Bilangan 3:3

3:3 These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed ¹  priests, whom he consecrated ²  to minister as priests. ³ 

Bilangan 16:5

16:5 Then he said to Korah and to all his company, “In the morning the Lord will make known who are his, and who is holy. He will cause that person ⁴  to approach him; the person he has chosen he will cause to approach him.

Bilangan 16:7

16:7 put fire in them, and set incense on them before the Lord tomorrow, and the man whom the Lord chooses will be holy. You take too much upon yourselves, you sons of Levi!”

Bilangan 16:10

16:10 He has brought you near and all your brothers, the sons of Levi, with you. Do you now seek ⁵  the priesthood also?

Bilangan 16:35

16:35 Then a fire ⁶  went out from the Lord and devoured the 250 men who offered incense.

Bilangan 16:40

16:40 It was a memorial for the Israelites, that no outsider who is not a descendant of ⁷  Aaron should approach to burn incense before the Lord, that he might not become like Korah and his company – just as the Lord had spoken by the authority ⁸  of Moses.

Bilangan 16:46-48

16:46 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take the censer, put burning coals from the altar in it, place incense on it, and go quickly into the assembly and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord – the plague has begun!” 16:47 So Aaron did ⁹  as Moses commanded ¹⁰  and ran into the middle of the assembly, where the plague was just beginning among the people. So he placed incense on the coals and made atonement for the people. 16:48 He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped.

Bilangan 17:3-11

17:3 You must write Aaron’s name on the staff of Levi; for one staff is for the head of every tribe. ¹¹  17:4 You must place them ¹²  in the tent of meeting before the ark of the covenant ¹³  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, ¹⁴  according to their tribes ¹⁵  – 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. ¹⁶ 

17:8 On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony – and ¹⁷  the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted, and brought forth buds, and produced blossoms, and yielded almonds! ¹⁸  17:9 So Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the Israelites. They looked at them, ¹⁹  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 ²⁰  before me, that they will not die.” ²¹  17:11 So Moses did as the Lord commanded him – this is what he did.

Bilangan 18:1-5

Responsibilities of the Priests

18:1 ²² The Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your tribe ²³  with you must bear the iniquity of the sanctuary, ²⁴  and you and your sons with you must bear the iniquity of your priesthood.

18:2 “Bring with you your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, so that they may join ²⁵  with you and minister to you while ²⁶  you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony. 18:3 They must be responsible to care for you and to care for the entire tabernacle. However, they must not come near the furnishings of the sanctuary and the altar, or both they and you will die. 18:4 They must join ²⁷  with you, and they will be responsible for the care of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the tent, but no unauthorized person ²⁸  may approach you. 18:5 You will be responsible for the care of the sanctuary and the care of the altar, so that there will be ²⁹  no more wrath on the Israelites.

[3:3]  ¹ tn The verb מָשַׁח (mashakh) means “to anoint”; here the form modifies the “priests.” The service of consecration was carried out with anointing oil (Exod 30:30). The verb is used for the anointing of kings as well as priests in the OT, and so out of that derived the technical title “Messiah” for the coming ideal king – the “Anointed One.”

[3:3]  ² tn In this verse the expression is in a relative clause: “who he filled their hand” means “whose hands he filled,” or “whom he consecrated.” The idiomatic expression used here is from Lev 8; it literally is “he filled their hand” (מִלֵּא יָדָם, mille’ yadam). In the ordination service Moses placed some of the meat from the sacrifice in the hand of the ordinand, and this signified what he was going to be about – having his hand full, or being consecrated to the priesthood. There is some evidence that this practice or expression was also known in Mesopotamia. In modern ordination services a NT or a Bible may be placed in the ordinand’s hand – it is what the ministry will be about.

[3:3]  ³ tn The form is an infinitival construction for the word for the priest, showing the purpose for the filling of the hands.

[16:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “him.”

[16:10]  ⁵ 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.

[16:35]  ⁶ tn For a discussion of the fire of the Lord, see J. C. H. Laughlin, “The Strange Fire of Nadab and Abihu,” JBL 95 (1976): 559-65.

[16:40]  ⁷ tn Heb “from the seed of.”

[16:40]  ⁸ tn Heb “hand.”

[16:47]  ⁹ tn Heb “took.”

[16:47]  ¹⁰ tn Or “had spoken” (NASB); NRSV “had ordered.”

[17:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “one rod for the head of their fathers’ house.”

[17:4]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew text simply reads “the covenant” or “the testimony.”

[17:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “a rod for one leader, a rod for one leader.”

[17:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the house of their fathers.”

[17:7]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ tn Here too the deictic particle (“and behold”) is added to draw attention to the sight in a vivid way.

[17:8]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn The words “at them” are not in the Hebrew text, but they have been added in the translation for clarity.

[17:10]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn This is another final imperfect in a purpose clause.

[18:1]  ²² sn This chapter and the next may have been inserted here to explain how the priests are to function because in the preceding chapter Aaron’s position was affirmed. The chapter seems to fall into four units: responsibilities of priests (vv. 1-7), their portions (vv. 8-19), responsibilities of Levites (vv. 20-24), and instructions for Levites (vv. 25-32).

[18:1]  ²³ tn Heb “your father’s house.”

[18:1]  ²⁴ sn The responsibility for the sanctuary included obligations relating to any violation of the sanctuary. This was stated to forestall any further violations of the sanctuary. The priests were to pay for any ritual errors, primarily if any came too near. Since the priests and Levites come near all the time, they risk violating ritual laws more than any. So, with the great privileges come great responsibilities. The bottom line is that they were responsible for the sanctuary.

[18:2]  ²⁵ sn The verb forms a wordplay on the name Levi, and makes an allusion to the naming of the tribe Levi by Leah in the book of Genesis. There Leah hoped that with the birth of Levi her husband would be attached to her. Here, with the selection of the tribe to serve in the sanctuary, there is the wordplay again showing that the Levites will be attached to Aaron and the priests. The verb is יִלָּווּ (yillavu), which forms a nice wordplay with Levi (לֵוִי). The tribe will now be attached to the sanctuary. The verb is the imperfect with a vav (ו) that shows volitive sequence after the imperative, here indicating a purpose clause.

[18:2]  ²⁶ tn The clause is a circumstantial clause because the disjunctive vav (ו) is on a nonverb to start the clause.

[18:4]  ²⁷ tn Now the sentence uses the Niphal perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive from the same root לָוָה (lavah).

[18:4]  ²⁸ tn The word is “stranger, alien,” but it can also mean Israelites here.

[18:5]  ²⁹ tn The clause is a purpose clause, and the imperfect tense a final imperfect.