Of Ozni, the family of the Oznites: of Eri, the family of the Erites:
Numbers 26:16 belongs to the second numbering of Israel in Numbers 26, taken in the plains of Moab at the close of the forty years of wandering, just before entering Canaan, nearly thirty-eight to forty years after the first numbering taken soon after leaving Egypt at Sinai. It names two families of Gad, the Oznites descended from Ozni and the Erites from Eri. Like the first numbering in Numbers 1-3, this second numbering lists families with definite numbers of men of a certain age. The thirty-six chapters of Numbers between the two enumerations contain inspired arithmetic in which the total number of adult males remained nearly unchanged while the numbers of the separate tribes changed considerably.
Gad, the tribe to which these families belong, decreased from 45,650 to 40,500 between the two numberings. Set together with the first census in Numbers 1, taken forty years earlier, the verse helps show how the tribes gained and lost during the wilderness journey, with some falling off and declining and others increasing and prospering. The second numbering makes manifest that God's threatened judgments had been accomplished, for not one man counted the first time was still alive except Caleb and Joshua, since the rest had fallen in the wilderness. Their sin had broken out in open, wanton rebellion, so that by solemn oath God excluded that wicked generation from the land and doomed it to die.
For those upon whom the ends of the world are come, the verse teaches that hopes of entering the kingdom of God and tokens of God's favor, presence, and willingness to save do not secure entrance if sin is carried in the heart, for sin inevitably brings ruin. The census to which the verse belongs was taken by Moses at the Lord's command, and unlike David's later census, this commanded count brought no trouble.
Numbers 26:16 belongs to the second numbering of Israel in Numbers 26, taken in the plains of Moab at the close of the forty years of wandering, just before entering Canaan, nearly thirty-eight to forty years after the first numbering taken soon after leaving Egypt at Sinai. It names two families of Gad, the Oznites descended from Ozni and the Erites from Eri. Like the first numbering in Numbers 1-3, this second numbering lists families with definite numbers of men of a certain age. The thirty-six chapters of Numbers between the two enumerations contain inspired arithmetic in which the total number of adult males remained nearly unchanged while the numbers of the separate tribes changed considerably.
Gad, the tribe to which these families belong, decreased from 45,650 to 40,500 between the two numberings. Set together with the first census in Numbers 1, taken forty years earlier, the verse helps show how the tribes gained and lost during the wilderness journey, with some falling off and declining and others increasing and prospering. The second numbering makes manifest that God's threatened judgments had been accomplished, for not one man counted the first time was still alive except Caleb and Joshua, since the rest had fallen in the wilderness. Their sin had broken out in open, wanton rebellion, so that by solemn oath God excluded that wicked generation from the land and doomed it to die.
For those upon whom the ends of the world are come, the verse teaches that hopes of entering the kingdom of God and tokens of God's favor, presence, and willingness to save do not secure entrance if sin is carried in the heart, for sin inevitably brings ruin. The census to which the verse belongs was taken by Moses at the Lord's command, and unlike David's later census, this commanded count brought no trouble.