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Deuteronomy

About this book
Chapter 10

1 At that same time the Lord said to me, “Carve out for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones and come up the mountain to me; also make for yourself a wooden ark. 2 I will write on the tablets the same words that were on the first tablets you broke, and you must put them into the ark.” 3 So I made an ark of acacia wood and carved out two stone tablets just like the first ones. Then I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 4 The Lord then wrote on the tablets the same words, the Ten Commandments, which he had spoken to you at the mountain from the middle of the fire at the time of that assembly, and he gave them to me. 5 Then I turned, went down the mountain, and placed the tablets into the ark I had made—they are still there, just as the Lord commanded me. 6 During those days the Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died and was buried, and his son Eleazar became priest in his place. 7 From there they traveled to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a place of flowing streams. 8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi⁠ to carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand before the Lord to serve him, and to formulate blessings in his name, as they do to this very day. 9 Therefore Levi has no allotment or inheritance among his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance just as the Lord your God told him. 10 As for me, I stayed at the mountain as I did the first time, 40 days and nights. The Lord listened to me that time as well and decided not to destroy you. 11 Then he said to me, “Get up, set out leading the people so they may go and possess the land I promised to give to their ancestors.” 12 Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you except to revere him, to obey all his commandments, to love him, to serve him with all your mind and being,⁠ 13 and to keep the Lord’s commandments and statutes that I am giving you today for your own good? 14 The heavens—indeed the highest heavens—belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it. 15 However, only to your ancestors did he show his loving favor, and he chose you, their descendants, from all peoples—as is apparent today. 16 Therefore, circumcise your hearts and stop being so stubborn!⁠ 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords,⁠ the great, mighty, and awesome God who is unbiased and takes no bribe,⁠ 18 who justly treats the orphan and widow,⁠ and who loves resident foreigners, giving them food and clothing.⁠ 19 So you must love the resident foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. 20 Revere the Lord your God, serve him, be loyal to him, and take oaths only in his name.⁠ 21 He is the one you should praise; he is your God, the one who has done these great and awesome things for you⁠ that you have seen. 22 When your ancestors went down to Egypt, they numbered only seventy, but now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the sky.

Texts in conversation

Compare Numbers 8:14 and Numbers 16:9 and Deuteronomy 10:8

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Numbers 8, 16, and Deuteronomy 10 each stress the Levites’ separation from other Israelites, reflecting the priestly author’s focus on boundaries and order. This theme connects with the priestly interest in “separation” elsewhere in the Torah.

Passages

Numbers 8:14

Hebrew Bible
13 You are to have the Levites stand before Aaron and his sons, and then offer them as a wave offering to the Lord. 14 And so you are to separate the Levites from among the Israelites, and the Levites will be mine. 15 “After this, the Levites will go in to do the work of the tent of meeting. So you must cleanse them and offer them like a wave offering.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Numbers

Numbers 16:9

Hebrew Bible
8 Moses said to Korah, “Listen now, you sons of Levi! 9 Does it seem too small a thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the community of Israel to bring you near to himself, to perform the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the community to minister to them? 10 He has brought you near and all your brothers, the sons of Levi, with you. Do you now seek the priesthood also?
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Numbers

Deuteronomy 10:8

Hebrew Bible
7 From there they traveled to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a place of flowing streams. 8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand before the Lord to serve him, and to formulate blessings in his name, as they do to this very day. 9 Therefore Levi has no allotment or inheritance among his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance just as the Lord your God told him.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

References

"... Within the Pentateuch, “separation” is also an important cultic term. Appropriate “separation” is to be made in relation to space (Exodus 26:33; compare Ezekiel 42:20), impurity (Leviticus 20:25), and people groups (Leviticus 20:24, 26; Numbers 8:14; 16:9; Deuteronomy 10:8). In fact, making correct divisions is viewed as being integral to the function of the priests who are commissioned “to separate between the holy and the common and between the unclean and the clean” (Leviticus 10:10). Thus, in Leviticus 11–15, the priests, and by extension the people as a whole, are to order their world through acts of separation. The conceptual parallel between God’s ordering of the cosmos and Israel’s (re)ordering of its environs is strengthened by the rare syntactical formulation involving בדל that links Genesis 1 to Leviticus 10:10 and 11:47 (see above). A correlation, or even analogy, between creation and cult is implied ..."
G. Geoffrey Harper, "I Will Walk among You": The Rhetorical Function of Allusion to Genesis 1-3 in the Book of Leviticus (University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns, 2018), 193–194.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Numbers 8:14 and Numbers 16:9 and Deuteronomy 10:8

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