Numbers 4 Bible study: Covered, then carried

When the camp is about to move, only the priests go in first: "Aaron shall go in with his sons" (4:5), and they wrap each holy thing. "When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furniture of the sanctuary, as the camp moves forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to carry it; but they shall not touch the sanctuary, lest they die" (4:15). Then "Aaron and his sons shall go in and appoint everyone to his service and to his burden" (4:19). The Kohathites carry what they may not touch and may not see. And they are Aaron's own clan: "The sons of Kohath: Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel" (Exodus 6:18), and Amram's wife "bore him Aaron and Moses" (Exodus 6:20).

Numbers 4:20→leads toHebrews 4:16

The Kohathites carry the holy things but "shall not touch the sanctuary, lest they die" (4:15), and "they shall not go in to see the sanctuary even for a moment, lest they die" (4:20). Hebrews names the same furnishings: in the first part, "the lamp stand, the table, and the show bread" (Hebrews 9:2), and after the second veil, "a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant" (Hebrews 9:4), where "the high priest alone" went, "once in the year" (Hebrews 9:7). It says, "The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn’t yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing" (Hebrews 9:8). To people who have "a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God" (Hebrews 4:14), it says, "Let’s therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). Hebrews doesn't mention Numbers 4 or the Kohathites; setting its words beside this chapter is an interpretation.

מַשָּׂאmassa'say mas-SA

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "load, burden, lifting, bearing, tribute". Strong's: "from 5375; a burden", from the verb nasa', which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "lift, carry, take". It comes nine times in this chapter, more than in any other chapter of the Hebrew Bible. The WEB gives it as "burden": Aaron and his sons "appoint everyone to his service and to his burden" (4:19), and the Gershonites serve "in serving and in bearing burdens" (4:24). In 4:15 the verb and the noun stand together: the sons of Kohath come "to carry it" (the verb), and the verse ends, in Hebrew, these are the burden of the sons of Kohath, which the WEB gives as "The sons of Kohath shall carry these things". Its first use in the Hebrew Bible is a donkey "fallen down under his burden" (Exodus 23:5). Later in Numbers Moses uses it of his own load: "you lay the burden of all this people on me" (Numbers 11:11).