2. The Censuses: Num 14, 26

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2. The Censuses Num 1-4, 26

• BOT640/BHE640 Exegesis of Numbers

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2.1 The Setting Num 11-4

• Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of
  Sinai
• in the tent of meeting
• in the 2nd month of the 2nd year after they had
  come out of the land of Egypt
• Take a census . . . .
• very male individual from twenty years and
  upward . . . .

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2.2 Yahweh spoke to Moses in the wilderness of
Sinai

• Divine origin of the census
• Wilderness of Sinai at the foot of Sinai /
  Horeb (Jebel Musa, Har Karkom, etc.)
• Deut 12 - It is eleven days journey from Horeb
  by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. . . .
  South of the Sinai Peninsula?
• Num 33149 Mountain in Saudi Arabia?
• Deut 332 Judg 545 Too vague

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2.3 in the tent of meeting

• The Two Tent of Meeting
• Early Tent of Meeting in Exod 33 Num 11, 12
  Deut 31
• Tabernacle Exod 25-40 (tent of meeting 32x
  Tabernacle 49x)
• Visual Presentation of Tabernacle

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2.4 in the 2nd month of the 2nd year after they
had come out of the land of Egypt

• on the first day of . . . .
• Num 10.11 In the 2nd year, in the 2nd month, on
  the 20th day of the month . . . .
• Num 26.1 After the plague Yahweh said to Moses
  and to Eleazar . . . .

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2.5 Take a census . . . .

• Purpose of Censuses/Genealogies in the Ancient
  Near East
• 1. ANE - Politically to show the strength of
  ones military or tax base.
• 2. ANE Kingship Legitimation

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2.5 Take a census . . . .

• Purpose of Censuses/Genealogies in Numbers
• 1. Military image is provided by counting the
  male, 20 years and above the Encampment/Marching
  orders of chapter 2
• 2. However, the Levites are counted separately
  (1.48-53 3.1-4, 14-39 4.34-49)

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2.5 Take a census . . . .

• Purpose of Censuses/Genealogies in Numbers
• 3. Levites
• 3.1 Num 3.11-13 . . . mine, for all the
  firstborn are mine when I killed all the
  firstborn in the land of Egypt, I consecrated for
  my own all the firstborn of Israel . . . .
• 3.2 Num 3.40-51 as redemption (padah)

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2.5 Take a census . . . .

• Purpose of Censuses/Genealogies in Numbers
• 4. Genealogies are used in Genesis to give
  structure to the text, so also in Numbers
• 5. The flow Gen 1.28 to Exod 1.7, 12, 20 to
  Numbers 1-4 and 26 are important. The censuses
  affirms Yahwehs blessing the promise of
  progeny.
• 6. Num 1 26 affirm Yahwehs forgiveness.
• 7. Looks forward to the fulfillment of Yahwehs
  promise of the land.

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2.6 The Lists

• Num 1.5-15 Tribal leaders chosen to carry out
  the census
• Num 1.20-43 The account of the actual census
• Num 2.3-31 The 12 tribes arranged into four
  marching groups
• Num 7.12-83 Tribal leaders give offerings at the
  dedication of the altar
• Num 10.14-28 The order of the tribes setting out
  from Sinai

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2.6 The Lists in Numbers

• Num 13.4-15 One man from each tribe sent to spy
  out the land
• Num 26.5-56 The second census of the 12 tribes
  with an expanded genealogy for each tribe and
  promise to apportion land to each
• Num 34.16-29 One man from each tribe chosen to
  divide the land

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2.7 Other Lists in the Pentateuch

• Gen 29.31-30.24 A genealogy of the sons of Jacob
  within narrative context
• Gen 35.22-26 Genealogy of the sons of Jacob
• Gen 46.8-27 An Expanded genealogy of the sons of
  Jacob and their offspring
• Gen 49.3-27 Jacobs blessing of his sons
• Exod 1.1-5 The sons of Israel who came into Egypt
  with Jacob
• Exod 6.14-26 A genealogy which begins with Reuben
  and Simeon but ends with and focuses on the sons
  of Levi, specifically Moses and Aaron and the
  offspring of Aaron

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2.8 Chapter 2 The Encampment
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2.8 Chapter 2 Marching Order
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2.9 Problem with Big Numbers

• 1. Problem with the Numbers
• The numbers given are well beyond the bounds of
  what may be regarded as historically probable.
  According to the first census, the total number
  of males from twenty years old and upward (Num.
  i 3, 18, 20, 22, etc.) who came out of Egypt was
  603,550 (Nun. i 46), a figure which is very
  similar to the total given in the second census
  in Num. xxvi 51 (601,730). If, as is generally
  recognized, males over the age of twenty would
  have constituted a little more than a quarter of
  the entire population, then the total number of
  individuals-including men, women and children -
  would almost certainly have exceeded two
  million. (Davies)

• Two Million

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2.9 Problem with Big Numbers

• 1. Problem with the Numbers
• The numbers are inconsistent with those
  encountered elsewhere in the O.T. relating to the
  size of the Israelite tribes. For example,
  according to Josh. iv 12-13, the tribes of
  Reuben, Gad and half Manasseh totalled 40,000,
  whereas these three tribes totalled 124,350,
  according to the first census, and 110,580
  according to the second census. Moreover, Judg. v
  8 indicates that six of the Israelite tribes
  (viz., Benjamin, Ephraim, Manasseh, Naphtali,
  Zebulun and Issachar) yielded an estimated 40,000
  fighting men, whereas in Num. i the census total
  for these six tribes was 273,000, and in Num.
  xxvi it was 301,000 . . . . (Davies)

• Inconsistent

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2.9 Problem with Big Numbers

• 1. Problem with the Numbers
• In addition to these inconsistencies relating to
  specific numbers, it is perhaps worth noting that
  the high census figures of Num. i and xxvi are
  incompatible with the more general statements in
  the Pentateuch which represent the Israelites who
  fled from slavery in Egypt as too few in number
  to occupy effectively the land of Canaan (cf.
  Exod xxiii 29-30 Deut. vii 7, 22) . . . .
  (Davies)

• Incompatible

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2.9 Problem with Big Numbers

• 1. Problem with the Numbers
• . . . Num. iii 43 gives the number of first-born
  Israelite males as 22,273 if we assume that the
  number of female first-born was approximately the
  same, the total number of first-born among the
  Israelites would have been 44,546. This number,
  however, seems disproportionately small, given a
  population, of over two million, for it would
  mean that every Israelite family must have had,
  on average, some fifty children. . . . . (Davies)

• Inner inconsistencies

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2.9 Problem with Big Numbers

• 2. Possible Solutions
• 2.1 The figures are accurate and emphasize
  Yahwehs miraculous provision in the Wilderness.
• 2.2 The figures are accurate, but represent the
  populations many years later.
• 2.3 The Hebrew word )elep has been mistranslated.
  The semantic range includes family, group,
  and troop.
• 2.4 The numbers are based on astronomy
  calendars.

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2.9 Problem with Big Numbers

• 2. Possible Solutions
• 2.5 The numbers are symbolic and based on
  gematria, in which each letter of the Hebrew
  alphabet is given a numerical value.
• 2.6 The numbers are purely fictitious and greatly
  exaggerated to serve a theological purpose.
• 2.7 A modified )elep argument

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The thousands are read as troops with the
hundreds read as the number of total fighting
men. The total population would be estimated at
20,000.