Exodus 6:17

6:17 The sons of Gershon, by their families, were Libni and Shimei.

Exodus 6:19

6:19 The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. These were the clans of Levi, according to their records.

Exodus 6:24

6:24 The sons of Korah were Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These were the Korahite clans.

Exodus 6:14-15

The Ancestry of the Deliverer

6:14 ¹ These are the heads of their fathers’ households: ² 

The sons ³  of Reuben, the firstborn son of Israel, were Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These were the clans ⁴  of Reuben.

6:15 The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. These were the clans of Simeon.

Exodus 6:25

6:25 Now Eleazar son of Aaron married one of the daughters of Putiel and she bore him Phinehas.

These are the heads of the fathers’ households ⁵  of Levi according to their clans.

Exodus 12:21

12:21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel, and told them, “Go and select ⁶  for yourselves a lamb or young goat ⁷  for your families, and kill the Passover animals. ⁸ 

[6:14]  ¹ sn This list of names shows that Moses and Aaron are in the line of Levi that came to the priesthood. It helps to identify them and authenticate them as spokesmen for God within the larger history of Israel. As N. M. Sarna observes, “Because a genealogy inherently symbolizes vigor and continuity, its presence here also injects a reassuring note into the otherwise despondent mood” (Exodus [JPSTC], 33).

[6:14]  ² tn The expression is literally “the house of their fathers.” This expression means that the household or family descended from a single ancestor. It usually indicates a subdivision of a tribe, that is, a clan, or the subdivision of a clan, that is, a family. Here it refers to a clan (S. R. Driver, Exodus, 46).

[6:14]  ³ tn Or “descendants.”

[6:14]  ⁴ tn Or “families,” and so throughout the genealogy.

[6:25]  ¹ tn Heb “heads of the fathers” is taken as an abbreviation for the description of “households” in v. 14.

[12:21]  ¹ tn Heb “draw out and take.” The verb has in view the need “to draw out” a lamb or goat selected from among the rest of the flock.

[12:21]  ² tn The Hebrew noun is singular and can refer to either a lamb or a goat. Since English has no common word for both, the phrase “a lamb or young goat” is used in the translation.

[12:21]  ³ tn The word “animals” is added to avoid giving the impression in English that the Passover festival itself is the object of “kill.”