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Home » Bible Encyclopedias » Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature » Letter L

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Levite

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(בֶןאּלֵוַי , son of Levi, or simply לֵוי, Levi, for לֵוַיַּי, Deuteronomy 12:18; Judges 17:9; Judges 17:11; Judges 18:3; usually in the plur. and with the art.

הִלְוַיַּים; Sept. Λευῖται ), a patronymic title which, besides denoting all the descendants of the tribe of Levi (Exodus 6:25, Leviticus 25:32, etc.; Numbers 35:2; Joshua 21:3; Joshua 21:41), is the distinctive title of that portion of it which was set apart for the subordinate offices of the sanctuary, to assist the other and smaller portion of their own tribe, invested with the superior functions of the hierarchy (1 Kings 8:4; Ezra 2:70. John 1:19, etc.), and this is the meaning which has perpetuated itself. Sometimes, again, it is added as an epithet of the smaller portion of the tribe, and we read of "the priests the Levites" (Joshua 3:3; Ezekiel 44:15). (See PRIEST). In describing the institution and development of the Levitical order, we shall treat of it in chronological order, availing ourselves of the best systematizations hitherto produced.

I. From the Exode till the Monarchy. — This is the most interesting and important period in the history of the Levitical order, and in describing it we must first of all trace the cause which called it into existence.

1. Origin and Institution of the Levitical Order. The absence of all reference to the consecrated character of the Levites in the book of Genesis is noticeable enough. The prophecy ascribed to Jacob (Genesis 49:5-7) was indeed fulfilled with singular precision, but the terms of the prophecy are hardly such as would have been framed by a later writer, after the tribe had gained its subsequent pre-eminence. The only occasion on which the patriarch of the tribe appears the massacre of the Shechemites — may indeed have contributed to influence the history of his descendants, by fostering in them the same fierce, wild zeal against all that threatened to violate the purity of their race, but generally what strikes us is the absence of all recognition of the later character. In the genealogy of Genesis 46:11, in like manner, the list does not go lower down than the three sons of Levi, and they are given in the order of their birth, not in that which would have corresponded to the official superiority of the Kohathites. There are no signs, again, that the tribe of Levi had any special pre- eminence over the others during the Egyptian bondage. As tracing its descent from Leah, it would take its place among the six chief tribes sprung from the wives of Jacob, and share with them a recognized superiority over those that bore the names of the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah. Within the tribe itself there are some slight tokens that the Kohathites were gaining the first place. The classification of Exodus 6:16-25 gives to that section of the tribe four clans or houses, while those of Gershon and Merari have but two each.

To it belonged the house of Amram, and "Aaron the Levite" (Exodus 4:14) is spoken of as one to whom the people would be sure to listen. He married the daughter of the chief of the tribe of Judah (Exodus 6:23). The work accomplished by him, an by his yet greater brother, would naturally tend to give prominence to the family and the tribe to which they belonged, but as yet there are no traces of a caste-character, no signs of any intention to establish a hereditary priesthood. Up to this time the Israelites had worshipped the God of their fathers after their fathers' manner. The first-born of the people were the priests of the people. The eldest son of each house inherited the priestly office. His youth made him, in his father's lifetime, the representative of the purity which was connected from the beginning with the thought of worship (Ewald, Alterthü m. p. 273. and comp. PRIEST). It was apparently with this as their ancestral worship that the Israelites came up out of Egypt. The "young men" of the sons of Israel offer sacrifices (Exodus 24:5). They, we may infer, are the priests who remain with the people while Moses ascends the heights of Sinai (Exodus 19:22-24). They represented the truth that the whole people were "a kingdom of priests" (Exodus 19:6). Neither they, nor the "officers and judges" appointed to assist Moses in administering justice (Exodus 18:25), are connected in any special manner with the tribe of Levi. The first step towards a change was made in the institution of a hereditary priesthood in the family of Aaron during the first withdrawal of Moses to the solitude of Sinai (Exodus 28:1).

This, however, was one thing; it was quite another to set apart a whole tribe of Israel as a priestly caste. The directions given for the construction of the tabernacle imply no pre-eminence of the Levites. The chief workers in it are from the tribes of Judah and Dan (Exodus 31:2-6). The next extension of the idea of the priesthood grew out of the terrible crisis of Exodus 32. If the Levites had been sharers in the sin of the golden calf, they were, at ally rate, the foremost to rally round their leader when he called on them to help him in stemming the progress of the evil. Then came that terrible consecration of themselves, when every man was against his son and against his brother, and the offering with which they filled their hands (מַלְאוּ יֶדְכֶם, Exodus 32:29; comp. Exodus 28:41) was the blood of their nearest of kin. ‘ The tribe stood forth separate and apart, recognizing even in this stern work the spiritual as higher than the natural, and therefore counted worthy to be the representative of the ideal life of the people, "an Israel within an Israel" (Ewald, Alterthü m. p. 279), chosen in its higher representatives to offer incense and burnt-sacrifice before the Lord (Deuteronomy 33:9-10), not without a share in the glory of the Urim and Thummim that were worn by the prince and chieftain of the tribe. From this time, accordingly, they occupied a distinct position. Experience had shown how easily the people might fall back into idolatry — how necessary it was that there should be a body of men, an order, numerically large, and, when the people were in their promised home, equally diffused throughout the country, as attestators and guardians of the truth. Without this the individualism of the older worship would have been fruitful in an ever-multiplying idolatry. The tribe of Levi was therefore to take the place of that earlier priesthood of the first-born as representatives of the holiness of the people.

The tabernacle, with its extensive and regular sacrificial service, which required a special priestly order regularly to perform the higher functions of the sanctuary, was the special occasion which also called into being the Levitical staff to aid the priests in their arduous task, inasmuch as the primitive and patriarchal mode of worship which obtained till the erection of the tabernacle, and according to which the first-born of all Israelites performed the priestly offices (comp. Exodus 24:5 with Exodus 19:24, and see FIRST-BORN), could not be perpetuated under the newly-organized congregational service without interfering with the domestic relations of the people. It was for this reason, as well as to secure greater efficiency in the sacred offices, that the religious primogeniture was conferred upon the tribe of Levi, which were henceforth to give their undivided attention to the requirements of the sanctuary (Numbers 3:11-13). The tribe of Levi were selected because they had manifested a very extraordinary zeal for the glory of God (Exodus 32:26, etc.), had already obtained a part of this religious primogeniture by the institution of the hereditary priesthood in the family of Aaron (Exodus 28:1), and because, as the tribe to which Moses and Aaron belonged, they would most, naturally support and promote the institutions of the lawgiver.

To effect this transfer of office, the first-born males of all the other tribes and all the Levites were ordered to be numbered, from the age of one month and upwards; and when it was found that the former were 22,273, and the latter 22,000 (see below), it was arranged that 22,000 of the first-born should be replaced by the 22,000 Levites, that the 273 first-born who were in excess of the Levites should be redeemed at the rate of five shekels each, being the legal sum for the redemption of the first-born child (Numbers 18:16), and that the 1365 shekels be given to Aaron and his sons as a compensation for the odd persons who, as first-born, belonged to Jehovah. As to the difficulty how to decide which of the first-born should be redeemed by paying this money, and which should be exchanged for the Levites, since it was natural for every one to wish to escape this expense, the Midrash (On Numbers 3:17) and the Talmud relate that "Moses wrote on 22,000 tickets Levite (לוי בן ), and on 273 Five Shekels (המש שקלים ), mixed them all up, put them into a vessel, and then bid every Israelite to draw one. He who took out one with Levite on it was redeemed by a Levite, and he who drew one with Five Shekels on it had to be redeemed by payment of this sum" (Sanhedrin, 17, a). There is no reason to doubt this ancient tradition. It was further ordained that the cattle which the Levites then happened to possess should be considered as equivalent to all the first-born cattle which all the Israelites had, without their being numbered and exchanged one for one, as in the case of the human beings (Numbers 3:41-51), so that the firstlings should not now be given to the priest, or be redeemed, which the Israelites were hereafter required to do (Numbers 18:15). In this way the Levites obtained a sacrificial as well as a priestly character. They for the first-born of men, and their cattle for the firstlings of beasts, fulfilled the idea that had been asserted at the time of the destruction of the first-born of Egypt (Exodus 13:12-13).

There is a discrepancy between the total number of the Levites, which is given in Numbers 3:39 as 22,000, and the separate number of the three divisions which is given in Numbers 3:22; Numbers 3:28; Numbers 3:34, as follows: Gershonites, 7500 + Kohathites, 8600 + Mierarites, 6200 22,300. Compare also Numbers 3:46, where it is said that the 22,273 first-born exceeded the total number of Levites by 273. The Talmud (Bechoroth, 5, a) and the Jewish commentators, who are followed by most Christian expositors, submit that the 300 surplus Levites were the first-born of this tribe, who, as such, could not be substituted for the first-born of the other tribes, and therefore were omitted from the total. To this, however, it is objected that if such an exemption of first-born had been intended, the text would have contained some intimation of it, whereas there is nothing whatever in the context to indicate it. Houbigant therefore suggests that a ל has dropped out of the word שלש in Numbers 3:28, making it שש, and that by retaining the former word we obtain 8300 instead of 8600, which removes all the difficulty. Philippson, Keil, and others adopt this explanation. The number of the first-born appears disproportionately small as compared with the population. It must be remembered, however, that the conditions to be fulfilled were that they should be at once (1) the first child of the father, (2) the first child of the mother, and (3) males. (Compare on this question, and on that of the difference of numbers, Kurtz, History of the Old Covenant, 3:201.)

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2. Division of the Tribe of Levi. — As different functions were assigned to the separate houses of the Levitical branch of the tribe, to which frequent references are made, we subjoin the following table from Exodus 6:16-25, italicizing the Aaronic or priestly branch in order to facilitate these references.

N.B. — Those mentioned in the above list are by no means the only descendants of Levi in their respective generations, as is evident from the fact that, though no sons of Libni, Shimei, Hebron, etc., are here given, yet mention is made in Numbers 3:21, of the fanily of the Libuites and the family of the Shimeites;" in Numbers 26:28, of "the family of the Libnites;" and in Numbers 3:27; Numbers 26:58, of "the family of the Hebronites;" whilst in 1 Chronicles 23, several sons of these men are mentioned by name. Again, no sons of Mahali and Mushi are given, and yet they appear in Numbers 3 as fathers of families of the Levites. The design of the genealogy in question is simply to give the pedigrees of Moses and Aaron, and some other principal heads of the family of Levi, as is expressly stated in Exodus 6:25 : "These are the heads of the fathers of the Levites according to their families." In these heads all the other members of their families were included, according to the principle laid down in 1 Chronicles 23:11 : "Therefore they were in one reckoning, according to their father's house." Some names are also mentioned for a special purpose, e.g. the sons of Izhar, on account of Korah, who was the leader of the rebellion against Moses. These observations afford an answer to a considerable extent to the conclusions of bishop Colenso upon the number of the Levites (The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua critically examined) 1:107-112).

It will thus be seen that the Levitical order comprises the whole of the descendants of Gershon and Merari, and those of Kohath through Izhar and Uzziel, as well as through Amram's second son, Moses; whilst Aaron, Amram's first son, and his issue, constitute the priestly order. It must here be remarked that, though Kohath is the second in point of age and order, yet his family will be found to occupy the first position, because they are the nearest of kin to the priests.

3. Age and Qualifications for Levitical Service. — The only qualification for active service specified in the Mosaic law is mature age, which in Numbers 4:3; Numbers 4:23; Numbers 4:30; Numbers 4:39; Numbers 4:43; Numbers 4:47 is said to be from thirty to fifty, whilst in Numbers 8:24-25 it is said to commence at twenty-five. Various attempts have been made to reconcile these two apparently contradictory injunctions. The Talmud (Chol. 24, a), Rashi (Comment. ad loc.), and Maimonides (Jod Ha-Chezakel, 3:7, 3), who are followed by some Christian commentators, affirm that from twenty-five to thirty the Levites attended in order to be instructed in their duties, but did not enter upon actual duties until they were full thirty years of age. But this explanation, as Abrabanel rightly remarks, "is at variance with the plain declaration of the text, that the Levites were called at twenty-five years of age to wait upon the service of the tabernacle, which clearly denotes not instruction for their ministry, but the ministry itself" (Commentar. on Numbers 8:24). Besides, the text itself does not give the slightest intimation that any period of the Levitical life was devoted to instruction. Hence Rashbam, AbenEzra, and Abrabanel. who are followed by most modern expositors, submit that the twenty-five years of age refers to the Levites' entering upon the lighter part of their service, such as keeping watch and performing the lighter duties in the tabernacle, whilst the thirty years of age refers to their entering upon the more onerous duties, such as carrying heavy weights, when the tabernacle was moved about from place to place, which required the full strength of a man, maintaining that this distinction is indicated in the text by the words ולמשא לעבור, for labor and burdens, when the thirty years' work is spoken of (Numbers 4:30-31), and by the omission of the word משא, burden, when the twenty-five years' work is spoken of (Numbers 8:24, etc.). But it may fairly be questioned whether man is more fitted for arduous work from thirty to thirty-five than from twenty- five to thirty. Besides, the Gershonites and the Merarites, who had the charge of the heavier burdens, did not carry them at all (comp. Numbers 7:3-9, and sec. 4 below). According to another ancient Jewish interpretation adopted by Bahr (Symbol. 2:41) and others, Numbers 4 treats of the necessary age of the Levites for the immediate requirements in the wilderness, whilst Numbers 8 gives their age for the promised land, when they shall be divided among the tribes and a larger number shall be wanted (Siphri on Numbers 8). Somewhat similar is Philippson's explanation, who affirms that at the first election of the Levitical order the required age for service was from thirty to fifty, but that all future Levites had to commence service at twenty-five. The Sept. solves the difficulty by uniformly reading twenty-five instead of thirty.

4. Duties and Classification of the Levites. — The commencement of the march from Sinai gave a prominence to their new character. As the tabernacle was the sign of the presence among the people of their unseen King, so the Levites were, among the other tribes of Israel, as the royal guard that waited exclusively on him. The warlike title of "host" is specially applied to them (comp. use of צָבָא, in Numbers 4:3; Numbers 4:30; and of מחֲנֶה , in 1 Chronicles 1:19). As such they were not included in the number of the armies of Israel (Numbers 1:47; Numbers 2:33; Numbers 26:62), but were reckoned separately by themselves. When the people were at rest they encamped as guardians around the sacred tent; no one else might come near it under pain of death (Numbers 1:51; Numbers 18:22). The different families pitched their tents around it, in the following manner: the Gershonites behind it on the west (Numbers 3:23), the Kohathites on the south (Numbers 3:29), the Merarites on the north (Numbers 3:35), and the priests on the east (Numbers 3:38). (See CAMP).

They were to occupy a middle position in that ascending scale of consecration which, starting from the idea of the wshole nation as a priestly people, reached its culminating point in the high-priest, who alone of all the people might enter "within the veil." The Levites might come nearer than the other tribes, but they might not sacrifice, nor burn incense, nor see the "holy things" of the sanctuary till they were covered (Numbers 4:15). When on the march no hands but theirs might strike the tent at the commencement of the day's journey, or carry the parts of its structure during it, or pitch the tent again when they halted (Numbers 1:51). It was obviously essential for such a work that there should be a fixed assignment of duties, and now, accordingly, we meet with the first outlines of the organization which afterwards became permanent. The division of the tribe into the three sections that traced their descent from the sons of Levi formed the groundwork of it. The Levites were given as a gift (נתינים , Nethinim) to Aaron and his sons, the priests, to wait upon them, and to do the subordinate work for them at the service of the sanctuary (Numbers 8:19; Numbers 17:2-6). They had also to guard the tabernacle and take charge of certain vessels, whilst the priests had to watch the altars and the interior of the sanctuary (1:50-53; 8:19; 18:1-7). To carry this out effectually, the charge of certain vessels ande portions of the tabernacle, as well as the guarding of its several sides, was assigned to each of the three sections into which the tribe was divided by their respective descent from the three sons of Levi. i.e. Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, as follows:

(1.) The Kohathites, who out of 8600 persons yielded 2750 qualified for active service according to the prescribed age, and who were under the leadership of Elizaphan, had to occupy the south side of the tabernacle, and, as the family to whom Aaron the high-priest and his sons belonged, had to take charge of the holy things (משמרת הקדש ), viz., the ark, the table of shew-bread, the candlestick, the two altars of incense and burnt- offering, as well as of the sacred vessels used at the service of these holy things, and the curtains of the holy of holies. All these things they had to carry on their own shoulders when the camp was broken up (Numbers 3:27-32; Numbers 4:5-15; Numbers 7:9; Deuteronomy 31:25), after the priests had covered them with the dark blue cloth which was to hide them from all profane gaze; and thus they became also the guardians of all the sacred treasures which the people had so freely offered. Eleazar, the head of the priests, who belonged to the Kohathites, and was the chief commander of the three Levitical divisions, had the charge of the oil for the candlestick, the incense, the daily meat-offering, and the anointing oil (Numbers 3:32; Numbers 4:16).

(2.) The Gershonites, who out of 7500 men yielded 2630 for active service, and who were under the leadership of Eliasaph, had to occupy the west side of the tabernacle, and to take charge of the tapestry of the tabernacle, all its curtains, hangings, and coverings, the pillars of the tapestry hangings, the implements used in connection therewith, and to perform all the work connected with the taking down and putting up of the articles over which they had the charge (Numbers 3:21-26; Numbers 4:22-28).

(3.) The Merarites, who out of 6200 yielded 3200 active men. and who were under the leadership of Zuriel, had to occupy the north side of the tabernacle, and take charge of the boards, bars, pillars, sockets, tent-pins, etc. (Numbers 3:33-37; Numbers 4:39-40). The two latter companies, however, were allowed to use the six covered wagons and the twelve oxen which were offered as an oblation to Jehovah; the Gershonites, having the less heavy portion, got two of the wagons and four of the oxen; whilst the Merarites, who had the heavier portions, got four of the wagons and eight of the oxen (Numbers 7:3-9).

Thus the total number of active men which the three divisions of the Levites yielded was 8580. When encamped around the tabernacle, they formed, as it were, a partition between the people and the sanctuary; they had so to guard it that the children of Israel should not come near it, since those who ventured to do so incurred the penalty of death (Numbers 1:51; Numbers 3:38; Numbers 18:22); nor were they themselves allowed to come near the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, lest they die, as well as the priests (Numbers 18:3-6). Israelites of any other tribe were strictly forbidden to perform the Levitical office, in order "that there might be no plague when the children of Israel approach the sanctuary" (Numbers 3:10; Numbers 8:19; Numbers 18:5); and, according to the ancient Hebrew canons, even a priest was not allowed to do the work assigned to the Levites, nor was one Levite permitted to perform the duties which were incumbent upon his fellow Levite under penalty of death (Maimonides, Hilchoth Kele Ha- Mikdash, 3:10).

The book of Deuteronomy is interesting as indicating more clearly than had been done before the other functions, over and above their ministrations in the tabernacle, which were to be allotted to the tribe of Levi. Through the whole land they were to take the place of the old household priests (subject, of course, to the special rights of the Aaronic priesthood), sharing in all festivals and rejoicings (Deuteronomy 12:19; Deuteronomy 14:26-27; Deuteronomy 26:11). Every third year they were to have an additional share in the produce of the land (Deuteronomy 14:28; Deuteronomy 26:12). The people were charged never to forsake them. To "the priests the Levites" was to belong the office of preserving, transcribing, and interpreting the law (Deuteronomy 17:9-12; Deuteronomy 31:26). They were solemnly to read it every seventh year at the Feast of Tabernacles (Deuteronomy 31:9-13). They were to pronounce the curses from Mount Ebal (Deuteronomy 27:14).

Such, if one may so speak, was the ideal of the religious organization which was present to the mind of the lawgiver. Details were left to be developed as the altered circumstances of the people might require. The great principle was, that the warrior-caste who had guarded the tent of the captain of the hosts of Israel should be throughout the land as witnesses that the people still owed allegiance to him. It deserves notice that, as yet, with the exception of the few passages that refer to the priests, no traces appear of their character as a learned caste, and of the work which afterwards belonged to them as hymn-writers and musicians. The hymns of this period were probably occasional, not recurring (comp. Exodus 15; Numbers 21:17; Deuteronomy 32). Women bore a large share in singing them (Exodus 15:20; Psalms 68:25). It is not unlikely that the wives sand daughters of the Levites, who must have been with them in all their encampments, as afterwards in their cities, took the foremost part among the "damsels playing with their timbrels," or among the "wise- hearted," who wove hangings for the decoration of the tabernacle. There are, at any rate, signs of their presence there in the mention of the "women that assembled" at its door (Exodus 38:8, and comp. Ewald, Alterthü m. p. 297).

5. Consecrations of the Levites. — The first act in the consecration of the Levites was to sprinkle them with the water of purifying (מי חטאת ), which, according to tradition, was the same used for the purification of persons who became defiled by dead bodies, and in which were mingled cedar-wood, hyssop, scarlet, and ashes of the red heifer (Numbers 19:6; Numbers 19:9; Numbers 19:13), and was designed to cleanse them from the same defilement (comp. Rasli, On Numbers 8:7). They had, in the next place, as an emblem of further purification, to shave off all the hair from their body, "to teach thereby," as Ralbag says, "that they must renounce, as much as was in their power, all worldly things, and devote themselves to the service of the most high God," and then wash their garments. After this triple form of purification, they were brought before the door of the tabernacle, along with two bullocks and fine flour mingled with oil, when the whole congregation, through the elders who represented them, laid their hands upon the heads of the Levites, and set them apart for the service of the sanctuary, to occupy the place of the first-born of the whole congregation; whereupon the priests waved them before the Lord (Numbers 8:5-14), which in all probability was done, as Abrabanel says, by leading them forward and backward, up and down, as if saying, Behold, these are henceforth the servants of the Lord. instead of the firstborn of the children of Israel.

The part which the whole congregation tool in this consecration is a very important feature in the Hebrew constitution, inasmuch as it most distinctly shows that the Levitical order proceeded from the midst of the people (Exodus 28:1), was to be regarded as essentially identical with it, and not as a sacred caste standing in proud eminence above the rest of the nation. This principle of equality, which, according to the Mosaic law, was not to be infringed by the introduction of a priesthood or monarchy (Deuteronomy 17:14-20), was recognized throughout the existence of the Hebrew commonwealth, as is evident from the fact that the representatives of the people took part in the coronation of kings and the installment of highpriests (1 Kings 2:35; with 1 Chronicles 29:32), and even in the days of the Maccabees we see that it is the people who installed Simon as high-priest (1 Maccabees 14:35).

6. Revenues of the Levites. — Thus consecrated to the service of the Lord, it was necessary that the tribe of Levi should be relieved from the temporal pursuits of the rest of the people, to enable them to give themselves wholly to their spiritual functions, and to the cultivation of the arts and sciences, as well as to preserve them from contracting a desire to amass earthly possessions. For this reason they were to have no territorial possessions, but Jehovah was to be their inheritance (Numbers 18:20; Numbers 26:62; Deuteronomy 10:9; Deuteronomy 18:1-2; Joshua 18:7). To reward their labor, which they had henceforth to perform instead of the first-born of the whole people, as well as to compensate the loss of their share in the material wealth of the nation, it was ordained that they should receive from the other tribes the tithes of the produce of the land, from which the non- priestly portion of the Levites in their turn had to offer a tithe to the priests as a recognition of their higher consecration (Numbers 18:21-24; Numbers 18:26-32; Nehemiah 10:37). If they had had, like other tribes, a distinct territory assigned to them, their influence over the people at large would be diminished, and they themselves would be likely to forget, in labors common to them with others, their own peculiar calling (Nehemiah 10:37). As if to provide for the contingency of failing crops or the like, and the consequent inadequacy of the tithes thus assigned to them, the Levite, not less than the widow and the orphan, was commended to the special kindness of the people (Deuteronomy 12:19; Deuteronomy 14:27; Deuteronomy 14:29).

But, though they were to have no territorial possessions, still they required a place of abode. To secure this, and at the same time to enable the Levites to disseminate a knowledge of the law and exercise a refined and intellectual influence among the people at large, upon whose conscientious payment of the tithes they were dependent for subsistence, forty-eight cities were assigned to them, six of which were to be cities of refuge for those who had inadvertently killed any one (Numbers 35:1-8). From these forty-eight cities, which they obtained immediately after the conquest of Canaan, and which were made up by taking four cities from the district of every tribe, thirteen were allotted to the priestly portion of the Levitical tribe. Which cities belonged to the priestly portion of the tribe, and which to the non-priestly portion, and how they were distributed among the other tribes, as recorded in Joshua 21, will be seen from the following table:

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Bibliography Information
McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'Levite'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​tce/​l/levite.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
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