Numbers 3:28

28 According to [the] number of every male from {one month} and above [there were] eight thousand six hundred keeping the responsibility of 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 and the hangings of the courtyard and the curtain of the doorway of the courtyard that [is] around the tabernacle and the altar, and its ten cords, all of its use.

27 {To Kohath belonged} the clan of Amramites, the clan of the Izharites, the clan of the Hebronites, and the clan [of] the Uzzielites; these [were] the clans of the Kohathites.

28 According to [the] number of every male from {one month} and above [there were] eight thousand six hundred keeping the responsibility of the sanctuary.

29 The clan of the descendants of Kohath will encamp on the side of the tabernacle to the south.

30 The leader of {his family} according to the clans of the Kohathites [is] Elizaphan the son of Uzziel.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "the son of a month"