Numbers 8: The lamps, and the Levites made clean for their work

In plain English: Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

In plain English: "Speak to Aaron and tell him, 'When you light the lamps (literally: make the lamps go up), the seven lamps are to give light in front of the lampstand.'"

The Hebrew word: "Light" is alah, which the dictionary gives as "to ascend". The verse says literally "when you make the lamps go up". The same word is used for the lamps in Exodus 25:37 and 27:20.

What changes: Read as "light the lamps", the flame goes up. Read as "set up the lamps", Aaron places the lamps on the lampstand so that they shine forward. The text does not say which.

In plain English: Aaron did so. He lit its lamps so that they gave light in front of the lampstand, as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

In plain English: This is how the lampstand was made: hammered work of gold. From its base to its flowers it was hammered work. He made the lampstand like the pattern (literally: the appearance) that Yahweh had shown Moses.

Good to know: "Base" is yarek, the word for "thigh" in 5:21. It is also used for the base of the lampstand in Exodus 25:31, and Exodus 25:40 tells Moses to make everything by the pattern he was shown on the mountain.

In plain English: Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

In plain English: "Take the Levites from among the Israelites and make them clean.

In plain English: This is what you are to do to make them clean: sprinkle the water of cleansing (literally: water of sin, or: of the sin offering) on them. Have them shave their whole bodies with a razor, wash their clothes, and make themselves clean.

The Hebrew word: "Cleansing" here is chatta'ah, the word for "sin" and "sin offering". The verse says literally "water of sin".

How it is translated: In Numbers this Bible says "sin" (or sins) in 41 of the 42 verses that use chatta'ah. This verse is the one where it does not.

What changes: Read as "water of cleansing" (or: purification), the water makes the Levites clean. Read as "water of the sin offering", it is linked to the offering for sin. In Numbers 19:9 the same word is used of the ashes of the red heifer, kept for the water for cleansing: "It is a sin offering."

In plain English: Then have them take a young bull with its meal offering of fine flour mixed with oil. You are to take a second young bull for a sin offering.

In plain English: Bring the Levites in front of the Tent of Meeting, and gather the whole community of the Israelites.

In plain English: Bring the Levites before Yahweh. The Israelites are to lay their hands on the Levites,

In plain English: and Aaron is to present (literally: wave) the Levites before Yahweh as a wave offering from the Israelites, so that they may do the work of Yahweh.

Good to know: "Wave" is nuph, which the dictionary gives as "to quiver (i.e. vibrate up and down, or rock to and fro)". The text does not say what was done when the Levites were waved.

In plain English: "The Levites are to lay their hands on the heads of the bulls. Offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to Yahweh, to make atonement for the Levites.

In plain English: Have the Levites stand before Aaron and his sons, and present them as a wave offering to Yahweh.

In plain English: In this way you are to set the Levites apart from among the Israelites, and the Levites will be mine.

In plain English: "After that the Levites are to go in to serve at the Tent of Meeting. You are to make them clean and present them as a wave offering.

In plain English: For they are fully given (literally: given, given) to me from among the Israelites. I have taken them for myself in place of all who open the womb, the firstborn of all the Israelites.

Good to know: The same rule, the Levites in place of the firstborn, is given in Numbers 3:12 and 3:13. The firstborn are claimed for Yahweh in Exodus 13:2.

In plain English: For every firstborn among the Israelites is mine, both people and animals. On the day I struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, I set them apart (this Bible: sanctified them) for myself.

In plain English: I have taken the Levites in place of all the firstborn among the Israelites.

In plain English: I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the Israelites, to do the work for the Israelites at the Tent of Meeting and to make atonement for the Israelites, so that no plague will strike the Israelites when they come near the sanctuary."

In plain English: Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of the Israelites did this to the Levites. The Israelites did to them everything Yahweh had commanded Moses about the Levites.

In plain English: The Levites purified themselves (this Bible: from sin) and washed their clothes. Aaron presented them as a wave offering before Yahweh, and Aaron made atonement for them to make them clean.

In plain English: After that the Levites went in to do their work at the Tent of Meeting, before Aaron and his sons. As Yahweh had commanded Moses about the Levites, so they did to them.

In plain English: Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

In plain English: "This is the rule for the Levites: from twenty-five years old and up, they are to go in to take their place in the work of the Tent of Meeting.

Good to know: Numbers 4:3 counts the Levites for the work from thirty years old to fifty. Here the age is twenty-five. The text does not explain the difference.

In plain English: From the age of fifty they are to stop doing the work and serve no more.

In plain English: They may help their brothers at the Tent of Meeting by keeping watch (this Bible: to perform the duty), but they are not to do the work. This is how you are to arrange the duties of the Levites."