three hundred males over a month old,* the family of Kohath being most numerous, and that of Merari least.†

These families were henceforward devoted to the service of the Tabernacle, in respect to which, each,

This is the sum of the enumerations of the three families in verses 22, 28, and 34. But verse 39 states the sum at twenty-two thousand, and this latter census is adhered to in the context, under circumstances demanding accuracy. (Compare 46 with 43.) In the early writing of the Hebrews, it is probable (see p. 56) that the alphabetical signs were used in numerical notation, as they are still, where brevity is studied; and accordingly, with characters so nearly resembling each other as do many of the Hebrew, it is impossible to rely, in such cases, on the integrity of the text. Kennicott accordingly conjectures, that in verse 22, instead of , denoting 200, some copyist wrote 7, used for 500, which would reconcile the numbers. Houbigant and Michaelis, without resorting to the hypothesis of alphabetical notation, account for the discrepance by the accidental omission of a letter in verse 28, by which means three, became six. After all, it seems likely, that, agreeably to the principle of the arrangement, the first-born of the Levitical family were to be deducted from the gross census of the tribe; and their number, if, in the same proportion as the first-born of the other tribes, would not have been so much over three hundred as to make it unsuitable to estimate the residue at twenty-two even thousands.

Another difficulty arises out of the small number of first-born, above a month old, among the whole people. It is stated (43), at 22,273. Respecting this, it has been remarked, that, 1. where the first child was female, no first-born was reckoned in a family; 2. first-born sons, who were themselves heads of families, did not come into the census. But I do not find authority for the first assertion, and the second I could not adopt without qualification. The truth I take to have been, that, in the patriarchal way of living of the Jews, two, three, and four generations composed one family; and that in each domestic establishment, however large, there was reckoned only one first-born, who was the head of the family after the common ancestor, and the delegate of his authority.

From the fact that the census in Numbers, from which the Levites were excluded, (Numb. i. 47 – 49,) resulted in the same number with that in Exodus, (compare Numb. i. 46; Ex. xxxviii. 26,) it follows, that in the first census also no account was made of the Levitical tribe; from which we further infer, that, as early as the time of the first census, the designation of the Levites to their sacred trust, referred to retrospectively in Numb. i. 47-51, had been made known, at least in some general way. In Lev. xxv, 32-34, we also find this designation alluded to, as an arrangement understood. It is natural to regard it, either as a consequence of the act of the Levites, recorded in Ex. xxxii. 26 – 28, or as having been even of an earlier date, and as having prompted their zeal on that occasion. Compare also Ex. xxxviii. 21, and Deut. x. 8, 9.

under the direction of its own chief,* had its separate charge, to be executed by its males "from thirty years old and upward, even unto fifty years old." + The Kohathite servants of the Tabernacle, two thousand seven hundred and fifty in number, were, under the oversight of Eleazar, the eldest son of Aaron, to have the charge of the furniture of the sacred edifice, when on the march, removing and replacing it when the camp was broken up and formed. The two thousand six hundred and thirty Gershonites were to take care of the coverings and hangings of the Tabernacle and its court; while to the three thousand two hundred Merarites, were committed the more solid parts of the edifice. The two last parties were to be under the direction of Ithamar, Aaron's younger son, while the whole were to be under the supervision of Eleazar,§ to whom also a personal trust, of special responsibility, was committed. The Kohathites were charged, on pain of death, not to touch, or so much as look at, the sacred utensils, till they had been packed by the priests, and prepared for removal. In the camp the Kohathites were to pitch on the south side of the Tabernacle, the Gershonites on the west, and the Merarites on the north; while the tents of Moses and the priests were to be "before the tabernacle, towards the east." I The encampments of the Levites were of course near to the Tabernacle, which was their charge, and within the area formed by the encampments of the other tribes. But it is equally evident that they must have been, principally, at least, on the outside of the Tabernacle Court. The tents of Moses and the priests, it is to be presumed, were within the enclosure; and the same thing is probable of a small portion of each of the Levitical families detached

* Numb. iii. 24, 30, 35. § iii. 32; iv. 16.

† iv. 35.

iv. 28, 33.

|| iv. 15, 20.

¶ iii. 23, 29, 35, 38.

to serve as a guard within the sacred precincts. But an area of only a hundred cubits by fifty, partly occupied too by the Tabernacle, the altar, and the laver, afforded no sufficient accommodation for the whole.

The number of the male first-born of all the tribes being ascertained to be greater, by two hundred and seventy-three, than that of the males of the Levitical family, for whom, to use the appropriate language, they had been exchanged, each individual of this residual number was called upon to pay five shekels, under the name of a bounty for this dispensation from the sacerdotal service. The chief use of this arrangement, I conceive to have been, to furnish the precedent of a permanent tax, intended to be laid on the first-born in after times, as one of the perquisites of the priesthood.* In the first instance, it could not have been onerous, the number of supernumeraries, on whom it was assessed, being so small, and the whole amount being probably levied on all the first-born, since one had no better right than another to consider himself redeemed by the substitution of a Levite in his place. Once established, the tax would be one likely to be cheerfully paid, both on account of the interesting associations belonging to its original institution, and the happy circumstances under which a parent would be called on to pay it for his heir. On the one hand, it would furnish a perpetual revenue to the priesthood, considerable in amount; while, on the other, it would come from those, whose domestic expenses were not yet such as to render it burdensome.

At this early period, then, we find the tribe of Levi formally separated for the service of the national religion. At present, their duties were very simple, as was needful, while the institution of their peculiarity was

* Numb. iii. 51: xviii. 14-16.

still recent. When a sense of responsibility had been first impressed by the position which they were called to fill, and each man had come to feel something of the spirit of his order, they still needed to be educated for the duties which it was designed that they should discharge. Along with the priests, their leaders, and their fellows of the same tribe, they appear to have been intended to constitute a balance in the state, of the nature of a learned aristocracy; and, in this view, Michaelis has compared them to the Mandarins of China.* It would be an error to suppose, that the priests and Levites were ministers of religion in any sense known to Christianity. Of public prayers we know nothing in the early ages, unless we give that name to the confession of the people's sins by the high-priest over the scape-goat's head, or his blessing upon the people, recorded a few chapters further on. Nothing so near to preaching, as public expositions of the Law, appears to have been practised earlier than the time of the captivity; and even music, whether vocal or instrumental, seems to have owed its introduction among the services of worship, to the magnificent taste of David. The Levites, too, congregated in their colleges, for such in effect their forty-eight cities were, were not so placed as to admit of any such relation to the people, as is sustained by the pastors of Christian congregations.

The Levitical institution appears to have resembled one, with which the Israelites were already well acquainted, from their residence in Egypt. The office of the inferior classes of the priesthood in that country consisted, not only in rendering services in the solemnization of the national worship, but in the culture of numerous branches † of science and art. They formed,

* "Commentaries" &c., book 2, chap. 5, § 6.

Respecting the Egyptian orders, called by the Greek historians

in short, the learned, as well as the sacerdotal body, devoting themselves to the study of astronomy, natural history, mathematics, jurisprudence, history, and medicine, and being looked to by the community for the performance of such duties, as required knowledge and skill in these departments. In Egypt, too, as in the Levitical order, the office in question was hereditary; a method resorted to in many countries, especially in antiquity, in order to secure a succession of functionaries adequately accomplished for the public service, by education in the science or art to be exercised.

To the Levites, accordingly, in after ages, when the system became more developed, we find that various duties were actually assigned, requiring the wisdom and accomplishments which only culture can bestow. Part, indeed, performed the menial offices of the ritual, but even to those a great responsibility belonged; another part devoted their skill in the art of music to the increasing of the attractions of the Temple service; and others held the important trusts of collectors and guardians of the sacred treasury, scribes, and judges.* They were probably the transcribers, from which it would naturally follow, that they would also on many occasions be expositors, of the Law of Moses, the only written Israelitish code. Their relation to the Tabernacle effectually constituted them the military guard of that structure, and of the worship there conducted, assigning to them a service, when occasion should demand their intervention, similar to what they had actually performed at a previous time; † and there is a distinct appearance of a military organization of theirs,‡

vwxóga and isgoygaμparus, see Jablonski's "Pantheon Egyptiacum," Proleg. cap. 3, passim; præsertim §§ 39 – 45.

* 1 Chron. xxiii. 4, 5; xxvi. 26, 29; 2 Chron. xix. 8; xxxiv. 13. 2 Kings xi. 4 et seq.

Ex. xxxii. 26.

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