Numbers 8:25

25 and {those fifty years old} will return from the service of the work and will serve no longer.

Numbers 8:25 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 8:25

And from the age of fifty years they shall cease waiting upon
the service [thereof]
The heavy service of it: and shall serve no more;
by bearing and carrying the vessels of the sanctuary upon their shoulders, as Jarchi interprets it; this, according to the Jewish writers, was only in force while the tabernacle was in the wilderness, and was moved from place to place: but when it had a fixed habitation, and that laborious service of bearing and carrying the vessels of it ceased, years made no difference in the Levites, or disqualified them for service; for it is said ^F24, that the Levites were not bound by this law, but in the time of the tabernacle; but when it was at Shiloh, and at Jerusalem, where there was no bearing and carrying upon the shoulder, the Levites were not rejected on account of years, only for their voice, when they had lost that, and could not sing.

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FOOTNOTES:

F24 Maimon. & Bartenora in Misn. Cholin, c. 1. sect. 6.

Numbers 8:25 In-Context

23 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

24 "This [is] what is for the Levites: {those twenty-five years old} and above will come to help [with the] service in the work of the tent of assembly;

25 and {those fifty years old} will return from the service of the work and will serve no longer.

26 They can attend their brothers in the tent of assembly to keep [their] responsibilities, but they will not do work. This is what you will do concerning the Levities and their responsibilities."

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "from a son of fifty years"
• [b]. Hebrew "he will"