Numbers 26:2

_TAKE THE SUM OF ALL THE CONGREGATION OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, FROM TWENTY YEARS OLD AND UPWARD, THROUGHOUT THEIR FATHERS' HOUSE, ALL THAT ARE ABLE TO GO TO WAR IN ISRAEL._ Take the sum of all the congregation. The design of this new census, after a lapse of 38 years, was primarily to establish the fact of the vast multiplication of the posterity of Abraham, in spite of the severe judgments inflicted upon them, and the woeful diminution of several of the tribes. Secondarily, it was to preserve the distinction of families, and to make arrangements, preparatory to an entrance into the promised land, for the distribution of the country according to the relative population of the tribes....

1-51 Moses did not number the people but when God commanded him. We have here the families registered, as well as the tribes. The total was nearly the same as when numbered at mount Sinai. Notice is here taken of the children of Korah; they died not, as the children of Dathan and Abiram; they seem not to have joined even their own father in rebellion. If we partake not of the sins of sinners, we shall not partake of their plagues....

Verse Numbers 26:2. _TAKE THE SUM OF ALL THE CONGREGATION_] After thirty-eight years God commands a _second census_ of the Israelites to be made, to preserve the distinction in families, and to regulate the tribes previously to their entry into the promised land, and to ascertain the proportion of land which should be allowed to each tribe. For though the whole was divided by _lot_, yet the portions were so disposed that a numerous tribe did not draw where the lots assigned small inheritances. See Numbers 26:53-4, and also Numbers 1:1, Numbers 1:1....

EXPOSITION THE SECOND MUSTERING (Numbers 26:1). NUMBERS 26:1 IT CAME TO PASS AFTER THE PLAGUE. This plague was the last event which seriously diminished the numbers of the Israelites; perhaps it was the last event which diminished them at all, for it seems to be throughout implied that none died except through their own fault. It is often supposed that this plague carried off the last survivors of the generation condemned at Kadesh (see Numbers 26:64); but this is opposed to the statement in Deuteronomy 2:14,...

TAKE THE SUM OF ALL THE CONGREGATION OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL,.... Excepting the Levites, who were to be numbered by themselves, and at a different age; this sum was to be taken, that it might appear that all of the old generation that came out of Egypt, of the age at which this sum was taken, were now dead, excepting two, as the Lord had threatened; and partly that as they were now about to enter the land of Canaan, it might be divided to them according to their number; as well as to show the faithfulness of God to his word and promise, that he would multiply and make them fruitful, notwithstanding all their provoking sins and transgressions: FROM TWENTY YEARS OLD AND UPWARDS, THROUGHOUT THEIR FATHER'S HOUSE; all of that age in every tribe, house, and family: ALL THAT ARE ABLE TO GO TO WAR IN ISRAEL; for which they must prepare, being about to enter the land of Canaan, and dispossess...

3. THE SECOND NUMBERING CHAPTER 26 _ 1. The command to number (Numbers 26:1)_ 2. The census taken (Numbers 26:5) 3. The total number (Numbers 26:51) 4. The inheritance (Numbers 26:52) 5. The Levites (Numbers 26:57) 6. The new generation (Numbers 26:63) The reader will find the comparison of these two numberings in the annotations of the first chapter. The increase and decrease of the different tribe

NUMBERS 26. PARTICULARS OF A SECOND CENSUS TAKEN 38 YEARS AFTER THE FIRST. Numbers 26:1. The Numbers of the Twelve Secular Tribes. The census was again confined to men over twenty. The total is Numbers 18:20 less than on the earlier occasion; there are increases in seven tribes, and decreases in five. Some of the names which purport to be those of persons are identical with the names of localities, _e.g._ Gilead, Jezer (_i.e._ Abiezer, Judges 8:2), Tirzah (1 Kings 15:21). Many of the appellations appear in a variant form in Genesis 46:8

TAKE THE SUM. For the order of the tribes see App-45. Moses received them by number, Exodus 38:26. so now, when preparing to die, he delivers them over by number. This was the third numbering. CHILDREN. sons. THEIR FATHERS' HOUSE: i.e. the families. These shown here to be fortyseven. In Genesis 46 they are fifty-two; so five are extinct (one of Simeon, one of Asher, and three of Benjamin)....

Moses and Eleazar are commanded by God to number the fighting men of 20 years of age and upwards....

AND IT CAME TO PASS, &C.— After the destruction mentioned in the foregoing chapter, which had cut off all the remains of that murmuring and ungrateful generation that first came out of Egypt, as appears from Numbers 26:64 the Israelites, their descendants, being now shortly to enter into the land of Canaan, God orders Moses and Eleazar to cause a third poll, or register, of the males of the whole nation to be taken, in the same manner as is prescribed Exodus 30:11 and as was done before the building of the tabernacle, Exodus 38:25 and again when they were to be encamped in the second month of the second year, chap, Numbers 1:1 demonstrat