10:8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi13 to carry the ark of the Lord’s covenant, to stand before the Lord to serve him, and to formulate blessings14 in his name, as they do to this very day.
snTheLordset apart the tribe of Levi. This was not the initial commissioning of the tribe of Levi to this ministry (cf. Num 3:11–13; 8:12–26), but with Aaron’s death it seemed appropriate to Moses to reiterate Levi’s responsibilities. There is no reference in the Book of Numbers to this having been done, but the account of Eleazar’s succession to the priesthood there (Num 20:25–28) would provide a setting for this to have occurred.
14
snTo formulate blessings. The most famous example of this is the priestly “blessing formula” of Num 6:24–26.