Numbers 35:2

35:2 “Instruct the Israelites to give ¹  the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites ²  will possess. You must also give the Levites grazing land around the towns.

Numbers 18:30

18:30 “Therefore you will say to them, ³  ‘When you offer up ⁴  the best of it, then it will be credited to the Levites as the product of the threshing floor and as the product of the winepress.

Numbers 35:4

35:4 The grazing lands around the towns that you will give to the Levites must extend to a distance of 500 yards ⁵  from the town wall.

Numbers 35:7

35:7 “So the total of the towns you will give the Levites is forty-eight. You must give these together with their grazing lands.

Numbers 8:20

8:20 So Moses and Aaron and the entire community of the Israelites did this with the Levites. According to all that the Lord commanded Moses concerning the Levites, this is what the Israelites did with them.

Numbers 8:24

8:24 “This is what pertains to the Levites: ⁶  At the age of twenty-five years ⁷  and upward one may begin to join the company ⁸  in the work of the tent of meeting,

Numbers 8:26

8:26 They may assist ⁹  their colleagues ¹⁰  in the tent of meeting, to attend to needs, but they must do no work. This is the way you must establish ¹¹  the Levites regarding their duties.”

Numbers 18:24

18:24 But I have given ¹²  to the Levites for an inheritance the tithes of the Israelites that are offered ¹³  to the Lord as a raised offering. That is why I said to them that among the Israelites they are to have no inheritance.”

Numbers 31:30

31:30 From the Israelites’ half-share you are to take one portion out of fifty of the people, the cattle, the donkeys, and the sheep – from every kind of animal – and you are to give them to the Levites, who are responsible for the care of the Lord’s tabernacle.”

Numbers 31:47

31:47 From the Israelites’ share Moses took one of every fifty people and animals and gave them to the Levites who were responsible for the care of the Lord’s tabernacle, just as the Lord commanded Moses.

Numbers 35:6

35:6 Now from these towns that you will give to the Levites you must select six towns of refuge to which a person who has killed someone may flee. ¹⁴  And you must give them forty-two other towns.

Numbers 35:8

35:8 The towns you will give must be from the possession of the Israelites. From the larger tribes you must give more; and from the smaller tribes fewer. Each must contribute some of its own towns to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance allocated to each.

[35:2]  ¹ tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive: “command…and they will give,” or “that they give.”

[35:2]  ² tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:30]  ³ tn The wording of this verse is confusing; it may be that it is addressed to the priests, telling them how to deal with the offerings of the Levites.

[18:30]  ⁴ tn The clause begins with the infinitive construct with its preposition and suffixed subject serving to indicate the temporal clause.

[35:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “one thousand cubits.” The standard cubit in the OT is assumed by most authorities to be about eighteen inches (45 cm) in length, so this would be a distance of 1,500 feet or 500 yards (675 meters).

[8:24]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text has “this [is that] which [pertains] to the Levites.” “This is what concerns the Levites, meaning, the following rulings are for them.

[8:24]  ⁸ tc The age of twenty-five indicated in v. 24 should be compared with the age of thirty indicated in Num 4:3,23,30. In order to harmonize the numbers given in chapter 4 with the number given in Num 8:24 the LXX (and perhaps its Hebrew Vorlage) has thirty in all of these references. See further G. J. Wenham, Numbers (TOTC 4), 97-98.

[8:24]  ⁹ tn The infinitive is לִצְבֹא (litsvo’), related to the word for “host, army, company,” and so “to serve as a company.” The meaning is strengthened by the cognate accusative following it.

[8:26]  ⁹ tn The verb is the Piel perfect of שָׁרַת (sharat, “to serve, minister”). Here the form has the vav (ו) consecutive, and so is equal to the imperfect tense stressing permission. After the Levites reached the age of retirement, they were permitted to assist the others, but were not permitted to do the work themselves.

[8:26]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “brothers,” but the meaning in this context is “fellow Levites.”

[8:26]  ¹¹ tn Heb “you shall do, make.”

[18:24]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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.

[35:6]  ¹³ tn The “manslayer” is the verb “to kill” in a participial form, providing the subject of the clause. The verb means “to kill”; it can mean accidental killing, premeditated killing, or capital punishment. The clause uses the infinitive to express purpose or result: “to flee there the manslayer,” means “so that the manslayer may flee there.”