Author: Dahsom
April 8, 2024
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. Num 26:1-2
After the plague: These words are a turning point in Numbers. The plague was the end of the first generation. Under God’s grace, their sons an daughters were ready to begin anew. They would inherit the Promised Land.
The second census: 26:1-65. The original generation has been replaced during the years of wandering. There has been no loss of strength. Men of military age still number over 600,000.
This census is taken as a basis for distribution of land in Canaan. The larger tribes will receive a larger portion, and all parcels will be distributed by lot.
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: for they were not numbered among the children of Israel, because there was no inheritance given them among the children of Israel.
Only Caleb and Joshua Survive
63 These are they that were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho. 64 But among these there was not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron the priest numbered, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. 65 For the Lord had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. Num 26:60-65