Chapter Twenty-Six

A census of the people. – The command concerning the division of the land in Canaan.

Numbers 26:1. After this plague the Lord said to Moses and to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying: Numbers 26:2. Take a census of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, by their fathers’ houses, all in Israel who are able to go to war. At the threshold of Canaan a new count of the people is made. As a result of this count it turned out that the tribe of Reuben had 43,730 men. Simeon – 22,200 men. Judah – 76,500 men. Dan – 64,400 men. Naphtali – 45,400 men. Gad – 40,500 men. Asher – 53,400 men. Issachar – 64,300 men. Zebulun – 60,500 men. Ephraim – 32,500 men. Manasseh – 52,700 men. Benjamin – 45,600 men. Total – 601,730 men.

Numbers 26:11. but the sons of Korah did not die. It is known that the descendants of Korah served later at the tabernacle as singers ((1 Chr 6:33); the inscriptions of Psalms 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 83, 84, 86, 87).

Numbers 26:55. the land shall be divided by lot; according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit their portions; The lot was to indicate the region of settlement for the tribe. The determination of its quantity was to be conditioned by the number of men included in the tribal count (Num 26:54).

Numbers 26:62. And those numbered were twenty-three thousand, all males from a month old and upward; for they were not numbered among the sons of Israel, because no inheritance was given them among the sons of Israel. The Levites “were not given a (land) inheritance among the sons of Israel,” because “the Lord himself is their inheritance” (Num 18:20; Deut 10:9; Ezek 44:28).

Numbers 26:64. but among these there was not a man of those numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, who numbered the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai; Numbers 26:65. for the Lord had said of them, “They shall surely die in the wilderness.” There was not left a man of them, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. According to the indication of the book Deut 2:14, the mentioned circumstance began to be clarified after the crossing of the valley of the Zered (Num 21:12).