Numbers 3:43
And all the firstborn males by the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those that were numbered of them, were twenty and two thousand two hundred and threescore and thirteen. And all the firstborn males by the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those that were numbered of them, were twenty and two thousand two hundred and threescore and thirteen.
The verse stands in the first of the two numberings of Israel that give the book its name, within the opening numbering in Numbers 1-3, and in the opening four chapters that record the numbering of the people and the numbering of the tribe of Levi with the offices of its families. Its chapter divides Levi among Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, assigning them places around the tabernacle and duties in its care, with the Kohathites guarding the sanctuary and its vessels under Eleazar's oversight while Moses, Aaron, and Aaron's sons camped and kept guard on the east side. It displays the divinely ordered Levitical priesthood for the period when priestly service belonged to Aaron's tribe, under a law that remained in force until the type met its antitype in Christ.
The verse belongs to the account of the firstborn being counted after the Levites were appointed to sanctuary service. It records the census of Israel's firstborn males by number of names, from a month old and upward, numbering 22,273. The count belonged to the arrangements for redeeming the firstborn, who still belonged to God and had to be redeemed, with the redemption proceeds going to the Levites. Its tribal numbers are to be kept and compared with the numbering in Numbers 26 at the close of the forty years to note how the tribes have gained and lost.