The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 43

EXPOSITION. CH.APTER III. sixteen courses, the descendants of I thamnr into eight (2 Chron. n:iv. 3). THE NUMBERS AND DUTIES OF THE LE- Ver. 6.-Bring the tribe of Levi near. VITF.S; THEIR SUBSTITUTION FOR THE FIBST• Not by any outward act of presentation, but IIORN (eh. iii.). Ver. 1.-Theae .. are the by assigning to them solemnly the duties genera.tiou of Aaron and llo■e■. The word following. The ei:pression is often used of " generations" (toledoth) is used here in a servants coming to receive orders from their peculiar and, so to speak, technical sense, masters. with reference to what follows, as in Gen. ii. Ver. 7.-They shall keep hia charge, and 4 ; vi. 9. It mnrk:s a new departure, look- the oha.rge of the whole oongrega.tion. ing down, not up, the course of history. Septuagint, "shall keep his watches, and Moses and .Aaron were a. beginning in them- the watches of the children of Israel." The selves as the chosen heads of the chosen Levites were to be the servants of Aaron on tribe : Moses having the higher office, but the one side, and of the whole congregation one entirely persona.I to himself; .Aaron on the other, in the performance of their being the first of a long and eminent line of religious duties. The complicated ceremonial priests. The actual genealogy, therefore, is now prescribed and set in use could not pos- that of .Aaron, and he is placed first. In sibly be carried out by priests or people the day. A:pparently the day mAntioned in without the assistance of 11. large number of eh. i 1 ; or 1t may be more general, as in persons trained and devoted to the work. Gen. ii. 4. • Compare St. Paul's words to the Corinthians Ver. 3. - Whom he consecrated. The (2 Cor. iv. 6), "Ourselves your servants for "he" is impersonal; the Septuagint has, Jesus' snke." •' whose hands they filled." - Ver. 8.-Inatrument■. Vessels and furni- Ver. 4.-They ha.d no ohildren. If they ture. Septungint, """"I· Vulgate, 11asa. had left sons, these would have succeooed Ver. 9. They a.re wholly given unto him. to their office, and to the headship of the The word nethunim (wholly given) is em- priestly line. In the sight of Aaron. In phatic here, and in eh. viii. 16. As the his lifetime (cf. Gen. i:i. 28). Septuagint, whole house of Ismel at large, so especially "with .Aaron." In the time of David the (for a. reason which will presently appea.1') descendants of Eleo.zar were divided into the tribe of Levi belonged absolutely to God; .Nll111BERB. 0  J8 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [CK; III, 1-51.