Numbers 4:2-3

4:2 “Take a census ¹  of the Kohathites from among the Levites, by their families and by their clans, 4:3 from thirty years old and upward to fifty years old, all who enter the company ²  to do the work in the tent of meeting.

Numbers 4:23

4:23 You must number them from thirty years old and upward to fifty years old, all who enter the company to do the work of the tent of meeting.

Numbers 4:30

4:30 You must number them from thirty years old and upward to fifty years old, all who enter the company to do the work of the tent of meeting.

Numbers 4:35

4:35 from thirty years old and upward to fifty years old, everyone who entered the company for the work in the tent of meeting;

Numbers 4:43

4:43 from thirty years old and upward to fifty years old, everyone who entered the company for the work in the tent of meeting –

Numbers 4:47

4:47 from thirty years old and upward to fifty years old, everyone who entered to do the work of service and the work of carrying ³  relating to the tent of meeting –

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¹ tn Heb “lift up the head.” The form נָשֹׂא (naso’) is the Qal infinitive absolute functioning here as a pure verb form. This serves to emphasize the basic verbal root idea (see GKC 346 §113.bb).

sn The census of chapter 3 was to register all male Levites from a month old and up. It arranged the general duties of each of the tribes. The second census of Levites now will focus on those between 30 and 50 years of age, those who were actually in service. These are the working Levites. The duties here will be more specific for each of the families. The Kohathites, although part of the ordinary ministry of Levites, were a special group chosen to handle the most holy furnishings. J. Milgrom shows three aspects of their service: (1) skilled labor (מְלָאכָה, mÿla’khah) or “work,” (2) physical labor (עֲבֹדָה, ‘avodah) or “service,” and (3) assisting the priests (שָׁרֵת, sharet) or “ministering” (see his Studies in Levitical Terminology, 1:60-70).

² tn The word “company” is literally “host, army” (צָבָא, tsava’). The repetition of similar expressions makes the translation difficult: Heb “all [who] come to the host to do work in the tent.”

³ 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.