Numbers 3:11-13

THE LEVITES SUBSTITUTED FOR THE FIRSTBORN, Numbers 3:11-13.

On that night of wailing in Egypt, the saddest in the annals of mankind, the fifteenth of the month Nisan, when at midnight Jehovah smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from”the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon,” he passed over the blood-stained doors of the Hebrews, sparing their firstborn. These he commanded Moses to “set apart unto the Lord.” Exodus 13:12-16. For reasons not made known Jehovah relinquished this claim, and appointed the tribe of Levi to minister unto him instead of the firstborn. The substitution of adults capable of immediate service harmonizes well with the hypothesis that the phrase, “all the firstborn,” is to be understood prospectively, and so includes only infants born since the Exode, and incapable till thirty years old of rendering service. Levi may have had this honour for special fidelity in times of trial, especially against the abomination of the golden calf, set up and worshipped at the foot of Mount Sinai. Exodus 32:26-28. Dr. A. Clarke suggests that Levi was taken because it was the smallest tribe. This substitution accounts for the census of the tribe of Levi, the enumeration of the firstborn males, (Numbers 3:40,) and the redemption of the number in excess. Numbers 3:47. We are not to understand that the claim on the firstborn was to be retrospective, like an ex post facto law, and to cover all the firstborn of all ages, but those born after the passover night up to the census in the wilderness all born during the first thirteen months of the Exodus. Our reasons for this limitation will be seen when we discuss the number of firstborn, and their ratio to the fighting men. See Numbers 3:40, note.