John Gill Bible Commentary

And Amram took him Jochebed his father's sister to wife,.... This Amram was the first son of Kohath, and the father of Moses, as after related, and so must be the same with the man of the house of Levi, and his wife the daughter of Levi, as in Exo 2:1 and though such a marriage was afterwards prohibited, Moses does not conceal it, though it may seem to reflect some dishonour on him and his family; he writing not for his own glory, but for the sake of truth, and the good of mankind, and especially the church and people of God. Indeed the Vulgate Latin version, and the Septuagint, Samaritan, and Syriac versions, make her to be his first cousin, the daughter of his father's brother, his uncle's daughter: and so does Polyhistor from Demetrius (h); but in Num 26:59, she is expressly said to be a daughter of Levi, born to him in Egypt, and therefore must be his father's sister: and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and Miriam also, though not mentioned, it being for the sake of these two that the genealogy is made: and the years of the life of Amram were one hundred and thirty seven years: just the age of his grandfather Levi, Exo 6:16. A Jewish chronologer (i) says he died in the thirtieth year of Moses: but the Arabic writers (k) say in the fifty sixth or fifty seventh, and at the end of A. M. 3810. Polyhistor (l) from Demetrius makes his age to be one hundred and thirty six, and him to be the father of Moses and Aaron, and Aaron to be three years older than Moses, exactly according to the Scripture account. (h) Apud Euseb. ut supra. (Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 21. p. 425.) (i) Shalshalet Hakabala, ut supra. (fol. 5. 1.) (k) Patricides, p. 26. Elmacinus, p. 46. apud Hottinger. Smegma Oriental. l. 1. c. 8. p. 392. (l) Apud Euseb. ut supra.