Talk:Large numbers in the Old Testament
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On the first born males please refer to Gleeson Archer's Encyclopedia of Bible difficulties.
This issue is redemption. Exodus 13:13, Numbers 3:46-47 and Numbers 18:16 are key texts
The number doesn't refer to the number of women in Israel. It refers to the number of boys to be set aside for God.
The Levites took up the role of the "spiritual leaders" for the entire nation. The entire nation went through the sea - and were thus considered "redeemed" but many more children were born in the 13 months before the actual transaction whereby the Levites took the place of spiritual responsibilty. Of all the children born it is only the "first born" of first birth mothers that still had to be "redeemed".
Thus ...
The 22,273 yet to be redeemed boys were those born after the exodus and before the census 13 months later. From the excel spreadsheet mentioned in CreationWiki/Biblical chronology debate/ discussion some 182,000 or more babies may have been born during the year after the exodus.
Halve that number to give boys, then we may possibly assume that one quarter of those boys were born to mothers who were "first time mothers". That gives a result of 22,750 baby boys who had to be redeemed. This number is reasonably close to the number given in the scriptures, without having to force the issue. I trust this helps.
sincerely, WesDale 01:31, 6 June 2007 (EDT)
