What were the priest’s duties and the Levite’s duties?<\/p>\n\t
Under the Mosaical Law, the tribe of Levi was dedicated to the service of God. “At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister to Him and to bless in His name, to this day. Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; the LORD is his inheritance, just as the LORD your God promised him<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 10:8-9). One member of that tribe, Aaron, was selected by God to be the High Priest. His sons and their descendants were to be the priests for the nation. As each High Priest died, another High Priest was selected from among the priests.<\/p>\n The priests served as the mediators between God and the people. They are the ones who took the people’s sacrifices and offered them up to God (Leviticus 4:20, 26, 31; Hebrews 8:4). The High Priest, in particular, represented the whole nation of Israel before God (Exodus 28:12; Hebrews 5:1). When a priest sinned, he brought guilt not only upon himself but also upon the whole people (Leviticus 4:3).<\/p>\n The priests also interceded on behalf of the people before God (Leviticus 9:22-24; Numbers 6:22-27). And they would inquire of God for the nation (Exodus 28:30).<\/p>\n The Levites, members of the same tribe, but who were not descendants of Aaron, served as aides to the priests, doing things like helping to prepare the sacrifices. They took care of the temple, making repairs when needed, and served as musicians, singers, doorkeepers. (Numbers 1:50-53; 3:6-9; 4:1-33; I Chronicles 23). Service began at the age of 25 (though later changed to 20 under King David) and continued until they reached the age of 50 (Numbers 8:24; I Chronicles 23:3,24-32). The Levites were also the teachers of Israel (Deuteronomy 24:8; 33:10; II Chronicles 35:3; Nehemiah 8:7) and the nation’s scribes (II Chronicles 34:13). The Levites were also the nation’s judges (Deuteronomy 17:8-9; 21:5; I Chronicles 23:4; II Chronicles 19:8; Ezekiel 44:15, 24). They were also the nation’s regulators. For instance, they were responsible for accurate weights and measures used in Israel (I Chronicles 23:29; Leviticus 19:35-36).<\/p>\n Neither the priests or the Levites spent all their time of service at the temple. Most of the year they had their own homes, farms, and business of which to take care. According to a fixed schedule, they took turns performing the duties assigned to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: What were the priest’s duties and the Levite’s duties? Answer: Under the Mosaical Law, the tribe of Levi was dedicated to the service of God. “At that time the LORD separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister to Him…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[430,115,277],"class_list":["post-9575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-levites","tag-old-law","tag-priests"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28321,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-happened-to-the-tribe-of-levi-during-the-captivity\/","url_meta":{"origin":9575,"position":0},"title":"What happened to the tribe of Levi during the captivity?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When the northern kingdom went into Assyrian captivity, that left the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. What happened to the tribe of Levi? Did they go into captivity as well? Answer: The tribe of Levi's inheritance was scattered among the other tribes. Thus, you would expect the Levites to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1741,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-priest-and-a-levite\/","url_meta":{"origin":9575,"position":1},"title":"What is the difference between a priest and a Levite?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 28, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is the difference between the priests and the Levites in the Old Testament? Answer: Initially, God offered to make the entire nation of Israel a nation of priests. \"Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12137,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-only-priests-allowed-to-offer-sacrifices\/","url_meta":{"origin":9575,"position":2},"title":"Were only priests allowed to offer sacrifices?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Were priests from the tribe of Levi the only ones who could lawfully offer sacrifices?\u00a0 If so, why did the Judges do them?\u00a0 Noticed that none of the Judges were from the tribe of Levi (using the information I have anyway).\u00a0 I am wondering about this in conjunction with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28835,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-the-levitical-priesthood-replace-the-priesthood-of-melchizedek\/","url_meta":{"origin":9575,"position":3},"title":"Did the Levitical priesthood replace the priesthood of Melchizedek?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: \"For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law\" (Hebrews 7:12). Did the Levitical priesthood replace the priesthood of Melchizedek? Answer: Under the Old Law of Moses, priests came from the tribe of Levi and, starting with David, kings came from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16106,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/of-what-tribes-were-mary-joseph-john-the-baptist-and-his-parents\/","url_meta":{"origin":9575,"position":4},"title":"Of what tribes were Mary, Joseph, John the Baptist, and his parents?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Of what tribe was Mary from? Joseph was of the tribe of Judah, I think, but was Mary also of this tribe? And was there intermarriage between the tribes of Israel? Was John the Baptist a Levite? Was he actually considered to be a priest, or solely a prophet?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86370,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-and-psalms-110\/","url_meta":{"origin":9575,"position":5},"title":"Jesus and Psalms 110","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 5, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Jesus is very definitely the figure described and intended by the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 1 is making the argument that Jesus is \"so much better than the angels\" (Hebrews 1:4) and has \"a more excellent name than they.\" The Holy Spirit applied Psalms 2:7, 45:6-7, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}