Exodus 34:19

34:19 “Every firstborn of the womb ¹  belongs to me, even every firstborn ²  of your cattle that is a male, ³  whether ox or sheep.

Numbers 3:12

3:12 “Look, ⁴  I myself have taken the Levites from among the Israelites instead of ⁵  every firstborn who opens the womb among the Israelites. So the Levites belong to me,

Numbers 18:15

18:15 The firstborn of every womb which they present to the Lord, whether human or animal, will be yours. Nevertheless, the firstborn sons you must redeem, ⁶  and the firstborn males of unclean animals you must redeem.

¹ tn Heb “everything that opens the womb.”

² tn Here too: everything that “opens [the womb].”

³ tn The verb basically means “that drops a male.” The verb is feminine, referring to the cattle.

⁴ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) here carries its deictic force, calling attention to the fact that is being declared. It is underscoring the fact that the Lord himself chose Levi.

⁵ tn Literally “in the place of.”

⁶ tn The construction uses the infinitive absolute and the imperfect tense of the verb “to redeem” in order to stress the point – they were to be redeemed. N. H. Snaith suggests that the verb means to get by payment what was not originally yours, whereas the other root גָאַל (ga’al) means to get back what was originally yours (Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 268).