Numbers 4:3 - Exposition

From thirty years old and upward. The age at which they became liable for service was shortly after reduced to twenty-five ( Numbers 8:24 ), and at a later period to twenty ( 1 Chronicles 23:27 ). In the wilderness a larger number of the men might be required to attend to their own camps, and their own families; but the explanation may probably be found in the unusually large proportion who were at this time between the ages of thirty and fifty. The Septuagint has altered thirty into twenty-five to make it agree with Numbers 8:24 . Thirty years became among the Jews the perfect age at which a man attained to full maturity, and entered upon all his fights and duties (cf. Luke 3:23 ). Into the host. Not the military ranks, but the militia sacra of the Lord. To do the work. Literally, "to war the warfare."