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In Leviticus 21:1, God instructs Moses to give only the priesthood a specific set of commands:

And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them...

However, at the end of the chapter in verse 24, we find out that Moses didn't fully obey this:

And Moses told it to Aaron and his sons, and to all the children of Israel.

Why did Moses add unto God's words by telling the entire nation of Israel priest-only commands? Was this disobedience?

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    How else might these regulations be recorded?
    – Dottard
    Oct 9, 2021 at 3:39
  • Didn't Moses write these commands down himself, since the Torah is typically ascribed to Moses?
    – Philip
    Oct 9, 2021 at 6:53
  • Yes - Moses wrote them. But what is your point? Moses recorded all the regulations in the Torah so that all may know who was governed by what regulations. Just as in modern law; some laws apply to judges, some applies to leaders, some applies to company directors, and some applies to ordinary citizens.
    – Dottard
    Oct 9, 2021 at 7:57

2 Answers 2

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Leviticus 21:

1 And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them...

The Lord didn't command Moses NOT to speak to all the children of Israel about this. The Lord didn't say: Speak ONLY to the priests.

24 And Moses told it to Aaron and his sons, and to all the children of Israel.

Why did Moses add unto God's words by telling the entire nation of Israel priest-only commands?

Because God didn't forbid him to do it. The commands that directly affected the priest indirectly affected the general population as well. They were written for the records so that everyone knew what was going on.

Was this disobedience?

No.

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  • Makes sense. But isn't doing something God didn't tell you to do also disobedience? Or is that an incorrect assumption/train of thought?
    – Philip
    Oct 11, 2021 at 3:25
  • I follow my conscience of peace guided by the indwelling spirit. Read the Bible every day and pray.
    – user35953
    Oct 11, 2021 at 13:30
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In Lev. 21:

  1. nowhere does God prohibit Moses from telling the people of Israel.

  2. For some of the regulations, such as not touching a dead body, people who weren't priests would need to take care of situations in which the priests could not without becoming unclean.

  3. No where in the Torah does God show any expectation to keep any part of it secret. Quite the opposite. In fact, a common then in the Torah is God making himself known.

And he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Be it as you say, so that you may know that there is no one like the LORD our God. (Exodus 8:10, ESV)

ידע (know) is used 174 times in 164 verses of the Torah. (searching the lemma in a morph. search in Logos Bible Software)

57 times in 52 verses of Genesis

45 times in 43 verses of Exodus.

9 times in 9 verses of Lev.

17 times in 17 verses of Num.

46 time in 43 verses of Deut.

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2
  • Makes sense. But isn't doing something God didn't tell you to do also disobedience? Or is that an incorrect assumption/train of thought?
    – Philip
    Oct 11, 2021 at 3:25
  • If God neither told you to do or not to do something, how can you not do both?
    – Perry Webb
    Oct 11, 2021 at 8:56

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