Numbers 4:15-20

4:15 “When Aaron and his sons have finished ¹  covering ²  the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is ready to journey, then ³  the Kohathites will come to carry them; ⁴  but they must not touch ⁵  any ⁶  holy thing, or they will die. ⁷  These are the responsibilities ⁸  of the Kohathites with the tent of meeting.

4:16 “The appointed responsibility of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest is for the oil for the light, and the spiced incense, and the daily grain offering, and the anointing oil; he also has ⁹  the appointed responsibility over all the tabernacle with ¹⁰  all that is in it, over the sanctuary and over all its furnishings.” ¹¹ 

4:17 Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: 4:18 “Do not allow the tribe of the families of the Kohathites to be cut off ¹²  from among the Levites; 4:19 but in order that they will live ¹³  and not die when they approach the most holy things, do this for them: Aaron and his sons will go in and appoint ¹⁴  each man ¹⁵  to his service and his responsibility. 4:20 But the Kohathites ¹⁶  are not to go in to watch while the holy things are being covered, or they will die.”

[4:15]  ¹ tn The verb form is the Piel perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive; it continues the future sequence, but in this verse forms a subordinate clause to the parallel sequential verb to follow.

[4:15]  ² tn The Piel infinitive construct with the preposition serves as the direct object of the preceding verbal form, answering the question of what it was that they finished.

[4:15]  ³ tn Heb “after this.”

[4:15]  ⁴ tn The form is the Qal infinitive construct from נָשָׂא (nasa’, “to lift, carry”); here it indicates the purpose clause after the verb “come.”

[4:15]  ⁵ tn The imperfect tense may be given the nuance of negated instruction (“they are not to”) or negated obligation (“they must not”).

[4:15]  ⁶ tn Here the article expresses the generic idea of any holy thing (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 19, §92).

[4:15]  ⁷ tn The verb is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive, following the imperfect tense warning against touching the holy thing. The form shows the consequence of touching the holy thing, and so could be translated “or they will die” or “lest they die.” The first is stronger.

[4:15]  ⁸ tn The word מַשָּׂא (massa’) is normally rendered “burden,” especially in prophetic literature. It indicates the load that one must carry, whether an oracle, or here the physical responsibility.

[4:16]  ⁹ tn This is supplied to the line to clarify “appointed.”

[4:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and.”

[4:16]  ¹¹ sn One would assume that he would prepare and wrap these items, but that the Kohathites would carry them to the next place.

[4:18]  ¹² sn The verb is simply the Qal, “do not cut off.” The context calls for a permissive nuance – “do not let them be cut off.” It was a difficult task to be handling the holy things correctly; Moses and Aaron were to see to it that they did it right and did not handle the objects, that is, Moses and Aaron were to safeguard their lives by making certain that proper procedures were followed.

[4:19]  ¹³ tn The word order is different in the Hebrew text: Do this…and they will live. Consequently, the verb “and they will live” is a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive to express the future consequence of “doing this” for them.

[4:19]  ¹⁴ tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive continues the instruction for Aaron.

[4:19]  ¹⁵ tn The distributive sense is obtained by the repetition, “a man” and “a man.”

[4:20]  ¹⁶ tn In the Hebrew text the verse has as the subject “they,” but to avoid confusion the antecedent has been clarified in the translation.