Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 3:43
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.
This result, when compared with the number of male adults (603,550, compare Num 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 Exo 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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 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, Nu 3:46, to be redeemed; and the redemption price is to be five shekels each, Nu 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, Nu 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, 1Pe 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 ( , 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 Heb 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical 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, Nu 3:39.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(43) Twenty and two thousand two hundred and threescore and thirteen.The extremely small number of the firstborn in proportion to a male population of 600,000 of twenty years of age and upwardsi.e., to a population of about 1,000,000 maleshas been a fruitful source of difficulty, and, in some cases, a ground for the rejection of the historical truth of the narrative, which involves, it has been alleged, the incredible conclusion that there was only one firstborn to forty-four males. It might suffice, in answer to those who urge this difficulty as a ground for rejecting the truth of the narrative, to reply that it is difficult, if not impossible, to conceive that a writer who has recorded, or, according to the theory in question, invented so many complicated calculations, should have inserted amongst them one which is fraught with so much apparent improbability. Many solutions of the problem have been proposed which relieve the apparent disproportion of the number of the firstborn not only of its alleged impossibility, but even of improbability. Some have urged that we are constrained by every principle of analogy to restrict the firstborn sons to those who were under twenty years of age, and who had not been included in the census which had been already taken. The destruction of the firstborn of the Egyptians was clearly subject to a somewhat similar limitation. Pharaoh himself was, in all probability, a firstborn son; and in regard to the Egyptians generally there does not appear to have been above one death in each house (Exo. 12:30), although there must have been very many houses in which the father (and it may be the grandfather) as well as the son was a firstborn child. Another opinion is that by the firstborn in every family we are to understand the firstborn in every household, including the children of concubines and slaves. When due allowance has been made, on either of these hypotheses, for the average proportion of the sexes, the average number of early deaths, and also for the limitation of the term firstborn to those who were the firstborn on the side of the father as well as of the mother, it has been contended that the number of the firstborn is consistent with the supposition that each family of the Israelites consisted of about eight or nine childrena supposition which, considering how prolific the Hebrew women are said to have been, cannot be regarded as deserving of rejection on the ground of its incredibility. The most probable solution of the difficulty, however, appears to be that which is given in the Introduction.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Num 3:43. All the first-born males, &c. All the males of the tribe of Levi are said to be twenty and two thousand, Num 3:39 but if we put together the particular sums mentioned Num 3:22; Num 3:28; Num 3:34 they amount to 300 more; which Patrick, Le Clerc, and others think to be omitted, because they were the first-born of the Levites themselves, and on that account belonged to God already. But we have shewn in the note on Num 3:39 how this difficulty may be otherwise solved. The number of the first-born exceeded that of the Israelites by 273, and for these it is enjoined, Num 3:47 that they should be redeemed at the rate of five shekels, i.e. about 12s. a head; see Lev 27:6. Num 18:16. It has been asked, who was to pay this money? for every Israelite would think he had an equal right to be redeemed by a Levite. The Jews tell us, as Bishop Patrick remarks, that it was done by drawing lots thus: Moses took 22,000 scrolls of parchment, on which he wrote a son of Levi, and 273 more, whereon he wrote five shekels; and then, putting all the lots into an urn, that every first-born might draw, he that drew one of the former lots was redeemed, and he that drew one of the latter paid his price. It has appeared surprising to same, that from above 600,000 full grown men, there should not be more first-born sons: but it is to be considered, that so many had been born since the slaughter of the Egyptian first-born; from which time and event only the first-born were to be consecrated to God; see Exo 13:2.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Num 3:39
Reciprocal: Num 3:15 – General