The Census of Israel

¹The Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the Wilderness of Sinai, on the first day of the second month of the second year after Israel’s departure from the land of Egypt:[#1:1 Ex 27:21; 40:2,6–7,34–35; #1:1 Ex 19:1; Nm 33:16; #1:1 Ex 12:40–41; 19:1; 40:17]

²‘Take a census of the entire Israelite community by their clans and their ancestral families, counting the names of every male one by one.[#1:2 Ex 30:11–16; Nm 26:2; #1:2 Lit the house of their fathers , also in vv. 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 45]

³You and Aaron are to register those who are twenty years old or more by their military divisions #– #everyone who can serve in Israel’s army. ,[#1:3 Lit everyone going out to war in Israel; #1:3 Ex 30:14; Nm 14:29; 32:11; 1Ch 23:24,27; Ezr 3:8]

⁴A man from each tribe is to be with you, each one the head of his ancestral family. ,[#1:4 Lit the house of his fathers , also in v. 44; #1:4 Nm 1:16; Jos 22:14]

⁵These are the names of the men who are to assist you:[#1:5–15 Nm 2:3–30; 7:12–83; 10:14–27]

Elizur son of Shedeur from Reuben;

⁶Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai from Simeon;

⁷Nahshon son of Amminadab from Judah;

⁸Nethanel son of Zuar from Issachar;

⁹Eliab son of Helon from Zebulun;

¹⁰from the sons of Joseph:

Elishama son of Ammihud from Ephraim,

Gamaliel son of Pedahzur from Manasseh;

¹¹Abidan son of Gideoni from Benjamin;

¹²Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai from Dan;

¹³Pagiel son of Ochran from Asher;

¹⁴Eliasaph son of Deuel from Gad;[#1:14 LXX, Syr read Reuel]

¹⁵Ahira son of Enan from Naphtali.

¹⁶These are the men called from the community; they are leaders of their ancestral tribes, the heads of Israel’s clans.’[#1:16 Nm 1:47; 13:2; 26:55; 33:54; 36:4–8; #1:16 Nm 10:4; Jos 22:21,30]

¹⁷So Moses and Aaron took these men who had been designated by name,[#1:17 1Ch 12:31; 16:41; 2Ch 28:15; 31:19; Ezr 8:20]

¹⁸and they assembled the whole community on the first day of the second month. They recorded their ancestry by their clans and their ancestral families, counting one by one the names of those twenty years old or more,

¹⁹just as the Lord commanded Moses. He registered them in the Wilderness of Sinai:

⁴⁴These are the men Moses and Aaron registered, with the assistance of the twelve leaders of Israel; each represented his ancestral family.

⁴⁵So all the Israelites twenty years old or more, everyone who could serve in Israel’s army, were registered by their ancestral families.

⁴⁶All those registered numbered 603,550.[#1:46 Ex 12:37; Nm 26:51]

Duties of the Levites

⁴⁷But the Levites were not registered with them by their ancestral tribe.[#1:47 Gn 34:25,30; 49:5–7; Ex 32:26–29; Nm 3:6,12–13,40–43; 8:16–19; 18:1; Dt 10:8–9; 18:1–2; 21:5; Jos 13:14,33]

⁴⁸For the Lord had told Moses,

⁴⁹‘Do not register or take a census of the tribe of Levi with the other Israelites.

⁵⁰Appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, all its furnishings, and everything in it. They are to transport the tabernacle and all its articles, take care of it, and camp round it.

⁵¹Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever it is to stop at a campsite, the Levites are to set it up. Any unauthorised person who comes near it is to be put to death.[#1:51 Ex 29:33; 30:33; Nm 3:10,38; 16:40; 18:4,7; #1:51 Ex 19:12; Nm 3:10,38; 8:19; 18:7]

⁵²‘The Israelites are to camp by their military divisions, each man with his encampment and under his banner.

⁵³The Levites are to camp round the tabernacle of the testimony and watch over it, so that no wrath will fall on the Israelite community.’[#1:53 Nm 3:7; 18:4–5; 1Ch 23:32; Ezk 44:15–16]

⁵⁴The Israelites did everything just as the Lord had commanded Moses.[#1:54 Ex 39:32,42; Nm 9:5; 36:10; Jos 14:5]