Numbers 26:4

_TAKE THE SUM OF THE PEOPLE, FROM TWENTY YEARS OLD AND UPWARD; AS THE LORD COMMANDED MOSES AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, WHICH WENT FORTH OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT._ From twenty years old and upward; as the Lord commanded Moses - (see the note at Numbers 1:1.) Considering the time and circumstances in which this census was taken, a high interest and importance attached to it; because, as it was conducted under the direct superintendence of the legislator, the contemporary chronicler of the transaction, his narrative of it must be regarded as a reliable record of the names of those whom, at the commencement of their national existence, the Israelites acknowledged as their ancestors. The enumeration of names is, with a few exceptions, and relating chiefly to orthography, the same as that of the list contained in...

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....

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 THE PEOPLE], FROM TWENTY YEARS OLD AND UPWARD,.... At the same age at which the sum was taken before, Numbers 1:3 so that there could not be one that was more than sixty years of age, of all those that went into the land of Canaan, except Joshua and Caleb, and besides some few in the tribe of Levi, which did not come into either of these musters: AND THE LORD COMMANDED MOSES, AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, WHICH WENT FORTH OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; as Moses had a command to number the people before, so he had now. The sin of David was, that he numbered the people when he had no command for it; Moses, when he brought the people out of Egypt, had them committed to him by number; and now being about to die, he delivers them up as it were by number again, as Jarchi observes....

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 OF THE PEOPLE. This correctly supplies the Ellipsis from Numbers 26:2. See Figure of speech _Ellipsis,_ App-6. AS. according to what....

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

TAKE THE SUM OF THE PEOPLE— Though these words are not in the original, they are plainly to be understood. Houbigant supplies them from the second verse. We have many examples of such omissions; see chap. Numbers 9:20 Numbers 13:30, &c....

D. THE SECOND CENSUS (NUMBERS 26:1-51) TEXT Numbers 26:1. And it came to pass after the plague, that the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying, 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. 3. And Moses and Eleazar the priest spake with them in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying, 4. Take the sum of the people, from twenty years old and upward; as the Lord commanded Moses and the children of Israel, which went forth out of the land of Egypt. 5. Reuben, the eldest son of Israel; the children of Reuben; Hanoch, of whom cometh the family of the Hanbchites: of Pallu, the family of the Palluites: 6. Of Hezron,