Numbers 8:13

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
You shall set the Levites before Aharon, and before his sons, and offer them as a wave offering to the LORD.

King James Version
And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for an offering unto the Lord .

Lexham English Bible
And you will present the Levites before Aaron and before his sons, and he will offer them as a wave offering to Yahweh.

New Century Version
Make the Levites stand in front of Aaron and his sons and present the Levites as an offering to the Lord .

New English Translation
You are to have the Levites stand before Aaron and his sons, and then offer them as a wave offering to the Lord .

Amplified Bible
"You shall have the Levites stand before Aaron and his sons and present them as a wave offering to the LORD.

New American Standard Bible
"And you shall have the Levites stand before Aaron and his sons so as to present them as a wave offering to the LORD.

Geneva Bible (1587)
And thou shalt set the Leuites before Aaron and before his sonnes, & offer the as a shake offring to the Lorde.

Legacy Standard Bible
And you shall have the Levites stand before Aaron and before his sons so as to present them as a wave offering to Yahweh.

Contemporary English Version
The Levites will stand at my altar in front of Aaron and his sons, who will then dedicate the Levites to me.

Complete Jewish Bible
You are to place the L'vi'im before Aharon and his sons, and offer them as a wave offering to Adonai .

Darby Translation
And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them as a wave-offering to Jehovah.

Easy-to-Read Version
Tell the Levites to stand in front of Aaron and his sons. Then give the Levites to the Lord . They will be like an offering.

English Standard Version
And you shall set the Levites before Aaron and his sons, and shall offer them as a wave offering to the Lord .

George Lamsa Translation
And you shall make the Levites stand before Aaron and before his sons, and offer them for an offering to the LORD.

Good News Translation
"Dedicate the Levites as a special gift to me, and put Aaron and his sons in charge of them.

Christian Standard Bible®
“You are to have the Levites stand before Aaron and his sons, and you are to present them before the Lord as a presentation offering.

Literal Translation
And you shall cause the Levites to stand before Aaron and before his sons, and shall wave them as a wave offering to Jehovah.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And thou shalt set the Leuites before Aaron and his sonnes, and waue them before the LORDE,

American Standard Version
And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for a wave-offering unto Jehovah.

Bible in Basic English
Then the Levites are to be put before Aaron and his sons, to be offered as a wave offering to the Lord.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And thou shalt set the Leuites before Aaron and his sonnes, and waue them for a waue offeryng vnto the Lorde.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for a wave-offering unto the LORD.

King James Version (1611)
And thou shalt set the Leuites before Aaron, and before his sonnes, and offer them for an offering vnto the Lord.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And thou shalt set the Levites before the Lord, and before Aaron, and before his sons; and thou shalt give them as a gift before the Lord.

English Revised Version
And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for a wave offering unto the LORD.

Berean Standard Bible
You are to have the Levites stand before Aaron and his sons and then present them before the LORD as a wave offering.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And thou schalt ordeyne the Leuytis in the siyt of Aaron, and of hise sones, and thou schalt sacre hem offrid to the Lord;

Young's Literal Translation
and thou hast caused the Levites to stand before Aaron, and before his sons, and hast waved them -- a wave-offering to Jehovah;

Update Bible Version
And you shall set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them for a wave-offering to Yahweh.

Webster's Bible Translation
And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them [for] an offering to the LORD.

World English Bible
You shall set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons, and offer them as a wave offering to Yahweh.

New King James Version
"And you shall stand the Levites before Aaron and his sons, and then offer them like a wave offering to the LORD.

New Living Translation
Then have the Levites stand in front of Aaron and his sons, and raise your hands and present them as a special offering to the Lord .

New Life Bible
Then have the Levites stand in front of Aaron and his sons, to give them as a wave gift to the Lord.

New Revised Standard
Then you shall have the Levites stand before Aaron and his sons, and you shall present them as an elevation offering to the Lord .

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Thus shalt thou cause the Levites to stand before Aaron and before his sons, - thus shalt thou offer them as a wave-offering unto Yahweh;

Douay-Rheims Bible
And thou shalt set the Levites in the sight of Aaron and of his, and shalt consecrate them being offered to the Lord,

Revised Standard Version
And you shall cause the Levites to attend Aaron and his sons, and shall offer them as a wave offering to the LORD.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"You shall have the Levites stand before Aaron and before his sons so as to present them as a wave offering to the LORD.

Contextual Overview

⁵ God spoke to Moses: "Take the Levites from the midst of the People of Israel and purify them for doing God 's work. This is the way you will do it: Sprinkle water of absolution on them; have them shave their entire bodies; have them scrub their clothes. Then they will have purified themselves. ⁸"Have them take a young bull with its accompanying Grain-Offering of fine flour mixed with oil, plus a second young bull for an Absolution-Offering. Bring the Levites to the front of the Tent of Meeting and gather the entire community of Israel. Present the Levites before God as the People of Israel lay their hands on them. Aaron will present the Levites before God as a Wave-Offering from the People of Israel so that they will be ready to do God 's work. ¹²"Have the Levites place their hands on the heads of the bulls, selecting one for the Absolution-Offering and another for the Whole-Burnt-Offering to God to make atonement for the Levites. Then have the Levites stand in front of Aaron and his sons and present them as a Wave-Offering to God . This is the procedure for setting apart the Levites from the rest of the People of Israel; the Levites are exclusively for my use. ¹⁵"After you have purified the Levites and presented them as a Wave-Offering to God , they can go to work in the Tent of Meeting. The Levites have been selected out of the People of Israel for my exclusive use; they function in place of every firstborn male born to an Israelite woman. Every firstborn male in Israel, animal or human, is set apart for my use. When I struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, I consecrated them for my holy uses. But now I take the Levites as stand-ins in place of every firstborn son in Israel, selected out of the People of Israel, and I have given the Levites to Aaron and his sons to do all the work involved in the Tent of Meeting on behalf of all the People of Israel and to make atonement for them so that nothing bad will happen to them when they approach the Sanctuary." ²⁰Moses, Aaron, and the entire community of the People of Israel carried out these procedures with the Levites, just as God had commanded Moses. The Levites purified themselves and scrubbed their clothes. Then Aaron presented them as a Wave-Offering before God and made atonement for them to purify them. Only then did the Levites go to work at the Tent of Meeting. Aaron and his sons supervised them following the directions God had given. ²³ God spoke to Moses: "These are your instructions regarding the Levites: At the age of twenty-five they will join the workforce in the Tent of Meeting; at the age of fifty they must retire from the work. They can assist their brothers in the tasks in the Tent of Meeting, but they are not permitted to do the actual work themselves. These are the ground rules for the work of the Levites."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

offer them: Wehainaphta othom tenoophath, literally, as in Numbers 8:11, "and thou shalt wave them for a wave-offering;" manifestly in allusion to the ancient sacrificial rite of waving the sacrifices before the Lord; and it is probable, that some significant action, analogous to the waving of the sacrifice, was employed on this occasion; for the Levites were considered as an offering to the Lord, to whose service they were wholly dedicated. To this the apostle Paul manifestly alludes, when, in writing to the Romans, he says - Romans 12:1, "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." Numbers 8:11, Numbers 8:21, Numbers 18:6, Romans 12:1, Romans 15:16

Reciprocal: Numbers 8:15 - and offer 1 Chronicles 15:2 - to minister

Cross-References

Genesis 7:11
It was the six-hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month that it happened: all the underground springs erupted and all the windows of Heaven were thrown open. Rain poured for forty days and forty nights.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And thou shalt set the Levites before Aaron, and before his sons,.... After atonement was made for them, as Aben Ezra observes; then they were presented to Aaron and his sons, to whom they were given to he their ministers, and assistants to them:

and offer them [for] an offering unto the Lord: or, and "waved them", c. as before, that is, order them to be waved for not Moses, but Aaron, did this, and indeed was done already; and therefore should rather be rendered, as by Bishop Patrick, after thou hast offered, or waved them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Levites could only undertake their duties Numbers 3:0; Numbers 4:0 after the formal exchange of the Levites for the first-born Numbers 3:44-51.

The distinction between the “consecration” of the priests Leviticus 8:0 and the less solemn “purification” Numbers 8:21 of the Levites is marked. These rites of purification are similar to those incumbent on the priests of Egypt.

Numbers 8:7

Water of purifying - literally, “sin water:” i. e. water to cleanse from sin; no doubt taken from the laver of the sanctuary, which was used by the priests for purification before they went into the tabernacle to minister (compare Numbers 5:17; Exodus 30:18 ff).

The “sprinkling” of so large a body of men could have been only general, but tokens of individual purification are specified (compare also Leviticus 14:8).

Numbers 8:8

The two bullocks were “to make an atonement for the Levites,” and therefore are presented in their name. These offerings are similar to those prescribed in Leviticus 8:14 ff at the consecration of the priests, except that the burnt-offering was on that occasion a ram. The larger victim corresponds to the larger number of the Levites.

Numbers 8:10

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.

Numbers 8:11

Offer ... offering - Compare the margin Aaron pointed to the Levites, and then waved his hands, indicating (compare Leviticus 7:30 note) that the offering was dedicated to God, and, again, by grant from Him, withdrawn for the use of the priests.

Numbers 8:19

Make an atonement for the children of Israel - i. e. by performing those services which were due from the children of Israel; the omission of which by the children of Israel would, but for the interposition of the Levites, have called down “wrath” from God, or Numbers 1:53 “plague.” The institution of the Levites was an extension of that mediatorial system which the people themselves, terrified at the direct manifestations to them of the divine presence, desired; see Deuteronomy 5:25. Further, it is suggested to us here as an act of mercy on the part of God; yet even the priests and Levites themselves were not always sufficiently heedful and reverent. Compare Numbers 17:10; Leviticus 10:1 ff; 2 Samuel 6:6 following.

Numbers 8:21

Were purified - Rather, purified themselves; as directed in Numbers 8:7.