Tanach · Rishonim on Tanach · Ibn Ezra · Torah
Ibn Ezra on Numbers 26:4/אבן עזרא על במדבר כ״ו:ד׳
אמבן עשרים שנה. והטעם שנשאו את חשבונם כאשר צוה ה' את משה:
1FROM TWENTY YEARS OLD AND UPWARD. This means that they took the sum of the people10 is short for: they took up the sum of the people from twenty years old and up. as God commanded Moses.
בוטעם ובני ישראל היוצאים מארץ מצרים. כי היו בספורים רבים מיוצאי מצרים והקרוב להיותם חצים והחל מראובן בספורים הראשונים במדבר סיני:
2[AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, THAT CAME FORTH OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT.] Scripture states the aforementioned because there were many among those who were numbered who came out of Egypt.11 They most likely came to about half the number of the Israelites. Scripture starts with Reuben in imitation of the manner in which the Israelites12 were first numbered in the wilderness of Sinai.