Numbers 3:44-51

"And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Take the Levites instead of all the first-born among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be mine: I am Jehovah. And for the redemption of the two hundred and three-score and thirteen of the first-born of the children of Israel, that are over and above the number of the Levites, thou shalt take five shekels apiece by the poll; after the shekel of the sanctuary shalt thou take them (the shekel is twenty gerahs): and thou shalt give the money, wherewith the odd number of them is redeemed, unto Aaron and to his sons. And Moses took the redemption money from them that were over and above them that were redeemed by the Levites; from the first-born of the children of Israel took he the money, a thousand three hundred and threescore and five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary: and Moses gave the redemption-money unto Aaron and to his sons, according to the word of Jehovah, as Jehovah commanded Moses."

It is of interest that the 1,365 shekels equals the number of shekels procured by collecting five shekels each from 273 people. The author of the account here was most careful to give an exact report of everything related. How amazing it is, that after so many millenniums of time, the account is as perfect as it is.

It is significant that in the case of the cattle mentioned here, there was evidently permitted a redemption, through exchange, of both clean and unclean animals, some of which, according to legislation in Numbers 18:15-17, had to be sacrificed and not redeemed. Obviously, this was a special case not subject to normal requirements. Plaut noted that, normally, only "unclean animals could be redeemed, and therefore the Talmud applied this chapter only to clean animals."[17] It is not known, exactly, what happened.