Numbers 1:49

Num 1:49. Levi — Because they were not generally to go out to war, which was the thing principally eyed in this muster, (Num 1:3; Num 1:20; Num 1:45,) 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.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Only thou shall not number the tribe of Levi,.... That is, along with the other tribes, for it might be numbered by itself, as it afterwards was, Num 3:43,

neither take the sum of them among the children of Israel; which confirms what is before observed: now this being the declared will of God clears Moses from all partiality to his own tribe, he doing nothing but what he had a command of God for it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Because they were not generally to go out to war, which was the thing principally eyed in this muster, Num 1:3,20,45 but were to attend upon the service or the tabernacle, and therefore are reserved to another distinct muster, Num 3:15; 4:2, &c. And lost this should bc thought to, be designed and done through Moses’s ambition to give his own tribe the pre-eminence, he assures them it was done by God’s express command.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

49. Tribe of Levi — This tribe, together with that of Simeon, because their founders had perpetrated the treacherous massacre of the Shechemites, (Gen_34:25-26,) were under the curse of Jacob: “I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.” Gen_49:7. Simeon was greatly reduced in number in the wilderness, and received a small portion in Canaan adjoining Judah, but was soon scattered in the cities of this stronger tribe. Levi was forbidden a portion of the Land of Promise except forty-eight cities in the other tribes, and was appointed to the charge of the tabernacle instead of the firstborn, who were sacred to Jehovah because they had been sanctified by the Lord, and spared when the destroyer slew the firstborn of the Egyptians. A branch of this family, the house of Aaron, became the priestly family, and the rest of the tribe, under the technical designation of Levites, were set apart to the menial services of the tabernacle, such as pitching, taking down, and transporting the sacred tent and its furniture. The curse of dispersion pronounced on Levi was thus converted into a blessing, 1,) because of the conspicuous faithfulness of Moses and Aaron, members of this tribe; and 2,) because of the commendable zeal for God of the whole tribe in the case of the golden calf. Exo_32:16. Every ancestral curse may be mitigated or changed into a blessing by the obedience of posterity to the Divine law. “But where sin abounded grace did much more abound.” Rom_5:20.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Levi - Because they were not generally to go out to war, which was the thing principally eyed in this muster, ver. 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.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

אך את מטה לוי לא תפקד ONLY THOU SHALT NOT NUMBER THE TRIBE OF LEVI — The legion of the King is worthy to be numbered by itself (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Bamidbar 15). — Another explanation is: The Holy One, blessed be He, foresaw that a decree would once be made against all those that had been numbered from twenty years and upwards, viz., that they should die in the wilderness (Numbers 14:29). He therefore said: Let these (the Levites) not be included amongst those now counted, in which case they must die, because they are Mine, since they did not sin by worshipping the golden calf (cf. Numbers Rabbah 3:7; Bava Batra 121b).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.