Numbers 26

KJV · Chapter 26/36

¹And it came to pass after the plague, that the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying,

²Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, throughout their fathers’ house, all that are able to go to war in Israel.

³And Moses and Eleazar the priest spake with them in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,

⁴Take the sum of the people, from twenty years old and upward; as the Lord commanded Moses and the children of Israel, which went forth out of the land of Egypt.

⁵Reuben, the eldest son of Israel: the children of Reuben; Hanoch, of whom cometh the family of the Hanochites: of Pallu, the family of the Palluites:

⁶Of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites: of Carmi, the family of the Carmites.

⁷These are the families of the Reubenites: and they that were numbered of them were forty and three thousand and seven hundred and thirty.

⁸And the sons of Pallu; Eliab.

⁹And the sons of Eliab; Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram. This is that Dathan and Abiram, which were famous in the congregation, who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove against the Lord:

¹⁰And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died, what time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men: and they became a sign.

¹¹Notwithstanding the children of Korah died not.

¹²The sons of Simeon after their families: of Nemuel, the family of the Nemuelites: of Jamin, the family of the Jaminites: of Jachin, the family of the Jachinites:

¹³Of Zerah, the family of the Zarhites: of Shaul, the family of the Shaulites.

¹⁴These are the families of the Simeonites, twenty and two thousand and two hundred.

¹⁵The children of Gad after their families: of Zephon, the family of the Zephonites: of Haggi, the family of the Haggites: of Shuni, the family of the Shunites:

¹⁶Of Ozni, the family of the Oznites: of Eri, the family of the Erites:

¹⁷Of Arod, the family of the Arodites: of Areli, the family of the Arelites.

¹⁸These are the families of the children of Gad according to those that were numbered of them, forty thousand and five hundred.

¹⁹The sons of Judah were Er and Onan: and Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan.

²⁰And the sons of Judah after their families were; of Shelah, the family of the Shelanites: of Pharez, the family of the Pharzites: of Zerah, the family of the Zarhites.

²¹And the sons of Pharez were; of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites: of Hamul, the family of the Hamulites.

²²These are the families of Judah according to those that were numbered of them, threescore and sixteen thousand and five hundred.

²³Of the sons of Issachar after their families: of Tola, the family of the Tolaites: of Pua, the family of the Punites:

²⁴Of Jashub, the family of the Jashubites: of Shimron, the family of the Shimronites.

²⁵These are the families of Issachar according to those that were numbered of them, threescore and four thousand and three hundred.

²⁶Of the sons of Zebulun after their families: of Sered, the family of the Sardites: of Elon, the family of the Elonites: of Jahleel, the family of the Jahleelites.

²⁷These are the families of the Zebulunites according to those that were numbered of them, threescore thousand and five hundred.

²⁸The sons of Joseph after their families were Manasseh and Ephraim.

²⁹Of the sons of Manasseh: of Machir, the family of the Machirites: and Machir begat Gilead: of Gilead come the family of the Gileadites.

³⁰These are the sons of Gilead: of Jeezer, the family of the Jeezerites: of Helek, the family of the Helekites:

³¹And of Asriel, the family of the Asrielites: and of Shechem, the family of the Shechemites:

³²And of Shemida, the family of the Shemidaites: and of Hepher, the family of the Hepherites.

³³And Zelophehad the son of Hepher had no sons, but daughters: and the names of the daughters of Zelophehad were Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

³⁴These are the families of Manasseh, and those that were numbered of them, fifty and two thousand and seven hundred.

³⁵These are the sons of Ephraim after their families: of Shuthelah, the family of the Shuthalhites: of Becher, the family of the Bachrites: of Tahan, the family of the Tahanites.

³⁶And these are the sons of Shuthelah: of Eran, the family of the Eranites.

³⁷These are the families of the sons of Ephraim according to those that were numbered of them, thirty and two thousand and five hundred. These are the sons of Joseph after their families.

³⁸The sons of Benjamin after their families: of Bela, the family of the Belaites: of Ashbel, the family of the Ashbelites: of Ahiram, the family of the Ahiramites:

³⁹Of Shupham, the family of the Shuphamites: of Hupham, the family of the Huphamites.

⁴⁰And the sons of Bela were Ard and Naaman: of Ard, the family of the Ardites: and of Naaman, the family of the Naamites.

⁴¹These are the sons of Benjamin after their families: and they that were numbered of them were forty and five thousand and six hundred.

⁴²These are the sons of Dan after their families: of Shuham, the family of the Shuhamites. These are the families of Dan after their families.

⁴³All the families of the Shuhamites, according to those that were numbered of them, were threescore and four thousand and four hundred.

⁴⁴Of the children of Asher after their families: of Jimna, the family of the Jimnites: of Jesui, the family of the Jesuites: of Beriah, the family of the Beriites.

⁴⁵Of the sons of Beriah: of Heber, the family of the Heberites: of Malchiel, the family of the Malchielites.

⁴⁶And the name of the daughter of Asher was Sarah.

⁴⁷These are the families of the sons of Asher according to those that were numbered of them; who were fifty and three thousand and four hundred.

⁴⁸Of the sons of Naphtali after their families: of Jahzeel, the family of the Jahzeelites: of Guni, the family of the Gunites:

⁴⁹Of Jezer, the family of the Jezerites: of Shillem, the family of the Shillemites.

⁵⁰These are the families of Naphtali according to their families: and they that were numbered of them were forty and five thousand and four hundred.

⁵¹These were the numbered of the children of Israel, six hundred thousand and a thousand seven hundred and thirty.

⁵²And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

⁵³Unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names.

⁵⁴To many thou shalt give the more inheritance, and to few thou shalt give the less inheritance: to every one shall his inheritance be given according to those that were numbered of him.

⁵⁵Notwithstanding the land shall be divided by lot: according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit.

⁵⁶According to the lot shall the possession thereof be divided between many and few.

⁵⁷And these are they that were numbered of the Levites after their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites: of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites: of Merari, the family of the Merarites.

⁵⁸These are the families of the Levites: the family of the Libnites, the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Mahlites, the family of the Mushites, the family of the Korathites. And Kohath begat Amram.

⁵⁹And the name of Amram’s wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom her mother bare to Levi in Egypt: and she bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister.

⁶⁰And unto Aaron was born Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

⁶¹And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the Lord.

⁶²And those that were numbered of them were twenty and three thousand, all males from a month old and upward: for they were not numbered among the children of Israel, because there was no inheritance given them among the children of Israel.

⁶³These are they that were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.

⁶⁴But among these there was not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron the priest numbered, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.

⁶⁵For the Lord had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

After the plague and the end of the rebellious generation, God orders a second census of the children of Israel, now the generation that would actually enter the promised land. The total is similar to the first census, but almost no individual is the same, except Caleb and Joshua.

Explanation

This second census marks a symbolic and literal generational transition: of the men counted 40 years earlier, practically none survived, fulfilling exactly the judgment announced in Numbers 14, with the one notable exception of Caleb and Joshua, who had remained faithful. The total number of Israelites remains statistically similar (601,730 versus 603,550), showing that despite the generational tragedy, God faithfully preserved the nation as a whole, fulfilling His promise of multiplication to Abraham even through severe discipline. The specific mention that 'the sons of Korah did not die' (v. 11) foreshadows a note of grace in the midst of judgment, laying the groundwork for their future importance as singers in the temple.

Fun facts

This chapter also mentions for the first time the five daughters of Zelophehad (Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah), whose situation of inheritance without brothers would become the center of an important legal question resolved in chapters 27 and 36.
The near-identical precision between the two censuses (a difference of less than 2,000 people out of more than 600,000, over 40 years of hardship in the wilderness) is noted by commentators as a sign of God's providential faithfulness in preserving the nation despite the discipline.

Verse-by-verse explanation

Numbers 26:1After the plague from the previous chapter, the LORD speaks to Moses and to Eleazar — no longer to Aaron, who had already died — signaling that a new generation of leaders is now in charge.
Numbers 26:2The order is to take a second census, counting again the men twenty years old and up who are fit for war, tribe by tribe.
Numbers 26:3Moses and Eleazar pass this order on to the people already in the plains of Moab, near the Jordan, facing Jericho — the same place where the book ends.
Numbers 26:4This new census follows exactly the same criteria as the first: twenty years old and up, but now applied to a nearly entirely new generation, since the previous one had died in the wilderness.
Numbers 26:5Starting with Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, the text lists the families descended from Hanoch and Pallu.
Numbers 26:6Continuing Reuben’s list, the families descended from Hezron and Carmi appear.
Numbers 26:7The total for the tribe of Reuben in this second census reaches 43,730 men.
Numbers 26:8Within Pallu’s line, the text specifically highlights his son Eliab.
Numbers 26:9Eliab’s sons were Nemuel, Dathan, and Abiram — the same Dathan and Abiram who, decades earlier, led the rebellion against Moses and Aaron together with Korah.
Numbers 26:10The text recalls their fate: swallowed by the earth along with Korah, while fire consumed the 250 men who had joined the rebellion, all of it standing as a permanent warning.
Numbers 26:11A curious detail closes out the case: the children of Korah, unlike their father, did not die in that episode — a detail that explains why psalms attributed to the “sons of Korah” appear later in the Bible.
Numbers 26:12The list continues with Simeon, with the families descended from Nemuel, Jamin, and Jachin.
Numbers 26:13These are the families of Simeon in the second census, taken 38 years after the first. The tribe plunged from 59,300 to 22,200 men — the sharpest drop of all twelve, tied to the plague in the previous chapter.
Numbers 26:14Simeon’s total plunges to 22,200 men — a drastic drop compared to the 59,300 of the first census, decades earlier.
Numbers 26:15The tribe of Gad is counted next, with the families of Zephon, Haggi, and Shuni.
Numbers 26:16Two more families of Gad in the second census. The tribe dropped from 45,650 to 40,500 men between one generation and the next — almost the entire generation that left Egypt had already died in the wilderness.
Numbers 26:17Arod and Areli close out the families of Gad, a tribe that would eventually ask to stay on the other side of the Jordan, because of the good pastureland there.
Numbers 26:18This is Gad’s total in the second census, 38 years after the first: a drop of just over 5,000 men. It is a new generation being counted — almost no one from the first census remained.
Numbers 26:19Coming to Judah, the text quickly recalls that two of his sons, Er and Onan, had already died back in the land of Canaan, in a story told in Genesis.
Numbers 26:20Judah’s families come from Shelah, Pharez, and Zerah; it is through the line of Pharez that the genealogy continues down to David, and later, in the Gospels, to Jesus.
Numbers 26:21Within Pharez’s line, the families of Hezron and Hamul also appear.
Numbers 26:22Judah’s total reaches 76,500 men, keeping its position as the largest of the twelve tribes, just as it had been in the first census.
Numbers 26:23First families of Issachar in the second census. Unlike Gad and Simeon, this tribe grew quite a bit between generations, as the total at the end of the list will show.
Numbers 26:24Two more families of Issachar complete the list before the total of the second census: the tribe rose from 54,400 to 64,300 men in one generation.
Numbers 26:25Issachar grew by almost 10,000 men from the first census to the second — from 54,400 to 64,300 — one of the largest gains among the twelve tribes in this new generation.
Numbers 26:26These three families make up the entire tribe of Zebulun in the second census — which also grew, from 57,400 to 60,500 men, over the 38 years in the wilderness.
Numbers 26:27Zebulun totals 60,500 men in this second census, a moderate increase over the 57,400 of the first count, taken back in the wilderness of Sinai.
Numbers 26:28Coming to the sons of Joseph, the text divides them, as always, into two separate tribes: Manasseh and Ephraim.
Numbers 26:29Within Manasseh, the line runs through Machir, who fathered Gilead, giving rise to the family of the Gileadites.
Numbers 26:30Jeezer and Helek open the families of Gilead, within Manasseh — the same clan that gives its name to the mountainous region east of the Jordan.
Numbers 26:31Still within Gilead, the families of Asriel and Shechem appear.
Numbers 26:32Hepher is the father of Zelophehad, whose five daughters — with no brothers — will ask Moses for the right to inherit land, a case that changes the law of inheritance in Israel.
Numbers 26:33Here an important detail appears for later on: Zelophehad, son of Hepher, had no sons, only five daughters — Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah — whose case will bring about a change in the law of inheritance in chapter 27.
Numbers 26:34Manasseh makes the most striking jump of the second census: from 32,200 men, the smallest tribe in the first count, to 52,700 — even surpassing its brother tribe, Ephraim.
Numbers 26:35Moving on to Ephraim, the text lists the families of Shuthelah, Becher, and Tahan.
Numbers 26:36Within the line of Shuthelah, the family of Eran also appears.
Numbers 26:37Ephraim’s total reaches 32,500 men, closing out the two tribes descended from Joseph.
Numbers 26:38Benjamin is counted next, with the families of Bela, Ashbel, and Ahiram.
Numbers 26:39These families close out the list for Benjamin in the second census. The tribe grew significantly, from 35,400 to 45,600 men, between the first and second generations.
Numbers 26:40Within the line of Bela, the sons Ard and Naaman also appear, each giving rise to his own family.
Numbers 26:41Benjamin totals 45,600 men in the second census, an increase of more than 10,000 over the first count — part of the same turnaround that also lifted Manasseh.
Numbers 26:42Dan is counted as a single large family, the Shuhamites, descended from Shuham.
Numbers 26:43The total for this Shuhamite family, which represents the entire tribe of Dan, reaches 64,400 men.
Numbers 26:44These families open the list for Asher in the second census — a tribe that grew by nearly 30 percent between the two generations, behind only Manasseh’s even bigger leap.
Numbers 26:45Within the line of Beriah, the families of Heber and Malchiel appear.
Numbers 26:46The text also records the name of Asher’s daughter: Sarah, a rare mention of a woman in this kind of genealogical list.
Numbers 26:47Asher jumps from 41,500 to 53,400 men between the two censuses — a growth of nearly 30 percent, behind only Manasseh’s even bigger leap.
Numbers 26:48These families open the list for Naphtali in the second census — one of the few tribes that shrank: from 53,400 to 45,400 men between the two generations.
Numbers 26:49Two more families close out the list for Naphtali before the total of the second census, which shows the tribe smaller than it had been 38 years earlier.
Numbers 26:50Naphtali ends the second census with 45,400 men, almost 8,000 fewer than in the first count — a drop with only a few families behind it.
Numbers 26:51Adding up all the tribes, the overall total of this second census reaches 601,730 men — a number quite close to that of the first census, even though an entire generation had died along the way.
Numbers 26:52The LORD speaks to Moses once more, now to explain how the promised land would be divided based on this new census.
Numbers 26:53The instruction is that the land be divided as an inheritance according to the number of people in each group.
Numbers 26:54Larger tribes would receive a larger portion of land, and smaller tribes a smaller portion, all proportional to the size of each one.
Numbers 26:55Even so, exactly which area each tribe would receive would be decided by lot, using the names of the tribes as the reference.
Numbers 26:56The lot would determine the exact location, but the size of the portion would still be adjusted according to the number of people in each tribe.
Numbers 26:57The text then goes on to count the Levites separately, organized by the three clans already known: Gershonites, Kohathites, and Merarites.
Numbers 26:58Among the Levites, still other specific families appear: Libnites, Hebronites, Mahlites, Mushites, and Korathites; and it is from this line, through Kohath, that Amram comes.
Numbers 26:59Amram’s wife was named Jochebed, born to Levi back in Egypt; she was the one who gave birth to Aaron, Moses, and their sister Miriam.
Numbers 26:60Nadab and Abihu would die young, offering fire that God had not authorized; only Eleazar and Ithamar would continue in the priesthood — and it is from Eleazar’s line that the future high priests would come.
Numbers 26:61But, as already told earlier, Nadab and Abihu died offering unauthorized fire before the LORD.
Numbers 26:62The total number of Levites counted reaches 23,000, all males from one month old and up — they are left out of the general count of Israel because they did not receive an inheritance of land like the other tribes.
Numbers 26:63These are the numbers gathered by Moses and Eleazar in this second census, taken already in the plains of Moab, near the Jordan.
Numbers 26:64In this second census, taken decades after the first, the text notes that none of the men counted the first time, in the wilderness of Sinai, were still alive — except Caleb and Joshua. It is the practical confirmation that the generation that rebelled and was afraid to enter Canaan really did die in the wilderness, just as had been said in chapter 14.
Numbers 26:65This is confirmed exactly as the LORD had said: no one from that older generation survived, except Caleb and Joshua, the two spies who disagreed with the fearful report decades before.

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