Numbers 1:1

1 The Lord spoke to Moses in the Meeting Tent in the Desert of Sinai. This was on the first day of the second month in the second year after the Israelites left Egypt. He said to Moses:

Numbers 1:1 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 1:1

And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai
Which is different from the wilderness of Sin, ( Exodus 16:1 ) ; and had its name from the mountain so called, on which God gave the law of the decalogue, and where the Israelites had been encamped eleven months, ( Exodus 19:1 Exodus 19:2 ) ;

in the tabernacle of the congregation;
which had now been set up a whole month, and out of which the Lord had delivered to Moses the several laws recorded in the preceding book in that space of time, ( Exodus 40:17 ) ( Leviticus 1:1 ) ;

on the first [day] of the second month;
the month Ijar, as the Targum of Jonathan, which answers to part of our April, and part of May, and was the second month of the ecclesiastical year, which began with Abib or Nisan:

in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt;
that is, the children of Israel, who had now been a year and half a month out of it:

saying,
as follows.

Numbers 1:1 In-Context

1 The Lord spoke to Moses in the Meeting Tent in the Desert of Sinai. This was on the first day of the second month in the second year after the Israelites left Egypt. He said to Moses:

2 "You and Aaron must count all the people of Israel by families and family groups, listing the name of each man.

3 You and Aaron must count every man twenty years old or older who will serve in the army of Israel, and list them by their divisions.

4 One man from each tribe, the leader of his family, will help you.

5 These are the names of the men who will help you: from the tribe of Reuben -- Elizur son of Shedeur;