Matthew Henry on Numbers 4:1-20
We have here a second muster of the tribe of Levi. As that tribe was taken out of all Israel to be God's peculiar, so the middle-aged men of that tribe were taken from among the rest to be actually employed in the service of the tabernacle. Now observe,
I. Who were to be taken into this number. All the males from thirty years old to fifty. Of the other tribes, those that were numbered to go forth to war were from twenty years old and upward, but of the Levites only from thirty to fifty; for the service of God requires the best of our strength, and the prime of our time, which cannot be better spent than to the honour of him who is the first and best. And a man may make a good soldier much so…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Numbers 4:17
Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites, &c.--a solemn admonition to Moses and Aaron to beware, lest, by any negligence on their part, disorder and improprieties should creep in, and to take the greatest care that all the parts of this important service be apportioned to the proper parties, lest the Kohathites should be disqualified for their high and honorable duties. The guilt of their death would be incurred by the superintending priest, if he failed to give proper directions or allowed any irreverent familiarity with sacred things.
John Gill on Numbers 4:17
And the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron,.... And gave them a very solemn and awful charge about this affair of the Kohathites, it being a very hazardous one they were employed in:
saying; as follows.
John Calvin on Numbers 4:4–end
Numbers 4:4-20, 24-28, 31-33
4. This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation, about the most holy things:
4. Istud erit opus filiorum Cehath in tabernaculo conventionis Sancti sanctorum.
5. And when the camp setteth forward, Aaron shall come, and his sons, and they shall take down the covering vail, and cover the ark of testimony with it:
5. Veniet autem Aharon et filii ejus quando transferenda erunt castra, et deponent velum tentorii, et operient illo arcata testimonii.
6. And shall put thereon the covering of badgers' skins, and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of blue, and shall put in the staves thereof.
6. Potentque super illam operimen…
