The Numbering Of The Levites For Their Service (Numbers 26:57-62).
Once again it is significant that the Levites are numbered in ‘round thousands'. They operated through their three sub-tribes, and their clans, and were not split into ‘hundreds' (smaller units). They would not be going into battle.
‘And these are they that were numbered of the Levites after their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites; of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites; of Merari, the family of the Merarites. These are the families of Levi: the family of the Libnites, the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Mahlites, the family of the Mushites, the family of the Korahites.
The sub-tribes of Levi were the Gershonites, the Kohathites and the Merarites. Further clans split of comprising the Libnites, the Hebronites, the Mahlites, the Mushites and the Korahites. We can see now why it was emphasised that the sons of Korah still lived.
‘And Kohath begat Amram. And the name of Amram's wife was Yochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt: and she bore to Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister.
The birth of Aaron and Moses, together with Miriam their sister, was now categorised. They were descended from Kohath, through Amram, whose wife was Yo-chebed (a rare use of Yah in an early name). If Yo-chebed was strictly the daughter of Levi then she and Amram were ancestors of Aaron and Moses. An ancestress could be spoken of as ‘bearing' her descendants for many generations. However, the alternative is that ‘the daughter of' simply means that she was descended from him, she was a Levite. That usage too was common practise. What mattered was the bloodline.
‘And to Aaron were born Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before Yahweh.'
Again attention is drawn to those who failed in Israel. Nadab and Abihu rebelled against Yahweh's will and died. But also included are those who succeeded, and lived. Their future would speak for itself.
It is interesting to note that in the listing of the tribes there have been two references to circumstances where people had died (Numbers 26:10; Numbers 26:19), compared with one here, making three such circumstances in all, a symbol of completeness. They summed up all who died in rebellion against Yahweh. And there have been two references to women in the listing of the tribes (Numbers 26:33; Numbers 26:46), and one in Num 20:59. Again the same symbolism applies. They represented all the women of the tribes.
‘And they that were numbered of them were twenty and three thousand, every male from a month old and upward; for they were not numbered among the children of Israel, because there was no inheritance given them among the children of Israel.'
And the number of Levites was twenty three larger units. An additional family grouping had been added during the wilderness period.