About Levi he said, “Your Thummim and your Urim are with your godly one, whom you proved at Massah, with whom you contended at the waters of Meribah.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 8. Holy man. Aaron and his successors in the priesthood. Challoner.—They were adorned with the Urim and Thummim, which are here rendered perfection and doctrine. Calmet.—Septuagint “give to Levi his insignia, (delous) and his truth, to the holy man, the same whom they tried at the temptation, they spoke ill of him at the waters,” and so forth It was in consequence of the seditious conduct of the Israelites that the two brothers betrayed a want of confidence in God, and were excluded from the land of promise, as Moses often reminds them. Calmet. 3:26. Bible.—Temptation. The place which goes by this name is at Raphidim, near Horeb. Exodus 17:6. But the word here probably includes all the other places, where the Hebrews tempted God, and particularly that, where so holy a man as Aaron was permitted to fall. Calmet. Numbers 20:12.—The priesthood is the peculiar blessing and honour of the tribe of Levi. Menochius.