John Calvin Commentary Numbers 26:1

"And it came to pass after the plague, that Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying," — Numbers 26:1 (ASV)

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.

¹⁹¹ In the Lat. these numbers are misprinted, 600,550; in the these numbers are misprinted, 600,550; in the Fr., 650,300.650,300.

¹⁹² On Numbers 1, etc., , etc., vol. 3, pp. 437, , et seq. Fr. substitutes for the last clause, “pource qu’il n’est point de grande importance;” because it is not of great importance.substitutes for the last clause, “pource qu’il n’est point de grande importance;” because it is not of great importance.