1. After the plague the Lord said to Moses and to Eleazar son of Aaron the priest,
2. “Take a census of the whole community of Israelites, from twenty years old and upward, by their clans, everyone who can serve in the army of Israel.”
3. So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them in the plains of Moab, by the Jordan River across from Jericho. They said,
4. “Number the people from twenty years old and upward, just as the Lord commanded Moses and the Israelites who went out from the land of Egypt.”
5. Reuben was the firstborn of Israel. The Reubenites: from Hanoch, the family of the Hanochites; from Pallu, the family of the Palluites;
6. from Hezron, the family of the Hezronites; from Carmi, the family of the Carmites.
7. These were the families of the Reubenites; and those numbered of them were 43,730.
8. Pallu’s descendant was Eliab.
9. Eliab’s descendants were Nemuel, Dathan, and Abiram. It was Dathan and Abiram who as leaders of the community rebelled against Moses and Aaron with the followers of Korah when they rebelled against the Lord.
10. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and Korah at the time that company died, when the fire consumed 250 men. So they became a warning.