Numbers 1:1–4

THE CENSUS OF ISRAEL

1 The Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meetinga in the Wilderness of Sinai,b on the first day of the second month of the second yearc after Israel’s departure from the land of Egypt: 2 “Take a censusd of the entire Israelite community by their clans and their ancestral families,* counting the names of every male one by one. 3 You and Aaron are to register those who are twenty years old or more by their military divisions—everyone who can serve in Israel’s army.B,e 4 A man from each tribe is to be with you, each one the head of his ancestral family.* f