Summary: Having set up God's tabernacle in Sinai, God calls for the Israelites to take a census of all adult males fit for war. The Levites are specifically excepted, and formally made the priestly caste, with charge to care for the tabernacle and related duties. The people gather in their familial houses and prepare to move out.
The Levite families are given specific tasks in the temple-Aaron's descendants get the actual priestly duties. As the Levites are being taken by the Lord (metaphorically) rather than everyone's first-born sons, a tax is raised and given to the priests as a redemption.
Thoughts: ODB intro to this book: "The book of Numbers, named for its census lists..." Hot damn, sounds exciting! I understand it picks up; I can say for certain that the opening is one of those "priestly" sections, for which read, "intensely repetitive."
Why God would need a census taken for him is left as an exercise for the reader.
Great quotes: And those that encamp by him shall be the tribe of Asher: and the captain of the children of Asher shall be Pagiel the son of Ocran. (Num 2:27) There's quite a bit like that. Quite a bit.
Fess up. Did you actually read this, or just glaze over it -- "yeah, more census, more census, yada, yada, yada..."
Posted by: buzz | Tuesday, November 06, 2007 at 09:50 AM
Well, I looked at all the words. I think it's fair to say they only penetrated my consciousness when something other than a bunch of names came up.
Posted by: FS | Tuesday, November 06, 2007 at 02:18 PM
The military draft in Moses' time was at 20 years. Today, when children grow up much later, they can be in the military at 18 years old.
Just saying.
Posted by: buzz | Tuesday, November 06, 2007 at 02:54 PM