Read Numbers 26 here (text coming …) or at Bible Gateway.
The Hebrew paragraphs:
25:16-26:1a {p} Harass the Midianites and attack them
26:1b-11 {s} Number of Reuben was 43,730
26:12-14 {s} Number of Simeon was 22,200
26:15-18 {s} Number of Gad was 40,500
26:19-22 {s} Number of Judah was 76,500
26:23-25 {s} Number of Issachar was 64,300
26:26-27 {s} Number of Zebulun was 60,500
26:28-34 {s} Number of Joseph: of Manasseh was 52,700,
26:35-37 {s} Number of Joseph: of Ephraim was 32,500
26:38-41 {s} Number of Benjamin was 45,600
26:42-43 {s} Number of Dan was 64,400
26:44-47 {s} Number of Asher was 53,400
26:48-51 {p} Number of Naphtali was 45,400, total = 601,730
26:52-56 {s} To these the land shall be divided among them
26:57-65 {s} Number of Levites when none were numbered previously
The Strong Theme from Num 26:1b-51 {sx11+p} makes a Chiastic Structure:
The central axis of the Num 26:1b-4 substructure, is “all who are able to go to war in Israel.” We have seen this exact language before, which is our clue that we are seeing a Common Theme Teaching Tool. Numbering the congregation, all the men who were of military age, is exactly what Moses and the elders did at the very beginning of Numbers, when Israel took up their journey to the Promised Land after building the tabernacle and sanctifying the priesthood.
In between, Israel arrived at the border, refused to go in, and were consigned to forty years of wilderness wandering, in which the unbelieving generation of the fathers died out, and the believing generation of the children took their place. As well, many thousands died from plagues, as the unfaithful and unbelieving were purged from Israel through their own choice of rebellion and sin.
Now the believing generation of the children is poised at the border to enter the Promised Land, in the exact place their fathers were forty years earlier. A new census is taken.
The number of the unbelieving generation of the fathers, from Num 1:46: 603,550.
The number of the believing generation of the children, from this chapter: 601, 730.
YHVH maintained the armies of Israel in their numbers, despite hardship, judgment, and wrath for sin.
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