Numbers 3:7

_AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES, SAYING,_ Bring the tribe of Levi near, х_ HAQªREEB_ (H7126)] - make approach. It is a sacrificial term, denoting the presentation of an offering to God (Leviticus 16:9); and the use of the word, therefore, in connection with the Levites, signifies that they were devoted as an offering to the sanctuary, no longer to be employed in any common offices. They were subordinate to the priests, who alone enjoyed the privilege of entering the holy place; but they were employed in discharging many of the humbler duties which belonged to the sanctuary, as well as in various offices of great utility and importance to the religion and morals of the people. Verse 9. THEY ARE WHOLLY GIVEN ... The priests hold the place of God, and the Levites are the servants of God Verse 9. They are whol

1-13 There was much work belonging to the priests' office, and there were now only Aaron and his two sons to do it; God appoints the Levites to attend them. Those whom God finds work for, he will find help for. The Levites were taken instead of the first-born. When He that made us, saves us, as the first-born of Israel were saved, we are laid under further obligations to serve him faithfully. God's right to us by redemption, confirms the right he has to us by creation....

Verse Numbers 3:7. _THE CHARGE OF THE WHOLE CONGREGATION_] They shall work _for_ the whole congregation; and _instead_ of the _first-born_....

KEEP HIS CHARGE - i. e. so assist him that the obligations incumbent on him and on the congregation may be fulfilled....

EXPOSITION THE NUMBERS AND DUTIES OF THE LEVITES; THEIR SUBSTITUTION FOR THE FIRSTBORN (Numbers 3:1). NUMBERS 3:1 THESE … ARE THE GENERATIONS OF AARON AND MOSES. The word "generations" (_toledoth_)_ _is used here in a peculiar and, so to speak, technical sense, with reference to what follows, as in Genesis 2:4; Genesis 6:9. It marks a new departure,_ _looking _down, _

AND THEY SHALL KEEP HIS CHARGE, AND THE CHARGE OF THE WHOLE CONGREGATION,.... The charge of Aaron and of all the people of Israel, which was to secure the sanctuary from being polluted or plundered: this the Levites were to be employed about, and thereby ease the high priest and the other priests, and the people, of what otherwise would have been incumbent on them: BEFORE THE TABERNACLE OF THE CONGREGATION; not within it, neither in the holy place, nor in the most holy place, where they might not enter, to do any service peculiar thereunto, but at the door of the tabernacle, and in the court of it, and in the rooms and chambers in it: and do the service of the tabernacle; not to offer sacrifices on the altar of the burnt offering, which stood in the court, and much less to burn incense on the altar of incense, and to him the lamps, and set on the shewbread in the holy place; and still l...

3. THE LEVITES AND THEIR MINISTRATIONS CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The generations of the priests (Numbers 3:1)_ 2. The tribe of Levi and their ministry (Numbers 3:5) 3. The Levites substituted for all the first-born (Numbers 3:11) 4. The numbering of the Levites ordered (Numbers 3:14) 5. Gershon (Numbers 3:21) 6. Kohath (Numbers 3:27) 7. Merari ...

THE RELATIONS OF THE LEVITES TO THE PRIESTS. The Levites (_i.e._ the non-Aaronite descendants of Levi), who are here regarded as given (Numbers 3:9) by Israel to the priests to be their servants, are to have no share in the priesthood itself, which is limited to the descendants of Aaron (Numbers 3:10; Numbers 18:7). This limitation seems to have been of late origin. In early times there was no restriction to a particular family or tribe, for, according to Exodus 24:5, sacrifice was offered by young men of the children of Israel (without any mention of their belonging to a special priestly tribe); and in the time of David, his sons (of the tribe o

TABERNACLE. tent. Hebrew. _'ohel_. See App-40. the tabernacle. Hebrew. _miahkdn._ App-40....

The appointment of the Levites as an inferior, though sacred, body of priests" servants....