²⁰ A firstborn donkey may be bought back from the Lord by presenting a lamb or young goat in its place. But if you do not buy it back, you must break its neck. However, you must buy back every firstborn son.

“No one may appear before me without an offering.

¹⁶ “Each year every man in Israel must celebrate these three festivals: the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Shelters. On each of these occasions, all men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he chooses, but they must not appear before the Lord without a gift for him.

¹⁵ First, celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days the bread you eat must be made without yeast, just as I commanded you. Celebrate this festival annually at the appointed time in early spring, in the month of Abib,^[a] for that is the anniversary of your departure from Egypt. No one may appear before me without an offering.

¹⁵ Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, so the Lord killed all the firstborn males throughout the land of Egypt, both people and animals. That is why I now sacrifice all the firstborn males to the Lord—except that the firstborn sons are always bought back.’

¹³ A firstborn donkey may be bought back from the Lord by presenting a lamb or young goat in its place. But if you do not buy it back, you must break its neck. However, you must buy back every firstborn son.

⁷ “But we don’t have anything to offer him,” Saul replied. “Even our food is gone, and we don’t have a thing to give him.”

⁸ “Well,” the servant said, “I have one small silver piece.^[a] We can at least offer it to the man of God and see what happens!”

¹⁵ “The firstborn of every mother, whether human or animal, that is offered to the Lord will be yours. But you must always redeem your firstborn sons and the firstborn of ceremonially unclean animals.

²⁴ But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it, for I will not present burnt offerings to the Lord my God that have cost me nothing.” So David paid him fifty pieces of silver^[a] for the threshing floor and the oxen.

⁴⁵ “Take the Levites as substitutes for the firstborn sons of the people of Israel. And take the livestock of the Levites as substitutes for the firstborn livestock of the people of Israel. The Levites belong to me; I am the Lord. ⁴⁶ There are 273 more firstborn sons of Israel than there are Levites. To redeem these extra firstborn sons, ⁴⁷ collect five pieces of silver^[a] for each of them (each piece weighing the same as the sanctuary shekel, which equals twenty gerahs). ⁴⁸ Give the silver to Aaron and his sons as the redemption price for the extra firstborn sons.”

⁴⁹ So Moses collected the silver for redeeming the firstborn sons of Israel who exceeded the number of Levites. ⁵⁰ He collected 1,365 pieces of silver^[b] on behalf of these firstborn sons of Israel (each piece weighing the same as the sanctuary shekel). ⁵¹ And Moses gave the silver for the redemption to Aaron and his sons, just as the Lord had commanded.

¹⁰ So observe the decree of this festival at the appointed time each year.