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Numbers 3:40

in Numbers 3

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Number every firstborn male of the Israelites a month old or more, and list their names.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

And Jehovah said unto Moses, Number all the first-born males of the children of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names.

KJV

And the Lord said unto Moses, Number all the firstborn of the males of the children of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names.

This verse in Numbers 3

Commentary

3 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

The excess of the general over the Levitical first-born is so small, that the only way of accounting for it is, by supposing those first-born only were counted as were males remaining in their parents' household, or that those first-born only were numbered which had been born since the departure from Egypt, when God claimed all the first-born as his special property.

This site's exposition

Number all the firstborn of the males

on Numbers 3:40-41

A second census follows at once and it counts a class rather than a tribe, every firstborn male from a month old and upward. The cattle are counted with them, so the exchange runs through beasts as well as men, which is what Exodus 13:12-13 had required of every firstling of the herd. Two rolls are being set side by side and the whole point of the exercise is the difference between them.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And the Lord said unto Moses,.... After he had taken the number of the Levites: number all the firstborn of the children of Israel, from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names; that they might be compared with the number of the Levites, and the difference between them observed.

The words behind it

17 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֹּ֨אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH5595305 times

  • יְהוָ֜הYahweh

    yahwehH30686520 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H4135510 times

  • מֹשֶׁ֗הMoses

    moshehH4872765 times

  • פְּקֹ֨דenroll

    pekodH6485303 times

  • כָּל־every

    kol-H36055413 times

  • בְּכֹ֤רfirstborn

    bekhorH1060122 times

  • זָכָר֙male

    zakharH214582 times

  • לִבְנֵ֣יof [the] people of

    livneiH11214930 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לIsrael

    yisraelH34782507 times

  • מִבֶּן־from a son of

    miben-H11214930 times

  • חֹ֖דֶשׁa month

    chodeshH2320284 times

  • וָמָ֑עְלָהand up -wards

    vamaelahH4605140 times

  • וְשָׂ֕אand take

    vesa'H5375656 times

  • אֵ֖ת<obj.>

    ʾetH85310935 times

  • מִסְפַּ֥ר[the] number of

    misparH4557134 times

  • שְׁמֹתָֽם׃names their

    shemotamH8034864 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Revelation 3:5

    Like them, he who overcomes will be dressed in white. And I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and His…

    it leads to

    • Revelation 20:15

      And if anyone was found whose name was not written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Matthew 10:32

      Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father in heaven.

    • Revelation 21:27

      But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who practices an abomination or a lie, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

    • Luke 12:8

      I tell you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man will also confess him before the angels of God.

    • Revelation 20:12

      And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And there were open books, and one of them was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their…

  • Through

    Hebrews 12:23

    in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

    it leads to

    • James 1:18

      He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of His creation.

    • Hebrews 11:40

      God had planned something better for us, so that together with us they would be made perfect.

    • Luke 10:20

      Nevertheless, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Where this verse is studied

About Numbers

The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch.