Bible Strands
Numbers 31:26
“You and Eleazar the priest and the family heads of the congregation are to take a count of what was captured, both of man and beast.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD addresses Moses, instructing Eleazar the priest and the family heads of the congregation to conduct an immediate inventory following the military campaign.
The words — The command to “take a count” uses שָׂא (Sa'), meaning “lift up,” paired with רֹאשׁ (rosh), meaning “head,” to denote a formal enumeration of both captives and livestock.
The thread — This administrative inventory motif recurs in Numbers 26:2 and Exodus 38:21, where leaders are repeatedly ordered to number people and materials for covenant community management.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to recognize that spiritual and communal order demands precise accounting of human and material resources under divine authority.
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
Take the sum of the prey that was taken, both of man and of beast, thou, and Eleazar the priest, and the chief fathers of the congregation: