Take ye the sum— See Exodus 30:12; Exodus 38:26 and the 26th chapter of this book. The tribes were divided into families, the families into houses or households, Judges 7:16-18 but here the house of their fathers seems of the same import with the tribes of their fathers: so in Numbers 1:4 the princes of the tribes, are called, heads of the houses of their fathers; and Numbers 1:44 the house of their fathers is the same as the tribe of their fathers, Numbers 1:47.
Related Commentaries of Numbers 1:2
Numbers 1:2
2 Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;