And Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord
, By flaming fire, as the Targum of Jonathan adds, see ( Leviticus
10:2 ) ; and so were not alive at this time when the account
of the priests and Levites was taken:
when they offered strange fire before the Lord in the
wilderness of
Sinai;
after the tabernacle was set up, and the service of it begun, and
quickly after their unction and consecration: of this strange
fire, (See Gill on Numbers
10:1);
and they had no children;
which is observed, partly to show the punishment of them, and the
reproach upon their names, that they died childless, and had none
to succeed them in the priesthood; for as the Jewish writers
F14 observe if they had left any behind
them, those would have come into the office before Eleazar and
Ithamar; and partly to show that all the priests in succeeding
ages sprung from those next mentioned:
and Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest's office,
in the
sight of Aaron their father;
in his presence, under his inspection, and by his direction, he
seeing and observing that they did everything according to the
laws delivered by Moses, relating to, the office of the
priesthood; or while he was yet alive, as Aben Ezra, they were
concerned with him, and acted under him in the priestly office;
and so the Septuagint version renders it, "with Aaron their
father" F15; but a Jewish writer F16
interprets it in a different manner, "in the room of Aaron their
father"; as if it respected not any conjunction with him in the
then present exercise of their office in his lifetime, but their
succession in it after his death; but the former seems most
correct.