Numbers 8:14
Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel: and the Levites shall be mine.
Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel,.... By sprinkling the water of purification upon them; by offering sacrifices for them; by presenting them before the Lord, with the hands of the people of Israel put upon them; by offering and waving them before the Lord, and by setting them before Aaron and his sons, as their ministers:
and the Levites shall be mine: in a special and peculiar manner devoted to his service, and by him given to his priests for that purpose; so the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan,
"and the Levites shall minister before me.''