And these are the names of the sons of Levi, according to
their generations
Whose sons, according to the order of their birth, were as follow:
Gershom, and Kohath, and Merari;
see ( Genesis 46:11 ) :
and the years of the life of Levi were one hundred and thirty seven
years;
and exactly the same number of years is assigned him by Polyhistor from Demetrius F3, an Heathen writer. Jarchi says, that the reason why, the years of the life of Levi are reckoned is to show how long the bondage lasted; for there was no servitude as long as any of the tribes (or of the sons of Jacob) remained, according to ( Exodus 1:6 Exodus 1:8 ) and the Jewish chronologers F4 affirm that Levi was the last of the patriarchs that died; and that he died in the year of the world 3332, and lived in Egypt ninety four years; and from his time, to the going out of Egypt, were only one hundred and sixteen years; and they further say the bondage could not last longer than one hundred and sixteen years, nor shorter than eighty seven. Bishop Usher F5 places his death in A. M. 2385, and before Christ 1619: according to the Targum of Jonathan, he lived to see Moses and Aaron the deliverers of Israel; but that is false, since Joseph and all his brethren died before Moses was born, ( Exodus 1:6 ) .