Numbers 4:34-49

CENSUS OF COMPETENT LEVITES, Numbers 4:34-49.

The results of the enumeration of Levites between thirty and fifty years are here tabulated, together with the number of incompetents and the total:

COMPETENT. INCOMPETENT. TOTAL. Kohathites 2,750 5,850 8,600 Gershonites 2,630 4,870 7,500 Merarites 3,200 3,000 6,200 Total 8,580 13,720 22,300

Percent. Competent Percent. Incompetent. Kohathites 32 68 Gershonites 35 65 Merarites 52 48 The total number of competent men tallies well with the whole number of Levites. The percentage of competent Merarites is remarkable. “What an astonishing number of men, all purely ecclesiastics; all performing some service by which God is glorified, and the congregation at large benefitted!” A. Clarke. We should not regard the thirteen thousand seven hundred and twenty incompetents as entirely useless. The care of the cattle and flocks, and the transportation of the families and their tents, would afford sufficient scope for the healthful activity of both the young and the old. Superannuates in the Christian ministry often glorify their Master more by suffering his will than by doing it.

By inspecting the above table the wisdom and goodness of Jehovah are seen in adjusting the heaviest burden to the strongest shoulders. Merari, numerically the least family, has the largest number of strong men, and the severest labour.