And the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron ,.... And gave them a very solemn and awful charge about this affair of the Kohathites, it being a very hazardous one they were employed in: saying ; as follows. read more
Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites. Or give no occasion, as the Targum of Jonathan; or be not the cause of their cutting off, as Jarchi, through negligence or inadvertency of theirs, in packing up the above things, and delivering them to them. read more
But thus do unto them ,.... As after directed: that they may live and not die ; live long, and not die a sudden and violent death: when they approach unto the most holy things ; the ark, the shewbread table, &c.; to take them up and carry them: Aaron and his sons shall go in ; into the holy and most holy places: and appoint them in everyone to his service, and to his burden ; what everyone shall do, and how they shall take them up, and bear them. read more
But they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered ,.... They were not to be present while they were packing up, test they should see any of them with their eyes; they were not to go in until they were quite covered out of sight; which may signify the hiding of the mysteries of grace in those things under the former dispensation, when even the Levites themselves were not admitted to a sight of them; see Ephesians 3:4 , lest they die ; by the immediate hand of God. read more
And the Lord spake unto Moses ,.... Though Aaron is not mentioned here, he was concerned in taking the sum of the Gershonites, as well as of the Kohathites, as appears from Numbers 4:41 , saying ; as follows. read more
Take also the sum of the sons of Gershon ,.... As well as of the sons of Kohath; for though Gershon was Levi's eldest son, yet his posterity were not excused from the service of the tabernacle, and bearing things of it in journeying: throughout the houses of their fathers, by their families ; all in their several houses, and in the several families in those houses, that were of the age next mentioned, were to be numbered. read more
From thirty years old and upward, until fifty years old , shalt thou number them ,.... Take an account how many there are of that age, and so fit for service F1 לצבא צבא "ad militandum militiam", Montanus, Drusius. ; See Gill on Numbers 4:3 , to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation ; as the rest of the Levites; see Numbers 4:3 ; read more
This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, to serve, and for burdens. The former of these phrases Aben Ezra interprets of setting up the tabernacle, making the bread (the shewbread), slaying (the sacrifices), and keeping, that is, watching and guarding, the tabernacle; and the latter of what they did when journeying, bearing and carrying the things assigned to them, afterwards mentioned. read more
And they shall bear the curtains of the tabernacle ,.... The ten curtains of fine linen, Exodus 26:1 , and the tabernacle of the congregation ; the curtains of goats' hair made for a tent over it, as Jarchi, see Exodus 26:7 , his covering the covering of rams skins dyed red , Exodus 26:14 , and the covering of the badgers' skins that is above upon it ; over all the rest: and the hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation ; the eastern vail, as Jarchi... read more
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John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Numbers 4:16
And to the office of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest , pertaineth the oil for the light ,.... The following things, to bear them, according to some Jewish writers; but rather it was to give the oil for the light, that is, the vessels, and so the vessels of the oil to the sons of the Kohathites; agreeably to which are the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, who paraphrase the words,"and that which was delivered to Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, the oil for the light,... read more