Numbers 4:18

Num 4:18 Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites:

Ver. 18. Cut ye not off,] i.e., Cause them not, by your default, to be cut off. Heed must be taken, that we neither give offence carelessly, nor take offence causelessly.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Num 4:18-19. Cut not off — Do not by your neglect, provoke God to cut them off for touching the holy things. Every one to his service — To that which is peculiarly allotted to him, the services and burdens being equally distributed among them.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Committing by your negligence that the holy things be not well wrapped, and so they by touching thereof perish.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(18) Cut ye not off the tribe . . . —The word shebet (tribe) is here used in a very peculiar sense, and denotes one division only of the tribe of Levi. In this and the following verses the injunction already given (Num_5:15) is renewed, and Moses and Aaron are charged not to be guilty of such negligence in respect of it as might expose the Kohathites to death in consequence of their unlawful treatment of the holy things. Moses and Aaron might be said to do that which would be the result of their negligence. In like manner St. Paul enjoins the Roman Christians in these words: “Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died” (Rom_14:15).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered,.... They were not to be present while they were packing up, test they should see any of them with their eyes; they were not to go in until they were quite covered out of sight; which may signify the hiding of the mysteries of grace in those things under the former dispensation, when even the Levites themselves were not admitted to a sight of them; see Eph 3:4,

lest they die; by the immediate hand of God.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

i.e. Do not by your neglect provoke God to cut them off for touching the holy things.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Cut ye not off… the Kohathites — Hebrews, Cause ye not to cut off, etc. This admonition signifies that the priests charged with the duty of enveloping the sacred furniture should not be the occasion of the death of any Levite through their inattention to the commandment to cover the holy things from the sight or touch of the bearers. If it is objected that it is unreasonable to suppose that the just God would cut off one through another’s carelessness in handling sacred things, we would call attention to that very constitution and course of nature in which we daily move. We are every day exposed to sudden death through the absent-mindedness of the apothecary, the thoughtlessness of the switch-tender, the sleepiness of the engineer, or the unskilfulness of the pilot. God does not miraculously interpose to prevent the evil results of inadvertence in dealing with physical forces. We should expect the same to be true when we enter the realm of spiritual powers. The death-stroke that flashed from the Shekinah upon some curious Levite who approached unwarned the uncovered ark of the covenant might have been as natural as the death-shock from an accidental contact with an unguarded electrical battery. For aught that we know it would require a miracle to prevent a fatal result of carelessness in the first case as much as in the second. What a lesson is here taught to all Christians, especially to all ministers of the Gospel, not to withhold from the wicked the proclamation of the terrors of the Lord God, who is a consuming fire. “Those who do not what they can to keep others from sin, do what they can to cut them off.” This remark of the sententious Henry is based on the word of God. Pro_24:11-12; Eze_33:6.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites. The word tribe (shebet) is used in an unusual way here, not in the sense of tribus, but of stirps. Perhaps as Levi was himself a microcosm of all Israel, so his families ranked as tribes; and no doubt they remained more distinct than the families of any other tribe. The meaning of the command is plainly this, "Take care that the Kohathites are not cut off through any negligence or want of consideration on your part; and the form of the command, "cut ye not off," conveyed most emphatically the warning, that if any mischief befell the Kohathites which the priests could have prevented, they would be responsible for it in the sight of God. No doubt, as a fact, the Kohathites would take their cue from the conduct of the priests: if they were irreverent and careless, the Levites would be the same, and would sooner or later presume, and, presuming, would die.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Cut not off - Do not by your neglect provoke God to cut them off for touching the holy things.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

אל תכריתו CUT YE NOT OFF [THE TRIBE OF THE FAMILIES OF THE KOHATHITES] — Do not bring it about for them that they shall die.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.