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Numbers 3:43
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41 aAnd you shall take the Levites for Me—I am the Lord—instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the livestock of the children of Israel.”  
42 So Moses numbered all the firstborn among the children of Israel, as the Lord commanded him.
43 And all the firstborn males, according to the number of names from a month old and above, of those who were numbered of them, were twenty-two thousand two hundred and seventy-three.
44 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
45 a“Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites instead of their livestock. The Levites shall be Mine: I am the Lord.  
46 And for athe redemption of the two hundred and seventy-three of the firstborn of the children of Israel, bwho are more than the number of the Levites,  
47 you shall take afive shekels for each one bindividually; you shall take them in the currency of the shekel of the sanctuary, cthe shekel of twenty gerahs.  
48 And you shall give the money, with which the excess number of them is redeemed, to Aaron and his sons.”
49 So Moses took the redemption money from those who were over and above those who were redeemed by the Levites.
50 From the firstborn of the children of Israel he took the money, aone thousand three hundred and sixty-five shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary.  
51 And Moses agave their redemption money to Aaron and his sons, according to the word of the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses. 
Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
<< Numbers 3:42   Numbers 3:44 >>


Numbers 3:43

This result, when compared with the number of male adults (603,550, compare Numbers 2:32), is small, the usual proportion of first-born sons to a total male population being about one in four: and the explanation offered is that the law of Exodus 13:1-2, prescribed a dedication of those only who should be firstborn "thenceforward" .

On the other hand, the number is very large to be born among two millions of persons in a single year; and it must be admitted, that some unusual causes must have been concerned. Such, not to mention the divine blessing, may be found in the sudden development of national energies which would immediately ensue on the Exodus. Before that event, the miserable estate of the people, and especially the inhuman order for the destruction of their first-born, would check very seriously the ratio of marriages and births; and this ratio would naturally, when the check was removed, exhibit a sudden and striking increase.




Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Numbers 3:43:

Numbers 3:13
Numbers 3:39
Numbers 3:44-51

 

<< Numbers 3:42   Numbers 3:44 >>

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