Numbers 8:14

14 "And you will separate the Levites from the midst of the {Israelites}, and the Levites will be for me.

Numbers 8:14 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 8:14

Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children
of Israel
By sprinkling the water of purification upon them; by offering sacrifices for them; by presenting them before the Lord, with the hands of the people of Israel put upon them; by offering and waving them before the Lord, and by setting them before Aaron and his sons, as their ministers:

and the Levites shall be mine:
in a special and peculiar manner devoted to his service, and by him given to his priests for that purpose; so the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan,

``and the Levites shall minister before me.''

Numbers 8:14 In-Context

12 And the Levites will lay their hands on the head of the one bull and offer [it] as a sin offering and the other one as a burnt offering to Yahweh, to make atonement for the Levites.

13 And you will present the Levites {before} Aaron and {before} his sons, and he {will offer} them [as] a wave offering to Yahweh.

14 "And you will separate the Levites from the midst of the {Israelites}, and the Levites will be for me.

15 And after this the Levites will come to serve [at] the tent of assembly, and you will purify them, and you {will offer} them [as] a wave offering.

16 For they [are] given to me exclusively from the midst of the {Israelites}. I have taken them for myself in place of [the] firstborn of every womb, every firstborn from the {Israelites}.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "sons/children of Israel"