The Lord Bless You (2 of 2)

In context

Numbers 7 steps back to “the day that Moses had finished setting up the tabernacle” (Numbers 7:1), a month before the count in chapter 1 (Exodus 40:17; Numbers 1:1). The twelve leaders of the tribes gave six covered wagons and twelve oxen for the Levites to haul the tabernacle. The Kohathites got none, because they carried the holy things on their shoulders (Numbers 7:3–9).

Then, to dedicate the altar, each leader brought his gift on his own day, twelve days in a row. Every gift was the same: a silver platter of 130 shekels (nearly three pounds), a silver bowl of 70 shekels, a gold ladle full of incense, and animals for the offerings (Numbers 7:12–17). Numbers lists all twelve in full and then adds up the total (Numbers 7:84–88).

When Moses went into the Tent of Meeting, he heard the Lord’s voice speaking to him “from above the mercy seat … from between the two cherubim” (Numbers 7:89), as the Lord had promised at Sinai (Exodus 25:22). Chapter 8 has Aaron light the seven lamps, and sets the Levites apart for their work. The people laid their hands on them, and the Levites served from twenty-five (chapter 4 had counted them from thirty); at fifty they stopped the work and helped their brothers (Numbers 8:10, 24–26).