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 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.

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 ).

While there are some references to maintaining the tribal separation among Israelites during the Hasmonean period, the dominant position of the tribe of Judah as well as nationalistic policies of Hasmoneans to refer to residents of Hasmonean Judea as Jews practically erased the tribal distinction, with the exception of the priestly orders of Levites and Kohanim ( tribe of Levi ).

Following the Israelite Exodus from Egypt, after the nation had sinned with the Golden Calf, the priesthood was taken away from the first-borns, and given to the tribe of Levites, specifically to the Kohanim, High Priest Aaron, his children, and their descendants.

18, in which " a prophet like Moses " is promised: " As Moses was a prophet for forty years, so was Jeremiah ; as Moses prophesied concerning Judah and Benjamin, so did Jeremiah ; as Moses ' own tribe Levites under Korah rose up against him, so did Jeremiah's tribe revolt against him ; Moses was cast into the water, Jeremiah into a pit ; as Moses was saved by a slave ( the slave of Pharaoh's daughter ); so, Jeremiah was rescued by a slave ( Ebed-melech ); Moses reprimanded the people in discourses ; so did Jeremiah.

The Levites, also known as the tribe of Levi, were descendants of Levi.

Certain religious and political functions were reserved for the Levites, and the early sources of the Torah — the Jahwist and Elohist — appear to treat the term Levi as just being a word meaning priest ; scholars therefore suspect that " levi " was originally a general term for a priest, and had no connection to ancestry, and that it was only later, for example in the priestly source and Blessing of Moses, that the existence of a tribe named Levi became assumed, in order to explain the origin of the priestly caste.

In the Blessing of Jacob, Jacob is described as imposing a curse on the Levites, by which they would be scattered, in punishment for Levi's actions in Shechem ; textual scholars date the Blessing of Jacob to a period between just one and two centuries prior to the Babylonian captivity, and some Biblical scholars regard this curse, and Dinah herself as an aetiological postdiction to explain the fates of the tribe of Simeon and the Levites, the simpler explanation of the Levites ' scattered nature being that the priesthood was originally open to any tribe, but gradually became seen as a distinct tribe itself ( the Levites ).

According to biblical scholars, the Torah's genealogy for Levi's descendants, is actually an aetiological myth reflecting the fact that there were four different groups among the levites – the Gershonites, Kohathites, Merarites, and Aaronids ; Aaron – the eponymous ancestor of the Aaronids – couldn't be portrayed as a brother to Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, as the narrative about the birth of Moses ( brother of Aaron ), which textual scholars attribute to the earlier Elohist source, mentions only that both his parents were Levites ( without identifying their names ).

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

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.

* Untithed food ( tevel ): produce of the Land of Israel requires the removal of certain tithes, which in ancient times were given to the Kohanim ( priests ), Levites and the poor ( terumah, maaser rishon and maaser ani respectively )

These 15 parts parallel the 15 steps in the Temple in Jerusalem on which the Levites stood during Temple services, and which were memorialized in the 15 Psalms (# 120-134 ) known as Shir HaMa ' alot (, " Songs of Ascent ").

The Priests and the Levites were in turn served by servants called Nethinim.

According to the Mitzvot only Aaronic priests and / or Levites ( depending on the Mitzvah ) were permitted to perform these actions, and simply being a nazarite or prophet was insufficient.

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.

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 ).

On the upper floors, the great Jewish sages held court, Cohanim and Levites performed various chores, and from there tourists were able to observe the events.

Levites were substituted for the first-born and wholly given to Divine service:

" The Levites were

In his writings, especially in his book, HaKohanim vHaLeviim, The Priests and the Levites ( New York: 1940 ), he stressed that members of these groups exist in the realm between history ( below ) and redemption ( above ), and were called upon to take leading roles in a call to prayer, repentance, and action that would help bring an end to suffering.

Unlike other offerings which were restricted to consumption within the tabernacle, the yearly tithe to the Levites could be consumed anywhere ().

The third year was called " the year of tithing " in which the Israelites set aside 10 % of the increase of the land, they were to give this tithe to the Levites, strangers, orphans, and widows.

According to some Biblical scholars, the Torah's genealogy for Levi's descendants, is actually an aetiological myth reflecting the fact that there were four different groups among the levites-the Gershonites, Kohathites, Merarites, and Aaronids ; Aaron — the eponymous ancestor of the Aaronids — couldn't be portrayed as a brother to Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, as the narrative about the birth of Moses ( brother of Aaron ), which textual scholars attribute to the earlier Elohist source, mentions only that both his parents were Levites ( without identifying their names ).

She concludes that the Hebrew Levites, because of their clearly patriarchal outlook " must have been Indo-Europeans ", alleging misogyny and hatred of goddess worship within Israelite society, which she connects to the later development of Christianity.

Since Hebron itself was one of the Cities of Refuge to be ruled by the Levites, it is later explained that Caleb actually was given the outskirts ( Joshua 21: 11-13 ).

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.

: * Masei, on Numbers 33-36: Stations of the Israelites ’ journeys, instructions for conquest, cities for Levites

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 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 ).

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.

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.

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 redemption price was set at 5 shekels for each of 273 surplus firstborn Levites.

The reason is that the Levites, as substitutes for the first-born, are pledged to minister and assist the kohanim in Divine service, and cannot be redeemed from this service obligation.

In 1938, with the outbreak of violence that would come to be known as Kristallnacht, American Orthodox rabbi Mnachem HaKohen Risikoff wrote about the central role he saw for Priests and Levites in terms of Jewish and world responses, in worship, liturgy, and teshuva, repentance.

Due to doubts concerning the status of persons claiming to be Kohanim or Levi ' im arising after severe Roman / Christian persecutions and exile, the Hebrew Bible tithe of 10 % for the Levites, and " tithe of the tithe " ( Nehemiah 10: 38 ) of 10 % of 10 % ( 1 %) for the priests are dealt with in accordance with Jewish Law.

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.

Many of these laws concern only special classes of people — such as kings or Kohanim ( the priesthood ), Levites, or Nazarites -- or are conditioned by local or temporary circumstances of the Jewish nation, as, for instance, the agricultural, sacrificial, and Levitical laws.