What Does Numbers 18:16 Mean?
And those from a month old that are to be bought back, you shall buy back by your valuation, for five shekels of silver, by the shekel of the set-apart place, which is twenty gerahs.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And those that are to be redeemed from a month old shalt thou redeem, according to thine estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs.THE KEY
Redemption is made tangible by a stated price weighed against the sanctuary’s own standard.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks plainly now: the one designated for redemption is counted from a month old, and the price is five shekels by the sanctuary’s measure. Release has a stated value, weighed by a standard belonging to what is set apart.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The sacred cannot be measured in material terms; here redemption is explicitly reckoned in shekels by the sanctuary’s own standard.
THE ROOT
תִּפְדֶּה
tipdeh
GROWS FROM
פדה
פדה (pādāh): to redeem or ransom.
“bought back” in this verse is tipdeh. The verse repeats this root in the one designated for redemption and in the command to redeem. That repetition makes redemption an enacted release with a named measure, rather than an abstract status.
ALSO GROWS
pādāh: to redeem or ransom
פָּדָה
This verb names the act that the verse gives a specific price.
pōdeh: one who redeems; redeeming
פֹּדֶה
This participle keeps the redeemer and the act of redemption within the same root family.
שֶׁקֶל
sheqel
GROWS FROM
שקל
שקל (shaqal): to weigh.
The word for shekel belongs to the Hebrew root for weighing: it names currency and carries the idea of measured weight. The price is therefore framed as something weighed against a standard, which the verse identifies as the sanctuary’s shekel.
ALSO GROWS
shaqal: to weigh
שָׁקַל
This verb exposes the weighing action held within the name of the monetary unit.
mishqal: weight; a measure of weight
מִשְׁקָל
This noun makes the shared weighing and measurement explicit.
הַקֹּדֶשׁ
ha-qodesh
GROWS FROM
קדש
קדש (q-d-sh): to set apart.
“set-apart place” in this verse is ha-qodesh. The measure is called the shekel of qodesh, the set-apart sphere. The same root describes what is set apart, so the verse locates the valuation within a defined sacred standard.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: set apart
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective shares the root and names the quality that marks the sanctuary’s sphere.
qiddesh: to set apart; consecrate
קִדֵּשׁ
This verb shows the action expressed by the root whose noun names the sanctuary’s measure.
THE PATTERN
Redemption is made concrete through a stated measure of value, while its worth can exceed material payment.
You shall even take five shekels apiece by the head, after the shekel of the set-apart place you shall take them, for the shekel is twenty gerahs.When you lift up the head of the children of Israel according to their counting, each man shall give a ransom for his living soul to the LORD when you count them, so that no striking falls among them when you count them. This they shall give, everyone who crosses over among those counted, half a shekel by the shekel of the set apart place, twenty gerahs to the shekel; half a shekel shall be the lifted offering for the LORD.knowing that you were not loosed with what can be ruined, silver or gold, from your empty walk handed down from your fathers. but with the costly blood of the Anointed One, as of a lamb without blemish and without stain.THE THREAD
And as for those to be ransomed from the two hundred and seventy-three of the firstborn of the children of Israel, who exceed the Levites;The Hebrew wording for those to be redeemed belongs to the same פדה (pādāh) root as “redeem” here. The next verse fixes their price at five sanctuary shekels, showing the measure attached to those marked for redemption.
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