Passage

Numbers 26.59

Book: Numbers · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

57. And these are they that were numbered of the Levites after their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites; of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites; of Merari, the family of the Merarites. 58. These are the families of Levi: the family of the Libnites, the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Mahlites, the family of the Mushites, the family of the Korahites. And Kohath begat Amram.

59. And the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt: and she bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister.

And unto Aaron were born Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. 61. And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before Jehovah. (Numbers 26:57-61, ASV)

WEB

57. These are those who were counted of the Levites after their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites; of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites; of Merari, the family of the Merarites. 58. These are the families of Levi: the family of the Libnites, the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Mahlites, the family of the Mushites, the family of the Korahites. Kohath became the father of Amram.

59. The name of Amram’s wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt. She bore to Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister.

To Aaron were born Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. 61. Nadab and Abihu died when they offered strange fire before Yahweh. (Numbers 26:57-61, WEB)

KJV

57. And these are they that were numbered of the Levites after their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites: of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites: of Merari, the family of the Merarites. 58. These are the families of the Levites: the family of the Libnites, the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Mahlites, the family of the Mushites, the family of the Korathites. And Kohath begat Amram.

59. And the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom her mother bare to Levi in Egypt: and she bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister.

And unto Aaron was born Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. 61. And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the LORD. (Numbers 26:57-61, KJV)

YLT

57. And these [are] numbered ones of the Levite by their families: of Gershon [is] the family of the Gershonite; of Kohath the family of the Kohathite; of Merari the family of the Merarite. 58. These [are] families of the Levite: the family of the Libnite, the family of the Hebronite, the family of the Mahlite, the family of the Mushite, the family of the Korathite. And Kohath hath begotten Amram,

59. and the name of Amram's wife is Jochebed, daughter of Levi, whom [one] hath born to Levi in Egypt; and she beareth to Amram Aaron, and Moses, and Miriam their sister.

And born to Aaron Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar; 61. and Nadab dieth, Abihu also, in their bringing near strange fire before Jehovah. (Numbers 26:57-61, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: The narrator, within the second census list (Numbers 26:57-62).
Audience: Readers of the account; the tribes counted in the plains of Moab.
Location: The plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho (Numbers 26:63).
Time period: Late in the fortieth year after the Exodus, on the sequence of Numbers 33:38 and Deuteronomy 1:3; traditionally dated to the 15th or 13th century BC, depending on the Exodus chronology.

Theological reading

The verse records Moses' family. Jochebed, "the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt", bore Aaron, Moses and Miriam (Numbers 26:59, ASV). Exodus 6:20 says that Amram "took him Jochebed his father's sister to wife" (Exodus 6:20, ASV), a marriage Leviticus 18:12 later forbids.

The narrative does not hide marriages made before the law. The text records the marriage plainly and without censure. It is cited in discussions of Cain's wife: close-kin marriages before Sinai are not judged by a law that had not yet been given.

"Daughter of Levi" may compress generations. Whether the phrase means an immediate daughter or a later descendant is disputed. Many readers hold that the genealogy of Exodus 6 is selective, given the long stay in Egypt (Exodus 12:40).

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

H8034 - shem, shem, Strong's H8034

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Cains Wife Objection Defeater

Concepts:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.