Numbers 8:17

17 For all the firstborn of the sons of Israel are mine, both of man and of animals; from the day that I smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for myself.

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 Thus shall the Levites go in to minister in the tabernacle of the testimony; and thou shalt cleanse them and wave them for an offering.

16 For they are completely given unto me from among the sons of Israel, instead of each one that opens the womb; instead of the firstborn of all the sons of Israel, I have taken them for myself.

17 For all the firstborn of the sons of Israel are mine, both of man and of animals; from the day that I smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them for myself.

18 And I have taken the Levites for all the firstborn of the sons of Israel.

19 And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the sons of Israel, that they may serve the ministry of the sons of Israel in the tabernacle of the testimony and reconcile the sons of Israel, that there be no plague in the sons of Israel when the sons of Israel come near unto the sanctuary.