Levitical Pattern

As David brings the ark into Jerusalem, he assembles Levites and priests to carry it to its place, as Torah requires. 1 Chronicles 15:5-11 enumerates Levites in each of six subtribes:

1. Koathites, 120

2. Merarites, 220

3. Gershomites, 130

4. Sons of Elizaphan, 200

5. Sons of Hebron, 80

6. Sons of Uzziel, 112

Six subtribes may be significant, six being the number of a man, the number of Adam, created on the sixth day.

Adding the numbers is also tempting. 120 + 220 + 130 + 200 + 80 + 112 = 862. It seems an innocuous number, but it’s the gematria for the Hebrew term tabnit, “pattern,” as in the tabernacle pattern that Yahweh showed Moses on the mountain (Exodus 25:9, 40) and the temple pattern David received from Yahweh and delivered to Solomon (1 Chronicles 28:19).

Here it is not an architectural pattern but a pattern of priests and Levites, a blueprint for a people-house, a choir and orchestra gathered around the ark of God.