Numbers 3:38

38 They that encamp before the tabernacle of witness on the east Moses and Aaron and his sons, keeping the charges of the sanctuary according to the charges of the children of Israel; and the stranger that touches them, shall die.

Numbers 3:38 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 3:38

And those that encamp before the tabernacle toward the east,
&c.] At which was the entrance into the tabernacle:

[even] before the tabernacle of the congregation eastward;
that is, before the court of the tabernacle, where the people assembled together:

[shall be] Moses, Aaron, and his sons;
Moses the chief ruler, and Aaron the high priest, and his sons priests under him; these had the most honourable place of all, beings at the front of the tabernacle, between that and the camp of Judah. There is an extraordinary prick on the word Aaron, to show, as Jarchi says, that he was not in the number of Levites, though of the tribe of Levi, being high priest:

keeping the charge of the sanctuary, for the charge of the children of
Israel;
either in their room and stead, which otherwise they must have kept; or rather for their safety and security, keeping out all persons from entering into the sanctuary, who had no business there, that they died not, as it follows:

and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death;
that is, whoever came nigh to enter into the holy place, and did, who was no priest, though an Israelite, and even a Levite, or into the most holy place, excepting the high priest, it was death unto him, either by the civil magistrate, or by the hand of heaven; so the Targum of Jonathan.

Numbers 3:38 In-Context

36 The oversight of the charge of the sons of Merari the chapiters of the tabernacle, and its bars, and its pillars, and its sockets, and all their furniture, and their works,

37 and the pillars of the court round about, and their bases, and their pins, and their cords.

38 They that encamp before the tabernacle of witness on the east Moses and Aaron and his sons, keeping the charges of the sanctuary according to the charges of the children of Israel; and the stranger that touches them, shall die.

39 All the numbering of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered by the word of the Lord, according to their families, every male from a month old and upwards, two and twenty thousand.

40 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Count every first-born male of the children of Israel from a month old and upwards, and take the number by name.