SEV Biblia, Chapter 3:39
Todos los contados de los levitas, que Moisés y Aarón conforme a la palabra del SEÑOR contaron por sus familias, todos los varones de un mes arriba, fueron veintidós mil.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Numbers 3:39
Verse 39. Which Moses and Aaron numbered] The word rhaw veaharon, "and Aaron." has a point over each of its letters, probably designed as a mark of spuriousness. The word is wanting in the Samaritan, Syriac, and Coptic; it is wanting also in eight of Dr. Kennicott's MSS., and in four of Deuteronomy Rossi's. Moses alone, as Houbigant observes, is commanded to take the number of the Levites; see ver. 5, 11, 40, 44, and 51. All the males-were twenty and two thousand.] This total does not agree with the particulars; for the Gershonites were 7, 500, the Kohathites 8, 600, the Merarites 6, 200, total 22, 300. Several methods of solving this difficulty have been proposed by learned men; Dr. Kennicott's is the most simple. Formerly the numbers in the Hebrew Bible were expressed by letters, and not by words at full length; and if two nearly similar letters were mistaken for each other, many errors in the numbers must be the consequence. Now it is probable that an error has crept into the number of the Gershonites, ver. 22, where, instead of 7, 500, we should read 7, 200, as û caph, 500, might have been easily mistaken for r resh, 200, especially if the down stroke of the caph had been a little shorter than ordinary, which is often the case in MSS. The extra 300 being taken off, the total is just 22, 000, as mentioned in the 39th verse.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 39. All that were numbered of the Levites, which Moses and Aaron , numbered at the commandment of the Lord, throughout their families , etc.] Whence it appears, that Moses was not alone, but Aaron with him, in numbering the Levites, and that by the appointment of the Lord. The word “Aaron”, in the Hebrew text, has a dot on every letter, for what reason it is not certain; the word itself is left out in the Samaritan and Syriac versions: all the males, from a month old and upward, [were] twenty and two thousand ; 22,000 men; but by putting the sums together they amount to three hundred more; for of the Gershonites there were 7,500, and of the Kohathites 8,600, and of the Merarites 6,200, in all 22,300; which difficulty some endeavour to remove by saying, as Aben Ezra observes, that the Scripture takes a short way, mentioning the thousands, and leaving out the hundreds but this, he says, is not right, nor is it the way of the Scripture in this chapter: and in an after account of the firstborn of the Israelites, not only the hundreds are mentioned, but the broken number of seventy three. Others think there is a corruption crept into the text somewhere in the particular numbers, through the inadvertency of some copyist; and suppose it to be in the number of the Kohathites, where they fancy çç , six, is put instead of çlç , three: but there is no occasion to suppose either of these, for which there is no foundation, since the reason why three hundred are left out in the sum total may be, because there were so many firstborn among the Levites, and these could not be exchanged for the firstborn of the other tribes; they, as such, being the Lord’s, and one firstborn could not redeem another; and so it is said in the Talmud f19 , these three hundred were firstborn, and there is no firstborn redeems a firstborn, or frees from the redemption price of five shekels.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 14-39 - The Levites were in three classes, according to the sons of Levi Gershon, Kohath, and Merari; and these were subdivided into families The posterity of Moses were not at all honoured or privileged, but stood upon the level with other Levites; thus it was plain, that Mose did not seek the advancement of his own family, or to secure an honours to it. The tribe of Levi was by much the least of all the tribes. God's chosen are but a little flock in comparison with the world.
Original Hebrew
כל 3605 פקודי 6485 הלוים 3881 אשׁר 834 פקד 6485 משׁה 4872 ואהרן 175 על 5921 פי 6310 יהוה 3068 למשׁפחתם 4940 כל 3605 זכר 2145 מבן 1121 חדשׁ 2320 ומעלה 4605 שׁנים 8147 ועשׂרים 6242 אלף׃ 505
