Numbers 8:10

And thou shalt bring the Levites before the LORD: and the children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) Shall put their hands upon the Levites.—The same phrase is here used as in Numbers 8:12, and elsewhere, of the offerer who was required to lay his hand upon the victim which he offered in sacrifice. By this symbolical act the obligation which rested upon the whole nation in regard to the dedication of the firstborn was transferred to the Levites, who were thenceforth to be dedicated to the service of the Lord, and given over to the priests as the representatives of the Lord.

Benson Commentary

Numbers 8:10. The children of Israel — Not all of them, which was impossible, but some in the name of all the princes or chiefs of each tribe, who used to transact things in the name of their tribes. Put their hands — Whereby they signified their transferring that right of ministering to God from the firstborn, in whose hands it formerly was, to the Levites, and their entire resignation and dedication of them to God’s service.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

8:5-26 Here we have directions for the solemn ordination of the Levites. All Israel must know that they took not this honour to themselves, but were called of God to it; nor was it enough that they were distinguished from others. All who are employed for God, must be dedicated to him, according to the employment. Christians must be baptized, ministers must be ordained; we must first give ourselves unto the Lord, and then our services. The Levites must be cleansed. They must be clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. Moses must sprinkle the water of purifying upon them. This signifies the application of the blood of Christ to our souls by faith, that we may be fit to serve the living God. God declares his acceptance of them. All who expect to share in the privileges of the tabernacle, must resolve to do the service of the tabernacle. As, on the one hand, none of God's creatures are his necessary servants, he needs not the service of any of them; so none are merely honorary servants, to do nothing. All whom God owns, he employs; angels themselves have their services.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The children of Israel - i. e. through the heads of their tribes, who Numbers 7:2 no doubt acted for their tribesmen. This act, the distinguishing feature of the ceremony, represented the transfer to the Levites of the sacred duties originally incumbent on the whole people.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9, 10. thou shalt gather the whole assembly of the children of Israel together, &c.—As it was plainly impossible that the whole multitude of the Israelites could do this, a select portion of them must be meant. This party, who laid their hands upon the Levites, are supposed by some to have been the first-born, who by that act, transferred their peculiar privilege of acting as God's ministers to the Levitical tribe; and by others, to have been the princes, who thus blessed them. It appears, from this passage, that the imposition of hands was a ceremony used in consecrating persons to holy offices in the ancient, as, from the example of our Lord and His apostles, it has been perpetuated in the Christian Church.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The children of Israel; not all of them, which was impossible, but some in the name and stead, and by the appointment of all, to wit, either the first-born, or rather the princes or chiefs of each tribe, who used to transact things in the name of their tribes.

Put their hands upon the Levites; whereby they signified their transferring of that right of ministering to God from the first-born, in whose hands it formerly was, unto the Levites, and their renouncing of their interest in the Levites, from whom they might otherwise have expected help by their persons or purses, as they did from other tribes, in their common concernments, and their entire resignation and dedication of them to God’s service; as the person offering, by laying his hand upon the head of his sacrifice, Leviticus 1:4, signified his translation of his guilt upon the beast, and his dedication of it unto God.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And thou shalt bring the Levites before the Lord,.... From the door of the tabernacle, to the altar of burnt offering, where the Lord was in some sense present to accept the sacrifices offered to him:

and the children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites; as were used to be put upon sacrifices, for the Levites were themselves offered for an offering of the children of Israel, as is expressed in Numbers 8:11; by which rite they signified that they voluntarily parted with them, and gave them up to the Lord, and transferred their service to them, in which they were to serve in their room and stead; these, according to some Jewish writers, were the firstborn of Israel that laid their hands on the Levites, a type of the general assembly and church of the firstborn; or rather the princes and heads of the tribes, who represented the whole body. Some think by this rite is signified the consent of the people in the designation and appointment of the ministers of the word to their work and office; but what in the New Testament seems to answer to this is, the laying of the hands of the presbytery on ministers of the word, 1 Timothy 4:14.

Geneva Study Bible

And thou shalt bring the Levites before the LORD: and the {e} children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites:

(e) Meaning, certain of them in the name of the whole.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. shall lay their hands] Through their representatives (Numbers 1:4-16), to indicate that the whole community offered the Levites as their gift. Cf. the same action in the case of the burnt-offering (Leviticus 1:4).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - Before the Lord. As in chapter Numbers 5:16, either near the brazen altar, or more probably before the entrance of the tabernacle. And the children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites. Presumably by means of their representatives, probably the tribe princes. This laying on of hands signified that the obligation to assist personally in the service of the sanctuary was transferred from the whole congregation to the Levites. Numbers 8:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

After this the Levites were to come before Jehovah, i.e., in front of the altar; and the children of Israel, i.e., the tribe-princes in the name of the Israelites, were to lay their hands upon them, not merely "as a sign that they released them from the possession of the nation, and assigned them and handed them over to Jehovah" (Knobel), but in order that by this symbolical act they might transfer to the Levites the obligation resting upon the whole nation to serve the Lord in the persons of its first-born sons, and might present them to the Lord as representatives of the first-born of Israel, to serve Him as living sacrifices.