Discovery BoxNumbers 1:2 
Context1:2 “Take a census 1 of the entire 2 Israelite community 3 by their clans and families, 4 counting the name of every individual male. 5
Numbers 3:22
Context3:22 Those of them who were numbered, counting every male from a month old and upward, were 7,500.
Numbers 3:34
Context3:34 Those of them who were numbered, counting every male from a month old and upward, were 6,200.
Numbers 5:9-10
Context5:9 Every offering 6 of all the Israelites’ holy things that they bring to the priest will be his. 5:10 Every man’s holy things 7 will be his; whatever any man gives the priest will be his.’”
Numbers 28:10
Context28:10 This is the burnt offering for every Sabbath, 8 besides the continual burnt offering and its drink offering.
Numbers 30:9
Context30:9 “But every vow of a widow or of a divorced woman which she has pledged for herself will remain intact. 9
Numbers 31:4
Context31:4 You must send to the battle a thousand men from every tribe throughout all the tribes of Israel.” 10
Numbers 34:18
Context34:18 You must take one leader from every 11 tribe to assist in allocating the land as an inheritance. 12
1 tn The construction is literally “lift up the head[s],” (שְׂאוּ אֶת־רֹאשׁ, sÿ’u ’et-ro’sh). This idiom for taking a census occurs elsewhere (Exod 30:12; Lev 5:24; Num 1:24; etc.). The idea is simply that of counting heads to arrive at the base for the standing army. This is a different event than the one recorded in Exod 30:11-16, which was taken for a different purpose altogether. The verb is plural, indicating that Moses had help in taking the census.
2 tc Smr lacks the Hebrew word “all” here.
3 tn Heb “the congregation of Israel.”
4 tn The tribe (מַטֶּה, matteh or שֵׁבֶט, shevet) is the main category. The family groups or clans (מִשְׁפְּחֹת, mishpÿkhot) and the households or families (בֵּית אֲבֹת, bet ’avot) were sub-divisions of the tribe.
5 tn This clause simply has “in/with the number of the names of every male with respect to their skulls [individually].” Counting heads, or every skull, simply meant that each person was to be numbered in the census. Except for the Levites, no male was exempt from the count.
6 tn The Hebrew word תְּרוּמָה (tÿrumah) seems to be a general word for any offering that goes to the priests (see J. Milgrom, Studies in Cultic Theology and Terminology [SJLA 36], 159-72).
7 sn The “holy gifts” are described with the root of קֹדֶשׁ (qodesh) to convey that they were separate. Such things had been taken out of the ordinary and normal activities of life.
8 tn Heb “the burnt offering of the Sabbath by its Sabbath.”
9 tn The Hebrew text says her vow “shall stand against her.” In other words, she must fulfill, or bear the consequences of, whatever she vowed.
10 sn Some commentators argue that given the size of the nation (which they reject) the small number for the army is a sign of the unrealistic character of the story. The number is a round number, but it is also a holy war, and God would give them the victory. They are beginning to learn here, and at Jericho, and later against these Midianites under Gideon, that God does not want or need a large army in order to obtain victory.
11 tn This sense is created by repetition: “one leader, one leader from the tribe.”
12 tn The sentence simply uses לִנְחֹל (linkhol, “to divide, apportion”). It has been taken already to mean “allocate as an inheritance.” Here “assist” may be added since Joshua and Eleazar had the primary work.
