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Numbers 1:1
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The First Census of Israel

1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses ain the Wilderness of Sinai, bin the tabernacle of meeting, on the cfirst day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying:  
2 a“Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male bindividually,  
3 from atwenty years old and above—all who are able to go to war in Israel. You and Aaron shall number them by their armies.  
4 And with you there shall be a man from every tribe, each one the head of his father’s house.
5 “These are the names of the men who shall stand with you: from Reuben, Elizur the son of Shedeur;
6 from Simeon, Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai;
7 from Judah, Nahshon the son of Amminadab;
8 from Issachar, Nethanel the son of Zuar;
9 from Zebulun, Eliab the son of Helon;
10 from the sons of Joseph: from Ephraim, Elishama the son of Ammihud; from Manasseh, Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur;
11 from Benjamin, Abidan the son of Gideoni;
12 from Dan, Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai;
13 from Asher, Pagiel the son of Ocran;
14 from Gad, Eliasaph the son of aDeuel;  
15 from Naphtali, Ahira the son of Enan.”
16 aThese were bchosen from the congregation, leaders of their fathers’ tribes, cheads of the divisions in Israel.  
17 Then Moses and Aaron took these men who had been1 mentioned aby name,  
18 and they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month; and they recited their aancestry by families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and above, each one individually.  
19 As the Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the Wilderness of Sinai.
20 Now the achildren of Reuben, Israel’s oldest son, their genealogies by their families, by their fathers’ house, according to the number of names, every male individually, from twenty years old and above, all who were able to go to war:  
21 those who were numbered of the tribe of Reuben were forty-six thousand five hundred.
22 From the achildren of Simeon, their genealogies by their families, by their fathers’ house, of those who were numbered, according to the number of names, every male individually, from twenty years old and above, all who were able to go to war:  
23 those who were numbered of the tribe of Simeon were fifty-nine thousand three hundred.
24 From the achildren of Gad, their genealogies by their families, by their fathers’ house, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and above, all who were able to go to war:  
Book Notes:
Barnes' Book Notes



Introduction to Numbers

The title commonly given to this book is evidently suggested by the two numberings of the people recorded in Num. 1 and Num. 26.

The book narrates the history of the Israelites during their sojourn in the wilderness from the completion of the law-giving at Sinai, Leviticus 27:34, to their mustering in the plains of Moab for actual entry into the land of promise.

The incidents are generally given in their chronological order, except in the third part. The five chapters comprised in this part appear to deal with a long period, from which only isolated episodes are given; and of these the dates can only be conjectured.

Between the two dates "the first day of the second month of the second year after they were come out of Egypt" Numbers 1:1, and the death of Aaron Numbers 33:38, intervene no less than 38 years and 3 months (compare Deuteronomy 2:14), the long and dreary period of tarrying in the wilderness until the disobedient generation had wasted away.

From the death of Aaron to the date given in the opening verses of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 1:1-3, occurred a space of exactly six months, in which all the events narrated in the fourth part of the Book of Numbers, from Numbers 20:1 to the end, would seem to have occurred, with the probable exception of the defeat of the king of Arad Numbers 21:1-3.

As regards the authorship and date of composition, the notes of time, the tenor of the contents, no less than the direct assertions of the text itself, lead to the conclusion that Moses is properly spoken of as the writer of the Book of Numbers. It is in substance his work; though many portions of it were probably committed to writing many years before the whole was completed; and the concluding chapters were not written until toward the close of the 40th year after the exodus.

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