Numbers 26:2

2 Take a census of the entire Israelite community, from 20 years old and above by their households, to determine everyone in Israel who is eligible for military service.

Numbers 26:2 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 26:2

Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel,
&c.] Excepting the Levites, who were to be numbered by themselves, and at a different age; this sum was to be taken, that it might appear that all of the old generation that came out of Egypt, of the age at which this sum was taken, were now dead, excepting two, as the Lord had threatened; and partly that as they were now about to enter the land of Canaan, it might be divided to them according to their number; as well as to show the faithfulness of God to his word and promise, that he would multiply and make them fruitful, notwithstanding all their provoking sins and transgressions:

from twenty years old and upwards, throughout their father's house;
all of that age in every tribe, house, and family:

all that are able to go to war in Israel;
for which they must prepare, being about to enter the land of Canaan, and dispossess and drive out the inhabitants of it.

Numbers 26:2 In-Context

1 After the plague the LORD said to Moses and Eleazar, Aaron the priest's son:

2 Take a census of the entire Israelite community, from 20 years old and above by their households, to determine everyone in Israel who is eligible for military service.

3 Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke to the people on the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho:

4 "Take a census of those 20 years old and above as the LORD commanded Moses." The Israelites who left the land of Egypt were:

5 Reuben, Israel's oldest son. Reuben's descendants: from Hanoch, the Hanochite clan; from Pallu, the Palluite clan;