(Mic 5:2), another name for "families" or "clans" (see Nu 1:16; 10:4; Jos 22:14,21). Several "thousands" or "families" made up a "tribe."
These were those chosen from the congregation, the leaders of their ancestral tribes, heads of thousands [the highest class of officers] in Israel.
And if one blast on a single trumpet is blown, then the princes or leaders, heads of the tribes of Israel, shall gather themselves to you.
And with him ten chiefs, one from each of the tribal families of Israel; and each one was a head of a father's house among the clans of Israel.
Then the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh said to the heads of the clans of Israel,
But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, you are little to be among the clans of Judah; [yet] out of you shall One come forth for Me Who is to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth have been from of old, from ancient days (eternity).