Numbers 3:47

47 you shall accept five shekels apiece, reckoning by the shekel of the sanctuary, a shekel of twenty gerahs.

Numbers 3:47 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 3:47

Thou shall even take five shekels apiece the poll
Or head; every firstborn, or his parent for him, was bound to pay five shekels, which were about eleven or twelve shillings of our money, and which was afterwards settled as the price of such a redemption, ( Numbers 18:16 ) ;

after the shekel of the sanctuary shall thou take [them];
being full weight according to the standard there kept:

the shekel [is] twenty gerahs; (See Gill on Leviticus 27:25).

Numbers 3:47 In-Context

45 Accept the Levites as substitutes for all the firstborn among the Israelites, and the livestock of the Levites as substitutes for their livestock; and the Levites shall be mine. I am the Lord.

46 As the price of redemption of the two hundred seventy-three of the firstborn of the Israelites, over and above the number of the Levites,

47 you shall accept five shekels apiece, reckoning by the shekel of the sanctuary, a shekel of twenty gerahs.

48 Give to Aaron and his sons the money by which the excess number of them is redeemed.

49 So Moses took the redemption money from those who were over and above those redeemed by the Levites;