In this way you shall separate the Levites from the rest of the Israelites, and the Levites will belong to Me.
Parallel translations
- WEB Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine.
- KJV Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel: and the Levites shall be mine.
- 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 in place of all the firstborn of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites in place of their livestock. The Levites belong to Me; I am the LORD.
- Mal 3:17“They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
- Num 18:6Behold, 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.
- Num 16:9–10Is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel and brought you near to Himself to perform the work at the LORD’s tabernacle, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them?
- Heb 7:26Such a high priest truly befits us—One who is holy, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
- Num 6:2“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD,
- Gal 1:15But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased
- Num 3:12“Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel in place of every firstborn Israelite from the womb. The Levites belong to Me,
- Num 8:17For every firstborn male in Israel is Mine, both man and beast. I set them apart for Myself on the day I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.
- Deut 10:8At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to serve Him, and to pronounce blessings in His name, as they do to this day.
- Rom 1:1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, and set apart for the gospel of God—
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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
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