Numbers 3:41
3:41 And take 1 the Levites for me – I am the Lord – instead of all the firstborn males among the Israelites, and the livestock of the Levites instead of all the firstborn of the livestock of the Israelites.”
Numbers 8:17
8:17 For all the firstborn males among the Israelites are mine, both humans and animals; when I destroyed 2 all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I set them apart for myself.
1 tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it carries forward the instructions from the preceding verse. The verb “take” now has the sense of appointing or designating the Levites.
2 tn The idiomatic “on the day of” precedes the infinitive construct of נָכָה (nakhah) to form the temporal clause: “in the day of my striking…” becomes “when I struck.”