Numbers 1:3

1:3 You and Aaron are to number ¹  all in Israel who can serve in the army, ²  those who are ³  twenty years old or older, ⁴  by their divisions. ⁵ 

Numbers 2:16

2:16 All those numbered of the camp of Reuben, according to their divisions, are 151,450. They will travel second.

Numbers 2:24

2:24 All those numbered of the camp of Ephraim, according to their divisions, are 108,100. They will travel third.

Numbers 2:31

2:31 All those numbered of the camp of Dan are 157,600. They will travel last, under their standards.”

Numbers 3:43

3:43 And all the firstborn males, by the number of the names from a month old and upward, totaled 22,273.

Numbers 15:23

15:23 all that the Lord has commanded you by the authority ⁶  of Moses, from the day that the Lord commanded Moses and continuing through your future generations –

Numbers 18:21

18:21 See, I have given the Levites all the tithes in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they perform – the service of the tent of meeting.

Numbers 19:14

19:14 “‘This is the law: When a man dies ⁷  in a tent, anyone who comes into the tent and all who are in the tent will be ceremonially unclean seven days.

Numbers 27:2

27:2 And they stood before Moses and Eleazar the priest and the leaders of the whole assembly at the entrance to the tent of meeting and said,

[1:3]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn The text simply has “from twenty years old and higher.”

[1:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “and up.”

[1:3]  ⁵ 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).

[15:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “hand.”

[19:14]  ¹¹ tn The word order gives the classification and then the condition: “a man, when he dies….”