Numbers 26:42, commentary and pictures

Numbers 26:42 belongs to Israel's second census in Numbers 26, taken at the Lord's command through Moses in the plains of Moab at the close of the wilderness wandering, just before entering Canaan. It stands at the end of the forty years, nearly forty years after the first census in Numbers 1 taken soon after leaving Egypt. One reckoning places that second census in the plains of Moab thirty-eight years after the census at Sinai.

The verse lists Shuham as the family head and ancestor whose descendants formed the Shuhamites, and records that family among the families of Dan counted in the second census. In that census Dan's adult males numbered 64,400, compared with 62,700 in the first census, an increase of 1,700, while the whole nation's adult males changed little, from 603,550 to 601,730. The second numbering is to be compared with the first numbering in Numbers 1 to note the difference in the tribes, how they gained or lost population during the wilderness journey, with some tribes increasing greatly and others decreasing.

The census showed that, apart from Caleb and Joshua, none of the men counted in the first census remained alive to witness the second numbering; the rebellious generation had fallen and died in the wilderness. The second numbering thus fulfilled God's threatened judgment and was calculated to impress the fact that God will fulfill His threatened judgments. The terrible failure happened simply because the people were wicked, with sin in their midst breaking out at last in open, wanton rebellion against God, so that by a solemn oath He excluded them from the land and doomed them to die in the wilderness. The census Moses took shows that taking a census was not itself sinful, unlike David's census, which was taken without the Lord's consent and in pride and reliance on military strength.