Offerings of Wagons and Oxen for the Transport of the Tabernacle. The offerings here mentioned are represented as having been made immediately after the erection of the Tabernacle (1), so that the date implied is a month earlier than that of ch. 1, though the census there described is here presupposed (2). The wagons were to be used only for the conveyance of the hangings and woodwork of the Tabernacle. The Ark, as being more sacred, could only be borne by the Kohathites upon their shoulders. The idea that this, with the other contents of the Tabernacle, was too holy to be transported in wagons, and might be carried only on the shoulders of consecrated Levites, seems to have really been a post-Mosaic development. Even in David's time the Ark was conveyed in a cart (2 Samuel 6:3); but the death that befell Uzzah (2 Samuel 6:6 f.) tended to augment feelings of awe in respect of it, which led to other arrangements (cf. 2 Samuel 6:13; 2 Samuel 15:24).
Numbers 7:1-9
1 And it came to pass on the day that Moses had fully set up the tabernacle, and had anointed it, and sanctified it, and all the instruments thereof, both the altar and all the vessels thereof, and had anointed them, and sanctified them;
2 That the princes of Israel, heads of the house of their fathers, who were the princes of the tribes, and were over them that were numbered, offered:
3 And they brought their offering before the LORD, six covered wagons, and twelve oxen; a wagon for two of the princes, and for each one an ox: and they brought them before the tabernacle.
4 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
5 Take it of them, that they may be to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; and thou shalt give them unto the Levites, to every man according to his service.
6 And Moses took the wagons and the oxen, and gave them unto the Levites.
7 Two wagons and four oxen he gave unto the sons of Gershon, according to their service:
8 And four wagons and eight oxen he gave unto the sons of Merari, according unto their service, under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.
9 But unto the sons of Kohath he gave none: because the service of the sanctuary belonging unto them was that they should bear upon their shoulders.