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 2:9-10
Context2:9 All those numbered of the camp of Judah, according to their divisions, are 186,400. They will travel 6 at the front.
2:10 “On the south will be the divisions of the camp of Reuben under their standard. 7 The leader of the people of Reuben is Elizur son of Shedeur.
Numbers 2:18
Context2:18 “On the west will be the divisions of the camp of Ephraim under their standard. The leader of the people of Ephraim is Elishama son of Amihud.
Numbers 2:25
Context2:25 “On the north will be the divisions of the camp of Dan, under their standards. The leader of the people of Dan is Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai.
Numbers 2:32
Context2:32 These are the Israelites, numbered according to their families. 8 All those numbered in the camps, by their divisions, are 603,550.
Numbers 33:1
Context33:1 9 These are the journeys of the Israelites, who went out of the land of Egypt by their divisions under the authority 10 of Moses and Aaron.
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 The verb is נָסָע (nasa’): “to journey, travel, set out,” and here, “to move camp.” Judah will go first, or, literally, at the head of the nation, when they begin to travel.
7 tn Here and throughout the line is literally “[under] the standard of the camp of Reuben…according to their divisions.”
8 tn Heb “the house of their fathers.” So also in v. 34.
9 sn This material can be arranged into four sections: from Egypt to Sinai (vv. 1-15), the wilderness wanderings (vv. 16-36), from Kadesh to Moab (vv. 37-49), and final orders for Canaan (vv. 50-56).
10 tn Heb “hand.”
