Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 3:45
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 [am] the LORD.
Take the Levites, to wit, the 22,000 reckoned up Num 3:39, See Poole “Num 3:39”
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel,…. The Lord had declared before that he had taken them, and now he bids Moses take them, who had numbered them, and give them to Aaron, instead of the firstborn, whose numbers were also taken for this purpose:
and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; but not to be given to Aaron and his sons, or to the priests for their use, but to remain with the Levites for their use, who were now separated from the other tribes, and taken into the service of God; and as they were dedicated to God, so their cattle likewise for their support as his ministers:
and the Levites shall be mine; in a special manner his, being devoted to his service:
I [am] the Lord; who had a right to do this, and expected to be obeyed in it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
45. Take the Levites instead of all the first-born The compensation of which I have spoken follows; for, since the complete portion of God was not found in the tribe of Levi, it must needs be supplied from elsewhere. Since, then, the Levites, infants as well as men, were less by two hundred and seventy-three than the first-born of the twelve tribes of Israel, God required that five shekels of the sanctuary should be paid for every head. We have elsewhere seen that the shekel of the sanctuary was double, amounting to two ordinary ones.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(45) And the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle.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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
instead. This substitution is the subject of this large member.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Num 3:12, Num 3:40, Num 3:41
Reciprocal: Exo 34:20 – All the Num 8:10 – General Num 8:14 – and the Levites Num 8:16 – instead of such Num 18:6 – I have Mal 2:5 – covenant