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Numbers 1:1-3
Evangelical Heritage Version
Numbers 1:1-3
Evangelical Heritage Version
The First Census of Israel
1 The Lord spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt. He said, 2 “Take a census of the entire community of the people of Israel, according to their clans and their fathers’ houses.[a] Count the names of every male, one by one, 3 twenty years old and up, all who are of age to serve in Israel’s army. Aaron and you are to register them by their military units.[b]
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- Numbers 1:2 Because Israel’s social structure was based on kinship, the fathers’ house (or sometimes the father’s house) was one of the basic social units of Israel. The fathers’ house seems to have been smaller than the tribe and clan but larger than the immediate family. However, the use of the term fathers’ house does not seem to be consistent. Every level of Israelite social structure was a fathers’ house, though they were also called by other names.
- Numbers 1:3 Literally all those going out with the army. Israel’s army was arranged in geographical units, somewhat like the units of the US National Guard. Israel’s geographic and social units were also family units.
Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV)
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