Numbers 1:1

Muster of the Twelve Tribes, with the Exception of that of Levi. - Num 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 Exo 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 Exo 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 Exo 7:4).

I. We have here a commission issued out for the numbering of the people of Israel; and David, long after, paid dearly for doing it without a commission. Here is, 1. The date of this commission, Num 1:1. (1.) The place: it is given at God's court in the wilderness of Sinai, from his royal palace, the tabernacle of the congregation. (2.) The time: In the second year after they came up out of Egypt; we may call it the second year of that reign. The laws in Leviticus were given in the first month of that year; these orders were given in the beginning of the second month. 2. The directions given for the execution of it, Num 1:2, Num 1:3. (1.) None were to be numbered but the males, and those only such as were fit for war. None under twenty years old; for, though some such might have bulk and strength enough for military service, yet, in compassion to their tender years, God would not have them put upon it to bear arms. (2.) Nor were any to be numbered who through age, or bodily infirmity, blindness, lameness, or chronical diseases, were unfit for war. The church being militant, those only are reputed the true members of it that have enlisted themselves soldiers of Jesus Christ; for our life, our Christian life, is a warfare. (3.) The account was to be taken according to their families, that it might not only be known how many they were, and what were their names, but of what tribe and family, or clan, nay, of what particular house every person was; or, reckoning it the muster of an army, to what regiment every man belonged, that he might know his place himself and the government might know where to find him. They were numbered a little before this, when their poll-money was paid for the service of the tabernacle, Exo 38:25, Exo 38:26. But it should seem they were not then re…

1:1–10:10 The Israelites prepared to leave for the Promised Land by registering all the troops eligible to participate in the conquest. The nation was transitioning from slavery to nationhood. 1:1-16 One family leader from each tribe (except Levi) was appointed to count Israel’s men of fighting age. 1:1 In the year after Israel’s departure from Egypt, the Lord frequently communicated his will to the people through Moses and gave them every opportunity to conform to his divine plan. • God’s self-disclosure often took place at the Tabernacle (literally the Tent of Meeting; see study note on Exod 27:21). • The wilderness of Sinai was a great, terrifying, and inhospitable desert (Deut 1:19). This relatively unpopulated region was the anvil on which God forged Israel as the environmental challenges of Sinai tested Israel’s dependence upon the Lord throughout the book of Numbers. Sinai reminded later biblical authors of the law and of Israel’s rebellious spirit (Ps 106:19; Heb 12:25-26).