They shall keep your commands and the duty of the whole Tent; only they shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary and to the altar, that they not die, neither they nor you.
The Levites shall not perform priestly duties and the priests shall not perform Levitical duties
The cited verse
The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
אַךְ אֶל־כְּלֵי הַקֹּדֶשׁ וְאֶל־הַמִּזְבֵּחַ לֹא יִקְרָבוּ וְלֹא־יָמֻתוּ גַם־הֵם גַּם־אַתֶּם
In Maimonides’ words
How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.
שהזהיר הלוים מהתעסק בדבר מן העבודות המיוחדות לכהנים, והכהנים גם כן מהתעסק בדבר מהעבודות המיוחדות ללוים, וזה כי שתי אלו המשפחות לכל משפחה מהם עבודה מיוחדת לה במקדש, ובאה האזהרה ממנו לשניהם יחד שלא לעבוד אחד מהם בעבודת האחר אלא כל כת מהם במה שנצטוותה כמו שאמר איש איש אל עבודתו, והלאו שבא בהם אמרו בלוים אך אל כלי הקדש ואל המזבח לא יגשו ואחרי כן שב ודבר אל הכהנים ואמר ולא ימותו גם הם גם אתם, רוצה לומר שאתם כהם באזהרה כי כמו שהזהרתים מעשות עבודתכם והוא כלי המקדש והמזבח כן אתם מוזהרים מעשות עבודתם. ולשון ספרי אל כלי הקדש ואל המזבח לא יקרבו אזהרה עונש מנין תלמוד לומר ולא ימותו אין לי אלא ללוים שנענשים ומוזהרים על עבודת כהנים כהנים על עבודת לוים מנין תלמוד לומר גם הם, מעבודה לחברתה מנין תלמוד לומר גם אתם. וכבר בקש רבי יהושע לסייע את רבי יוחנן בהנעלת דלתות אמר לו חזור כך שאתה מתחייב בנפשך שאתה מן המשוררים ואני מן השוערים. הנה התבאר כי לוי שעבד במקדש זולת עבודתו חייב מיתה בידי שמים, וכן הכהנים לא יתעסקו בעבודת הלוים אבל אם עבדו אינם במיתה אלא במלקות. ובמכילתא אל כלי הקדש יכול אם נגעו יהיו חייבין תלמוד לומר [אך] (על עבודתו) משום עבודה הם חייבין ולא משום נגיעה אין לי אלא הלוים על ידי הכהנים כהנים על ידי הלוים מנין תלמוד לומר גם אתם. ושם אמרו הכהנים על ידי הלוים במלקות והלוים על ידי הכהנים במיתה (*עי' כס"מ הל' כלי המקדש פ"ג ה"ט ). (במדבר, קרח, הלכות כלי המקדש פ"ג):
That He prohibited the Levites from occupying themselves with any of the service that was designated for the priests; and also the priests from occupying themselves with any of the service that was designated for the Levites. And that is because there is a designated service in the Temple for each one of these families. And the prohibition to both of them comes together, not to have one of them serve with the service of the other. Rather each group [is to do] what it was commanded, as He said, "each man to his service" (Numbers 4:19). And the negative commandment that appears about them is His saying to the Levites, "but they shall not [approach] the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar" (Numbers 18:3). But afterwards, He went back and spoke to the priests and said, "that neither they, nor you, shall die" - meaning to say that you, like them, are prohibited. Since just like I prohibited them from doing your service - and that is [working with] the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar - so too are you prohibited from doing their service. And the language of the Sifrei (Sifrei Bamidbar 116:1) is, "'They shall not [approach] the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar' - that is the prohibition. From where [do we know] the punishment? 'And they shall not die.' I only [know about] the Levites, that they are punished and prohibited for [appropriating] the service of the priests. From where [do we learn the same for] priests [appropriating] the service of the Levites? [Hence] we learn to say, 'nor you.' And it once happened that Rabbi Yehoshua [b. Chananiah] sought to assist R. Yochanan [b. Godgada], when he (R. Yehoshua) said to him, 'Get back, for you are forfeiting your life! For I am of the gatekeepers and you are of the singers.'" Behold it has been made clear that a Levite who did service in the Temple besides his [own] service is liable for death at the hands of the Heavens. And likewise should the priests not occupy themselves with the service of the Levites. However if they transgressed, they are not [punished] by death, but rather by lashes. And in the Mikhilta: "'The vessels of the sanctuary' - perhaps [even] if they touched them, they would be liable. [Hence] we learn to say, ['but'] - they are [only] liable for service, they are not liable for touching. I only [know] about Levites on account of [the service of] priests. From where [do we know] priests on account of [the service of] Levites? [Hence] we learn to say, 'nor you.'" And there they said, ["Levites on account of priests is with death. But priests on account of Levites is only with a negative commandment."] (See Kessef Mishneh on Mishneh Torah, Vessels of the Sanctuary and Those who Serve Therein 3:9; Parashat Bamidbar, Korach; Mishneh Torah, Vessels of the Sanctuary and Those who Serve Therein 3.)
Hebrew: Sefer HaMitzvot, Warsaw 1883 (public domain). English: Sefaria Edition, trans. Rabbi Francis Nataf, 2021 (CC0). Via Sefaria; translator’s footnotes omitted.
Literary form: a prohibition
Applicability
How the catalog describes where and when this commandment applies. These are independent descriptions, not a verdict on which laws still count.
- Requires a standing Temple
Classical halakhic consequences
The consequences the classical halakhah attaches to this commandment, grouped by who imposes them. Where a category has none recorded, that absence is itself meaningful.
Imposed by a court
No court-imposed penalty is recorded.
At the hands of Heaven
- Death at the hands of Heaven (mitah bidei shamayim)
Ritual remedy
No ritual remedy is recorded.
How the streams of Judaism treat this commandment
The streams of Judaism read the same commandment differently — an ongoing plurality, not a ranking. Each position below is reported as the catalog records it; none is presented as the correct one.
- Orthodox Binding
- Conservative Not binding
- Reform Not binding
- Reconstructionist Not binding
- Karaite Not binding
24 of 613 commandments have been examined in depth so far — this one is queued.
How later traditions received this commandment
How later traditions read or reworked this commandment, each attributed to its own voice. The catalog’s own classification of each reception is shown as it records it, never adopted as GEBible’s.
Rabbinic aggadah
- Numbers Rabbah 18:2-21 expanded it homiletically
Philo of Alexandria
- De Specialibus Legibus 1.156 rationalized it
Josephus
- Ant. 4.67-68 paraphrased it
The New Testament
- Hebrews 7:11-14 reinterpreted it Argues the Aaronide-Levitical order is superseded by a priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, with Jesus deriving from Judah, a tribe of which 'no one ever served at the altar'.
The Church Fathers
- John Chrysostom, Homilies on Hebrews (on Heb 7) reinterpreted it
Beside the older legal codes of its world
The commandment set beside the ancient Near-Eastern legal collections scholars compare it to — a descriptive comparison, not a claim of dependence.
- hittite instructions cultic role specialization with obligations and prohibitions differentiated by personnel rank, with severe (including capital) consequences for negligence or trespass Relationship to the parallel: parallel with divergence General obligations of temple personnel differentiated by rank (the material on trespass, negligence, and access restrictions in the Instructions to Temple Personnel); cited by topic rather than a fixed paragraph number Miller, Royal Hittite Instructions and Related Administrative Texts (SBL WAW, 2013)
Where this commandment meets modern human-rights frameworks
One modern normative lens, attributed to it — not GEBible’s assessment. Each row names the framework it measures against and the catalog’s own classification of the relation.
This framework catalogues tensions; it records agreement in only one of its entries. The near-total tension rate is the shape of the instrument, not a finding.
No tension with the catalogued modern frameworks is recorded here.
The enumeration counts this as a structural duplicate of commandment #198 — Structural duplicate of #198 sharing collision_key shm:Negative 72. Independent analysis converges with Sonnet. Both #171 and #198 share: reference Numbers 18:3, SHM Negative 72, Chinuch 389, identical Hebrew operative clause (only difference is #171 retains the opening particle אַךְ), and substantively identical bilateral prohibition (Levites must not perform priestly duties and priests must not perform Levitical duties). See task #95..