Numbers 1:1-3

Amplified Bible

The Census of Israel’s Warriors

1 The Lord spoke [by special revelation] to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai in the Tent of Meeting (tabernacle) on the first day of the second month in the second year after the ^[a]Israelites came out of the land of Egypt, saying, ²“Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families (clans), by their fathers’ households, according to the number of names, every male, ^[b]head by head ³from twenty years old and upward, all in Israel who are able to go out to war. You and Aaron shall number them, army by army.

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Footnotes

Numbers 1:1 In general, sons (children) of Israel or Israel or Israelites refers to all the people (males and females) of the various tribes descended from the twelve sons (Gen 35:23-26) of Jacob (later renamed Israel by God). In verses concerning things such as warfare or circumcision sons of Israel or Israel or Israelites usually refers only to the males. Tribes of ancient peoples were identified by the name of their founding ancestor. Therefore, this same general rule applies when referring to individual tribal groups, e.g. sons of Reuben, Reuben, Reubenites and so throughout.
Numbers 1:2 Lit by their skulls, also the root word for “Golgotha.”