Números 3:43

La Biblia Reina-Valera Gomez

Y todos los primogénitos varones, conforme a la cuenta de los nombres, de un mes para arriba, los contados de ellos fueron veintidós mil doscientos setenta y tres.

Parallel Translations

La Biblia de las Americas
y todos los primogénitos varones conforme al número de sus nombres de un mes arriba, los enumerados, eran veintidós mil doscientos setenta y tres.

La Biblia Reina-Valera
Y todos los primog�nitos varones, conforme � la cuenta de los nombres, de un mes arriba, los contados de ellos fueron veinte y dos mil doscientos setenta y tres.

Sagradas Escrituras (1569)
Y todos los primog�nitos varones, conforme a la cuenta de los nombres, de un mes arriba, conforme a su cuenta fueron veintid�s mil doscientos setenta y tres.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Numbers 3:39

Reciprocal: Numbers 3:15 - General

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

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 15s. And this money, amounting to 1,365 shekels, equal to £204 15s. 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 parchment, and wrote on each a son of Levi, and 273 others, on which he wrote five shekels; then he mixed them in a basket, and each man took out one; those who drew the slips on which five shekels were written, paid the money; the others went free." This is a most stupid and silly tale, for such a mode of settlement never could have been resorted to by an intelligent people. It would have been much more simple to have paid it out of a general fund; and it is very likely that in this way the expense was defrayed.

This species of redeeming of men is referred to by St. Peter, 1 Peter 1:18-19: "Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious (τιμιω αιματι, valuable) blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot," c. And it is not the first-born only which are thus redeemed, for he, by the grace of God, tasted death for EVERY man Hebrews 2:9. Reader, give glory to God that such a ransom has been paid for thy soul, and see that, redeemed from thy vain conversation, thy empty, fruitless, and graceless observances, on which thou hast built thy hopes of salvation, thou walk in newness of life, giving thy whole soul with thankfulness unto the Father who hath translated thee from darkness, and placed thee in the kingdom of his beloved Son. To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever! Amen.