🔢WEB · Numbers 1:48
What does Numbers 1:48 mean?
"For Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,"
— Numbers 1:48 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
So all those who were counted of the children of Israel by their fathers’ houses, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war in Israel;
even all those who were counted were six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty.
But the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not counted among them.
For Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“Only the tribe of Levi you shall not count, neither shall you take a census of them among the children of Israel;
but appoint the Levites over the Tabernacle of the Testimony, and over all its furnishings, and over all that belongs to it. They shall carry the tabernacle, and all its furnishings; and they shall take care of it, and shall encamp around it.
When the tabernacle is to move, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall set it up. The stranger who comes near shall be put to death.
Explanation
Numbers 1:48 reads simply, "For Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying," which in itself is an introductory formula—a common feature throughout the book of Numbers that signals a fresh, direct communication from God to Moses is about to follow. In plain language, this verse tells us that what comes next (in verse 49) is not Moses' own idea or a general instruction already given, but a specific, distinct word from the Lord.
The context is the census of Israel taken in the wilderness of Sinai, shortly after the exodus from Egypt. Moses, understood by Jewish and Christian tradition as the author of Numbers, is recording how God directed the organization of the twelve tribes for military and community purposes. In this section, God has just instructed that every man twenty years old and upward, able
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