Commentaria in Numeros
Chapter 3. Synopsis of the Chapter
God demands the Levites for his worship in place of as many firstborn of Israel. Secondly, verse 15, the Levites are numbered, about 22 thousand, and among them the guard of the things of the tabernacle is distributed.
1. These are the generations of Aaron and Moses, in the day that the Lord spoke to Moses in mount Sinai. 2. And these are the names of the sons of Aaron: the firstborn Nadab, then Abiu, and Eleazar, and Ithamar. 3. These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests that were anointed, and whose hands were filled and consecrated to do the office of the priesthood. 4. For Nadab and Abiu died, when they offered strange fire in the sight of the Lord in the desert of Sinai, without children; and Eleazar and Ithamar executed the priestly office before Aaron their father. 5. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 6. Bring the tribe of Levi, and make them stand before Aaron the priest, to minister to him, and to watch, 7. and to observe whatsoever pertains to the service of the multitude before the tabernacle of the testimony, 8. and to keep the vessels of the tabernacle, serving in the ministry thereof. 9. And thou shalt give the Levites as a gift 10. to Aaron and his sons, to whom they are delivered by the children of Israel. But Aaron and his sons thou shalt appoint over the service of the priesthood. The stranger that comes to minister shall be put to death. 11. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 12. I have taken the Levites from the children of Israel, for every firstborn that opens the womb among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine. 13. For all the firstborn are mine, since I struck the firstborn in the land of Egypt: I have sanctified to myself whatsoever is first born in Israel, from man even to beast: they are mine; I am the Lord. 14. And the Lord spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai, saying: 15. Number the children of Levi by the houses of their fathers and families, every male from one month and upward. 16. Moses numbered them, as the Lord had commanded, 17. and there were found the sons of Levi by their names: Gerson and Caath and Merari. 18. The sons of Gerson: Lebni and Semei. 19. The sons of Caath: Amram and Jesaar, Hebron and Oziel. 20. The sons of Merari: Moholi and Musi. 21. Of Gerson were two families, the Lebnites and the Semeites: 22. of whom the number was seven thousand five hundred, of the male sex, from one month and upward. 23. These shall pitch behind the tabernacle toward the west, 24. under their prince Eliasaph the son of Lael. 25. And they shall have the watch in the tabernacle of the covenant, 26. the tabernacle itself and its covering, the tent which is drawn before the doors of the roof of the covenant, and the curtains of the court: the hanging also which is at the entrance of the court of the tabernacle, and whatsoever pertains to the rite of the altar, the cords of the tabernacle and all its furniture. 27. The kindred of Caath shall have the people of the Amramites and Jesaarites and Hebronites and Ozielites. These are the families of the Caathites, numbered by their names: 28. all of the male sex from one month and upward, eight thousand six hundred, shall have the watch of the Sanctuary, 29. and they shall pitch on the south side. 30. And their prince shall be Elisaphan the son of Oziel; 31. and they shall keep the ark, and the table, and the candlestick, the altars and the vessels of the Sanctuary wherewith they minister, and the veil, and all such furniture. 32. And the prince of the princes of the Levites shall be Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, over the keepers of the watch of the Sanctuary. 33. But of Merari shall be the people of the Moholites and Musites, numbered by their names: 34. all of the male sex from one month and upward, six thousand two hundred. 35. Their prince Suriel the son of Abihaiel: they shall pitch on the north side. 36. Under their custody shall be the boards of the tabernacle and the bars, and the pillars and the sockets thereof, and all that pertain to such service: 37. the pillars of the court round about with their sockets, and the pins with their cords. 38. And before the tabernacle of the covenant, that is, on the east side, Moses and Aaron with their sons shall pitch, having the custody of the Sanctuary in the midst of the children of Israel; whosoever else comes near shall be put to death. 39. All the Levites that Moses and Aaron numbered by the commandment of the Lord, by their families, of the male sex from one month and upward, were twenty-two thousand. 40. And the Lord said to Moses: Number the firstborn of the male sex of the children of Israel from one month and upward, and thou shalt have the sum of them. 41. And thou shalt take the Levites for me instead of every firstborn of the children of Israel: I am the Lord; and their cattle for all the firstlings of the cattle of the children of Israel. 42. Moses numbered, as the Lord had commanded, the firstborn of the children of Israel, 43. and the males by their names, from one month and upward, were twenty-two thousand two hundred seventy-three. 44. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 45. Take the Levites for the firstborn of the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites for their cattle, and the Levites shall be mine: I am the Lord. 46. And for the price of the two hundred seventy-three, who exceed the number of the Levites, of the firstborn of the children of Israel, 47. thou shalt take five shekels for every head, by the measure of the Sanctuary. The shekel hath twenty obols. 48. And thou shalt give the money to Aaron and his sons, the price of them that are over. 49. Moses therefore took the money of them that were over and above, and whom they had redeemed from the Levites, 50. for the firstborn of the children of Israel, a thousand three hundred sixty-five shekels according to the weight of the Sanctuary, 51. and he gave it to Aaron and his sons, according to the word that the Lord had commanded him.
Verse 1. THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS (that is, these are the sons) OF AARON AND MOSES.—It is a metonymy, by which the act is put for the effect, namely generation for the thing produced and begotten. In like manner generation is taken …
Where note, and see, partly the wonderful election of God, partly how often descendants degenerate from their parents: for Moses was prince and lawgiver, but his descendants were obscure Levites, whereas on the contrary the descendants of Aaron succeeded their father in the priesthood and pontificate.
Verse 3. WHOSE HANDS WERE FILLED AND CONSECRATED.—To fill the hands here means to consecrate the hands to the priesthood: for in the consecration the hands of the new priests were filled, both with gifts and sacrifices and with the anointing of oil; hence among the Hebrews to fill the hand is to consecrate a priest. The Latin interpreter imitates this phrase, 3 Kings 13:33: “Whosoever would, filled his hand (that is, anointed it with oil), and was made a priest.” The like is in 2 Paralipomenon 13:9, and elsewhere.
Verse 6. BRING.—Hebrew hakreb, that is, make to draw near, bring near, bring. This is the election and separation of the Levites, made by God’s command, for the ministry of the tabernacle and the service of the priests. Hence it is plain how foolish is the fiction of Plutarch in his Symposia, that the Levites were priests of Bacchus, whom the Hebrews worshipped, and in whose honour they abstained from swine’s flesh, and that the Levites were so called not from the patriarch Levi but from Lysius, or rather from Evius, which are names of Bacchus.