Numbers 3:1-23
records <08435> [generations.]
spoke <01696> [spake.]
priests <03548> [the priests.]
consecrated <04390> [whom he consecrated. Heb. whose hand he filled.]
Nadab <05070> [Nadab.]
The word {hakraiv,} here rendered bring near, is properly a sacrificial word, and signifies the presenting of a sacrifice or offering to the Lord. As an offering, the tribe of Levi was entirely given up to the service of the sanctuary, to be no longer their own, but the Lord's.
responsible <08104> [keep.]
attending .... service <05647 05656> [to do the.]
be responsible <08104> [they shall.]
unauthorized <02114> [and the stranger.]
When God miraculously destroyed all the first-born of the Egyptians, (Ex 12:29,) he spared those of the Israelites; and, in commemoration of that event, he was pleased to appoint that all the first-born males "should be set apart unto himself." (Ex 13:12-16.) God is here pleased to relinquish this claim, and to appoint the whole tribe of Levi to attend his immediate service in their stead.
firstborn ......... firstborn .............. firstborn <01060> [Because.]
When <03117> [on the day.]
<06310> [word. Heb. mouth.]
[Gershom.]
month old <02320 01121> [from a month old.]
The males of all the other tribes were numbered from twenty years old and upwards; but, had the Levites been numbered in this way, they would not have been nearly equal in number to the first-born of the twelve tribes. Add to this, that as there must have been first-born of all ages in the other tribes, it was necessary that the Levites, who were to be their substitutes, should also be of all ages; and it appears to have been partly on this ground, that the Levites were numbered from a month old and upwards.
