🔢WEB · Numbers 4:31
What does Numbers 4:31 mean?
"This is the duty of their burden, according to all their service in the Tent of Meeting: the tabernacle’s boards, its bars, its pillars, its sockets,"
— Numbers 4:31 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
This is the service of the families of the sons of the Gershonites in the Tent of Meeting: and their duty shall be under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.
“As for the sons of Merari, you shall count them by their families, by their fathers’ houses;
you shall count them from thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who enters on the service, to do the work of the Tent of Meeting.
This is the duty of their burden, according to all their service in the Tent of Meeting: the tabernacle’s boards, its bars, its pillars, its sockets,
and the pillars of the court around it, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords, with all their instruments, and with all their service: and by name you shall appoint the instruments of the duty of their burden.
This is the service of the families of the sons of Merari, according to all their service, in the Tent of Meeting, under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.”
Moses and Aaron and the princes of the congregation counted the sons of the Kohathites by their families, and by their fathers’ houses,
Explanation
Numbers 4:31 comes in the middle of a detailed set of instructions God gave to Moses concerning the Levite clan of Merari and their specific job in caring for the tabernacle. In plain language, the verse simply lists part of what this group was responsible for carrying whenever Israel broke camp and moved: the wooden frames (boards) that formed the walls of the tabernacle structure, the bars that held those frames together, the upright pillars, and the sockets or bases into which the frames and pillars were set. This was heavy, structural equipment — the literal skeleton of the tabernacle building itself, as opposed to the sacred furnishings like the ark or altar, which were assigned to other Levite families.
To understand the context, it helps to know that Numbers 4 organizes the tribe of Levi into three family divisions — the Kohathites, the Gershonites, and the Merarites — each given a distinct task in transporting the tabernacle through the wilderness. The Kohathites carried the holy objects (ark, table, lampstand, altars), the Gershonites carried the curtains, coverings, and cloth hangings, and the Merarites, addressed here, carried the heavy wooden and metal framework — the boards, bars, pillars, and sockets that gave the tabernacle its physical shape. Moses and Aaron were told to number these men, ages thirty to fifty, and assign them precisely to this labor. This was written by Moses as part of the broader book of Numbers, which chronicles Israel's organization and journey from Sinai toward the Promised
Compare translations
Go deeper with ScriptureCompanion AI
Ask questions about any verse, follow reading plans, write personal prayers, and track your daily habit — all grounded in verified scripture text.