Chapter One

A census of the Hebrew people. — The selection of the Levites for service at the tabernacle.

Numbers 1:1. And the Lord said to Moses in the Sinai wilderness, in the tent of meeting, on the first [day] of the second month, in the second year after they had come out from the land of Egypt, saying: Numbers 1:2. Count all the congregation of the sons of Israel by their families, by their fathers’ houses, by the number of names, all the males individually: Numbers 1:3. From twenty years old and upward, all those able for war in Israel, by their companies count them — you and Aaron; Serving as a means of ascertaining the quantitative composition of the Hebrew army and the number of payers of the poll tax for the tabernacle (Exod 30:11-16), the census at the same time aimed at a visible confirmation of the divine promises to the patriarchs regarding the great multiplication of their descendants (Theodoret, Commentary on the book of Numbers, question 1). According to the information provided by the census, the results were as follows: In the tribe of Reuben — 46,500 men. Simeon — 59,300 men. Judah — 74,600 men. Dan — 62,700 men. Naphtali — 53,400 men. Gad — 45,650 men. Asher — 41,500 men. Issachar — 54,400 men. Zebulun — 57,400 men. Ephraim — 40,500 men. Manasseh — 32,200 men. Benjamin — 35,400 men. Total — 603,550 men.

Numbers 1:4. With you there must be a man from each tribe, who is a leader of his family. Along with Moses, Aaron, and the Levites (Exod 38:21), the heads of the tribes were to take part in conducting the census, both to ensure thereby the greatest accuracy in compiling the lists, and to support in the eyes of the people the authority of the men they had chosen.

Numbers 1:47. But the Levites were not numbered among them by their ancestral families. Numbers 1:48. And the Lord said to Moses, saying: Numbers 1:49. Only the tribe of Levi shall you not register, nor count them among the sons of Israel; Numbers 1:50. But appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony and over all its furnishings and over everything that belongs to it. They shall carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings, and they shall serve in front of it, and shall camp around the tabernacle; Numbers 1:51. And when the tabernacle is to be moved, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall set it up. And if anyone else comes near, he shall be put to death. The poll tax and military duties for the Levites were replaced by their lifelong service at the tabernacle.