Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine.
Parallel translations
- KJV Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel: and the Levites shall be mine.
- BSB In this way you shall separate the Levites from the rest of the Israelites, and the Levites will belong to Me.
- NKJV Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be Mine.
- NASB “So you shall single out the Levites from among the sons of Israel, and the Levites shall be Mine.
- NLT In this way, you will set the Levites apart from the rest of the people of Israel, and the Levites will belong to me.
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
God separates the Levites from Israel, declaring, "the Levites shall be mine." They become God's special possession for service.
Overview
The Levites are set apart from the rest of Israel as belonging uniquely to the LORD, in place of the firstborn he claimed at the Exodus (Numbers 3:13). To be God's own is the heart of consecration. This anticipates how all believers are redeemed to be God's treasured possession in Christ (1 Peter 2:9; Titus 2:14).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Num 3:45“Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites instead of their livestock; and the Levites shall be mine. I am Yahweh.
- Mal 3:17They shall be mine,” says Yahweh of Armies, “my own possession in the day that I make, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.
- Num 18:6Behold, I myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the children of Israel. They are a gift to you, dedicated to Yahweh, to do the service of the Tent of Meeting.
- Num 16:9–10Is it a small thing to you, that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do the service of Yahweh’s tabernacle, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them;
- Heb 7:26For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
- Num 6:2“Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them: ‘When either man or woman shall make a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to Yahweh,
- Gal 1:15But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me through his grace,
- Num 3:12“Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn who open the womb among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be mine:
- Num 8:17For all the firstborn among the children of Israel are mine, both man and animal. On the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified them for myself.
- Deut 10:8At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, to stand before Yahweh to minister to him, and to bless in his name, to this day.
- Rom 1:1Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Good News of God,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 8:14 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.