We’ve covered a lot of territory so far in Numbers chapter 3. We’ve learned that every firstborn male Israelite baby by default belongs to the Lord and is His Holy property unless that baby is redeemed. We also learned that it was the tradition in the ancient Middle East for the firstborn son to serve […]

Over the last couple of posts we’ve explored quite an interesting scenario. We studied how the Levites outright replaced all of the first born non-Levite Israelite males for the priesthood of Israel. Now one fascinating question that needs to be asked at this juncture is what happened to the status of all future Israelite firstborns […]

“Adonai said to Moshe, “Register all the firstborn males of the people of Israel a month old and over, and determine how many there are. Then you are to take the Levites for me, Adonai, in place of all the firstborn among the people of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites in place of the firstborn of the cattle belonging to […]

“To Merari belonged the clans of the Mahlites and the Mushites; these were the Merarite clans.  The number of all the males a month old or more who were counted was 6,200. The leader of the families of the Merarite clans was Zuriel son of Abihail; they were to camp on the north side of the tabernacle. The Merarites were […]

“To Kohath belonged the clans of the Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites and Uzzielites; these were the Kohathite clans.  The number of all the males a month old or more was 8,600. The Kohathites were responsible for the care of the sanctuary.  The Kohathite clans were to camp on the south side of the tabernacle. The leader of the families of the Kohathite clans was Elizaphan son of […]