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Numbers 26: What the Passage Says

180 claims across 65 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Numbers 26 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

After the plague, the LORD tells Moses and Eleazar to count all Israelite men twenty years old and older who can serve in the army. The chapter lists each tribe by clan with its total, notes the deaths of Dathan, Abiram, Er, Onan, Nadab and Abihu, names Zelophehad's five daughters, and gives a grand total of 601,730. The LORD then explains how the land is to be divided among the tribes by size and by lot. The Levites are counted separately, and the chapter ends by noting that none of the men counted at Sinai were still alive except Caleb and Joshua.

Claim by Claim

  1. 26:1
    • The LORD spoke to Moses and to Eleazar son of Aaron the priest.
    • This happened after the plague.
    • Eleazar was the son of Aaron the priest.
  2. 26:2
    • The LORD commanded that a census be taken of the whole congregation of the children of Israel.
    • The census was to count those twenty years old and upward.
    • The census was to be taken by their fathers' houses.
    • The census was to include all in Israel who were able to go out to war.
  3. 26:3
    • Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them.
    • This took place in the plains of Moab by the Jordan near Jericho.
  4. 26:4
    • Moses and Eleazar said to number the people from twenty years old and upward.
    • This was as the LORD had commanded Moses.
    • The people numbered were the children of Israel who came out of the land of Egypt.
  5. 26:5
    • Reuben was the firstborn son of Israel.
    • The sons of Reuben are listed.
    • From Hanoch came the family of the Hanochites.
    • From Pallu came the family of the Palluites.
  6. 26:6
    • From Hezron came the family of the Hezronites.
    • From Carmi came the family of the Carmites.
  7. 26:7
    • These were the families of the Reubenites.
    • Those numbered of the Reubenites were 43,730.
  8. 26:8
    • The son of Pallu was Eliab.
  9. 26:9
    • The sons of Eliab were Nemuel, Dathan, and Abiram.
    • Dathan and Abiram were the ones summoned of the congregation.
    • Dathan and Abiram contended against Moses and against Aaron.
    • Dathan and Abiram acted in the company of Korah.
    • The company of Korah contended against the LORD.
  10. 26:10
    • The earth opened its mouth.
    • The earth swallowed Dathan and Abiram.
    • The earth swallowed them together with Korah.
    • This happened when that company died.
    • The fire devoured 250 men.
    • They became a sign.
  11. 26:11
    • The sons of Korah did not die.
  12. 26:12
    • These were the sons of Simeon by their families.
    • From Nemuel came the family of the Nemuelites.
    • From Jamin came the family of the Jaminites.
    • From Jachin came the family of the Jachinites.
  13. 26:13
    • From Zerah came the family of the Zarhites.
    • From Shaul came the family of the Shaulites.
  14. 26:14
    • These were the families of the Simeonites.
    • They numbered 22,200.
  15. 26:15
    • These were the sons of Gad by their families.
    • From Zephon came the family of the Zephonites.
    • From Haggi came the family of the Haggites.
    • From Shuni came the family of the Shunites.
  16. 26:16
    • From Ozni came the family of the Oznites.
    • From Eri came the family of the Erites.
  17. 26:17
    • From Arod came the family of the Arodites.
    • From Areli came the family of the Arelites.
  18. 26:18
    • These were the families of the sons of Gad.
    • Those numbered of them were 40,500.
  19. 26:19
    • The sons of Judah were Er and Onan.
    • Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan.
  20. 26:20
    • These were the sons of Judah by their families.
    • From Shelah came the family of the Shelanites.
    • From Pharez came the family of the Pharzites.
    • From Zerah came the family of the Zarhites.
  21. 26:21
    • These were the sons of Pharez.
    • From Hezron came the family of the Hezronites.
    • From Hamul came the family of the Hamulites.
  22. 26:22
    • These were the families of Judah.
    • Those numbered of them were 76,500.
  23. 26:23
    • These were the sons of Issachar by their families.
    • From Tola came the family of the Tolaites.
    • From Pua came the family of the Punites.
  24. 26:24
    • From Jashub came the family of the Jashubites.
    • From Shimron came the family of the Shimronites.
  25. 26:25
    • These were the families of Issachar.
    • Those numbered of them were 64,300.
  26. 26:26
    • These were the sons of Zebulun by their families.
    • From Sered came the family of the Sardites.
    • From Elon came the family of the Elonites.
    • From Jahleel came the family of the Jahleelites.
  27. 26:27
    • These were the families of the Zebulunites.
    • Those numbered of them were 60,500.
  28. 26:28
    • The sons of Joseph by their families were Manasseh and Ephraim.
  29. 26:29
    • These were the sons of Manasseh.
    • From Machir came the family of the Machirites.
    • Machir begat Gilead.
    • From Gilead came the family of the Gileadites.
  30. 26:30
    • These were the sons of Gilead.
    • From Jeezer came the family of the Jeezerites.
    • From Helek came the family of the Helekites.
  31. 26:31
    • From Asriel came the family of the Asrielites.
    • From Shechem came the family of the Shechemites.
  32. 26:32
    • From Shemida came the family of the Shemidaites.
    • From Hepher came the family of the Hepherites.
  33. 26:33
    • Zelophehad was the son of Hepher.
    • Zelophehad had no sons, only daughters.
    • The names of Zelophehad's daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
  34. 26:34
    • These were the families of Manasseh.
    • Those numbered of them were 52,700.
  35. 26:35
    • These were the sons of Ephraim by their families.
    • From Shuthelah came the family of the Shuthalhites.
    • From Becher came the family of the Bachrites.
    • From Tahan came the family of the Tahanites.
  36. 26:36
    • These were the sons of Shuthelah.
    • From Eran came the family of the Eranites.
  37. 26:37
    • These were the families of the sons of Ephraim.
    • Those numbered of them were 32,500.
    • These were the sons of Joseph by their families.
  38. 26:38
    • These were the sons of Benjamin by their families.
    • From Bela came the family of the Belaites.
    • From Ashbel came the family of the Ashbelites.
    • From Ahiram came the family of the Ahiramites.
  39. 26:39
    • From Shupham came the family of the Shuphamites.
    • From Hupham came the family of the Huphamites.
  40. 26:40
    • The sons of Bela were Ard and Naaman.
    • From Ard came the family of the Ardites.
    • From Naaman came the family of the Naamites.
  41. 26:41
    • These were the sons of Benjamin by their families.
    • Those numbered of them were 45,600.
  42. 26:42
    • These were the sons of Dan by their families.
    • From Shuham came the family of the Shuhamites.
    • These were the families of Dan by their families.
  43. 26:43
    • All the families of the Shuhamites, according to those numbered of them, were 64,400.
  44. 26:44
    • These were the children of Asher by their families.
    • From Jimna came the family of the Jimnites.
    • From Jesui came the family of the Jesuites.
    • From Beriah came the family of the Beriites.
  45. 26:45
    • These were the sons of Beriah.
    • From Heber came the family of the Heberites.
    • From Malchiel came the family of the Malchielites.
  46. 26:46
    • The name of the daughter of Asher was Serah.
  47. 26:47
    • These were the families of the sons of Asher.
    • Those numbered of them were 53,400.
  48. 26:48
    • These were the sons of Naphtali by their families.
    • From Jahzeel came the family of the Jahzeelites.
    • From Guni came the family of the Gunites.
  49. 26:49
    • From Jezer came the family of the Jezerites.
    • From Shillem came the family of the Shillemites.
  50. 26:50
    • These were the families of Naphtali by their families.
    • Those numbered of them were 45,400.
  51. 26:51
    • The total of those numbered of the children of Israel was 601,730.
  52. 26:52
    • The LORD spoke to Moses.
  53. 26:53
    • The LORD said the land shall be divided among these for an inheritance.
    • The division shall be according to the number of names.
  54. 26:54
    • To the many a larger inheritance shall be given.
    • To the few a smaller inheritance shall be given.
    • Each one's inheritance shall be given according to those numbered of him.
  55. 26:55
    • The land shall be divided by lot.
    • They shall inherit according to the names of the tribes of their fathers.
  56. 26:56
    • The possession shall be divided according to the lot.
    • This applies between the many and the few.
  57. 26:57
    • These were those numbered of the Levites by their families.
    • From Gershon came the family of the Gershonites.
    • From Kohath came the family of the Kohathites.
    • From Merari came the family of the Merarites.
  58. 26:58
    • These were the families of Levi.
    • The family of the Libnites was one of them.
    • The family of the Hebronites was one of them.
    • The family of the Mahlites was one of them.
    • The family of the Mushites was one of them.
    • The family of the Korathites was one of them.
    • Kohath begat Amram.
  59. 26:59
    • The name of Amram's wife was Jochebed.
    • Jochebed was a daughter of Levi.
    • Jochebed was borne to Levi in Egypt.
    • The one who bore Jochebed to Levi is not named in the text; the King James supplies her mother.
    • Jochebed bore Aaron to Amram.
    • Jochebed bore Moses to Amram.
    • Jochebed bore Miriam, their sister, to Amram.
  60. 26:60
    • Nadab was born to Aaron.
    • Abihu was born to Aaron.
    • Eleazar was born to Aaron.
    • Ithamar was born to Aaron.
  61. 26:61
    • Nadab and Abihu died.
    • They died when they offered strange fire before the LORD.
  62. 26:62
    • Those numbered of the Levites were 23,000.
    • The Levites counted were all males from a month old and upward.
    • The Levites were not numbered among the children of Israel.
    • No inheritance was given to the Levites among the children of Israel.
  63. 26:63
    • These were those numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest.
    • Moses and Eleazar numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan near Jericho.
  64. 26:64
    • Among these there was not one man whom Moses and Aaron the priest had numbered.
    • Moses and Aaron had numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.
  65. 26:65
    • The LORD had said of them that they would surely die in the wilderness.
    • Not a man of them was left.
    • Caleb the son of Jephunneh was excepted.
    • Joshua the son of Nun was excepted.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

26:1
The plague was the outbreak described in the previous chapter, which killed 24,000 Israelites. Eleazar had taken over as high priest after his father Aaron's death; the census is being run by the two men now leading the nation.
26:2
A census in the ancient world was chiefly a military and tax register. This one counts only men of fighting age, twenty and over, grouped by 'father's house', the household unit descended from a common male ancestor. Women, children, and (as verse 62 explains) the tribe of Levi are counted separately or not at all. An earlier census of the same kind opens the book of Numbers; this second one takes stock of the generation that will actually enter Canaan.
26:3
The plains of Moab are the flat land on the east bank of the Jordan, opposite Jericho, the last camp before the river crossing. Israel has been there since the end of the forty years in the wilderness.
26:4
Long before this, the people of Israel had been slaves in Egypt. God brought them out.
26:5
'Israel' here is the man Jacob, renamed Israel, whose twelve sons give the tribes their names. The lists that follow work down three levels: tribe (Reuben), then clan (the Hanochites), then household. A clan was named after the ancestor it traced itself to, and the '-ite' ending simply means 'the people of'. The lists matter because land in Canaan was about to be assigned by these units, and a family's claim depended on being on the register.
26:6
Names like Hanochite just mean the family that came from Hanoch.
26:9
'Chosen by the community' means these were men with official standing, delegates of the assembly, not fringe agitators. The revolt of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, a challenge to Moses' leadership and to Aaron's exclusive priesthood, is told in Numbers 16.
26:10
In that account the ground split open under Dathan and Abiram's tents, and fire consumed the 250 men who had brought incense to press their claim to the priesthood. 'A warning sign' translates a word meaning a marker or standard set up where others can see it.
26:11
This matters for the register: Korah's line was not wiped out, so a Korahite clan still exists and appears in verse 58. Later books name descendants of Korah among the temple singers.
26:19
The story of Er and Onan is in Genesis 38. Because both died childless, Judah's line ran on through his other sons, which is why they head no clan here.
26:22
The King James counts in scores, a score being twenty, so "threescore and sixteen thousand" is 76,000. The same pattern runs through the chapter: threescore and four is 64, threescore is 60.
26:28
Israel had twelve sons, but the tribal list here has twelve names without Levi, because Levi is counted separately (verse 57) and Joseph's share is split between his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. The lists in different books vary slightly for this reason.
26:29
Gilead is both a man's name and the name of the hill country east of the Jordan that his descendants settled. The two uses run together throughout the Hebrew Bible.
26:33
Daughters are named in these lists only when something legally turns on them. Because Zelophehad had no son, his family's share of land had no male heir, and his daughters petition Moses about it two chapters later, a case that changed the inheritance rules. Their names are recorded here to establish the claim.
26:46
Serah is the only daughter named in the whole census. The reason is not given; the Hebrew simply records her, and later Jewish tradition made much of the silence.
26:51
The comparable total at the first census, taken about forty years earlier at Sinai, was 603,550, so the nation ends the wilderness years at almost exactly the strength it began them with, though, as verses 64–65 note, made up of entirely different men.
26:53
'Inheritance' here is a fixed technical term for the permanent share of land assigned to a family or tribe. It was not meant to be sold off permanently; it passed down the family line.
26:55
Casting lots meant drawing marked stones or sticks to settle a question, a way of deciding that no party could manipulate. The two rules stand side by side without being reconciled: size determines how much land a tribe gets, the lot determines which land.
26:57
Levi's descendants are registered on a different basis from the other tribes, which is why their list comes after the totals rather than in tribal order.
26:58
This second Levite list groups the clans differently from verse 57 and is not simply a subdivision of it; several of the names (Libnah, Hebron) are also place names in Canaan. The Hebrew preserves both lists without harmonising them.
26:59
'Daughter of Levi' need not mean Levi's immediate child; in Hebrew usage 'daughter of' or 'son of' can mean a descendant of a family or tribe. Read strictly, though, the verse says Levi fathered her in Egypt.
26:61
The King James 'strange fire' does not mean odd or eerie. The Hebrew means fire that was foreign to the ritual, burning coals or incense taken from an unauthorised source, or offered at an unauthorised time. The incident is told in Leviticus 10.
26:62
The Levites are counted from one month old, not twenty, because they are not being registered as soldiers. They served at the sanctuary instead, and received no tribal territory; they lived in assigned towns and were supported by a share of the offerings.
26:64
The point of the whole census: the fighting men registered at Sinai are all dead, apart from the two named below. This is the fulfillment of the sentence passed in Numbers 14 after the people refused to enter Canaan on the spies' report.
26:65
Caleb and Joshua were the two scouts who had urged the people to go in. They alone from the old generation were exempted from the sentence.

Read Numbers 26