When thinking through the covenants in the Bible, I don’t often think of Phinehas, to whom was given “a covenant of peace and a perpetual priesthood” in Numbers 25:12–13. In what follows, I try to explain how this passage from Numbers combines with Deuteronomy 33 to (1) form a Levi-focused bookend around the Pentateuch and (2) highlight the Torah-teaching role the Levitical priesthood was intended to have.

Numbers 25:12–13

“Look, I give to [Phinehas] my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his seed after him a covenant of a perpetual priesthood because he was zealous for his God and atoned for the people of Israel” (Num 25:12–13).

Numbers 25 speaks of “my covenant of peace … a covenant of an eternal priesthood” (בְּרִיתִי שָׁלוֹם … בְּרִית כְּהֻנַּת עוֹלָם) for Phinehas, who is a Levite. I find this particularly striking because I’ve been thinking a lot about the major poems of the Pentateuch. Phinehas is a Levite, and the final, major poem (Deut 33) focuses on Levi, too.

Deuteronomy 33

In comparison with the other major poems, focusing on Levi is unique to Deuteronomy 33. The Phinehas story and Deuteronomy 33 put Levi-focused bookends around the last section of the Pentateuch, as delineated by the major poems:

• Genesis 1–48
  
  • Poem 1: Genesis 49
• Genesis 50–Exodus 14
  
  • Poem 2: Exodus 15
• Exodus 16–Numbers 22
  
  • Poem 3: Numbers 23–24
• Numbers 25 (Levi bookend #1)–Deuteronomy 31
  
  • Poem 4: Deuteronomy 32–33 (Levi bookend #2)¹
    

Deuteronomy 33:10 speaks of Levi as one who “will teach Jacob your rules and Israel your law,” and this is significant because the poem started with five verses that highlighted the important role of law-giving in Israel’s past. I read the first five verses of the poem to say that, at Sinai, Yahweh’s kingship was mediated through Moses’s provision of the Torah:

Yahweh came from Sinai and dawned upon us from Seir … Moses commanded us a Torah, property of the assembly of Jacob. And he became king in Jeshurun (Deut 33:1–5).

I like to read the he of “he became king” as referring to Yahweh’s kingship mediated through Moses’s law-giving. “In the days to come” (Deut 31:29), then, it’s Levi that should become the mediator of Yahweh’s reign in Israel, carrying forward the Torah-teaching torch after Moses’s death.

Conclusion

A focus on Levi bookends the final section of the Pentateuch (Num 25–Deut 34). How will Yahweh renew creation through Abraham’s family? Part of the Pentateuch’s answer is Levi, not just Joseph and Judah on which Genesis 49 focuses. Levi has a special relationship (covenant) with Yahweh. Through their priestly service and Torah teaching, Levi mediates Yahweh’s kingship to his people. They teach the Torah as they carry out the sacrifice rituals, proclaiming in an embodied way Israel’s theology of atonement and peace from the decreative consequences of sin.

1. Deuteronomy 34 would be considered an epilogue. According to Sailhamer, each poem has a concluding epilogue (The Meaning of the Pentateuch). I haven’t taken the time to look up the references and fill that out in this outline because it isn’t important to the point of the post regarding Phinehas and Levi. ↩