Positioning and Arrangements for Travel of the Levites (Numbers 3:14-51).
i). The Command to Number The Levites Over One Month Old (Numbers 3:14-16).
‘And Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, saying, “Number the children of Levi by their fathers' houses, by their families, every male from a month old and upward shall you number them.”
God now commanded the numbering of the male children of Levi. But the numbering was to be on a different basis to that in Numbers 1. Rather than being of those who were twenty years old and upwards it was of those who were one month old and upwards. This was because the comparison was to be made with all firstborn sons, not just adult ones. We can therefore assume that the same basis applied to the firstborn. They did not need to be redeemed until they were one month old.
‘And Moses numbered them according to the word of Yahweh, as he was commanded.'
And as Yahweh commanded, so Moses did. He numbered the sons of Levi. He was continually obedient.