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Not because God would understand whether they were sufficient for number, or able for strength, to encounter their enemies, forasmuch as nothing is unknown to Him or impossible for Him to bring to pass, who is able to save as well with a few as with many.

1. For order's sake: that there should be no occasion of contention for primacy, but that every tribe and family should know his place and time, when to remove and when to stand still, when to fight with their enemies, and in every point what to do.

2. That such things as were to be paid for the use of the tabernacle might the more easily be collected when they were separated according to their tribes, and the tribes according to their families, and the families according to the household, man by man.

3. To testify His exceeding great love toward them and special care over them. A faithful shepherd will many times count the sheep committed to him, lest any should be missing.

4. Lastly, they are severally and distinctly numbered every tribe by itself, that in time to come it might be certainly known of what tribe and family Christ Jesus, the promised Messiah, should be born.

(W. Attersoll.)

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KJV: Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;

WEB: "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;