39 So Moses and Aaron obeyed the Lord and counted the Levites by their clans. The total number of Levites at least one month old was twenty-two thousand.
40 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a list and count the firstborn sons at least one month old in each of the Israelite families.
41 They belong to me, but I will accept the Levites as substitutes for them, and I will accept the Levites' livestock as substitutes for the Israelites' firstborn livestock.”
42 Moses obeyed the Lord and counted the firstborn sons;
43 there were 22,273 of them.
44 Then the Lord said,
45 “The Levites will belong to me and will take the place of the firstborn sons; their livestock will take the place of the Israelites' firstborn livestock.