And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai ,.... At the same time he gave the order, and made the declaration before mentioned, and in the place where now the children of Israel were, and from whence they shortly removed: saying ; as follows. read more
Number the children of Levi ,.... Who were left out of the general muster of the children of Israel, but now were to be numbered alone, and in a different manner, and for, a different purpose, the Lord having a special regard auto, them, and special service for them: after the house of their fathers, by their families ; into which the tribe was divided; house seems to be put for "houses", which were principal ones; and these were divided into families, which branched from them, and... read more
And Moses numbered them according to the word of the Lord ,.... Took the account of all of a month old in the several houses and families of the tribe of Levi; though Moses is only here mentioned, yet it seems from Numbers 3:39 ; that Aaron was concerned with him in it; yea, in an after numbering of the Levites who were fit for business from thirty to fifty years of age, the chief of the children of Israel were assisting to him and Aaron, Numbers 4:46 , as he commanded ; he was... read more
And these were the sons of Levi, by their names ,.... The immediate offspring and descendants of that patriarch: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari ; these went down with him into Egypt, Genesis 46:11 . read more
And these are the names of the sons of Gershon, by their families ,.... Or to Gershon belonged two families, called after the names of his sons, who were now numbered, namely: Libni and Shimei ; and who are elsewhere mentioned as his sons, Exodus 6:17 ; and from hence were the families of the Libnites and Shimites, as in Numbers 3:21 . read more
A month old and upward - The males of all the other tribes were numbered, from twenty years and upward; had the Levites been numbered in this way, they would not have been nearly equal in number to the firstborn of the twelve tribes. Add to this, that as there must have been first-born of all ages in the other tribes, it was necessary that the Levites, who were to be their substitutes, should be also of all ages; and it appears to have been on this ground, at least partly, that the Levites... read more
Moses numbered them - Though Moses and Aaron conjointly numbered the twelve tribes, yet Moses alone numbered the Levites; "for as the money with which the first-born of Israel, who exceeded the number of Levites, were redeemed, was to be paid to Aaron and his sons, Numbers 3:48 , it was decent that he, whose advantage it was that the number of the first-born of Israel should exceed, should not be authorized to take that number himself." - Dodd, from Bishop Kidder. read more
Verse 15 15.Number the children of Levi after the house of their fathers The enumeration of the tribe now follows, commencing with the three sons of Levi, Kohath, Gershon, and Merari, from whom many families afterwards descended. It must, however, be observed, that all were numbered down to the youngest infants, whereas of the rest of the people only those who had passed their twentieth year were taken into account; whence it appeared that this was the smallest tribe; but by causing the infants... read more
Verse 17 17.And these were the sons of Levi by their names Hence it appears that the tribe of Levi, like the others, had made an astonishing progress from a small and contemptible beginning; for whereas he himself had only begotten three sons, Gershon and Merari only two each, and Kohath four; who would have expected such an increase, that twelve men in so short a time should have grown into so many thousands? But thus powerfully does God work under the semblance of weakness, that thus His... read more
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 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... read more