Numbers 1:4

4 A man from each tribe will be with you, each man the head of {his family}.^[a]

Numbers 1:4 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 1:4

And with you there shall be a man of every tribe
Excepting Levi, of which Moses and Aaron were, to assist in taking the account, and to see that it was an exact and perfect one:

everyone head of the house of his fathers;
and prince of the tribe he belonged to, as appears from ( Numbers 1:16 ) and ( Numbers 7:2 ) , where an account is given of the same persons as princes of the tribes that offered at the dedication of the altar, who here assisted in the taking this account; the Targum of Jonathan calls them each a prince, as Prince Elizur

Numbers 1:4 In-Context

2 "{Take a census of} the entire community of the {Israelites} according to their clans and {their families}, according to [the] number of names, every male individually

3 from {twenty years old} and above, everyone in Israel who [is able] to go to war. You and Aaron must muster them for their wars.

4 A man from each tribe will be with you, each man the head of {his family}.

5 And these [are] the names of the men who will {assist you}: from Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur;

6 from Simeon, Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai;

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "the house of his father"