All the men 20 years old or older were counted. There were 603,550 men, and each man had to pay a tax of 1 beqa [445] of silver. (Using the official measure, a beqa is 1Ú2 shekel. [446])
You will eat that meat for a whole month. You will eat the meat until you are sick of it. This will happen to you because you complained against the Lord. The Lord lives among you and knows what you need. But you cried and complained to him! You said, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’”
If we were to kill all of the sheep and cattle, then that would still not be enough to feed this many people for a month. And if we caught all the fish in the sea, it would not be enough for them!”