Commentaria in Numeros
Chapter the Twenty-sixth
The Hebrews, about to enter the holy land, are numbered, from twenty years old and upward, by single tribes, that the land may be divided among them.
1. And after the blood of the guilty was shed, the Lord said to Moses and to Eleazar the priest, the son of Aaron: 2. Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, by their houses and kindreds, all that are able to go to war. 3. So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke in the plains of Moab upon the Jordan, near Jericho, to them that were 4. from twenty years old and upward, as the Lord had commanded, of whom this is the number:
5. Ruben the firstborn of Israel: his son was Henoch, of whom is the family of the Henochites: and Phallu, of whom is the family of the Phalluites: 6. and Hesron, of whom is the family of the Hesronites: and Charmi, of whom is the family of the Charmites. 7. These are the families of the race of Ruben: and their number was found to be forty-three thousand seven hundred and thirty. 8. The son of Phallu was Eliab. 9. His sons were Namuel and Dathan and Abiron. These are Dathan and Abiron, the princes of the people, who rose up against Moses and Aaron in the sedition of Core, when they rebelled against the Lord, 10. and the earth opening its mouth devoured Core, many dying, when the fire burned two hundred and fifty men. And there was a great miracle wrought, 11. that when Core perished, his sons did not perish. 12. The sons of Simeon by their kindreds: Namuel, of him is the family of the Namuelites: Jamin, of him is the family of the Jaminites: Jachin, of him is the family of the Jachinites: 13. Zare, of him is the family of the Zareites: Saul, of him is the family of the Saulites. 14. These are the families of the race of Simeon, of which the whole number was twenty-two thousand two hundred. 15. The sons of Gad by their kindreds: Sephon, of him is the family of the Sephonites: Aggi, of him is the family of the Aggites: Suni, of him is the family of the Sunites: 16. Ozni, of him is the family of the Oznites: Her, of him is the family of the Herites: 17. Arod, of him is the family of the Arodites: Ariel, of him is the family of the Arielites. 18. These are the families of Gad, of which the whole number was forty thousand five hundred. 19. The sons of Juda, Her and Onan, who both died in the land of Chanaan. 20. And the sons of Juda by their kindreds were: Sela, of whom is the family of the Selaites: Phares, of whom is the family of the Pharesites: Zare, of whom is the family of the Zareites. 21. Moreover the sons of Phares were: Hesron, of whom is the family of the Hesronites: and Hamul, of whom is the family of the Hamulites. 22. These are the families of Juda, of which the whole number was seventy-six thousand five hundred. 23. The sons of Issachar by their kindreds: Thola, of whom is the family of the Tholaites: Phua, of whom is the family of the Phuaites: 24. Jasub, of whom is the family of the Jasubites: Semran, of whom is the family of the Semranites. 25. These are the kindreds of Issachar, of which the number was sixty-four thousand three hundred. 26. The sons of Zabulon by their kindreds: Sared, of whom is the family of the Sareditites: Elon, of whom is the family of the Elonites: Jalel, of whom is the family of the Jalelites. 27. These are the kindreds of Zabulon, of which the number was sixty thousand five hundred. 28. The sons of Joseph by their kindreds, Manasses and Ephraim. 29. Of Manasses came Machir, of whom is the family of the Machirites: Machir begot Galaad, of whom is the family of the Galaadites. 30. Galaad had sons: Jeser, of whom is the family of the Jeserites: and Helec, of whom is the family of the Helecites: 31. and Asriel, of whom is the family of the Asrielites: and Sechem, of whom is the family of the Sechemites: 32. and Semida, of whom is the family of the Semidaites: and Hepher, of whom is the family of the Hepherites. 33. Now Hepher was the father of Salphaad, who had no sons, but only daughters, whose names are these: Maala, and Noa, and Hegla, and Melcha, and Thersa. 34. These are the families of Manasses, and the number of them was fifty-two thousand seven hundred. 35. And the sons of Ephraim by their kindreds were these: Suthala, of whom is the family of the Suthalaites: Becher, of whom is the family of the Becherites: Thehen, of whom is the family of the Thehenites; 36. and the son of Suthala was Heran, of whom is the family of the Heranites. 37. These are the kindreds of the sons of Ephraim, of which the number was thirty-two thousand five hundred. 38. These are the sons of Joseph, by their families. The sons of Benjamin in their kindreds: Bela, of whom is the family of the Belaites: Asbel, of whom is the family of the Asbelites: Ahiram, of whom is the family of the Ahiramites: 39. Supham, of whom is the family of the Suphamites: Hupham, of whom is the family of the Huphamites. 40. The sons of Bela, Hered and Noeman. Of Hered, the family of the Heredites: of Noeman, the family of the Noemanites. 41. These are the sons of Benjamin by their kindreds, of whom the number was forty-five thousand six hundred. 42. The sons of Dan by their kindreds: Suham, of whom is the family of the Suhamites; these are the kindreds of Dan by their families: 43. all were Suhamites, of whom the number was sixty-four thousand four hundred. 44. The sons of Aser by their kindreds: Jemna, of whom is the family of the Jemnaites: Jessui, of whom is the family of the Jessuites: Brie, of whom is the family of the Brieites: 45. The sons of Brie: Heber, of whom is the family of the Heberites: and Melchiel, of whom is the family of the Melchielites. 46. And the name of the daughter of Aser was Sara; 47. these are the kindreds of the sons of Aser, and the number of them, fifty-three thousand four hundred. 48. The sons of Nephthali by their kindreds: Jesiel, of whom is the family of the Jesielites: Guni, of whom is the family of the Gunites: 49. Jeser, of whom is the family of the Jeserites: Sellem, of whom is the family of the Sellemites. 50. These are the kindreds of the sons of Nephthali by their families, of whom the number was forty-five thousand four hundred. 51. This is the sum of the children of Israel that were numbered, six hundred thousand and one thousand seven hundred and thirty. 52. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 53. To these the land shall be divided according to the number of the names, into possessions. 54. To the more thou shalt give a larger part, and to the fewer a lesser: to each, as they are now numbered, shall the possession be delivered; 55. yet so that the lot divide the land to the tribes and the families. 56. Whatsoever falls by lot, that either the more or the fewer shall receive. 57. This also is the number of the sons of Levi by their families: Gerson, of whom is the family of the Gersonites: Caath, of whom is the family of the Caathites: Merari, of whom is the family of the Merarites. 58. These are the families of Levi: the family of Lobni, the family of Hebroni, the family of Moholi, the family of Musi, the family of Core. But Caath begot Amram, 59. who had to wife Jochabed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to him in Egypt: she bore to Amram her husband the sons Aaron and Moses, and Mary their sister. 60. Of Aaron were born Nadab and Abiu, and Eleazar and Ithamar, 61. of whom Nadab and Abiu died when they offered strange fire before the Lord. 62. And all that were numbered were twenty-three thousand of the male kind from one month old and upward: for they were not numbered among the children of Israel, nor was a possession given them with the rest. 63. This is the number of the children of Israel, that were mustered by Moses and Eleazar the priest in the plains of Moab upon the Jordan near Jericho: 64. among whom there was none of them that were numbered before by Moses and Aaron in the desert of Sinai. 65. For the Lord had foretold that they should all die in the wilderness. And there remained none of them, but Caleb the son of Jephone, and Josue the son of Nun.
1. AND AFTER THE BLOOD OF THE GUILTY (those who fornicated with the daughters of Moab and Madian, in the preceding chapter) WAS SHED, THE LORD SAID TO MOSES AND TO ELEAZAR.—“He said,” namely by the pillar of cloud, resting over the door of the tabernacle, but not from the propitiatory and the Holy of Holies; for although Moses could enter it as often as he had to consult God about any doubt, yet the high priest Eleazar could enter it only once a year, namely on the feast of Expiation, according to the law of Leviticus xvi, 9 and 19.
2. TAKE THE SUM OF ALL THE CONGREGATION OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, FROM TWENTY YEARS OLD AND UPWARD.—This was the third general census of the whole people: for the first was taken at the making of the tabernacle, Exodus xxx, 12, and xxxviii, 25. The second, when the battle-lines were set in order for fighting, was held in the second year from the going out of Egypt, in Sinai. The third was made in this place, in the fortieth year, when they were just about to enter the promised land, namely that it might be divided and distributed among the tribes fittingly according to the number of each. For it is ridiculous what Rabbi Solomon says, that God here did as a shepherd does who numbers his flock which the wolf has ravaged, that from the number of the survivors he may know how many have perished and been carried off.
Wherefore all who are here numbered are other than those who were numbered in the second year, Numbers i and ii; for all those had already perished, on account of the murmuring of the spies at Cadesbarne, of which in chapter xiv, as is plain from this chapter, verse 64.
Besides these three, there was a fourth census, but a special one, of the firstborn and of the Levites, of which
FROM TWENTY YEARS OLD AND UPWARD,—because these alone were fit for arms and for the wars about to be waged with the Chanaanites at the entrance into Chanaan. Here, then, the warriors alone are numbered, and these alone divided the land of Chanaan among themselves: those under twenty years, as they are not numbered and were not fit for war, so neither did they of themselves come into the inheritance of the land of Chanaan, as is plain from verse 53.
3. SO MOSES AND ELEAZAR SPOKE,—namely that which the Lord had said, that they should dispose all who were to be numbered by companies and families, that they might conveniently be numbered. This census seems to have been carried out thus: that they numbered first the families of the single tribes, then the houses of the single families, and lastly the heads of the single houses.
UPON THE JORDAN,—near the Jordan: so Jesus is said to stand upon, that is, near, it, having commanded
Verse 5. RUBEN THE FIRSTBORN OF ISRAEL.—In this census the order of the standards and battle-lines is preserved which was established in chapter ii; so however that the first standard is Ruben’s, with his tribes, as the firstborn; the second is Juda’s, who was elder than the rest; the third is Ephraim’s, who was born of a free mother, namely of Rachel; the fourth is Dan’s, with his, who was begotten of a handmaid, namely Bala.
Verse 10. AND THERE WAS A GREAT MIRACLE WROUGHT.—The Hebrew is, they were for a sign, which the Chaldee, Vatablus and others refer to what goes before, as if to say: Core, Dathan, Abiron, etc., were for a sign, that is, they were an example to the other children of Israel, whereby they might be taught that they must not murmur and strive against Moses and their superiors.
But because there follows in the Hebrew: And the sons of Core did not die, hence our Interpreter, more sagaciously, seeing that these words are joined with the preceding, understood that this sign belongs both to the following words and to the preceding, and the sense is, as if to say: Core, Dathan and Abiron were made a sign, that is, an example, not of an ordinary kind but a portentous and miraculous one, not only in that the earth swallowed them, but also in that, Core perishing, his sons did not perish, but remained suspended in the air, because they had not consented to their father’s rebellion. That the sons of Core were preserved by miracle is plain from this, that they appear to have been then with their father Core in the tabernacle, just as the sons of Dathan and Abiron, who perished with their parents; for when Moses went to them, all their sons and servants flocked to the house for so great a matter and dispute, nor would the parents have suffered their sons in this schism to be torn from them or to leave the house.
Of this miracle, and of these sons of Core, I have spoken. In 1 Paralipomenon iv, 24, only five are numbered: for Ahod, the sixth, is omitted, because he died without children: whence he had neither a family nor a lot in the land of Chanaan. Again, his first son, who is here called Namuel, is in Genesis and Exodus called Jamuel; and he who is there called Sohar is here called Zare; for from the Hebrew Sohar, by metathesis, and at the same time by changing the letter tsade into the akin zain, it becomes zerach or Zare; so in other names there is a like variation: for he who here, verse 30, is called Jezer, in Josue xvii, 2, is called Abiezer, and he who here, verse 24, is called Jasub, is elsewhere called Job.
Note that the tribe of Simeon has here greatly decreased; for in the former census, which was taken in the second year, the heads of this tribe were numbered at 59,300, as is plain from Numbers i, 23: but here only 22,200 are numbered: the tribe therefore was diminished by 37,100 heads, which most attribute to the last plague, sent on account of the fornication with the Madianites, chapter xxv, 9, which raged most of all in this tribe, because many of it followed their leader Zambri, whom Phinees slew, and fornicated with the Madianites; and this is sufficiently intimated in the preceding chapter, last verse, where God commands the Madianites to be attacked on account of the snares and the crime of Cozbi, with whom Zambri fornicated. So Abulensis.
Hence again the tribe of Simeon, being small, was joined with the tribe of Juda, and received its lot within his lot, as is plain from Josue xix, 9. For the tribe of Juda was the greatest and strongest: for it contained 76,500 heads, as is plain from verse 22. After Juda the most numerous was the tribe of Dan, of 64,400 heads, verse 43; after Dan was Issachar, of 64,300 heads, verse 25, etc.
38. THE SONS OF BENJAMIN.—Here only five sons of Benjamin are numbered, though he had ten, as is plain from Genesis xlvi, 21. The remaining five of his sons, therefore, died without children, or the family perished in their posterity.
44. JESSUI, OF WHOM IS THE FAMILY OF THE JESSUITES.—From this place a certain man lately aptly stopped the mouth of an ignorant heretic who, as his custom is, abhorred the Society of Jesus and the Jesuits, because their name was not found in the Holy Bible.
53. TO THESE THE LAND SHALL BE DIVIDED, ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF THE NAMES, INTO THEIR POSSESSIONS.—That is, according to the number of the families and heads, which are wont to have various names, the land should be divided and possessed by each: it is a metonymy, for the name is taken for the thing or the person named.
54. TO EACH, AS THEY ARE NOW NUMBERED, SHALL THE POSSESSION BE DELIVERED.—“To each,” namely to men, to tribes, to families, or rather to the heads of families (for this accords better with the Hebrew text), that they in turn might divide the lot received among the individuals of their families who are twenty years old.
Verse 57. THIS ALSO IS THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF LEVI, BY THEIR FAMILIES.—Here only five families of Levi are numbered, whereas there were eight, as is plain from Exodus vi, which recounts only these; for here the Levitical families are not professedly numbered as the others are, because they were not to receive a lot with the other tribes in Chanaan, as is said in verse 62.
Verse 62. AND ALL (the Levites) THAT WERE NUMBERED WERE TWENTY-THREE THOUSAND, OF THE MALE KIND, FROM ONE MONTH OLD AND UPWARD.—Note: Because the Lord had commanded, in chapters iii, 41 and xviii, that the firstborn of the Hebrews be exchanged for the Levites of one month old and upward, both to make the fewness of the Levites equal to the multitude of the firstborn, and at the same time to declare the dignity of the Levites; for this reason He commands here that they be numbered again from one month old and upward, as His own, since in that same age they had formerly served for the redemption of the firstborn; for those who had not yet completed a month did not serve for this redemption, whence they were not reckoned Levites, nor belonged to God, and therefore are not numbered here. The tribe of Levi was little propagated; for it had the fewest heads of all the tribes, both in this census and in the former, Numbers
65. AND THERE REMAINED NONE OF THEM, BUT CALEB THE SON OF JEPHONE, AND JOSUE THE SON OF NUN.—Except the Levites; for of them there survived Moses, Eleazar, Ithamar, and perhaps many others who had been numbered in Sinai, and were of mature age at the time of the spies; and they easily exceeded the twentieth year. Caleb at this time was 78 years old, as is gathered from the Josue xiv, 7. But Josue was at the least 83 years old.
For all these things were done in the fortieth and last year of the pilgrimage of the Hebrews in the desert, in which Moses died, whom Josue immediately succeeded, who at most ruled the people 27 years: and Josue died in the 110th year of his age, as is plain from the last chapter of Josue, 29. Take from these 110 years of life the 27 years of his rule, and you will have 83, the year aforesaid in which Moses died, and he himself succeeded Moses in the leadership.
Hence it is plain that in these 38 years, the fathers dying, just as many sons fully grew up, who, completing or exceeding the twentieth year, were fit for war. For in this census there were found six hundred thousand and one thousand seven hundred and thirty warriors, as is said in verse 51; but in the former census, 38 years before, at the beginning, there were found six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty warriors, as is said in chapter i, 46. The former census, therefore, exceeds this only by one thousand eight hundred and twenty heads.