Numbers 3:38-51
east <06924> [toward.]
responsible <08104> [keeping.]
needs ........ needs <04931> [for the charge.]
Aaron <0175> [and Aaron.]
The word [w'hrn,] {we„haron,} and "Aaron," has a point over each of its letters, probably designed as a mark of spuriousness. The word is wanting in the Samaritan, Syriac, and Coptic, and also in eight of Dr. Kennicott's and in four of De Rossi's MSS. Moses alone, as Houbigant observes, was commanded to number the Levites, (ver. 5, 11, 40, 44, 51:) for as the money with which the first-born were redeemed was to be paid to Aaron and his sons, (ver. 48,) it was decent that he, whose advantage it was that the number of the first-born should exceed, should not be authorized to take that number himself. twenty and two thousand. This total does not agree with the particulars; for the Gershonites were 7,500, the Kohathites 8,600, and the Merarites 6,200, which make a total of 22,300. Several methods of solving this difficulty have been proposed by learned men. Houbigant supposes there is an error in the enumeration of the Kohathites in ver. 28; the numeral {shesh,} "six," being written instead of {shalosh,} "three," before "hundred." Dr. Kennicott's mode of reconciling the discrepancy, however, is the most simple. He supposes that an error has crept into the number of the Gershonites in ver. 22, where instead of 7,500 we should read 7,200, as [k,] {caph} final, which stands for 500, might have been easily mistaken for [r,] resh, 200. (Dr. Kennicott on the Hebrew Text, vol. II. p. 212.) Either of these modes will equally reconcile the difference.
redemption <06302> [redeemed.]
273 <03967> [the two hundred.]
As the number of the Levites was 22,000, and the first-born males of the Israelites were 22,273, there were therefore 372 more of the latter than of the former, which are here ordered to be redeemed. The price of redemption is fixed at five shekels, or about 15s. each, in ver 47. This money, amounting to 1,365 shekels, equal to Å“204. 15s. English, was taken of the first-born. There is some difficulty, however, in determining which of the first-born should be redeemed by paying this sum, and which should be exchanged for the Levites; for every Israelite, no doubt, would rather have his first-born redeemed by a Levite, than pay five shekels; and yet some of them must have incurred this expense. Rabbi Solomon Jarchi says, to prevent contention, Moses took 22,000 slips of parchment, and wrote on each a son of Levi, and 273 more, on which he wrote five shekels; then putting them in an urn, and shaking them together, he ordered every one of the first-born to draw out a slip. If he drew out one with the first inscription, he said to him, a Levite hath redeemed thee: but if he drew out one of the latter, he said, pay the price. This is pronounced by Dr. A. Clarke to be a stupid, silly tale; but when we know that the determination by lot was used among the Israelites, it does not seem improbable that it was now resorted to, though we cannot vouch for the accuracy of the detail. This species of redeeming men is referred to by St. Peter in his 1st Epistle, ch. 1:18, 19.
273 ....... who <05736> [which are.]
five shekels .................. shekel ... shekel <02568 08255> [five shekels.]
shekels .................. shekel ... shekel <08255> [the shekel.]
Moses ....................... Moses <04872> [Moses.]
Lord .... Lord <03068> [as the Lord.]
