Levites

The Levites were the descendants of Levi, Leah's third son by Jacob, counted as one of the tribes of Israel. After the golden calf, when Moses called out, “Whoever is on Yahweh’s side, come to me!”, “All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him” (Exodus 32:26). God took them for his own service in place of Israel's firstborn: “I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn” (Numbers 3:12). “At that time Yahweh set apart the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, to stand before Yahweh to minister to him, and to bless in his name” (Deuteronomy 10:8).

Aaron and his sons served as priests, and the rest of the Levites were given to help them: “You shall give the Levites to Aaron and to his sons” (Numbers 3:9). The tribe received no territory, for “Yahweh, the God of Israel, is their inheritance” (Joshua 13:33). They lived on the tithe (Numbers 18:21) in forty-eight cities with their pasture lands among the other tribes (Numbers 35:7). David appointed Levites to oversee the work of the temple, to serve as officers, judges and doorkeepers, and to praise Yahweh with instruments (1 Chronicles 23:4–5). After the exile Levites helped the people understand the law that Ezra read (Nehemiah 8:7–8).

In the Gospels a Levite passes by the wounded man in Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:32), and Barnabas was “a Levite, a man of Cyprus by race” (Acts 4:36). Hebrews shows that the Levitical priesthood pointed beyond itself: “if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people have received the law), what further need was there for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 7:11)? That priest is Jesus, who “because he lives forever, has his priesthood unchangeable” (Hebrews 7:24).

For Levi himself, see Levi.