Matthew Henry on Numbers 3:1-13
Here, I. The family of Aaron is confirmed in the priests' office, Num 3:10. They had been called to it before, and consecrated; here they are appointed to wait on their priests' office: the apostle uses this phrase (Rom 12:7), Let us wait on our ministry. The office of the ministry requires a constant attendance and great diligence; so frequent are the returns of its work, and yet so transient its favourable opportunities, that it must be waited on. Here is repeated what was said before (Num 1:51): The stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death, which forbids the invading of the priest's office by any other person whatsoever; none must come nigh to minister but Aaron and his sons only,…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Numbers 3:1
These also are the generations of Aaron and Moses,.... The descendants of them, those of the former, who is named first, because the eldest, were priests, and those of the latter Levites, and who are not very plainly pointed at, but are included among the Amramites, Numbers 3:27; the posterity of Moses being very obscure, only Levites, and these not particularly named but swallowed up among the Kohathites: find the following account was as it stood:
in the day that the Lord spoke with Moses in mount Sinai; and not, altogether as it then, was when he spoke to him in the wilderness, of Sinai, for then Aaron had four sons, but now two of them were dead as is after observed; and it seems to be…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Numbers 3:1-4
Numbers 3:1-51
1. These also are the generations of Aaron and Moses, in the day that the Lord spake with Moses in mount Sinai.
1. Hae sunt generationes Aharon et Mosis ex quo loquutus est Jehova ad Mosen in monte Sinai.
2. And these are the names of the sons of Aaron; Nadab the first-born, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
2. Hac autem sunt nomina filiorum Aharon: primogenitus Nadab, et Ahihu, Eleazar et Ithamar.
3. These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests which were anointed, whom he consecrated to minister in the priest's office.
3. Ista sunt nomina filiorum Aharon sacerdotum unctorum, quorum consecraverat manum ut sacerdotio fungerentur.
4. And Nadab and Abihu died bef…
