Números 3:9

They are wholly given unto him. — Hebrew, Given, given are they to him. This repetition of the word nethunim (given) is emphatic. The same repetition occurs in Números 8:16, where the Levites are represented as “wholly given” to the Lord instead of the firstborn; and in Números 3:19 of that chapter, as in Números 3:12 of this chapter, they are represented as being given by Him to Aaron and his sons. The word nethunim must not be confounded with Nethinim, the name given at a later date (1 Crônicas 9:2; Esdras 2:43; Neemias 3:26; Neemias 3:31) to the Gibeonites, who were made “hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord” (Josué 9:27). The tribe of Levi had proved themselves the most zealous for the honour of the Lord at the time of the worship of the golden calf (Êxodo 32:26), and it was then that Moses gave them the charge to consecrate themselves (literally, to fill their hands, comp. Números 3:3 of this chapter) to the Lord. There was, therefore, a special reason for the selection of this tribe, independently of the fact that Moses and Aaron (and consequently the priests, as the descendants of Aaron) belonged to it.