Commentaria in Numeros
Moses and Aaron are commanded to dwell together here.
Moses the prince and Aaron the pontiff are commanded to dwell, because, as Rupert says, “priestly holiness needs the fasces of leaders and consuls and the swords of kings, and nothing is safer when they agree, nothing more ruinous when they disagree.” Hence Constantine the Great, the Emperor, used to say that he was “a bishop outside the Church,” because he took care, as far as he could, that the Church be preserved and extended, yet did not usurp ecclesiastical offices. And St. Augustine, tract. 51 on John, teaches that every father of a family ought to exercise in his house the “episcopal office, that for Christ and for eternal life he may admonish, teach, exhort and rebuke all his own,” etc.
“Watch” is here taken metonymically for guard, which is done by keeping watch. Again, guard is taken metonymically for the thing to be guarded. The sense therefore is: “They shall have the watch,” that is they shall guard, or have to guard, the things which follow, namely “the tabernacle itself and the covering,” etc. This sense is plain from the Hebrew. Hence in verse 32 our Interpreter calls these keepers of the tabernacle “keepers of the watch of the sanctuary.”
Verse 25 and 26. THE TABERNACLE ITSELF AND ITS COVERING, THE TENT WHICH IS DRAWN BEFORE THE DOORS OF THE ROOF OF THE COVENANT.—“Tabernacle” here means the lowest veil of the tabernacle, composed of ten curtains, which immediately veiled and covered the boards of the tabernacle on every side, of which Exodus 26:1 and 6; but “covering of the tabernacle” here means the other threefold veil laid over the former veil of ten curtains, namely first the hair-cloth, second the covering of rams’ skins dyed red, third the covering of violet-coloured skins, of which Exodus 26. All the veils of the tabernacle, therefore, the Gersonites carried when the camp set out.
THE TENT (that is, the veil) WHICH IS DRAWN BEFORE THE DOORS OF THE ROOF—that is of the tabernacle, which is covered and veiled on every side; for Moses speaks here of the veil which was at the entrance of the tabernacle, and was as it were its door.
THE HANGING ALSO WHICH IS AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE COURT OF THE TABERNACLE.—The former hanging, or veil, belonged to the tabernacle itself; this belongs to the court, which was before the tabernacle: both are here committed to the custody of the Gersonites.
AND WHATSOEVER PERTAINS TO THE RITE OF THE ALTAR.—“Whatsoever,” namely of veils; for it treats here only of the veils surrounding the altar, as is plain from the Hebrew, Chaldee and Septuagint. For this was among other reasons the cause of the court and its veils, namely to serve the altar of holocausts and its rite, that is its worship, and to cover it on every side. The sense is not therefore distorted in our version, as Abulensis complains; for our Interpreter, when he says “whatsoever,” leaves the word “of curtains” or “of veils” to be understood from what precedes. For it treats of the Gersonites, who guarded and carried no vessels of the altar (for that was the ministry of the Caathites), but only the veils, as is plain both from this place and from the following chapter, verse 24.
For note that the ministries of the Levites were so apportioned by God that the Caathites guarded, and on the march carried, the sacred vessels themselves, such as the brazen laver, the ark of the testament wrapped in the veil which hung before the Holy of Holies, the two altars, namely one of incense and the other of holocausts, the candlestick and the table with their utensils, as is plain from verse 31. But the Merarites and Gersonites guarded, and on the march carried, the very parts of the tabernacle and court; but the Merarites the solid parts, namely the boards, pillars, sockets, pins and bars, as is plain from verse 36; the Gersonites the soft coverings, namely the veils and curtains with their cords, as is plain in this verse 26. Where observe that the Caathites were preferred to the other Levites, and guarded and carried the most sacred vessels, because Aaron and Moses descended from Caath through Amram: hence Eleazar, the elder son of Aaron, was set over the Caathites, as is plain from the next chapter, verse 16.
Verse 28. THEY SHALL HAVE THE WATCH—that is, they shall have the guard of the sanctuary as to the vessels that follow. This is plain from the Hebrew: see what was said on verse 25.
Verse 31. AND THE VEIL—which is stretched before the Holy of Holies; for in this the ark was to be wrapped, to be carried by the Caathites, as I said on verse 26. For all the other veils were carried not by the Caathites but by the Gersonites, as was said there.
Verse 37. THE PINS WITH THEIR CORDS.—Understand by cords those by which the pillars of the tabernacle were stretched and made firm, as Josephus explains: these the Merarites guarded and carried; for the other cords, by which the veils were fastened to pins fixed in the ground and the curtains were stretched out, the Gersonites guarded and carried, as is plain from verse 26; so there is no contradiction here: the cords of the pillars belonged to the Merarites, but the cords of the veils and curtains to the Gersonites.
Verse 39. ALL THE LEVITES TWENTY-TWO THOUSAND.—In all there were 22,300; for the Gersonites were 7,500, the Caathites 8,600, the Merarites 6,200, which added together make 22,300.
You will say: How then are only 22 thousand numbered here?
I answer: This is because these 22 thousand were substituted for as many firstborn of the Israelites, as is plain from verse 41. The remaining three hundred were firstborn among the Levites, and therefore are reckoned among the firstborn, not among the Levites in this redemption, since they too, as firstborn, had to be redeemed, and did not redeem others.
Moses and Aaron are also numbered here; for it says, “all the Levites.” Nor was Aaron the firstborn of Amram his father, because Mary, the sister of Aaron, was older than he, as is gathered from Exodus 2:7. For she was a grown girl when Moses was born; but Aaron was then only three years old, for Aaron was older than Moses by three years only.
Verse 41. AND THOU SHALT TAKE THEIR CATTLE—as if to say: Thou shalt separate from the cattle of the others the cattle of the Levites, not that they be sacrificed or taken from others, but that they be dedicated to me with the Levites themselves, and be mine, as the Levites themselves are mine.
Note: Afterward in the desert the Israelites did not pay their firstborn to God, but only in the land of Canaan; for the ceremonial things were not observed there except in Sinai, of which more in chapter 5, verse 2. But the Levites never paid their firstborn, because they themselves were ministers and as it were the peculium of God; hence they received the firstborn and the tithes of others in the place of God. See chapter 5, at the beginning.
God commands, then, that the Levites be given and consecrated to God for the firstborn of Israel, and since the number of the firstborn exceeded the number of the Levites by 273 persons—for the Levites were precisely 22 thousand, but the firstborn of Israel were 22 thousand and moreover 273—God therefore commands that these 273 be redeemed with a price, namely by five shekels paid for each head. Which of the firstborn of Israel were to be exchanged with the Levites, and which redeemed by a price, was decided by lot; hence Abulensis, from Rabbi Solomon, holds that Moses wrote as many slips as there were firstborn of Israel, but on 273 slips wrote “five shekels”; that he then mixed them, and commanded each firstborn to take one from them, and that the one on whom fell the slip inscribed with five shekels had to pay the same to Aaron and so redeem himself.
Verse 48. AND THOU SHALT GIVE THE MONEY TO AARON, THE PRICE OF THEM THAT ARE OVER—who exceed the number of the Levites, and who therefore must redeem themselves by a price.
Verse 50. FOR THE FIRSTBORN OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL—who, namely, exceeded the number of the Levites, and therefore had not been exchanged with them; but the money of the redeemers amounted to 1,365 shekels.