Numbers 26:2

2 `Take up the sum of all the company of the sons of Israel, from a son of twenty years and upward, by the house of their fathers, every one going out to the host in Israel.'

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 And it cometh to pass, after the plague, that Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, and unto Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, saying,

2 `Take up the sum of all the company of the sons of Israel, from a son of twenty years and upward, by the house of their fathers, every one going out to the host in Israel.'

3 And Moses speaketh -- Eleazar the priest also -- with them, in the plains of Moab, by Jordan, [near] Jericho, saying,

4 `From a son of twenty years and upward,' as Jehovah hath commanded Moses and the sons of Israel who are coming out from the land of Egypt.

5 Reuben, first-born of Israel -- sons of Reuben: [of] Hanoch [is] the family of the Hanochite; of Pallu the family of the Palluite;