Week 8 Numbers 26
In Numbers 1 there’s a military census of the tribes.
Then in Numbers 26 there’s a second census.
If I’m not paying attention I might think chapter 26 is just a rehash of chapter 1 (or by that time I might have totally forgotten about 1). But 1 & 26 are two different censuses separated by forty years of time spent in the wilderness.
When I was reading 1 about a week ago I was interested in the order the names were listed so I wrote them down on a sheet of lined yellow paper. [Q: what did I discover? Short A: not much! (see ‘lists & lists’ and the Directed Listing Technique).]
Anyway I’d also written down the census numbers beside each name in chapter 1 (e.g. Reuben 46,500) so when I saw more numbers in 26 I figured I’d compare them.
All 603,000 men in List #1 had died. 602,000 had replaced them in List #2.
7 tribes had increased in number.
The Simeon tribe had decreased catastrophically – 37,000 fewer men.
Manasseh had grown by 21,000 – the largest increase.
The biggest tribe in List #1 was Judah…and Judah retained his Number 1 ranking in List #2.
The smallest tribe in List #1 was Manasseh; Simeon the smallest in List #2.
Hmmm…there’s no mental Red Sea opening up for me while I look at these numbers so I’m a bit disappointed. But my expectations weren’t really sky-high to start with. There’s more lists to come. Something might develop.
Note: List #1 is in Numbers 1:20-46 & List #2 in 26:4-51. The census numbers listed here are rounded-up (and don’t quote the stats without double-checking).