This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, to serve, and for burdens:
Parallel translations
- WEB “This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, in serving and in bearing burdens:
- BSB This is the service of the Gershonite clans regarding work and transport:
- 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 4:15And when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation.
- Num 4:47From thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one that came to do the service of the ministry, and the service of the burden in the tabernacle of the congregation,
- Num 4:19But thus do unto them, that they may live, and not die, when they approach unto the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in, and appoint them every one to his service and to his burden:
- Num 4:27At the appointment of Aaron and his sons shall be all the service of the sons of the Gershonites, in all their burdens, and in all their service: and ye shall appoint unto them in charge all their burdens.
- Num 4:31–32And this is the charge of their burden, according to all their service in the tabernacle of the congregation; the boards of the tabernacle, and the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, and sockets thereof,
- Num 4:49According to the commandment of the LORD they were numbered by the hand of Moses, every one according to his service, and according to his burden: thus were they numbered of him, as the LORD 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
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