Deuteronomy 33 · a question people ask
"He didn’t acknowledge his brothers, nor did he know his own children" (33:9). When did Levi do that?
Moses says of Levi, "He said of his father, and of his mother, ‘I have not seen him.’ He didn’t acknowledge his brothers, nor did he know his own children; for they have observed your word, and keep your covenant" (33:9). The verse doesn't name a day. The places the blessing names are Massah and Meribah (33:8). Readers take 33:9 in two main ways, and some hold both. Both rest on the reason the verse itself gives: "for they have observed your word, and keep your covenant" (33:9).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
The golden calf
Those who hold this view read 33:9 with Exodus 32. Moses called, "Whoever is on the LORD’s side, come to me!", and "All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him" (Exodus 32:26). The word was, "every man kill his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor" (Exodus 32:27), and afterward Moses said, "every man was against his son and against his brother, that he may give you a blessing today" (Exodus 32:29). The Hebrew words for brother and son stand in both passages (the WEB has "children" in 33:9), and "a blessing" there is the same Hebrew word as "the blessing" of 33:1.
Exodus 32:26-29 · Deuteronomy 33:1
Levi's whole calling
Those who hold this view read 33:9 as what the LORD's service asked of Levi, not as one day. "Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance" (10:9), and Levi's work is to "teach Jacob your ordinances, and Israel your law" (33:10). They set beside it the law for "the high priest among his brothers" (Leviticus 21:10): he "must not go in to any dead body, or defile himself for his father or for his mother" (Leviticus 21:11).
Deuteronomy 10:9 · Deuteronomy 33:10 · Leviticus 21:10-11
The verses
“About Levi he said, “Your Thummim and your Urim are with your godly one, whom you proved at Massah, with whom you contended at the waters of Meribah. He said of his father, and of his mother, ‘I have not seen him.’ He didn’t acknowledge his brothers, nor did he know his own children; for they have observed your word, and keep your covenant.”