Hebrews 5:4

5:4 And no one assumes this honor ¹  on his own initiative, ²  but only when called to it by God, ³  as in fact Aaron was.

Exodus 28:1

The Clothing of the Priests

28:1 ⁴ “And you, bring near ⁵  to you your brother Aaron and his sons with him from among the Israelites, so that they may minister as my priests ⁶  – Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons.

Numbers 16:10-11

16:10 He has brought you near and all your brothers, the sons of Levi, with you. Do you now seek ⁷  the priesthood also? 16:11 Therefore you and all your company have assembled together against the Lord! And Aaron – what is he that you murmur against him?” ⁸ 

Numbers 17:3-10

17:3 You must write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi; for one staff is for the head of every tribe. ⁹  17:4 You must place them ¹⁰  in the tent of meeting before the ark of the covenant ¹¹  where I meet with you. 17:5 And the staff of the man whom I choose will blossom; so I will rid myself of the complaints of the Israelites, which they murmur against you.”

17:6 So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a staff, one for each leader, ¹²  according to their tribes ¹³  – twelve staffs; the staff of Aaron was among their staffs. 17:7 Then Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the testimony. ¹⁴ 

17:8 On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony – and ¹⁵  the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted, and brought forth buds, and produced blossoms, and yielded almonds! ¹⁶  17:9 So Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the Israelites. They looked at them, ¹⁷  and each man took his staff.

The Memorial

17:10 The Lord said to Moses, “Bring Aaron’s staff back before the testimony to be preserved for a sign to the rebels, so that you may bring their murmurings to an end ¹⁸  before me, that they will not die.” ¹⁹ 

Numbers 18:7

18:7 But you and your sons with you are responsible for your priestly duties, for everything at the altar and within the curtain. And you must serve. I give you the priesthood as a gift for service; but the unauthorized person who approaches must be put to death.”

Numbers 18:21-26

18:21 See, I have given the Levites all the tithes in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they perform – the service of the tent of meeting. 18:22 No longer may the Israelites approach the tent of meeting, or else they will bear their sin ²⁰  and die. 18:23 But the Levites must perform the service ²¹  of the tent of meeting, and they must bear their iniquity. ²²  It will be a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations that among the Israelites the Levites ²³  have no inheritance. ²⁴  18:24 But I have given ²⁵  to the Levites for an inheritance the tithes of the Israelites that are offered ²⁶  to the Lord as a raised offering. That is why I said to them that among the Israelites they are to have no inheritance.”

Instructions for the Levites

18:25 The Lord spoke to Moses: 18:26 “You are to speak to the Levites, and you must tell them, ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you are to offer up ²⁷  from it as a raised offering to the Lord a tenth of the tithe.

[5:4]  ¹ sn Honor refers here to the honor of the high priesthood.

[5:4]  ² tn Grk “by himself, on his own.”

[5:4]  ³ tn Grk “being called by God.”

[28:1]  ⁴ sn Some modern scholars find this and the next chapter too elaborate for the wilderness experience. To most of them this reflects the later Zadokite priesthood of the writer’s (P’s) day that was referred to Mosaic legislation for authentication. But there is no compelling reason why this should be late; it is put late because it is assumed to be P, and that is assumed to be late. But both assumptions are unwarranted. This lengthy chapter could be divided this way: instructions for preparing the garments (1-5), details of the apparel (6-39), and a warning against deviating from these (40-43). The subject matter of the first part is that God requires that his chosen ministers reflect his holy nature; the point of the second part is that God requires his ministers to be prepared to fulfill the tasks of the ministry, and the subject matter of the third part is that God warns all his ministers to safeguard the holiness of their service.

[28:1]  ⁵ tn The verb is the Hiphil imperative of the root קָרַב (qarav, “to draw near”). In the present stem the word has religious significance, namely, to present something to God, like an offering.

[28:1]  ⁶ tn This entire clause is a translation of the Hebrew לְכַהֲנוֹ־לִי (lÿkhahano-li, “that he might be a priest to me”), but the form is unusual. The word means “to be a priest” or “to act as a priest.” The etymology of the word for priest, כֹּהֵן (kohen), is uncertain.

[16:10]  ⁷ tn The verb is the Piel perfect. There is no imperfect tense before this, which makes the construction a little difficult. If the vav (ו) is classified as a consecutive, then the form would stand alone as an equivalent to the imperfect, and rendered as a modal nuance such as “would you [now] seek,” or as a progressive imperfect, “are you seeking.” This latter nuance can be obtained by treating it as a regular perfect tense, with an instantaneous nuance: “do you [now] seek.”

[16:11]  ⁸ sn The question indicates that they had been murmuring against Aaron, that is, expressing disloyalty and challenging his leadership. But it is actually against the Lord that they had been murmuring because the Lord had put Aaron in that position.

[17:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “one rod for the head of their fathers’ house.”

[17:4]  ¹⁰ tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect of נוּחַ (nuakh, “to rest”), and so “to set at rest, lay, place, put.” The form with the vav (ו) consecutive continues the instruction of the previous verse.

[17:4]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew text simply reads “the covenant” or “the testimony.”

[17:6]  ¹² tn Heb “a rod for one leader, a rod for one leader.”

[17:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “the house of their fathers.”

[17:7]  ¹⁴ tn The name of the tent now attests to the centrality of the ark of the covenant. Instead of the “tent of meeting” (מוֹעֵד, mo’ed) we now find the “the tent of the testimony” (הָעֵדֻת, ha’edut).

[17:8]  ¹⁵ tn Here too the deictic particle (“and behold”) is added to draw attention to the sight in a vivid way.

[17:8]  ¹⁶ sn There is no clear answer why the tribe of Levi had used an almond staff. The almond tree is one of the first to bud in the spring, and its white blossoms are a beautiful sign that winter is over. Its name became a name for “watcher”; Jeremiah plays on this name for God’s watching over his people (1:11-12).

[17:9]  ¹⁷ tn The words “at them” are not in the Hebrew text, but they have been added in the translation for clarity.

[17:10]  ¹⁸ tn The verb means “to finish; to complete” and here “to bring to an end.” It is the imperfect following the imperative, and so introduces a purpose clause (as a final imperfect).

[17:10]  ¹⁹ tn This is another final imperfect in a purpose clause.

[18:22]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive construct of the verb “to bear” with the lamed (ל) preposition to express the result of such an action. “To bear their sin” would mean that they would have to suffer the consequences of their sin.

[18:23]  ²¹ tn The verse begins with the perfect tense of עָבַד (’avad) with vav (ו) consecutive, making the form equal to the instructions preceding it. As its object the verb has the cognate accusative “service.”

[18:23]  ²² sn The Levites have the care of the tent of meeting, and so they are responsible for any transgressions against it.

[18:23]  ²³ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Levites) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[18:23]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses both the verb and the object from the same root to stress the point: They will not inherit an inheritance. The inheritance refers to land.

[18:24]  ²⁵ tn The classification of the perfect tense here too could be the perfect of resolve, since this law is declaring what will be their portion – “I have decided to give.”

[18:24]  ²⁶ tn In the Hebrew text the verb has no expressed subject (although the “Israelites” is certainly intended), and so it can be rendered as a passive.

[18:26]  ²⁷ tn The verb in this clause is the Hiphil perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive; it has the same force as an imperfect of instruction: “when…then you are to offer up.”