Numbers 26:47

Study note

Setting — The narrator records the second Israelite census at the plains of Moab, documenting the adult males counted by tribe before the conquest of Canaan. The passage addresses the Israelite community by listing the registered families of each tribal division.

The words — מִשְׁפְּחֹת (mishpeḥōt) denotes the internal family subdivisions within a tribe, while אֶלֶף (ʾelef) literally means thousand. The verse explicitly lists these clans of Asher and states their registration count.

The thread — This census data parallels the first tribal count in Numbers 1:40 and precedes the campsite assignments detailed in Numbers 2:27. The structural pattern of listing clans and numbers recurs throughout the tribal registers in Numbers 26.

Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge the precise accounting of Asher’s descendants as part of a larger divine inventory. It demands attention to the recorded numbers and clan divisions without adding interpretive commentary beyond what the verse states.

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.