Gershon, Son of Levi: The Name That Carried the Tent

Who Gershon Is

Gershon (גֵּרְשׁוֹן) is a son of Levi, from the era of Egypt and the wilderness, placed around 1706 BC to 1451 BC (era placed on Ussher's chronology, 1650). His name first appears in Genesis 46:11 and is still in use as late as 2 Chronicles 29:12. He is named in thirty-four verses across Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles, and in not one of them does he speak, act, travel or die on the page. What Scripture gives us is a name at the head of a list, and then the list doing the work.

The Lists That Name Him

The first thing the Bible tells us about Gershon is where he stands among his brothers. Exodus 6:16-17 sets it out: "These are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari; and the years of the life of Levi were one hundred thirty-seven years. The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, according to their families." Numbers 3:17-18 repeats it in the same order: "These were the sons of Levi by their names: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. These are the names of the sons of Gershon by their families: Libni and Shimei." His name is also listed in Genesis 46:11 and Numbers 26:57.

The Chronicler keeps the same three brothers and the same two sons, though with a variation in spelling: "The sons of Levi: Gershom, Kohath, and Merari. These are the names of the sons of Gershom: Libni and Shimei" (1 Chronicles 6:16-17). The same three head the genealogy at 1 Chronicles 6:1, and the line runs on through 1 Chronicles 6:20 and 1 Chronicles 6:43. Within this same family the records also name Jochebed as a sister of Gershon.

So the whole of Gershon's personal biography, as Scripture records it, amounts to this: he was a son of Levi, he had two sons, and his brothers were Kohath and Merari. Everything else the Bible says under his name belongs to the people who came after him.

A Place to Camp and a Load to Carry

In the wilderness the descendants of Gershon are given a position and a task. "The families of the Gershonites shall encamp behind the tabernacle westward. Eliasaph the son of Lael shall be the prince of the fathers’ house of the Gershonites. The duty of the sons of Gershon in the Tent of Meeting shall be the tabernacle, the tent, its covering, the screen for the door of the Tent of Meeting" (Numbers 3:23-25). Their numbering and their place among the sons of Levi also stand in Numbers 3:21.

Their work is put under named authority: "At the commandment of Aaron and his sons shall be all the service of the sons of the Gershonites, in all their burden and in all their service; and you shall appoint their duty to them in all their responsibilities. This is the service of the families of the sons of the Gershonites in the Tent of Meeting. Their duty shall be under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest" (Numbers 4:27-28). The wider assignment and census of this house are recorded in Numbers 4:22, Numbers 4:24, Numbers 4:38 and Numbers 4:41, and the Gershonites appear again in Numbers 7:7 and Numbers 10:17.

After the wilderness the name keeps surfacing. It is there in the allotment of towns in Joshua 21:6, Joshua 21:27 and Joshua 21:33, and again in 1 Chronicles 6:62 and 1 Chronicles 6:71. Under David the house is reorganised: "David divided them into divisions according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Of the Gershonites: Ladan and Shimei" (1 Chronicles 23:6-7). The name appears again in 1 Chronicles 15:7, 1 Chronicles 26:21 and 1 Chronicles 29:8, and once more in 2 Chronicles 29:12.

Failures and Silence

Here honesty requires a plain statement rather than a story. The passages that name Gershon record no sin, no failure, no act of faith, no test and no obedience of his own. There is nothing to soften and nothing to praise, because there is no episode at all. He is counted, placed and passed over, and the text makes no attempt to fill the space.

What We Do Not Know

We are not told when he was born or when he died, nor how long he lived, though Exodus 6:16 gives the years of his father Levi as one hundred thirty-seven. We are not told his mother's name, whether he came to Egypt as a child or a grown man, what he did there, or whether he lived to see his descendants pitch their tents west of the tabernacle. We are not told why the Chronicler writes Gershom in 1 Chronicles 6:16-17 while Numbers and Exodus write Gershon, nor why 1 Chronicles 23:7 names Ladan where Exodus 6:17 and Numbers 3:18 name Libni. The text sets these forms side by side without comment, and so must we.

No New Testament passage is listed among the references that name him, so no line is drawn from him into the New Testament here. What remains is a man whose name became a duty roster: a family that camped westward, carried the tent and its covering and the screen for the door, and answered to Ithamar under the commandment of Aaron and his sons.