Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 3:42
And Moses numbered, as the LORD commanded him, all the firstborn among the children of Israel.
40-51. Number all the first-born ofthe males of the children of Israel, c.The principle on whichthe enumeration of the Levites had been made was now to be applied tothe other tribes. The number of their male children, from a month oldand upward, was to be reckoned, in order that a comparison might beinstituted with that of the Levites, for the formal adoption of thelatter as substitutes for the first-born. The Levites, amounting totwenty-two thousand, were given in exchange for an equal number ofthe first-born from the other tribes, leaving an excess of twohundred seventy-three and as there were no substitutes for these,they were redeemed at the rate of five shekels for each (Num 18:15;Num 18:16). Every Israelite wouldnaturally wish that his son might be redeemed by a Levite without thepayment of this tax, and yet some would have to incur the expense,for there were not Levites enough to make an equal exchange. Jewishwriters say the matter was determined by lot, in this manner: Mosesput into an urn twenty-two thousand pieces of parchment, on each ofwhich he wrote “a son of Levi,” and two hundredseventy-three more, containing the words, “five shekels.”These being shaken, he ordered each of the first-born to put in hishand and take out a slip. If it contained the first inscription, theboy was redeemed by a Levite; if the latter, the parent had to pay.The ransom-money, which, reckoning the shekel at half a crown, wouldamount to 12s. 6d. each, was appropriated to the use ofthe sanctuary. The excess of the general over the Leviticalfirst-born is so small, that the only way of accounting for it is, bysupposing those first-born only were counted as were males remainingin their parents’ household, or that those first-born only werenumbered which had been born since the departure from Egypt, when Godclaimed all the first-born as his special property.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Moses numbered, as the Lord commanded him,…. No doubt assisted by others, though not mentioned:
all the firstborn among the children of Israel; which some think were only those that were born since they came out of Egypt, as Bonfrerius, Bishop Patrick, and others.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
as = according as