Bilangan 16:10-11

16:10 He has brought you near and all your brothers, the sons of Levi, with you. Do you now seek ¹  the priesthood also? 16:11 Therefore you and all your company have assembled together against the Lord! And Aaron – what is he that you murmur against him?” ² 

Bilangan 17:3-10

17:3 You must write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi; for one staff is for the head of every tribe. ³  17:4 You must place them ⁴  in the tent of meeting before the ark of the covenant ⁵  where I meet with you. 17:5 And the staff of the man whom I choose will blossom; so I will rid myself of the complaints of the Israelites, which they murmur against you.”

17:6 So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and each of their leaders gave him a staff, one for each leader, ⁶  according to their tribes ⁷  – twelve staffs; the staff of Aaron was among their staffs. 17:7 Then Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the testimony. ⁸ 

17:8 On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony – and ⁹  the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted, and brought forth buds, and produced blossoms, and yielded almonds! ¹⁰  17:9 So Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the Israelites. They looked at them, ¹¹  and each man took his staff.

The Memorial

17:10 The Lord said to Moses, “Bring Aaron’s staff back before the testimony to be preserved for a sign to the rebels, so that you may bring their murmurings to an end ¹²  before me, that they will not die.” ¹³ 

Bilangan 18:7

18:7 But you and your sons with you are responsible for your priestly duties, for everything at the altar and within the curtain. And you must serve. I give you the priesthood as a gift for service; but the unauthorized person who approaches must be put to death.”

Bilangan 18:21-26

18:21 See, I have given the Levites all the tithes in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they perform – the service of the tent of meeting. 18:22 No longer may the Israelites approach the tent of meeting, or else they will bear their sin ¹⁴  and die. 18:23 But the Levites must perform the service ¹⁵  of the tent of meeting, and they must bear their iniquity. ¹⁶  It will be a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations that among the Israelites the Levites ¹⁷  have no inheritance. ¹⁸  18:24 But I have given ¹⁹  to the Levites for an inheritance the tithes of the Israelites that are offered ²⁰  to the Lord as a raised offering. That is why I said to them that among the Israelites they are to have no inheritance.”

Instructions for the Levites

18:25 The Lord spoke to Moses: 18:26 “You are to speak to the Levites, and you must tell them, ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe that I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you are to offer up ²¹  from it as a raised offering to the Lord a tenth of the tithe.

[16:10]  ¹ tn The verb is the Piel perfect. There is no imperfect tense before this, which makes the construction a little difficult. If the vav (ו) is classified as a consecutive, then the form would stand alone as an equivalent to the imperfect, and rendered as a modal nuance such as “would you [now] seek,” or as a progressive imperfect, “are you seeking.” This latter nuance can be obtained by treating it as a regular perfect tense, with an instantaneous nuance: “do you [now] seek.”

[16:10]  sn Moses discerned correctly the real motivation for the rebellion. Korah wanted to be the high priest because he saw how much power there was in the spiritual leadership in Israel. He wanted something like a general election with himself as the candidate and his supporters promoting him. The great privilege of being a Levite and serving in the sanctuary was not enough for him – the status did not satisfy him. Korah gave no rebuttal. The test would be one of ministering with incense. This would bring them into direct proximity with the Lord. If God honored Korah as a ministering priest, then it would be settled. But Moses accuses them of rebellion against the Lord, because the Lord had chosen Aaron to be the priest.

[16:11]  ² sn The question indicates that they had been murmuring against Aaron, that is, expressing disloyalty and challenging his leadership. But it is actually against the Lord that they had been murmuring because the Lord had put Aaron in that position.

[17:3]  ³ tn Heb “one rod for the head of their fathers’ house.”

[17:4]  ⁴ tn The verb is the Hiphil perfect of נוּחַ (nuakh, “to rest”), and so “to set at rest, lay, place, put.” The form with the vav (ו) consecutive continues the instruction of the previous verse.

[17:4]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text simply reads “the covenant” or “the testimony.”

[17:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “a rod for one leader, a rod for one leader.”

[17:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “the house of their fathers.”

[17:7]  ⁸ tn The name of the tent now attests to the centrality of the ark of the covenant. Instead of the “tent of meeting” (מוֹעֵד, mo’ed) we now find the “the tent of the testimony” (הָעֵדֻת, ha’edut).

[17:8]  ⁹ tn Here too the deictic particle (“and behold”) is added to draw attention to the sight in a vivid way.

[17:8]  ¹⁰ sn There is no clear answer why the tribe of Levi had used an almond staff. The almond tree is one of the first to bud in the spring, and its white blossoms are a beautiful sign that winter is over. Its name became a name for “watcher”; Jeremiah plays on this name for God’s watching over his people (1:11-12).

[17:9]  ¹¹ tn The words “at them” are not in the Hebrew text, but they have been added in the translation for clarity.

[17:10]  ¹² tn The verb means “to finish; to complete” and here “to bring to an end.” It is the imperfect following the imperative, and so introduces a purpose clause (as a final imperfect).

[17:10]  ¹³ tn This is another final imperfect in a purpose clause.

[18:22]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive construct of the verb “to bear” with the lamed (ל) preposition to express the result of such an action. “To bear their sin” would mean that they would have to suffer the consequences of their sin.

[18:23]  ¹⁵ tn The verse begins with the perfect tense of עָבַד (’avad) with vav (ו) consecutive, making the form equal to the instructions preceding it. As its object the verb has the cognate accusative “service.”

[18:23]  ¹⁶ sn The Levites have the care of the tent of meeting, and so they are responsible for any transgressions against it.

[18:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Levites) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[18:23]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew text uses both the verb and the object from the same root to stress the point: They will not inherit an inheritance. The inheritance refers to land.

[18:24]  ¹⁹ tn The classification of the perfect tense here too could be the perfect of resolve, since this law is declaring what will be their portion – “I have decided to give.”

[18:24]  ²⁰ tn In the Hebrew text the verb has no expressed subject (although the “Israelites” is certainly intended), and so it can be rendered as a passive.

[18:26]  ²¹ tn The verb in this clause is the Hiphil perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive; it has the same force as an imperfect of instruction: “when…then you are to offer up.”