And of Levi he said, Let your Thummim and your Urim be with your holy one, whom you did test at Massah, and with whom you did strive at the waters of Meribah;
All Commentaries on Deuteronomy 33:8 Go To Deuteronomy 33
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
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, (délous) and his truth, to the holy man, the same whom they tried at the temptation, they spoke ill of him at the waters "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, chap. iii. 26. (Haydock)
Temptation. The place which goes by this name is at Raphidim, near Horeb, Exodus xvii. 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 xx. 12.)
The priesthood is the peculiar blessing and honour of the tribe of Levi. (Menochius)
