The sons of Joseph after their families were Manasseh and Ephraim.
The verse names Manasseh and Ephraim as the two family divisions of Joseph counted in the census. It belongs to Israel's second numbering in the wilderness, taken near the end of the forty years of wandering just before entering Canaan. That second numbering was taken forty years after the first census recorded in Numbers 1. It was taken in the plains of Moab thirty-eight years after the census at Sinai.
The census showed that the generation numbered the first time had died in the wilderness except Caleb and Joshua, fulfilling God's judgment on those who rebelled. The chapter is to be compared with the first census in Numbers 1 to note how the tribes changed in number during the wilderness journey, which tribes fell off and which increased, gained or lost members. Its reading gives interest and profit with valuable instruction in noting the difference in the tribes.
The adult males of the whole nation changed little between the two numberings, from 603,550 to 601,730, but the tribes changed considerably. Ephraim fell from 40,500 to 32,500, a decrease of 8,000, while Manasseh rose from 32,200 to 52,700, an increase of 20,500, almost two-thirds of its former size and the most pronounced growth of any tribe. The lesson of this numbering is submission to God's will.
The verse names Manasseh and Ephraim as the two family divisions of Joseph counted in the census. It belongs to Israel's second numbering in the wilderness, taken near the end of the forty years of wandering just before entering Canaan. That second numbering was taken forty years after the first census recorded in Numbers 1. It was taken in the plains of Moab thirty-eight years after the census at Sinai.
The census showed that the generation numbered the first time had died in the wilderness except Caleb and Joshua, fulfilling God's judgment on those who rebelled. The chapter is to be compared with the first census in Numbers 1 to note how the tribes changed in number during the wilderness journey, which tribes fell off and which increased, gained or lost members. Its reading gives interest and profit with valuable instruction in noting the difference in the tribes.
The adult males of the whole nation changed little between the two numberings, from 603,550 to 601,730, but the tribes changed considerably. Ephraim fell from 40,500 to 32,500, a decrease of 8,000, while Manasseh rose from 32,200 to 52,700, an increase of 20,500, almost two-thirds of its former size and the most pronounced growth of any tribe. The lesson of this numbering is submission to God's will.