These provisions for abode, of course, did not apjily to the Levites in the time of Moses. While wandering in the wilderness, they were supported like the other Israelites, with but slight emoluments or perquisites, and at first with comparatively little honor, amid their considerable burdens in caring for the religious cidtus. But how ra])idly the fcding of reverence gained strength we may judge from the share assigned to them out of the flocks, and herds, and women of the conquered JMid- ianites (Numb, xxxi, 27, etc.). The same victory led to the dedication of gold and silver vessels of great value, and thus increased the importance of the tribe as guar- dians of the national treasures (Numb, xxxi, 50-54).
7. Modifications under Joshua and ike Judges. — The submission of the Gibeonites, after they had obtained a promise that their lives should be spared, enabled Joshua to relieve the tribe-divisions of Gershon and IMerari of the most burdensome of their duties. The conquered Hivites became " hewers of wood and drawers of water" for the house of Jehovah and for the congregation (Josh. ix, 27). The Ncthinim (^l)eo dati) of 1 Chron. ix, 2; Ezra ii, 43, were probably sprung from captives taken by David in later wars, who were assigned to the service of the tabernacle, replacing possibly the Gibeonites who had been slain by Saul (2 Sam. xxi, 1). See Netiiisiji. The scanty memorials that are left us in the book of Judges are rather unfavorable to the inference that for any length of time the reality answered to the IMosaic idea of the Levitical institution. The ravages of inva- sion, and the pressure of an alien rule, marred the work- ing of the organization which seemed so perfect. Le- vitical cities, such as Aijalim (Josh, xxi, 24 ; Judg. i,35) and Gezer (Josh, xxi, 21 ; 1 Chron. vi, 67), fell into the hands of their enemies. Sometimes, as in the case of Nob, others ajiparently toolc their place. The wander- ing, unsettled habits of such Levites as are mentioned in the later chapters of Judges are probably to be traced to this loss of a fixed abode, and the consequent neces- sity of taking refuge in other cities, even though tlieir trilie as such had no portion in them. The tendency of the people to fall into the idolatrj' of the neighboring nations showed either that the Levites failed to bear their witness to the truth or had no power to enforce it.
LEVITE
39G
LEVITE
Even in the lifetime of riiinehas, when the high-priest was still consulted as an oracle, the very reverence which the people felt for the tribe of Levi becomes the occasion of a rival worship (Judg. xvii). The old household priesthood revives (see Kaliseh, On Ge/iesis xlir, 7), and there is the risk of the national worship breaking up into individualism. Micah first consecrates one of his own sons, and then tempts a homeless Levite to dwell with him as " a father and a priest" for little more than his food and raiment. The Levite, though probably the grandson of Moses himself, repeats the sin of Korah. See Jonathan. First in the house of Micah, and then for the emigrants of Dan, he exercises the office of a priest with -'an ephod. and a teraphim, and a graven image." 'Witli this exception the whole tribe appears to have fallen into a condition analogous to that of the clergy in the darkest period and in the most outlyuig districts of the medireval Church, going through a ritual routine, but exercising no influence lor good, at once corrupted and corrupting. The shameless license of the sons of Eli maj' be looked upon as the result of a long period of decay, affecting the whole order. When the priests were such as Hophni and Phinehas, we may fairly assume that the Le\ites were not doing nnich to sustain the moral life of the people.
The work of Samuel was the starting-point of a bet- ter time. Himself a Levite, and, though not a priest, belonging to that section of the Levites which was near- est to the priesthood (1 Chron.vi, 28), adopted, as it were, by a special dedication into the priestly line and tramed for its offices (I Sam. ii, 18), he appears as infusing a fresh life, the author of a new organization. There is no reason to think, indeed, that the companies or schools of the sons of the prophets which appear in his time (I Sam. x,o), and are traditionally said to have been found- ed by hmi, consisted exclusively of Levues; but there are many signs that the members of that tribe formed a large element iu the new order, and received new strength from it. It exhibited, indeed, the ideal of the Levitical life as one of praise, devotion, teachhig; stand- ing in the same relation to the priests and Levites gener- ally as the monastic institutions of the 5th century, or the mendicant orders of the 13th did to the secular cler- gy of Western Europe. The fact that the Levites were thus brought under the influence of a system which ad- dressed itself to the mind and heart in a greater degree than the sacrificial functions of the priesthood, may pos- sibly have led them on to apprehend the higher truths as to the nature of worship -which begin to be asserted from this period, and Avhich are nowhere proclaimed more clearly than in the great hymn that bears the name of Asaph (Psa. 1,7-15). The man who raises the name of prophet to a new significance is himself a Levite (1 Sam. ix, 9). It is among the prophets that we find the first signs of the musical skill which is afterwards so conspicuous in the Levites (1 Sam. x, 5). The order in which the Temple services were arranged is ascribed to two of the prophets, Nathan and Gad (2 Chron. xxix, 25), who nuist have grown up mider Samuel's superin- tendence, and in jiart to Samuel himself (1 Chron. ix, 22). Asaph and Hcman, the psalmists, bear the same title as Samuel the Seer (1 Chron. xxv, 5; 2 Chron. xxix, 30). The very word "prophesying" is applied not only to sudden bursts of song, but to the organized psalmody of the Temple (1 Chron. xxv, 2, .■!). Even of those who bore the name (if a projihct in a higher sense a large number are traceably of this tribe.