Take 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.
Read Chapter 26
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Number. This was done, that the general might know what forces he could muster to attack the nations of Chanaan on the west side of the Jordan, and also in order that the lands might be properly distributed. The war lasted seven years, and the distribution of lands was not completed till some time afterwards. It is not clear that those who were not enrolled at this time, as being 20 years of age, would have any portion, except that of their fathers, allotted to them; but it seems however rational, that those who were arrived at that age when the distribution was made, would have their share like the rest. There were 1820 people fewer than in the register which was taken before, (chap. i.,) thirteen months after the departure from Egypt. The Levites seem not to have been numbered with the utmost exactitude, as only five families are mentioned, (ver. 58, Jansenius,) though there were many more, 1 Paralipomenon xxiii. 6 Their numbers amount to only 23,000. (Calmet)
They had rather increa...
After Scripture has indicated that the people arrived at the border established by God, God again asks for a census of the men suitable for military service. For, since the fathers who had been counted previously had died, their sons are summoned for a census. David attests that the Lord said, “If they shall enter into my rest” and what follows. Their sons were the type of the faithful people who receive Christ, the end of the law. There is a spiritual stain of blood that is also circumcision, as Paul attests: “For we,” he says, “are the circumcision, as many of us as worship God in spirit.” And again, “You have been circumcised without the ministry of hands.” Joshua is the type of these men, for he circumcises those who came after him. But because that circumcision was not the true one, Scripture says elsewhere, “Cut away the hardness of your hearts.” So Moses counts the sons of the dead but not in the way it had been done previously— that is, first counting the tribes that come from ...
