You are to pay the redemption price for a month-old male according to your valuation: five shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel, which is twenty gerahs.
Parallel translations
- WEB You shall redeem those who are to be redeemed of them from a month old, according to your estimation, for five shekels of money, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which weighs twenty gerahs.
- KJV And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shalt thou redeem, according to thine estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.
- NKJV And those redeemed of the devoted things you shall redeem when one month old, according to your valuation, for five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.
- NASB As to their redemption price, from a month old you shall redeem them, by your assessment, five shekels in silver by the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.
- NLT Redeem them when they are one month old. The redemption price is five pieces of silver (as measured by the weight of the sanctuary shekel, which equals twenty gerahs).
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Firstborn sons were to be redeemed from one month old for five shekels by the sanctuary standard.
Overview
This sets the specific price and timing for redeeming human firstborn, who belonged to God but were not offered as sacrifices. The fixed redemption payment provided for the priests and acknowledged God's claim. The practice of paying a redemption price embodies the gospel pattern of a ransom that frees what belongs to God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Exod 30:13Everyone who crosses over to those counted must pay a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the LORD.
- Num 3:47you are to collect five shekels for each one, according to the sanctuary shekel of twenty gerahs.
- Ezek 45:12The shekel will consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels will equal one mina.
- Lev 27:25Every valuation will be according to the sanctuary shekel, twenty gerahs to the shekel.
- Lev 27:2–7“Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘When someone makes a special vow to the LORD involving the value of persons,
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Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 18:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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