Numbers 3:40

40 The LORD said to Moshe, "Number all the firstborn males of the children of Yisra'el from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names.

Numbers 3:40 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 3:40

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.

Numbers 3:40 In-Context

38 Those who encamp before the tabernacle eastward, in front of the Tent of Meeting toward the sunrise, shall be Moshe, and Aharon and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of Yisra'el. The stranger who comes near shall be put to death.

39 All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moshe and Aharon numbered at the mitzvah of the LORD, by their families, all the males from a month old and upward, were twenty-two thousand.

40 The LORD said to Moshe, "Number all the firstborn males of the children of Yisra'el from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names.

41 You shall take the Levites for me (I am the LORD) instead of all the firstborn among the children of Yisra'el; and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the cattle of the children of Yisra'el."

42 Moshe numbered, as the LORD commanded him, all the firstborn among the children of Yisra'el.