Bible Strands

Numbers 1:26

From the sons of Judah, according to the records of their clans and families, counting the names of all those twenty years of age or older who could serve in the army,

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Moses records the tribal census at the command of the Lord in the wilderness, listing the Judahite contingent immediately after Gad and before Issachar.

The words — תּוֹלְדֹתָם (tol’dotam) denotes the recorded genealogies or family lineages used to verify ancestry, while בְּמִסְפַּר שְׁמוֹת (be’mispar shemot) specifies the enumeration by individual names rather than estimates.

The thread — This lineage tracking connects to the naming of Judah in Genesis 29:35, the continued tribal registration in Numbers 26:19, and the administrative military reporting pattern seen in 2 Samuel 24:9.

Why it lands — The passage establishes that communal identity and military service required formal verification through recorded ancestry and precise headcounts, excluding informal or unverified participation.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

Of the children of Judah, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war;

Cross-references