On the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, saying:
Take a census of the whole Israelite community by the clans of its ancestral houses, listing the names, every male, head by head. You and Aaron shall record them by their groups, from the age of twenty years up, all those in Israel who are able to bear arms. Associated with you shall be a man from each tribe, each one the head of his ancestral house.
These are the names of the men who shall assist you:
From Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur.
From Simeon, Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai.
From Judah, Nahshon son of Amminadab.
From Issachar, Nethanel son of Zuar.
From Zebulun, Eliab son of Helon.
From the sons of Joseph:
from Ephraim, Elishama son of Ammihud;
from Manasseh, Gamaliel son of Pedahzur.
From Benjamin, Abidan son of Gideoni.
From Dan, Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai.
From Asher, Pagiel son of Ochran.
From Gad, Eliasaph son of Deuel.
From Naphtali, Ahira son of Enan.
Those are the elected of the assembly, the chieftains of their ancestral tribes: they are the heads of the contingents of Israel.
So Moses and Aaron took those men, who were designated by name, and on the first day of the second month they convoked the whole community, who were registered by the clans of their ancestral houses–the names of those aged twenty years and over being listed head by head. As the Lord had commanded Moses, so he recorded them in the wilderness of Sinai.
From Parshat Bamidbar. From THE TANAKH: The New JPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text. Copyright 1985 by the Jewish Publication Society. Used by permission.