"5 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 6 “Take the Levites from among the people of Israel and cleanse them. 7 Thus you shall do to them to cleanse them: sprinkle the water of purification upon them, and let them go with a razor over all their body, and wash their clothes and cleanse themselves. 8 Then let them take a bull from the herd and its grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil, and you shall take another bull from the herd for a sin offering. 9 And you shall bring the Levites before the tent of meeting and assemble the whole congregation of the people of Israel. 10 When you bring the Levites before the Lord, the people of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites, 11 and Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord as a wave offering from the people of Israel, that they may do the service of the Lord. 12 Then the Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, and you shall offer the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering to the Lord to make atonement for the Levites. 13 And you shall set the Levites before Aaron and his sons, and shall offer them as a wave offering to the Lord.
14 “Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the people of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine. 15 And after that the Levites shall go in to serve at the tent of meeting, when you have cleansed them and offered them as a wave offering. 16 For they are wholly given to me from among the people of Israel. Instead of all who open the womb, the firstborn of all the people of Israel, I have taken them for myself. 17 For all the firstborn among the people of Israel are mine, both of man and of beast. On the day that I struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I consecrated them for myself, 18 and I have taken the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the people of Israel. 19 And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the people of Israel, to do the service for the people of Israel at the tent of meeting and to make atonement for the people of Israel, that there may be no plague among the people of Israel when the people of Israel come near the sanctuary.”
20 Thus did Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the people of Israel to the Levites. According to all that the Lord commanded Moses concerning the Levites, the people of Israel did to them. 21 And the Levites purified themselves from sin and washed their clothes, and Aaron offered them as a wave offering before the Lord, and Aaron made atonement for them to cleanse them. 22 And after that the Levites went in to do their service in the tent of meeting before Aaron and his sons; as the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so they did to them."
Numbers 8:5-22
The regulations for the Levites are less stringent than for those of the priests: this is not to 'play down' their office, but rather to distinguish them from the priesthood. The sprinkling is with 'water of purifying' (7) or 'water of expiation' (RSV), which Delitzsch takes as referring to 'the water in the laver of the sanctuary, which was provided for the purpose of cleansing of the priests for the performance of their duties (Exodus 30:18ff)'. Thus cleansed, they were des- ignated as the offering of the whole people (9,10) by the symbolic ritual of the laying on of hands upon them. This offering was to be made by Aaron (1.1 although in 13 it seems to be Moses who offers them; but all this may mean is that Moses received the command to do so, while Aaron acted as his executive). Calvin suggests that Aaron's involvement in the dedica- tion rather than Moses was designed to prevent the 'danger of their being puffed up with pride against all others', and to remind them (the Levites) that their degree of honour was not similar to or the same as that of the priests. By whomsoever the offering was made, however, it completed the symbolic act of the laying on of hands (10) and signified 'the transfer to the Levites of the obligation resting upon the whole nation to serve the Lord in the persons of its firstborn sons, and present them to the Lord as representatives of the firstborn of Israel, to serve Him as living sacrifices' (Delitzsch). The Levites in turn were to complete the transfer of themselves to the Lord with a sin offering and a burnt offering, laying their hands on the ani- mals in the same way as hands were laid on them by the Israelites.