Numbers 1:16

16 These were the ones called from the assembly, the chiefs of their fathers'clans and heads of thousands in Isra'el.

Numbers 1:16 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 1:16

These [were] the renowned of the congregation
The most famous and eminent among the people, for their birth and pedigree, or for their excellent qualities of wisdom, courage, and the like; or "the called of the congregation" ^F4, whom God had called by name and selected from the rest of the congregation to the above service, whereby great honour was done them: Aben Ezra says, the sense is, that the congregation did nothing until they had called them; with which agrees the note of Jarchi,

``who were called to every business of importance in the congregation:''

princes of the tribes of their fathers;
as Elizur was prince of the children of Reuben, ( Numbers 7:30 ) ; the same is there said of the rest in their respective tribes:

heads of thousands in Israel;
the congregation of Israel being divided into thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, by the advice of Jethro, ( Exodus 18:21 ) ; each of these divisions had a ruler over them, and thousands being the highest number, these princes were chiliarchs, rulers or heads of thousands.

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 (hdeh yayrq) "convocati coetus", Montanus, Drusius; "convocati e coetu", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Numbers 1:16 In-Context

14 From Gad, Elyasaf the son of De'u'el;

15 From Naftali, Achira the son of 'Enan."

16 These were the ones called from the assembly, the chiefs of their fathers'clans and heads of thousands in Isra'el.

17 So Moshe and Aharon took these men who had been designated by name;

18 and, on the first day of the second month, they gathered the whole assembly to state their genealogies by families and clans and recorded the names of all those twenty years old and over, as well as their total numbers.