Bible Strands
Numbers 26:62
The registration of the Levites totaled 23,000, every male a month old or more; they were not numbered among the other Israelites, because no inheritance was given to them among the Israelites.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses and Eleazar record a second census on the plains of Moab before the Israelites cross the Jordan. The text specifies that the Levite count is separated from the tribal inheritance distribution that follows.
The words — פְּקֻדֵיהֶם (pequdehem) translates as their enrolled or registered men, indicating an official tally. אֶלֶף (elef) denotes the thousand-unit measure, combining with twenty and three to yield the precise total.
The thread — This exclusion mirrors Numbers 1:49, which commands the Levites be omitted from the main census, and matches the identical figure in Numbers 3:39. The administrative boundary between Levite service and land possession is formalized in Numbers 35:2, which assigns them cities rather than tribal territory.
Why it lands — The verse requires readers to note that Levite registration is administratively distinct because they receive no territorial inheritance. It establishes that census data directly dictates tribal allocation and clarifies that priestly service replaces land ownership as their provision.
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
And those that were numbered of them were twenty and three thousand, all males from a month old and upward: for they were not numbered among the children of Israel, because there was no inheritance given them among the children of Israel.
Cross-references
- Numbers 1:49 “Do not number the tribe of Levi in the census with the other Israelites.
- Numbers 3:39 The total number of Levites that Moses and Aaron counted by their clans at the LORD’s command, including all the males a month old or more, was 22,000.
- Numbers 35:2 “Command the Israelites to give, from the inheritance they will possess, cities for the Levites to live in and pasturelands around the cities.
- Deuteronomy 10:9 That is why Levi has no portion or inheritance among his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God promised him.
- Numbers 18:20 Then the LORD said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the Israelites.
- Deuteronomy 14:27 And do not neglect the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you.
- Deuteronomy 18:1 The Levitical priests—indeed the whole tribe of Levi—shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They are to eat the food offerings to the LORD; that is their inheritance.
- Joshua 13:14 To the tribe of Levi, however, Moses had given no inheritance. The food offerings to the LORD, the God of Israel, are their inheritance, just as He had promised them.
- Joshua 13:33 To the tribe of Levi, however, Moses had given no inheritance. The LORD, the God of Israel, is their inheritance, just as He had promised them.
- Joshua 14:3 For Moses had given the inheritance east of the Jordan to the other two and a half tribes. But he granted no inheritance among them to the Levites.