Discovery BoxNumbers 1:3 
Context1:3 You and Aaron are to number 1 all in Israel who can serve in the army, 2 those who are 3 twenty years old or older, 4 by their divisions. 5
Numbers 1:45
Context1:45 All the Israelites who were twenty years old or older, who could serve in Israel’s army, were numbered 6 according to their families.
Numbers 3:47
Context3:47 collect 7 five shekels for each 8 one individually; you are to collect 9 this amount 10 in the currency of the sanctuary shekel (this shekel is twenty gerahs). 11
Numbers 26:2
Context26:2 “Take a census of the whole community of Israelites, from twenty years old and upward, by their clans, 12 everyone who can serve in the army of Israel.” 13
Numbers 26:4
Context26:4 “Number the people 14 from twenty years old and upward, just as the Lord commanded Moses and the Israelites who went out from the land of Egypt.”
1 tn The verb (פָּקַד, paqad) means “to visit, appoint, muster, number.” The word is a common one in scripture. It has as its basic meaning the idea of “determining the destiny” of someone, by appointing, mustering, or visiting. When God “visits,” it is a divine intervention for either blessing or cursing. Here it is the taking of a census for war (see G. André, Determining the Destiny [ConBOT], 16).
2 tn The construction uses the participle “going out” followed by the noun “army.” It describes everyone “going out in a military group,” meaning serving in the army. It was the duty of every able-bodied Israelite to serve in this “peoples” army. There were probably exemptions for the infirm or the crippled, but every male over twenty was chosen. For a discussion of warfare, see P. C. Craigie, The Problem of War in the Old Testament, and P. D. Miller, “The Divine Council and the Prophetic Call to War,” VT 18 (1968): 100-107.
3 tn The text simply has “from twenty years old and higher.”
4 tn Heb “and up.”
5 tn The noun (צָבָא, tsava’) means “army” or “military group.” But the word can also be used for nonmilitary divisions of labor (Num 4:3).
6 tn Literally the text has, “and all the numbered of the Israelites were according to their families.” The verb in the sentence is actually without a complement (see v. 46).
7 tn The verb again is the perfect tense in sequence; the meaning of “take” may be interpreted here with the sense of “collect.”
8 tn The idea is expressed simply by repetition: “take five, five, shekels according to the skull.” They were to collect five shekels for each individual.
9 tn The verb form now is the imperfect of instruction or legislation.
10 tn Heb “them,” referring to the five shekels.
11 sn The sanctuary shekel was first mentioned in Exod 30:13. The half-shekel of Exod 38:26 would then be 10 gerahs. Consequently, the calculations would indicate that five shekels was about two ounces of silver for each person. See R. B. Y. Scott, “Weights and Measures of the Bible,” BA 22 (1951): 22-40, and “The Scale-Weights from Ophel, 1963-1964,” PEQ 97 (1965): 128-39.
12 tn Heb “house of their fathers.”
13 tn Heb “everyone who goes out in the army in Israel.”
14 tn “Number the people” is added here to the text for a smooth reading.
