Numbers 18:7

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹So the LORD said to Aaron, "You, your sons, and your father's house must bear the iniquity against the sanctuary. And you and your sons alone must bear the iniquity against the priesthood. ²But bring with you also your brothers from the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father, that they may join you and assist you and your sons before the Tent of the Testimony. ³And they shall attend to your duties and to all the duties of the Tent; but they must not come near to the furnishings of the sanctuary or the altar, or both they and you will die. ⁴They are to join you and attend to the obligations of the Tent of Meeting, doing all the work at the Tent; but no outsider may come near you. ⁵And you shall attend to the obligations of the sanctuary and of the altar, that wrath may not fall on the Israelites again. ⁶Behold, I Myself have selected your fellow Levites from the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD to perform the service for the Tent of Meeting. ⁷But only you and your sons shall attend to your priesthood for everything concerning the altar and what is inside the veil, and you are to perform that service. I am giving you the work of the priesthood as a gift, but any outsider who comes near the sanctuary must be put to death."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Therefore thou: Numbers 18:5, Numbers 3:10

within: Leviticus 16:2, Leviticus 16:12-14, Hebrews 9:3-6

as a service: Numbers 16:5-7, 1 Samuel 2:28, John 3:27, Romans 15:15, Romans 15:16, Ephesians 3:8, Hebrews 5:4

the stranger: Numbers 18:4, Numbers 3:38, Numbers 16:40

Reciprocal: Exodus 28:1 - among Exodus 29:9 - the priest's Exodus 29:33 - a stranger Leviticus 7:35 - he presented Numbers 3:9 - General Numbers 17:3 - General Numbers 18:22 - come nigh 1 Chronicles 24:2 - Eleazar 2 Chronicles 26:18 - not unto thee 2 Chronicles 29:11 - burn incense 2 Chronicles 29:34 - their brethren 2 Chronicles 35:11 - the priests Ezra 2:62 - therefore Psalms 115:10 - General Isaiah 56:3 - the son Ezekiel 42:13 - approach Ezekiel 44:16 - keep Luke 1:8 - he Hebrews 7:5 - who

Cross-References

Genesis 18:15
But Sarah denied it, saying, "I did not laugh." For she was afraid. "No," replied the LORD, "but you did laugh."

Genesis 18:16
When the men got up to leave they looked out over Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them off.

Genesis 19:3
But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

Amos 6:4
You lie on beds inlaid with ivory, and lounge upon your couches. You dine on lambs from the flock and calves from the stall.

Malachi 1:14
"But cursed is the deceiver who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but sacrifices a defective animal to the Lord. For I am a great King," says the LORD of Hosts, "and My name is to be feared among the nations."

Matthew 22:4
Again, he sent other servants and said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.'

Luke 15:23
Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us feast and celebrate.

Luke 15:27
'Your brother has returned,' he said, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has him back safe and sound.'

Luke 15:30
But when this son of yours returns from squandering your wealth with prostitutes, you kill the fattened calf for him!'

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest's office,.... Observe all the duties of it, and keep out others from intruding into it:

for everything of the altar: both of incense and of burnt offering with respect to burning incense on the one, and offering sacrifices on the other; both were to be done by priests, and by no other:

and within the vail; in the most holy place, where the high priest entered but once a year, and he only with incense, and the blood of sacrifices, see Hebrews 9:7;

and ye shall serve; do all the business that is to be done at either altar, whether in the court, or in the holy place, and whatsoever is to be done in the most holy place within the vail:

I have given your priest's office [unto you] as a service of gift; it was not what they had taken to themselves of their own will, or had thrust themselves into, but what the Lord had called them to, and had freely invested them with, see Hebrews 5:4;

and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death; any common person, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; any Israelite, one that is a stranger from the priests, though a Levite, as Aben Ezra; such an one might not come either to the altar of burnt offering to offer any sacrifice upon it, or the altar of incense, to burn incense on that, or trim the lamps, or put the shewbread in order, or to do anything peculiar to the priest's office.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Lord instructs here the priests that the office which they fill, and the help which they enjoy, are gifts from Him, and are to be viewed as such.