Page:Keil and Delitzsch,Biblical commentary the old testament the pentateuch, trad James Martin, volume 1, 1885.djvu/1143

 awakened a salutary terror in all the people, so that they cried out to Moses in mortal anguish, “''behold, we die, we perish, we all perish! Every one who comes near to the dwelling of Jehovah dies; are we all to die?''” Even if this fear of death was no fruit of faith, it was fitted for all that to prevent any fresh outbreaks of rebellion on the part of the rejected generation. =Chap. 18=

Verse 1
Service and Revenues of the Priests and Levites - Numbers 18 The practical confirmation of the priesthood of Aaron and his family, on the part of God, is very appropriately followed by the legal regulations concerning the official duties of the priest and Levites (Num 18:1-7), and the revenues to be assigned them for their services (vv. 8-32), as the laws hitherto given upon this subject, although they contain many isolated stipulations, have not laid down any complete and comprehensive arrangement. The instructions relating to this subject were addressed by Jehovah directly to Aaron (see Num 18:1 and Num 18:8), up to the law, that out of the tenths which the Levites were to collect from the people, they were to pay a tenth again to the priests; and this was addressed to Moses (Num 18:25), as the head of all Israel. The Official Duties and Rights of the Priests and Levites. - Num 18:1. To impress upon the minds of the priests and Levites the holiness and responsibility of their office, the service of Aaron, of his sons, and of his father's house, i.e., of the family of the Kohathites, is described as “bearing the iniquity of the sanctuary,” and the service which was peculiar to the Aaronides, as “bearing the iniquity of their priesthood.” “To bear the iniquity of the sanctuary” signifies not only “to have to make expiation for all that offended against the laws of the priests and the holy things, i.e., the desecration of these” (Knobel), but “iniquity or transgression at the sanctuary,” i.e., the defilement of it by the sin of those who drew near to the sanctuary; not only of the priests and Levites, but of the whole people who defiled the sanctuary in the midst of them with its holy vessels, not only by their sins (Lev 16:6), but even by their holy gifts (Exo 28:38), and thus brought guilt upon the whole congregation, which the priests were to bear, i.e., to take upon themselves and expunge, by virtue of the holiness and sanctifying power communicated to their office (see at Exo 28:38). The “iniquity of the priesthood,” however, not only embraced every offence against the priesthood, every neglect of the most