Numbers 1:21

21. Those that were numbered That is, mustered or marshalled on the basis of the prior enumeration in Exodus 38:26, the total of which agrees with that here given. About thirty-eight years after this census another was taken on the table-lands of Moab, east of the Jordan, just before entering into Canaan. We tabulate the results for the convenience of the reader. They eloquently portray the hardships of that wilderness-life during more than a third of a century in which the people actually decreased instead of doubling their number, as they doubtless would have done even in Egyptian servitude:

1st Cen. 2d Cen. Ch. 1. Ch. 26. 1. Judah 74,600 76,500 2. Dan 62,700 64,400 3. Simeon 59,300 22,200 4. Zebulun 57,400 60,500 5. Issachar 54,400 64,300 6. Naphtali 53,400 45,400 7. Reuben 46,500 43,730 8. Gad 45,650 40,500 9. Asher 41,500 53,400 10. Ephraim 40,500 32,500 11. Benjamin 35,400 45,600 12. Manasseh 32,200 52,700 Total 603,550 601,730 It is a corroborative proof of the correctness of this census that the totals, when arranged in the order of magnitude, correspond nearly with the order of birth of the heads of the tribes. Judah, Simeon, Dan, and Naphtali, among the six oldest, are among the six highest. The sons of Joseph Ephraim and Manasseh though each less than the average of the other tribes, because a generation later, yet, counted as one, rank second in the first census and first in the second census. Hence the prediction, Joseph shall be a fruitful bough, is fulfilled. Yet Dr. Adam Clarke sees “no very satisfactory reason for so great a difference” between Judah, of the first generation, and Manasseh, of the second. The real comparison is between Joseph’s descendants and Judah’s. There is only a difference of nineteen hundred. It will be observed that the lowest denomination of figures is neither units nor tens, except Gad, but hundreds. This is a singular coincidence in the figures of a census. It is not reasonable to suppose such an occurrence would happen in eleven enumerations out of twelve. The explanation is, that as the chief reason for this first enumeration was the military organization of the nation, fractions of hundreds the smallest military division were rejected if less than fifty, and counted as even hundreds if above fifty. Or the supernumerary units may have balanced the losses from sickness or casualties, it being the purpose of the muster to exhibit the available military strength of the Hebrews. We observe the fulfilment of two predictions as already begun in the first census: 1, That relating to the precedence of Judah, foreseen by Jacob on his dying bed two hundred years before; (Genesis 49:8;) and, 2, That relating to the superiority of Ephraim, the younger, to Manasseh, the elder, predicted by the same patriarch. Genesis 48:19-20. The decline in the second census was not permanent.