Discovery BoxNumbers 3:26 
Context3:26 the hangings of the courtyard, 1 the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard that surrounded the tabernacle and the altar, and their ropes, plus all the service connected with these things. 2
Numbers 4:9
Context4:9 “They must take a blue cloth and cover the lampstand of the light, with its lamps, its wick-trimmers, its trays, and all its oil vessels, with which they service it.
Numbers 4:12
Context4:12 Then they must take all the utensils of the service, with which they serve in the sanctuary, put them in a blue cloth, cover them with a covering of fine leather, and put them on a carrying beam.
Numbers 4:19
Context4:19 but in order that they will live 3 and not die when they approach the most holy things, do this for them: Aaron and his sons will go in and appoint 4 each man 5 to his service and his responsibility.
Numbers 4:27-28
Context4:27 “All the service of the Gershonites, whether 6 carrying loads 7 or for any of their work, will be at the direction of 8 Aaron and his sons. You will assign them all their tasks 9 as their responsibility. 4:28 This is the service of the families of the Gershonites concerning the tent of meeting. Their responsibilities will be under the authority 10 of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest. 11
Numbers 4:32
Context4:32 and the posts of the surrounding courtyard with their sockets, tent pegs, and ropes, along with all their furnishings and everything for their service. You are to assign by names the items that each man is responsible to carry. 12
Numbers 4:47
Context4:47 from thirty years old and upward to fifty years old, everyone who entered to do the work of service and the work of carrying 13 relating to the tent of meeting –
Numbers 4:49
Context4:49 According to the word of the Lord they were numbered, 14 by the authority of Moses, each according to his service and according to what he was to carry. 15 Thus were they numbered by him, 16 as the Lord had commanded Moses.
Numbers 7:5
Context7:5 “Receive these gifts 17 from them, that they may be 18 used in doing the work 19 of the tent of meeting; and you must give them to the Levites, to every man 20 as his service requires.” 21
Numbers 18:4
Context18:4 They must join 22 with you, and they will be responsible for the care of the tent of meeting, for all the service of the tent, but no unauthorized person 23 may approach you.
Numbers 18:23
Context18:23 But the Levites must perform the service 24 of the tent of meeting, and they must bear their iniquity. 25 It will be a perpetual ordinance throughout your generations that among the Israelites the Levites 26 have no inheritance. 27
1 tc The phrases in this verse seem to be direct objects without verbs. BHS suggests deleting the sign of the accusative (for which see P. P. Saydon, “Meanings and Uses of the Particle אֵת,” VT 14 [1964]: 263-75).
2 tn Heb “for all the service of it [them].”
3 tn The word order is different in the Hebrew text: Do this…and they will live. Consequently, the verb “and they will live” is a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive to express the future consequence of “doing this” for them.
4 tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive continues the instruction for Aaron.
5 tn The distributive sense is obtained by the repetition, “a man” and “a man.”
6 tn The term “whether” is supplied to introduce the enumerated parts of the explanatory phrase.
7 tn Here again is the use of the noun “burden” in the sense of the loads they were to carry (see the use of carts in Num 7:7).
8 tn The expression is literally “upon/at the mouth of” (עַל־פִּי, ’al-pi); it means that the work of these men would be under the direct orders of Aaron and his sons.
9 tn Or “burden.”
10 tn Or “the direction” (NASB, TEV); Heb “under/by the hand of.” The word “hand” is often used idiomatically for “power” or “authority.” So also in vv. 33, 37, 45, 48.
11 sn The material here suggests that Eleazar had heavier responsibilities than Ithamar, Aaron’s fourth and youngest son. It is the first indication that the Zadokite Levites would take precedence over the Ithamar Levites (see 1 Chr 24:3-6).
12 tn Heb “you shall assign by names the vessels of the responsibility of their burden.”
13 tn The text multiplies the vocabulary of service here in the summary. In the Hebrew text the line reads literally: “everyone who came to serve the service of serving, and the service of burden.” The Levites came into service in the shrine, and that involved working in the sanctuary as well as carrying it from one place to the next.
14 tn The verb is the simple perfect tense – “he numbered them.” There is no expressed subject; therefore, the verb can be rendered as a passive.
15 tn Or “his burden.”
16 tn The passive form simply reads “those numbered by him.” Because of the cryptic nature of the word, some suggest reading a preterite, “and they were numbered.” This is supported by the Greek, Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate. It would follow in the emendation that the relative pronoun be changed to “just as” (כַּאֲשֶׁר, ka’asher). The MT is impossible the way it stands; it can only be rendered into smooth English by adding something that is missing.
17 tn The object is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied.
18 tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; following the imperative, this could be given an independent volitive translation (“they shall be”), but more fittingly a subordinated translation expressing the purpose of receiving the gifts.
19 tn The sentence uses the infinitive construct expressing purpose, followed by its cognate accusative: “[that they may be] for doing the work of” (literally, “serving the service of”).
20 tn The noun אִישׁ (’ish) is in apposition to the word “Levites,” and is to be taken in a distributive sense: “to the Levites, [to each] man according to his service.”
21 tn The expression כְּפִי (kÿfi) is “according to the mouth of.” Here, it would say “according to the mouth of his service,” which would mean “what his service calls for.”
22 tn Now the sentence uses the Niphal perfect with a vav (ו) consecutive from the same root לָוָה (lavah).
23 tn The word is “stranger, alien,” but it can also mean Israelites here.
24 tn The verse begins with the perfect tense of עָבַד (’avad) with vav (ו) consecutive, making the form equal to the instructions preceding it. As its object the verb has the cognate accusative “service.”
25 sn The Levites have the care of the tent of meeting, and so they are responsible for any transgressions against it.
26 tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Levites) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
27 tn The Hebrew text uses both the verb and the object from the same root to stress the point: They will not inherit an inheritance. The inheritance refers to land.
