Numbers 1:49

49. Tribe of Levi This tribe, together with that of Simeon, because their founders had perpetrated the treacherous massacre of the Shechemites, (Genesis 34:25-26,) were under the curse of Jacob: “I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.” Genesis 49:7. Simeon was greatly reduced in number in the wilderness, and received a small portion in Canaan adjoining Judah, but was soon scattered in the cities of this stronger tribe. Levi was forbidden a portion of the Land of Promise except forty-eight cities in the other tribes, and was appointed to the charge of the tabernacle instead of the firstborn, who were sacred to Jehovah because they had been sanctified by the Lord, and spared when the destroyer slew the firstborn of the Egyptians. A branch of this family, the house of Aaron, became the priestly family, and the rest of the tribe, under the technical designation of Levites, were set apart to the menial services of the tabernacle, such as pitching, taking down, and transporting the sacred tent and its furniture. The curse of dispersion pronounced on Levi was thus converted into a blessing, 1,) because of the conspicuous faithfulness of Moses and Aaron, members of this tribe; and 2,) because of the commendable zeal for God of the whole tribe in the case of the golden calf. Exodus 32:16. Every ancestral curse may be mitigated or changed into a blessing by the obedience of posterity to the Divine law. “But where sin abounded grace did much more abound.” Romans 5:20.