Numbers 26:3-4

Moses and Eleazar Pass On The Command (Numbers 26:3).

Numbers 26:3

‘And Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,'

In strict obedience Moses and Eleazar passed on the command in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho. The invasion would soon begin.

Numbers 26:4

“ Take the sum of the people, from twenty years old and upward, as Yahweh commanded Moses and the children of Israel, that came forth out of the land of Egypt.”

There is no opening verb. ‘Take the sum of' is read in from the previous verses. So the command was given to current Israel to ‘number' the army in the same way as Yahweh had commanded Moses and the children of Israel who came out of the land of Egypt. This last phrase was a reminder that the previous generation, having been numbered, failed.