The Wilderness Years

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, saying,

“Take a census 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, one by one;

from twenty years old and upward, all who are able to go out to war in Israel. You and Aaron shall number them by their divisions.

With you there shall be a man of every tribe; everyone head of his fathers’ house.

These are the names of the men who shall stand with you: Of Reuben: Elizur the son of Shedeur.

Of Simeon: Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai.

Of Judah: Nahshon the son of Amminadab.

Of Issachar: Nethanel the son of Zuar.

Of Zebulun: Eliab the son of Helon.

Of the children of Joseph: Of Ephraim: Elishama the son of Ammihud. Of Manasseh: Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur.

Of Benjamin: Abidan the son of Gideoni.

Of Dan: Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.

Of Asher: Pagiel the son of Ochran.

Of Gad: Eliasaph the son of Deuel.

Of Naphtali: Ahira the son of Enan.”

These are those who were called of the congregation, the princes of the tribes of their fathers; they were the heads of the thousands of Israel.

Moses and Aaron took these men who are mentioned by name.

They assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month; and they declared their ancestry by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, one by one.

As the LORD commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.

The children of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, one by one, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war;

those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Reuben, were forty-six thousand five hundred.

Of the children of Simeon, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, those who were numbered of it, according to the number of the names, one by one, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war;

those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Simeon, were fifty-nine thousand three hundred.

Of the children of Gad, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war;

those who were numbered of them, of the tribe of Gad, were forty-five thousand six hundred fifty.