Numbers 1:49

49 "You will not muster^[a] the tribe of Levi, and you will not {take a census of}^[b] them in the midst of the {Israelites}.^[c]

Numbers 1:49 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 1:49

Only thou shall not number the tribe of Levi
That is, along with the other tribes, for it might be numbered by itself, as it afterwards was, ( Numbers 3:43 ) ;

neither take the sum of them among the children of Israel;
which confirms what is before observed: now this being the declared will of God clears Moses from all partiality to his own tribe, he doing nothing but what he had a command of God for it.

Numbers 1:49 In-Context

47 The Levites from their ancestors' tribe were not mustered in their midst.

48 And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

49 "You will not muster the tribe of Levi, and you will not {take a census of} them in the midst of the {Israelites}.

50 You will {appoint} them over the tabernacle of the testimony, over all its vessels, and over all that belongs to it. They will carry the tabernacle and all its vessels, and they will care for it; and they will camp around the tabernacle.

51 And when the tabernacle is set out, the Levites will {take it down}, and when encamping the tabernacle the Levites will set it up; the stranger that approaches [it] will be put to death.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "count," or "summon," or "enroll"
• [b]. Literally "Lift up the head of"
• [c]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"