Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war.
| Word | Hebrew | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| tribe | לַמַּטֶּ֔ה la.ma.Teh | H4294 | a branch (as extending) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| thousand | אֶ֚לֶף 'E.lef | H505 | hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alph… · cardinal number, both genders singular absolute |
| tribes | לַמַּטֶּ֑ה la.ma.Teh | H4294 | a branch (as extending) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
| Israel | יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל Yis.ra.'El | H3478 | Jisrael · proper noun, a place name |
| send | תִּשְׁלְח֖וּ tish.le.Chu | H7971 | to send away · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural |
| war | לַצָּבָֽא la.tza.Va' | H6635 | a mass of persons (or figuratively · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Arm some of yourselves--This order was issued but a short time before the death of Moses. The announcement to him of that approaching event [Num 31:2] seems to have accelerated, rather than retarded, his warlike preparations.
Of every tribe a thousand,.... So that the whole number of those that were armed were 12,000 as after given: throughout all the tribes of Israel; this is observed, as Jarchi thinks, to comprehend the tribe of Levi, which in some cases was left out of the account: shall ye send to the war; to fight with Midian.
And Moses spake unto the people. There is no doubt but that Moses delivered the commands which he had received from God; although, therefore, it is stated [205] that only ten thousand went forth to the war, yet the facts themselves demonstrate that the number, as well as the mode of warfare, was prescribed by God. And assuredly it would have been inconsiderate of Moses to attack so great a people with so small a band; and thus he would have deservedly incurred the penalty of his rashness, if he had attempted it of his own accord; still, when God's command had preceded, he happily concluded the matter, which had been properly and rightly undertaken. Nor can it be questioned but that God desir…
Read the whole note in the consoleTo carry out this revenge, Moses had 1000 men of each tribe delivered (ימּסרוּ, see at Num 31:16) from the families (alaphim, see Num 1:16) of the tribes, and equipped for war; and these he sent to the army (into the war) along with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the high priest, who carried the holy vessels, viz., the alarm-trumpets, in his hand. Phinehas was attached to the army, not as the leader of the soldiers, but as the high priest with the holy trumpets (Num 10:9), because the war was a holy war of the congregation against the enemies of themselves and their God. Phinehas had so distinguished himself by the zeal which he had displayed against the idolaters (Num 25:7), that it was imposs…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Each tribe contributed 1,000 men for the battle, which enabled all of them to gain experience in combat and share in the victory.
לכל מטות ישראל [A THOUSAND OF EVERY TRIBE] THROUGHOUT ALL THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL — including, therefore, the tribe of Levi (Sifrei Bamidbar 157:3).
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
