Numbers 1:48

48 And the Lord spake to Moses, and said, (For the Lord spoke to Moses, and said,)

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 were all together six hundred thousand and three thousand men, and five hundred and fifty. (were altogether six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men.)

47 Soothly the deacons in the lineage of their families were not numbered with them. (But the Levites, in the tribe of their families, were not listed with them.)

48 And the Lord spake to Moses, and said, (For the Lord spoke to Moses, and said,)

49 Do not thou number the lineage of Levi, neither set thou the sum of them with the sons of Israel; (Do not thou list, or register, the tribe of Levi, nor take thou the sum of them among the Israelites;)

50 but thou shalt ordain them upon the tabernacle of (the) witnessing, and upon all the vessels thereof, and upon whatever thing pertaineth to [the] ceremonies, either sacrifices. They shall bear the tabernacle, and all the purtenances thereof, and they shall be in the service of it, and they shall set [their] tents by compass of the tabernacle (and they shall pitch their tents around the Tabernacle).