This is the service of the Gershonite clans regarding work and transport:
Parallel translations
- WEB “This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, in serving and in bearing burdens:
- KJV This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, to serve, and for burdens:
- NKJV This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, in serving and carrying:
- NASB This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, in serving and in carrying:
- NLT “These Gershonite clans will be responsible for general service and carrying loads.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
This verse introduces the service of the Gershonites, which involved serving and carrying burdens. Their role was the transport of the tabernacle's fabric components.
Overview
The Gershonites were responsible for the lighter, cloth elements of the tabernacle rather than its most holy furnishings or heavy frames. Defining their duty plainly prevented confusion and overlap among the clans. It illustrates that in God's house every task, however ordinary, is honorable and necessary.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Num 4:15When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy objects and all their equipment, as soon as the camp is ready to move, the Kohathites shall come and do the carrying. But they must not touch the holy objects, or they will die. These are the transportation duties of the Kohathites regarding the Tent of Meeting.
- Num 4:47from thirty to fifty years old who came to do the work of serving and carrying the Tent of Meeting.
- Num 4:19In order that they may live and not die when they come near the most holy things, do this for them: Aaron and his sons are to go in and assign each man his task and what he is to carry.
- Num 4:27All the service of the Gershonites—all their transport duties and other work—is to be done at the direction of Aaron and his sons; you are to assign to them all that they are responsible to carry.
- Num 4:31–32This is the duty for all their service at the Tent of Meeting: to carry the frames of the tabernacle with its crossbars, posts, and bases,
- Num 4:49At the LORD’s command they were numbered through Moses and each one was assigned his work and burden, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 4:24 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.