Add parallel Print Page Options

The Service of the Merarites

29 “As for the sons of Merari, you are to number them by their families and by their clans. 30 You must number them from thirty years old and upward to fifty years old, all who enter the company to do the work of the tent of meeting. 31 This is what they are responsible to carry as their entire service in the tent of meeting: the frames[a] of the tabernacle, its crossbars, its posts, its sockets, 32 and the posts of the surrounding courtyard with their sockets, tent pegs, and ropes, along with all their furnishings and everything for their service. You are to assign by name the items that each man is responsible to carry.[b] 33 This is the service of the families of the Merarites, their entire service concerning the tent of meeting, under the authority of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest.”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Numbers 4:31 sn More recent studies have concluded that these supports were made of two long uprights joined by cross-bars (like a ladder). They were frames rather than boards, meaning that the structure under the tent was not a solid building. It also meant that they would have been lighter to carry.
  2. Numbers 4:32 tn Heb “you shall assign by names the vessels of the responsibility of their burden.”

Duties of the Merarites

29 As for the sons of Merari, you shall count them by their families, by their fathers’ households; 30 from (A)thirty years old and upward, even to fifty years old, you shall count them, everyone who can enter the service to do the work of the tent of meeting. 31 Now this is the duty of their loads, for all their service in the tent of meeting: the boards of the tabernacle, its bars, its pillars, and its bases, 32 and the pillars around the courtyard and their bases, their pegs, and their ropes, with all their equipment and with all their service; and you shall assign by names of the men the items [a]that each is to carry. 33 This is the service of the families of the sons of Merari, according to all their service in the tent of meeting, [b]under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Numbers 4:32 Lit of the duty of their loads
  2. Numbers 4:33 Lit in the hand