The Census

(Book of Numbers 1:1 - 1:54)

One year after the Israelites had made their exodus from Egypt, on the first day of the second month, Jehovah spoke to Moses in the Tabernacle in the desert of Sinai.  He instructed him, "Take a census of the entire population of Israel, recording each person's name, his family, and his tribe.  You and Aaron must make a registry of every male who is twenty years of age or more and is able to bear arms.  You are to be assisted in this by each of the tribal chiefs.

"The names of the chiefs and their tribes are as follows:

Reuben: Elizur, the son of Shedeur
Simeon: Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai
Judah: Hahshon, the son of Amminadab
Issachar: Nethanel, the son of Zuar
Zebulun: Eliab, the son of Helon
Joseph (Ephraim): Elishama, the son of Ammihud
Joseph (Manasseh): Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur
Benjamin: Abidan, the son of Gideoni
Dan: Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai
Asher: Pagiel, the son of Ochran
Gad: Eliasaph, the son of Deuel
Naphtali: Ahira, the son of Enan

"These are the chosen leaders, the elders of the ancestral clans, the chiefs of the tribes of Israel."

Moses and Aaron summoned these leaders and, on that same day, assembled the entire population of Israel.  All the people were listed according to their family and tribe and the men twenty years old and above were individually registered, just as Jehovah had instructed Moses.  And so a census was taken there in the desert of Sinai.

Men twenty years old and above and able to bear arms were listed by name.  The following is the tally from each of Israel's tribes:

Reuben, Israel's first born: 46,500
Simeon: 59,300
Gad: 45,650
Judah: 74,600
Issachar: 54,400
Zebulun: 57,400
Joseph (Ephraim): 40,500
Joseph (Manasseh): 32,200
Benjamin: 35,400
Dan: 62,700
Asher: 41,500
Naphtali: 53,400

These were the men registered by Moses, Aaron, and the chiefs representing the tribes of Israel.  All men twenty years old and above and able to bear arms were listed by family.  Their total number was 603,550. 

Those of the ancestral tribe of Levi, however, were not counted with the others, for Jehovah had told Moses, "You should not count those of the tribe of Levi or include them in the census with the rest of the Israelites.  The Levites are to be stewards of the Holy Tabernacle, its equipment and furnishings, everything it contains.  They must tend and maintain it and transport it, and they must make their camp around it.  When the Tabernacle is to be moved, they will take it down, and when it is to be set up again, it is they who will do it.  If any unauthorized person approaches the Tabernacle, he is to be put to death. Each tribe of Israel will be assigned their own area in the encampment, marked with their tribal banner.  But the Levites will camp around the Tabernacle so that I may not vent my wrath upon the people of Israel.  They will guard and protect the Tabernacle."

The people of Israel did all that Jehovah had commanded Moses.

Notes
1. Numbers picks up the story of the Israelites a year after the Exodus, eleven months after their encampment beneath the holy mountain in Sinai.  Presumably the Tabernacle and its furnishings described in Exodus have been built.

2. Taking a census makes sense from an administrative and logistical point of view.  A new nation, forged from the tribes of Israel, descended from the sons of Jacob, was being formed, even if it had not yet reached the land on which it would settle.  Although censuses date to the early history of Egypt, historically citizens have had an ambivalent attitude toward them.  Numbering the populace has not always seemed benign, but has often been disparaged as the intrusive instrument of tyrants. --- It is interesting that in the New Testament Jesus would supposedly come to be born in Bethlehem because of a census.

3. A former census described in Exodus was taken in order to raise "money" through taxes.  The purpose of this census is to lay a foundation for the organization of a national army.

4. The numbers given for the various tribes must be regarded as fanciful.  A total of over 600,00 men able to bear arms would suggest a total population of 3 or 4 million, even more, if the Israelites were as prolific as the biblical texts suggest.   If the Israelites had remained in Egypt for 400 or 430 years as the biblical texts claim, technically there might be enough time for such a population to accrue.  However, since life spans in ancient times were short due to wars, disease, famine, poor nutrition, bad sanitation, and minimal medical care, it is very unlikely.  The frenetic population boom of a slave class asserted by the text conflicts with the reality that in ancient times population numbers were often stable and growth, if any, was slow.  (It should be mentioned that Israelite bondage being four centuries in length is problematic considering there were only 5 generations between Jacob and Moses!)   It is sheer nonsense to entertain the idea that such a horde could subsist in the desert wastes of Sinai, let alone journey en masse under any sort of effective leadership.   As has been noted before, an exodus of any more than a few thousand souls would have been impractical, if not impossible.  And there is, in fact, no historical or archaeological evidence to support any sort of exodus.  

5. That the numbers of this census and the names of the tribal chiefs would be remembered and regarded as important enough to be remembered nearly a thousand years later by biblical authors is remarkable.  One does suspect that the authors of Numbers cooked the books a bit to make the more important and respected tribes (Judah, for instance) look good with higher population numbers.  (Of course the record of the census may, like much of the Old Testament, be facilely interpreted as nationalistic propaganda intended to aggrandize ancestors.)

6. One also wonders how the census would have been recorded since the only writing the Israelites could have known would have been Egyptian hieroglyphics.

7. The second month, Iyar, occurs in April-May.

8. The Levites are charged not only to protect the Tabernacle from the common people, but to protect the common people from Jehovah.  It’s as if Jehovah was radioactive or a ferocious animal that needed to be caged.  To approach Jehovah or to violate what he regarded as sacred meant death.  His anger was not to be aroused or it meant destruction to the people.  The Levites (Moses and Aaron were Levites -- what a coincidence!) were intermediaries between Jehovah and his Israelite worshipers --- and placaters.  They, therefore, enjoyed special privileges, such as being exempt from military service.  The Levites must have numbered in the tens of thousands.  How would the Tabernacle find employment for all of them?  Some, to be sure, could be priests, but how many priests could serve in a single place of worship.  Many Levites would have to have been nothing more than glorified roustabouts who put up and took down the Tabernacle and its compound.  What would the rest of them do?  Would the Tabernacle have the need for thousands and thousands of “roustabouts”? -- even The Greatest Show on Earth doesn’t require so many.