All that were numbered of the Levites, which Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of the LORD, throughout their families, all the males from a month old and upward, were twenty and two thousand.
Twenty and two thousand. The result of this census, though made on conditions most advantageous to Levi, proved it to be by far the smallest recorded in Israel. The separate numbers stated in Numbers 3:22; Numbers 3:28; Numbers 3:34, when added together, amount to 22,300. The omission of the 300 is variously accounted for-by some, because they might be firstborn who were already devoted to God, and could not be counted as substitutes; and by others, because, in Scripture style, the sum is reckoned in round numbers.
The most probable conjecture is, that as Hebrew letters are employed for figures, one letter was, in the course of transcription, taken for another of like form but smaller value. Dr. Colenso, appealing to Exodus 6:1-30, where it is said that Levi had three sons, concludes that there were no more in his family. But it appears from that chapter that those only are mentioned who were heads of families at the time of the exodus (Numbers 3:25), and consequently, although Levi may have had sons born to him in Egypt, they are reckoned as included under one or other of the three branches named. Dr. Colenso applies the same rule to the families of Levi's sons who are stated to have had, Gershon two (Numbers 3:18; Exodus 6:17); Kohath four (Numbers 3:19; Exodus 6:18), and Merari two (Numbers 3:20; Exodus 6:19); and as these are all that are recorded in the Pentateuchal list, he assumes that the genealogy is complete-so that, considering the smallness of the original stock, he rejects the number of descendants recorded as belonging to these three Levitical divisions as grossly exaggerated.
But the genealogical lists, which are expressly said to be confined to heads of families, cannot be considered as giving a full enumeration of the respective families. Some descendants are mentioned in this chapter (Numbers 3:24-35) whose names do not previously occur. Moreover, in 1 Chronicles 23:18, Shelomith, a fourth son of Izhar, is recorded, and four sons of Hebron (Numbers 3:19), of whose existence information is given no where else. 'The sons named are named for some special reason, as, for example, to present the descent of the chief families, or to give the pedigree of some particular person necessary to be noted: as here, the sons of Izhar are mentioned, because the oldest, Korah, was one of the heads of a rebellion. In like manner, the sons of Uzziel are given, because Mishael and Elzaphan are elsewhere mentioned on a very remarkable occasion. Only the heads are mentioned.
But the designation head implies others who were not heads - i:e., there were other sons, who also had children, but not being heads, they are not mentioned, themselves and their posterity being included in the families of the heads' (cf. 1 Chronicles 23:11) (Dr. McCaul's 'Examination of Colenso's Difficulties,' p. 119). The fact is that the object of the historian in giving the genealogical list of Levi, was not to show the number of the Levites, but to trace the descent of Aaron, and hence, it is carried down to the fifth descent through Aaron. This will be seen from the subjoined genealogical tree, the branches of which are delineated according to the statements in this chapter and Exo 6:16-27 .
Thus, it appears that, in accordance with the historian's plan, five descents are given through Kohath, but only two through Gershon and Merari.
In this passage, while the same object is pursued to a certain extent, in naming the sons of Aaron (Numbers 3:2), the sacred historian had a further design by inserting the genealogical list of Levi's descendants, namely-that of showing the three principal divisions of the tribe to which special departments of duty connected with the tabernacle were assigned. After mentioning these great branches of the Levitical tribe, he proceeds to enumerate the different sections into which each of them was subdivided, stating that the Gershonites consisted of two portions-namely, the Libnites and the Shimites (Numbers 3:21); the Kohathites of four-namely, the Amramites, the Izharites, the Hebronites, and the Uzzielites (Numbers 3:27); and the Merarites of two-namely, the Mahlites and the Mushites (Numbers 3:33), with the heads or founders of these respective divisions; Eleazar, the son of Aaron, being superintendent in chief of all 'that kept the charge of the sanctuary' Numbers 3:32). In closing this record of the tribal and family distribution of Levi, the historian states the numerical amount of each of the three large divisions-proceeding manifestly upon the understood principle, that the several numbers, the 7,500 of the Gershonites, the 8,600 of the Kohathites, the 6,200 of the Merarites, included all those Levites who were connected with the respective divisions, though not exclusively the lineal descendants of the sons of Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, that are specified as the heads of the clans (see Benisch on this subject, p. 124).