Chapter 26

Starts this way:

1 After the plague, the LORD said to Moses and to Eleazar the son of Aaron, the priest, [Num 26:1 ESV]  Remember that Aaron had died, and so his eldest, Eleazar, becomes high priest.  But it was Phinehas, Eleazar's son, who had killed the profane man and the Midianite woman that he brought into the camp, and from whom future high priests will descend. 

After the plague, God requires a second census of those 20 and over who can go to war.  Once again the able bodied men over 20 who could go to war are counted by their tribes and clans.  I thought about going back and comparing the count from each census, but a note in MSB has already done that work.  I think they are worth noting.  Here they are, with the second census total, and the delta from 38 years before:

Reuben     43730     -2770

Simeon     22200     -37100

Gad          40200      -5150

Judah       76500     +1900

Issachar    64300     +9900

Zebulun    60500    +3100

Manasseh 52700  +20500

Ephraim    32500     -8000

Benjamin  45600  +10200

Dan          64400    +1700

Asher       53400  +11900

Naphtali   45400     -8000

Total       601730     -1820

2022 - The Levites are counted in vss 57-62.  They don't go to war, so they are not in that census.  They have a separate census, which counts 23,000 men, from 1 month old and upward.  They are counted separately because they will not receive an inheritance.  Hmm...The land is divided among the 12 tribes...but Levi gets nothing, leaving 11...except that the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, each get a share.  And that is how be get back to 12.  Essentially, Joseph is promoted to "firstborn" over Reuben's head, because of Reuben's sin in his father's tent.

That is a very large army by today's standards.  None listed as 20 and older in this census had also been listed in the first census, except for Joshua and Caleb.  All those in the first census had died in the wilderness.  Every one of them except Joshua and Caleb.  That means that more than 15,000 men per year, more than 1250 per month, had died during the wandering.  And women must be added to this number to get the total that had to be buried in the sand out in that desert each and every day.

2022 - 51 verses of Chapter 26 have to do with recounting the census of each tribe.  It is not just numbers, but the names of clans in each tribe.  There are dozens of proper names in this chapter.

2024 - Look how nearly exactly God replaced those who had rebelled against him with those born during the wandering.  It is true that more than 15,000 would have died each month (possibly the reason we have so much ritual associated with purification after touching a dead body) but that also make it necessary that 15,000 would be born each month - and again, that is just the males!  Forty years is two generations.  Women not born when God turned them away from Canaan grow up and have children of their own, who conceivable read child-bearing age also, before they arrive again at the doorstep of Canaan.

Another interesting comparison is to look at how each tribe is faring in light of the pronouncement on each that Jacob made back in Egypt before he died.  Copying and pasting that in from Genesis 49:

"Reuben - firstborn, but will not have the preeminence because he went to his father's bed and defiled it when he slept with the mother of some of his brothers.  He had slept with one of his father's concubines.  This may be the first time Reuben learns that his father knew about it all along.  Jacob calls Reuben "unstable as water".  MSB points out that this sin against his father erased Reuben's place as the one to get the double portion.  Instead, the second son receives it.  So this is what Jacob meant by crossing his hands when he blessed Ephraim and Manasseh.  MSB says not one judge, prophet, military leader, or other important person came from this tribe.  Moses even prayed that the tribe of Reuben wouldn't die out completely.

Also, Korah and Abiram, who were selected to confront Moses, were from this tribe. 

Simeon and Levi are talked about together - Violent men.  Jacob wants nothing to do with them.  They killed men and hamstrung oxen over the rape of their sister at Shechem.  They brought down anger and bad feeling on Jacob and the whole family because of their anger.  They endangered the whole family by indulging their anger at that time.  Jacob has not forgotten what they did, and is aware of the underlying violent tendencies that prompted it.  Apparently they went far beyond justice and indulged their own violent tendencies.  Jacob curses their anger because it is fierce and their wrath for it is cruel.  They are to be scattered in Israel.  Hmm...the Levites end up as keepers of the temple, but they don't really own land.  They don't inherit the way the other tribes do.  Don't know much about Simeon's share...

Per MSB, Simeon has become the smallest tribe in Israel by the time of the census in Numbers 26.  Moses did not bless this tribe in Dt. 33.  They later had to share territory with Judah.  Levi was "scattered" in the sense that they were priests all over the land.  They had no land of their own, and so were "dispersed".

Judah:  The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet.  His brothers will bow down to him.  He will bind his foal to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine.   (Jesus entered Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey.  This is a long time before that happens! - 2020, MSB says that isn't what this means.  Letting a donkey eat from a choice grape vine is a sign of affluence and plenty.  There's enough "choice" that even the livestock get the good stuff.) 

Zebulun:  Will dwell at the seashore.  Perhaps his descendants are to be fishermen.  His border will be at Sidon.  Does that come out that way?  MSB says they were not in fact on the seashore, but were so placed as to benefit from the trade routes coming from there.

Issachar is a strong donkey.  He bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant at forced labor.  After seeing that the land was pleasant.  Issachar's descendants become workers, and laborers for wages per MSB.

Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel.  He will be a serpent in the way, a viper that bites the horses heels so the rider falls backwards.  Per MSB Dan later abandons its land allotment and moves to the extreme north of Israel.  From xxx to Dan is a phrase that was used to encompass all of Israel.  Dan is omitted from the list of tribes in Rev. 7:4-8.  Wow.  I didn't realize that.

Gad:  Raiders shall raid Gad and he will raid at their heels.

Asher:  His food shall be rich.

Naphtali: a doe that bears beautiful fawns.

Joseph: A fruitful bough by a spring.  Jacob recounts many blessings for Joseph, far beyond anything he's said to the others.  I don't quite get this verse:

24 yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel), [Gen 49:24 ESV]

This seems to be a messianic reference.  Yet Jesus did not come from Joseph's descendants, but from Judah's. 

Benjamin:  A ravenous wolf.  Devouring prey in the morning, dividing the spoil at evening.  Saul is from this tribe.  Gibeah was inhabited by Benjamites, and they defended it in spite of the evil that occurred there.  They were warlike beyond reason, defending themselves against all comers, with no regard for justice.  The apostle Paul is also from this tribe.  Rachel died giving birth to him, and he and Joseph were Jacob's favorites.  Yet Jacob knows this about Benjamin."

And the blessings on Ephraim and Manasseh from Genesis 48 are here:

5 And he blessed Joseph and said, "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, 16 the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth." [Gen 48:15-16 ESV]

Recall that Ephraim, though younger, was to be the greater.

After the numbers are tallied up, there is this verse:

53 "Among these the land shall be divided for inheritance according to the number of names. [Num 26:53 ESV]

So when Canaan is conquered, each tribe does not receive the same number of acres of land.  Instead, they receive their allotments based on this second census, and the total number of families, as reckoned by the number of men.

The Levites are also numbered in this census.  They are not included in the total numbers above because they would not be in the army.  Their duty was the Tent of Meeting.