1And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Speak to Aaron and say to him: ‘When you light up the lamps, opposite the front of the lamp stand shall the seven lamps give light.’” 3And thus Aaron did: opposite the front of the lamp stand he lit up its lamps as the LORD had charged Moses. 4And this is the fashioning of the lamp stand: hammered work of gold, from its base to its petal it was hammered work, according to the semblance that the LORD had shown Moses, thus did he make the lamp stand.
5And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 6“Take the Levites from the midst of the Israelites and purify them. 7And thus you shall do to them to purify them: sprinkle on them expiation water and pass a razor over all their flesh and wash their clothes and be purified. 8And they shall take a bull from the herd and its grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil, and a second bull from the herd you shall take as an offense offering. 9And you shall bring the Levites forward before the Tent of Meeting and you shall assemble all the community of Israelites. 10And you shall bring the Levites forward before the LORD, and the Israelites shall lay their hands on the Levites. 11And Aaron shall make of the Levites an elevation offering before the LORD from the Israelites, and they shall serve to do the work of the LORD. 12And the Levites, they shall lay their hands on the head of the bulls and make the one an offense offering and the one a burnt offering to the LORD to atone for the Levites. 13And you shall stand the Levites before Aaron and before his sons and make of them an elevation offering to the LORD. 14And you shall divide the Levites from the Israelites and they shall be Levites to Me. 15And afterward the Levites shall come to work in the Tent of Meeting and you shall purify them and make of them an elevation offering. 16For wholly given they are to Me from the midst of the Israelites instead of the breach of every womb, firstborn of all of the Israelites, I have taken them to Me. 17For Mine is every firstborn among the Israelites, in man and in beast, on the day I struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated them to Me. 18And I took the Levites instead of every firstborn among the Israelites. 19And I made the Levites wholly given to Aaron and to his sons from the midst of the Israelites to do the work of the Israelites in the Tent of Meeting, to atone for the Israelites, that there be no scourge against the Israelites when the Israelites approach the sanctuary.” 20And Moses, and Aaron and all the community of Israelites, did to the Levites as all that the LORD had charged Moses concerning the Levites, thus did the Israelites do to them. 21And the Levites did expiation and washed their clothes, and Aaron made of them an elevation offering before the LORD, and Aaron atoned for them to purify them. 22And afterward the Levites did come to do their work in the Tent of Meeting before Aaron and before his sons; as the LORD had charged Moses about the Levites, thus did they do to them.
23And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 24“This is what regards the Levites: from twenty-five years old and up, each shall come to do army service in the work of the Tent of Meeting. 25And from fifty years old he shall come back from the army work and shall work no more. 26And he shall serve his brothers in the Tent of Meeting to keep watch, but work he shall not do. So shall you do to the Levites in their watch.”
CHAPTER 8 NOTES
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2. When you light up the lamps. Rashi provides a vividly imaginative explanation for why this unit of four verses about the lamp stand should immediately follow the dedicatory offering of the twelve tribes: “When Aaron saw the dedicatory offering of the chieftains, he was dismayed that he was not together with them in the dedicatory offering, neither he nor his tribe. The Holy One said to him, ‘By your life, yours is greater than theirs, for you light and tend to the lamps.’”
4. petal. This is a collective noun indicating the floral ornamentation of the seven lamp holders.
6. Take the Levites . . . and purify them. If there is no biblical theology of original sin, there is, at least among the Priestly writers, a technology to deal with original impurity. The dangerous inner zone of the sanctuary can be entered only when a person has undergone an elaborate sequence of acts to rid himself of the impurity that is intrinsic to profane life: thus the Levites must be sprinkled with expiation water, have their body hair shaven, their garments washed, and a special sacrifice intended to remove even inadvertent offense (ḥataʾt) offered up for them.
7. expiation water. Many medieval and modern interpreters understand this as a reference to the water mingled with the ashes of the red cow referred to in Numbers 19:1–9, though Baruch Levine offers grounds for skepticism about this identification. The term ḥataʾt means both offense (political, diplomatic, social, moral, or cultic) and, especially in cultic contexts, any ritual means employed to remove or cancel the effect of the offense committed.
10. the Israelites shall lay their hands. For practical reasons, as many commentators have noted, the laying on of hands would have to be performed by designated representatives of the people.
19. I made the Levites wholly given to Aaron and to his sons. Although “given” (netunim) is not repeated (netunim netunim) as above, an analogous emphasis is conveyed by the cognate verb (in the translation “made” but literally in the Hebrew “gave”). This is the first clear indication of a hierarchical division of cultic labor between the Aaronide priests (kohanim) and the Levites, who serve them and do the heavy lifting in the sanctuary (the “work”), in contrast to officiating in the ritual. Levine conjectures that historically this division between Levites and priests began only at the time of Josiah’s reforms around 621 B.C.E.
that there be no scourge against the Israelites. This characteristically Priestly notion is that profane persons, presuming to enter sacred space, would automatically trigger the devastating manifestation of divine fury (qetsef) in the form of a scourge or epidemic. The presence of the Levites in the sanctuary is thus properly represented as a “watch” or the equivalent of army service, for as properly consecrated and purified cultic servitors, they act as a kind of protective phalanx that wards off danger from the Israelites who might otherwise approach too close to the sacred zone.
24. from twenty-five years old and up. Earlier, the beginning age for levitical service was stated as thirty. Various efforts have been made to harmonize the contradiction, but one suspects that the different passages reflect different traditions.
25. he shall come back from the army work and shall work no more. The provision made here is for a kind of phased retirement. The defining term of difference is “work.” From the age of fifty, the Levite is relieved of heavy labor within the sanctuary, the responsibilities that were undertaken as a kind of equivalent for military service, but he continues to assist his brother Levites, evidently outside the sanctuary, in their guard duty.