Numbers 1:43-53

43 their numbered ones, for the tribe of Naphtali, [are] three and fifty thousand and four hundred.

44 These [are] those numbered, whom Moses numbered -- Aaron also, and the princes of Israel, twelve men -- each for the house of his fathers, they have been.

45 And they are, all those numbered of the sons of Israel, by the house of their fathers, from a son of twenty years and upward, every one going out to the host in Israel,

46 yea, all those numbered are six hundred thousand, and three thousand, and five hundred and fifty.

47 And the Levites, for the tribe of their fathers, have not numbered themselves in their midst,

48 seeing Jehovah speaketh unto Moses, saying,

49 `Only, the tribe of Levi thou dost not number, and their sum thou dost not take up in the midst of the sons of Israel;

50 and thou, appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, and over all its vessels, and over all that it hath; they bear the tabernacle, and all its vessels, and they serve it; and round about the tabernacle they encamp.

51 `And in the journeying of the tabernacle, the Levites take it down, and in the encamping of the tabernacle, the Levites raise it up; and the stranger who is coming near is put to death.'

52 And the sons of Israel have encamped, each by his camp, and each by his standard, by their hosts;

53 and the Levites encamp round about the tabernacle of the testimony; and there is no wrath on the company of the sons of Israel, and the Levites have kept the charge of the tabernacle of the testimony.

Numbers 1:43-53 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS

This book has its name from the account it gives of the "numbers" of the children of Israel, twice taken particularly; which name it has with this Greeks and Latins, and so with the Syriac and Arabic versions; but with the Jews it is called sometimes "Vajedabber", from the first word of it, "and the Lord spake"; and sometimes "Bemidbar", from the fifth word of the first verse, "in the wilderness", and sometimes "Sepher Pikkudim"; or, as with Origen {a}, "Ammesphkodim", the book of musters or surveys. That it was written by Moses is not to be doubted; and is indeed suggested by our Lord himself, Joh 5:46 compared with Nu 3:14, and the references to it, in the New Testament, fully ascertain to us Christians the authenticity of it, as that of our Lord hinted at, and those of the apostle in 1Co 10:4, Heb 9:13,14. It contains an history of the affairs of the Israelites, and of their travel in the wilderness for the space of thirty eight years; though the principal facts it relates were done in the second year of their coming out of Egypt, and in the last of their being in the wilderness; and it is not merely historical, but gives a particular account of several laws, ceremonial and judicial, to be observed by the people of Israel, as well as has many things in it very instructive, both of a moral and evangelical nature.

\\INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 1\\

In this chapter orders are given to Moses to take the number of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upwards, Nu 1:1-3; and the men that were to assist in this work, one of each tribe are mentioned by name, Nu 1:4-16; all which was accordingly done, Nu 1:17-19; and the particular numbers of each tribe are recorded, as they were taken, Nu 1:20-44; and the sum total is given, Nu 1:45,46; the Levites being excepted, who were employed about the tabernacle, and so not to be employed in military service, Nu 1:47-51; they encamped about that, while the Israelites pitched their tents every man by his own camp and standard, Nu 1:52-54.

{a} Apud Euseb. Hist. Ecclesiast. l. 6. c. 25.