Numbers 26:3

3 So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them on the desert-plateau of Moab by [the] Jordan [across from] Jericho, saying,

Numbers 26:3 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 26:3

And Moses and Eleazar the priest spake with them
With the children of Israel, with the heads of them, their chief and principal, to assist in taking the number of the people; as when they were numbered thirty years ago, when a prince out of each tribe was taken to be with Aaron and Moses in doing that business; but those princes were now all dead, and another race succeeded, who were now employed in this service; so the Targum of Jonathan says, they spoke with the rulers, and ordered them to number them:

in the plains of Moab, by Jordan, [near] Jericho:
or of Jericho, as the same Targum, on the other side of Jordan to that on which Jericho stood; for as yet the children of Israel had not passed that river, nor entered into the land of Canaan, in which Jericho was, but they were now opposite it; (See Gill on Numbers 22:1):

saying;
as follows.

Numbers 26:3 In-Context

1 And it happened after the plague, Yahweh said to Moses and to Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, saying,

2 "{Take a census} of the community of the {Israelites} from {those twenty years old} and above, according to {their families}, all who are able to go out to war in Israel."

3 So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them on the desert-plateau of Moab by [the] Jordan [across from] Jericho, saying,

4 "[Take a census of the community] from {those twenty years old} and above, just as Yahweh commanded Moses." The Israelites who went out from the land of Egypt [were]:

5 Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, the descendants of Reuben: [of] Hanoch, the clan of the Hanochites; of Pallu, the clan of the Palluites;