וְהִקְרַבְתָּ֙ אֶת־הַלְוִיִּ֔ם לִפְנֵ֖י אֹ֣הֶל מוֹעֵ֑ד וְהִ֨קְהַלְתָּ֔ אֶֽת־כׇּל־עֲדַ֖ת בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ וְהִקְרַבְתָּ֥ אֶת־הַלְוִיִּ֖ם לִפְנֵ֣י יְהֹוָ֑ה וְסָמְכ֧וּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל אֶת־יְדֵיהֶ֖ם עַל־הַלְוִיִּֽם׃
You shall bring the Levites forward before the Tent of Meeting. Assemble the whole Israelite community,* and bring the Levites forward before GOD. Let the Israelites lay their hands upon the Levites,…
*whole Israelite community Or the leadership, on the community’s behalf.
(The above rendering and its footnote come from the RJPS translation, an adaptation of the NJPS translation.)
On the expression כׇּל־עֲדַת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל and its use as a metonym, see the section “Gender and Figurative Language” in this introduction, pp. 3–4; and see my comment to Exod 12:3, where the term כׇּל־עֲדַת יִשְׂרָאֵל is similarly employed.
Various commentators have noted a referential anomaly here: There is not enough physical space for “the whole Israelite community” to assemble where more than 8,000 Levites (as per Num 4:48) are already standing, nor for “the Israelites” as a body to be able to lay hands upon them. This is the hallmark of metonymy: the point is that a subgroup is representing the full group. Who are those representatives? Ibn Ezra says: the firstborn males for whom the Levites are being substituted (8:16–18). Jacob Milgrom, citing the commentary Sefer ha-Mivḥar (by the Karaite Aaron b. Joseph, ca. 1300), says: the elders. The text itself wants us to know only that they are acting on behalf of “the whole Israelite community.”
So also in the fulfillment notice in verse 20, below.