When the tabernacle is to move, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall set it up. The stranger who comes near shall be put to death.
Parallel translations
- KJV And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down: and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.
- BSB Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever it is to be pitched, the Levites are to set it up. Any outsider who goes near it must be put to death.
- NKJV And when the tabernacle is to go forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall set it up. The outsider who comes near shall be put to death.
- NASB So when the tabernacle is to move on, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle encamps, the Levites shall set it up. But the layman who comes near it shall be put to death.
- NLT Whenever it is time for the Tabernacle to move, the Levites will take it down. And when it is time to stop, they will set it up again. But any unauthorized person who goes too near the Tabernacle must be put to death.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The Levites alone may dismantle and erect the tabernacle, and any unauthorized person who approaches must die. God's holiness demands reverent, ordered access.
Overview
Only the consecrated Levites may handle the sacred structure; the 'stranger' who intrudes faces death. This severe warning guards the holiness of God's dwelling and teaches that He cannot be approached carelessly. The barrier points to humanity's need for a mediator, fulfilled in Christ, through whom believers now draw near with boldness (Heb. 10:19-22).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Num 3:38Those who encamp before the tabernacle eastward, in front of the Tent of Meeting toward the sunrise, shall be Moses, and Aaron and his sons, keeping the requirements of the sanctuary for the duty of the children of Israel. The stranger who comes near shall be put to death.
- Num 3:10You shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall keep their priesthood. The stranger who comes near shall be put to death.”
- 1 Sam 6:19He struck of the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into Yahweh’s ark, he struck fifty thousand seventy of the men. Then the people mourned, because Yahweh had struck the people with a great slaughter.
- Num 18:22Henceforth the children of Israel shall not come near the Tent of Meeting, lest they bear sin, and die.
- 2 Sam 6:7Yahweh’s anger burned against Uzzah; and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by God’s ark.
- Num 4:1–33Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
- Lev 22:10–13“‘No stranger shall eat of the holy thing: a foreigner living with the priests, or a hired servant, shall not eat of the holy thing.
- Num 16:40to be a memorial to the children of Israel, to the end that no stranger, who isn’t of the offspring of Aaron, would come near to burn incense before Yahweh, that he not be as Korah, and as his company; as Yahweh spoke to him by Moses.
- Num 10:17–21The tabernacle was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who bore the tabernacle, went forward.
- Num 10:11In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the testimony.
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Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 1:51 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.