Numbers 3:39 - meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Numbers 3:39
All that were numbered of the Levites, which Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of the LORD, throughout their families, all the males from a month old and upward, were twenty and two thousand.
hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alph… · cardinal number, both genders singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Numbers 26:62 And those that were numbered of them were twenty and three thousand, all males from a month old and upward: for they were not numbered among…
Numbers 4:47-48 From thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one that came to do the service of the ministry, and the service of the bu…
Matthew 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Numbers 3:14-39
The Levites being granted to Aaron to minister to him, they are here delivered to him by tale, that he might know what he had, and employ them accordingly. Observe,
I. By what rule they were numbered: Every male from a month old and upward, Num 3:15. The rest of the tribes were numbered only from twenty years old and upwards, and of them those only that were able to go forth to war; but into the number of the Levites they must take in both infants, and infirm; being exempted from the war, it was not insisted upon that they should be of age and strength for the wars. Though it appears afterwards that little more than a third part of the Levites were fit to be employed in the service of the ta…
twenty and two thousand--The result of this census, though made on conditions most advantageous to Levi, proved it to be by far the smallest in Israel. The separate numbers stated in Num 3:22, Num 3:28, Num 3:34, when added together, amount to twenty-two thousand three hundred. The omission of the three hundred is variously accounted for--by some, because they might be first-born who were already devoted to God and could not be counted as substitutes; and by others, because in Scripture style, the sum is reckoned in round numbers. The most probable conjecture is, that as Hebrew letters are employed for figures, one letter was, in the course of transcription, taken for another of like form bu…
All that were numbered of the Levites, which Moses and Aaron,
numbered at the commandment of the Lord, throughout their families,.... Whence it appears, that Moses was not alone, but Aaron with him, in numbering the Levites, and that by the appointment of the Lord. The word "Aaron", in the Hebrew text, has a dot on every letter, for what reason it is not certain; the word itself is left out in the Samaritan and Syriac versions:
all the males, from a month old and upward, were twenty and two thousand; 22,000 men; but by putting the sums together they amount to three hundred more; for of the Gershonites there were 7,500, and of the Kohathites 8,600, and of the Merarites 6,200, in all 22,300;…
The Church Fathers
It is the book of Numbers that is read to us, in which there are many differences of numbers, which are recorded concerning the sons of Israel. But after the sons of Israel, the Levites too are numbered separately. For they had not been counted along with the sons of Israel, and they have a certain number set apart and distinguished above the rest, by which they are all together reported to be found twenty-two thousand, so that neither anything more nor less than this was found in the number. After this the Lord commanded that the firstborn of the sons of Israel also be numbered in the same order in which the Levites had been numbered, that is, from one month and upward, and the firstborn of the sons of Israel are found to be twenty-two thousand and two hundred and seventy-three. Do you suppose that through these things Moses wished to teach us only the bare history of number, and enclosed no mystery, according to his customary manner, in these varieties of numbers? Will there seem to be no reason in the fact that two hundred and seventy-three are said to abound so much among the firstborn of Israel, while among the Levites it is recorded that toward the twenty-two thousand nothing abounds nor is anything lacking? The number twenty-two, indeed, in the divine Scriptures, if anyone observes, he will frequently find to be assigned to certain principal causes. For they hand down that among the Hebrews the first elements of letters are twenty-two. Again, from Adam, the first-formed, down to Jacob, from whose seed the twelve tribes take their beginning, the fathers are numbered to have been twenty-two. They hand down also that the kinds of all God's creatures are gathered within the number twenty-two. But many other things too in the Scriptures, if anyone should pursue them more diligently, he will find consecrated under this number. For this reason, therefore, both the Levites, that is, those who serve God, and the firstborn of the sons of Israel are titled with this admirable and sacred number. But that among the sons of Israel two hundred and seventy-three are added seems to me neither idle, nor do I discern an easy way of solution, unless the Lord should deign to open and take away for us that veil placed upon these letters by Moses. Therefore the generation of the human race in the flesh, as those assert who are skilled in such matters, is indeed contained…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Gershon — =Ger’shom expulsion, the eldest of Levi’s three sons (Gen. 46:11; Ex. 6:16). In the wilderness the sons of Gershon had charge of the fabrics of the tabernacle when it was moved from place to place,…
Levites, The · Numbered separately after the people from a month old — Numbered separately after the people from a month old
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Numbers 3:5-10
5. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
5. Loquutus est autem Jehova ad Mosen, dicendo:
6. Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister unto him.
6. Appropinquare fac tribum Levi, et siste eam coram Aharone sacerdote, ut ministret ei.
7. And they shall keep his charge, and the charge of the whole congregation before the tabernacle of the congregation, to do the service of the tabernacle.
7. Et custodiant custodiam ejus, et custodiam universi coatus coram tabernaculo conventionis, ut exequantur cultum tabernaculi.
8. And they shall keep all the instruments of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the charge of the ch…
Moses and Aaron, with the sons of the latter (the priests), were to encamp in front, before the tabernacle, viz., on the eastern side, "as keepers of the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of Israel," i.e., to attend to everything that was binding upon the children of Israel in relation to the care of the sanctuary, as no stranger was allowed to approach it on pain of death (see Num 1:51).
Num 3:39
The number of the Levites mustered, 22,000, does not agree with the numbers assigned to the three families, as 7500 + 8600 + 6200 = 22,300. But the total is correct; for, according to Num 3:46, the number of the first-born, 22,273, exceeded the total number of the Levites by 27…
22,000: The numbers listed for each clan (3:22, 28, 34) add up to 22,300. See study note on 3:28.
Rashi on Numbers 3:39
אשר פקד משה ואהרן [ALL THAT WERE NUMBERED OF THE LEVITES] WHOM MOSES AND AARON NUMBERED — There are dots on the word Aaron to indicate that he was not among the number of the Levites (Bekhorot 4a; Sifrei Bamidbar 69:2 on Numbers 9:10).
שנים ועשרים אלף [ALL THE MALES FROM A MONTH OLD AND UPWARDS WERE] TWENTY AND TWO THOUSAND — But in the enumeration of them given above you will find three hundred more — the sons of Gershon 7500 (v. 22). the sons of Kohath 8600 (v. 28), the sons of Merari 6200 (v. 34), making 22,300! Why, then, did Scripture not include them in the sum total together with the others, when they, too, might have redeemed the firstborn of the Israelites (i.e., when each of the 3…
