(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 are the men named out of all the people, chiefs of their fathers' houses, heads of the tribes of Israel.
If only one of them is sounded, then the chiefs, the heads of the thousands of Israel, are to come to you.
And with him they sent ten chiefs, one for every tribe of the children of Israel, every one of them the head of his house among the families of Israel.
Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel,
And you, Beth-lehem Ephrathah, the least among the families of Judah, out of you one will come to me who is to be ruler in Israel; whose going out has been purposed from time past, from the eternal days.
Basic English, produced by Mr C. K. Ogden of the Orthological Institute - public domain