Numbers 26:48, commentary and pictures

Numbers 26:48 belongs to Israel's second census or numbering, taken at the end of the forty years of wandering, forty years after the first census in Numbers 1, near the entry into Canaan in the plains of Moab. It is one of the book's two numberings, the numbering of Israel at the close of the forty years in the wilderness. The verse lists the families of Naphtali descended from his sons Jahzeel and Guni, naming the Jahzeelites and the Gunites and their family heads.

The second numbering is to be compared with the first census in Numbers 1 to see the differences among the tribes, how they gained or lost population during the wilderness journey. The comparison shows how some of the tribes fell off in number and how others increased, how the tribes changed in number during that time with some prospering while others declined. In the case of Naphtali, the comparison shows a decline from 53,400 to 45,400 between the two enumerations.

The second numbering shows that God fulfills his threatened judgments, in that all who had rebelled against God in the first generation died in the wilderness, with only Caleb and Joshua surviving from those counted the first time. Every man counted in the first numbering had died in the wilderness except Caleb and Joshua when the second numbering in Numbers 26 was taken. The second numbering was made necessary by the wickedness of the people, with sin in their midst breaking out in open, wanton rebellion against God, for which God by solemn oath excluded that generation from the land and doomed them to die in the wilderness.

The census to which the verse belongs was taken by Moses at the Lord's command, so it was authorized and caused no trouble, unlike David's later census. The section containing the verse belongs to a diversified reading that also includes various laws and ordinances with valuable instruction of interest and profit.