to cut (off · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
tribe
שֵׁ֖בֶטShe.vet
H7626
a scion · noun, common masculine singular construct
families
מִשְׁפְּחֹ֣תmish.pe.Chot
H4940
a family · noun, common feminine plural construct
Kohathites
הַקְּהָתִ֑יha.ke.ha.Ti
H6956
a Kohathite (collectively) or descendants of Kehath · definite article + noun, gentilic masculine singular absolute
among
מִתּ֖וֹךְmi.Tokh
H8432
a bisection · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Levites
הַלְוִיִּֽםhal.vi.Yim
H3881
a Levite or descendant of Levi · definite article + noun, gentilic masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 19:21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish.
Leviticus 10:1-2 And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange f…
Numbers 16:32 And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods.
Numbers 17:10 And the LORD said unto Moses, Bring Aaron’s rod again before the testimony, to be kept for a token against the rebels; and thou shalt quite…
Numbers 18:5 And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary, and the charge of the altar: that there be no wrath any more upon the children of Israel.
1 Samuel 6:19 And he smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and three…
2 Samuel 6:6-7 And when they came to Nachon’s threshingfloor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it.
Jeremiah 38:23 So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans: and thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Numbers 4:1-20
We have here a second muster of the tribe of Levi. As that tribe was taken out of all Israel to be God's peculiar, so the middle-aged men of that tribe were taken from among the rest to be actually employed in the service of the tabernacle. Now observe,
I. Who were to be taken into this number. All the males from thirty years old to fifty. Of the other tribes, those that were numbered to go forth to war were from twenty years old and upward, but of the Levites only from thirty to fifty; for the service of God requires the best of our strength, and the prime of our time, which cannot be better spent than to the honour of him who is the first and best. And a man may make a good soldier much so…
Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites, &c.--a solemn admonition to Moses and Aaron to beware, lest, by any negligence on their part, disorder and improprieties should creep in, and to take the greatest care that all the parts of this important service be apportioned to the proper parties, lest the Kohathites should be disqualified for their high and honorable duties. The guilt of their death would be incurred by the superintending priest, if he failed to give proper directions or allowed any irreverent familiarity with sacred things.
John Gill on Numbers 4:18
Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites. Or give no occasion, as the Targum of Jonathan; or be not the cause of their cutting off, as Jarchi, through negligence or inadvertency of theirs, in packing up the above things, and delivering them to them.
John Calvin on Numbers 4:4–end
Numbers 4:4-20, 24-28, 31-33
4. This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation, about the most holy things:
4. Istud erit opus filiorum Cehath in tabernaculo conventionis Sancti sanctorum.
5. And when the camp setteth forward, Aaron shall come, and his sons, and they shall take down the covering vail, and cover the ark of testimony with it:
5. Veniet autem Aharon et filii ejus quando transferenda erunt castra, et deponent velum tentorii, et operient illo arcata testimonii.
6. And shall put thereon the covering of badgers' skins, and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of blue, and shall put in the staves thereof.
6. Potentque super illam operimen…
The Church Fathers
The Lord, giving answers to Moses and Aaron, says: "Do not destroy the people of Kohath from their tribe out of the midst of the sons of Levi; but do this to them, and they shall live and not die, when they draw near to the holy of holies," and the rest. First let us understand those things which are related according to the letter, and thus, with the Lord granting it, we shall ascend from the understanding of the letter to the understanding of the spirit. Understand, then, first the very arrangement of the tabernacle of testimony; understand also the holy of holies, which are set apart by a veil interposed from the holy places, which it is not permitted for any of men to look upon, except the priests alone. After this understand how, when it has come to the point that the sons of Israel move the camp, the tabernacle is taken down, and Aaron and his sons the priests within the holy of holies cover each single thing with its own coverings and veils, and, leaving these covered in the same place where they had been, they bring in the sons of Kohath, who are appointed to that duty, and cause them to lift upon their shoulders all those things which the priestly hand had covered. And on account of this it is said by the Lord: "Do not destroy the people of Kohath from their tribe," as though they would in this be destroyed if they had touched the holy of holies bare and open, which it was not lawful not only to touch, but not even to look upon when unveiled. If you have understood what the order of the history contains, ascend now to the splendor of the mystery, and behold the light of the spiritual law, if the eye of your mind is pure. If anyone among those who minister to God is worthy to grasp and to see the divine mysteries, for the beholding of which the rest are less capable, let this one be understood to be Aaron or the sons of Aaron, who is able to enter to those things which it is not lawful for others to approach. If, then, anyone is such, to him alone the ark of the covenant lies open, revealed; he sees the urn holding the manna; he considers and understands the mercy-seat. He beholds both cherubim, and the holy table, and the candlestick of light, and the altar of incense. This man considers and understands these things spiritually, that is, he who gives his labor to the word of God and to the mysteries of wisdom and is free for God alone in the holy…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
David — Beloved, the eighth and youngest son of Jesse, a citizen of Bethlehem. His father seems to have been a man in humble life. His mother’s name is not recorded. Some think she was the Nahash of 2 Sam.…
Kohathites — The descendants of Kohath. They formed the first of the three divisions of the Levites (Ex. 6:16, 18; Num. 3:17). In the journeyings of the Israelites they had the charge of the most holy portion of…
Levites · the Izeharites, the Hebronites, and the Uzzielites — the Izeharites, the Hebronites, and the Uzzielites
Levites, The · Services of: Taking down, putting up, and carrying the tabernacle, &c — Services of: Taking down, putting up, and carrying the tabernacle, &c
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
In order to prevent as far as possible any calamity from befalling the Levites while carrying the most holy things, the priests are again urged by the command of God to do what has already been described in detail in Num 4:5-15, lest through any carelessness on their part they should cut off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites, i.e., should cause their destruction; viz., if they should approach the holy things before they had been wrapped up by Aaron and his sons in the manner prescribed and handed over to them to carry. If the Kohathites should come for only a single moment to look at the holy things, they would die. אל־תּכריתוּ, "cut ye not off," i.e., "take care that the Kohathite…
Aaron and his surviving sons Eleazar and Ithamar had to cover the sanctuary and all the sacred articles completely before the camp was ready to move, with the groups of non-Levitical tribes marching before and behind the Levites who carried the Tabernacle. The royalty of these objects is seen in the symbolic colors of the coverings, and their sacredness underlies the stern warning that even though the Kohathites were the designated handlers, they must not touch the sacred objects, or they would die. Such respect marked the holiness of Israel’s Lord. The dangers of disregarding these instructions are apparent in 1 Sam 6:19-20 and 2 Sam 6:6-7.
Rashi on Numbers 4:18
אל תכריתו CUT YE NOT OFF [THE TRIBE OF THE FAMILIES OF THE KOHATHITES] — Do not bring it about for them that they shall die.
