Skip to content

Passage Research

Numbers 1 — Sermon Preparation

At Sinai, two years after leaving Egypt, a census counts the fighting men of each of the twelve tribes — the total comes to over six hundred thousand. Below is a research summary for Numbers 1, drawn from openly licensed scholarly databases — original-language morphology, classic sermons from the church fathers through the Puritans, and ancient geography data.

54
verses
588 / 131
Hebrew words / lemmas
6
classic sermon excerpts
3
preachers & commentators

Numbers 1 in the Hebrew

Distinctive vocabulary of this chapter, based on original-language morphology.

HebrewTransliterationStrong'sCountGlosses
פָּקַדpâqadH648522visit, oversee
מַטֶּהmaṭṭehH429416branch, extending
מִסְפָּרmiçpârH455714number, innumerable
תּוֹלְדָהtôwlᵉdâhH843512descent, family
אָבʼâbH119father
עֶשְׂרִיםʻesrîymH624215twenty, twentieth
צָבָאtsâbâʼH663516mass, army

How preachers through history handled this text

6 public-domain excerpts on Numbers 1, from the church fathers to the Puritans.

Matthew Henry4Calvin1John Wesley1

“The people were numbered to show God's faithfulness in thus increasing the seed of Jacob, that they might be the better trained for the wars and conquest of Canaan, and to ascertain their families in order to the division of the land. It is said of each tribe, that those were numbered who were able to go forth to war; they had wars before them, though now they met with no opposition. Let the believer be prepared to withstand the enemies of his soul, though all may appear to be peace.”

— Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise), on Numbers 1:1–43 (Public Domain)

Places in the text

Based on ancient-geography data

  • Egypt— Num 1:1
  • Wilderness of Sinai— Num 1:1

Need the complete sermon prep report on this passage?

Greek exegesis, historical background, current scholarship, sermon outlines, illustrations — a complete PDF report on Numbers 1, delivered within 24 hours.