And of Levi. — Next to Joseph, this tribe has the largest share in Moses’ last words, as we might naturally expect, it being his own tribe. The character of the priest is the principal subject. The blessing may be thus paraphrased: “Let thy Thummim and thy Urim (the chief high-priestly ornaments) be ever with some saintly man of thine, like him whom thou (Israel) didst tempt in Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah (Moses’ own departed brother Aaron is alluded to, for the people murmured against them both in both places), like him (Eleazar or Phinehas) who said to his father and to his mother, ‘I have not seen him,’ &c. These are the priests that shall teach Jacob thy judgments and Israel thy law.” The conduct of the tribe of Levi at Sinai is alluded to, when they stood by Moses and slew the idolaters. Who headed them on that occasion we are not told. Eleazar or Phinehas may be intended. The conduct of Phinehas (in Numbers 25) is also a case in point. As Rashi observes, “his father and his mother, his brethren and children” cannot be taken literally, because the tribe of Levi on the whole was faithful. The fathers, mothers, brethren, and children chiefly belonged to the other tribes.
Let thy Thummim and thy Urim. — See Exodus 28:30. “Thy Thummim and thy Urim” may refer to Israel, or to Levi, or to Jehovah Himself. In the last case, He must be thought to have tried Levi at Massah, and striven with Moses and Aaron at the waters of Meribah. It is not at all easy to distribute the pronouns with certainty in this speech.
If the writer of Deuteronomy was unconscious of any difference between priest and Levite, how is the mention of Urim and Thummim to be explained?