Numbers

1.1-54

This passage harkens back to Exodus 38 when we first saw this total for the number of Israelite men over the age of 20, also counted following the construction of the Tabernacle (603,550 in Ex 38:26, and here in Num 1:46 & 2:32). There is another census that will take place in Numbers 25. Yet there is a profound distinction between the precise care God took to keep His people fully intact for the six months between the building of the Tabernacle at the end of Exodus 38 and the census taken at the beginning of the book of Numbers (where the number of the people remained exactly the same). During the census that followed in Exodus 25, the men of Israel numbered, falls to 601,730. "But among these there was not one of those listed by Moses and Aaron the priest, who had listed the people of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai, for the LORD had said of them, “They shall die in the wilderness.” Not one of them was left except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun." (Num26:64-65 ESV). Only 2 of the men counted in the first census were alive to see the second. This is a testament to the fact that God hates sin and He deals with it severely. Among the tribes of Israel, Manasseh will actually grow significantly in the wilderness, yet Simeon will decrease the most. Keep these facts in mind as you continue to read through the book of Numbers.

CHAPTER 1

The Census of Israel’s Warriors

1 Then Yahweh 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;
6 of Simeon, Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai;
7 of Judah, Nahshon the son of Amminadab;
8 of Issachar, Nethanel the son of Zuar;
9 of Zebulun, Eliab the son of Helon;
10 of the sons of Joseph: of Ephraim, Elishama the son of Ammihud; of Manasseh, Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur;
11 of Benjamin, Abidan the son of Gideoni;
12 of Dan, Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai;
13 of Asher, Pagiel the son of Ochran;
14 of Gad, Eliasaph the son of Deuel;
15 of Naphtali, Ahira the son of Enan.
16 “These are they who were called upon by the congregation, the leaders of their fathers’ tribes; they were the heads of divisions of Israel.”
17 So Moses and Aaron took these men who had been designated by name,
18 and they assembled all the congregation together on the first of the second month. Then they registered by genealogy in their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, head by head,
19 just as Yahweh had commanded Moses. So he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.
20 Now the sons of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war,
21 their numbered men of the tribe of Reuben were 46,500.
22 Of the sons of Simeon, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, their numbered men, according to the number of names, head by head, every male from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war,
23 their numbered men of the tribe of Simeon were 59,300.
24 Of the sons of Gad, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war,
25 their numbered men of the tribe of Gad were 45,650.
26 Of the sons of Judah, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war,
27 their numbered men of the tribe of Judah were 74,600.
28 Of the sons of Issachar, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war,
29 their numbered men of the tribe of Issachar were 54,400.
30 Of the sons of Zebulun, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war,
31 their numbered men of the tribe of Zebulun were 57,400.
32 Of the sons of Joseph, namely, of the sons of Ephraim, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war,
33 their numbered men of the tribe of Ephraim were 40,500.
34 Of the sons of Manasseh, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war,
35 their numbered men of the tribe of Manasseh were 32,200.
36 Of the sons of Benjamin, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war,
37 their numbered men of the tribe of Benjamin were 35,400.
38 Of the sons of Dan, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war,
39 their numbered men of the tribe of Dan were 62,700.
40 Of the sons of Asher, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war,
41 their numbered men of the tribe of Asher were 41,500.
42 Of the sons of Naphtali, their genealogical registration by their families, by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war,
43 their numbered men of the tribe of Naphtali were 53,400.
44 These are the ones who were numbered, whom Moses and Aaron numbered, with the leaders of Israel, twelve men, each of whom was of his father’s household.
45 So all the numbered men of the sons of Israel by their fathers’ households, from twenty years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war in Israel,
46 even all the numbered men were 603,550.

Levites Not Numbered in the Census

47 The Levites, however, were not numbered among them by their fathers’ tribe.
48 Yahweh had spoken to Moses, saying,
49 “Only the tribe of Levi you shall not number, nor shall you take their census among the sons of Israel.
50 “But you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony and over all its furnishings and over all that belongs to it. They shall carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall attend to it; they shall also camp around the tabernacle.
51 “So when the tabernacle is to set out, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle encamps, the Levites shall set it up. But the layman who comes near shall be put to death.
52 “And the sons of Israel shall camp, each man by his own camp, and each man by his own standard, according to their armies.
53 “But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony so that there will be no wrath on the congregation of the sons of Israel. So the Levites shall keep charge of the tabernacle of the testimony.”
54 Thus the sons of Israel did; according to all which Yahweh had commanded Moses, so they did.

Legacy Standard Bible (Three Sixteen Publishing, 2022), Nu 1.