Numbers 3:40-43

C. CENSUS OF THE FIRST BORN vv. 40-43
TEXT

Numbers 3:40. 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. 41. And thou shalt take the Levites for me (I am 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. 42. And Moses numbered, as the Lord commanded him, all the firstborn among the children of Israel. 43. 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.

PARAPHRASE

Numbers 3:40. Then the Lord said to Moses, Count all the firstborn males of the children of Israel from one month old and up, and list their names. 41. And you shall take the Levites for me (I am the Lord), rather than all the firstborn among the children of Israel; and the cattle of the Levites rather than all the firstborn among the cattle of the children of Israel. 42. So Moses counted all the firstborn among the children of Israel, as the Lord commanded him; and the total of all the firstborn males named, from one month old and up, came to 22,273.

COMMENTARY

The number of the firstborn, 22,273, can hardly be a complete figure for all of the tribes of Israel. If there were an equal number of firstborn females, the total of about 45,000 would mean that the average family would have had about 50 children or more, if the total population exceeded two million. Various suggestions have been made. It has been proposed that only the firstborn males who were not heads of their own families were includedthose too young to have their own firstborn. Again, there is the thought that in many instances the firstborn might have died, and hence is not tallied. Even if these factors be granted, the number would have not been reduced as much as the figures demand. Perhaps an answer is that only those firstborn sons were counted whose births had transpired after the departure from Egypt. But this theory would require a very unusually high birth rate for the period. A final suggestion is that the sanctification of the firstborn, being designed to strike a blow at the practice of the sacrifice of the pagan infants to the worship of Moloch, would hence have included only the very young firstborn among Israel.
But all of these are speculative, and none is without its difficulties. Whatever the actual reason for there being such a small number, we are not told: the most likely explanation may be that of PC, (pp. 19, 20), that the tally included only the firstborn sons in Israel who were not themselves heads of houses. The conclusion is reached by drawing a parallel between this counting and the deaths of the Egyptian firstborn at the Passover, at which time each household lost only its eldest son; but the father, although a firstborn, was not touched. These, it is stated, were the destroyed in Egyptthese the redeemed in Israel.

The number of firstborn of the tribes, 22,273, was exchanged for the 22,000 Levites; and the cattle of the Levites were consecrated in the place of all the firstborn cattle of Israel. The exchange was not one-for-one, but approximate.

QUESTIONS AND RESEARCH ITEMS

71.

What explanations are suggested for the small number of firstborn among the tribes of Israel? Can you find the difficulty in these suggestions?

72.

Compare the number of firstborn in the nation with the census of the Levites.

73.

In what sense are the Levites and their cattle to be taken in place of the firstborn of Israel and of the cattle?