Bible Strands
Numbers 4:40
And those numbered by their clans and families totaled 2,630.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the census total immediately after Moses and Aaron counted the Gershonite Levites at the LORD’s command. This enumeration follows the age restriction for men aged thirty to fifty who were assigned to work at the Tent of Meeting.
The words — פְּקֻ֣דֵי/הֶ֔ם (pe.Ku.dei./Hem) translates to "enrolled [men]/ their" and לְ/מִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֖/ם (le./mish.pe.cho.Ta/m) means "to/ clans/ their." These terms show the count was organized by family lineages rather than recorded as a single undifferentiated mass.
The thread — This clan-based accounting structure appears in the broader Levitical oversight described in Numbers 3:32 and the parallel Gershonite count in Numbers 4:41. The pattern of listing service groups by ancestral house continues the administrative framework established in Numbers 4:39.
Why it lands — The text requires a reader to observe that sacred duty is allocated through specific family lines and age qualifications. It demands recognition that administrative order precedes operational service.
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
Even those that were numbered of them, throughout their families, by the house of their fathers, were two thousand and six hundred and thirty.
Cross-references
- Numbers 3:32 The chief of the leaders of the Levites was Eleazar son of Aaron the priest; he oversaw those responsible for the duties of the sanctuary.