Numbers 1:48

48 The LORD had said to Moses:

Numbers 1:48 in Other Translations

48 For the LORD had spoken unto Moses, saying,

48 For the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

48 For the LORD had said to Moses,

48 God had told Moses,

48 For the Lord had told Moses:

Numbers 1:48 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 1:48

For the Lord had spoken unto Moses
Not to number the Levites, when he gave him the orders to number the rest of the tribes: this is observed, lest it should be thought that this was what Moses did of himself, out of affection to the tribe he was of, and to spare it, that it might not be obliged to go forth to war when others did; not that they were forbid to engage in war, or that it was unlawful for them so to do, for when necessity required, and they were of themselves willing to engage in it, they might, as appears in the case of the Maccabees, but they might not be forced into it; they were, as Josephus

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FOOTNOTES:

F5 says, exempted from it; and so all concerned in religious service, both among Heathens and Christians, have always been excused bearing arms:

saying;
as follows.

F5 Antiqu. l. 3. c. 12. sect. 4.

Numbers 1:48 In-Context

46 The total number was 603,550.

47 The ancestral tribe of the Levites, however, was not counted along with the others.

48 The LORD had said to Moses:

49 “You must not count the tribe of Levi or include them in the census of the other Israelites.

50 Instead, appoint the Levites to be in charge of the tabernacle of the covenant law—over all its furnishings and everything belonging to it. They are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings; they are to take care of it and encamp around it.