Deuteronomy 33:8

I say this about the tribe of Levi: Yahweh, give to those who are dedicated to you the sacred stones that they will use to find out what you want to be done; You tested them at a spring in the desert, a spring that they named Massah and also named Meribah to find out if they would ◄remain loyal to/continue to obey► you.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

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;

In Context

7“ say this about the tribe of Judah: Yahweh, listen to them when they call out for help; and unite them with the other tribes again. Fight for them, and help them to fight against their enemies.

9The tribe of Levi did what you told them to do and obeyed the agreement that you made with the Israeli people; those laws were more important to them [HYP] than their siblings and parents and children.

Read all of Deuteronomy 33

Cross References

Exodus 17:7Moses/I gave that place two names in the Hebrew language: Massah, which means ‘testing’, and Meribah, which means ‘complaining’. He/I gave it the name Massah because the Israeli people were testing Yahweh, saying “Is Yahweh really among us and able to help us, or not?”, and he/I gave it the name Meribah because they were continually complaining.

Exodus 28:36“ Tell them to make a tiny ornament of pure gold, and tell a ◄skilled workman/gem-cutter► to engrave on it the words, ‘Dedicated to Yahweh.’

Leviticus 21:7You priests must not marry women who have been prostitutes or who have been divorced from their husbands, because you priests are ◄set apart for me/holy►.

Numbers 20:13Later this place was called Meribah, which means ‘arguing’, because there the Israeli people argued with Yahweh, and there he showed his power to them by giving them water.

Numbers 35:8The Israeli tribes that have the most people must give them more cities than the tribes that have fewer people give. Each tribe must give some of its cities to the descendants of Levi, but the tribes that have more land must give more cities, and the tribes that have less land will give fewer cities.”

Deuteronomy 8:16Do not forget that in that desert he gave your ancestors manna to eat, food that they had never eaten before. He caused them to have/experience many problems/difficulties, because he wanted them to realize that they needed to trust him and not themselves. And he wanted to test them, to find out whether they intended to obey him, in order that when those difficulties ended, he would do many good things for them.

Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 33:7-8

6 Let Reuben live, and not die; and let not his men be few. 7 And this is the blessing of Judah: and he said, Hear, Lord , the voice of Judah, and bring him unto his people: let his hands be sufficient for him; and be thou a help to him from his enemies. Here is, I. The blessing of Reuben. Though Reuben had lost the honour of his birthright, yet Moses begins with him; for we should not insult over those that are disgraced, nor desire to perpetuate marks of infamy upon any, though ever so justly fastened at first,… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

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