Numbers 8:14

14 You will separate the Levites from the Israelites, and the Levites will be mine.

Numbers 8:14 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 8:14

Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children
of Israel
By sprinkling the water of purification upon them; by offering sacrifices for them; by presenting them before the Lord, with the hands of the people of Israel put upon them; by offering and waving them before the Lord, and by setting them before Aaron and his sons, as their ministers:

and the Levites shall be mine:
in a special and peculiar manner devoted to his service, and by him given to his priests for that purpose; so the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan,

``and the Levites shall minister before me.''

Numbers 8:14 In-Context

12 Then the Levites will lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, and Aaron will offer one as a purification offering and the other as an entirely burned offering to the LORD in order to seek reconciliation for the Levites.

13 You will have the Levites stand before Aaron and his sons and you will present them as an uplifted offering to the LORD.

14 You will separate the Levites from the Israelites, and the Levites will be mine.

15 The Levites will enter to serve the meeting tent, after you have cleansed them and presented them as an uplifted offering.

16 They are given over to me from the Israelites in place of all the newborn, the oldest of all the Israelites. I take them for myself.