Numbers 3:38

38 Moses, Aaron, and his sons, who performed the duties of^[a] the sanctuary as a service on behalf of the Israelites, camped in front of the tabernacle on the east,^[b] in front of the tent of meeting toward the sunrise. Any unauthorized person who came near [it] was to be put to death.^[c]

Numbers 3:38 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 3:38

And those that encamp before the tabernacle toward the east,
&c.] At which was the entrance into the tabernacle:

[even] before the tabernacle of the congregation eastward;
that is, before the court of the tabernacle, where the people assembled together:

[shall be] Moses, Aaron, and his sons;
Moses the chief ruler, and Aaron the high priest, and his sons priests under him; these had the most honourable place of all, beings at the front of the tabernacle, between that and the camp of Judah. There is an extraordinary prick on the word Aaron, to show, as Jarchi says, that he was not in the number of Levites, though of the tribe of Levi, being high priest:

keeping the charge of the sanctuary, for the charge of the children of
Israel;
either in their room and stead, which otherwise they must have kept; or rather for their safety and security, keeping out all persons from entering into the sanctuary, who had no business there, that they died not, as it follows:

and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death;
that is, whoever came nigh to enter into the holy place, and did, who was no priest, though an Israelite, and even a Levite, or into the most holy place, excepting the high priest, it was death unto him, either by the civil magistrate, or by the hand of heaven; so the Targum of Jonathan.

Numbers 3:38 In-Context

36 The assigned duties of Merari's descendants involved the tabernacle's supports, crossbars, posts, bases, all its equipment, and all the work related to these,

37 in addition to the posts of the surrounding courtyard with their bases, tent pegs, and ropes.

38 Moses, Aaron, and his sons, who performed the duties of the sanctuary as a service on behalf of the Israelites, camped in front of the tabernacle on the east, in front of the tent of meeting toward the sunrise. Any unauthorized person who came near [it] was to be put to death.

39 The total number of all the Levite males one month old or more that Moses and Aaron registered by their clans at the Lord's command was 22,000.

40 The Lord told Moses: "Register every firstborn male of the Israelites one month old or more, and list their names.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or who guarded
• [b]. Nm 2:3-9
• [c]. Nm 1:51; 3:10; 8:19; 18:7