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cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="http://biblehub.com/commentaries/">Commentaries</a> > Numbers 3:15</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../numbers/3-14.htm" title="Numbers 3:14">◄</a> Numbers 3:15 <a href="../numbers/3-16.htm" title="Numbers 3:16">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="topverse">Number the children of Levi after the house of their fathers, by their families: every male from a month old and upward shalt thou number them.</div><div id="jump">Jump to: <a href="/commentaries/barnes/numbers/3.htm" title="Barnes' Notes">Barnes</a> • <a href="/commentaries/benson/numbers/3.htm" title="Benson Commentary">Benson</a> • <a href="/commentaries/illustrator/numbers/3.htm" title="Biblical Illustrator">BI</a> • <a href="/commentaries/calvin/numbers/3.htm" title="Calvin's Commentaries">Calvin</a> • <a href="/commentaries/cambridge/numbers/3.htm" title="Cambridge Bible">Cambridge</a> • <a href="/commentaries/clarke/numbers/3.htm" title="Clarke's Commentary">Clarke</a> • <a href="/commentaries/darby/numbers/3.htm" title="Darby's Bible Synopsis">Darby</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ellicott/numbers/3.htm" title="Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers">Ellicott</a> • <a href="/commentaries/expositors/numbers/3.htm" title="Expositor's Bible">Expositor's</a> • <a href="/commentaries/edt/numbers/3.htm" title="Expositor's Dictionary">Exp Dct</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gaebelein/numbers/3.htm" title="Gaebelein's Annotated Bible">Gaebelein</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gsb/numbers/3.htm" title="Geneva Study Bible">GSB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gill/numbers/3.htm" title="Gill's Bible Exposition">Gill</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gray/numbers/3.htm" title="Gray's Concise">Gray</a> • <a href="/commentaries/guzik/numbers/3.htm" title="Guzik Bible Commentary">Guzik</a> • <a href="/commentaries/haydock/numbers/3.htm" title="Haydock Catholic Bible Commentary">Haydock</a> • <a href="/commentaries/hastings/numbers/10-29.htm" title="Hastings Great Texts">Hastings</a> • <a href="/commentaries/homiletics/numbers/3.htm" title="Pulpit Homiletics">Homiletics</a> • <a href="/commentaries/jfb/numbers/3.htm" title="Jamieson-Fausset-Brown">JFB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/kad/numbers/3.htm" title="Keil and Delitzsch OT">KD</a> • <a href="/commentaries/king-en/numbers/3.htm" title="Kingcomments Bible Studies">King</a> • <a href="/commentaries/lange/numbers/3.htm" title="Lange Commentary">Lange</a> • <a href="/commentaries/maclaren/numbers/3.htm" title="MacLaren Expositions">MacLaren</a> • <a href="/commentaries/mhc/numbers/3.htm" title="Matthew Henry Concise">MHC</a> • <a href="/commentaries/mhcw/numbers/3.htm" title="Matthew Henry Full">MHCW</a> • <a href="/commentaries/parker/numbers/3.htm" title="The People's Bible by Joseph Parker">Parker</a> • <a href="/commentaries/poole/numbers/3.htm" title="Matthew Poole">Poole</a> • <a href="/commentaries/pulpit/numbers/3.htm" title="Pulpit Commentary">Pulpit</a> • <a href="/commentaries/sermon/numbers/3.htm" title="Sermon Bible">Sermon</a> • <a href="/commentaries/sco/numbers/3.htm" title="Scofield Reference Notes">SCO</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ttb/numbers/3.htm" title="Through The Bible">TTB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/wes/numbers/3.htm" title="Wesley's Notes">WES</a> • <a href="#tsk" title="Treasury of Scripture Knowledge">TSK</a></div><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="comtype">EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/ellicott/numbers/3.htm">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</a></div>(15) <span class= "bld">From a month old and upward . . . —</span>The males of the other tribes had been numbered “from twenty years old and upward” (<a href="/numbers/1-3.htm" title="From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: you and Aaron shall number them by their armies.">Numbers 1:3</a>). The firstborn males, however, among all the children of Israel, in whose place the Levites were taken, wer-directed to be numbered “from a month old and upward” (<a href="/numbers/3-40.htm" title="And the LORD said to Moses, Number all the firstborn of the males of the children of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names.">Numbers 3:40</a>; <a href="/numbers/3-43.htm" title="And all the firstborn males by the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those that were numbered of them, were twenty and two thousand two hundred and three score and thirteen.">Numbers 3:43</a>); and this was the age afterwards fixed for their redemption (<a href="/numbers/18-16.htm" title="And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shall you redeem, according to your estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.">Numbers 18:16</a>).<p><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/benson/numbers/3.htm">Benson Commentary</a></div><span class="bld"><a href="/numbers/3-15.htm" title="Number the children of Levi after the house of their fathers, by their families: every male from a month old and upward shall you number them.">Numbers 3:15</a></span>. <span class="ital">From a month old — </span>Because at that time the firstborn, in whose stead the Levites came, were offered to God. And from that time the Levites were consecrated to God, and were, as soon as capable, instructed in their work. Elsewhere they are numbered from twenty-five years old, when they were entered as novices into part of their work, (<a href="/numbers/8-24.htm" title="This is it that belongs to the Levites: from twenty and five years old and upward they shall go in to wait on the service of the tabernacle of the congregation:">Numbers 8:24</a>,) and from thirty years old, when they were admitted to their whole office.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="mhc" id="mhc"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/mhc/numbers/3.htm">Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary</a></div>3:14-39 The Levites were in three classes, according to the sons of Levi; Gershon, Kohath, and Merari; and these were subdivided into families. The posterity of Moses were not at all honoured or privileged, but stood upon the level with other Levites; thus it was plain, that Moses did not seek the advancement of his own family, or to secure any honours to it. The tribe of Levi was by much the least of all the tribes. God's chosen are but a little flock in comparison with the world.<a name="bar" id="bar"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/barnes/numbers/3.htm">Barnes' Notes on the Bible</a></div>The concluding words are better expressed thus: "Mine shall they be, Mine, the Lord's." On the subject of the firstborn see the notes at <a href="http://biblehub.com/numbers/3-43.htm">Numbers 3:43-51</a>. <a name="jfb" id="jfb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/jfb/numbers/3.htm">Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary</a></div>14-31. Number the children of Levi—They were numbered as well as the other tribes; but the enumeration was made on a different principle—for while in the other tribes the number of males was calculated from twenty years and upward [Nu 1:3], in that of Levi they were counted "from a month old and upward." The reason for the distinction is obvious. In the other tribes the survey was made for purposes of war [Nu 1:3], from which the Levites were totally exempt. But the Levites were appointed to a work on which they entered as soon as they were capable of instruction. They are mentioned under the names of Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, sons of Levi, and chiefs or ancestral heads of three subdivisions into which this tribe was distributed. Their duties were to assist in the conveyance of the tabernacle when the people were removing the various encampments, and to form its guard while stationary—the Gershonites being stationed on the west, the Kohathites on the south, and the families of Merari on the north. The Kohathites had the principal place about the tabernacle, and charge of the most precious and sacred things—a distinction with which they were honored, probably, because the Aaronic family belonged to this division of the Levitical tribe. The Gershonites, being the oldest, had the next honorable post assigned them, while the burden of the drudgery was thrown on the division of Merari.<div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/poole/numbers/3.htm">Matthew Poole's Commentary</a></div> <span class="bld">From a month old, </span> because at that time the first-born, in whose stead the Levites came, <span class="bldvs"> <a href="/numbers/8-16.htm" title="For they are wholly given to me from among the children of Israel; instead of such as open every womb, even instead of the firstborn of all the children of Israel, have I taken them to me.">Numbers 8:16</a></span>, were offered to God, <span class="bldvs"> <a href="/luke/2-22.htm" title="And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord;">Luke 2:22</a></span>, and to be redeemed, <span class="bldvs"> <a href="/numbers/18-16.htm" title="And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shall you redeem, according to your estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.">Numbers 18:16</a></span>. And from that time the Levites were consecrated to God, and were as soon as they were capable,’ to be instructed in their work. Elsewhere they are numbered from twenty-five years old, when they were entered as novices to part of their work, <span class="bldvs"> <a href="/numbers/8-24.htm" title="This is it that belongs to the Levites: from twenty and five years old and upward they shall go in to wait on the service of the tabernacle of the congregation:">Numbers 8:24</a></span>; and from thirty years old, when they were completely admitted to their whole office. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="gil" id="gil"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gill/numbers/3.htm">Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible</a></div>Number the children of Levi,.... Who were left out of the general muster of the children of Israel, but now were to be numbered alone, and in a different manner, and for, a different purpose, the Lord having a special regard auto, them, and special service for them: <p>after the house of their fathers, by their families; into which the tribe was divided; house seems to be put for "houses", which were principal ones; and these were divided into families, which branched from them, and according to these, denominated from their fathers, and not their, mothers, were they to be numbered; for as the Jewish writers often say, a mother's family is no family; wherefore, if a Levite woman married into any other tribe, as she might, her, descendants were not taken into this accounts only such whose fathers were Levites, see <a href="http://biblehub.com/numbers/1-2.htm">Numbers 1:2</a>, <p>every male from a month old and upwards shalt thou number them; the reason of this was, because the firstborn, for whom they were to be exchanged, were at a month old claimed by the Lord as his, and to be redeemed; and as this numbering was on, another account than, that of the children of Israel, who were numbered from twenty years of age and upwards, that they might on occasion be called out to war, from which the Levites were exempted, and the numbering of them was for the service of the sanctuary; so from their youth they were to be brought up and trained for this, that they might be fit for it, and enter upon it at a proper age. <a name="gsb" id="gsb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gsb/numbers/3.htm">Geneva Study Bible</a></div><span class="cverse2">Number the children of Levi after the house of their fathers, by their families: every male from a month old and upward shalt thou number them.</span></div></div><div id="centbox"><div class="padcent"><div class="comtype">EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/cambridge/numbers/3.htm">Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges</a></div><span class="bld">15</span>. <span class="ital">from, a month old</span>] to correspond with the firstborn (<span class="ital">see <a href="/numbers/3-40.htm" title="And the LORD said to Moses, Number all the firstborn of the males of the children of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names.">Numbers 3:40</a></span>).<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Numbers 3:15<a name="kad" id="kad"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/kad/numbers/3.htm">Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament</a></div>The muster of the Levites included all the males from a month old and upwards, because they were to be sanctified to Jehovah in the place of the first-born; and it was at the age of a month that the latter were either to be given up or redeemed (comp. <a href="/numbers/3-40.htm">Numbers 3:40</a> and <a href="/numbers/3-43.htm">Numbers 3:43</a> with <a href="/numbers/18-16.htm">Numbers 18:16</a>). In <a href="http://biblehub.com/numbers/3-17.htm">Numbers 3:17-20</a> the sons of Levi and their sons are enumerated, who were the founders of the mishpachoth among the Levites, as in <a href="http://biblehub.com/exodus/6-16.htm">Exodus 6:16-19</a>. <div class="vheading2">Links</div><a href="/interlinear/numbers/3-15.htm">Numbers 3:15 Interlinear</a><br /><a href="/texts/numbers/3-15.htm">Numbers 3:15 Parallel Texts</a><br /><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/niv/numbers/3-15.htm">Numbers 3:15 NIV</a><br /><a href="/nlt/numbers/3-15.htm">Numbers 3:15 NLT</a><br /><a href="/esv/numbers/3-15.htm">Numbers 3:15 ESV</a><br /><a href="/nasb/numbers/3-15.htm">Numbers 3:15 NASB</a><br /><a href="/kjv/numbers/3-15.htm">Numbers 3:15 KJV</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="http://bibleapps.com/numbers/3-15.htm">Numbers 3:15 Bible Apps</a><br /><a href="/numbers/3-15.htm">Numbers 3:15 Parallel</a><br /><a href="http://bibliaparalela.com/numbers/3-15.htm">Numbers 3:15 Biblia Paralela</a><br /><a href="http://holybible.com.cn/numbers/3-15.htm">Numbers 3:15 Chinese Bible</a><br /><a href="http://saintebible.com/numbers/3-15.htm">Numbers 3:15 French Bible</a><br /><a href="http://bibeltext.com/numbers/3-15.htm">Numbers 3:15 German Bible</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/">Bible Hub</a><br /></div></div></td></tr></table></div><div id="mdd"><div align="center"><div class="bot2"><table align="center" width="100%"><tr><td align="center"><div align="center"> <script id="3d27ed63fc4348d5b062c4527ae09445"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=51ce25d5-1a8c-424a-8695-4bd48c750f35&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script> <script id="b817b7107f1d4a7997da1b3c33457e03"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=cb0edd8b-b416-47eb-8c6d-3cc96561f7e8&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-2'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-0' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-3'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-1' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div align="center" id='div-gpt-ad-1531425649696-0'> </div><br /><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:200px;height:200px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-3753401421161123" data-ad-slot="3592799687"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /><br /> </div> <div id="left"><a href="../numbers/3-14.htm" onmouseover='lft.src="/leftgif.png"' onmouseout='lft.src="/left.png"' title="Numbers 3:14"><img src="/left.png" name="lft" border="0" alt="Numbers 3:14" /></a></div><div id="right"><a href="../numbers/3-16.htm" onmouseover='rght.src="/rightgif.png"' onmouseout='rght.src="/right.png"' title="Numbers 3:16"><img src="/right.png" name="rght" border="0" alt="Numbers 3:16" /></a></div><div id="botleft"><a href="#" onmouseover='botleft.src="/botleftgif.png"' onmouseout='botleft.src="/botleft.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botleft.png" name="botleft" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="botright"><a href="#" onmouseover='botright.src="/botrightgif.png"' onmouseout='botright.src="/botright.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botright.png" name="botright" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div> <div id="bot"><iframe width="100%" height="1500" scrolling="no" src="/botmenubhnew2.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td></tr></table></div></body></html>