Bible Strands
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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrative records Moses and Aaron conducting a census of the Levite clans at the LORD’s command, positioned between the camp layout instructions for the sanctuary and the subsequent command to count Israel’s firstborn males.
The words — The terms פְּקוּדֵ֨י (pe.ku.dei) and פָּקַ֨ד (pa.kad) both denote official enrollment or counting, highlighting the administrative precision of the census.
The thread — This inventory of 22,000 males is later recorded as 23,000 in Numbers 26:62, while Numbers 4:47 restricts active tabernacle service to males aged thirty to fifty.
Why it lands — The text establishes a commanded, exact count of Levite males to delineate their specific sanctuary duties from the rest of the population.
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
All that were numbered of the Levites, which Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of the Lord, throughout their families, all the males from a month old and upward, were twenty and two thousand.
Cross-references
- 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.
- Numbers 4:47 from thirty to fifty years old who came to do the work of serving and carrying the Tent of Meeting.
- Matthew 7:14 But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.