These were the families of the Levites: The Libnite clan, the Hebronite clan, the Mahlite clan, the Mushite clan, and the Korahite clan. Now Kohath was the father of Amram,
Levi was God's tribe, exempt from the land-lot and the war-muster, so the Levites escaped the curse that barred all others numbered at Sinai from entering Canaan. Yet their increase was paltry, only 1000 more, making them still one of the smallest tribes. Their losses to divine judgment were a lesson to all Israel.
AI summary
Commenting on Numbers 26:57-62
families of the Levites--The census of this tribe was taken separately, and on a different principle from the rest. (See Exo 6:16-19).
The enumeration breaks off after naming five Levitical families to trace Moses and Aaron's descent, the heads not of this tribe alone but of the whole nation. The text leaves the subject of Jochebed's birth indefinite by design: she was not Levi's daughter strictly, but a descendant of Levi living some 300 years later, as her husband was a later Amram, not the original.
AI summary
Commenting on Numbers 26:57-59