Numbers 3:40

40 And the LORD said to Moses, number all the first-born of the males of the children of Israel, 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 But those that encamp before the tabernacle towards the east, [even] before the tabernacle of the congregation eastward [shall be] Moses and Aaron, and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary, for the charge of the children of Israel; and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.

39 All that were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of the LORD, throughout their families, all the males from a month old and upward, [were] twenty and two thousand.

40 And the LORD said to Moses, number all the first-born of the males of the children of Israel, from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names.

41 And thou shalt take the Levites for me (I [am] the LORD) instead of all the first-born among the children of Israel; and the cattle of the Levites, instead of all the firstlings among the cattle of the children of Israel.

42 And Moses numbered, as the LORD commanded him, all the first-born among the children of Israel.