The enrollment, being taken primarily for military purposes (compare Numbers 1:3, Numbers 1:20), would naturally be arranged by hundreds…

By their generations. —The toledoth, or generations, included the whole of the descendants of the head of the tribe ([Ref…

And the children of Reuben, Israel’s eldest son. If any contentious person should argue that one family could not increase to such a large…

And the children of Reuben, Israel's eldest son
Were numbered first, and next to them those of Simeon and Gad, for t…

The people were numbered to show God's faithfulness in so increasing the seed of Jacob, so that they might be better trained for the wars and conqu…