SERIES F --- WILDERNESS WANDERINGS --- LESSON 05

READY TO INHERIT

A NEW CENSUS OF THE PEOPLE

From Numbers 26

When the plague ended, Adonai again Commanded Moses and Aaron’s son Eleazar to count the people. Take a census by tribe and clan of all Israelite men twenty years of age and older, who can go to war, Adonai ordered. While the people remained in the plains of Moab across the Jordan River from Jericho, Moses and Eleazar gave orders for the census. Number the men twenty years of age and older, they said, counting those who came out of Egypt. Here is the result of the census. The clans of each tribe are listed, with the name of the ancestor for whom each tribe was named:

The tribe of Reuben = 43,730. The clans of that tribe were: the Hanochites {Hanoch}, Palluites {Pallu}, Hezronites {Hezron} and Carmites {Carmi}. The clan of Pallu was made up of the families of Nemuel, Abiram and Dathan. [These were the same Abiram and Dathan who rebelled against Moses and Aaron, contending against Adonai. But Adonai warned the nation by opening the earth to swallow them and two hundred and fifty other leaders.]

The tribe of Simeon = 22,200. The clans of that tribe were: the Nemuelites {Nemuel}, Jaminites {Jamin}, Jachinites {Jachin}, Zarhites, {Zerah} and Shaulites {Shaul}.

The tribe of Gad = 40,500. The clans of that tribe were: the Zephonites {Zephon}, Haggites {Haggi}, Shunites {Shuni}, Oznites {Ozni}, Erites {Eri}, Arodites {Arod}, and Arelites {Areli}.

The tribe of Judah = 76,500. The clans of that tribe were: the Shelanites {Shelah}, Pharzites {Pharez}, Zarhites {Zerah}. There were no clans for Judah’s sons Er and Onan who died in the land of Canaan. Two families in the tribe of Perez were also included, the Hezronites {Hezron} and the Hamulites {Hamul}.

The tribe of Issachar = 64,300. The clans of that tribe were: the Tolaites {Tola}, Punites {Pua}, Jashubites {Jashub}, and Shimronites {Shimron}.

The tribe of Zebulun = 60,500. The clans of that tribe were: the Sardites {Sered}, Elonites {Elon}, and Jahleelites {Jahleel}.

The descendants of Joseph -- The tribe of Ephraim = 32,500. The tribe of Manasseh = 52,750. The clan of the tribe of Manasseh was the Machirites {Machir}. The family descended from that clan was the Gileadites {Gilead}. Gilead’s descendants were: the Jeezerites {Jeezer}, Helekites {Helek}, Asrielites {Asriel}, Shechemites {Shechem}, Shemidaites {Shemida} and Hepherites {Hepher}. Hepher’s son Zelophehad had five daughters but no sons. His five daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. The clans of the tribe of Ephraim were: the Shuthalhites {Shuthelah}, the Bachrites {Becher} and the Tahanites {Tahan}. The Eranites {Eran} were a family of the Shuthalhites.

The tribe of Benjamin = 45,600. The clan of Belaites was named for Bela. This clan had six families: the Ardites {Ard}, Naamites {Naaman}, Ashbelites {Ashbel}, Ahiramites {Ahiram}, Shuphamites {Shupham} and Huphamites {Hupham}.

The tribe of Dan = 64,400. The clan of the Shuhamites was named for Shuham.

The tribe of Asher = 53,400. The clans of this tribe were: the Jimnites {Jimna}, Jesuites {Jesui}, and Beriites {Beriah}. The clan of Beriah had two families, the Heberites {Heber} and the Malchielites {Malchiel}. Asher had one daughter named Sarah.

The tribe of Naphtali = 45,400. The clans of this tribe were: the Jahzeelites {Jahzeel}, Gunites {Guni}, Jezerites {Jezer} and Shillemites {Shillem}.

Altogether there were 601,730 Israelite men twenty years of age and older. Then Adonai said to Moses, Divide the land among the tribes according to the number of men in each tribe. Give a large inheritance to a large tribe and a small inheritance to a small tribe. Let this inheritance be divided by lot, with larger tribes drawing for larger sections of land and smaller tribes drawing for smaller sections.

The Levites had the following clans: the Gershonites {Gershon}, Kohathites {Kohath}, and Merarites {Merari}. There were also the following families in the tribe of Levi: The Libnites, Hebronites, Mahlites, Mushites and Korahites. Levi’s daughter Jochebed, who was born to him in Egypt, married Amram the son of Kohath. Their children were Moses, Aaron and Miriam. Aaron’s sons were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. Nadab and Abihu died when they offered unholy fire to Adonai. There were 23,000 Levites one month of age and older in the census. But the Levites were not counted in the total number of Israelites in the census, for they received no land for an inheritance when the land was divided among the tribes. These were the figures gathered in the census by Moses and Eleazar the priest, taken while the people of Israel camped in the plains of Moab, across the Jordan River from Jericho. Not one man in this census was alive when the first census was taken in the Wilderness of Sinai. All of them had died, as Adonai said they would when He promised ‘they will all die in the wilderness.’ Only Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun was still alive.

COMMENTARY

LIFE THEY LEFT BEHIND: LETTER WRITING IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Messages in Bible times were either memorized and given orally or written down and delivered by hand. Sometimes the message was inscribed on wax-covered writing tablets. Egyptian rulers wrote letters on scrolls made of papyrus. In Mesopotamia, messages were inscribed on clay prisms, cylinders or clay tablets. In 1887, an Egyptian peasant woman found some crumbling tablets in her garden. They were written in cuneiform, an alphabet with wedge-shaped symbols. She sold some for about fifty cents and used the rest as fertilizer. By the time they came to the attention of an official of the British Museum, only a little over three hundred and fifty remained. When they were deciphered and translated, some turned out to be school texts teaching Egyptian students Akkadian, the language of Mesopotamia. But most were letters from the rulers of the city-states in Canaan to the pharaoh in Egypt. Canaan was part of the Egyptian Empire at the time. The letters are full of gossip and bad news. In some, the rulers accuse each other of disloyalty to the pharaoh. In others, they accuse each other of attacking him. The pharaoh seems to have paid very little attention. King Rib-Addi of Byblos had to write at least fifty-three times before the pharaoh responded. The Amarna Letters, as the tablets are called, talk of a people named Apiru. It is thought they might be the Hebrews. Many of the events mentioned in the tablets also appear in the Bible.