Numbers 11:21

11:21 Moses said, “The people around me ¹  are 600,000 on foot; ²  but you say, ‘I will give them meat, ³  that they may eat ⁴  for a whole month.’

Numbers 16:17

16:17 And each of you ⁵  take his censer, put ⁶  incense in it, and then each of you present his censer before the Lord: 250 censers, along with you, and Aaron – each of you with his censer.”

Numbers 18:2

18:2 “Bring with you your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, so that they may join ⁷  with you and minister to you while ⁸  you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony.

Numbers 1:50

1:50 But appoint ⁹  the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, ¹⁰  over all its furnishings and over everything in it. They must carry ¹¹  the tabernacle and all its furnishings; and they ¹²  must attend to it and camp around it. ¹³ 

Numbers 18:1

Responsibilities of the Priests

18:1 ¹⁴ The Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your tribe ¹⁵  with you must bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, ¹⁶  and you and your sons with you must bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

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.”

[11:21]  ¹ tn Heb “the people who I am in their midst,” i.e., among whom I am.

[11:21]  ² tn The Hebrew sentence stresses the number. The sentence begins “600,000….”

[11:21]  ³ tn The word order places the object first here: “Meat I will give them.” This adds to the contrast between the number and the statement of the Lord.

[11:21]  ⁴ tn The verb is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, carrying the sequence from the preceding imperfect tense. However, this verb may be subordinated to the preceding to express a purpose clause.

[16:17]  ⁵ tn Heb “and take, a man, his censer.”

[16:17]  ⁶ tn This verb and the following one are both perfect tenses with vav (ו) consecutives. Following the imperative they carry the same force, but in sequence.

[18:2]  ⁹ sn The verb forms a wordplay on the name Levi, and makes an allusion to the naming of the tribe Levi by Leah in the book of Genesis. There Leah hoped that with the birth of Levi her husband would be attached to her. Here, with the selection of the tribe to serve in the sanctuary, there is the wordplay again showing that the Levites will be attached to Aaron and the priests. The verb is יִלָּווּ (yillavu), which forms a nice wordplay with Levi (לֵוִי). The tribe will now be attached to the sanctuary. The verb is the imperfect with a vav (ו) that shows volitive sequence after the imperative, here indicating a purpose clause.

[18:2]  ¹⁰ tn The clause is a circumstantial clause because the disjunctive vav (ו) is on a nonverb to start the clause.

[1:50]  ¹³ tn The same verb translated “number” (פָּקַד, paqad) is now used to mean “appoint” (הַפְקֵד, hafqed), which focuses more on the purpose of the verbal action of numbering people. Here the idea is that the Levites were appointed to take care of the tabernacle. On the use of this verb with the Levites’ appointment, see M. Gertner, “The Masorah and the Levites,” VT 10 (1960): 252.

[1:50]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew name used here is מִשְׁכַּן הָעֵדֻת (mishkan ha’edut). The tabernacle or dwelling place of the Lord was given this name because it was here that the tablets of the Law were kept. The whole shrine was therefore a reminder (הָעֵדוּת, a “warning sign” or “testimony”) of the stipulations of the covenant. For the ancient Near Eastern customs of storing the code in the sanctuaries, see M. G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King, 14-19, and idem, The Structure of Biblical Authority, 35-36. Other items were in the ark in the beginning, but by the days of Solomon only the tablets were there (1 Kgs 8:9).

[1:50]  ¹⁵ tn The imperfect tense here is an obligatory imperfect telling that they are bound to do this since they are appointed for this specific task.

[1:50]  ¹⁶ tn The addition of the pronoun before the verb is emphatic – they are the ones who are to attend to the tabernacle. The verb used is שָׁרַת (sharat) in the Piel, indicating that they are to serve, minister to, attend to all the details about this shrine.

[1:50]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the tabernacle.” The pronoun (“it”) was used in the translation here for stylistic reasons.

[18:1]  ¹⁷ sn This chapter and the next may have been inserted here to explain how the priests are to function because in the preceding chapter Aaron’s position was affirmed. The chapter seems to fall into four units: responsibilities of priests (vv. 1-7), their portions (vv. 8-19), responsibilities of Levites (vv. 20-24), and instructions for Levites (vv. 25-32).

[18:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “your father’s house.”

[18:1]  ¹⁹ sn The responsibility for the sanctuary included obligations relating to any violation of the sanctuary. This was stated to forestall any further violations of the sanctuary. The priests were to pay for any ritual errors, primarily if any came too near. Since the priests and Levites come near all the time, they risk violating ritual laws more than any. So, with the great privileges come great responsibilities. The bottom line is that they were responsible for the sanctuary.