🔢WEB · Numbers 1:4
What does Numbers 1:4 mean?
"With you there shall be a man of every tribe; everyone head of his fathers’ house."
— Numbers 1:4 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying,
“Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, every male, one by one;
from twenty years old and upward, all who are able to go out to war in Israel. You and Aaron shall count them by their divisions.
With you there shall be a man of every tribe; everyone head of his fathers’ house.
These are the names of the men who shall stand with you: Of Reuben: Elizur the son of Shedeur.
Of Simeon: Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai.
Of Judah: Nahshon the son of Amminadab.
Explanation
Numbers 1:4 comes from God's instructions to Moses about how to organize a military census of the Israelites shortly after they left Egypt. The verse says that Moses would not carry out this task alone—each of the twelve tribes of Israel was to send one representative to assist him. That representative had to be "a head of his father's house," meaning the recognized leader of an extended family line within the tribe, a man of established authority and standing among his own people.
The context is the second year after the Exodus, while Israel was camped at Mount Sinai. God commands a census of all men twenty years old and older who were able to serve in Israel's army, in preparation for the nation's journey toward the Promised Land. This census also served to organize the
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