(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 those called of the company, princes of the tribes of their fathers; they are heads of the thousands of Israel.
And if with one they blow, then have the princes, heads of the thousands of Israel, met together unto thee;
and ten princes with him, one prince, one prince, for a house of a father, for all the tribes of Israel, and each of them a head of a house of their fathers, for the thousands of Israel.
And the sons of Reuben, and the sons of Gad, and the half of the tribe of Manasseh, answer and speak with the heads of the thousands of Israel:
And thou, Beth-Lehem Ephratah, Little to be among the chiefs of Judah! From thee to Me he cometh forth -- to be ruler in Israel, And his comings forth are of old, From the days of antiquity.