וַיִּהְי֖וּ פְּקֻדֵיהֶ֑ם שְׁמֹנַ֣ת אֲלָפִ֔ים וַחֲמֵ֥שׁ מֵא֖וֹת וּשְׁמֹנִֽים׃
זײערע געצײלטע זײַנען געװען אַכט טױזנט און פֿינף הונדערט און אַכציק.
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.]
Or HaChaim
כל פקודי הלוים, all the Levites who were numbered, etc. Nachmanides wonders at the small number of Levites seeing that we are dealing with a tribe who had proved loyal to G'd during the episode of the golden calf and had not sustained losses in their number at that time. Moreover, they were beloved of G'd already while in Egypt. How is it that their number was so small? Although they were counted from the age of one month, as opposed to the other tribes who were counted only from the age of twenty and over, the number of Levites was smaller than the numerically least populous tribe? Nachmanides provides two possible answers. 1) Seeing the phenomenal increase in the population of the Jews in Egypt was due to the cruel oppression of the Israelites by the Egyptians (Exodus 1,12), this blessing did not extend to the Levites who did not have to perform slave labour in Egypt. 2) Jacob's anger at his son Levi. I believe that the second reason cited by Nachmanides is quite difficult to accept. We do not find any source for assuming that the anger of a father caused lack of fertility in his sons. Besides, when you examine Chronicles I 23,3, you will find that the Levites between the ages of thirty and fifty who were numbered at that time (near the end of David's life) comprised 38,000. When we compare this number with the number given in Parshat Nasso, i.e. some 8,500, we certainly do not notice any lack of fertility on the part of that tribe. This means that during the approximately 480 years between our count and the count in Chronicles the Levites increased four-fold. When you compare the numbers given for the other tribes in Israel at that time when they were counted in Chronicles you will find that the other tribes had only doubled in number since being counted by Moses in the desert. In view of this, it is difficult to see how Jacob's anger at his son Levi impeded the development of his descendants.