Numbers 26:62

_AND THOSE THAT WERE NUMBERED OF THEM WERE TWENTY AND THREE THOUSAND, ALL MALES FROM A MONTH OLD AND UPWARD: FOR THEY WERE NOT NUMBERED AMONG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, BECAUSE THERE WAS NO INHERITANCE GIVEN THEM AMONG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL._ Twenty and three thousand - so that there was an increase of a thousand (Numbers 3:39). Dr. Colenso alleges a gross inconsistency in this statement, which represents the tribe of Levi as having an increase of only 1,000 within a period of 38 years, while that of Manasseh during the same interval was augmented by 20,500 persons. In refutation of this charge it might be sufficient to answer, that the tribe of Levi was less prolific than the other tribes; but there were two other probable causes which may account for the comparatively small increase in this tribe during the protracted wanderings in the wilderness-namely, first, that wh

57-62 Levi was God's tribe; therefore it was not numbered with the rest, but alone. It came not under the sentence, that none of them should enter Canaan excepting Caleb and Joshua....

The total number of male Levites, 23,000, shows an increase of 1,000 on the number at Sinai Numbers 3:39. It is doubtless to be taken as a round number; and, as before, includes the male children from a month old and upward, as well as the male adults....

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,...

Numbers 26:57...

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

The census of the Levites. They were numbered separately from the secular tribes, because they were not, as a tribe, to possess any land....

F. CENSUS OF THE LEVITES vv. 57-65 TEXT Numbers 26:57. And these are they that were numbered of the Levites after their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites: of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites: of Merari, the family of the Merarites. 58. These are the families of the Levites: the family of the Libnites, the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Mahlites, the family of the Mushites, the family of the Korathites. And Kohath begat Amram. 59. And the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom her mother bare to Levi in Egypt: and she bare unto Amram, Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister. 60. And unto Aaron was born Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. 61. And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the Lord. 62. And those that were numbered of them were twenty and three thousand, all males from a month old and upward

THE SECOND NUMBERING OF THE PEOPLE The first took place thirty-eight years before (see Numbers 1) at Mt. Sinai. The people are shortly to enter Canaan, and this second enumeration is made in view of the prospective division of the land among the twelve tribes: see Numbers 26:52. The total result shows a decrease of 1,820. While Manasseh has increased by no less than 20,500, Simeon has decreased by the extraordinary amount of 37,100. The latter tribe may have suffered most severely in the recent plague, seeing that Zimri was a Simeonite (Numbers 25:14)....