The twelve tribes of Israel

The Tribe of Levi

Son of Jacob by Leah · Name means Joined (Leah said, now will my husband be joined unto me) · Settled no land of its own; forty-eight cities scattered among all the tribes

Levi was the third son of Jacob by Leah, and his tribe was set apart to serve God as priests. Though Jacob cursed Levi's violence with the same scattering he laid on Simeon, that scattering was turned into blessing: the Levites received no single territory but were dispersed through all Israel to teach the law and minister at the altar. From Levi came Moses, Aaron, and the whole priesthood, a tribe that pointed forward to Christ, our great High Priest.

Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.Genesis 49:5 (KJV)

Levi the man, and the sin at Shechem

Levi was Leah's third son, named when she said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me. His name means joined. Like his brother Simeon, Levi's early life is marked by one dark deed: together they avenged their sister Dinah by deceiving and slaughtering the men of Shechem, an act of cruelty their father Jacob condemned and never forgot.

For that violence, Jacob's blessing over Levi was a word of judgment, the same as over Simeon: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. Levi, too, would have no unbroken homeland; his descendants would be scattered among all the tribes. Yet the story of Levi is the great proof in Scripture that a curse in the hands of God can be turned into the highest of blessings.

The scattering turned to blessing

The turning came at Sinai. When Israel worshiped the golden calf, Moses stood in the gate and cried, Who is on the LORD's side? and the sons of Levi gathered to him. Their old fierce zeal, once spent in vengeance at Shechem, was now given wholly to God, and Moses said they had consecrated themselves that day. From then on the tribe of Levi was set apart for the service of the LORD.

So Levi was indeed scattered through all Israel, exactly as Jacob had foretold, but now as a blessing. The Levites received no territory of their own; instead they were given forty-eight cities dispersed among the other tribes, so that in every region there would be those who taught the law and led in worship. The LORD himself was their inheritance, as Moses said: the priesthood of the LORD is their inheritance. The scattering became a sending.

The priestly tribe

From Levi came the whole ministry of Israel. Moses, who led the people out of Egypt, and Aaron, the first high priest, and Miriam the prophetess were all of the tribe of Levi. Aaron's line served as priests at the altar, offering the sacrifices; the rest of the Levites carried and cared for the tabernacle, guarded its holy things, sang in the temple, and taught the people the law of God.

Because the Levites were consumed with the service of God, they were not counted among the twelve tribes when the land was divided, and this is one key to the puzzle of how the twelve are numbered. Levi is set apart, outside the count of land, and the number twelve is kept whole because Joseph's portion is given to his two sons. The tribe with no earthly inheritance held instead the highest calling, to stand between God and the people.

The Levites also lived by the offerings of their brethren, receiving the tithes that Israel brought to the LORD, so that as they served the sanctuary the whole nation supported them. In this the tribe pictured a great truth: that those set apart wholly for God would be provided for by God, through the giving of his people. Great was the zeal of the Levites for the honor of the LORD, and one of them, Phinehas the grandson of Aaron, in a moment of holy jealousy turned away God's wrath from Israel and was granted a covenant of an everlasting priesthood.

Levi in God's plan: pointing to the High Priest

The tribe of Levi exists to point beyond itself. Its whole life of altar and sacrifice, of blood and incense and the mercy seat, was a long rehearsal, teaching Israel that a holy God can be approached only through a mediator and an offering. Every Levite priest who ever served was a shadow of the one who was to come.

The letter to the Hebrews draws the line to its end. It is evident, it says, that our Lord sprang out of Juda, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. The Levitical priesthood could not make anything perfect, for those priests died and their sacrifices had to be endlessly repeated. But Jesus, who arose from the tribe of Judah rather than Levi, is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, who offered himself once for all and ever lives to make intercession.

So the tribe with no land of its own points to the deepest treasure of all. Levi's inheritance was the LORD himself, and in that it is a picture of every believer, for the New Testament says that all who belong to Christ are made a royal priesthood, a holy nation, called to offer spiritual sacrifices and to draw near to God through the one Mediator. Levi's ministry was true and holy, and it was always meant to hand us over to Christ, the great High Priest who needs no successor.

A note on counting the twelve: Jacob had twelve sons, but the tribes are reckoned in more than one way in Scripture. The tribe of Levi was set apart for the priesthood and received no territory of its own, and Joseph, given the double portion of the firstborn, was counted as two tribes through his sons Ephraim and Manasseh. So when the land was divided the tribes still numbered twelve, with Levi outside the count. Different lists in the Bible reflect this: the blessing of Moses in Deuteronomy leaves out Simeon, and the sealed tribes in Revelation 7 omit Dan and Ephraim while naming Levi, Joseph, and Manasseh. The number twelve is preserved as a sign of the whole people of God.

Related: The Tribe of Simeon · The Tribe of Judah · Aaron in the Bible · Moses in the Bible · All twelve tribes