Numbers 8:14

14 And shalt separate them from the midst of the children of Israel, to be mine.

Numbers 8:14 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 8:14

Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children
of Israel
By sprinkling the water of purification upon them; by offering sacrifices for them; by presenting them before the Lord, with the hands of the people of Israel put upon them; by offering and waving them before the Lord, and by setting them before Aaron and his sons, as their ministers:

and the Levites shall be mine:
in a special and peculiar manner devoted to his service, and by him given to his priests for that purpose; so the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan,

``and the Levites shall minister before me.''

Numbers 8:14 In-Context

12 The Levites also shall put their hands upon the heads of the oxen, of which thou shalt sacrifice one for sin, and the other for a holocaust to the Lord, to pray for them.

13 And thou shalt set the Levites in the sight of Aaron and of his, and shalt consecrate them being offered to the Lord,

14 And shalt separate them from the midst of the children of Israel, to be mine.

15 And afterwards they shall enter into the tabernacle of the covenant, to serve me. And thus shalt thou purify and consecrate them for an oblation of the Lord: for as a gift they were given me by the children of Israel.

16 I have taken them instead of the firstborn that open every womb in Israel,