Numbers 26:4

As in the first census, Moses and Eleazar directed the counting of the people. Eleazar had taken Aaron’s place as high priest.

They gave instructions to the tribal leaders about how to record the numbers of the men.

After nearly 40 years, Israel registered their men of military age again. This was while camping on the plains of Moab across from Jericho (compare chapters 1–4). The overall population changed only slightly, with 603,550 in the first registration and 601,730 in the second. This nearly complete replacement of the population showed that the Lord remained faithful to Israel despite their repeated acts of rebellion (26:63–65).

Take the sum of all the congregation--The design of this new census, after a lapse of thirty-eight years, was primarily to establish the vast multiplication of the posterity of Abraham in spite of the severe judgments inflicted upon them; secondarily, it was to preserve the distinction of families and to make arrangements, preparatory to an entrance into the promised land, for the distribution of the country according to the relative population of the tribes.

Observe here, 1. That Moses did not number the people but when God commanded him. David in his time did it without a command, and paid dearly for it. God was Israel's king, and he would not have this act of authority done but by his express orders. Moses, perhaps, by this time, had heard of the blessing with which Balaam was constrained, sorely against his will, to bless Israel, and particularly the notice he took of their numbers; and he was sufficiently pleased with that general testimony borne to this instance of their strength and honour by an adversary, though he knew not their numbers exactly, till God now appointed him to take the sum of them. 2. Eleazar was joined in commission with him, as Aaron had been before, by which God honoured Eleazar before the elders of his people, and confirmed his succession. 3. It was presently after the plague that this account was ordered to be taken, to show that though God had in justice contended with them by that sweeping pestilence, yet he had not made a full end, nor would he utterly cast them off. God's Israel shall not be ruined, though it be severely rebuked. 4. They were now to go by the same rule that they had gone by in the former numbering, counting those only that were able to go forth to war, for this was the service now before them.

And it came to pass after the plague. This is the second census which we read of having been made by Moses; nevertheless it is easy to perceive, from Exodus 38, that it was at least the third; although it is more probable that either yearly, or at stated times, those who had arrived at the age of twenty gave in their names. Still the number of the people could not be thus obtained, unless there were also a comparison of the deaths. This, at any rate, is incontrovertible, that those who had grown up to manhood were three times numbered in the desert, for we gather thus much from the passage before us, since it is said in the fourth verse that this enrolment was made "as the Lord had commanded Moses, and the children of Israel, which went forth out of the land of Egypt;" from whence it is plain not only that they followed as their rule the custom established from the beginning, but that the census of the people was again taken, as it had been in the wilderness of Sinai. From hence again a probable conjecture may be made, that, from the time in which they came out from thence, nothing similar had taken place in the interval. For Moses there records how many talents were collected from the tribute of the people, and mentions their number, viz., 603,550 [191] and he adds afterwards, when they moved their camp from Mount Sinai, how the census was taken according to God's command; but I pass over this subject the more cursorily, as having been already spoken of elsewhere. [192]

Now let us see with what object God desired to have His people numbered before He led them into the possession of the promised land. In less than forty years the whole generation of an age for military service had perished: many had been carried off by premature deaths; nay, a single scourge had lately destroyed 24,000; who would not have thought that the people must have been diminished by a fourth? We must then account it a remarkable miracle, that their numbers should be found as great as they were before. It was a memorable proof of God's anger that only two of the 603,000 still survived; but that by continued generation the people were so renewed, as that, at the conclusion of the period, their posterity equalled their former number, was the work of God's inestimable grace. Thus, in that awful judgment wherewith God punished His sinful people, the truth of His promise still shone forth. It had been said to Abraham,

"I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore," (Genesis 22:17;)

and it was by no means fitting that this blessing should be obscured at the time, when the other part of the promise was about to be fulfilled: "Unto thy seed will I give this land." (Genesis 12:7;) For, whilst the people had been instructed by punishments to fear God, still they were not to lose the savor of His paternal favor. And thus does God always temper His judgments towards His Church, so as in the midst of His indignation to remember mercy, as Habakkuk says, (Habakkuk 3:2.) This was the reason why the people was numbered immediately after the plague, in order that it might be more conspicuous that God had marvellously provided lest any diminution should appear after the recent loss of so many men.

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.

Take the sum of the people: these words are easily supplied and necessarily to be understood from .

Mustering of the Twelve Tribes. - Num 26:1-4. The command of God to Moses and Eleazar is the same as in Num 1, 2, and 3, except that it does not enter so much into details.
Num 26:3-4
"And Moses and Eleazar the priest spake with them" (דּבּר with the accusative, as in Gen 37:4). The pronoun refers to "the children of Israel," or more correctly, to the heads of the nation as the representatives of the congregation, who were to carry out the numbering. On the Arboth-Moab, see at Num 22:1. Only the leading point in their words is mentioned, viz., "from twenty years old and upwards" (sc., shall ye take the number of the children of Israel), since it was very simple to supply the words "take the sum" from Num 26:2.
(Note: This is, at all events, easier and simpler than the alterations of the text which have been suggested for the purpose of removing the difficulty. Knobel proposes to alter וידבּר into ויּדבּר, and לאמר into לפקד: "Moses and Eleazar arranged the children of Israel when they mustered them." But הדבּיר does not mean to arrange, but simply to drive in pairs, to subjugate (Psa 18:48, and Psa 47:4), - an expression which, as much be immediately apparent, is altogether inapplicable to the arrangement of the people in families for the purpose of taking a census.),
- The words from "the children of Israel" in Num 26:4 onwards form the introduction to the enumeration of the different tribes (Num 26:5.), and the verb יהיוּ (were) must be supplied. "And the children of Israel, who went forth out of Egypt, were Reuben," etc.
Num 26:5-11
The families of Reuben tally with Gen 46:9; Exo 6:14, and Ch1 5:3. The plural בּני (sons), in Num 26:8, where only one son is mentioned, is to be explained from the fact, that several sons of this particular son (i.e., grandsons) are mentioned afterwards. On Dathan and Abiram, see at Num 16:1 and Num 16:32. See also the remark made here in Num 26:10 and Num 26:11, viz., that those who were destroyed with the company of Korah were for a sign (נס, here a warning); but that the sons of Korah were not destroyed along with their father.
Num 26:12-14
The Simeonites counted only five families, as Ohad (Gen 46:10) left no family. Nemuel is called Jemuel there, as yod and nun are often interchanged (cf. Ges. thes. pp. 833 and 557); and Zerach is another name of the same signification for Zohar (Zerach, the rising of the sun; Zohar, candor, splendour).
Num 26:15-18
The Gadites are the same as in Gen 46:16, except that Ozni is called Ezbon there.
Num 26:19-22
The sons and families of Judah agree with Gen 46:12 (cf. Gen 38:6.); also with Ch1 2:3-5.
Num 26:23-25
The families of Issachar correspond to the sons mentioned in Gen 46:13, except that the name Job occurs there instead of Jashub. The two names have the same signification, as Job is derived from an Arabic word which signifies to return.
Num 26:26-27
The families of Zebulun correspond to the sons named in Gen 46:14.
Num 26:28-37
The descendants of Joseph were classified in two leading families, according to his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim, who were born before the removal of Israel to Egypt, and were raised into founders of tribes in consequence of the patriarch Israel having adopted them as his own sons (Gen 48).
Num 26:29-34
Eight families descended from Manasseh: viz., one from his son Machir, the second from Machir's son or Manasseh's grandson Gilead, and the other six from the six sons of Gilead. The genealogical accounts in Num 27:1; Num 36:1, and Jos 17:1., fully harmonize with this, except that Iezer (Num 26:30) is called Abiezer in Jos 17:2; whereas only a part of the names mentioned here occur in the genealogical fragments in Ch1 2:21-24, and 7:14-29. In Num 26:33, a son of Hepher, named Zelophehad, is mentioned. He had no sons, but only daughters, whose names are given here to prepare the way for the legal regulations mentioned in Num 27 and 39, to which this fact gave rise.
Num 26:35-37
There were four families descended from Ephraim; three from his sons, and one from his grandson. Of the descendants of Sutelah several links are given in Ch1 7:20.
Num 26:38-41
The children of Benjamin formed seven families, five of whom were founded by his sons, and two by grandsons. (On the differences which occur between the names given here and those in Gen 46:21.) Some of the sons and grandsons of Benjamin mentioned here are also found in the genealogical fragments in Ch1 7:6-18, and Ch1 8:1.
Num 26:42-43
The descendants of Dan formed only one family, named from a son of Dan, who is called Shuham here, but Hushim in Gen 46:23; though this family no doubt branched out into several smaller families, which are not named here, simply because this list contains only the leading families into which the tribes were divided.
Num 26:44-47
The families of Asher agree with the sons of Asher mentioned in Gen 46:17 and Ch1 7:30, except that Ishuah is omitted here, because he founded no family.
Num 26:48-50
The families of Naphtali tally with the sons of Naphtali in Gen 46:24 and Ch1 7:30.
Num 26:51
The total number of the persons mustered was 601,730.