Numbers 3:28

28 Counting every male one month old or more, there were 8,600^[a] responsible for the duties of^[b] the sanctuary.

Numbers 3:28 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 3:28

In the number of all the males, from a month old and upwards,
[were] eight thousand and six hundred
8,600 men, which was the largest number of any of the houses of the Levites; but considering it had double the number of families in it, the increase was not so large in proportion, at least to Gershon, whose two families wanted but 1,100 of these four:

keeping the charge of the sanctuary;
of the holy and most holy places, and the vessels and instruments belonging thereunto; not that the males of a month old were keeping them, but when they were grown up and were capable of it, they had the charge thereof, in which they were instructed and trained up from their youth.

Numbers 3:28 In-Context

26 the hangings of the courtyard, the screen for the entrance to the courtyard that surrounds the tabernacle and the altar, and the tent ropes-all the work relating to these.

27 The Amramite clan, the Izharite clan, the Hebronite clan, and the Uzzielite clan came from Kohath; these were the Kohathites.

28 Counting every male one month old or more, there were 8,600 responsible for the duties of the sanctuary.

29 The clans of the Kohathites camped on the south side of the tabernacle,

30 and the leader of the family of the Kohathite clans was Elizaphan son of Uzziel.

Footnotes

• [a]. LXX reads 8,300
• [b]. Or for guarding