8:1–4 Moses is to “speak to Aaron” (8:2; seven other occurrences: Lev. 6:25; 16:2; 17:2; 21:17; 22:2, 18; Num. 6:23) what he heard in the tent of meeting (7:89). Seven lamps illuminate the Holy Place (8:2; cf. Ex. 25:37; Num. 8:3). Before the Kohathites can transport the sacred furnishings, Aaron and his sons must enter the Most Holy Place and the Holy Place to wrap the furnishings carefully so that the Levites neither see nor touch them (Num. 4:15, 20). In addition, Aaron is to enter the Holy Place morning and evening to keep the lampstand lamps lit (Lev. 24:2–4) and to burn incense on the golden altar (Ex. 30:7–8). Every Sabbath he is to arrange the bread of the Presence on the golden table (Ex. 25:30; Lev. 24:8).
“In front of the lampstand” (Num. 8:2, 3) provides the directions indicated in Exodus 40:22, 24, which states that the table is on the north side of the Holy Place and the lampstand on the south side. The entrance to the tent is on the east side. The lampstand is “hammered work of gold” (Num. 8:4). The other furnishings in the Holy Place are overlaid with gold. The lampstand is to be made “according to the pattern that the Lord had shown Moses” (v. 4; cf. Ex. 25:31–40). “Pattern” generally renders a different Hebrew word (tabnit), but here “appearance” (marʾeh) is used, along with the denominative “had shown” (form of raʾah). These terms are combined in the conclusion of the orders on the lampstand and its utensils: “See that you make them after the pattern [tabnit] for them, which is being shown [from raʾah] you on the mountain” (Ex. 25:40). “Pattern” also refers to that of the entire tabernacle (Ex. 25:9; Acts 7:44; Heb. 8:5).
8:5–22 Before doing any tabernacle service, the Levites are cleansed or made ritually pure (8:5–13). The priests are consecrated or made ritually holy (Ex. 29:1; Lev. 8:12). Only priests can officiate sacred rites. The Levites are separated from their fellow Israelites, for whom they do tabernacle service as substitutes for the firstborn (Num. 8:14–22). Their role is to help the priests (3:6).
The Levites’ cleansing involves three steps, the first of which involves the “water of purification” (me hattaʾt, 8:7; lit., “sin water” to de-sin). This water is perhaps taken from the main basin in the court used by the priests (Lev. 8:6), as opposed to being taken from the water for impurity (me niddah) made from the ashes of the red heifer (Num. 19:2–10), used primarily for cleansing corpse contamination. In “cleanse themselves” (8:7; form of tahar) the voice is not fully reflexive, with the subject and object being the same (i.e., the Levites doing and receiving the action of the verb “cleanse themselves”), but is partially indirect reflexive (i.e., with the subject “the Levites” as beneficiaries but not the sole performers of the action). Although the Levities wash their clothes and shave their bodies, Moses sprinkles the purification water “upon them” (v. 7).
Given their rank and responsibilities, the Levites must offer two bulls, one for a sin offering (v. 8) and the other for a burnt offering (vv. 8, 12). These same two animals were required for these two offerings made for sins of the high priest (Lev. 4:3, 7) and for the whole congregation (Lev. 4:13–14). “Its grain offering” (Num. 8:8) indicates that the first bull is a burnt offering, as specified in verse 12. The grain offering is presented as pan-baked “fine flour mixed with oil” (v. 8); it also accompanies peace offerings (6:17). After being cleansed, the Levites are offered, step by step, as a living sacrifice (8:9–13; cf. Rom. 12:1–2), having as their goal atonement on behalf of themselves (Num. 8:12) and the people (v. 19).
The people of Israel are to “lay their hands on the Levites” (v. 10), portraying an identification of “the people”—that is, their representatives—with the Levites. The closest parallel involves the elders’ laying their hands on the bull to be sacrificed for their (the whole congregation’s) sin (Lev. 4:13, 15). Aaron is then to offer the Levites “as a wave offering” (Num. 8:11, tenuphah; cf. discussion on v. 15), the cognate noun from the verb nuph (to “offer”). The Septuagint translates this as “set apart” (Gk. aphorizō), the same verb used to describe the setting apart of Barnabas (a Levite) and Saul from the Antioch church by the Holy Spirit for missionary service (Acts 13:2; notice the laying on of hands by the representatives of the community in Acts 13:3). The Levites are an offering “before the Lord” (Num. 8:11, 21; cf. v. 13, “to the Lord”) “from the people of Israel” (v. 11) and are offered in their place to “do the service of the Lord” (v. 11). That is, as substitutes for the firstborn, they serve the Lord at the tabernacle instead of, and on behalf of, the people. The Levites then lay their hands on the heads of the bulls (v. 12), connecting the sins of the people with the sacrificial animals as their substitutional representatives. The priests offer the bulls, one for a “sin offering” the other for a “burnt offering,” “to make atonement for the Levites” (v. 12)—that is, atonement on their behalf and for the people they represent.
When atonement is made with a burnt offering (Lev. 1:4; 14:20; 16:24; Num. 8:12), the blood of the animal, from the herd or the flock, is thrown against the sides of the altar in the court (regardless of the offeror’s rank; Lev. 1:5, 11). The blood of the sin offering is manipulated more intricately. If it is a bull (for a high priest or the civil authorities representing the whole congregation), its blood is sprinkled seven times in front of the veil of the Most Holy Place, applied to the horns of the incense altar in the Holy Place, and poured out at the base of the altar of burnt offering in the court (Lev. 4:6–7). If it is a female goat/lamb (from a common person), its blood is put on the horns of the incense altar and poured out at the base of the altar of burnt offering (Lev. 4:25, 30, 34). Making atonement for the offeror involves purging with blood the furnishing that has been made impure by his or her sin. Blood sprinkled before the veil implies that the mercy seat on the ark has been polluted. But the high priest enters inside the veil only on the Day of Atonement to sprinkle the blood of a bull for his sin offering and a goat for the people’s sin offering in front of the mercy seat (Lev. 16:14–16). Some of that same blood is applied to the horns of the incense altar and sprinkled on it (Lev. 16:18–19).
Their purification and being offered as a living sacrifice “separated the Levites from among the people” (Num. 8:14; cf. v. 6). To “separate” (form of badal; v. 14) is an action undertaken to separate mixed things, as with the primordial elements in the sacred cosmos, such as light from darkness (Gen. 1:4). The priests must keep separate the holy and profane and the impure and pure (Lev. 10:10; cf. Ezek. 22:26). Mixing them defiles the pure and desecrates the holy. Even outside the ritual domain it is forbidden to mix two kinds of seeds, two kinds of animals when breeding or plowing, or two fabrics used for a garment (Lev. 19:19; Deut. 22:9–11). Blurring God-ordained distinctions is dangerous. God separates (badal) Israel from the other peoples (Lev. 20:24). Although the people must keep themselves from impurity and be holy in their conduct, they are never ceremonially consecrated as are the priests nor cleansed as are the Levites.
The Levites are “wholly given” to the priests to “do the service for the people at the tent of meeting” (Num. 8:16–19). The “service,” or work (ʿabodah), they do as substitutes for the people involves cleaning, taking down, transporting, and setting up the tent and its furnishings. They are also to carry wood and water and slaughter daily and festival sacrifices. Finally, the Levites, as a living sacrifice, are given to “make atonement for the people of Israel” (v. 19), that is, on behalf of the people. Blood atonement to purify is made for them by sacrifices (cf. 5:25). This atonement made by Levitical service falls into the category of bloodless atonement to appease the anger of an offended party (cf. 31:50). The purpose is so “that there may be no plague . . . when the people of Israel come near the sanctuary” (8:19). The form of the verb “come near” (nagash) is not the same form of this verb used for coming near with a sacrifice (Ex. 32:6; Lev. 2:8; also cf. qarab; Lev. 1:2; Num. 6:14). In this grammatical form nagash involves direct physical contact (Ex. 19:15). A plague manifests God’s wrath for encroachment (Num. 16:46). As substitutes in proximity to the sacred, the Levites continually propitiate God and avert divine wrath on the people. The section closes with a major compliance statement (8:20), followed by a summary (vv. 21–22a) and a reiterating compliance statement (v. 22b). After the aforementioned ceremonies the Levites begin their tasks in and around the tabernacle (v. 22).
8:23–26 Based on age, a distinction is drawn between the younger Levites, who do heavy labor (Hb. ʿabodah), and their older relatives, who perform the lighter task of keeping guard (mishmeret) over the tabernacle. The Levites begin working here at “twenty-five years old and upward” (v. 24), while in chapter 4 the age at which the Levites begin to “do duty” is thirty. This difference perhaps reflects a period of five years’ apprenticeship, beginning at twenty-five. Given the skill required to carry out their tasks, the Levites would need a period of training.
The verb translated “to do” (tsabaʾ; 8:24) is the same rendered “warred” (e.g., 31:7), and the cognate object “duty” (tsabaʾ; cf. 4:3, 23) is elsewhere translated “war” (e.g., 31:3; 32:27); the terms thus describe the Levites’ service as spiritual warfare. They bear arms (Ex. 32:26–27) to execute encroachers. Like soldiers, the Levites’ duty is conscripted and regimented in turns of active service—8,580 Levites (Num. 4:48) could not all serve simultaneously. Nothing is said here about their divisions or rotation of duties (cf. 1 Chron. 23:6). “Service” (ʿabodah; Num. 8:24) is physical labor, involving maintaining the tabernacle and transporting it. The latter would include dismantling, packing, loading onto wagons or carrying parts on shoulders, and then setting up the tabernacle upon arrival at the next station.
At the age of fifty the Levites “withdraw from the duty of the service” (v. 25). There will be no more active hard-labor duty after this age. This is emphasized: “Serve no more” (v. 25); “do no [more] service” (v. 26). Instead “they minister to their brothers,” in particular to the priests (3:7) but also to the people (3:8), “by keeping guard,” which involves preventing intrusion by keeping station around the tabernacle during encampment and march (1:53; 2:17; 10:17, 21).
“Minister” (sharat; 8:26) in Numbers refers to the sacred task of the Levites: they “take care of” (same verb) the tabernacle and “minister” to Aaron and his sons, the priests (3:6; 18:2), and to the congregation (16:9). Ministering is done under someone else’s authority. The verb describes Joseph’s ministering to Potiphar (Gen. 39:4; “attended”), Joshua’s ministering to Moses (Num. 11:28; “assistant”), and Samuel’s ministering to the Lord as a boy under Eli the priest (1 Sam. 2:11). The Levites minister under the priests—the Kohathites under Eleazar (Num. 3:32; 4:16) and the Gershonites and Merarites under Ithamar (4:28, 33). No details are repeated here concerning this ministry of keeping guard, since the purpose of this law is to establish the age at which senior Levites are exempt from hard physical labor, which has already been prescribed in detail (3:5–4:49). At a later period the Levites’ temple service under the priests will be multifaceted (e.g., as gatekeepers, musicians, praise leaders). As teachers, the older Levites would be well versed in the Scripture (Neh. 8:7, 9).