Bible Commentaries

These also [are] the ^a generations of Aaron and Moses in the day [that] the LORD spake with Moses in mount Sinai.

(a) Or, families and kindreds.

And Nadab and Abihu died ^b before the LORD, when they offered strange fire before the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children: and Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest's office in the ^c sight of Aaron their father.

(b) Or, before the altar.

(c) While their father lived.

Bring the tribe of Levi near, and ^d present them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister unto him.

(d) Offer them to Aaron for the use of the tabernacle.

And they shall keep his charge, and the charge of the whole congregation ^e before the tabernacle of the congregation, to do the service of the tabernacle.

(e) Which belonged to the executing of the high priests commandment, to the oversight of the people, and the service of the tabernacle.

And thou shalt give the Levites unto Aaron and to his ^f sons: they [are] wholly given unto him out of the children of Israel.

(f) Aaron's sons the priests served in the sanctuary in praying for the people and offering sacrifice: the Levites served for the inferior uses of the same.

And thou shalt appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall wait on their priest's office: and the ^g stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

(g) Any that would minister not being a Levite.

Those that were numbered of them, ^h according to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, [even] those that were numbered of them [were] seven thousand and five hundred.

(h) Only numbering the male children.

And the charge of the sons of Gershon in the tabernacle of the congregation [shall be] the ⁱ tabernacle, and the tent, the covering thereof, and the hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,

(i) Their charge was to carry the covering and hangings of the tabernacle.

In the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, [were] eight thousand and six hundred, keeping the ^k charge of the sanctuary.

(k) Everyone doing his duty in the sanctuary.

And their charge [shall be] the ^l ark, and the table, and the candlestick, and the altars, and the vessels of the sanctuary wherewith they minister, and the hanging, and all the service thereof.

(l) The main things within the sanctuary were committed to the Kohathites.

And [under] the custody and charge of the sons of Merari [shall be] ^m the boards of the tabernacle, and the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, and the sockets thereof, and all the vessels thereof, and all that serveth thereto,

(m) The wood work and the rest of the instruments were committed to their charge.

But those that encamp before the tabernacle toward the east, [even] before the tabernacle of the congregation eastward, [shall be] Moses, and Aaron and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary ⁿ for the charge of the children of Israel; and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

(n) That no one should enter into the tabernacle contrary to God's appointment.

All that were numbered of the Levites, which Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of the LORD, throughout their families, all the males from a month old and upward, [were] twenty and two ^o thousand.

(o) So that the first born of the children of Israel were more by 273, as in (Numbers 3:43).

And thou shalt take the Levites for me (I [am] the LORD) ^f instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel; and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstlings among the cattle of the children of Israel.

(f) So that now the Levites should satisfy the Lord for the first born of Israel, excepting the 273 which were more than the Levites for whom they paid money.

Of the ^q firstborn of the children of Israel took he the money; a thousand three hundred and threescore and five [shekels], after the shekel of the sanctuary:

(q) Or the two hundred seventy and three which were more than the Levites.