🔢WEB · Numbers 1:15
What does Numbers 1:15 mean?
"Of Naphtali: Ahira the son of Enan.”"
— Numbers 1:15 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Of Dan: Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.
Of Asher: Pagiel the son of Ochran.
Of Gad: Eliasaph the son of Deuel.
Of Naphtali: Ahira the son of Enan.”
These are those who were called of the congregation, the princes of the tribes of their fathers; they were the heads of the thousands of Israel.
Moses and Aaron took these men who are mentioned by name.
They assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month; and they declared their ancestry by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, one by one.
Explanation
Numbers 1:15 simply identifies one man, Ahira son of Enan, as the tribal leader chosen to represent the tribe of Naphtali. In plain language, this verse is a name on a list — one entry in a longer roll call of leaders selected from each of Israel's twelve tribes. There is no narrative action, dialogue, or drama here; it is administrative record-keeping, naming who stood at the head of Naphtali's tribe during this particular moment in Israel's history.
The context is essential to understanding why such a verse exists. The book of Numbers opens with God commanding Moses, in the wilderness of Sinai about a year after the exodus from Egypt, to take a census of the Israelite men able to serve in Israel's army (Numbers 1:1-3). To carry out this massive undertaking, one leader from each tribe was appointed to assist Moses and Aaron in counting his own tribe (Numbers 1:4-16). Ahira son of Enan was the man appointed for Naphtali, one of the twelve sons of Jacob whose descendants had grown into a large tribal group. Moses, traditionally credited as the author of Numbers, recorded this list to document Israel's organization as a nation preparing to march toward the Promised Land.
Theologically, this verse — though brief — refl
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