Numbers 3:41-51 ▼

41 You shall take the Levites for me (I am the LORD) instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel; and the livestock of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the livestock of the children of Israel.|

42 Moses numbered, as the LORD commanded him, all the firstborn among the children of Israel.

43 All the firstborn males according to the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those who were numbered of them, were twenty-two thousand two hundred seventy-three.

44 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

45 |Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites instead of their livestock; and the Levites shall be mine. I am the LORD.

46 For the redemption of the two hundred seventy-three of the firstborn of the children of Israel, who exceed the number of the Levites,

47 you shall take five shekels apiece for each one; after the shekel of the sanctuary you shall take them (the shekel is twenty gerahs):

48 and you shall give the money, with which the remainder of them is redeemed, to Aaron and to his sons.|

49 Moses took the redemption money from those who exceeded the number of those who were redeemed by the Levites;

50 from the firstborn of the children of Israel he took the money, one thousand three hundred sixty-five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary:

51 and Moses gave the redemption money to Aaron and to his sons, according to the word of the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses.