Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament · Numbers Chương 1

Muster of the Twelve Tribes, with the Exception of that of Levi. - Numbers 1:1-3. Before the departure of Israel from Sinai, God commanded Moses, on the first of the second month in the second year after the exodus from Egypt, to take the number of the whole congregation of the children of Israel, “ according to their families, according to their fathers' houses (see Exodus 6:14), in (according to) the number of their names, ” i.e., each one counted singly and entered, but only “ every male according to their heads of twenty years old and upwards ” (see Exodus 30:14), viz., only צבא כּל־יצא “ all who go forth of the army, ” i.e., all the men capable of bearing arms, because by means of this numbering the tribes and their subdivisions were to be organized as hosts of Jehovah, that the whole congregation might fight as an army for the cause of their Lord (see at Exodus 7:4).

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