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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Numbers 3 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/numbers/3.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; 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whereas the office of Aaron was perpetuated in the persons of his descendants. Hence we find no mention made in this place of the sons of Moses, but only of those of Aaron. The word <span class= "ital">generations </span>here, as in the book of Genesis (<span class= "ital">e.g., </span><a href="/genesis/6-9.htm" title="These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.">Genesis 6:9</a>; <a href="/genesis/25-19.htm" title="And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham begat Isaac:">Genesis 25:19</a>) and elsewhere, is used to denote the <span class= "ital">history; </span>and in this sense the present and the following chapters pertain as much to Moses as to Aaron. Or the reference may be to the fact that Moses and Aaron were made the heads of the whole tribe of Levi, and therefore that the Levitical families generally are traced up equally to both.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-3.htm">Numbers 3:3</a></div><div class="verse">These <i>are</i> the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests which were anointed, whom he consecrated to minister in the priest's office.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Whom he consecrated . . . —</span>Literally, <span class= "ital">filled their hand. </span>The rites of consecration are described at length in <a href="/context/exodus/29-1.htm" title="And this is the thing that you shall do to them to hallow them, to minister to me in the priest's office: Take one young bullock, and two rams without blemish,">Exodus 29:1-37</a>, where the command given to Moses is related. and in <a href="/context/leviticus/8-1.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,">Leviticus 8:1-13</a>, where the account is given of the actual consecration, on which occasion the appointed sacrificial offerings were placed by Moses in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons. The act of consecration was performed by Moses in the case of Aaron’s sons, as well as in that of Aaron himself.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-4.htm">Numbers 3:4</a></div><div class="verse">And Nadab and Abihu died before the LORD, when they offered strange fire before the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children: and Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest's office in the sight of Aaron their father.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Died before the Lord.</span>—The account is given in <a href="/context/leviticus/10-1.htm" title="And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not.">Leviticus 10:1-2</a>, where the same expression “before the Lord” is used both in regard to the offering of strange fire by Nadab and Abihu, and also in regard to their death.<p><span class= "bld">And they had no children.</span>—To die childless was regarded not only as a reproach, but also as a judgment. This was especially the case in regard to Nadab and Abihu, inasmuch as the sons of one, or of <span class= "ital">both </span>(as was the case in regard to the sons of Eleazar and of Ithamar), would have succeeded to the high priesthood.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-7.htm">Numbers 3:7</a></div><div class="verse">And they shall keep his charge, and the charge of the whole congregation before the tabernacle of the congregation, to do the service of the tabernacle.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">And they shall keep his charge.</span>—The word rendered <span class= "ital">charge </span>may mean the directions which the Levites should receive from Aaron (comp. <a href="/genesis/26-5.htm" title="Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.">Genesis 26:5</a>); or—as seems more probable from the use of the same word in this and the following verse with reference to the congregation—it may refer to the charge which was laid upon Aaron and upon the whole congregation in matters pertaining to the public worship of God.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-9.htm">Numbers 3:9</a></div><div class="verse">And thou shalt give the Levites unto Aaron and to his sons: they <i>are</i> wholly given unto him out of the children of Israel.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">They are wholly given unto him.</span>—Hebrew, <span class= "ital">Given, given are they to him. </span>This repetition of the word <span class= "ital">nethunim </span>(given) is emphatic. The same repetition occurs in <a href="/numbers/8-16.htm" title="For they are wholly given to me from among the children of Israel; instead of such as open every womb, even instead of the firstborn of all the children of Israel, have I taken them to me.">Numbers 8:16</a>, where the Levites are represented as “wholly given” to the Lord instead of the firstborn; and in <a href="/numbers/3-19.htm" title="And the sons of Kohath by their families; Amram, and Izehar, Hebron, and Uzziel.">Numbers 3:19</a> of that chapter, as in <a href="/numbers/3-12.htm" title="And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn that opens the matrix among the children of Israel: therefore the Levites shall be mine;">Numbers 3:12</a> of this chapter, they are represented as being given by Him to Aaron and his sons. The word <span class= "ital">nethunim </span>must not be confounded with <span class= "ital">Nethinim, </span>the name given at a later date (<a href="/1_chronicles/9-2.htm" title="Now the first inhabitants that dwelled in their possessions in their cities were, the Israelites, the priests, Levites, and the Nethinims.">1Chronicles 9:2</a>; <a href="/ezra/2-43.htm" title="The Nethinims: the children of Ziha, the children of Hasupha, the children of Tabbaoth,">Ezra 2:43</a>; <a href="/nehemiah/3-26.htm" title="Moreover the Nethinims dwelled in Ophel, to the place over against the water gate toward the east, and the tower that lies out.">Nehemiah 3:26</a>; <a href="/nehemiah/3-31.htm" title="After him repaired Malchiah the goldsmith's son to the place of the Nethinims, and of the merchants, over against the gate Miphkad, and to the going up of the corner.">Nehemiah 3:31</a>) to the Gibeonites, who were made “hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord” (<a href="/joshua/9-27.htm" title="And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the LORD, even to this day, in the place which he should choose.">Joshua 9:27</a>). The tribe of Levi had proved themselves the most zealous for the honour of the Lord at the time of the worship of the golden calf (<a href="/context/exodus/32-26.htm" title="Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD's side? let him come to me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.">Exodus 32:26-29</a>), and it was then that Moses gave them the charge to consecrate themselves (literally, <span class= "ital">to fill their hands, </span>comp. <a href="/numbers/3-3.htm" title="These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests which were anointed, whom he consecrated to minister in the priest's office.">Numbers 3:3</a> of this chapter) to the Lord. There was, therefore, a special reason for the selection of this tribe, independently of the fact that Moses and Aaron (and consequently the priests, as the descendants of Aaron) belonged to it.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-10.htm">Numbers 3:10</a></div><div class="verse">And thou shalt appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall wait on their priest's office: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">Thou shalt appoint.</span>—Or, <span class= "ital">number. </span>The word is the same as that which is used for the numbering of the Israelites generally (<a href="/numbers/1-19.htm" title="As the LORD commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.">Numbers 1:19</a>) and for the numbering of the Levites (<a href="/numbers/3-15.htm" title="Number the children of Levi after the house of their fathers, by their families: every male from a month old and upward shall you number them.">Numbers 3:15</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-13.htm">Numbers 3:13</a></div><div class="verse">Because all the firstborn <i>are</i> mine; <i>for</i> on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast: mine shall they be: I <i>am</i> the LORD.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">On the day that I smote all the firstborn.</span>—The command given to Moses respecting the sanctification or separation of the firstborn, both of man and of beast, is recorded immediately after the account of the exodus and of the institution of the Passover (<a href="/context/exodus/13-1.htm" title="And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,">Exodus 13:1-2</a>). It does not clearly appear, however, from the terms employed whether the sanctification or separation applied to the firstborn then in existence—which appears to be by far the more probable supposition—or whether, as some suppose, the command was simply prospective. The whole nation of Israel is described in <a href="/exodus/4-22.htm" title="And you shall say to Pharaoh, Thus said the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:">Exodus 4:22</a> as the Lord’s firstborn son, and the firstborn sons appear to have been regarded in the light of representatives of the entire nation.<p><span class= "bld">Mine shall they be: I am the Lord.</span>—Or, <span class= "ital">They shall be </span>(<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>belong) <span class= "ital">to me, </span>(even) <span class= "ital">to me, Jehovah. </span>(Comp. <a href="/genesis/4-26.htm" title="And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call on the name of the LORD.">Genesis 4:26</a> : “And to Seth, to him also.” Literally, <span class= "ital">And to Seth, even him.</span>)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-15.htm">Numbers 3:15</a></div><div class="verse">Number the children of Levi after the house of their fathers, by their families: every male from a month old and upward shalt thou number them.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">From a month old and upward . . . —</span>The males of the other tribes had been numbered “from twenty years old and upward” (<a href="/numbers/1-3.htm" title="From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: you and Aaron shall number them by their armies.">Numbers 1:3</a>). The firstborn males, however, among all the children of Israel, in whose place the Levites were taken, wer-directed to be numbered “from a month old and upward” (<a href="/numbers/3-40.htm" title="And the LORD said to 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.">Numbers 3:40</a>; <a href="/numbers/3-43.htm" title="And all the firstborn males by the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those that were numbered of them, were twenty and two thousand two hundred and three score and thirteen.">Numbers 3:43</a>); and this was the age afterwards fixed for their redemption (<a href="/numbers/18-16.htm" title="And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shall you redeem, according to your estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.">Numbers 18:16</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-23.htm">Numbers 3:23</a></div><div class="verse">The families of the Gershonites shall pitch behind the tabernacle westward.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">Behind the tabernacle westward.</span>—As the position of the twelve tribes in respect of the tent of meeting had been already determined, so in this and the following verses the position of the priests and Levites is fixed. On the east side of the tent Moses and Aaron and Aaron’s sons were to encamp, on the south the Kohathites, on the west the Gershonites, on the north the Merarites.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-25.htm">Numbers 3:25</a></div><div class="verse">And the charge of the sons of Gershon in the tabernacle of the congregation <i>shall be</i> the tabernacle, and the tent, the covering thereof, and the hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,</div>(25) <span class= "bld">In the tabernacle of the congregation.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">in the tent of meeting. </span>It is important to distinguish between the <span class= "ital">ohel</span>—i.e., the tent—and the <span class= "ital">mishkan</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the tabernacle—which was the building of shittim wood with its curtains which was within the tent. The word <span class= "ital">ohel, </span>where it occurs in the second place in this verse, evidently means the outer covering, as in <a href="/exodus/26-7.htm" title="And you shall make curtains of goats' hair to be a covering on the tabernacle: eleven curtains shall you make.">Exodus 26:7</a>, where the passage may be literally rendered thus :—“And thou shalt make curtains (or hangings) of goats’ (hair) for an <span class= "ital">ohel </span>upon (or over) the <span class= "ital">mishkan.”</span><p><span class= "bld">The covering thereof.—</span>The <span class= "ital">mikseh </span>(covering) appears to include the two coverings described in <a href="/exodus/26-14.htm" title="And you shall make a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering above of badgers' skins.">Exodus 26:14</a>—viz., the covering of rams’ skins and that of badgers’ skins or seals’ skins.<p><span class= "bld">The hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., for the entrance or opening of the tent of meeting. </span>This hanging was of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine-twined linen, and was hung at the entrance—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the eastern or open end of the tent (<a href="/exodus/26-36.htm" title="And you shall make an hanging for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, worked with needlework.">Exodus 26:36</a>). The word rendered door (<span class= "ital">pethach, </span>not <span class= "ital">deleth</span>) means an opening. At a later period, when the Tabernacle was at Shiloh, it had <span class= "ital">doors </span>(<a href="/1_samuel/3-15.htm" title="And Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of the LORD. And Samuel feared to show Eli the vision.">1Samuel 3:15</a>). Both words occur in <a href="/1_kings/6-31.htm" title="And for the entering of the oracle he made doors of olive tree: the lintel and side posts were a fifth part of the wall.">1Kings 6:31</a> : “And for the entering (or at the <span class= "ital">opening</span>) of the oracle he made <span class= "ital">doors.” </span>&c.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-26.htm">Numbers 3:26</a></div><div class="verse">And the hangings of the court, and the curtain for the door of the court, which <i>is</i> by the tabernacle, and by the altar round about, and the cords of it for all the service thereof.</div>(26) <span class= "bld">And the hangings of the court . . . —</span>See <a href="/exodus/27-9.htm" title="And you shall make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen of an hundred cubits long for one side:">Exodus 27:9</a> and Note.<p><span class= "bld">And the cords of it for all the service thereof.</span>—The pronominal suffixes do not seem to refer to the court, the cords belonging to which appear to have been under the custody of the Merarites (<a href="/numbers/3-37.htm" title="And the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords.">Numbers 3:37</a>), but to the <span class= "ital">mishkan </span>or Tabernacle itself. Or, the latter suffix (<span class= "ital">its </span>service, or the service <span class= "ital">thereof</span>) may be designed to refer to each of the various things mentioned, as in <a href="/numbers/3-31.htm" title="And their charge shall be the ark, and the table, and the candlestick, and the altars, and the vessels of the sanctuary with which they minister, and the hanging, and all the service thereof.">Numbers 3:31</a>, inasmuch as the words <span class= "ital">for all the service thereof </span>may mean for everything which had to be done in connection with the things mentioned.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-29.htm">Numbers 3:29</a></div><div class="verse">The families of the sons of Kohath shall pitch on the side of the tabernacle southward.</div>(29) <span class= "bld">on the side of the tabernacle southward.</span>—The south has its name in Hebrew (<span class= "ital">Teman</span>) from <span class= "ital">Yamin, the right hand, </span>because when a man stands with his face towards the east the south is on his right hand.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-32.htm">Numbers 3:32</a></div><div class="verse">And Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest <i>shall be</i> chief over the chief of the Levites, <i>and have</i> the oversight of them that keep the charge of the sanctuary.</div>(32) <span class= "bld">And Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest . . . —</span>In virtue, as it should seem, of the descent of Moses and Aaron from Kohath, the Kohathites had the most honourable portion of the service of the Tabernacle assigned to them; and hence, as the priests belonged to the Amramites, one of the four families of the Kohathites, Eleazar, the eldest surviving son of Aaron, was chosen to have the oversight over the whole body of the Levites.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-37.htm">Numbers 3:37</a></div><div class="verse">And the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords.</div>(37) <span class= "bld">And the pillars of the court round about . . . —</span>See Notes on <a href="/context/exodus/27-9.htm" title="And you shall make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen of an hundred cubits long for one side:">Exodus 27:9-19</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-38.htm">Numbers 3:38</a></div><div class="verse">But those that encamp before the tabernacle toward the east, <i>even</i> before the tabernacle of the congregation eastward, <i>shall be</i> Moses, and Aaron and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of Israel; and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.</div>(38) <span class= "bld">Keeping the charge of the sanctuary . . . —</span>The word <span class= "ital">mikdash </span>(sanctuary) appears to be of a more comprehensive import than <span class= "ital">mishkan, </span>the shittimwood building, or <span class= "ital">ohel, </span>the tent which covered it, and it seems to include the court which surrounded the Tabernacle, as in <a href="/leviticus/12-4.htm" title="And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled.">Leviticus 12:4</a>; <a href="/leviticus/21-12.htm" title="Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is on him: I am the LORD.">Leviticus 21:12</a>.<p><span class= "bld">For the charge of the children of Israel</span>—i.e., to attend to everything which was commanded the children of Israel.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-39.htm">Numbers 3:39</a></div><div class="verse">All that were numbered of the Levites, which Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of the LORD, throughout their families, all the males from a month old and upward, <i>were</i> twenty and two thousand.</div>(39) <span class= "bld">And Aaron . . . —</span>In the Hebrew text the word Aaron has certain marks over it, known as <span class= "ital">puncta extraordinaria, </span>denoting that it is to be regarded as spurious or doubtful. It is omitted in the Samaritan and Syriac versions and in a few MSS. There appears. however, to be no sufficient reason for its rejection from the text.<p><span class= "bld">Twenty and two thousand.</span>—The total of the three several items—viz., 7,500, 8,600, and 6,200—amounts to 22,300. It appears, however, from <a href="/numbers/3-46.htm" title="And for those that are to be redeemed of the two hundred and three score and thirteen of the firstborn of the children of Israel, which are more than the Levites;">Numbers 3:46</a> that the total is correctly given as 22,000, inasmuch as the number of the firstborn, 22,273, exceeded that of the Levites by 273. It has been suggested that in <a href="/numbers/3-28.htm" title="In the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, were eight thousand and six hundred, keeping the charge of the sanctuary.">Numbers 3:28</a> we should read <span class= "greekheb">שלש</span> (<span class= "ital">shalosh</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>three, for <span class= "greekheb">שׁש</span> (<span class= "ital">shesh</span>)<span class= "ital">, </span>six—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>8,300 instead of 8,600; or, if the numbers were denoted, as it has been commonly supposed, by the letters of the alphabet, it is quite possible that one letter may have been substituted by the scribe for another. Some suppose that the three hundred were themselves firstborn sons, who had been born since the command to sanctify the firstborn, and that it is on this account that they were not included in the census. (See Bishop Wordsworth’s Notes <span class= "ital">in loc., </span>where the reasons which may be assigned for the extreme paucity of this tribe, as compared with the other tribes, are discussed.) The later census, which also included the children from a month old and upwards, shows but a very small increase in the number of this tribe, the number on that occasion amounting only to 23,000 (<a href="/numbers/26-62.htm" title="And those that were numbered of them were twenty and three thousand, all males from a month old and upward: for they were not numbered among the children of Israel, because there was no inheritance given them among the children of Israel.">Numbers 26:62</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-41.htm">Numbers 3:41</a></div><div class="verse">And thou shalt take the Levites for me (I <i>am</i> the LORD) instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel; and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstlings among the cattle of the children of Israel.</div>(41) <span class= "bld">And thou shalt take the Levites for me (I am the Lord) . . . —</span>Or, <span class= "ital">And thou shalt take the Levites for Me—for Me, Jehovah. </span>The assertions which have been frequently made respecting the transference of the priesthood of the firstborn to the Levites appear to be altogether without foundation. For (1) the priesthood which was exercised in patriarchal times was not restricted to the firstborn, but appears to have been common to the head of every family. (2) This priesthood was exercised previously to the exodus, and consequently previously to the command given to Moses to sanctify the firstborn. And (3) the priesthood, which belonged not to the firstborn exclusively, but to the Israelites at large, was thenceforth strictly confined to the family of Aaron, who inherited it not as the substitutes of the firstborn, but in the place of the whole nation.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-43.htm">Numbers 3:43</a></div><div class="verse">And all the firstborn males by the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those that were numbered of them, were twenty and two thousand two hundred and threescore and thirteen.</div>(43) <span class= "bld">Twenty and two thousand two hundred and threescore and thirteen.</span>—The extremely small number of the firstborn in proportion to a male population of 600,000 of twenty years of age and upwards—i.e., to a population of about 1,000,000 males—has been a fruitful source of difficulty, and, in some cases, a ground for the rejection of the historical truth of the narrative, which involves, it has been alleged, the incredible conclusion that there was only <span class= "ital">one </span>firstborn <span class= "ital">to forty-four </span>males. It might suffice, in answer to those who urge this difficulty as a ground for rejecting the truth of the narrative, to reply that it is difficult, if not impossible, to conceive that a writer who has recorded, or, according to the theory in question, <span class= "ital">invented </span>so many complicated calculations, should have inserted amongst them one which is fraught with so much apparent improbability. Many solutions of the problem have been proposed which relieve the apparent disproportion of the number of the firstborn not only of its alleged impossibility, but even of improbability. Some have urged that we are constrained by every principle of analogy to restrict the firstborn sons to those who were under twenty years of age, and who had not been included in the census which had been already taken. The destruction of the firstborn of the Egyptians was clearly subject to a somewhat similar limitation. Pharaoh himself was, in all probability, a firstborn son; and in regard to the Egyptians generally there does not appear to have been above one death in each house (<a href="/exodus/12-30.htm" title="And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.">Exodus 12:30</a>), although there must have been very many houses in which the father (and it may be the grandfather) as well as the son was a firstborn child. Another opinion is that by the firstborn in every <span class= "ital">family </span>we are to understand the firstborn in every <span class= "ital">household, </span>including the children of concubines and slaves. When due allowance has been made, on either of these hypotheses, for the average proportion of the sexes, the average number of early deaths, and also for the limitation of the term <span class= "ital">firstborn </span>to those who were the firstborn on the side of the father as well as of the mother, it has been contended that the number of the firstborn is consistent with the supposition that each family of the Israelites consisted of about eight or nine children—a supposition which, considering how prolific the Hebrew women are said to have been, cannot be regarded as deserving of rejection on the ground of its incredibility. The most probable solution of the difficulty, however, appears to be that which is given in the Introduction.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-45.htm">Numbers 3:45</a></div><div class="verse">Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be mine: I <i>am</i> the LORD.</div>(45) <span class= "bld">And the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle.</span>—There appears to have been no numbering of the cattle. Had it been otherwise, an argument might have been used in support of the prospective reference of the command to number the firstborn, derived from the fact that it would have been impossible to ascertain the number of firstborn among the cattle. It appears, however, that the whole of the cattle of the Levites was given in redemption of the firstborn of all the cattle of the other tribes.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-47.htm">Numbers 3:47</a></div><div class="verse">Thou shalt even take five shekels apiece by the poll, after the shekel of the sanctuary shalt thou take <i>them</i>: (the shekel <i>is</i> twenty gerahs:)</div>(47) <span class= "bld">Thou shalt even take five shekels apiece by the poll.</span>—It is not stated in what manner the 273 families of whom the redemption money was exacted were determined. Inasmuch, however, as the law of the redemption of the firstborn by the payment of five shekels came into operation from this time (<a href="/numbers/18-16.htm" title="And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shall you redeem, according to your estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.">Numbers 18:16</a>), it seems probable that the money was exacted in the case of those who had been most recently born; or it may be that the matter was decided by lot.<p><span class= "bld">After the shekel of the sanctuary.</span>—See <a href="/exodus/30-13.htm" title="This they shall give, every one that passes among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the LORD.">Exodus 30:13</a>, where the expression occurs for the first time, and the value of the shekel is stated, as in this verse.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-48.htm">Numbers 3:48</a></div><div class="verse">And thou shalt give the money, wherewith the odd number of them is to be redeemed, unto Aaron and to his sons.</div>(48) <span class= "bld">And thou shalt give the money . . . —</span>The verse may be rendered thus: <span class= "ital">And thou shalt give the money to Aaron and to his sons: even the redemption money of those who are over and above amongst them.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-49.htm">Numbers 3:49</a></div><div class="verse">And Moses took the redemption money of them that were over and above them that were redeemed by the Levites:</div>(49) <span class= "bld">Redeemed by the Levites.</span>—i.e., who were redeemed by the substitution of the Levites in their place.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/numbers/3-51.htm">Numbers 3:51</a></div><div class="verse">And Moses gave the money of them that were redeemed unto Aaron and to his sons, according to the word of the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses.</div>(51) <span class= "bld">The money of them that were redeemed.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">the ransom </span>(or, <span class= "ital">redemption</span>)<span class= "ital"> money.</span><p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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