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Numbers 7 · a question people ask

Why did Merari get twice as many wagons as Gershon?

In the text

The text's reason for both is the same four words: "according to their service" (7:7, 7:8). It doesn't say more. Numbers 4 lists what each clan carried: Gershon, "the curtains of the tabernacle and the Tent of Meeting, its covering" and the court's hangings and cords (Numbers 4:25-26); Merari, "the tabernacle’s boards, its bars, its pillars, its sockets" and the court's pillars, sockets, pins and cords (Numbers 4:31-32). Here Merari's wagons are "under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest" (7:8), and Numbers 4 puts both clans "under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest" (Numbers 4:28, 4:33).

The verses

“He gave two wagons and four oxen to the sons of Gershon, according to their service. He gave four wagons and eight oxen to the sons of Merari, according to their service, under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.”
Numbers 7:7-8 · World English Bible
“they shall carry the curtains of the tabernacle and the Tent of Meeting, its covering, the covering of sealskin that is on it, the screen for the door of the Tent of Meeting, the hangings of the court, the screen for the door of the gate of the court which is by the tabernacle and around the altar, their cords, and all the instruments of their service, and whatever shall be done with them. They shall serve in there.”
Numbers 4:25-26 · World English Bible
“This is the service of the families of the sons of the Gershonites in the Tent of Meeting. Their duty shall be under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.”
Numbers 4:28 · World English Bible
“This is the duty of their burden, according to all their service in the Tent of Meeting: the tabernacle’s boards, its bars, its pillars, its sockets, the pillars of the court around it, their sockets, their pins, their cords, with all their instruments, and with all their service. You shall appoint the instruments of the duty of their burden to them by name. This is the service of the families of the sons of Merari, according to all their service in the Tent of Meeting, under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.””
Numbers 4:31-33 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Numbers 7

Numbers 7: Each prince on his day

Numbers 7 goes back to the day the tabernacle was set up (7:1; Exodus 40:17). Kohath got no wagons because they carried the sanctuary's holy things on their shoulders (7:9; Numbers 4:15). Then twelve princes brought exactly the same gift on twelve days, in the order their tribes camped (Numbers 2), and the text names every one.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions