ואלה תולדות אהרן ומשה, “and these are the descendants of Aaron and Moses.” In other words, “these are the priests and their descendants and the Levites and their descendants.” The descendants of Aaron are listed separately at first, just as they have been in Chronicles I 23,13. Seeing that the sons of Moses were not separated in any way from the other Levites, they are included in the Levites described as the descendants of Moses’ father Amram, although Aaron was also a son of Amram.

ביום דבר ה' את משה, “on the day on which the Lord had spoken to Moses.” This will be dealt with further on.

שנים ועשרים אלף, “twenty two thousand.” This number corresponds to the number of angels that formed G–d’s entourage when He descended to Mount Sinai at the time of the revelation of the Ten Commandments. We have an allusion to this in Psalms 68,18: רכב אלהים רבותים אלפי שנאן, “the Lord’s chariots, myriads upon myriads, thousands upon thousands.” (Compare Talmud, tractate Avodah Zara folio 3) The Talmud there suggests that the spelling of the word be amended to read שאינן instead of שנאן. The meaning of רבותים אלפי, is 22000. Seeing that the Lord, with His knowledge of the future was aware that the Israelites would all serve the golden calf with the exception of the 22000 Levites, He took only 22000 of His angels with Him when He revealed Himself at Mount Sinai.

ולקחת חמשת חמשת שקלים לגלגלת, “you will take five shekels apiece pr head;” this would be the method by which a census of the Jewish people would be performed also in future generations whenever the need for this arose. If you were to ask why the Levites did not redeem their respective first male children, as did the members of the other tribes, the answer is that all the Levites throughout the generations were descendants of the Levites of this generation who had not become contaminated at the time of the golden calf, so that no residue of that sin cleaved to them, as opposed to the descendants of the other tribes. The firstborn males of the other tribes, are not necessarily descendants of the firstborn who had once been redeemed, so that to be on the safe side all have to be redeemed.