Numbers 1:16

16 These were the men chosen from the congregation, leaders of their ancestral tribes, heads of Israel's military divisions.

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 from Naphtali: Ahira son of Enan."

16 These were the men chosen from the congregation, leaders of their ancestral tribes, heads of Israel's military divisions.

17 Moses and Aaron took these men who had been named to help

18 and gathered the whole congregation together on the first day of the second month. The people registered themselves in their tribes according to their ancestral families, putting down the names of those who were twenty years old and older,