Numbers 1:2

After their families. — The family or clan, mishpahah, included several fathers’ houses (see Kurtz’s Hist. of the Old Covenant, 2, pp. 8-10).

With the number of their names. — Better, according to the number of names. The reference is probably to the previous numbering recorded in Exodus 30:12. There is no corresponding clause in the account of the later numbering in Numbers 26:2.

By their polls — i.e., man by man. The word gulgoleth denotes a man’s head, or skull. Cf. Matthew 27:33.