Introduction
The second enumeration of Israel is herein detailed, and the statute relating to dividing inheritances is published, also the families and number of the Levites are noted, together with the fact that Caleb and Joshua are the only survivors of the Sinaitic census. One of the chief purposes of the enumeration was probably to prove this fact. See Numbers 14:23, note.
CONCLUDING NOTES.
(1.) The genealogy of this chapter is harmonized with that in Genesis xlvi by the consideration of the fact that there is here an enumeration of those only who established families, all who did not succeed in founding families being omitted. The difference in the names in Genesis and in this chapter is caused chiefly by different vowels attached to the same consonants, as in modern times Jane becomes Jennie.
(2.) A fair analysis of this census makes the total number of the nine and a half tribes who passed over the Jordan under Joshua to have been about two millions. There may have been even more. These must find their homes west of the Jordan, and this, it is argued, was impossible in a country so small as Palestine proper. Here again the main facts cannot be denied. Palestine is a small country the average breadth not over 50 and the length 150 miles. This gives 7,500 square miles, 500 of which must be deducted for those parts of the seacoast held by Philistines, Phoenicians, and other nations. It must further be admitted that much of the country on the south and west side of the Dead Sea must always have been comparatively sterile. Could 7,000 square miles of such a country sustain 2,000,000 of people? Yes, for it would require only 285 to a square mile, a density of population which has been far exceeded in modern times. Belgium has about 330, North Holland 455, and South Holland 465. It must also be remembered that the mode of living in ancient times was much more simple than now.
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