Bible Commentaries

3. The Second Numbering

CHAPTER 26

1. The command to number (Numbers 26:1-4)

2. The census taken (Numbers 26:5-50)

3. The total number (Numbers 26:51)

4. The inheritance (Numbers 26:52-56)

5. The Levites (Numbers 26:57-62)

6. The new generation (Numbers 26:63-65)

The reader will find the comparison of these two numberings in the annotations of the first chapter. The increase and decrease of the different tribes may be learned by consulting that table. The many names in their meaning teach many lessons of interest. At the close of the chapter we have the fact stated that the penal sentence which God had pronounced upon the people who came out of Egypt (Numbers 14:29; Num_14:38) had been executed. God kept His Word, as He always will.

“Of the vast total of upwards of 600,000 then enumerated, Caleb and Joshua alone had their names registered in the present census. This, however, is to be understood with a qualification. It is evident from Joshua 14:1; Jos_22:13, that both Eleazar and Phinehas did actually enter into the promised land. How is this consistent with the statement here made? We reply that the sentence of exclusion applied to the other tribes which were enumerated on two former occasions, and in which the Levites were not embraced. We do not read that they had any share in the transaction which brought the divine denunciation upon the mass of the people. This tribe did not, like the others, send a spy into Canaan, nor does it appear that it concurred in the general murmuring which the report of the spies occasioned.”