LEVI, the third Son of Jacob and Leah, Gen. xxix. 34.was born in Mesopotamia, in the Year of the World 2248, before J. C. 1752. before the Vulgar Æra 1756. After Sichem, the Son of Hamor had violated Dinah, Jacob’s Daughter, and Sister by the same Mother to Levi and Simeon; these two Brethren fraudently engaged Sichem to receive Circumcision, and upon the third Day when the Pain was greatest, they entred the Town of Gen. xxxiv. 25, 26.Sichem, and slew all the Males, retook their Sister Dinah, and pillaged the Place1. This Action was very displeasing to their Father Jacob, who said to them; ye have troubled me and rendred me odious to the Canaanites; we are few in Number, they will fall upon me, and destroy me and my Family. Simeon and Levi replied, Should they have thus abused our Sister? After this Levi went down into Egypt with his Father, having already had three Sons2 Gershom, Kohath, and Merari. When Jacob saw that he was near his End, he sent for his Sons with a Design Gen. xlvi. 11.of blessing them3; and said to Simeon and Levi: Ye are Brethren, and too much united to do Mischief; ye are the Instruments of an unjust War. God forbid that I should be a Partaker in their evil Designs, and that my Honour should be concerned in their Combinations; for in their Fury they killed a Man, and in their Resentment they pierced a Wall. Cursed be their Anger for it was fierce, and their Wrath for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.
Accordingly Levi was scattered over all Israel, having no Share in the Division of the Land of Canaan; but only some Cities which were assigned him in the Portion of the other Tribes. Nevertheless he was not the worse provided for, since God having chosen the Tribe of Levi for the Service of his Temple, and Exercise of the Priesthood, he bestowed many great Privileges on it, which set it far above the other Tribes, both in Dignity, and with a Respect to the Advantages of Life; for all the Tithes, First-Fruits, and Offerings, which were presented at the Temple, and several Parts of all the Victims which were offered to the Lord, belonged to them.
The Testament of the twelve Patriarchs, an ancient, but Apocryphal Book informs us, that Levi was transported as far as the seventh Heaven, where he had many Revelations; among the rest, that the Priesthood should be settled in his Family, and that the Saviour of the World should be born of his Tribe, and that of Judah. It is in Reality the Opinion of many of the Ancients, that the blessed Virgin was of the two Tribes of Levi and Judah; of Judah by her Father, and of Levi by her Mother. This Book farther adds, that the Sons of Levi should crucify the Saviour of Mankind; that the Angel of the Lord ingaged Levi to massacre the Sichemites; that in a Vision which he had at Bethel, the Angel put the sacerdotal Robes on him, and anointed him Priest. After this they revealed to him the coming of the Messiah, the eternal Priest. When he was drawing towards his End, he declared to his Sons all the Evil which they should bring upon the Person of the Messiah; and the Calamities which would attend them, as a Punishment of their Sins. He foretold, that the Veil of the Temple should be rent, in Order to discover their Iniquities. He said that when he was eight and twenty Years of Age, he married a Woman whose Name was Milcah: She was the Mother of Gershom, Kohath and Merari, and of a Daughter named Jochabed, who was born to him in Egypt. Gershom was the Father of Libni and Shimei. The Sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Merari begot Mahli and Mushi. Amram the Son of Kohath merried Jochabed his Aunt, who was born the same Day as he was. Jochabed was the Mother of Aaron, Moses and Miriam. He concluded with foretelling the Sin they should commit in putting to Death the Messiah, the Destruction of their Temple, and their Captivity. Levi, as this Book says, died in Egypt, at an Hundred and Thirty Seven Years of Age; and his Sons, at their Return into the Land of Canaan, buried him in the Cave of Hebron.
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