Numbers 3 Footnotes

3:40-51 The firstborn males totaled 22,273. Taken as a portion of the 603,550 total in the military census, this would require the average Israelite woman to have 27 male children, a number unheard of in Israelite history thus far (Jacob having the most at 12 by several wives). However, if the number is not taken literally, the need for the special redemption price of five shekels each for the extra 273 Israelite males is superfluous. Five shekels was the standard price for a young slave in Late Bronze Age Egypt and Mesopotamia (1500–1200 BC) and is therefore consistent with the time period for the exodus event.