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Numbers 1 - 4

Numbers
NumbersSteve Gregg

Steve Gregg provides a detailed exploration of Chapter 1 of the book of Numbers, highlighting the significance of the census conducted by Aaron to number the armies. Gregg delves into the various names mentioned in the scripture, their tribal affiliations, and the unique roles they played within the community. He also discusses the location of camps and the responsibilities of the Levites in maintaining the tabernacle and transporting its sacred items. Throughout the discussion, Gregg raises thought-provoking questions and acknowledges the uncertainties surrounding certain aspects of the text.

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Transcript

Chapter 1, Book of Numbers We'll begin now with Chapter 1 of the Book of Numbers. And we have before us in the first four chapters especially, but even some of the later chapters, a lot of, we might say, tedious detail. And some of it is very repetitious, certainly very symmetrical.
A lot of cases we're going to deal with each of the twelve tribes of Israel separately and give almost identical information about them, so that you come to the same kind of phrases and the same statements like twelve times in a row. That's what makes it seem tedious at times. So I will tell you that there will be points at which I feel it most judicious to summarize rather than to read every word.
Because some of these chapters are also very long. They're made long by having that much repetition. And so we won't necessarily burden ourselves with every word in those, especially those repetitious sections.
At the beginning of Numbers it says, Now the Lord spake to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male individually from twenty years old and above, all who are able to go to war in Israel. You and Aaron shall number them by their armies. And with you there shall be a man from every tribe, each one the head of his father's house.
Now, it says that these instructions for the census were given on the first day of the second month of their second year out of Egypt. So they've celebrated their first year gone from Egypt. They haven't really celebrated it.
They're going to do that later on when they celebrate the Passover.
I mean, we're going to read about it later on. They actually celebrated the Passover before verse one, but it's not recorded until you get to chapter nine.
They actually keep their first memorial Passover after the first Passover. And that, as we see in chapter nine, verse one, is the first month of the second year. Of course, because the Passover is kept on the 14th day of the first month.
So chapter nine actually occurs, the story recorded in chapter nine actually occurs before verse one of chapter one does. So we're not going to be entirely in chronological order here. We're going to focus first on the census.
And it says all the men who are 20 years old and over who are able to go to war. This is a decision, a tally being made of what size of an army Israel can field in a battle. And of course, when they come up with their number, it's a very large army.
And he says for taking this census, there'd be one man from each tribe that would be appointed to help Moses gather the information. Moses is not going to go out and knock on doors and take the census himself. He's got one person for each tribe overseeing probably a team of census takers.
And it says in verse five, these are the names of the men who shall stand with you from Reuben Eliezer, the son of Shadur, from Simeon Shalumiel, the son of Jerushadai, from Judah Nashan, the son of Amidad, from Isishar Naphaniel, the son of Zuar, from Zebulun Eliab, the son of Helan, from the sons of Joseph, from Ephraim Elishamah, the son of Ammihud, from Manasseh Gamaliel, the son of Perazur, from Benjamin Abedan, the son of Gideon, from Dan Ahizur, the son of Amishadai, from Asher Pagiel, the son of Okron, from Gad Elazephath, the son of Dual, from Naphtali Ahira, the son of Enam. These were chosen from the congregation, leaders of their fathers' tribes, heads of the divisions of Israel. It's not really told on what basis these individuals were selected.
Perhaps each tribe elected some man to be their main representative. This man would help Moses to gather the census data, but the same men would be important men later on, too, in some of the other activities that are given. The names of these men are also mentioned in some of the activities of the tribes.
They represented the tribes. Interestingly, it's not the same twelve who represented the tribes when they went into the land to spy out the land. That was a different twelve guys, one from each tribe.
But these twelve are significant in these early chapters. They have a number of functions besides just the census taking. It says in verse 17, Then Moses and Aaron took these men who had been mentioned by name, and they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month, and they recited their ancestry by families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and above, each one individually.
As the Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai. So, this large number of people could easily have just become an amorphous mob who would soon lose track of their ancestry and things like that just because there were a bunch of slaves who had escaped. Yet, God shows an interest in them finding out and declaring who their fathers are and their ancestry so that they can actually keep a tally of how many are in each tribe.
Because the tribes are actually going to be kept separate in many ways. When they encamp, they're going to have special areas around the tabernacle that each tribe will camp in. So, they're going to keep them separate rather than have them all mixed together as just a big mass of people from a variety of different tribes who would soon lose their tribal identity.
They keep very close track of their tribal identity here as we see. Verse 20 says, Now the children of Reuben, Israel's oldest son, their genealogies by their families, by their fathers' house, according to the number of names, every male individually from twenty years old and above, all who were able to go to war, those who were numbered of the tribe of Reuben, were 46,500. Then it goes through each of the tribes and uses similar language.
From the children of Simeon, their genealogies by their families, by their fathers' house, of those who were numbered according to the number of names, every male individually from twenty years old and above, all who were able to go to war, those who were numbered of the tribe of Simeon, were 59,300. And we have the same kind of information about the tribe of Gad in verses 24 and 25. Their number was 45,650.
Then in verses 26 and 27 we have the same information about Judah, but their number was 74,600, which proved to be the largest of the tribes, much larger than the next largest tribe, and actually more than twice as large as the smaller tribes. So Judah, for some reason, had multiplied a lot more than the other tribes, but it was 74,600 of the tribe of Judah. Verses 28 and 29 then give the tally for the tribe of Issachar.
Their number is 54,400. Verses 30 and 31, the tribe of Zebulun is numbered, and their number is 57,400. Then the sons of Joseph, it says, they're of course treated as two separate tribes, and so Ephraim and Manasseh were the two sons of Joseph, and they make up two tribes in Israel now, so their numbers are given separately.
In verses 32 and 33 we have of Ephraim there's 40,500, and verses 34 and 35 talk about Manasseh, and there were 32,200 of the tribe of Manasseh. In verses 36 and 37 then we have the tribe of Benjamin. There were 35,400 of the tribe of Benjamin.
Again, the tribe of Manasseh and Benjamin were the small tribes, and they were less than half the size of Judah. And then 38 and 39, the tribe of Dan, 62,700. That'd be the second largest of the tribes after Judah.
Verses 40 and 41 gives the same information about the tribe of Asher. Their number is 41,500. And then chapter 42 and 43, the tribe of Naphtali, that always seems to come in last in all the considerations, is 53,400.
And it says in verse 44, These are the ones who were numbered, whom Moses and Aaron numbered, with the leaders of Israel, twelve men, each one representing his father's house. So all who were numbered of the children of Israel by their father's houses from 20 years old and above, all who were able to go to war in Israel, all who were numbered were 603,550. So that's the total number of men 20 years old and above, over half a million.
But significantly, verse 47 says, The Levites were not numbered among them by their father's tribe. For the Lord had spoken to Moses, saying, Only the tribe of Levi you shall not number, nor take a census of them among the children of Israel. But you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, over all its furnishings, over all of its things that belong to it.
They shall carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall attend to it and camp around the tabernacle. And when the tabernacle is to go forward, the Levites shall take it down. And when the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall set it up.
The outsider who comes near, that is the non-Levite, shall be put to death. The children of Israel shall pitch their tents, everyone by his own camp, everyone by his own standard, according to their armies. That location for each camp is given in the next chapter.
But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the children of Israel, and that the Levites may keep charge of the tabernacle of the testimony. Thus the children of Israel did, according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so they did. Now, the Levites were going to camp around the tabernacle immediately next to it, and the other tribes would be further out, surrounding the Levitical encampments, in an arrangement that is given in the next chapter.
Chapter 2 tells exactly where each tribe is going to camp, and in what order they are going to proceed when they break camp, to move forward in the wanderings. But before we get to that, I'd just like to point out in verse 47, that the Levites were not numbered with the men of war. The Levites were given a separate census, of course, and there is the census of the Levites given in chapter 3, and where they camp and all that is going to be discussed as well.
But the children of Israel as a whole are treated first without considering the Levites, and then separately the Levites get the same kind of consideration. So the Levites are treated as different than the others, in this respect they don't go to war. And, you know, Christians in the early days of the Christian movement didn't go to war either.
The early Christian fathers thought that that was not the vocation of the Christian. And I believe it was Justin Martyr, for example, among others, defended this practice against critics, and one of the criticisms that was raised against the Christians was that they received the benefits that were won by the armies of Rome, for example, in those days. You know, they had the freedoms and the luxuries and they had the standard of living and the infrastructure and all of that that was provided and protected for by the military service of the armies.
And yet, although the Christians were benefiting from all the benefits, they were not contributing by their serving in the military. The early Christians would not serve in the military. And actually the same criticism is made today of Anabaptists like Mennonites and so forth, and Quakers, who won't fight in the military.
Jehovah's Witnesses won't either. And there are many Christians who feel that fighting in the military is not the calling of the Christians, just like there were in the early days of the Church for the first three centuries. But the criticism was answered, actually, by the early Church, by saying, well, the Church actually provides a greater service to the nation than the armies do.
The Church actually contributes to the righteousness of a nation, and it's the righteousness of the nation that will preserve it against God's wrath. If a nation is judged by God, no amount of armies can stop the invasion. God can certainly overtake.
God can conquer a nation with a smaller nation.
I mean, Gideon had 300 men, and he conquered the Midianites, who had 30,000. If God is on your side, you win.
If God's not on your side, you lose.
The Israelites took a force against Ai, which was a little city, and they took what they considered to be more than enough troops to defeat them, because Ai was very small, and yet Ai beat them, because God was angry at Israel for the breach of Achan, where he'd stolen the golden wedge and the Babylonian garment from Jericho's ruins. And because God was judging Israel, they fell to an inferior fighting force.
But later, when God was on their side in the time of Gideon, they won against a much superior fighting force. The Bible makes it very clear that the security of a nation is not based on the size of its fighting force, but on whether God chooses to judge them at the hands of an invading army, or chooses to judge the other army at their hands. That means a nation's security is based upon the righteousness of the nation and God's being on their side and wanting to preserve them, or not.
And so, the early Christians believed that the influence of the church, through preaching the gospel, through intercessory prayer, basically what the Bible would refer to as our spiritual warfare. We conduct a spiritual warfare on behalf of society that elevates, when we do it right, it elevates society's morals and spiritual level, so that it does benefit to the nation in more than one way. One, it makes it a better place to be, and secondly, it makes God less likely to want to judge it by invaders.
And so, the Christians who did not participate in war in the early days of the church argued that they were actually as deserving as anybody else of the benefits of civilization, because they did protect civilization in a way that the armies could not. And with God in the picture, of course, as the one who raises up or brings down nations, certainly the influence of the church has much more say than that of the military in whether a nation survives long term or not. And we see that the Levites didn't go out and fight in the battles.
They weren't men of war. They were men of spiritual service. They provided religious service.
They were there to make atonement for the people. They were there to teach the laws of the people. They were like the church in society, really.
The church is like the Levites in the society, a kingdom of priests. And the priests and the Levites just didn't go to war. That wasn't what they did, but they still benefited from the fruits of the military labors.
They still benefited from all those things, but in many ways, the Levites were more central than the armies were to the success of the missions, because if the Levites did their job rightly, their nation would be a law-keeping nation and have God on their side. It would be a secure nation. Righteousness exalts the nation, the Bible says, but sin is reproached to any people.
And when a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. These are statements of the Proverbs. So the Levites, they didn't fight in war.
Now, that doesn't mean they never did any killing. Phineas, one of the priests, actually stopped a plague at Baal-teor, because he threw a javelin through an Israelite and a Midianite woman who were involved in idolatrous sex, and that was what had brought that and similar behavior by many Israelites is what had brought a plague on Israel. And Phineas, actually in his zeal for God, actually put an end to that with his own violent intervention.
And so we do not, I wouldn't argue that the priests never did any killing, but they did not go out and fight in the nation's wars. They didn't go out and fight against the enemies. There was a different vocation they had.
It's not like the priests were against war. They weren't pacifists. The priests were not pacifists.
They just had a different calling. So they offered a different service to the nation, a more important service in many respects than that of the army. So not serving in the army was not somehow copping out and not pulling their share of the weight, as some people have accused Christians who didn't go to war.
So we see the Levites excluded from this particular census, but they are mentioned in the latter part of chapter one. It mentions their special encampment arrangements, which we're going to look at in the following chapters. In chapter two, we have concentration of focus on this very thing, where the other tribes will camp.
I tried to get a diagram off the Internet so I could project one up there of this. It's very simple. If you could just picture the tabernacle as a rectangular structure, of course, the courtyard, and then around it, we're going to have the Levites camped on three sides, on the north and the west and the south side, near the tabernacle.
There were three families of Aaron's offspring, excuse me, of Levites. The Gershonites, Kohathites, and the Merarites. And these each had their own assigned position around the tabernacle.
We don't get to that in chapter two, but that's something to consider when we're trying to picture the arrangement. The three branches of the Levitical family would be on the southwest and east, southwest and north sides of the tabernacle, near it. And Moses and Aaron and the priests would camp on the east side, by the door of the tabernacle.
So the tabernacle is surrounded by Levites and by the priests on the eastern side, which was the opening of the door. Now, further out, there's a larger square, and that has three tribes on each side. We've got three tribes to the east, three tribes to the south, three tribes to the west, and three tribes to the north.
And these are assigned specific locations. Each of these encampments have one banner. There's the banner of the tribe of Judah, for example, on the east, although there's two other tribes associated there on the east with Judah.
There's a major tribe on each side of the tabernacle, and one banner. So there's a banner of the tribes of the east, a banner of the tribes of the south, and so forth. And what this gives us is it works around the square.
It starts by talking about the east, then goes to the south and the west and north, and names the main tribe that would be sort of giving identity to that cluster of tribes on that side of the tabernacle, and would have its standard, or its banners. And then it talks about the tribes that were with it. It gives the name of the leader of that tribe in each case, and it also talks about how they will break camp and how they will march forward in what order.
They actually will break camp and march forward in the order that they're given. The tribes to the east will go first, the tribes to the south next, the tribes to the west, and then the tribes to the north following. And so that's how it is.
The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, Every one of the children of Israel shall camp by his own standard, beside the emblems of his father's house. They shall camp some distance from the tabernacle meeting. The reason is there'll be some distance from it is because it's sacred ground, and the Levites will camp between the tabernacle and these other tribes.
On the east side, toward the rising of the sun, those of the standard of the forces with Judah shall camp according to their armies. And Nashon, the son of Amminadab, shall be their leader of the children of Judah. And his army was 174,600, as we saw earlier.
The numbers are given of each tribe, but we already got them in the previous chapter. Same numbers. Those who camp next to him, also on the east side, shall be the tribe of Issachar.
And Nethaniel, the son of Zuar, shall be the leader of the children of Issachar. And his army was numbered 54,400. Now, of this information for each tribe, there's part of it that's not new.
The name of the leader of the tribe is the same as those given in chapter 1, and the number of the armies of each tribe is the same as those given in chapter 1. Which means, of course, we don't probably need to repeat all of that, but the main information that's new is telling how these tribes are associated around the tabernacle when they camp, and in what order they camp to march forward. And so we see in verse 7, Then shall come the tribe of Zebulun. Now, he's also on the east.
The tribe of Zebulun, yeah, here's a picture of it. A lot of you, oh, you can't really see it, probably, but you can certainly get a study Bible or something that will show this. They almost all have diagrams of it.
I can see that Amalia has a Bible open that's got one there. That's it, isn't it? Yeah, and it's not uncommon to find them in study Bibles. It's a pretty easy diagram.
You can almost picture it without the diagram. So on the east side, you've got these three tribes. You've got Judah as the main tribe, and Isshar and Zebulun are with them as lesser tribes associated with it.
These would all be under the banner of the tribe of Judah. Traditionally, this banner had a lion on it. It doesn't say so in the Bible, but the Jews have a tradition that the tribe of Judah, its banner had a lion, a lion's head on it, which we know that the word lion and Judah are associated in a couple other places in the Bible.
In the blessings that Jacob uttered over his 12 sons, in the 49th chapter of Genesis, he says, Judah is a lion's wealth. He likens him to a young lion. And obviously in the book of Revelation, Jesus in chapter 5 is called the lion of the tribe of Judah.
So the idea of Judah being associated with a lion may also have been reinforced by there being a lion on the banner, the standard carried by the tribe of Judah and around which these three tribes rallied and camped. And then verse 10 says, On the south side shall be the standard of the forces of Reuben. Now Reuben would be the main tribe on the south.
According to their armies and the leader of the children of Reuben shall be Eliezer, the son of Shadur. And his army was numbered at 46,500. Again, that information is repeated.
Those who camp next to him, verse 12, shall be the tribe of Simeon, with similar information. The leader of the tribe and the number are the same as in chapter 1. Verse 14, Then shall come the tribe of Gad. Now the tribe of Reuben then was flanked by Simeon and Gad.
And these were on the south side. They would be the second to break camp. It says in verse 9, I guess I didn't read verse 9, about those on the east, it says, All who are numbered according to their armies of the forces of Judah, 186,400, these shall break camp first.
The 186,400 is the number of all three tribes on the east. So that's the size of the total army of three tribes on the eastern side. And that's what we get on each of these cases.
So on the south then we have Reuben as the main tribe and Simeon and Gad associated. And it says in verse 16, All who were numbered according to their armies of the forces of Reuben, 150,450. And they shall be the second to break camp.
So there's a slightly smaller force on the south than on the east. About 186,000 and a half on the east, about 151,000 and a half on the south. And they are the second to break camp when the march begins.
And then before we read about the tribes on the west and the north, we come to the tabernacle itself. And the reason it's mentioned next is although geographically it's not the most logical one to talk about next, but it is the next one that would, when the nation travels. After the tribes on the east and the south have moved forward, the tabernacle then moves in the middle and then the tribes on the west and the north follow behind.
So the tabernacle and its stuff are traveling in the middle of the march rather than in the front. Now there's some indication in some places that the ark may have been at the front leading the procession. That was certainly true when they crossed the Red Sea.
That may be true in their marching through the wilderness. If the ark is carried ahead, it's not 100% clear because the tabernacle and its things were mostly in the middle of the advancing troops. Verse 17 says, Then the tabernacle of the meeting shall move out with the camp of the Levites in the middle of the camps as they camp, so they shall move out, everyone in his place, by their standards.
Now on the west side, verse 18, shall be the standard of the forces of Ephraim, according to their armies. And the leader of the children of Ephraim shall be Elishema, the son of Ahimud. And his army was numbered 40,500.
Now next to him was Manasseh. And in verse 22, Then shall come the tribe of Benjamin. So Ephraim is a rather large tribe, not as large as some, but it has two very small tribes with it.
Benjamin and Manasseh are the really small tribes. And these are the ones that camp on the west side of the tabernacle. And it says in verse 24, All who were numbered according to their armies of the forces of Ephraim, 108,100, they shall be the third to break camp.
Then it says, The standard of the forces with Dan, Dan is the main tribe to the north, shall be on the north side according to their armies, and the leader of the children of Dan shall be Ahasuer, the son of Amishadai. And his army was numbered at 62,700. Next to him was the tribe of Asher.
And then in verse 29, Then shall come the tribe of Naphtali. So Dan has the tribes of Asher and Naphtali associated with him on the north. And his army was numbered at 53,400.
That was Naphtali's. And verse 31 says, All who were numbered of the forces with Dan, 157,600, they shall break camp last with their standards. So the largest group of soldiers is that on the east, and they go first.
They go ahead. The group on the north is the next largest, and they go at the tail. So the largest armies are in the front and in the back.
And the smaller groups are between them. As far as these standards go, like I say, traditionally the Jews believed that the standard of the tribe of Judah had a lion on it. The group of tribes to the south of the tabernacle were with Reuben, and traditionally a man's head, a human head was the emblem on Reuben's standard.
To the west were those tribes that were with Ephraim, and traditionally an ox was the figure on the standard of Ephraim. And then the tribe of Dan to the north traditionally was thought to have an eagle on it. So you've got, if you work from the east around the south to the west to the north, clockwise around the tabernacle, the standards of these tribes would have respectively a lion, a man, an ox, and an eagle upon them.
Now, I don't know where the Jews got that tradition. It's possible that that was true and it was preserved from those days, that the Jews simply remembered that. It's suspiciously similar to the description of the cherubim in Ezekiel, in which each had four faces, each cherub had four faces, one of a lion, one of a man, one of an ox, and one of an eagle.
And even in the book of Revelation, the four living creatures, one has the face of a lion, one the face of a man, one the face of an ox, one the face of an eagle. So these four faces are definitely confirmed as being joined in the cherubim in Ezekiel chapter 1 and Ezekiel chapter 10, and also in the four living creatures in the book of Revelation in chapter 4. But we don't know for sure if those same four faces were on these standards. It's possible that they were, but it's also possible that the Jews, working backward from Ezekiel, decided that they wanted to think of the standards as having those four faces.
It's not clear. What is the meaning of those four? I think I mentioned on one occasion when we were talking to the cherubim that the Jewish rabbis have a saying that the lion is the chief of the wild beasts and that the ox is the chief of the domestic beasts. The eagle is the chief of the birds and man is the chief of all.
And so that's the significance they made of those four faces. So the Bible doesn't make that connection. It may be the best way to understand it.
After all, the rabbis do spend their time thinking about these things. They sometimes might come up with intelligence and correct interpretations of things that the Bible does not spell out. Verse 32 says, These are the ones who were numbered of the children of Israel by their fathers' houses, all who were numbered according to their armies, and of the forces were 603,550.
But the Levites were not numbered among the children of Israel, just as the Lord commanded Moses. Thus the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses. So they camped by their standards, and so they broke camp, each one by his family, according to their fathers' houses.
Now, we've talked about the tribes apart from the Levites, and the Levites are in both cases of chapters 1 and 2, specifically mentioned as being kept separate. But now, the next two chapters deal with the Levites and the priests. So we're going to have their census, and we're also going to have their duties delineated by the different branches of the Levitical tribe.
In chapter 3, Now these are the records of Aaron and Moses when the Lord spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai. And these are the names of the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests, whom he consecrated to minister as priests.
Nadab and Abihu had died before the Lord when they offered profane fire before the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children. So Eleazar and Ithamar ministered as priests under the oversight of Aaron, their father. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may serve him.
And they shall attend to his needs and the needs of the whole congregation before the tabernacle of meeting, to do the work of the tabernacle. Also, they shall attend to all the furnishings of the tabernacle of meeting and to the needs of the children of Israel to do the work of the tabernacle. And you shall give the Levites to Aaron and his sons.
They are given entirely to him from among the children of Israel. So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall attend to their priesthood. But the outsider who comes near should be put to death.
So Aaron has like 22,000 servants in the Levites. And that's a good thing, too, because he's got hundreds of thousands of Israelites to serve in the offering of sacrifices. And he only has two sons who are priests.
There's only three priests at this point. There were five the day the tabernacle opened, but two were killed right off. And so now there's only three left.
And that's still going to be a lot of work for three, even with all the Levites. But the Levites are able to do some of the heavy lifting and most of the menial labor that would be associated with the work of the tabernacle. The priests don't have to do all that themselves.
Verse 11, Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Now behold, I myself have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel, instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the children of Israel. Therefore, the Levites shall be mine. Now, this transaction is really described later on after verse 40.
But by way of anticipation, it's pointing out that the Levites are going to be especially God's people. And the reason is because he's going to take them in place of the firstborn. We'll explain how that works before we're done here.
Because all the firstborn are mine. On the day that I struck all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, I sanctified to myself all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast, and they shall be mine. I am the Lord.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying, Number the children of Levi by their father's houses, by their families. You shall number every male from a month old and above. OK, not from 20 years old and above, because we're not looking for people who can fight in wars.
We're looking just for the total population. Why from a month old? Why not as many as were alive, even under a month old? Maybe, maybe because of infant mortality rates. There might have been a lot of children who died before the first month, and you didn't want to count on them, didn't want to figure on them being in the number.
If the child had lived a month, perhaps it was seen to be more likely to be viable and would probably be able to be included in the census for some time to come. So it's a larger sampling of this tribe than of the others. It includes those who are under 20 years old, which the other census did not.
So Moses numbered them according to the word of the Lord as he was commanded. These were the sons of Levi by their names, Gershon, Kohath, and Mereri. Now these men, of course, were long dead, but they were the three sons of Levi, and therefore the Levitical tribe divided into these three clans or families, the family of the Gershonites and the Kohathites and the Mererites.
And these are the names of the sons of Gershon by their families, Lidni and Shimei, and the sons of Kohath by their families, Amram, Izar, Hebron, and Uzziel, and the sons of Mereri by their families, Mali and Mushi. And these are the families of the Levites by their father's houses. I just note that in verse 19, the sons of Kohath included Amram, and Amram was the father of Moses and Aaron.
So Aaron and Moses and the priesthood were of the Kohathite branch of the family. OK, now from verse 21 through verse 26, we have detail about the number and the location of the encampment of the Gershonites and what particular duties they would have associated with the tabernacle. That's the Gershonites in verses 21 through 26.
We'll read that, but I just want to point out that in verses 27 through 32, we have the same information about the Kohathites, that is their number, where they would encamp around the tabernacle, and what their duties were specifically. And then in verses 33 through 37, we have the same kind of information about the Mererites. So we've got the Gershonites, the Kohathites, and the Mererites.
We've got their census numbers, we've got their location of encampment, and we've got pretty much what their range of duties were going to be. After that, in verses 38 and following, but just for 38 in particular, we have Moses, Aaron, and his sons mentioned as having a separate place of encampment on the east side of the tabernacle, by the door, by the opening of the tabernacle. So here's how it looks.
Verse 21, from Gershon came the family of the Libinites and the family of the Shemites. These were the families of the Gershonites. Those who were numbered according to the number of all the males from a month old and above, of those who were numbered, there were 7,500.
The families of the Gershonites were to camp behind the tabernacle westward. The leader of the father's house of the Gershonites was Eliasath, the son of Lael. The duties of the children of Gershon in the tabernacle of the meeting included the tabernacle, the tent with its coverings, the screen for the door of the tabernacle of meeting, the screen for the door of the court, the hangings of the court which are around the tabernacle, the altar, and the altar, and their cords according to the work related to them.
So the Gershonites were in charge essentially of all the outer coverings for the most part. The tent, the tarps and the coverings, and the cloth hangings. They took care of the cloth and the fabric parts of the tabernacle.
And what that means is that when it came time to break it down and set it up, that was their responsibility. They'd have to fold those things up and put them on carts and haul them and put them on at the proper time. And then, so verse 27, from Kohath came the family of the Amorites, the family of the Isorites, and the family of the Hebronites, and the family of the Uzziolites.
These were the families of the Kohathites. According to the number of all the males from a month old and above, there were 8,600 keeping charge of the sanctuary. The families of the children of Kohath were to camp on the south side of the tabernacle.
So they were camping between the tabernacle and the tribe of Reuben. Reuben was also on the south side and his associate tribes. The leader of the father's house of the families of the Kohathites was Elisathan, the son of Uzziol.
Their duty included the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, the utensils, the sanctuary, the utensils of the sanctuary with which they ministered, the screen and all the work relating to them. So in other words, the eternal equipment, the eternal furniture and so forth was what the Kohathites, again that's the branch of the family that Moses and Aaron were from, and they have perhaps the more privileged, the more sacred part, they have to carry the ark and the other furniture. Now, it mentions the veil or the screen, the veil that concealed the Holy of Holies.
The other two screens were carried by the Gershonites, but the veil of the Holy of Holies was used actually to cover the ark while it was being carried. So it was part of the duties of the Kohathites because they had to carry the ark. And verse 32 says, Eliezer, the son of Aaron, one of the two surviving sons of Aaron, the priest was to be chief over the leaders of the Levites, which kept oversight of those who kept the charge of the sanctuary.
Verse 33, then from Mereri came the family of the Mahalites and the family of the Mushites. These were the families of Mereri. Those who were numbered according to the number of all the males from a month old and above were 6,200.
The leader of their father's house of the families of the Merites was Zeriel, the son of Abahiel. These were to camp on the north side of the tabernacle, that would be between the tabernacle itself and the tribe of Dan and its associated tribes. And the appointed duty of the children of Mereri included the boards of the tabernacle, its bars, its pillars, its sockets, its utensils, all the work relating to them and the pillars of the court all around with their sockets and their pegs in their court.
So the structural components of the tabernacle. So the Gershonites took care of the coverings, the outer coverings of the tabernacle. The Merites took care of the structural components, the wood and the solid objects.
And then the Kohathite carried the furniture. Verse 38, moreover, those who were to camp before the tabernacle on the east, the one side that has not been discussed yet, which would be between the tabernacle and the tribe of Judah and its associated tribes, were Moses, Aaron and his sons, keeping charge of the sanctuary to meet the needs of the children of Israel. But the outsider who came near was to be put to death.
So all who were numbered of the Levites, who Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of the Lord by their families, all the males from a month old and above were 22,000. Now here we have one of the few problems in arithmetic in the book of Numbers, because mostly all the numbers add up as they are given in their totals. Here we have a slight discrepancy, because we have of the Gershonites 7,500, of the Kohathites 8,600, and of the Merites 6,200.
And if you add that all up, it comes to 22,300. But the total is given as 22,000 even. Now one might argue, well, this is just a round number, this is just rounding it off to the nearest thousand.
Well, it would, of course, work that way, except that's not what the book of Numbers usually does. It does round things off to the nearest hundred in all likelihood. I mean, when you look at it, to say there were 7,500 of one group and 8,600 of another and 6,200 of the other and no tens or ones, it does seem like they are rounding off the numbers of each of the groups to the nearest hundred.
But it's not common for them to round off to the nearest thousand, as would be the case if 22,300 was rounded off to simply 22,000 and omitting the 300. It could be done, and I say, as we see, there is other rounding off of these numbers to the nearest hundred. But there's a problem here, because as we shall find in the remainder of this chapter, the firstborn are also numbered.
And they number 22,273. And there is an issue here, because God's going to trade the firstborn for the Levites. But there's too many firstborn, not enough Levites.
The Levites number 22,000. The firstborn number 22,273. And therefore, redemption money has to be paid for the extra 273 firstborn to even it out.
But that wouldn't be necessary if there were 22,300 Levites, as the totals would suggest. So here's where we have a problem. If 22,000 Levites is just really rounding it off and there were really 22,300 as the totals of the three figures would suggest.
Then there were 22,300 be more than enough to trade for the 22,273 firstborn. And there wouldn't need to be any redemption. So the number 22,000 is treated as if it's the right number, almost to the digit.
Not even to the nearest hundred, but to the digit, because they redeem 273 individuals, which is said to be the discrepancy. So what do we do with that? Well, it's not really extremely easy to know. Several solutions have been suggested.
Of course, one suggestion is that the totals around number, I already suggested that doesn't really work. Another possibility is that in some of the texts, the Kohenathites don't number 86,000, that is 8,600, but they number 8,300. Now, whether those texts have made that correction to solve the mathematical problem, or whether they give the original figure is something we may never know.
But some manuscripts have the Kohenathites at 8,300 instead of 8,600. That would solve the problem. If it was 8,300 Kohenathites, then we'd have exactly 22,000 Levites, and that would be good.
The Talmud gives this solution. They say that 300 of the Levites were firstborn, and they already belonged to the Lord, so they couldn't be redeemed, or they couldn't be figured in, or something like that. I don't know how that really works.
That's a rather complex way of thinking about things. I tried to think about that until my brain hurt, and how that would impact things. But obviously, the Jews understood there's a problem with the text as it stands.
My own thought would be it's probably a text of corruption, especially in view of the fact that there are some texts that give a number that would solve it. Now, whether those texts that give that number were somebody's ingenious way of trying to solve the problem that really existed in the original, or whether the solution really is a reflection of what the original said, and that our manuscripts have carried down the wrong number of Kohenathites, I can't say. We don't know.
We don't have the original manuscripts. One thing we can say is this. It does not seem likely at all that Moses failed to do his math properly.
I mean, it's not rocket science to add up 7,500, 8,600, and 6,200. You can easily figure out that that's not exactly 22,000. You've got your missing printer.
And with all the calculations, all the addition in the book of Numbers of much more complex figures than these, and getting them right, we know that addition was something they knew how to do back then. And therefore, to suggest that somehow Moses failed to add up these three figures to get the right sum is, to my mind, out of the question. I mean, even if he had done it wrong one time, certainly the mistake would have been discovered before they went to the trouble of redeeming all the 273 firstborns.
It's obvious that one of the numbers that makes up the sum of 22,000 Levites must have been different. And so I'm going to probably go with the fact that we at least have some manuscripts that say that there were 8,300 Koathites rather than 8,600, and that would solve the problem. I mean, really, we only have a couple of possibilities.
One is that Moses just did, he just flubbed up the addition. But that's not really enough, because he didn't just come up with the sum. He also had to balance the books against the number of firstborns.
And certainly someone would have noticed, oh, Moses, here's the problem. We didn't add this up right. There's only three numbers here to add up.
I mean, we're going to find later on when the offerings of the 12 tribes are brought, there's very complex numbers, and they're all added up just quite correctly. These three numbers, anyone could add up. A child could do it.
And so obviously getting the wrong sum, and yet the fact that 22,000 is the right sum, because it has to be balanced against the 22,273 firstborn. OK, we have to live with 22,000 as the total number of Levites. And therefore, one of the three figures that's added up must have come down to us wrong in the manuscripts.
And that would explain it. And I think that's probably the best solution. Now, verse 40.
The Lord said to Moses, number all the firstborn males of the children of Israel from a month old and above, and take the number of their names, and you shall take the Levites for me. I am Yahweh. Instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel and the livestock of the Levites, instead of all the firstborn among the Levites are the livestock of the children of Israel.
That is to say, there's a certain number of firstborn in the whole country. Firstborn sons. They belong to God, according to God's earlier statements in the 12th chapter and 13th chapter of Exodus.
That means the firstborn naturally would have to be serving at the tabernacle. They would have to be full-time ministers. But God says, no, I'm not going to take a child from every family for that.
I'll just take one tribe that's about the same number, and I'll trade you. I'll just have one whole tribe that's mine, and you can keep your firstborn at home with you. And so I'm going to trade the Levites for the firstborn, and also the Levites' cattle I'm going to take instead of the firstborn of the cattle of the tribes in general.
So Moses numbered all the firstborn among the children of Israel as the Lord commanded him. And all the firstborn males, according to their number of names from one month old and above, of those who were numbered of them were 22,273. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites instead of their livestock.
The Levites shall be mine. I am the Lord. And for the redemption of the 273 of the firstborn of the children of Israel, who are more than the number of the Levites, you shall take five shekels for each one individually.
You shall take them in the currency of the shekel of the sanctuary, the shekel of 20 geras. And you shall give the money with which the excess number of them is redeemed to Aaron and his sons. So Moses took the redemption money from those who were over and above those who were redeemed by the Levites.
From the firstborn of the children of Israel he took the money. 1,365 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. So you could add that up, right? Five times 273 is a much more complex calculation than just adding up three simple numbers.
And Moses gave the redemption money to Aaron and his sons, according to the word of the Lord. And the Lord commanded Moses. We aren't told what the money was used for.
It was probably just went to the tabernacle treasury for whatever miscellaneous expenses. But the idea here was this, that you've got a group of people. There's 22,273 people who already belong to God because they're firstborn.
They're just born belonging to God. They're his. But he's going to turn them back over to their families, let their families keep them.
But you've got to buy them from me. I'll take the Levites. Well, there's only 22,000 of them.
But I'm giving you back 22,273 firstborn. I'm only getting back 22,000 Levites and exchangers. I'm giving you 273 extra guys here.
You've got to pay me for that. You've got to redeem those if they're going to go home to their parents instead of working at the tabernacle. Then someone's going to have to pay a redemption money for them.
And that's the five shekels per head that they were charged. Now, this is another classic problem in the book of Numbers. And the main problem is this, that the firstborn were so few.
I mentioned this in our introduction. Approximately 22,000 firstborn for a nation that has 600,000 people, 600,000 males, means that there's only one firstborn child per 27 people, which means that 26 out of 27 people were not the firstborn of their family. And that means that a family size average must have been about 26 children.
Now, it's not impossible for a family to have 26 children, and there have been families with larger numbers than that. But for that to be the average would mean that it's just too high. It just seems too high.
Now, solutions to this problem have been suggested, multiple possible solutions. One of them, it doesn't really solve the problem completely, but one of them is that the firstborn might have included, I mean, it's only talking about the male firstborn. And of course there were female firstborns too.
Families sometimes had a girl before a boy, and therefore there would be twice as many, probably, firstborn. There would be more like 45,000 firstborns. But that only brings down the ratio like, you know, 13 to 1. 13 Israelites per one firstborn, male or female.
And that still makes the average family size have to be about 13 kids, which is pretty big for an average. Some think that the count should be restricted to, and there's other solutions. This is one that seems to make some sense.
It could be restricted to the firstborn who were born after the Exodus. That the, just since the Exodus, since they were free people, that the firstborn of that group are the only ones numbered. Now, why that would be the only group of firstborn numbered in this particular instance, I don't know.
But perhaps because God is only redeeming the firstborn to himself since he killed the firstborn of Egypt. That the firstborn that were firstborn before that kind of get a pass, but from that point on, from the day that God killed the firstborn of Egypt, from then on, he's claiming all the firstborn of Israel for himself. It doesn't necessarily seem likely, but it is possible it would make the number more reasonable.
We don't really know what the number, what the problem is, or how the solution is. But we do know this, that we aren't the first generation to recognize that's a pretty small ratio. I mean, the Jews of every age would have recognized that's a pretty small ratio of firstborn.
And including Moses, who wrote it, he would have known. So he knew what the solution was. He assumed his readers knew, I guess, but it's not clear to us.
Was he numbering only the firstborn who had been born after the Exodus? That's what some people think, and that would solve the problem. If we include the female firstborn as not being in the number, then there'd be twice as many firstborn as given, but still a pretty small number. Some people think it's only the firstborn of a clan, like the grandfather of a clan of people, and his firstborn son and grandson would not be counted.
He's just the firstborn of a clan, a larger clan, not just a single couple. But I'm not sure why that would be the case. It's just a suggestion people make to try to figure out why the number is so small.
We don't know. But again, Moses knew, and that's about all that we need to know. But somehow they were numbered in such a way that they were only that many, and it was just about the same number as the Levites.
So there was an exchange made with the redemption of the surplus. Chapter 4 says, Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, Take a census of the sons of Kohath from among the children of Levi, by their families, by their fathers' house, from thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, all who enter the service to do the work of the tabernacle meeting. Now, we already have a census of these people from one month old and up.
That is the total population of the Kohathites and the Merarites and the Gershonites have been given. But now he wants another census of their numbers from age thirty to age fifty, because those are the years of service for them. And he wanted to know what size of serving force was available to them.
And so this is going to be another census from the same tribes and the same clans, but a different sampling, a different segment of their number. This is the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of meeting relating to the most holy things. Now, this was the branch of the Levites that Moses and Aaron belonged to, and they were the ones who were taking care of the furniture of the tabernacle.
When the camp prepares to journey, Aaron and his son shall come, and they shall take down the covering veil, that's the veil to the holy of holies, and cover the ark of the testimony with it. Then they shall put on it a covering of badger skin and spread over that a cloth entirely of blue, that they may insert its poles, and they shall insert its poles to carry it. Now, the badger skin is obviously to protect it against the weather.
There's three coverings on the ark when it's traveling. The veil, the badger skin, which is like a tough weather cover, but then also a blue cloth, so that from the outside one sees it as if it's just covered with a blue cloth. Now, the other furniture is carried with a badger skin on the outside against the weather.
So, when they're carrying all the furniture, most of it looks like it's just covered with leather, badger skin. It says badger skin, but I told you before, this is not really badgers we're talking about. That's a bad translation.
The New King James is just following what the King James said. Almost all scholars believe this is some kind of a sea cow or dugong, a seal, or some kind of aquatic mammal, a dolphin. They're not sure, but a badger is not really the right animal for this.
When the King James was translated, the translators didn't know what the Hebrew word meant. They thought it meant a badger. Now, they know it.
It refers to some kind of a mammal, like a seal or a dolphin or a dugong, a sea cow in the Red Sea that they had skins for. It was a waterproof kind of leather. So, the ark was covered with these three coverings, the veil, let's say dugong skin or seal skin, and then a blue cloth.
And then the poles were put in so it's ready to move. Verse 7, on the table of showbread they shall spread blue cloth and put on it the dishes, the pans, the bowls, the pitchers for pouring, and the showbread shall be on it. They shall spread over them a scarlet cloth and cover the same with a covering of badger skins and they shall insert its poles.
So, they've got the blue cloth under the stuff on the table, a red cloth over the stuff on the table, and then there's the leather covering. And then they shall insert its poles. And the lampstand, likewise, they shall take a blue cloth and cover the lampstand of the light with its lamps, its wick trimmers, its trays, all its oil vessels with which they service it.
Then they shall put it with all the utensils in a covering of badger skins and put it on a carrying beam. Over the golden altar they shall spread a blue cloth and cover it with a covering of badger skins and they shall insert its poles. Then they shall take all the utensils of service with which they minister in the sanctuary and put them in a blue cloth cover, with the covering of badger skins, and put them on a carrying beam.
Also, they shall take away the ashes from the altar, that would be the sacrifice altar, the bronze altar, and spread a purple cloth over it. And they shall put on it all its implements with which they minister there, the fire pans, the forks, the shovels, the basins, and all the utensils of the altar. And they shall spread on it a covering of badger skins and insert its poles.
So, these pieces of furniture, I mean, they're gold and they're bronze and so forth, they have them covered with weatherproof coverings just in case, you know, there's sandstorms. Probably not going to be rain while they're traveling, but there could be some rain. Sandstorms, wind, the sun damage and so forth.
These things be covered, well covered and protected from it.
Verse 15, And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is set to go, then the sons of Kohath shall come and carry them. But they shall not touch any holy thing, only the poles.
The sons of Kohath can carry them on their shoulders on these poles, but the priests have to be the ones who put the poles in and who do all the covering.
It says, They shall not come near, they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These are the things in the tabernacle of meeting which the sons of Kohath are to carry.
The appointed duty of Eliezer, the son of Aaron, the priest, is the oil for the light, the sweet incense, the daily grain offering, the anointing oil, the oversight of all the tabernacle, of all that is in it and the sanctuary and its furnishings. So this one son of Aaron, Eliezer, is in charge of watching over what the Kohathites are doing. They're making sure they're doing the right thing.
And he also has to make sure that the oil and the incense and so forth are transported properly, which is his charge.
Verse 17, Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, Do not cut off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites. This means don't let them do something that will get themselves killed.
And that means specifically they are not supposed to touch the furniture and they're not even supposed to be present looking when it's being covered up. That's for the priests only to see.
But do this in regard to them that they may live and not die when they approach the most holy things.
Aaron and his son shall go in and appoint each of them to his service and his task, but they shall not go in to watch while the holy things are being covered, lest they die. So the Kohathites have the privilege of carrying them, but they can't even look at them until they're covered up.
Then we have the sons of Gershon and once again, same kind of thing.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Also, take a census of the sons of Gershon and their families and fathers' houses from 30 years old and above, even to 50 years old. And then it talks about how they shall take down the curtains and all of that, the screen for the door and how they will transport those.
And it says in verse 28, This is the service of the families of the sons of Gershon in the tabernacle of meeting and their duties shall be under the hand of Ithamar, the son of Aaron, the priest.
So Eleazar is watching over the Kohathites, Ithamar is watching the Gershonites. And the duties of the sons of Merari, same information. Basically, they carry the pillars and the boards and the hardware of the structural components.
And it says that in verse 33, they will also be under the hand of Ithamar, the son of Aaron, the priest. So Ithamar is going to supervise the Gershonites and the Merarites. Then we have the census and we don't need to go into this in detail.
It's the rest of the chapter. This is the census of those of each of those branches of the Levitical family who are between 30 and 50 years old. So it's going to be a smaller number than the total population that we saw earlier.
Of the Kohathites, we find in verses 34 through 37, their number is 2750 or 2750 Kohathites. The Gershonites, their number is taken verses 38 through 41. There are 2630 Gershonites.
And here we see the numbers are down to the nearest tens.
More exact, apparently. So 2630 Gershonites.
And then verses 42 through 45, the number of Merarites are 3200. Verse 46, and all who were numbered of the Levites from Moses, Aaron and the leaders of Israel numbered by their families, etc.
It gives their total number of these three groups.
The total Levy is 8580, which one could arrive at by simple mathematics. And so we know the total number of Levites and we know the total number of Levites of serviceable age. That's what we've covered here.
And with that, we come to the end of chapter four. We'll take our break. And we have a bit of a relief when we come to chapter five and six, because there's more than just numbers there.
There's actually some interesting stories or interesting laws there. But then we do get into some more technical stuff in chapter seven. But we'll get a bit of a break in chapter five and six.
So we'll take a break now and come back to that.
Thank you for watching.

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In this episode, we have Dr. Mike Licona's first-ever debate. In 2003, Licona sparred with Dan Barker at the University of Wisonsin-Madison. Once a Ch
The Biblical View of Abortion with Tom Pennington
The Biblical View of Abortion with Tom Pennington
Life and Books and Everything
May 5, 2025
What does the Bible say about life in the womb? When does life begin? What about personhood? What has the church taught about abortion over the centur
Licona vs. Fales: A Debate in 4 Parts – Part One: Can Historians Investigate Miracle Claims?
Licona vs. Fales: A Debate in 4 Parts – Part One: Can Historians Investigate Miracle Claims?
Risen Jesus
May 28, 2025
In this episode, we join a 2014 debate between Dr. Mike Licona and atheist philosopher Dr. Evan Fales on whether Jesus rose from the dead. In this fir
Licona vs. Shapiro: Is Belief in the Resurrection Justified?
Licona vs. Shapiro: Is Belief in the Resurrection Justified?
Risen Jesus
April 30, 2025
In this episode, Dr. Mike Licona and Dr. Lawrence Shapiro debate the justifiability of believing Jesus was raised from the dead. Dr. Shapiro appeals t