In 387 or 390, or according to others in 400, a Council of Carthage decreed that bishops, priests and deacons abstain from conjugal relations: " It is fitting that the holy bishops and priests of God as well as the Levites, i. e. those who are in the service of the divine sacraments, observe perfect continence, so that they may obtain in all simplicity what they are asking from God ; what the Apostles taught and what antiquity itself observed, let us also endeavour to keep ...

The Tanakh reference to Har Tzion ( Mount Tzion ) that identifies its location is derived from the Psalm 48 composed by the sons of Korah, i. e. Levites, as " the northern side of the city of the great king ", which Radak interprets as the City of David " from the City of David, which is Zion ( 1 Kings 8: 1-2 ; 2 Chron.

For non-Levites, this represents men fit for military service, i. e. between twenty and sixty years of age ; among the Levites the relevant number is those obligated in temple service ( males between twenty and fifty years of age ).

Biblical scholars suspect that the Elohist account offers both matrilinial and patrilinial descent from Levites in order to magnify the religious credentials of Moses.

On hearing that God had blessed Obed-edom because of the presence of the Ark in his house, David had the Ark brought to Zion by the Levites, while he himself, " girded with a linen ephod ," " danced before the Lord with all his might " and in the sight of all the public gathered in Jerusalem — a performance that caused him to be scornfully rebuked by his first wife, Saul's daughter Michal ( 2 Sam.

The Levites were appointed to minister before the Ark ( 1 Chron.

There he discovers he has no Levites, and so sends messengers to gather some.

Nehemiah assembles the people and has Ezra read to them the law-book of Moses ; Nehemiah, Ezra and the Levites institute the Feast of Booths, in accordance with the Law.

The priests, Levites and the Israelite people enter into a covenant, agreeing to separate themselves from the surrounding peoples and to keep the Law.

A list of priests and Levites who returned in the days of Cyrus ( the first returnees from Babylon ) is presented ; Nehemiah, aided by Ezra, oversees the dedication of the walls and the rebuilt city.

Moses consecrates the Levites for the service of the Tabernacle in the place of the first-born sons, who hitherto had performed that service.

The Levites are divided into three families, the Gershonites, the Kohathites, and the Merarites, each under a chief, and all headed by one prince, Eleazar, son of Aaron.

The Levites are again appointed to help in the keeping of the Tabernacle.

The Levites are ordered to surrender to the priests a part of the tithes taken to them.

A new census gives the total number of males from twenty years and upward as 601, 730, and the number of the Levites from a month old and upward as 23, 000.

As chapters 1-10 progress the theme of God's presence with Israel comes to the fore: these chapters describe how Israel is to be organised around the Sanctuary, God's dwelling-place in their midst, under the charge of the Levites and priests, in preparation for the conquest of the land.

The last five chapters are exclusively concerned with land: instructions for the extermination of the Canaanites, the demarcation of the boundaries of the land, how the land is to be divided, holy cities for the Levites and " cities of refuge ", the problem of pollution of the land by blood, and regulations for inheritance when a male heir is lacking.

By the end of Judges the Israelites are in a worse condition than they were at the beginning, with Yahweh's treasures used to make idolatrous images, the Levites ( priests ) corrupted, the tribe of Dan conquering a remote village instead of the Canaanite cities, and the tribes of Israel making war on the Benjamites, their own brothers.

The Israelites, enumerated at 603, 550 able-bodied adult males ( not counting Levites ) and their families, with their flocks and herds, set out for the mountain of God.

Moses comes down from the mountain, smashes the stone tablets in anger, and commands the Levites to massacre the unfaithful Israelites.

Omri, King of Israel, continued policies dating from the reign of Jeroboam, contrary to the laws of Moses, that were intended to reorient religious focus away from Jerusalem: encouraging the building of local temple altars for sacrifices, appointing priests from outside the family of the Levites, and allowing or encouraging temples dedicated to the Canaanite god, Baal.

In the third year of his reign Jehoshaphat sent out priests and Levites over the land to instruct the people in the Law (), an activity that was commanded for a Sabbatical year in Deuteronomy 31: 10-13.

The English name is from the Latin Leviticus, taken in turn from Greek and a reference to the Levites, the tribe from whom the priests were drawn.

In terrible anger, Moses broke the commandment tablets and ordered his own tribe ( the Levites ) to go through the camp and kill everyone, including family and friends, upon which the Levites killed about 3, 000 people, some of whom were children.

Following this, according to the last chapters of Exodus, the Tabernacle was constructed, the priestly law ordained, the plan of encampment arranged both for the Levites and the non-priestly tribes, and the Tabernacle consecrated.

In the Temple, the Levites sang Hallel while the priests performed the sacrificial service.

These families are from the tribe of Levi ( Levites ) and in twenty-four instances are called by scripture as such ( Jerusalem Talmud to Mishnaic tractate Maaser Sheini p. 31a ).

The text of Genesis-Numbers leaves no doubt as to the central concern of the priests: the cult of Yahweh was to be under the control of " Aaron and his sons " forever, and to the exclusion of all other priestly lines ( such as Korah, Dathan and Abiram, who meet terrible fates in Numbers 16-17 for challenging Aaron, but also the lines of David's priests Abiathar and Zadok, as well as the low-level Levites ).

Not only “ In the rabbinic literature, the cockcrow is used as general marking of time ”, but also some of the Sages interpreted the " cockcrow " to mean the voice of the Temple officer who summoned all priests, Levites, and Israelites to their duties and used as such because the Hebrew gever was used also to mean a " rooster " in addition to the meaning of " man, strong man ".

According to the Books of Chronicles chapter 9 line 2, the Israelites, who took part in The Return to Zion are from the Tribe of Judah alongside the Tribe of Simeon that was absorbed into it, the Tribe of Benjamin, the Tribe of Levi ( Levites and Priests ) alongside the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, which according to the Book of Kings 2 Chapter 7 were exiled by the Assyrians ( The Biblical scholars Umberto Cassuto and Elia Samuele Artom claim these two tribes ' names to be a reference to the remant of all Ten Tribes that was not exiled and absorbed into the Judean population ).

However, not all Levites are priests.

According to Exodus, The Levites are apportioned no land in Canaan from which to subsist, but are instead granted the sacrificed animals and grain from all the other tribes for consumption or sale after ritual slaughter and burning.

The specific duties of the Levites were to assist Aaron in the work of the Tabernacle, in teaching, ministering in music and judging all the tribes of Israel.

This was a title given to all Kohanim ( Levite priests ), who nearly always intermarried: a " daughter of Aaron " was thus allowed to wed with Levites.

Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism disavow all belief in a restoration of a Temple, the resumption of Korbanot, or the continuation of identified Kohanim or Levites.

It stresses the rules and rituals of worship, and the crucial role of priests, expanding considerably on the role given to Aaron ( all Levites are priests, but according to P only the descendants of Aaron were to be allowed to officiate in the inner sanctuary ).

The classical rabbinical writers regarded all the cities controlled by the Levites as being cities of refuge, although they considered that asylum could only be claimed against the will of a city's inhabitants if the city was one of the six main cities of refuge.

The process of its formation probably took several hundred years, from the 8th century to the 6th, and its authors have been variously identified as prophetic circles ( because the concerns of Deuteronomy mirror those of the prophets, especially Hosea ), Levitical priestly circles ( because it stresses the role of the Levites ), and wisdom and scribal circles ( because it esteems wisdom, and because the treaty-form in which it is written would be best known to scribes ).

Two hands with outspread fingers indicated that the dead man was descended from priestly stock ( Kohanim ) who blessed the people in this fashion, and a jug was carved on the tombstones of the Levites as an emblem of the those who washed the priest's hands before he pronounced the blessing.

Uzziel is portrayed in the text as the founder of the Uzzielite faction of Levites ; however, despite Uzziel supposedly being Kohath's son, and Elzaphan's father, on some occasions the Book of Chronicles treats the Uzzielites as being quite distinct from the descendants of Kohath, and from those of Elzaphan.

He gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord: “ Take this Book of the Torah and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God.

The town itself, with some contiguous pasture land, is then said to have been granted to the Levites of the clan of Kohath, while the fields of the city, as well as its surrounding villages were assigned to Caleb, who expels the three giants, Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, who ruled the city.

Satan had been very much perturbed when he saw that the prayers of the children reached God, who took more delight in the childish songs from their pure hearts than in the hymns of the Levites in the Temple in Jerusalem ; and it was for this reason that Satan tried to put a stop to Besht ’ s training the children in prayers and taking them to synagogue.

* In Nathan is the name of one of Ezra's companions who are sent to Iddo to ask for temple workers to replace the missing Levites

The Jenn are equivalent to the thirteenth Hebrew tribe, the Levites, who had no land area but only scattered, strategic cities.

Out of the booty that belonged to Israelites, one of every fifty was set apart to the Levites who cared for the Tabernacle.

Moses sent the Levites to slay a large number of people ( 3000 ) who had rejected Moses ' call.

There was also a lower order of religious officials called Levites, who were not permitted to perform sacrifices and were restricted to menial functions.

* Following their conquest of Jerusalem the Babylonians destroyed the Temple and took most of the Zadokite priesthood into exile, leaving behind the Levites, who were too poor and marginalised to represent a threat to Babylonian interests.

* The Zadokites simultaneously found themselves in conflict with the Levites, who objected to their subordinate position.

that he who has been pleased to number me, though unworthy, among the Levites,