Deuteronomy 33:8

And of Levi he said,.... That is, Moses said of the tribe of Levi, as both the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem: [let] thy Thummim and thy Urim [be] with thy Holy One; with Aaron, as the same

And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah; Of Levi he said.

Thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one; the Thummim and the Urim, which are thine, O Lord, by special institution and consecration; by which he understands the ephod, in which they were put, , by a synecdoche, and the high priesthood, to which they were appropriated, by a metonymy; and withal the gifts and graces signified by the Urim and Thummim, and necessary for the discharge of that high office, shall be with thy holy one, i.e. with that Levite, that priest, which thou hast consecrated to thyself, and which is holy in a more peculiar manner than all the people were, i.e. the priesthood shall be confined to and continued in Aaron’ s family. Whom thou didst prove: this seems added by way of anticipation; although thou didst try him, and rebuke him, and shut him out of Canaan for his miscarriage about fetching water out of the rock, yet thou didst not therefore take away the priesthood from him. At Massah; not at that Massah mentioned Exodus 17, which is also called Meribah, where neither Moses nor Aaron are reproved, nor is Aaron so much as named, but at that other Meribah, Numbers 20, where this is expressed, which as it is called by one of the names of that place, Exodus 17, to wit, Meribah, Numbers 20, so it may be here called by its other name, Massah; and well may the same names be given to those two places, because the occasion of them was in a great measure one and the same. Though this place may be otherwise rendered, whom thou didst try in trying, or with trial, i.e. whom thou didst exactly and thoroughly try, such repetitions being very frequent and elegant in the Hebrew language. And it may be observed, that in the Hebrew text here are two several prepositions, though the English translation render them both by at, here beth, in or with, and in the next branch al, at, or near, or concerning the waters of Meribah; which may seem to intimate that the former is not the name of the place, as the latter is: why else should they not have been expressed by the same preposition? With whom thou didst strive, or, contend, i.e. whom thou didst reprove and chastise, as that phrase signifies, .

Deuteronomy 33:8 And of Levi he said, [Let] thy Thummim and thy Urim [be] with thy holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, [and with] whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah;Ver. 8. Let thy Thummin and thy Urim.] Sincerity of life and soundness of doctrine. There is great cause that ministers, of all men, should be much prayed for.

(8) And of Levi.—Next to Joseph, this tribe has the largest share in Moses’ last words, as we might naturally expect, it being his own tribe. The character of the priest is the principal subject. The blessing may be thus paraphrased: “Let thy Thummim and thy Urim (the chief high-priestly ornaments) be ever with some saintly man of thine, like him whom thou (Israel) didst tempt in Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah (Moses’ own departed brother Aaron is alluded to, for the people murmured against them both in both places), like him (Eleazar or Phinehas) who said to his father and to his mother, ‘I have not seen him,’ &c. These are the priests that shall teach Jacob thy judgments and Israel thy law.” The conduct of the tribe of Levi at Sinai is alluded to, when they stood by Moses and slew the idolaters. Who headed them on that occasion we are not told. Eleazar or Phinehas may be intended. The conduct of Phinehas (in Numbers 25) is also a case in point. As Rashi observes, “his father and his mother, his brethren and children” cannot be taken literally, because the tribe of Levi on the whole was faithful. The fathers, mothers, brethren, and children chiefly belonged to the other tribes. Let thy Thummim and thy Urim.—See Exodus 28:30. “Thy Thummim and thy Urim” may refer to Israel, or to Levi, or to Jehovah Himself. In the last case, He must be thought to have tried Levi at Massah, and striven with Moses and Aaron at the waters of Meribah. It is not at all easy to distribute the pronouns with certainty in this speech. If the writer of Deuteronomy was unconscious of any difference between priest and Levite, how is the mention of Urim and Thummim to be explained?

Verse 8. Of Levi he said] Concerning the Urim and Thummim, See Clarke on Exodus 28:30. Thy holy one] Aaron primarily, who was anointed the high priest of God, and whose office was the most holy that man could be invested with. Therefore Aaron was called God's holy one, and the more especially so as he was the type of the MOST HOLY and blessed Jesus, from whom the Urim - all light and wisdom, and Thummim - all excellence, completion, and perfection, are derived. Whom thou didst prove, c.] God contended with Aaron as well as with Moses at the waters of Meribah, and excluded him from the promised land because he did not sanctify the Lord before the people. From the words of St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 10:8-12, it is evident that these words, at least in a secondary sense, belong to Christ. He is the Holy One who was tempted by them at Massah, who suffered their manners in the wilderness, who slew 23,000 of the most incorrigible transgressors, and who brought them into the promised land by his deputy, Joshua, whose name and that of Jesus have the same signification.

8And of Levi he said:— Give Levν Thy Thummνm, Thine Urνm to the man of Thy grace, Whom Thou didst prove at Probation And strive with (?) at Waters-of-Strife; 9Who said of his father and mother, I do not regard them; Nor avowed he his brothers, Nor acknowledged his sons; But Thine oracles they kept, And guarded Thy covenant. 10They deliver Thy judgements to Jacob, And Thy law to Israel; They set up smoke in Thy nostrils, Holocausts up on Thine altar. 11Bless Thou his service, O Lord, And accept the work of his hands! Shatter his opponents’ loins, And his haters past their opposing. 8. Thy Thummim, etc.] This line is overloaded and has no parallel. Prefix (with LXX) Give Levi, and the result is two parallel lines of 3 + 3 or 3 + 2 as above. Thummim and Urim] In inverse order from other records of them in the O.T.:—1 Samuel 14:41 (LXX); P, Exodus 28:30, Leviticus 8:8; Ezra 2:63, Nehemiah 7:65. They were the two sacred lots used by the priest in giving decisions. See Dri.’s full note, Exod. 313 f. thy godly one] Cp. LXX τῷἀνδρὶτῷὁσίῳ; Heb. ’ish hasξdĕ ?ka, the man who showed thee ḥ ?esed or true love; or, more probably from the context, to whom thou didst show ḥ ?esed. It is possible to render to the men of him to whom thou, etc., i.e. Levi or Moses or Aaron. The emendation ḥ ?asdĕ ?ka or ḥ ?asadĕ ?ka, of thy grace, is attractive (Ball). Whom thou didst prove at Massah, etc.] It is difficult if not impossible to harmonise this couplet with the stories of what happened at Massah = Probation and at Merξbah = Strife as told by JE, Exodus 17:1 b–7, and JP, Numbers 20:2-13 (cp. above Deuteronomy 6:16, Deuteronomy 9:22, Deuteronomy 32:51). For at Massah the people is said to have striven with Moses and to have tempted or proved Jehovah; and at Meribah to have striven with Moses and Aaron for bringing them into the desert and with Jehovah Himself, who gave them water but blamed Moses and Aaron for want of faith. Here on the other hand it is Jehovah who proves, and contends with Levi, the tribe, who are not mentioned in the above narratives. It is possible to argue, however, that what happened at, Massah was God’s proving of Moses by means of a critical situation; and that at Meribah He did in His providence strive or debate with Moses and Aaron by similarly critical circumstances (cp. Psalms 81:7); and therefore that this couplet is a possible, if free, interpretation of the above narratives. In that case we may take its relative, whom, and thy godly one of the previous line either as meaning Moses or Aaron or the whole tribe as represented by them. There would remain the discrepancy that while this ‘Blessing’ implies that Levi issued successfully from the proof and strife put upon them by God; P, Numbers 20:12 f., records the failure of the faith of Moses and Aaron.

Thy holy one - i. e., Levi, regarded as the representative of the whole priestly and Levitical stock which sprang from him. The contrast between the tone of this passage and that of Gen 49:5-7 is remarkable.

8-11. Of Levi he said — This is also addressed to Jehovah as a prayer.“Thy Thummim and thy Urim, Thy right and thy light.”For Thummim and Urim see what is said in Exodus 28:30, and Leviticus 8:8.