Numbers 26:2

2 Take the sum of the whole assembly of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, according to their fathers' houses, all that go forth to military service 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 came to pass after the plague, that Jehovah spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying,

2 Take the sum of the whole assembly of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, according to their fathers' houses, all that go forth to military service in Israel.

3 And Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan of Jericho, saying,

4 From twenty years old and upward ...; as Jehovah had commanded Moses and the children of Israel, who went forth out of the land of Egypt.

5 Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: the children of Reuben: [of] Enoch, the family of the Enochites; of Pallu, the family of the Palluites;

Footnotes

• [a]. See ch. 4.3.