Numbers 1:2

1:2 “Take a census ¹  of the entire ²  Israelite community ³  by their clans and families, ⁴  counting the name of every individual male. ⁵ 

Numbers 1:24

1:24 ⁶ From the descendants of Gad: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name.

Numbers 1:26

1:26 From the descendants of Judah: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name.

Numbers 1:28

1:28 From the descendants of Issachar: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name.

Numbers 1:30

1:30 From the descendants of Zebulun: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name.

Numbers 1:32

1:32 From the sons of Joseph:

From the descendants of Ephraim: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name.

Numbers 1:34

1:34 From the descendants of Manasseh: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name.

Numbers 1:36

1:36 From the descendants of Benjamin: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name.

Numbers 1:38

1:38 From the descendants of Dan: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name.

Numbers 1:40

1:40 From the descendants of Asher: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name.

Numbers 1:42

1:42 From ⁷  the descendants of Naphtali: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name.

Numbers 1:45

1:45 All the Israelites who were twenty years old or older, who could serve in Israel’s army, were numbered ⁸  according to their families.

Numbers 2:2

2:2 “Every one ⁹  of the Israelites must camp ¹⁰  under his standard with the emblems of his family; ¹¹  they must camp at some distance ¹²  around the tent of meeting. ¹³ 

Numbers 2:32

Summary

2:32 These are the Israelites, numbered according to their families. ¹⁴  All those numbered in the camps, by their divisions, are 603,550.

Numbers 3:15

3:15 “Number the Levites by their clans ¹⁵  and their families; every male from a month old and upward you are to number.” ¹⁶ 

Numbers 4:46

4:46 All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses, Aaron, and the leaders of Israel numbered by their families and by their clans,

Numbers 7:2

7:2 Then the leaders of Israel, the heads of their clans, ¹⁷  made an offering. They were the leaders of the tribes; they were the ones who had been supervising ¹⁸  the numbering.

Numbers 26:2

26:2 “Take a census of the whole community of Israelites, from twenty years old and upward, by their clans, ¹⁹  everyone who can serve in the army of Israel.” ²⁰ 

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

[1:2]  ³ tn Heb “the congregation of Israel.”

[1:2]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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.

[1:24]  ⁶ tc The LXX has vv. 24-35 after v. 37.

[1:42]  ¹¹ tc The verse does not have the preposition, only “the descendants of Naphtali.”

[1:45]  ¹⁶ tn Literally the text has, “and all the numbered of the Israelites were according to their families.” The verb in the sentence is actually without a complement (see v. 46).

[2:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “a man by his own standard.”

[2:2]  ²² tn The imperfect tense is to be taken in the nuance of instruction.

[2:2]  ²³ tn Heb “of/for the house of their fathers.”

[2:2]  ²⁴ tn The Hebrew expression מִנֶּגֶד (minneged) means “from before” or “opposite; facing” and “at some distance” or “away from the front of” (see BDB 617 s.v. נֶגֶד 2.c.a; DCH 5:603-4 s.v. 3.b).

[2:2]  ²⁵ sn The Israelites were camping as a military camp, each tribe with the standards and emblems of the family. The standard was the symbol fastened to the end of a pole and carried to battle. It served to rally the tribe to the battle. The Bible nowhere describes these, although the serpent emblem of Numbers 21:8-9 may give a clue. But they probably did not have shapes of animals in view of the prohibition in the Decalogue. The standards may have been smaller for the families than the ones for the tribes. See further K. A. Kitchen, “Some Egyptian Background to the Old Testament,” TynBul 5 (1960): 11; and T. W. Mann, Divine Presence and Guidance in Israelite Tradition, 169-73.

[2:32]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the house of their fathers.” So also in v. 34.

[3:15]  ³¹ tn Heb “the house of their fathers.” So also in v. 20.

[3:15]  ³² tn Heb “you are to/shall number them.”

[7:2]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the house of their fathers.”

[7:2]  ³⁷ tn The form is the Qal active participle from the verb “to stand” (עָמַד, ’amad). The form describes these leaders as “the ones standing over [the ones numbered].” The expression, along with the clear indication of the first census in chapter 1, shows that this was a supervisory capacity.

[26:2]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “house of their fathers.”

[26:2]  ⁴² tn Heb “everyone who goes out in the army in Israel.”