Numbers 3:43

The church is called the church of the first-born, which is redeemed, not as these were, with silver and gold, but, being devoted by sin to the justice of God, is ransomed with the precious blood of the Son of God.

), would have been twenty-seven more, and so the balance would have fallen the other way; but it is supposed that the 300 which were struck off from the account when the exchange was to be made were the first-born of the Levites themselves, born since their coming out of Egypt, which could not be put into the exchange, because they were already sanctified to God.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens

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, Num 3:39.

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.

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, Num 3:46, to be redeemed; and the redemption price is to be five shekels each, Num 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, Num 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, 1Pe 1:19: “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 (τιμιω αἱματι, valuable) blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,” etc. 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. […]