Numbers 26:3

3 So on the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho, Moses and Eleazar the priest issued the instruction,

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 After the plague had ended, the LORD said to Moses and Eleazar son of Aaron the priest,

2 “Take a census of the whole congregation of Israel by the houses of their fathers—all those twenty years of age or older who can serve in the army of Israel.”

3 So on the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho, Moses and Eleazar the priest issued the instruction,

4 “Take a census of the men twenty years of age or older, as the LORD has commanded Moses.” And these were the Israelites who came out of the land of Egypt:

5 Reuben was the firstborn of Israel. These were the descendants of Reuben: The Hanochite clan from Hanoch, the Palluite clan from Pallu,