Exodus 38:25-26

38:25 The silver of those who were numbered of the community was one hundred talents and 1,775 shekels, ¹  according to the sanctuary shekel, 38:26 one beka per person, that is, a half shekel, ²  according to the sanctuary shekel, for everyone who crossed over to those numbered, from twenty years old or older, ³  603,550 in all. ⁴ 

Numbers 1:2-5

1:2 “Take a census ⁵  of the entire ⁶  Israelite community ⁷  by their clans and families, ⁸  counting the name of every individual male. ⁹  1:3 You and Aaron are to number ¹⁰  all in Israel who can serve in the army, ¹¹  those who are ¹²  twenty years old or older, ¹³  by their divisions. ¹⁴  1:4 And to help you ¹⁵  there is to be a man from each ¹⁶  tribe, each man ¹⁷  the head ¹⁸  of his family. ¹⁹  1:5 Now these are the names of the men who are to help ²⁰  you:

from ²¹  Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur;

Numbers 26:2-4

26:2 “Take a census of the whole community of Israelites, from twenty years old and upward, by their clans, ²²  everyone who can serve in the army of Israel.” ²³  26:3 So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab, by the Jordan River ²⁴  across from Jericho. ²⁵  They said, 26:4 “Number the people ²⁶  from twenty years old and upward, just as the Lord commanded Moses and the Israelites who went out from the land of Egypt.”

Numbers 26:2

26:2 “Take a census of the whole community of Israelites, from twenty years old and upward, by their clans, ²⁷  everyone who can serve in the army of Israel.” ²⁸ 

Numbers 24:1

Balaam Prophesies Yet Again

24:1 ²⁹ When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, ³⁰  he did not go as at the other times ³¹  to seek for omens, ³²  but he set his face ³³  toward the wilderness.

[38:25]  ¹ sn This would be a total of 301,775 shekels (about 140,828 oz), being a half shekel exacted per person from 605,550 male Israelites 20 years old or more (Num 1:46). The amount is estimated to be around 3.75 tons.

[38:26]  ² sn The weight would be about half an ounce.

[38:26]  ³ tn Heb “upward.”

[38:26]  ⁴ tn The phrase “in all” has been supplied.

[1:2]  ⁵ tn The construction is literally “lift up the head[s],” (שְׂאוּ אֶת־רֹאשׁ, sÿ’u ’et-ro’sh). This idiom for taking a census occurs elsewhere (Exod 30:12; Lev 5:24; Num 1:24; etc.). The idea is simply that of counting heads to arrive at the base for the standing army. This is a different event than the one recorded in Exod 30:11-16, which was taken for a different purpose altogether. The verb is plural, indicating that Moses had help in taking the census.

[1:2]  ⁶ tc Smr lacks the Hebrew word “all” here.

[1:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “the congregation of Israel.”

[1:2]  ⁸ tn The tribe (מַטֶּה, matteh or שֵׁבֶט, shevet) is the main category. The family groups or clans (מִשְׁפְּחֹת, mishpÿkhot) and the households or families (בֵּית אֲבֹת, bet ’avot) were sub-divisions of the tribe.

[1:2]  ⁹ tn This clause simply has “in/with the number of the names of every male with respect to their skulls [individually].” Counting heads, or every skull, simply meant that each person was to be numbered in the census. Except for the Levites, no male was exempt from the count.

[1:3]  ¹⁰ tn The verb (פָּקַד, paqad) means “to visit, appoint, muster, number.” The word is a common one in scripture. It has as its basic meaning the idea of “determining the destiny” of someone, by appointing, mustering, or visiting. When God “visits,” it is a divine intervention for either blessing or cursing. Here it is the taking of a census for war (see G. André, Determining the Destiny [ConBOT], 16).

[1:3]  ¹¹ tn The construction uses the participle “going out” followed by the noun “army.” It describes everyone “going out in a military group,” meaning serving in the army. It was the duty of every able-bodied Israelite to serve in this “peoples” army. There were probably exemptions for the infirm or the crippled, but every male over twenty was chosen. For a discussion of warfare, see P. C. Craigie, The Problem of War in the Old Testament, and P. D. Miller, “The Divine Council and the Prophetic Call to War,” VT 18 (1968): 100-107.

[1:3]  ¹² tn The text simply has “from twenty years old and higher.”

[1:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “and up.”

[1:3]  ¹⁴ tn The noun (צָבָא, tsava’) means “army” or “military group.” But the word can also be used for nonmilitary divisions of labor (Num 4:3).

[1:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and with you.”

[1:4]  ¹⁶ tn The construction uses the noun in a distributive sense: “a man, a man for a tribe,” meaning a man for each tribe.

[1:4]  ¹⁷ tn The clause expresses a distributive function, “a man” means “each man.”

[1:4]  ¹⁸ sn See J. R. Bartlett, “The Use of the Word ראשׁ as a Title in the Old Testament,” VT 19 (1969): 1-10.

[1:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the house of his fathers.”

[1:5]  ²⁰ tn The verb is עָמַד (’amad, “to stand”). It literally then is, “who will stand with you.” They will help in the count, but they will also serve as leaders as the camp moves from place to place.

[1:5]  ²¹ tn The preposition lamed (ל) prefixed to the name could be taken in the sense of “from,” but could also be “with regard to” (specification).

[26:2]  ²² tn Heb “house of their fathers.”

[26:2]  ²³ tn Heb “everyone who goes out in the army in Israel.”

[26:3]  ²⁴ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity (also in v. 62).

[26:3]  ²⁵ map For the location of Jericho see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[26:4]  ²⁶ tn “Number the people” is added here to the text for a smooth reading.

[26:2]  ²⁷ tn Heb “house of their fathers.”

[26:2]  ²⁸ tn Heb “everyone who goes out in the army in Israel.”

[24:1]  ²⁹ sn For a thorough study of the arrangement of this passage, see E. B. Smick, “A Study of the Structure of the Third Balaam Oracle,” The Law and the Prophets, 242-52. He sees the oracle as having an introductory strophe (vv. 3, 4), followed by two stanzas (vv. 5, 6) that introduce the body (vv. 7b-9b) before the final benediction (v. 9b).

[24:1]  ³⁰ tn Heb “it was good in the eyes of the Lord.”

[24:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “as time after time.”

[24:1]  ³² tn The word נְחָשִׁים (nÿkhashim) means “omens,” or possibly “auguries.” Balaam is not even making a pretense now of looking for such things, because they are not going to work. God has overruled them.

[24:1]  ³³ tn The idiom signifies that he had a determination and resolution to look out over where the Israelites were, so that he could appreciate more their presence and use that as the basis for his expressing of the oracle.