And of Levi he said, “Give to Levi your Thummim, and your Urim to your godly one, whom you tested at Massah, with whom you quarreled at the waters of Meribah;
8 And of Levi he said. This qualification, or modification of the harsher sentence of Jacob was introduced not only for the sake of the tribe of Levi, but rather of the whole people. Jacob had said, “Simeon and Levi are brethren: instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, my tongue, A.V., “Mine honour.” See C.
In blessing the tribe of Levi, Moses expresses himself more at large, not so much because it was his own tribe (for he takes no notice of his relation to it) as because it was God's tribe. The blessing of Levi has reference. I.
Commenting on Deuteronomy 33:8-11
Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him,.... Which some understand of the high priests who were of this tribe, and according to the law were not to defile themselves, or mourn for a father or mother, Lev 21:11; or rather, as others, of their having no respect to them in judgment, but determining all causes that came before...