Numbers 3:43

_AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES, NUMBER ALL THE FIRSTBORN OF THE MALES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL FROM A MONTH OLD AND UPWARD, AND TAKE THE NUMBER OF THEIR NAMES._ Number all the firstborn ... The principle on which the enumeration of the Levites had been made was now to be applied to the other tribes. The number of their male children, from a month old and upwards, was to be reckoned, in order that a comparison might be instituted with that of the Levites, for the formal adoption of the latter as substitutes for the firstborn. The Levites, amounting to 22,000, were given in exchange for an equal number of the firstborn from the other tribes, leaving an excess of 273; and as there were no substitutes for these, they were redeemed at the rate of five shekels for each (Numbers 18:15). Every Israelite would naturally wish that his son might be redeemed by a Levite without the p

40-51 The number of the first-born, and that of the Levites, came near to each other. Known unto God are all his works beforehand; there is an exact proportion between them, and so it will appear, when they are compared together. The small number of first-born, over and above the number of the Levites, were to be redeemed, and the redemption-money given to Aaron. The church is called the church of the first-born, which is redeemed, not as they were, with silver and gold; but, being devoted by sin to the justice of God, is ransomed with the precious blood of the Son of God. All men are the Lord's by creation, and all true christians are his by redemption. Each should know his own post and duty; nor can any service required by such a Master be rightly accounted mean or hard....

Verse Numbers 3:43. _ALL THE FIRST-BORN MALES - WERE TWENTY AND TWO THOUSAND_ _TWO HUNDRED AND THREESCORE AND THIRTEEN._] Thus we find there were 273 _first-born_ beyond the number of the _Levites_. These are ordered, Numbers 3:46, to be _redeemed_; and the redemption price is to be _five shekels_ each, Numbers 3:47, about 15_s_. And this money, amounting to 1,365 shekels, equal to _£_204 15_s_. English, he took of the first-born of Israel, Numbers 3:50. But how was this collected among 22,273 persons? _Rabbi Solomon Jarchi_ says, "to prevent contention, Moses took 22,000 slips of...

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, 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 destruct

EXPOSITION THE NUMBERS AND DUTIES OF THE LEVITES; THEIR SUBSTITUTION FOR THE FIRSTBORN (Numbers 3:1). NUMBERS 3:1 THESE … ARE THE GENERATIONS OF AARON AND MOSES. The word "generations" (_toledoth_)_ _is used here in a peculiar and, so to speak, technical sense, with reference to what follows, as in Genesis 2:4; Genesis 6:9. It marks a new departure,_ _looking _down, _

AND ALL THE FIRSTBORN MALES,.... For such only were ordered to be numbered, and not firstborn females: BY THE NUMBER OF NAMES; which were particularly taken: FROM A MONTH OLD AND UPWARD; for before that time they were not sanctified to the Lord, nor subject to the redemption price: OF THOSE THAT WERE NUMBERED OF THEM [WERE] TWENTY AND TWO THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND THREESCORE AND THIRTEEN; 22,273 men; so that there were two hundred seventy three more than the Levites, Numbers 3:39....

3. THE LEVITES AND THEIR MINISTRATIONS CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The generations of the priests (Numbers 3:1)_ 2. The tribe of Levi and their ministry (Numbers 3:5) 3. The Levites substituted for all the first-born (Numbers 3:11) 4. The numbering of the Levites ordered (Numbers 3:14) 5. Gershon (Numbers 3:21) 6. Kohath (Numbers 3:27) 7. Merari ...

THE NUMBERS OF THE FIRST-BORN MALES IN ISRAEL ABOVE ONE MONTH. The figure (22,273) is out of proportion to the total population given in 146; for if it is doubled (for an equal number of females), the result is only 44,546, so that for every first-born person there were approximately 44 who were not first-born, which implies that the average family numbered 45. It has been sought to evade this conclusion by assuming that account is taken of only those first-born who were not themselves heads of families; but there is no hint of this restriction in the text. NUMBERS 3:41. AND THE EARTH, etc. Since the firstlings of clean cattle could not be redeemed (Numbers 18:15; Numbers 18:17), read, and the cattle of the L

The substitution of the Levites for the first-born....

ALL THE FIRST-BORN MALES, &C.— All the males of the tribe of Levi are said to be twenty and two thousand, Numbers 3:39 but if we put together the particular sums mentioned Numbers 3:22; Numbers 3:28; Numbers 3:34 they amount to 300 more; which Patrick, Le Clerc, and others think to be omitted, because they were the first-born of the Levites themselves, and on that account belonged to God already. But we have shewn in the note on Numbers 3:39 how this difficulty may be otherwise solved. The number of the first-born exceeded that of the Israelites by 273, and fo