Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 33:8-11
In blessing the tribe of Levi, Moses expresses himself more at large, not so much because it was his own tribe (for he takes no notice of his relation to it) as because it was God's tribe. The blessing of Levi has reference.
I. To the high priest, here called God's holy one (Deu 33:8), because his office was holy, in token of which, Holiness to the Lord was written upon his forehead. 1. He seems to acknowledge that God might justly have displaced Aaron and his seed, for his sin at Meribah, (Exo 17:7), which might be very remarkable, and which God might have an eye to in conferring the priesthood upon him, though no mention is made of it there. All the Chaldee paraphrasts agree that it was a…
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of Levi he said--The burden of this blessing is the appointment of the Levites to the dignified and sacred office of the priesthood (Lev 10:11; Deu 22:8; Deu 17:8-11), a reward for their zeal in supporting the cause of God, and their unsparing severity in chastising even their nearest and dearest relatives who had participated in the idolatry of the molten calf (Exo 32:25-28; compare Mal 2:4-6).
John Gill on Deuteronomy 33:10
They shall teach Jacob thy statutes, and Israel thy law,.... The priests and Levites, being dispersed among each of the tribes, having cities in them allotted to them, taught the people the laws, statutes, and ordinances of the Lord, moral, civil, and ceremonial, see Malachi 2:6,
they shall put incense before thee; upon the altar of incense, which none but a priest might do, as the case of Uzziah shows; and which, the Jews say (k), he might do but once: the same priest might not offer incense twice; a new priest was always employed: in this they, were typical of Christ, the only Intercessor who is always at the golden altar, to offer up the prayers of all saints with his much incense, Revel…
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