Bible Strands
Numbers 4:23
from thirty to fifty years old, counting everyone who comes to serve in the work at the Tent of Meeting.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Moses and Aaron issue a census directive to the Gershonite clans during the wilderness encampment. The command falls between the listing of the Gershonite families and the specification of their transport duties.
The words — The phrase מִבֶּן שְלֹשִׁים שָׁנָה וָמַעְלָה (mi ben shaloshim shanah va-ma'alah) literally renders "from a son of thirty years and upwards." It functions as a strict demographic filter for the census.
The thread — This age bracket matches the Kohathite census requirement in Numbers 4:3. It later shifts to a twenty-year baseline in 1 Chronicles 23:24 after the temple establishment, while 1 Chronicles 23:3 records a temporary thirty-year count during the Davidic reorganization.
Why it lands — The verse establishes a fixed administrative window for Levitical labor. Readers must note the boundary of physical service capacity without importing later cultic or theological assumptions into the census count.
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
From thirty years old and upward until fifty years old shalt thou number them; all that enter in to perform the service, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation.
Cross-references
- Numbers 4:3 men from thirty to fifty years old—everyone who is qualified to serve in the work at the Tent of Meeting.
- 1 Chronicles 23:3 The Levites thirty years of age or older were counted, and the total number of men was 38,000.
- 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.
- 1 Chronicles 23:27 For according to the final instructions of David, the Levites twenty years of age or older were counted,
- Isaiah 63:1 Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah with crimson-stained garments? Who is this robed in splendor, marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I, proclaiming vindication, mighty to save.”
- Romans 7:14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
- 1 Corinthians 9:7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not drink of its milk?
- 2 Corinthians 6:7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;
- 2 Corinthians 10:3 For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh.
- Galatians 5:17 For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want.