4:27 “All the service of the Gershonites, whether 1 carrying loads 2 or for any of their work, will be at the direction of 3 Aaron and his sons. You will assign them all their tasks 4 as their responsibility.
1 tn The term “whether” is supplied to introduce the enumerated parts of the explanatory phrase.
2 tn Here again is the use of the noun “burden” in the sense of the loads they were to carry (see the use of carts in Num 7:7).
3 tn The expression is literally “upon/at the mouth of” (עַל־פִּי, ’al-pi); it means that the work of these men would be under the direct orders of Aaron and his sons.
4 tn Or “burden.”
5 tn The text multiplies the vocabulary of service here in the summary. In the Hebrew text the line reads literally: “everyone who came to serve the service of serving, and the service of burden.” The Levites came into service in the shrine, and that involved working in the sanctuary as well as carrying it from one place to the next.