Bilangan 3:45

3:45 “Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn males among the Israelites, and the livestock of the Levites instead of their livestock. And the Levites will be mine. I am the Lord.

Bilangan 4:3

4:3 from thirty years old and upward to fifty years old, all who enter the company ¹  to do the work in the tent of meeting.

Bilangan 6:18

6:18 “‘Then the Nazirite must shave his consecrated head ²  at the entrance to the tent of meeting and must take the hair from his consecrated head and put it on the fire ³  where the peace offering is burning. ⁴ 

Bilangan 8:11

8:11 and Aaron is to offer ⁵  the Levites before the Lord as a wave offering from the Israelites, that they may do the work ⁶  of the Lord.

Bilangan 8:16

8:16 For they are entirely given ⁷  to me from among the Israelites. I have taken them for myself instead of ⁸  all who open the womb, the firstborn sons of all the Israelites.

Bilangan 8:21

8:21 The Levites purified themselves ⁹  and washed their clothing; then Aaron presented them like a wave offering before the Lord, and Aaron made atonement for them to purify them.

Bilangan 15:8

15:8 And when you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or a sacrifice for discharging a vow or as a peace offering to the Lord,

Bilangan 18:6

18:6 I myself have chosen ¹⁰  your brothers the Levites from among the Israelites. They are given to you as a gift from the Lord, to perform the duties ¹¹  of the tent of meeting.

Bilangan 18:30

18:30 “Therefore you will say to them, ¹²  ‘When you offer up ¹³  the best of it, then it will be credited to the Levites as the product of the threshing floor and as the product of the winepress.

[4:3]  ¹ tn The word “company” is literally “host, army” (צָבָא, tsava’). The repetition of similar expressions makes the translation difficult: Heb “all [who] come to the host to do work in the tent.”

[6:18]  ² tn Some versions simply interpret this to say that he shaves his hair, for it is the hair that is the sign of the consecration to God. But the text says he shaves his consecrated head. The whole person is obviously consecrated to God – not just the head. But the symbolic act of cutting the hair shows that the vow has been completed (see Acts 21:23-24). The understanding of the importance of the hair in the ancient world has been the subject of considerable study over the years (see R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 436; and J. A. Thompson, “Numbers,” New Bible Commentary: Revised, 177).

[6:18]  ³ sn Some commentators see this burning of the hair as an offering (McNeile, Numbers, 35; G. B. Gray, Numbers [ICC], 68). But others probably with more foundation see it as destroying something that has served a purpose, something that if left alone might be venerated (see R. de Vaux, Israel, 436).

[6:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “which is under the peace offering.” The verse does not mean that the hair had to be put under that sacrifice and directly on the fire.

[8:11]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text actually has “wave the Levites as a wave offering.” The wave offering was part of the ritual of the peace offering and indicated the priest’s portion being presented to God in a lifted, waving motion for all to see. The Levites were going to be in the sanctuary to serve the Lord and assist the priests. It is unclear how Moses would have presented them as wave offerings, but the intent is that they would be living sacrifices, as Paul would later say in Rom 12:1 for all Christians.

[8:11]  ⁶ tn The construction emphasizes the spiritual service of the Levites, using the infinitive construct of עָבַד (’avad) followed by its cognate accusative.

[8:16]  ⁷ tn As before, the emphasis is obtained by repeating the passive participle: “given, given to me.”

[8:16]  ⁸ tn Or “as substitutes” for all the firstborn of the Israelites.

[8:21]  ⁹ tn The verb is the Hitpael of חָטָּא (khatta’). In this stem the meaning of the root “to sin” is likely to be connected to the noun “sin/purification” offering in a denominative sense, although some would take it as a privative usage, “to remove sin.” The idea is clear enough: They performed all the ritual in order to purify themselves ceremonially.

[18:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “taken.”

[18:6]  ¹¹ tn The infinitive construct in this sentence is from עָבַד (’avad), and so is the noun that serves as its object: to serve the service.

[18:30]  ¹² tn The wording of this verse is confusing; it may be that it is addressed to the priests, telling them how to deal with the offerings of the Levites.

[18:30]  ¹³ tn The clause begins with the infinitive construct with its preposition and suffixed subject serving to indicate the temporal clause.