Numbers 8:17

17 For every firstborn among the {Israelites} [is] mine, both humankind and animal. On the day I destroyed every firstborn in the land of Egypt I consecrated them to me,

Numbers 8:17 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 8:17

For all the firstborn of the children of Israel [are] mine,
[both] men and beasts
Not only in common with other of his creatures, but in a special respect on account of his signal deliverance of them; they were his, as Jarchi expresses it, by the line of judgment, or rule of justice and equity, because he protected them among the firstborn of the Egyptians, saved them when he slew theirs, as follows:

in the day that I smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt;
both of men and beasts:

I sanctified them for myself;
claimed them as his own, and set them apart for his own use, or ordered them to be set apart: see ( Exodus 13:2 ) .

Numbers 8:17 In-Context

15 And after this the Levites will come to serve [at] the tent of assembly, and you will purify them, and you {will offer} them [as] a wave offering.

16 For they [are] given to me exclusively from the midst of the {Israelites}. I have taken them for myself in place of [the] firstborn of every womb, every firstborn from the {Israelites}.

17 For every firstborn among the {Israelites} [is] mine, both humankind and animal. On the day I destroyed every firstborn in the land of Egypt I consecrated them to me,

18 and I have taken the Levites in the place of every firstborn among the {Israelites}.

19 And I have given the Levites; they are given to Aaron and his sons from the midst of the {Israelites} to do the work of the {Israelites} in the tent of the assembly and to make atonement for the {Israelites}, so a plague will not be among the {Israelites} when the {Israelites} come near the sanctuary."

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "sons/children of Israel"