🔢WEB · Numbers 4:33
What does Numbers 4:33 mean?
"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.”"
— Numbers 4:33 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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,
from thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered into the service, for work in the Tent of Meeting.
Those who were counted of them by their families were two thousand seven hundred fifty.
Explanation
Numbers 4:33 comes at the close of a detailed passage describing the work assignments given to the Levite clan of Merari. In plain language, the verse simply summarizes what has just been listed: the men of the Merarite families had a specific job to do in connection with the Tent of Meeting (the tabernacle), and they were to carry out that job under the direct supervision of Ithamar, one of Aaron's sons and a priest. Their particular task, described just before this verse, was to carry the heavier structural parts of the tabernacle — the frames, bars, pillars, bases, pegs, and cords — whenever Israel moved camp during their wilderness journey.
The book of Numbers was written by Moses and addressed to the Israelites during their journey from Egypt through the wilderness toward the Promised
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