And thou shalt give the Levites for a gift,

and thou hast given the Levites to Aaron and to his sons; they are surely given to him out of the sons of Israel.

Give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; so that they may be his without question from among the children of Israel.

And you shall give the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons; for they have been delivered to them by the sons of Israel.

Da inquam Levitas ipsi Aharon, et filiis ejus: dati, dati namque sunt illi ex filiis Israel.

And thou shalt give the Levites unto Aaron and to his (f) sons: they [are] wholly given unto him out of the children of Israel.
(f) Aaron's sons the priests served in the sanctuary in praying for the people and offering sacrifice: the Levites served for the inferior uses of the same.

And thou shalt give the Levites unto Aaron and to his sons,.... To be their ministers and servants:
they are wholly given unto him out of the children of Israel: even all of them entirely, none excepted; the whole tribe which were not in the priestly office; those were separated from the rest of the tribes of Israel, and appointed for the service of the priests: or they were "given, given" (q); which is repeated not only to show that they were wholly given, as we render it, but to denote the certainty of it, that they were really given; and especially to declare the freeness of the gift; the priests had them as free gifts, nor did they pay them any thing for, their service; they were maintained another way, namely, by the tithes of the people; and indeed the priests received a tithe out of the tithe of the Levites; so far were they from contributing any thing to their support, or in consideration of the service they did them.
(q) "dati, dati", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Drusius.

they are wholly given unto him out of the children of Israel, &c.--The priests hold the place of God, and the Levites are the servants of God in the obedience they render to the priests.

Moses was also to give the Levites to Aaron and his sons. "They are wholly given to him out of the children of Israel:" the repetition of נתוּנם here and in Numbers 8:16 is emphatic, and expressive of complete surrender (Ewald, 313). The Levites, however, as nethunim, must be distinguished from the nethinim of non-Israelitish descent, who were given to the Levites at a later period as temple slaves, to perform the lowest duties connected with the sanctuary (see at Joshua 9:27).

Given to him - To attend upon him and observe his orders, and ease him of his burden.