Whosoever cometh any thing near unto the tabernacle of the LORD shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?
Cometh any thing near - i:e., nearer than he ought to do; an error into which many may fall. Will the stern justice of God overtake every slight offence? We shall all be destroyed. Some, however, regard this exclamation as the symptom of a new discontent, rather than the indication of a reverential and submissive spirit. Let us fear and sin not. Between the end of this chapter and the beginning of Numbers 20:1-29 there is a protracted interval of 37 years. Nothing is known of the intervening period beyond a bare record of encampments (Numbers 33:1-56); for although it is said (Psalms 95:1-11) that for forty years the Israelites had grieved the Lord, the spirit of inspiration has blotted out all memorial of their provocations. In the altered circumstances of the people, the covenant being suspended in the wilderness, a new generation grew up who knew nothing of the Mosaic legislation at Sinai. Hence, a recapitulation of the most important statutes and requirements for the maintenance of divine service became necessary, and is contained in the following chapters, for regulating the conduct, not of Aaron and his sons only, but of the Levites in future generations.