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Numbers 4:34

in Numbers 4

So Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of the congregation numbered the Kohathites by their clans and families,

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And Moses and Aaron and the princes of the congregation numbered the sons of the Kohathites by their families, and by their fathers’ houses,

KJV

And Moses and Aaron and the chief of the congregation numbered the sons of the Kohathites after their families, and after the house of their fathers,

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This verse in Numbers 4

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Moses and Aaron and the chief of the congregation numbered the sons of the Kohathites, &c.--This enumeration was made on a different principle from that which is recorded in the preceding chapter [Nu 3:15]. That was confined to the males from a month old and upward, while this was extended to all capable of service in the three classes of the Levitical tribe.

This site's exposition

Moses and Aaron and the chief

on Numbers 4:34-41

Kohath yields two thousand seven hundred and fifty men of working age and Gershon two thousand six hundred and thirty. Set against Numbers 3, where the whole families from a month old came to eight thousand six hundred for Kohath and seven thousand five hundred for Gershon, about a third of each family falls inside the window from thirty to fifty. Each count closes with the same refrain, according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses, which is how the chapter says that the arrangement came from God rather than from the men carrying it out.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

And Moses and Aaron, and the chief of the congregation, numbered the sons of the Kohathites,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

It is a work that requires ripeness of judgment and great steadiness, and therefore those are very unfit for it who are but babes in knowledge and have not put away childish things.

The words behind it

11 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיִּפְקֹ֨דand he enrolled

    vaiyifkodH6485 →303 times

  • מֹשֶׁ֧הMoses

    moshehH4872 →765 times

  • וְאַהֲרֹ֛ןand Aaron

    veaharonH175 →347 times

  • וּנְשִׂיאֵ֥יand [the] leaders of

    unesieiH5387 →134 times

  • הָעֵדָ֖הthe congregation

    haedahH5712 →149 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • בְּנֵ֣י[the] descendants of

    beneiH1121 →4930 times

  • הַקְּהָתִ֑יthe Kohathite[s]

    hakehatiH6956 →15 times

  • לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֖םto clans their

    lemishpechotamH4940 →303 times

  • וּלְבֵ֥יתand to [the] house of

    uleveitH1004 →2046 times

  • אֲבֹתָֽם׃ancestors their

    ʾavotamH1 →1212 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Where this verse is studied

On this page

Studies1

About Numbers

The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Numbers: the study guide →Read Numbers 4 →

This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Numbers 4 →