Bible Strands
Numbers 1:3
You and Aaron are to number those who are twenty years of age or older by their divisions—everyone who can serve in Israel’s army.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God commands Moses and Aaron to conduct a military census at the entrance to the wilderness journey. The directive targets every male Israelite capable of armed service.
The words — עֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה וָמַעְלָה ('esrim shanah u'ma'alah) literally means "twenty years and upwards," while יֹצֵא צָבָא (yotze tsva) denotes "one who goes forth to warfare."
The thread — This age threshold for civic and covenantal obligation appears in Exodus 30:14 and Numbers 14:29.
Why it lands — The text sets a concrete age and physical readiness standard for national defense before addressing spiritual accountability.
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
From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies.
Cross-references
- Exodus 30:14 Everyone twenty years of age or older who crosses over must give this offering to the LORD.
- Numbers 14:29 Your bodies will fall in this wilderness—all who were numbered in the census, everyone twenty years of age or older—because you have grumbled against Me.
- Exodus 12:17 So you are to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your divisions out of the land of Egypt. You must keep this day as a permanent statute for the generations to come.
- Numbers 26:2 “Take a census of the whole congregation of Israel by the houses of their fathers—all those twenty years of age or older who can serve in the army of Israel.”
- Numbers 32:11 ‘Because they did not follow Me wholeheartedly, not one of the men twenty years of age or older who came out of Egypt will see the land that I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—
- Numbers 33:1 These are the journeys of the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt by their divisions under the leadership of Moses and Aaron.
- Deuteronomy 3:18 At that time I commanded you: “The LORD your God has given you this land to possess. All your men of valor are to cross over, armed for battle, ahead of your brothers, the Israelites.
- Deuteronomy 24:5 If a man is newly married, he must not be sent to war or be pressed into any duty. For one year he is free to stay at home and bring joy to the wife he has married.
- 2 Samuel 24:9 And Joab reported to the king the total number of the troops. In Israel there were 800,000 men of valor who drew the sword, and in Judah there were 500,000.
- 2 Chronicles 26:11 Uzziah had an army ready for battle that went out to war by assigned divisions, as recorded by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer under the direction of Hananiah, one of the royal officers.