Ezekiel 44:10-14 - Exposition

The ordinance for the Levites . According to the so-called priest-code, the Levites were Levi's descendants, who were chosen by Jehovah for service in the tabernacle ( Numbers 3:6-13 ; Numbers 16:9 ), to minister to the priests when these sacrificed in the tabernacle ( Numbers 8:19 ; Numbers 18:6 ), and in particular to keep the charge of the tabernacle, i.e. of the house and all its vessels ( Numbers 1:53 ), as distinguished from the charge of the sanctuary and of the altar, which pertained to Aaron and his sons alone as priests ( Numbers 18:2-6 , Numbers 18:23 ). The Deuteronomic code, says Wellhausen, was unacquainted with any such distinction between Levites and priests, who, it is alleged, composed one homogeneous body, the tribe of Levi, whose members were equally empowered to officiate at the altar ( Deuteronomy 10:8 ), the lower duties of the tabernacle having been performed by the aforesaid strangers, and the subordination of Levites to priests having first been suggested by Ezekiel, and first formally carried out alter the exile. This theory, however, cannot be admitted as made out in face of