Of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites: of Carmi, the family of the Carmites.
Numbers 26:6 belongs to the second numbering of the host of Israel at the end of the forty years of wandering, just before entering Canaan, answering the first numbering at the opening of the book in chapter 1 about forty years after leaving Egypt. That second census was taken in the plains of Moab, thirty-eight years after the census at Sinai. The book is called Numbers because it contains this numbering.
The verse gives part of that inspired arithmetic, listing the Hezronite and Carmite families among the descendants of Reuben counted in that census. The census can be compared with the numbering in chapter 1 to show how the tribes gained or lost members during the wilderness journey and the forty years, with some prospering and others declining, some falling off and others increasing. In that count Reuben totaled 43,730 adult males, a decrease of 2,770 from the 46,500 counted soon after leaving Egypt, within a national total of 601,730 compared with 603,550 at the first numbering.
The second numbering shows that not one man counted the first time was alive to witness it except Caleb and Joshua, because every other person of that generation had fallen in the wilderness. It proves that God fulfills his threatened judgments, for the people were wicked and broke out in open, wanton rebellion against God, so by solemn oath he excluded them from the land of promise and doomed them to die in the wilderness. It warns those upon whom the ends of the world are come, whose hopes of entering the kingdom of God cannot be stronger than Israel's hopes at the first numbering and who cannot have greater tokens of God's favor, presence, and willingness to save, that they will likewise come short if sin is carried in the heart, since sin inevitably brings ruin. Together with various laws and ordinances, the second numbering stands as diversified reading of interest and profit containing valuable instruction.
Numbers 26:6 belongs to the second numbering of the host of Israel at the end of the forty years of wandering, just before entering Canaan, answering the first numbering at the opening of the book in chapter 1 about forty years after leaving Egypt. That second census was taken in the plains of Moab, thirty-eight years after the census at Sinai. The book is called Numbers because it contains this numbering.
The verse gives part of that inspired arithmetic, listing the Hezronite and Carmite families among the descendants of Reuben counted in that census. The census can be compared with the numbering in chapter 1 to show how the tribes gained or lost members during the wilderness journey and the forty years, with some prospering and others declining, some falling off and others increasing. In that count Reuben totaled 43,730 adult males, a decrease of 2,770 from the 46,500 counted soon after leaving Egypt, within a national total of 601,730 compared with 603,550 at the first numbering.
The second numbering shows that not one man counted the first time was alive to witness it except Caleb and Joshua, because every other person of that generation had fallen in the wilderness. It proves that God fulfills his threatened judgments, for the people were wicked and broke out in open, wanton rebellion against God, so by solemn oath he excluded them from the land of promise and doomed them to die in the wilderness. It warns those upon whom the ends of the world are come, whose hopes of entering the kingdom of God cannot be stronger than Israel's hopes at the first numbering and who cannot have greater tokens of God's favor, presence, and willingness to save, that they will likewise come short if sin is carried in the heart, since sin inevitably brings ruin. Together with various laws and ordinances, the second numbering stands as diversified reading of interest and profit containing valuable instruction.