Commentaria in Numeros
The Hebrew means “every one that enters upon the warfare, or the host.” For this the Hebrew tsaba signifies; our Interpreter, however, renders tsaba “station,” because tsaba comes from yatsab, that is, “he stood”: whence also those skilled in the Hebrew tongue, such as Mercer, Forster and others, teach that an army is called tsaba, that is a station, because it is a military station.
In the preceding chapter, verse 45, the Levites were numbered from the first month of age, that Levites might be substituted for almost as many firstborn; but here the Levites are numbered from the thirtieth year, because here only strong men are numbered, who could carry the heavy burdens and parts of the tabernacle when the camp was to be moved. They began to serve at the thirtieth year. In like manner among the Hebrews no one could teach before the thirtieth year: hence both Christ and John the Baptist began to preach in their thirtieth year. For this is the age of mature judgment and just authority.
In like manner it is likely that an appointed age was fixed for priests, before which they could not discharge the priesthood. So Abulensis, Question 42; but what it was is nowhere expressed in Scripture. For what Josephus relates, that the son of Hyrcanus exercised the pontificate in his eighteenth year, it may justly be doubted whether this was rightly and according to law done. For if a greater age was required in Levites, then much more in priests and pontiffs.
The ecclesiastical ministration itself of the Levites in the tabernacle is called here a warfare, or station, as our Interpreter has it in verse 30. For this warfare is not human but divine, in which the Levites kept watch in most orderly array like soldiers: first, for the guard of the tabernacle; second, for carrying and protecting it; third, for serving the priests that the sacrifices might be duly performed, and for all the sacred service of God. Imitating this, St. Paul exhorts Timothy the Bishop to “war a good warfare, having faith and a good conscience,” 1 Timothy 1:18. Clerics, therefore, are soldiers, whose leaders and standard-bearers are the Bishops. For warfare among the Hebrews signifies every kind of service: hence Levites, angels, heavens, stars and all creatures are called soldiers of God, and God is called Sabaoth, that is of hosts, namely of the soldiers just mentioned; and Sabaoth is one of the ten names of God, which the Septuagint render now “of powers,” that is of virtues, or potentates; now “almighty,” that is all-conquering, ruling over all, as St. Jerome testifies, epistle 136 to Marcella. Where note: The Levites are here said to go in to the warfare, namely of God and of the tabernacle; but other common soldiers going to war are said to go out to the warfare, because they set out abroad against the war and their enemies.
Verse 4. THIS IS THE SERVICE—that is, the ministry, the sacred function of the Caathites. This is plain from the Hebrew.
Verses 4 and 5. AARON AND HIS SONS SHALL GO INTO THE HOLY OF HOLIES.—Hence it is plain that even the lesser priests entered the Holy of Holies to take it down, when the camp was to be moved. Hence what is said in Leviticus 16, and in Hebrews 9:7, that the pontiff alone entered the Holy of Holies once a year, understand to apply when the camp was fixed and the tabernacle stood at rest in it, for then it was the pontiff’s alone; but not when in the moving of the camp the tabernacle had to be taken down: for this was the office of the lesser priests, as Abulensis well proves, Question 5; for when the Holy of Holies was to be taken down, then God, or rather the angel, withdrew that body or cloud which brooded and as it were sat upon the propitiatory, and gave oracles: hence then there was no danger of irreverence, or that the lesser priests would violate that body representing God. Abulensis adds, Question 18, that the Levites themselves, namely the Caathites, entered the Holy of Holies to carry out its furniture, namely the ark, the Cherubim and the propitiatory, wrapped and bound up by the priests, as is said in verse 15, because when these had been removed from their place and wrapped up, all the glory of the Holy of Holies was already taken away, and that place was esteemed no longer sacred but common and as it were profane.
Verse 5. THEY SHALL TAKE DOWN THE VEIL—which divides the Holy from the Holy of Holies; the priests therefore first wrapped the ark and the Cherubim in this veil: then in a scarlet cloth in like manner they wrapped the table, the altar and the candlestick, which were in the Holy. For these were held as holy and sacred, so that it was not lawful even for the Levites to touch or see them uncovered, under pain of death, as is said here. The priests therefore wrapped and veiled all these vessels when the camp was to be moved, and therefore the tabernacle had to be taken down, and then delivered them, veiled, to the Levites, namely the Caathites, to be carried. Secondly came the Gersonites, rolling up and carrying away their curtains and veils. Last came the Merarites, taking down and carrying away the pillars and boards of the tabernacle.
Caath in the tabernacle of the covenant, namely in the Holy of Holies; or: the most holy things, namely, they shall take care of.
The order was the opposite in the setting up of the tabernacle, when the camp was to be fixed: for then the Merarites came first, to fix the pillars and join the boards of the tabernacle. Secondly came the Gersonites, to cover these with their curtains and veils. Thirdly and last came the Caathites, to lay down their veiled vessels both in the Holy and in the Holy of Holies: which the priests then unwrapped and placed in their places.
Verse 6. AND SHALL PUT IN THE BARS—not into the ark, because they were already in it and were never drawn out, as is plain from Exodus 25:15; they shall therefore put in and lay these bars on the shoulders of the bearers, namely the Caathites.
Verse 7. THE CENSERS.—Our Interpreter puts these in the first place, whereas in the Hebrew they are placed last, and that in order to join the proper vessels of the libations, namely the cups and bowls, with what follows, “to pour out the libations” (as the Hebrew has); for incense was burned together with the sacrifices, and was kept in these censers; in the little mortars, that is dishes, fine flour was received for the mincha, or meal-offering; in the cups, finally, and bowls, wine or oil was received for libation and pouring out. For this the phrase “to pour out the libations” signifies. Where note: Although incense and flour are sometimes called libations, yet properly only liquids, such as wine and oil, are libations.
THE LOAVES (of proposition) SHALL BE ALWAYS ON IT.—“On it,” namely on the table. Understand this of the promised land, where the Hebrews, being at rest, would duly worship God and observe these ceremonies. So some. But the contrary seems truer; for Moses speaks here of what was to be done in the desert, when the camp was to be moved and the furniture of the tabernacle packed.
Verse 10. AND SHALL PUT IN THE BARS.—There were no bars in the candlestick; hence they bound the burden of the candlestick, then laid it on their shoulders, and so carried the candlestick: but in the ark, table and altar there were bars; hence what is said presently in verse 11 of the altar, “and shall put in the bars,” understand not into the altar but on the shoulders of the bearers, as
Verse 11. THE GOLDEN ALTAR—the altar of incense, which was made of setim wood but overlaid with plates of gold, whereas the altar of holocausts was overlaid with plates of brass on the sides.
Verse 13. THEY SHALL ALSO CLEANSE THE ALTAR (of holocausts) FROM THE ASHES—both of the victims burnt on it in Sinai and of the wood by which the sacred fire is afterwards to be fed, according to the precept of God given in Leviticus 6:12. For after the departure from Sinai the Hebrews afterwards offered no victims in the desert.