The rest of the nation followed suit and also divorced their wives.
Conceding to his daughter's wisdom, Amram rejoined his wife, with the rest of the nation following suit.
Interestingly, the Kli Yakar maintains that the marital separation occurred only within Shevet Levi (Amram and Yocheved's tribe) and not throughout the entire nation.
He presents two reasons why this must be so.
Regarding the first reason, he starts off by asking a rhetorical question about the Jewish people of that time:
How could they stand to be without a woman for such a long time?
He goes on to explain:
....because "In the merit of righteous women were our fathers redeemed."
And it summarizes there [Sotah 11b] all the favors they did for their husbands when they [the husbands] were immersed in grueling toil.
- These dedicated wives drew water and fish from the river,
- heated up the water and cooked the fish,
- took all this to their depleted husbands in the field.
At that point in the field, these dedicated wives did the following:
- washed and anointed their husbands (I imagine this means that they applied ointment to chaffed skin and wounds, but I don't know for sure),
- fed them,
- gave them to drink,
- and were intimate with them.
The Kli Yakar concludes:
From this, we see that they [the men] could not have managed without the women.
And so, they could manage to be without their wife's support.
When Bigger is Not Better
The second reason why the Kli Yakar assumes the marital separation took place only within Shevet Levi is due to Shevet Levi's smaller population as compared to the other Tribes. And he attributes this population difference to their long-term abstinence.
Finally, the Kli Yakar notes this is yet another instance in which Hashem "chooses the lesser," a running theme throughout Tanach in which Hashem chooses the youngest sibling, the least prestigious person, the smallest mountain, etc., to be His agent. Shevet Levi was at most half the size of the other Tribes, yet Hashem took the Kohanic line (Aharon HaKohen) and the greatest navi and leader (Moshe Rabbeinu) from that Tribe.
Here, the Kli Yakar reassures us of our great importance to Hashem and the great care with which He attends to us.
Even a fallen Jew is worth an entire world, while those who teach righteousness apparently produce a brilliant and eternal light:
Every man of Yisrael is Personally Supervised and even just one Jew is considered as an entire nation, as it says: "....and a multitude of them will fall" (Shemot 19:21).
And even if one shall fall, he resembles "a multitude." Therefore, Hashem gave them a number, just like he did for the stars, as it says of them:
"He brings forth their legions by number; He calls to each of them by their name" (Yeshayahu 40:26).
It mentions here "the number of their names" to teach that "those who teach righteousness to the multitudes will be like stars forever and ever" (Daniel 12:3) because each one warrants Personal Supervision [hashgacha pratit].
The Kli Yakar latches on to this theme of heavenly luminaries quite a lot.
Just as two examples:
Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntschitz (1550-1619) lived in Bohemia (which is today Poland and Czechoslovakia). He served as rabbi and dayan and wrote several books, the most well-known being his commentary on the Chumash known as the Kli Yakar.
This is my translation and any errors are also mine.
The Hebrew and English verses were taken from this wonderful site:
The Complete Tanach at Chabad.org