1 Chronicles 23:3
◄  1 Chronicles 23:3  ►
New International Version (©2011)
The Levites thirty years old or more were counted, and the total number of men was thirty-eight thousand.

New Living Translation (©2007)
All the Levites who were thirty years old or older were counted, and the total came to 38,000.

English Standard Version (©2001)
The Levites, thirty years old and upward, were numbered, and the total was 38,000 men.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
The Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward, and their number by census of men was 38,000.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
The Levites 30 years old or more were counted; the total number of men was 38,000 by headcount."

International Standard Version (©2012)
descendants of Levi 30 years old and above were counted for a total of 38,000.

NET Bible (©2006)
The Levites who were thirty years old and up were counted; there were 38,000 men.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Every male Levite who was at least 30 years old was counted. There were 38,000.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward: and their number, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand.

American King James Version
Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand.

American Standard Version
And the Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years, and upwards: and there were found of them thirty-eight thousand men.

Darby Bible Translation
And the Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward; and their number, by their polls, man by man, was thirty-eight thousand.

English Revised Version
And the Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand.

Webster's Bible Translation
Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand.

World English Bible
The Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty-eight thousand.

Young's Literal Translation
and the Levites are numbered from a son of thirty years and upward, and their number, by their polls, is of mighty men thirty and eight thousand.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

23:1-23 David, having given charge concerning the building of the temple, settles the method of the temple service, and orders the officers of it. When those of the same family were employed together, it would engage them to love and assist one another.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward. The thing which Joab had rightly resisted (1 Chronicles 21:3-6) and shrunk from doing was now rightly done. There was now a practical and a legitimate object for doing it. This consideration helps to determine what it was that "displeased the Lord" in the former general census of David. In connection with this clause, 1 Chronicles 27:23 should be noted, where we read, "But David took not the number of them from twenty years old and under: because the Lord had said he would increase Israel like to the stars of the heavens." The period from the age of thirty years up to fifty (Numbers 4:3, 23, 35, 39) was fixed under Moses, for those "that came to do the service of the ministry, and the service of the burden in the tabernacle of the congregation" (Numbers 4:47). It is not certain, however, that this census did not inquire, in point of fact, respecting some below this limit of age. For we may note ver. 24 in the first place, and this is partly explained by Numbers 8:23-25. The number "thirty and eight thousand" of our present verse may be compared with the "eight thousand and five hundred and four score" of Numbers 4:47, 48. It is to be observed how promptly the national council did on this occasion commence with the arrangement of the ministers of religion, "the Levites." As we read (Numbers 4:3) of "thirty years" of age as the appointed age for the commencement of their ministry, and (Numbers 7:3) of the present or "offering" of "six covered waggons and twelve oxen," which the twelve "princes of Israel, heads of the house of their fathers, princes of the tribes," offered "before the Lord," which greatly lessened the laborious work of the Levites; so we find the commencing age reduced from time to time, to "twenty-five" years (Numbers 8:24), and to "twenty years" of age, as in our present chapter (vers. 24-28).

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years, and upward,.... So they were numbered in the days of Moses, and by his order, and so they were now at first; though afterwards there was a new reckoning of them, 1 Chronicles 23:24.

and their number by their posts; or, according to their heads:

man by man, was thirty and eight thousand; which vastly exceeds the number in the times of Moses; see Numbers 4:47, but then those above fifty years of age were not numbered, as they now might; since their work in the temple would be much more easy, no burdens to carry, as the ark, the vessels, &c.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. the Levites were numbered … thirty and eight thousand—Four times their number at the early census taken by Moses (see on [397]Nu 4:1-49; [398]26:1-51). It was, in all likelihood, this vast increase that suggested and rendered expedient that classification, made in the last year of David's reign, which the present and three subsequent chapters describe.

by their polls, man by man—Women and children were not included.

1 Chronicles 23:3 Parallel Commentaries

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Divisions of the Levites
3Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand. 4Of which, twenty and four thousand were to set forward the work of the house of the LORD; and six thousand were officers and judges: 5Moreover four thousand were porters; and four thousand praised the LORD with the instruments which I made, said David, to praise therewith. …

Numbers 4:3 Count all the men from thirty to fifty years of age who come to serve in the work at the tent of meeting.
Numbers 4:23 Count all the men from thirty to fifty years of age who come to serve in the work at the tent of meeting.
Numbers 4:48 numbered 8,580.
Numbers 8:24 "This applies to the Levites: Men twenty-five years old or more shall come to take part in the work at the tent of meeting,
1 Chronicles 23:2 He also gathered together all the leaders of Israel, as well as the priests and Levites.
1 Chronicles 23:24 These were the descendants of Levi by their families--the heads of families as they were registered under their names and counted individually, that is, the workers twenty years old or more who served in the temple of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 31:16 In addition, they distributed to the males three years old or more whose names were in the genealogical records--all who would enter the temple of the LORD to perform the daily duties of their various tasks, according to their responsibilities and their divisions.