Bible Strands
1 Chronicles 23:3
The Levites thirty years of age or older were counted, and the total number of men was 38,000.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — David has gathered Israel's leaders, priests, and Levites to reorganize temple duties, and this verse records the official headcount of eligible Levite workers.
The words — The verb וַיִּסָּפְרוּ (va-yissāp̄ərû) means "they were counted," applied to הַלְוִיִּם (ha-ləwîṯîm) "the Levites" who are מִבֶּן שְׁלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה וָמַעְלָה (mi-ben šəlōšîm šānâ wāmāʿălâ) "from a son of thirty years and upward."
The thread — This roster mirrors the family-by-family registration of Levitical descendants in 1 Chronicles 23:24 and follows the administrative census pattern established in Numbers 4:2.
Why it lands — The text states a fixed age minimum and exact headcount to structure temple labor, requiring the reader to apply deliberate organization to communal service rather than relying on spontaneous participation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand.
Cross-references
- 1 Chronicles 23:24 These were the descendants of Levi by their families—the heads of families, registered individually by name—those twenty years of age or older who worked in the service of the house of the LORD.
- Numbers 4:2 “Take a census of the Kohathites among the Levites by their clans and families,