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 3:34
Context3:34 Those of them who were numbered, counting every male from a month old and upward, were 6,200.
Numbers 14:5
Context14:5 Then Moses and Aaron fell down with their faces to the ground 6 before the whole assembled community 7 of the Israelites.
Numbers 15:33
Context15:33 Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to the whole community.
Numbers 20:27
Context20:27 So Moses did as the Lord commanded; and they went up Mount Hor in the sight 8 of the whole community.
Numbers 23:26
Context23:26 But Balaam replied 9 to Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘All that the Lord speaks, 10 I must do’?”
Numbers 31:35
Context31:35 and 32,000 young women who had never had sexual intercourse with a man. 11
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 sn This action of Moses and Aaron is typical of them in the wilderness with the Israelites. The act shows self-abasement and deference before the sovereign
7 tn Heb “before all the assembly of the congregation.”
8 tn Heb “eyes.”
9 tn Heb “answered and said.”
10 tn This first clause, “all that the
11 sn Here again we encounter one of the difficulties of the book, the use of the large numbers. Only twelve thousand soldiers fought the Midianites, but they brought back this amount of plunder, including 32,000 girls. Until a solution for numbers in the book can be found, or the current translation confirmed, one must remain cautious in interpretation.
