Levites 501, 502...

Numbers 3

A little family time with Aaron and Moses.

Moses gives us a brief recap of Nadab and Abihu... those "strange fire" guys- you can read our original discussion of it here:http://chiphall.blogspot.com/2009/09/strange-fire-leviticus-10-day-one-of.html

As a result of these firemen's escapade, Aaron was left with two sons to serve as priests. Nadab and Abihu were childless, so Aaron's line continues completely through Eleazar and Ithamar.

God tells Moses to "bring" the Levites to Aaron- they are his to aid in tabernacle duties- including furnishing the Tent of Meeting. Only Aaron and his sons can approach the sanctuary- anyone else who does is to be put to death. I assume this would allow for sanctuary duties for male offspring of Eleazar and Ithamar, but it's pretty ambiguous.

God takes claim to the Levites. He says that since He struck down the Egyptian firstborn, all firstborn in Israel, man and animal are His. He's claiming the Levites instead of the Israelite firstborn.

So, apparently to make sure that He claimed the right number of them, he institutes a Levitical census. And then the structure of the tribe is laid out. The opposite of fascinating.

Levi had three boys, so there are three groups in the tribe which each have separate clans. It's like reading taxonomy in biology class.

Gershon had the Libnites and Shimeites- 7500 males. They were to camp west of the tabernacle. Eliasaph was in charge. They were "responsible for the care of the tabernacle and tent, its coverings, the curtain at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, ²⁶ the curtains of the courtyard, the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard surrounding the tabernacle and altar, and the ropes—and everything related to their use."

Kohath got the Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites and Uzzielites- 8600 males. Elizaphan was in charge. They took care of the sanctuary and camped south of the tabernacle. They were "responsible for the care of the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, the articles of the sanctuary used in ministering, the curtain, and everything related to their use."

Finally, Merari got the Mahlites and the Mushites- 6200 males. Zuriel was in charge. They camped north of the tabernacle. They were "appointed to take care of the frames of the tabernacle, its crossbars, posts, bases, all its equipment, and everything related to their use, ³⁷ as well as the posts of the surrounding courtyard with their bases, tent pegs and ropes."

Moses, Aaron and their children camped to the east. They took care of the sanctuary.

So every male a month or older totaled 22,000. So to make sure He claimed enough of them, He had Moses count the firstborn Israelite males a month or older. When Moses did, he got 22,273. So God told them to take up a collection to make up for the 273 firstborn not accounted for- five shekels per extra firstborn.

So Moses did, and as commanded, the money went to Aaron and his sons.

What's weird to me about this passage is that the Levite numbers seem to be rounded off. It would be weird if all three tribes had round numbers of males. This rounding wouldn't be odd if they weren't being compared to Israelite firstborn whose numbers obviously weren't being rounded off.

Maybe it was just a weird coincidence and those numbers are exact. Maybe the individual clan numbers are rounded- but when you add the actual numbers, they come out to the round total. Maybe Moses realized after the Levite count that an exact sum was needed, and paranoid about ripping off God, he gave the exact numbers of firstborn Israelites.

Whatever the reason, God seemed to be ok with it all.