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Numbers 3: What the Passage Says

149 claims across 51 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Numbers 3 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

The chapter names Aaron's sons and recalls that Nadab and Abihu died after offering fire the LORD had not commanded. The LORD assigns the tribe of Levi to help Aaron and his sons with the work of the tabernacle, and takes the Levites for himself in place of Israel's firstborn sons. The Levite clans of Gershon, Kohath, and Merari are counted, given camping places around the tabernacle, and given specific items to care for. Because the firstborn of Israel outnumber the Levites by 273, Moses collects five shekels for each extra one and gives the money to Aaron and his sons.

Claim by Claim

  1. 3:1
    • This is the record of the generations of Aaron and Moses.
    • The LORD spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai.
    • The record is dated to the day the LORD spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai.
  2. 3:2
    • These are the names of the sons of Aaron.
    • Nadab was Aaron's firstborn son.
    • Abihu was a son of Aaron.
    • Eleazar was a son of Aaron.
    • Ithamar was a son of Aaron.
  3. 3:3
    • These are the names of the sons of Aaron.
    • The sons of Aaron were the anointed priests.
    • Their hands were filled to ordain them to serve as priests.
  4. 3:4
    • Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD.
    • Nadab and Abihu offered unauthorized fire before the LORD.
    • This happened in the wilderness of Sinai.
    • Nadab and Abihu had no sons.
    • Eleazar served as priest in the presence of Aaron their father.
    • Ithamar served as priest in the presence of Aaron their father.
  5. 3:5
    • The LORD spoke to Moses.
  6. 3:6
    • The LORD told Moses to bring the tribe of Levi near.
    • The LORD told Moses to set the tribe of Levi before Aaron the priest.
    • The Levites are to serve Aaron.
  7. 3:7
    • The Levites shall keep Aaron's charge.
    • The Levites shall keep the charge of the whole congregation before the tent of meeting.
    • The Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle.
  8. 3:8
    • The Levites shall keep all the vessels of the tent of meeting.
    • The Levites shall keep the charge of the children of Israel.
    • The Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle.
  9. 3:9
    • Moses is to give the Levites to Aaron and to his sons.
    • The Levites are wholly given to Aaron from among the children of Israel.
  10. 3:10
    • Moses is to appoint Aaron and his sons.
    • Aaron and his sons shall keep their priesthood.
    • An outsider who comes near shall be put to death.
  11. 3:11
    • The LORD spoke to Moses.
  12. 3:12
    • The LORD has taken the Levites from among the children of Israel.
    • The LORD took the Levites in place of every firstborn that opens the womb among the children of Israel.
    • The Levites shall belong to the LORD.
  13. 3:13
    • All the firstborn belong to the LORD.
    • The LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt.
    • On that day the LORD consecrated to himself all the firstborn in Israel.
    • This includes both man and beast.
    • They shall belong to the LORD.
    • The LORD says, I am the LORD.
  14. 3:14
    • The LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai.
  15. 3:15
    • The LORD told Moses to number the sons of Levi by their fathers' houses and by their families.
    • Moses is to count every male from a month old and upward.
  16. 3:16
    • Moses numbered them according to the word of the LORD.
    • Moses did as he was commanded.
  17. 3:17
    • These were the sons of Levi by their names.
    • Gershon was a son of Levi.
    • Kohath was a son of Levi.
    • Merari was a son of Levi.
  18. 3:18
    • These are the names of the sons of Gershon by their families.
    • Libni was a son of Gershon.
    • Shimei was a son of Gershon.
  19. 3:19
    • These are the sons of Kohath by their families.
    • Amram was a son of Kohath.
    • Izhar was a son of Kohath.
    • Hebron was a son of Kohath.
    • Uzziel was a son of Kohath.
  20. 3:20
    • These are the sons of Merari by their families.
    • Mahli was a son of Merari.
    • Mushi was a son of Merari.
    • These are the families of the Levites according to their fathers' houses.
  21. 3:21
    • From Gershon came the family of the Libnites.
    • From Gershon came the family of the Shimeites.
    • These are the families of the Gershonites.
  22. 3:22
    • Those numbered of them counted all males from a month old and upward.
    • Those numbered of them were seven thousand five hundred.
  23. 3:23
    • The families of the Gershonites were to camp behind the tabernacle, on the west.
  24. 3:24
    • The leader of the fathers' house of the Gershonites was Eliasaph son of Lael.
  25. 3:25
    • The charge of the sons of Gershon at the tent of meeting was the tabernacle and the tent.
    • Their charge included the covering of the tent.
    • Their charge included the screen for the entrance of the tent of meeting.
  26. 3:26
    • Their charge included the hangings of the court.
    • Their charge included the screen for the entrance of the court.
    • The court surrounds the tabernacle and the altar.
    • Their charge included the cords of it for all its service.
  27. 3:27
    • From Kohath came the family of the Amramites.
    • From Kohath came the family of the Izharites.
    • From Kohath came the family of the Hebronites.
    • From Kohath came the family of the Uzzielites.
    • These are the families of the Kohathites.
  28. 3:28
    • The number of all their males from a month old and upward was eight thousand six hundred.
    • They kept the charge of the sanctuary.
  29. 3:29
    • The families of the sons of Kohath were to camp on the side of the tabernacle, on the south.
  30. 3:30
    • The leader of the fathers' house of the families of the Kohathites was Elizaphan son of Uzziel.
  31. 3:31
    • Their charge was the ark.
    • Their charge was the table.
    • Their charge was the lampstand.
    • Their charge was the altars.
    • Their charge was the vessels of the sanctuary with which they minister.
    • Their charge was the screen.
    • Their charge included all the service of it.
  32. 3:32
    • Eleazar son of Aaron the priest was chief over the leaders of the Levites.
    • Eleazar had oversight of those who kept the charge of the sanctuary.
  33. 3:33
    • From Merari came the family of the Mahlites.
    • From Merari came the family of the Mushites.
    • These are the families of Merari.
  34. 3:34
    • Those numbered of them, counting all males from a month old and upward, were six thousand two hundred.
  35. 3:35
    • The leader of the fathers' house of the families of Merari was Zuriel son of Abihail.
    • They were to camp on the side of the tabernacle, on the north.
  36. 3:36
    • The appointed charge of the sons of Merari was the boards of the tabernacle.
    • Their charge included its bars.
    • Their charge included its pillars.
    • Their charge included its sockets.
    • Their charge included all its vessels.
    • Their charge included all the service of it.
  37. 3:37
    • Their charge included the pillars of the court round about.
    • Their charge included the sockets of those pillars.
    • Their charge included their pegs.
    • Their charge included their cords.
  38. 3:38
    • Those camping before the tabernacle on the east, before the tent of meeting toward the sunrise, were Moses, Aaron, and Aaron's sons.
    • They kept the charge of the sanctuary.
    • They kept it on behalf of the charge of the children of Israel.
    • An outsider who comes near shall be put to death.
  39. 3:39
    • Moses and Aaron numbered the Levites at the commandment of the LORD.
    • They numbered them throughout their families.
    • The count included all males from a month old and upward.
    • The total of the Levites numbered was twenty-two thousand.
  40. 3:40
    • The LORD said to Moses.
    • The LORD told Moses to number every firstborn male of the children of Israel from a month old and upward.
    • The LORD told Moses to take the number of their names.
  41. 3:41
    • Moses is to take the Levites for the LORD in place of all the firstborn among the children of Israel.
    • The LORD says, I am the LORD.
    • Moses is to take the cattle of the Levites in place of all the firstlings among the cattle of the children of Israel.
  42. 3:42
    • Moses numbered all the firstborn among the children of Israel.
    • Moses did this as the LORD commanded him.
  43. 3:43
    • The firstborn males were counted by the number of names, from a month old and upward.
    • The total of the firstborn males numbered was twenty-two thousand two hundred and seventy-three.
  44. 3:44
    • The LORD spoke to Moses.
  45. 3:45
    • Moses is to take the Levites in place of all the firstborn among the children of Israel.
    • Moses is to take the cattle of the Levites in place of their cattle.
    • The Levites shall belong to the LORD.
    • The LORD says, I am the LORD.
  46. 3:46
    • Two hundred and seventy-three of the firstborn of the children of Israel are to be redeemed.
    • These two hundred and seventy-three exceed the number of the Levites.
  47. 3:47
    • Moses is to take five shekels for each one, counted by head.
    • He is to take them by the shekel of the sanctuary.
    • The shekel is twenty gerahs.
  48. 3:48
    • Moses is to give the money to Aaron and to his sons.
    • The money is the redemption price for those in excess.
  49. 3:49
    • Moses took the redemption money.
    • He took it from those who were over and above those redeemed by the Levites.
  50. 3:50
    • Moses took the money from the firstborn of the children of Israel.
    • The amount was one thousand three hundred and sixty-five shekels.
    • It was reckoned by the shekel of the sanctuary.
  51. 3:51
    • Moses gave the redemption money to Aaron and to his sons.
    • He did so according to the word of the LORD.
    • He did as the LORD commanded Moses.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

3:1
The King James word "generations" means a family record or list of descendants. The heading announces both Aaron and Moses, but only Aaron's sons are listed; Moses' own sons (Exodus 18:3-4) never held priestly office, and the line that mattered for the priesthood was Aaron's.
3:3
Anointing meant pouring scented olive oil over the head. It was the standard ceremony for installing someone in an office, and it is what formally made a man a priest rather than an ordinary Israelite.
3:4
The incident is told in Leviticus 10: Aaron's two eldest sons burned incense with fire the LORD had not asked for, and were killed at the sanctuary. That they had no sons matters because the priesthood passed from father to son, so their branch of the family died out and the whole later priesthood descends from Eleazar and Ithamar.
3:6
Levi was one of the twelve tribes, descended from Jacob's son Levi. Unlike the other tribes it received no block of territory of its own; its inheritance was the work of the sanctuary. Moses and Aaron were themselves Levites.
3:7
"Tent of meeting" and "tabernacle" are two names for the same portable structure: a dismantlable tent-shrine carried through the desert. "Tent of meeting" names it as the place where God met Moses; "tabernacle" translates a Hebrew word meaning dwelling-place.
3:10
"Stranger" in the King James does not mean a foreigner. It means anyone outside the appointed group, here, any Israelite who was not a priest, including the Levites themselves, who assisted but did not officiate.
3:12
"Firstborn" here means the first male a mother bears, not the father's eldest child. In a household with more than one wife each mother's first son counted, which is what the King James phrase "openeth the matrix" (opens the womb) specifies.
3:13
The reference is to the last of the ten plagues in Egypt (Exodus 12), when the firstborn of Egypt died and Israel's firstborn were spared. From then on Israel's firstborn sons and firstborn animals were treated as owed to God. The King James "hallowed" simply means set apart or dedicated.
3:15
The other tribes were counted from age twenty and only fighting men (Numbers 1). The Levites are counted from one month old (the age at which an infant was reckoned likely to survive) because this is not a muster of soldiers but a tally of everyone in the tribe standing in for Israel's firstborn.
3:17
These three sons give the tribe its three divisions. Each is assigned its own place in the camp and its own share of the tabernacle to guard and carry when Israel moves, described in the verses that follow.
3:19
According to Exodus 6:20, Amram was the father of Moses and Aaron. The priestly family is therefore a branch of the Kohathite clan.
3:21
Adding "ite" to a name means "the family of that man." So Libnites means the family of Libni.
3:23
The Levite clans camped in a ring immediately around the tabernacle, between it and the twelve tribes, whose camping positions are set out in chapter 2. Gershon takes the west, Kohath the south, Merari the north, and Moses and Aaron the east.
3:25
"The tabernacle and the tent" are distinct layers of the same structure: the tabernacle proper was the set of embroidered linen curtains forming the inner walls and ceiling, and over it was draped a tent of goat-hair cloth, with hide coverings on top of that. The Gershonites' assignment is the fabric.
3:26
The courtyard was an open rectangular enclosure walled with fabric hung on posts, with the altar for burnt offerings standing inside it in front of the tabernacle. The cords were the guy-ropes that held the hangings and coverings taut.
3:28
"The holy place" (King James "sanctuary") means the set-apart place, the tabernacle and its contents as a whole, not one particular room.
3:31
The Kohathites' load is the sacred furniture: the ark, a gold-covered wooden chest holding the stone tablets and kept in the innermost room; the table, on which loaves were set out before God; the lampstand, a seven-branched gold lamp; the altars, meaning both the large bronze altar for burnt offerings and the small gold altar for incense; and the inner curtain screening off the innermost room. These pieces were carried by hand on poles rather than on carts.
3:32
Eleazar was Aaron's surviving elder son and later succeeded him as high priest. His post here is supervisory, over the three clan leaders just named.
3:36
The Merarites carry the skeleton of the structure: upright wooden frames overlaid with gold, the crossbars that locked them into a rigid wall, and the heavy metal bases the frames stood in.
3:37
"Pins" here means tent pegs, the stakes driven into the ground to anchor the ropes.
3:38
East was the front. The tabernacle's entrance faced the sunrise, so Moses, Aaron and the priests camped directly at the door, closing the ring of Levites around the sanctuary.
3:39
The three clan totals just given (7,500 + 8,600 + 6,200) add up to 22,300, not the 22,000 stated here. The discrepancy stands in the Hebrew text itself; it has been explained as a copying error in one of the figures, or on the ground that Levite firstborn sons could not be counted as substitutes for anyone else.
3:43
The Levites numbered 22,000, so they fall 273 short of the 22,273 firstborn Israelites they are to replace. That shortfall is what the payment in the following verses settles.
3:46
To "redeem" (buy back) is to release a person, animal or piece of property from a claim on it by paying a fixed price instead. It was an ordinary legal transaction, not a figure of speech.
3:47
A shekel was a weight of silver, not a coin, coined money did not yet exist. The "shekel of the sanctuary" was the official standard weight, roughly 11.5 grams, about two-fifths of an ounce; five shekels is therefore about 57 grams of silver. A gerah was the smallest unit, one twentieth of a shekel.
3:50
The figure is the arithmetic of the previous verses: 273 men at five shekels each comes to 1,365 shekels, about 15 kilograms of silver.

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