Numbers 18:2
◄  Numbers 18:2  ►
New International Version (©2011)
Bring your fellow Levites from your ancestral tribe to join you and assist you when you and your sons minister before the tent of the covenant law.

New Living Translation (©2007)
"Bring your relatives of the tribe of Levi--your ancestral tribe--to assist you and your sons as you perform the sacred duties in front of the Tabernacle of the Covenant.

English Standard Version (©2001)
And with you bring your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"But bring with you also your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may be joined with you and serve you, while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle of witness.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
But also bring your relatives with you from the tribe of Levi, your ancestral tribe, so they may join you and assist you and your sons in front of the tent of the testimony.

International Standard Version (©2012)
Moreover, bring your brothers from your father's tribe of Levi with you, so they may join you and minister to you while you and your sons with you stand in the presence of the Tent of Testimony.

NET Bible (©2006)
"Bring with you your brothers, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, so that they may join with you and minister to you while you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Bring the other Levites from your ancestor's tribe to join you and help you and your sons serve in front of the tent of the words of my promise.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And your brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, bring with you, that they may be joined unto you, and minister unto you: but you and your sons with you shall minister before the tabernacle of witness.

American King James Version
And your brothers also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, bring you with you, that they may be joined to you, and minister to you: but you and your sons with you shall minister before the tabernacle of witness.

American Standard Version
And thy brethren also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou near with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall be before the tent of the testimony.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And take with thee thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, and the sceptre of thy father, and let them be ready in hand, and minister to thee: but thou and thy sons shall minister in the tabernacle of the testimony.

Darby Bible Translation
And thy brethren also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring near with thee, that they may unite with thee, and minister unto thee; but thou and thy sons with thee shall serve before the tent of the testimony.

English Revised Version
And thy brethren also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou near with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall be before the tent of the testimony.

Webster's Bible Translation
And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined to thee, and minister to thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle of witness.

World English Bible
Your brothers also, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, bring near with you, that they may be joined to you, and minister to you: but you and your sons with you shall be before the tent of the testimony.

Young's Literal Translation
and also thy brethren, the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring near with thee, and they are joined unto thee, and serve thee, even thou and thy sons with thee, before the tent of the testimony.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:1-7 The people complained of their difficulty and peril in drawing near to God. God here gives them to understand, that the priests should come near for them. Aaron would see reason not to be proud of his preferment, when he considered the great care and charge upon him. Be not high-minded, but fear. The greater the trust of work and power that is committed to us, the greater danger there is of betraying that trust. This is a good reason why we should neither envy others' honours, nor desire high places.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - Thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi. The Levites generally, as distinguished from the Kohathites in particular (see on chapter 3). That they may be joined unto thee. וְילָּווּ, a play upon the name Levi (see on Genesis 29:34). But thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle of witness. The Hebrew has only וְאַתָּה וּבָנֶי אִתָּך, which may be rendered, "And thou and thy sons with thee (shall be)," &c., or more naturally read with what goes before, "that they may minister unto thee; both thee and thy sons with thee," &c. The Septuagint and the Targums appear to favour the former rendering, but it is not evident what distinction could be drawn between priests and Levites as to the mere fact of being before the tabernacle.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And to thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father,.... For his father Amram was of that tribe, and so the Levites were his brethren, as he is directed to consider them; which might serve to conciliate their minds, and make them easy with respect to his enjoyment of the priesthood:

bring them with thee; into the court of the tabernacle, for further they might not go:

that they maybe joined unto thee: as their name of Levites signifies, persons joined and united to others, as they were to the priests: see reason of their patriarch's name Levi in Genesis 29:34,

and minister unto thee: be assisting to the priests in killing the sacrifices, receiving the blood, and flaying the beasts, and in other things about the sanctuary, Numbers 3:6,

but thou, and thy sons with thee, shall minister before the tabernacle of witness; which was the most holy place, where were the ark of the testimony or witness, and the tables of the covenant; and they might be said to minister before that, when they ministered in the holy place, which was before it, when they burned incense upon the altar of incense, ordered the shewbread, and trimmed the lamps of the candlestick, which none but the priests the sons of Aaron might do.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2-7. thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi—The departments of the sacred office, to be filled respectively by the priests and Levites, are here assigned to each. To the priests was committed the charge of the sanctuary and the altar, while the Levites were to take care of everything else about the tabernacle. The Levites were to attend the priests as servants—bestowed on them as "gifts" to aid in the service of the tabernacle—while the high and dignified office of the priesthood was a "service of gift." "A stranger," that is, one, neither a priest nor a Levite, who should intrude into any departments of the sacred office, should incur the penalty of death.

Numbers 18:2 Parallel Commentaries

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Duties of Priests and Levites
1And the LORD said to Aaron, You and your sons and your father's house with you shall bear the iniquity of the sanctuary: and you and your sons with you shall bear the iniquity of your priesthood. 2And your brothers also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, bring you with you, that they may be joined to you, and minister to you: but you and your sons with you shall minister before the tabernacle of witness. 3And they shall keep your charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come near the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor you also, die. …

Hebrews 9:6 When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry.
Numbers 1:53 The Levites, however, are to set up their tents around the tabernacle of the covenant law so that my wrath will not fall on the Israelite community. The Levites are to be responsible for the care of the tabernacle of the covenant law."
Numbers 3:5 The LORD said to Moses,
Ezekiel 44:11 They may serve in my sanctuary, having charge of the gates of the temple and serving in it; they may slaughter the burnt offerings and sacrifices for the people and stand before the people and serve them.