Wesley Corpus

Their fathers - The people were divided into twelve tribes, the tribes into great families, Num 26:5, these great families into lesser families called the houses of their fathers, because they were distinguished one from another by their fathers. Reuben - The tribes are here numbered according to the order or quality of their birth, first the children of Leah, then of Rachel, and then of the handmaids. Deuel - Called Reuel, Num 3:14, the Hebrew letters Daleth and Resh being often changed. He numbered them - For ought that appears in one day. By their generations - That is, the persons begotten of Reuben's immediate children, who are here subdivided into families, and they into houses, and they into particular persons. Threescore and fourteen thousand - Far more than any other tribe, in accomplishing Jacob's prophecy, Gen 49:8 - 12. Ephraim - Above 8000 more than Manasseh, towards the accomplishment of that promise, Gen 48:20, which the devil in vain attempted to defeat by stirring up the men of Gath against them, 1Chr 7:21,22. Thirty five thousand - The smallest number, except one, though Benjamin had more immediate children than any of his brethren, Gen 46:21, whereas Dan had but one immediate son, Gen 46:23, yet now his number is the biggest but one of all the tribes, and is almost double to that of Benjamin. Such great and strange changes God easily can, and frequently doth make in families, 1Sam 2:5. And therefore let none boast or please themselves too much in their numerous offspring. Levi - Because they were not generally to go out to war, which was the thing principally eyed in this muster, Nu 1:3,20,45, but were to attend upon the service of the tabernacle. They that minister upon holy things, should not entangle themselves in secular affairs. The ministry itself is work enough for a whole man, and all little enough to be employed in it. The tabernacle of testimony - So called here, and Exo 38:21, because it was made chiefly for the sake of the ark of the testimony, which is often called the testimony. That cometh nigh - The stranger elsewhere is one of another nation, here one of another tribe. So as to do the offices mentioned, Nu 1:50.