שאו את ראש, to organise them so that they could proceed to the land of Israel immediately, without delay, each one of them knowing to which unit (flag) he belonged. At that point, no war of conquest had even been envisaged, the assumption having been that G’d would remove the inhabitants of the land of Canaan so that no face-to-face encounter would even be necessary. Evidence from Isaiah 17,9 suggests that in fact, at least partially, this even occurred after the 40 years in the desert. The prophet there reports that once again, as at the time when the Emorite and the Hittite abandoned their cities in the face of the advancing armies of the Israelites, history will repeat itself. [based on the Septuagint. Our author assumes that Isaiah may have referred to the tribe of the Girgashi, quoting Jerusalem Talmud Sh’viit 6,1 Ed.] At any rate, due to the sin of the spies the seven Canaanites nations survived another 40 years during which they added to their sins so that at the end of that time G’d did not merely exile them but exterminated them.

במספר שמות, at that time, the names of the individuals reflected their specific individuality, in recognition of their individual virtues. [They were not merely named after their fathers or other departed relatives. Ed.] References to names reflecting an individual’s virtues are found in Exodus 33,17 when G’d said to Moses that He would ואדעך בשם, “I have singled you out by name;” the generation which eventually entered the Holy Land were not described as being counted במספר שמות (Numbers 26,2). The Torah there refers only to the people counted being of military age, i.e. above 20. [The author, true to his concept of the highpoint of Jewish history having been the revelation at Mount Sinai, followed by an ongoing spiritual descent, only briefly and partially reversed on a few occasions, sees this as a further example of the generation which did enter the Holy Land already being inferior to the ones experiencing the revelation, i.e. before the sin of the golden calf and the spies. Ed.] The count of the Israelites at this point assumed that the very people being counted would each enter the Holy Land unless some sin occurred which would interfere with this lofty vision.

איש ראש לבית אבותיו, this is emphasised to show that no one challenged the authority and authenticity of the people representing themselves as the “heads of his family.” When the count occurred, אתכם in the presence of the family heads each one testifying to the age of the individuals concerned, no one would dare to challenge the accuracy of the data provided by the family head.

ויתילדו על משפחותם, seeing the purpose of the count was to know who would have to join the ranks of those going to war, it was important to have genealogically pure men, not any who were the product of forbidden unions. Knowledge that they were the children of unblemished parentage would protect them when exposed to the dangers present in any war and battle. We find a similar thought expressed in Kidushin 76 that “the credentials of people recorded in the king’s register need not be investigated any further.” On folio 70 of the Talmud there we also find the statement that the Shechinah does not rest protectively except over genetically “pure” families.

בכור ישראל. He had not lost his status in the books kept in heaven as he had repented his sin as testified in Genesis 35,22-23 commencing with the otherwise unnecessary words ויהיו בני יעקב שנים עשר, “that Yaakov’s sons remained twelve.” This was in contrast to Reuven’s birthright privileges here on earth having been revoked in favour of Joseph.

אלה הפקודים, every single one of the aforementioned had been personally counted by Moses and Aaron.

ויהיו כל פקודי....כל יוצאי בישראל צבא, none were over sixty years of age, as people of that age and beyond were not allowed to go out to war. We know this from Baba Batra 121 concerning Yair ben Menashe and others included in the count mentioned there. The decree that the generation of the spies would have to die in the desert applied only to the ones between 20-60. Those younger or older at the time of the spies’ trip were exempt from this decree.

לא התפקדו, were not counted by the officials appointed to conduct the census, nor did they count themselves. (compare Ibn Ezra on this) They had not prepared themselves as had the other people for coming to the assembly point and providing documents proving their identity and genealogy. What is mentioned in this verse all referred to the time prior to G’d announcing in verse 49 that the tribe of Levi should not be included in this census. The Levites had been awaiting instructions concerning how they were going to be counted. The reason they had reason to wonder was that the tribe of Levi had not been mentioned in the list of tribes during this entire chapter when the Torah referred to “each man per each tribe” in verse 4.

אך את מטה לוי, even though I had said “count all the heads of the community of Israel,” (verse 2) and it was understood that the Levites were included in this, they are distinct from the other tribes in that they will be counted separately, according to different criteria, such as —

לא תפקוד different age groups, and —

ואת ראשם לא תשא when you compute the total number of people in the general census their number will not be included.

ואתה הפקד, the commandment to count them is repeated to make clear that they are in a class by themselves. The reason was that only this census rated as a holy activity.

והלוים יחנו סביבת, this is another difference between the Levites and the other tribes, i.e. that they were to be encamped immediately adjacent to the sacred domain of the Tabernacle. Whereas the other tribes encamped each around its flag, the Levites’ “flag” was the Tabernacle.