Observe here, 1. That Moses did not number the people but when God
commanded him. David in his time did it without a command, and paid
dearly for it. God was Israel's king, and he would not have this act of
authority done but by his express orders. Moses, perhaps, by this time,
had heard of the blessing with which Balaam was constrained, sorely
against his will, to bless Israel, and particularly the notice he took
of their numbers; and he was sufficiently pleased with that general
testimony borne to this instance of their strength and honour by an
adversary, though he knew not their numbers exactly, till God now
appointed him to take the sum of them. 2. Eleazar was joined in
commission with him, as Aaron had been before, by which God honoured
Eleazar before the elders of his people, and confirmed his succession.
3. It was presently after the plague that this account was ordered to
be taken, to show that though God had in justice contended with them by
that sweeping pestilence, yet he had not made a full end, nor would he
utterly cast them off. God's Israel shall not be ruined, though it be
severely rebuked. 4. They were now to go by the same rule that they had
gone by in the former numbering, counting those only that were able to
go forth to war, for this was the service now before them.