Numbers 1:2

2 “Take a census of the whole congregation of Israel by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one.

Numbers 1:2 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 1:2

Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of
Israel
Excepting the Levites; nor were any account taken of the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt with the children of Israel, only of them; and this account was taken, partly to observe the fulfilment of the divine promise to Abraham concerning the multiplication of his seed, and partly that it might be observed, that at the end of thirty eight years from hence, when they were numbered again, there were but three left of this large number, their carcasses falling in the wilderness because of their sins; and chiefly, as Aben Ezra observes, this sum was now taken to fix their standards, and for their better and more orderly journeying and encampment; for on the twentieth of this month they set forward on their journey from hence, ( Numbers 10:11 Numbers 10:12 ) ; the word for the order is in the plural number, take ye, being given both to Moses and Aaron, who were to take the number, and did, ( Numbers 1:3 ) ;

after their families;
into which their tribes were divided:

by the house of their fathers;
for if the mother was of one tribe, and the father of another, the family was according to the tribe of the father, as Jarchi notes, a mother's family being never called a family, as Aben Ezra observes:

with the number of [their] names;
of every particular person, whose name was inserted in a list or register:

every male by their poll;
or head ^F2; for none but males were numbered: the Lord's spiritual Israel are a numbered people, written in the book of life, placed into the hand of Christ, and exactly known by him, even by name; yea, all that belong to him are numbered, and the very airs of their heads,

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (Mtlglgl) "per capita sua", Pagninus, &c,

Numbers 1:2 In-Context

1 On the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites had come out of the land of Egypt, the LORD spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting in the Wilderness of Sinai. He said:

2 “Take a census of the whole congregation of Israel by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one.

3 You and Aaron are to number those who are twenty years of age or older by their divisions—everyone who can serve in Israel’s army.

4 And one man from each tribe, the head of each family, must be there with you.

5 These are the names of the men who are to assist you: From the tribe of Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur;