Numbers 1:2

2 "¹Take a ^[a]census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' households, according to the number of names, every male, head by head

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Numbers 1:2 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 1:2

Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of
Israel
Excepting the Levites; nor were any account taken of the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt with the children of Israel, only of them; and this account was taken, partly to observe the fulfilment of the divine promise to Abraham concerning the multiplication of his seed, and partly that it might be observed, that at the end of thirty eight years from hence, when they were numbered again, there were but three left of this large number, their carcasses falling in the wilderness because of their sins; and chiefly, as Aben Ezra observes, this sum was now taken to fix their standards, and for their better and more orderly journeying and encampment; for on the twentieth of this month they set forward on their journey from hence, ( Numbers 10:11 Numbers 10:12 ) ; the word for the order is in the plural number, take ye, being given both to Moses and Aaron, who were to take the number, and did, ( Numbers 1:3 ) ;

after their families;
into which their tribes were divided:

by the house of their fathers;
for if the mother was of one tribe, and the father of another, the family was according to the tribe of the father, as Jarchi notes, a mother's family being never called a family, as Aben Ezra observes:

with the number of [their] names;
of every particular person, whose name was inserted in a list or register:

every male by their poll;
or head ^F2; for none but males were numbered: the Lord's spiritual Israel are a numbered people, written in the book of life, placed into the hand of Christ, and exactly known by him, even by name; yea, all that belong to him are numbered, and the very airs of their heads,

FOOTNOTES:

F2 (Mtlglgl) "per capita sua", Pagninus, &c,

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Numbers 1:2 In-Context

1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,

2 "Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' households, according to the number of names, every male, head by head

3 from twenty years old and upward, whoever is able to go out to war in Israel, you and Aaron shall number them by their armies.

4 "With you, moreover, there shall be a man of each tribe, each one head of his father's household.

5 "These then are the names of the men who shall stand with you: of Reuben, Elizur the son of Shedeur;