tn Here the terms are not the usual חֻקִּים (khuqqim) and מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim; as in v. 1) but חֻקֹּת (khuqqot, “statutes”) and מִצְוֹת (mitsot, “commandments”). It is clear that these terms are used interchangeably and that their technical precision ought not be overly stressed.

[6:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “commanding.” For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation.

[29:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “your.”

[106:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he said.”

[106:23]  ¹¹ tn Heb “if not,” that is, “[and would have] if [Moses] had not.”

[106:23]  ¹² tn Heb “stood in the gap before him.”

[106:23]  ¹³ tn Heb “to turn back his anger from destroying.”

[15:19]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “So the Lord said thus.”

[15:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “If you return [ = repent], I will restore [more literally, ‘cause you to return’] that you may stand before me.” For the idiom of “standing before” in the sense of serving see BDB 764 s.v. עָמַד Qal.1.e and compare the usage in 1 Kgs 10:8; 12:8; 17:1; Deut 10:8.

[15:19]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “you shall be as my mouth.”

[15:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “They must turn/return to you and you must not turn/return to them.”

[44:15]  ¹⁸ sn Zadok was a descendant of Aaron through Eleazar (1 Chr 6:50-53), who served as a priest during David’s reign (2 Sam 8:17).

[21:36]  ¹⁹ sn The call to be alert at all times is a call to remain faithful in looking for the Lord’s return.

[21:36]  ²⁰ tn For the translation of μέλλω (mellw) as “must,” see L&N 71.36.