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 consoleJohn Gill on Numbers 4:3
From thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old,.... This is the full time of the Levites service, and the prime season of man's life for business; at thirty years of age he is at his full strength, and when fifty it begins to decline: it is said in the Misnah (x),"a son of thirty years for strength,''upon which one of the commentators (y) makes this remark, that the Levites set up the tabernacle and took it down, and loaded the wagons, and carried on their shoulders from thirty years and upwards: thus both John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, and Christ himself, entered into their ministry at this age:
all that enter into the host; army or warfare; for though the Levites…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Numbers 4:1-3
Numbers 4:1-3, 21-23, 29, 30, 34-49
1. And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,
1. Loquutus est Jehova ad Mosen et Aharon, dicendo:
2. Take the sum of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, after their families, by the house of their fathers,
2. Tolle summam filiorum Cehath e medio filiorum Levi, per familias suas, per domos patrum suorum.
3. From thirty years old and upward, even until fifty years old, all that enter into the host, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation.
3. Ab eo qui natus est triginta annos et supra, usque ad eum qui natus est quinquaginta annos, quotquot ingrediuntur congregationem, ut faciant opus in tabernaculo conventionis.
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