Of the firstborn of the children of Israel took he the
money,
&c.] Or "for the firstborn", as the Vulgate Latin version
renders it, and so the Hebrew particle (tam) is sometimes used F21; for
children of a month old or little more could not pay the money,
but their parents for them, which was paid by them, and Moses
received it for the superfluous number of two hundred seventy
three; but it is a matter of doubt of whom this was exacted, and
by whom paid, and who could be reckoned as this superfluous
number, unless they were the last two hundred seventy three that
were numbered: some have thought this was paid out of the public
stock, which was a ready way of doing it, but whether reasonable
is not so manifest, since these firstborn were the properties of
particular persons; the more commonly received method of doing it
with the Jewish writers was, according to Jarchi and Abarbinel,
and so in the Talmud F23 by lot; the former of which
describes the manner of doing it thus, 22,000 pieces (of paper or
parchment) were brought, and on them written, "a son of Levi", or
"a Levite", and two hundred seventy three other pieces, and on
them were written, "five shekels"; these were mixed together and
put into an urn or box, and then they were bid to come and take
out the pieces, and according as the lot was, they were allowed
as redeemed by the Levites, or paid the redemption money: and as
this was a method much in use with the Hebrews, it is not
improbable:
a thousand three hundred and threescore and five [shekels],
after the
shekel of the sanctuary;
1,365 shekels, which is exactly the number of shekels that two
hundred seventy three should pay, reckoning five shekels per
head; which Jarchi counts thus, for two hundred firstborn, a
thousand shekels; for seventy firstborn, three hundred fifty; and
for three firstborn fifteen, shekels, which in all amounted to
about an hundred seventy pounds of our money.
F21 Vid. Nold. Partic. Ebr. Concord. p. 579.
F23 T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 17. 1.