Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;

Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers houses, according to the number of the names, every male, by their polls;

Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel by their families, and houses, and the names of every one, as many as are of the male sex,

Take the sum of the whole assembly of the children of Israel, after their families, according to their fathers' houses, by the number of the names, every male, according to their polls;

Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their poll:

Take ye up the sum of all the company of the sons of Israel by their families, by the house of their fathers, in the number of names, every male by their polls;

Take the full number of the children of Israel, by their families, and by their fathers' houses, every male by name;

"Take a total of the entire assembly of the sons of Israel, by their families and houses, and the names of each one, of whomever is of the male sex,

Capite summam totius coetus filiorum Israel per familias eorum, per domos patrum eorum, juxta numerum nominum, onmem masculum per capita eorum.

Take ye the sum, etc. - God, having established the commonwealth of Israel by just and equitable laws, ordained every thing relative to the due performance of his own worship, erected his tabernacle, which was his throne, and the place of his residence among the people, and consecrated his priests who were to minister before him; he now orders his subjects to be mustered,
1. That they might see he had not forgotten his promise to Abraham, but was multiplying his posterity.
2. That they might observe due order in their march toward the promised land.
3. That the tribes and families might be properly distinguished; that all litigations concerning property, inheritance, etc., might, in all future times, be prevented.
4. That the promise concerning the Messiah might be known to have its due accomplishment, when in the fullness of time God should send him from the seed of Abraham through the house of David. And,
5. That they might know their strength for war; for although they should ever consider God as their protector and defense, yet it was necessary that they should be assured of their own fitness, naturally speaking, to cope with any ordinary enemy, or to surmount any common difficulties.

Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel,.... Excepting the Levites; nor were any account taken of the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt with the children of Israel, only of them; and this account was taken, partly to observe the fulfilment of the divine promise to Abraham concerning the multiplication of his seed, and partly that it might be observed, that at the end of thirty eight years from hence, when they were numbered again, there were but three left of this large number, their carcasses falling in the wilderness because of their sins; and chiefly, as Aben Ezra observes, this sum was now taken to fix their standards, and for their better and more orderly journeying and encampment; for on the twentieth of this month they set forward on their journey from hence, Numbers 10:11; the word for the order is in the plural number, take ye, being given both to Moses and Aaron, who were to take the number, and did, Numbers 1:3,
after their families; into which their tribes were divided:
by the house of their fathers; for if the mother was of one tribe, and the father of another, the family was according to the tribe of the father, as Jarchi notes, a mother's family being never called a family, as Aben Ezra observes:
with the number of their names; of every particular person, whose name was inserted in a list or register:
every male by their poll; or head (b); for none but males were numbered: the Lord's spiritual Israel are a numbered people, written in the book of life, placed into the hand of Christ, and exactly known by him, even by name; yea, all that belong to him are numbered, and the very airs of their heads,
(b) "per capita sua", Pagninus, &c,

Take the sum - This is not the same muster with that Exodus 38:26, as plainly appears, because that was before the building of the tabernacle, which was built and set up on the first day of the first month, Exodus 40:2, but this was after it, on the first day of the second month. And they were for different ends; that was to tax them for the charges of the tabernacle; but this was for other ends, partly that the great number of the people might be known to the praise of God's faithfulness, in making good his promises of multiplying them, and to their own encouragement: partly for the better ordering their camp and march, for they were now beginning their journey; and partly that this account might he compared with the other in the close of the book, where we read that not one of all this vast number, except Caleb and Joshua were left alive; a fair warning to all future generations to take heed of rebelling against the Lord. It is true, the sums and numbers agree in this and that computation, which is not strange, because there was not much time between the two numberings, and no eminent sin among the people in that interval, whereby God was provoked to diminish their numbers. Some conceive that in that number, Exodus 30:11-16 and Exodus 38:25-26, the Levites were included, which are here excepted, Numbers 1:47, and that in that interval of time, there were grown up as many more men of those years as there were Levites of the same age. Israel - So the strangers mixed with them, were not numbered. Their fathers - The people were divided into twelve tribes, the tribes into great families, Numbers 26:5, these great families into lesser families called the houses of their fathers, because they were distinguished one from another by their fathers.