Numbers 1:16

16 These [are] the ones summoned from the community, the leaders of their ancestors'^[a] tribes; they [are] the heads of Israel's clans.

Numbers 1:16 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 1:16

These [were] the renowned of the congregation
The most famous and eminent among the people, for their birth and pedigree, or for their excellent qualities of wisdom, courage, and the like; or "the called of the congregation" ^F4, whom God had called by name and selected from the rest of the congregation to the above service, whereby great honour was done them: Aben Ezra says, the sense is, that the congregation did nothing until they had called them; with which agrees the note of Jarchi,

``who were called to every business of importance in the congregation:''

princes of the tribes of their fathers;
as Elizur was prince of the children of Reuben, ( Numbers 7:30 ) ; the same is there said of the rest in their respective tribes:

heads of thousands in Israel;
the congregation of Israel being divided into thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, by the advice of Jethro, ( Exodus 18:21 ) ; each of these divisions had a ruler over them, and thousands being the highest number, these princes were chiliarchs, rulers or heads of thousands.

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 (hdeh yayrq) "convocati coetus", Montanus, Drusius; "convocati e coetu", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Numbers 1:16 In-Context

14 from Gad, Eliasaph son of Deuel;

15 [and] from Naphtali, Ahira son of Enan."

16 These [are] the ones summoned from the community, the leaders of their ancestors' tribes; they [are] the heads of Israel's clans.

17 So Moses and Aaron took these men who had been designated by name,

18 and they summoned the entire community on [the] first day of the second month. And they registered themselves among their clans according to {their families}, according to [the] number of names from {those twenty years old} and above individually,

Footnotes

• [a] Or "fathers'"