Numbers 18:1-7

Responsibilities of the Priests

18:1 ¹ The Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your tribe ²  with you must bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, ³  and you and your sons with you must bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

18:2 “Bring with you your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, so that they may join ⁴  with you and minister to you while ⁵  you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony. 18:3 They must be responsible to care for you and to care for the entire tabernacle. However, they must not come near the furnishings of the sanctuary and the altar, or both they and you will die. 18:4 They must join ⁶  with you, and they will be responsible for the care of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the tent, but no unauthorized person ⁷  may approach you. 18:5 You will be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the care of the altar, so that there will be ⁸  no more wrath on the Israelites. 18:6 I myself have chosen ⁹  your brothers the Levites from among the Israelites. They are given to you as a gift from the Lord, to perform the duties ¹⁰  of the tent of meeting. 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.”

[18:1]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “your father’s house.”

[18:1]  ³ 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.

[18:2]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn The clause is a circumstantial clause because the disjunctive vav (ו) is on a nonverb to start the clause.

[18:4]  ⁶ tn Now the sentence uses the Niphal perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive from the same root לָוָה (lavah).

[18:4]  ⁷ tn The word is “stranger, alien,” but it can also mean Israelites here.

[18:5]  ⁸ tn The clause is a purpose clause, and the imperfect tense a final imperfect.

[18:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “taken.”

[18:6]  ¹⁰ tn The infinitive construct in this sentence is from עָבַד (’avad), and so is the noun that serves as its object: to serve the service.