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Numbers 4:29-49
New King James Version
Numbers 4:29-49
New King James Version
Duties of the Sons of Merari
29 “As for the sons of (A)Merari, you shall number them by their families and by their fathers’ house. 30 (B)From thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, you shall number them, everyone who enters the service to do the work of the tabernacle of meeting. 31 And (C)this is (D)what they must carry as all their service for the tabernacle of meeting: (E)the boards of the tabernacle, its bars, its pillars, its sockets, 32 and the pillars around the court with their sockets, pegs, and cords, with all their furnishings and all their service; and you shall (F)assign to each man by name the items he must carry. 33 This is the service of the families of the sons of Merari, as all their service for the tabernacle of meeting, under the [a]authority of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.”
Census of the Levites
34 (G)And Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of the congregation numbered the sons of the Kohathites by their families and by their fathers’ house, 35 from thirty (H)years old and above, even to fifty years old, everyone who entered the service for work in the tabernacle of meeting; 36 and those who were numbered by their families were two thousand seven hundred and fifty. 37 These were the ones who were numbered of the families of the Kohathites, all who might serve in the tabernacle of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.
38 And those who were numbered of the sons of Gershon, by their families and by their fathers’ house, 39 from thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, everyone who entered the service for work in the tabernacle of meeting— 40 those who were numbered by their families, by their fathers’ house, were two thousand six hundred and thirty. 41 (I)These are the ones who were numbered of the families of the sons of Gershon, of all who might serve in the tabernacle of meeting, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of the Lord.
42 Those of the families of the sons of Merari who were numbered, by their families, by their fathers’ [b]house, 43 from thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, everyone who entered the service for work in the tabernacle of meeting— 44 those who were numbered by their families were three thousand two hundred. 45 These are the ones who were numbered of the families of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and Aaron numbered (J)according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.
46 All who were (K)numbered of the Levites, whom Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of Israel numbered, by their families and by their fathers’ houses, 47 (L)from thirty years old and above, even to fifty years old, everyone who came to do the work of service and the work of bearing burdens in the tabernacle of meeting— 48 those who were numbered were eight thousand five hundred and eighty.
49 According to the commandment of the Lord they were numbered by the hand of Moses, (M)each according to his service and according to his task; thus were they numbered by him, (N)as the Lord commanded Moses.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Numbers 4:33 Lit. hand
- Numbers 4:42 household
Numbers 4:29-49
New International Version
Numbers 4:29-49
New International Version
The Merarites
29 “Count(A) the Merarites by their clans and families.(B) 30 Count all the men from thirty to fifty years of age who come to serve in the work at the tent of meeting. 31 As part of all their service at the tent, they are to carry the frames of the tabernacle, its crossbars, posts and bases,(C) 32 as well as the posts of the surrounding courtyard with their bases, tent pegs, ropes,(D) all their equipment and everything related to their use. Assign to each man the specific things he is to carry. 33 This is the service of the Merarite clans as they work at the tent of meeting under the direction of Ithamar(E) son of Aaron, the priest.”
The Numbering of the Levite Clans
34 Moses, Aaron and the leaders of the community counted the Kohathites(F) by their clans and families. 35 All the men from thirty to fifty years of age(G) who came to serve in the work at the tent of meeting, 36 counted by clans, were 2,750. 37 This was the total of all those in the Kohathite clans(H) who served at the tent of meeting. Moses and Aaron counted them according to the Lord’s command through Moses.
38 The Gershonites(I) were counted by their clans and families. 39 All the men from thirty to fifty years of age who came to serve in the work at the tent of meeting, 40 counted by their clans and families, were 2,630. 41 This was the total of those in the Gershonite clans who served at the tent of meeting. Moses and Aaron counted them according to the Lord’s command.
42 The Merarites were counted by their clans and families. 43 All the men from thirty to fifty years of age(J) who came to serve in the work at the tent of meeting, 44 counted by their clans, were 3,200. 45 This was the total of those in the Merarite clans.(K) Moses and Aaron counted them according to the Lord’s command through Moses.
46 So Moses, Aaron and the leaders of Israel counted(L) all the Levites by their clans and families. 47 All the men from thirty to fifty years of age(M) who came to do the work of serving and carrying the tent of meeting 48 numbered 8,580.(N) 49 At the Lord’s command through Moses, each was assigned his work and told what to carry.
Thus they were counted,(O) as the Lord commanded Moses.
New King James Version (NKJV) 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.