Numbers 26:18

These are the families of the children of Gad according to those that were numbered of them, forty thousand and five hundred.

This numbering is Israel's second, taken near the end of the forty years in the wilderness, nearly forty years after leaving Egypt and forty years after the first census in Numbers 1, just before entering Canaan. It was taken in the plains of Moab thirty-eight years after the census at Sinai. It records the families of the children of Gad as numbered at 40,500 adult males.

The census is to be compared with the first numbering in Numbers 1, taken forty years earlier, to note the differences in the tribes and see how they gained or lost in number during the wilderness journey. Some tribes increased greatly, while others declined. For Gad the first numbering soon after leaving Egypt was 45,650, so the tribe decreased by 5,150 to 40,500, while the total of adult males in Israel changed little, from 603,550 to 601,730.

The second numbering shows that God's threatened judgment on the first generation was fulfilled, since none of those counted in the first numbering remained alive except Caleb and Joshua. The rest fell in the wilderness after being excluded from the promised land by a solemn oath, because sin was in their midst and broke out in open rebellion against God. The fulfillment proves beyond dispute that God's threatened judgments are accomplished.

It warns those on whom the ends of the world are come, whose hopes of entering the kingdom and whose tokens of God's favor, presence, and willingness to save cannot be greater than Israel's, that sin cherished in the heart will inevitably bring ruin and shut them out as it shut out Israel. The census under Moses was taken at God's command, in contrast to David's census, which was sinful because he ordered it without the Lord's consent. The verse stands with various laws and ordinances that give valuable instruction in diversified reading of interest and profit.

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