Numbers 26:3

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

Numbers 26:3 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 26:3

And Moses and Eleazar the priest spake with them
With the children of Israel, with the heads of them, their chief and principal, to assist in taking the number of the people; as when they were numbered thirty years ago, when a prince out of each tribe was taken to be with Aaron and Moses in doing that business; but those princes were now all dead, and another race succeeded, who were now employed in this service; so the Targum of Jonathan says, they spoke with the rulers, and ordered them to number them:

in the plains of Moab, by Jordan, [near] Jericho:
or of Jericho, as the same Targum, on the other side of Jordan to that on which Jericho stood; for as yet the children of Israel had not passed that river, nor entered into the land of Canaan, in which Jericho was, but they were now opposite it; (See Gill on Numbers 22:1):

saying;
as follows.

Numbers 26:3 In-Context

1 And it came to pass after the plague that the LORD spoke unto Moses and unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying,

2 "Take the count of all the congregation of the children of Israel from twenty years old and upward throughout their father's house, all who are able to go to war in Israel."

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

4 "Take the count of the people from twenty years old and upward," as the LORD commanded Moses and the children of Israel who went forth out of the land of Egypt.

5 Reuben, the eldest son of Israel. The children of Reuben: Hanoch, of whom cometh the family of the Hanochites; of Pallu, the family of the Palluites;