וַיִּהְי֣וּ פְקֻדֵיהֶ֗ם שְׁלֹשָׁ֤ה וְעֶשְׂרִים֙ אֶ֔לֶף כָּל־זָכָ֖ר מִבֶּן־חֹ֣דֶשׁ וָמָ֑עְלָה כִּ֣י ׀ לֹ֣א הָתְפָּקְד֗וּ בְּתוֹךְ֙ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל כִּ֠י לֹא־נִתַּ֤ן לָהֶם֙ נַחֲלָ֔ה בְּת֖וֹךְ בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
Jumlah orang yang terhitung dari mereka adalah dua puluh tiga ribu orang, yaitu semua laki-laki yang berumur satu bulan ke atas; sebab mereka tidak dihitung bersama-sama dengan orang Israel lainnya, karena mereka tidak diberi milik pusaka di tengah-tengah orang Israel.
Rashi
אחלקם ביעקב I WILL DIVIDE THEM IN JACOB — I shall separate them from each other inasmuch as Levi shall not be numbered among the tribes (cf. Numbers 26:62) and thus they (Simeon and Levi) will be divided (cf. Genesis Rabbah 98:5). Another interpretation is: both of these tribes will be dispersed in Israel, and this happened, for you will find that the very poor — the Scribes and elementary teachers — were all of the tribe of Simeon, and this was so in order that this tribe should be dispersed, since such poor people must wander from city to city to eke out a livelihood. As for the tribe of Levi, He made them travel round from one threshing floor to another to collect their heave offerings and tithes; thus He caused them also to be “scattered” but in a more respectable manner (Genesis Rabbah 99:6).
Ramban
AND THE ETERNAL SPOKE UNTO MOSES IN THE WILDERNESS OF SINAI. The reason for this statement is that since Scripture said above in the day that the Eternal spoke with Moses in Mount Sinai,154Above, Verse 1. it refers back and says [here] that the command for counting the Levites was not given in Mount Sinai; for only the choosing of the [four] children of Aaron [as priests] took place in Mount Sinai on the day that He commanded Moses about the making of the Tabernacle, but he was not given the command about the choosing of [all] the Levites [as ministers to the priests] at Mount Sinai, but in the wilderness of Sinai in the Tent of Meeting, just like the commandment mentioned [above] concerning [the counting of] the children of Israel [about which it is clearly stated that it was in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting].135Above, 1:1.
Now the tribe of Levi was not like all the other tribes, for [even though they were counted] from a month old and upward155Verse 15 here. [unlike the other tribes who were counted only from the age of twenty years and over], they were still only twenty and two thousand,156Further. Verse 39. and from thirty years old and over they were all together [only] eight thousand [and five hundred and fourscore].157Ibid., 4:48. Thus, their number from twenty years old and over does not reach even a half of the [number of the] smallest of [the other] tribes of Israel!158The smallest tribe was that of Menasheh, which numbered — from the age of twenty and over — 32,200 (above, 1:35). Thus the Levites, who numbered 8000 men above the age of thirty, certainly do not reach half of the numbers of Menasheh, even after taking into consideration a few more thousand between the ages of twenty and thirty. And they did not as yet carry the ark, [that we should say] that its holiness took a toll of them!159According to tradition, the carrying of the ark involved great risk. Any of the Kohathites who was unworthy of carrying it immediately suffered a punishment; so also anyone who attended to it with an unwilling heart (Bamidbar Rabbah 5:1). But, as Ramban points out, when this census of the Levites was taken, they were not yet carrying the ark, since they only journeyed from Mount Sinai on the twentieth of Iyar. So the question reappears, why were their numbers so few? This is indeed astonishing, that His servants and His pious ones should not be blessed of the Eternal160Isaiah 65:23. as were the rest of the people!
Therefore I am of the opinion that this is a confirmation of what our Rabbis have said,161Tanchuma Va’eira 6. See also Ramban on Exodus 5:4. that the tribe of Levi was not [subject to] the enslavement of Egyptian bondage and the rigorous work [that was imposed on the rest of the tribes]. Now since the children of Israel’s lives were made bitter by the Egyptians with hard work162Exodus 1:14. in order to diminish them, the Holy One, blessed be He, increased them [miraculously] to overcome the decree of the Egyptians, just as He said, And as they afflicted them, so they multiplied and so they grew,163Ibid., Verse 12. and just as it is said also with reference to the decree that if it be a son, then ye shall kill him164Ibid., Verse 16. — and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty165Ibid., Verse 20. — since the Holy One, blessed be He, said: “We shall see whose words shall stand, Mine or theirs. ”166Jeremiah 44:28. See Vol. I, p. 457. But the tribe of Levi [which was not subject to bondage] reproduced and increased in a normal way, and therefore they did not become as numerous as the other tribes. Perhaps also [their small numbers were] on account of the anger of the patriarch [Jacob] towards them,167Genesis 34:25-30, and 49:5-7. for the tribe of Shimon which now had a large population168See above, 1:23, where the verse numbers them at fifty-nine thousand and three hundred. decreased, so that at the time of their entry into the Land [they numbered only] twenty-two thousand [and two hundred169Further, 26:14. — whereas most of the other tribes increased in the same period, or decreased relatively slightly]; similarly, Levi, the tribe of His pious ones,170See Deuteronomy 33:8. was not decreased in the plague [caused because of Peor,171Further, 25:9. and yet at the time of entry into the Land they numbered only one thousand more172Ibid., 26:62. than their present twenty-two thousand! Thus we see that it was the anger of the patriarch which affected the numbers of both Shimon and Levi.]
Now the tribe of Levi was not like all the other tribes, for [even though they were counted] from a month old and upward155Verse 15 here. [unlike the other tribes who were counted only from the age of twenty years and over], they were still only twenty and two thousand,156Further. Verse 39. and from thirty years old and over they were all together [only] eight thousand [and five hundred and fourscore].157Ibid., 4:48. Thus, their number from twenty years old and over does not reach even a half of the [number of the] smallest of [the other] tribes of Israel!158The smallest tribe was that of Menasheh, which numbered — from the age of twenty and over — 32,200 (above, 1:35). Thus the Levites, who numbered 8000 men above the age of thirty, certainly do not reach half of the numbers of Menasheh, even after taking into consideration a few more thousand between the ages of twenty and thirty. And they did not as yet carry the ark, [that we should say] that its holiness took a toll of them!159According to tradition, the carrying of the ark involved great risk. Any of the Kohathites who was unworthy of carrying it immediately suffered a punishment; so also anyone who attended to it with an unwilling heart (Bamidbar Rabbah 5:1). But, as Ramban points out, when this census of the Levites was taken, they were not yet carrying the ark, since they only journeyed from Mount Sinai on the twentieth of Iyar. So the question reappears, why were their numbers so few? This is indeed astonishing, that His servants and His pious ones should not be blessed of the Eternal160Isaiah 65:23. as were the rest of the people!
Therefore I am of the opinion that this is a confirmation of what our Rabbis have said,161Tanchuma Va’eira 6. See also Ramban on Exodus 5:4. that the tribe of Levi was not [subject to] the enslavement of Egyptian bondage and the rigorous work [that was imposed on the rest of the tribes]. Now since the children of Israel’s lives were made bitter by the Egyptians with hard work162Exodus 1:14. in order to diminish them, the Holy One, blessed be He, increased them [miraculously] to overcome the decree of the Egyptians, just as He said, And as they afflicted them, so they multiplied and so they grew,163Ibid., Verse 12. and just as it is said also with reference to the decree that if it be a son, then ye shall kill him164Ibid., Verse 16. — and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty165Ibid., Verse 20. — since the Holy One, blessed be He, said: “We shall see whose words shall stand, Mine or theirs. ”166Jeremiah 44:28. See Vol. I, p. 457. But the tribe of Levi [which was not subject to bondage] reproduced and increased in a normal way, and therefore they did not become as numerous as the other tribes. Perhaps also [their small numbers were] on account of the anger of the patriarch [Jacob] towards them,167Genesis 34:25-30, and 49:5-7. for the tribe of Shimon which now had a large population168See above, 1:23, where the verse numbers them at fifty-nine thousand and three hundred. decreased, so that at the time of their entry into the Land [they numbered only] twenty-two thousand [and two hundred169Further, 26:14. — whereas most of the other tribes increased in the same period, or decreased relatively slightly]; similarly, Levi, the tribe of His pious ones,170See Deuteronomy 33:8. was not decreased in the plague [caused because of Peor,171Further, 25:9. and yet at the time of entry into the Land they numbered only one thousand more172Ibid., 26:62. than their present twenty-two thousand! Thus we see that it was the anger of the patriarch which affected the numbers of both Shimon and Levi.]
Chizkuni
The expression: את והב (verse 14) is to be understood as being a single word, just as the word אתיהב, where the letter ו has been exchanged for the letter א. We have a parallel for this in Genesis 45,1 where Joseph is described as misrepresenting himself with the word: בהתודע, a word from the root ידע. Another example of such an unusual construction is found in Genesis 27,29, where Yitzchok in his blessing to Yaakov is quoted as saying: הוה גביר לאחיך, “be senior over your brothers.” We would have expected the word: היה instead of הוה. It, i.e. the word והב is intended as an alternative to נתינה as in “gift,” as in Numbers 26,62, כי לא נתן להם נחלה, “for no ancestral piece of land had been given to to them.” The Targumim, translators into Aramaic, render the word נתן there as אתיהב. Here where we hear about the defeat of the King of Moav against Sichon of the Emorites, the words ואת והב בסופה, mean that that king at the end of that war had had to cede lands to the victor.