Numbers 18:16
And the redemption of it shall be after one month, for five sicles of silver, by the weight of the sanctuary. A sicle hath twenty obols.
Open Numbers 18:16 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- cujus redemptio erit post unum mensem, siclis argenti quinque, pondere sanctuarii. Siclus viginti obolos habet.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἡ λύτρωσις αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ μηνιαίου· ἡ συντίμησις πέντε σίκλων κατὰ τὸν σίκλον τὸν ἅγιον, εἴκοσι ὀβολοί εἰσιν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וּפְדוּיָו֙ מִבֶּן חֹ֣דֶשׁ תִּפְדֶּ֔ה בְּעֶ֨רְכְּךָ֔ כֶּ֛סֶף חֲמֵ֥שֶׁת שְׁקָלִ֖ים בְּשֶׁ֣קֶל הַקֹּ֑דֶשׁ עֶשְׂרִ֥ים גֵּרָ֖ה הֽוּא
Haydock's commentary
Of it; the first-born of man. The child might be redeemed sooner, and sometimes they waited till after the purification of the mother, or 40 days, as our blessed Lady did, Luke ii. 22. (Calmet)
Five sicles of silver, or about 11s. 6d. English, were then to be paid, unless poverty obliged them to give only two turtles or pigeons. (Haydock)
Beasts might be redeemed after they were eight days old, Exodus xiii. 12. Leo of Modena, (p. 1. c. 9,) informs us, that when a child is to be redeemed, at present, the father sends for a descendant of Aaron, who, after enquiring of the mother, if she have had no child before; and of the father, if he wish to redeem the infant, says aloud, "This child, being the first-born, belongs to me; as it is said, (Numbers xviii. 16,) Thou shalt redeem the child of a month old for five sicles. But I take this (about two crowns of gold) instead." (Calmet)
But how can these priests prove their genealogy, since the distinction of the tribes has been so long lost?
Of silver. Hebrew, "according to thy estimation, for the money of five sicles, by the sicle of the sanctuary, which hath 20 geras." (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Jerome The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary
12. Our position is this: Every only begotten son is a first-born son, but not every first-born is an only begotten. By first-born we understand not only one who is succeeded by others, but one who has had no predecessor.“Everything,” says the Lord to Aaron, “that openeth the womb of all flesh which they offer unto the Lord, both of man and beast, shall be thine: nevertheless the first born of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem.” The word of God defines first-born as everything that openeth the womb. Otherwise, if the title belongs to such only as have younger brothers, the priests cannot claim the firstlings until their successors have been begotten, lest, perchance, in case there were no subsequent delivery it should prove to be the first-born but not merely the only begotten. …