Numbers 1

Registration of Israel’s Troops

1. A year after Israel’s departure from Egypt, the Lord spoke to Moses in the Tabernacle[a] in the wilderness of Sinai. On the first day of the second month[b] of that year he said,

2. “From the whole community of Israel, record the names of all the warriors by their clans and families. List all the men

3. twenty years old or older who are able to go to war. You and Aaron must register the troops,

4. and you will be assisted by one family leader from each tribe.

5. “These are the tribes and the names of the leaders who will assist you: 5 Tribe 5 Leader 5 Reuben 5 Elizur son of Shedeur

6. Simeon 6 Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai

7. Judah 7 Nahshon son of Amminadab

8. Issachar 8 Nethanel son of Zuar

9. Zebulun 9 Eliab son of Helon

10. Ephraim son of Joseph 10 Elishama son of Ammihud 10 Manasseh son of Joseph 10 Gamaliel son of Pedahzur

11. Benjamin 11 Abidan son of Gideoni

12. Dan 12 Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai

13. Asher 13 Pagiel son of Ocran

14. Gad 14 Eliasaph son of Deuel

15. Naphtali 15 Ahira son of Enan

16. These are the chosen leaders of the community, the leaders of their ancestral tribes, the heads of the clans of Israel.”

17. So Moses and Aaron called together these chosen leaders,

18. and they assembled the whole community of Israel on that very day.[c] All the people were registered according to their ancestry by their clans and families. The men of Israel who were twenty years old or older were listed one by one,

19. just as the Lord had commanded Moses. So Moses recorded their names in the wilderness of Sinai.

Footnotes:
a. 1:1a: Hebrew the Tent of Meeting.
b. 1:1b: This day in the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar occurred in April or May.
c. 1:18: Hebrew on the first day of the second month; see 1:1.
d. 1:20-21a: In the Hebrew text, this sentence (This is the number of men twenty years old or older who were able to go to war, as their names were listed in the records of their clans and families) is repeated in 1:22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42.
e. 1:20-21b: Hebrew Israel’s. The names “Jacob” and “Israel” are often interchanged throughout the Old Testament, referring sometimes to the individual patriarch and sometimes to the nation.
f. 1:50: Or Tabernacle of the Testimony; also in 1:53.