John Calvin Commentary Numbers 26

And it came to pass after the plague. This is the second census of which we read as having been made by Moses. Nevertheless, it is easy to perceive from Exodus 38 that it was at least the third, although it is more probable that either yearly, or at stated times, those who had arrived at the age of twenty gave in their names. Still, the number of the people could not be obtained in this way unless there were also a comparison of the deaths.

This, at any rate, is incontrovertible: those who had grown up to manhood were three times numbered in the desert. For we gather this from the passage before us, since it is said in the fourth verse that this enrolment was made as the Lord had commanded Moses, and the children of Israel, who went forth out of the land of Egypt; From this, it is plain not only that they followed as their rule the custom established from the beginning, but also that the census of the people was again taken, as it had been in the wilderness of Sinai.

From this, again, a probable conjecture may be made that, from the time they came out from there, nothing similar had taken place in the interval. For Moses there records how many talents were collected from the tribute of the people and mentions their number, namely, 603,550¹⁹¹, and he adds afterwards, when they moved their camp from Mount Sinai, how the census was taken according to God’s command. However, I pass over this subject the more cursorily, as it has already been spoken of elsewhere.¹⁹²

Now let us see for what purpose God desired to have His people numbered before He led them into the possession of the promised land. In less than forty years, the whole generation of an age for military service had perished; many had been carried off by premature deaths. Indeed, a single scourge had lately destroyed 24,000. Who would not have thought that the people must have been diminished by a fourth? We must then consider it a remarkable miracle that their numbers should be found as great as they were before. It was a memorable proof of God’s anger that only two of the 603,000 still survived. However, that by continued generation the people were so renewed that, at the conclusion of the period, their posterity equaled their former number, was the work of God’s inestimable grace. Thus, in that awful judgment with which God punished His sinful people, the truth of His promise still shone forth. It had been said to Abraham:

I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore, (Genesis 22:17).

And it was by no means fitting that this blessing should be obscured at the time when the other part of the promise was about to be fulfilled: Unto thy seed will I give this land. (Genesis 12:7). For, while the people had been instructed by punishments to fear God, still they were not to lose the savor of His paternal favor. And thus God always tempers His judgments towards His Church, so as to remember mercy in the midst of His indignation, as Habakkuk says (Habakkuk 3:2). This was the reason the people were numbered immediately after the plague, so that it might be more conspicuous that God had marvellously provided lest any diminution should appear after the recent loss of so many men.

And the sons of Pallu; Eliab. The curtailment that had occurred in the senior line is introduced here, either in exaltation of God’s grace, because, despite so great a loss, the tribe of Reuben was still numerous; or else to mark the cause of its diminution, as it might otherwise have seemed strange that other tribes exceeded in numbers the one whose founder and parent was Jacob’s first-born.

But when he has narrated how the two sons of Eliab had been destroyed with their company, he briefly refers to God’s clemency towards the sons of Korah, in that He spared them.

Surely this was no ordinary act of mercy: not only to preserve them unharmed by the calamity but afterwards to raise up shoots from the accursed root, in whom His spiritual riches might shine forth for the general benefit of the Church. For we know what honorable mention is often made of this family; and it is probable that some of them authored certain Psalms and were thus endowed with the Spirit of prophecy, when perhaps at that time none of the priests possessed this gift.

This is that profound abyss in the various and unequal judgments of God, which it is fitting for us to adore with sober humility.

Meanwhile, Moses hints in a single word at the reason why he repeats this same history: so that the formidable manner of their death might be held up as a perpetual example. For the Hebrew word נס, nes, which is primarily a standard¹⁹³ or banner, is often used for something portentous that strikes people’s senses with astonishment and at the same time fills their minds with fear.

The sons of Joseph after their families. The comparison of the two tribes, which sprang from the same head, is worthy of notice. Because Manasseh was the father of only one son,¹⁹⁴ the prophecy of Jacob, when he declared that the first-born would be inferior to his younger brother Ephraim, already began to be fulfilled. Nevertheless, God’s blessing extended far and wide for the increase of his family, so that they exceeded the tribe of Reuben in number. Furthermore, though the larger number of children (πολυτεκνία) in which the descendants of Ephraim were superior was a kind of type of his promised fruitfulness, still the excellence and dignity, of which Jacob prophesied, were deferred to a distant period; since in this respect the tribe of Ephraim was inferior by about a third, whereas more numerous offspring had been promised him. Although, therefore, God had not spoken in vain, yet the fulfillment of His promise did not immediately appear.

In the tribe of Dan, however, the incredible power of God was displayed. He was contemptible among his brothers; and for that reason, it was an extraordinary blessing granted to him in the form of an honorable status and name when Jacob declares that Dan shall judge his people (Genesis 49:16). He is said to have fathered only one son; yet his posterity exceeded 64,000.