Numbers 3:33-37

"Of Merari was the family of the Mahlites, and the family of the Mushites: these are the families of Merari. And those that were numbered of them, according to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, were six thousand and two hundred. And the prince of the fathers' house of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail: they shall encamp on the side of the tabernacle northward. And the appointed charge of the sons of Merari shall be the boards of the tabernacle, and the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, and the sockets thereof, and all the instruments thereof, and all the service thereof, and the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords."

Thus is concluded the detailed enumeration and assignment for Merari, the third division of the Levites. It should be noted that Eleazar, son of Aaron, was appointed over the three princes of these divisions, giving him, in effect, charge of the entire tabernacle complex.

The totals of the enrollees of these divisions are 7,500 for Gershon, 8,600 for Kohath, and 6,200 for Merari, yielding a grand total of 22,300, precipitating the "tremendous problem" posed by the flat 22,000 given for this total in Numbers 3:39! Apparently, some of the commentators never heard of "round numbers." Exploring "contradictions" of this nature is certainly a picayune business! The "explanations" usually focus on the fact that the Hebrew word for "6" as given in the enumeration for Kohath might actually have been "3," due to the close similarities in the Hebrew designations for those numbers. The Jews used letters to signify numbers. The numeral six was represented by [~sh-sh], and the numeral three was represented by [~sh-l-sh]; and some scribe might easily have overlooked the [~l][14]. To us, the "round number" explanation is sufficient. The fact, however, that the round number of 22,000 was used when the total was subtracted from the total of the first-born of all Israel, means that whatever "error" existed would certainly have been in one of the totals of the three divisions. It is simply not a momentous question. Certainly, for some reason or other, the total was reduced by the sum of 300 in Numbers 3:39. Jewish expositors explain this by the proposition that certain Levites were ineligible to be counted in the trade off with the whole nation (next recorded) (several reasons for this are given), thus reducing the total to a round 22,000.