Numbers 26:51 - Exposition

These were the numbered of the children of Israel. The results of this census as compared with the former may be tabulated thus:—

Tribe

No. of families.

First Census

Second Census

Decrease

Increase

Reuben.

4

46,500

43,730

6%

Simeon.

5

59,300

22,200

63%

Gad.

7

45,650]

40,500

11%

Judah.

5

74,600

76,500

2.5%

Issachar.

4

54,400

64,300

18%

Zebulun.

3

57,400

60,500

5.5%

Ephraim.

4

40,500

32,500

20%

Manasseh.

8

32,200

52,700

63%

Benjamin.

7

35,400

45,600

29%

Dan.

1

62,700]

64,400

2.5%

Asher.

5

41,500

53,400

28%

Naphtali.

4

53,400

45,400

15%

Total

603,550

601,730

It is evident that the numbers were taken by centuries, as before, although an odd thirty appears now in the return for Reuben, as an odd fifty appeared then in the return for Gad. It has been proposed to explain this on the ground of their both being pastoral tribes; but if the members of these tribes were more scattered than the rest, it would be just in their case that we should expect to find round numbers. The one fact which these figures establish in a startling way is, that while the nation as a whole remained heady stationary in point of numbers, the various tribes show a most unexpected variation. Manasseh, e.g; has increased his population 63 per cent. in spite of the fact that there is not one man left of sixty years of age, while Simeon has decreased in the same proportion. There is indeed little difficulty in accounting for diminishing numbers amidst so many hardships, and after so many plagues. The fact that Zimri belonged to the tribe of Simeon, and that this tribe was omitted soon after from the blessing of Moses ( Deuteronomy 33:1-29 ), may easily lead to the conclusion that Simeon was more than any other tribe involved in the sin of Baal-Peor and the punishment which followed. But when we compare, e. g; the twin tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, concerning whom nothing distinctive is either stated or hinted, whether bad or good; and when we find that the one has decreased 20 percent and the other increased 63 percent during the same interval, and under the same general circumstances, we cannot even guess at the causes which must have been at work to produce so striking a difference. It is evident that each tribe had its own history apart from the general history of the nation—a history which had the most important results for its own members, but of which we know almost nothing. It is observable, however, that all the tribes under the leadership of Judah increased, whilst all those in the camp of Reuben decreased.