40 Yahweh said to Moses, “Number all the firstborn males of the children of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names. 41 You shall take the Levites for me (I am Yahweh) 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 Moses numbered, as Yahweh commanded him, all the firstborn among the children of Israel. 43 All the firstborn males according to the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those who were numbered of them, were twenty-two thousand two hundred seventy-three. 44 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 45 “Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites instead of their livestock; and the Levites shall be mine. I am Yahweh. 46 For the redemption of the two hundred seventy-three of the firstborn of the children of Israel, who exceed the number of the Levites, 47 you shall take five shekels apiece for each one; after the shekel of the sanctuary you shall take them (the shekel is twenty gerahs): 48 and you shall give the money, with which the remainder of them is redeemed, to Aaron and to his sons.” 49 Moses took the redemption money from those who exceeded the number of those who were redeemed by the Levites; 50 from the firstborn of the children of Israel he took the money, one thousand three hundred sixty-five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary: 51 and Moses gave the redemption money to Aaron and to his sons, according to the word of Yahweh, as Yahweh commanded Moses.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Numbers 3:40-51
Commentary on Numbers 3:40-51
(Read Numbers 3:40-51)
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.