Numbers 26 Summary and Study Guide

Of the 603,550 men counted at Mount Sinai, two were still alive when Israel was counted again in the plains of Moab. Numbers 26 names them in its last verse, Caleb and Joshua. This Numbers 26 summary and study guide covers the Bible chapter where Moses and Eleazar number a second generation for war and for land.

Setting the Stage

Israel reached the edge of Canaan once before. Twelve men went in to look at the land, ten came back saying it could not be taken, and the people believed them and refused to go up. God answered in Numbers 14 with an oath: every man counted in the first census, from twenty years old and upward, would die in the wilderness, and only Caleb and Joshua would enter it.

Thirty-eight years later the nation is camped in Moab, across the Jordan from Jericho, with the land in sight again. Aaron has died and his son Eleazar now holds the high priest’s office. Numbers 26 is where God has the new generation counted, and where that old oath is checked against the roll.

Comprehensive Numbers 26 Summary

After the plague at Peor, God tells Moses and Eleazar to count Israel again. The brief is the one Moses was given at Sinai: every man of twenty and over who can go out to war, listed by his father’s house. This time the count is taken on the border of Canaan rather than in the desert, and this time the families inside each tribe are named as well as the totals, because land is about to be handed out.

The roll runs from Reuben to Naphtali, and three times it stops to look backwards. It stops at Reuben to say who Dathan and Abiram were, and to add that Korah’s sons were spared when the men who rebelled with their father were not. It stops at Judah for two of Judah’s own sons, Er and Onan, whom God had put to death in Canaan long before Israel went down to Egypt.

It stops at Manasseh for a man who left five daughters and no son, which is the problem the next chapter has to solve. The figures move as sharply as the names do. Simeon comes in at 22,200, having lost more than three fifths of its men since Sinai, while Manasseh comes in at 52,700, having gained almost two thirds. The whole number is 601,730, which is 1,820 fewer than at Sinai and near enough the same nation.

God then gives two rules for the land. The size of each inheritance is to follow the size of the tribe, so a large tribe receives more ground and a small tribe less. The place of each inheritance is to fall by lot, so no tribe chooses its own and no leader can be accused of favouring one.

The Levites are counted last and on their own, every male from a month old, because they receive no land at all. Their list ends with Amram and Jochebed, their children Aaron, Moses and Miriam, and Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu, who died offering strange fire.

Then the chapter does the thing it was written to do. It sets this roll beside the roll from Sinai and reports that no man appears on both, apart from Caleb and Joshua, which is exactly what God had said would happen in Numbers 14.

One Word Summary

• Replacement: one generation counted out, another counted in
• Inheritance: the count exists so the land can be divided
• Reckoning: God’s oath in Numbers 14 measured against a list of names

In One Sentence

Moses and Eleazar count 601,730 fighting men of the new generation in the plains of Moab, God tells them the land will be divided by size and by lot, and the roll shows that of all the men counted at Sinai only Caleb and Joshua are left.

Theme of Numbers 26

Numbers 26 is about God keeping His word on both sides of it. The oath He swore against the first generation is carried out to the last man, and the promise He made to Abraham of descendants beyond counting stands unbroken in the same set of figures. Two more ideas run alongside that one: God deals with people by name rather than by number, and the land ahead of them is a gift He assigns rather than a prize they win.

Numbers 26 Outline

• Numbers 26:1-4: After the plague, God tells Moses and Eleazar to count every man of twenty and over who is able to go to war.
• Numbers 26:5-11: Reuben is counted at 43,730, and the list pauses to recall Dathan and Abiram and to record that Korah’s sons did not die.
• Numbers 26:12-18: Simeon comes in at 22,200 and Gad at 40,500, the two tribes that camped alongside Reuben.
• Numbers 26:19-22: Judah is counted at 76,500, and the list pauses for Er and Onan, who had died in Canaan.
• Numbers 26:23-27: Issachar comes in at 64,300 and Zebulun at 60,500, completing Judah’s camp.
• Numbers 26:28-34: Manasseh is counted at 52,700, and Zelophehad’s five daughters are named because he had no son.
• Numbers 26:35-37: Ephraim is counted at 32,500, now the smaller of Joseph’s two tribes.
• Numbers 26:38-43: Benjamin comes in at 45,600 from seven families, and Dan at 64,400 from one.
• Numbers 26:44-50: Asher is counted at 53,400 and Naphtali at 45,400, closing the roll of the twelve.
• Numbers 26:51: The whole number of Israel is given as 601,730.
• Numbers 26:52-56: God sets two rules for dividing Canaan, the size of each portion by the count and the place of it by lot.
• Numbers 26:57-62: The Levites are counted separately at 23,000, every male from a month old, because they receive no land.
• Numbers 26:63-65: Moses and Eleazar find no man on this roll who was counted at Sinai, except Caleb and Joshua.

The Two Censuses Compared

The chapter is built to be read against Numbers 1. Here are both counts side by side, with the number of families each tribe is listed under in Numbers 26.

Seven tribes grew and five shrank. The gains come to 59,200 men and the losses to 61,020, so a net fall of 1,820 hides a great deal of movement underneath it. The Levites are not in the table because they were counted apart in both censuses, 22,000 at Sinai and 23,000 here (Numbers 3:39; Numbers 26:62).

Observations from Numbers 26

The Two Camps Moved in Opposite Directions (Verses 5 to 27)

In the wilderness Israel camped in four groups of three tribes (Numbers 2). Judah camped with Issachar and Zebulun, and Reuben camped with Simeon and Gad. Between the two censuses every tribe in Judah’s group grew, and every tribe in Reuben’s group shrank. For ten of the twelve tribes Scripture names no reason at all, so the pattern is a fact of the arithmetic rather than a verdict God hands down.

The two it does speak to, Reuben and Simeon, camped in the same group, which supplied the ringleaders of Korah’s revolt and the man killed at Peor. Judah, the tribe Israel’s kings would come from, reached the Jordan stronger than it had left Sinai. Reuben, the tribe of Israel’s firstborn son, reached it weaker.

The Roll Stops Three Times to Name the Dead (Verses 9 to 11, 19 and 61)

A muster roll lists the living. This one breaks off three times to name men who died under God’s judgment: Dathan and Abiram with Korah in Reuben’s entry, Er and Onan in Judah’s, Nadab and Abihu in Levi’s. Those three tribes carry Israel’s oldest line, its throne and its altar. The generation about to receive an inheritance is handed the record of men who lost everything they might have inherited.

Three Women Are Named in a Count of Men (Verses 33, 46 and 59)

The census lists males of twenty and over, and yet it names Zelophehad’s five daughters, Serah the daughter of Asher, and Jochebed the mother of Moses. Zelophehad’s daughters appear because the next chapter turns on their claim to their father’s land (Numbers 27:1-11).

Jochebed appears in the priestly line because Moses, who is taking this census, is her son. Serah is simply named, with no reason given here or anywhere else in Scripture. God had the record of a fighting force written down, and three women were written into it.

Dan Is Counted in One Family and Benjamin in Seven (Verses 38 to 43)

Benjamin went down into Egypt with ten sons (Genesis 46:21) and appears here with seven families and 45,600 men. Dan appears with one family, descended from one son, and 64,400 men. The chapter sets the two entries next to each other and makes no comment on them. Whatever made a tribe grow, it was not the number of sons its father started with.

Difficult Verses Explained

How Could the Sons of Korah Live When the Earth Swallowed Korah’s House?

Numbers 16 never says that Korah’s children were swallowed. The sentence reads: “and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children” (Numbers 16:27).

The families standing in the doorways belong to Dathan and Abiram, and Korah’s sons are not in that list at all, which is why Numbers 26:11 can say plainly that they did not die. Verse 58 then lists the Korathites, meaning Korah’s own family line, among the serving families of Levi, and the titles of Psalms 42, 44 through 49, 84, 85, 87 and 88 name the sons of Korah as the singers behind them.

Was Korah Swallowed by the Earth or Burned by the Fire?

Scripture does not settle it. Verse 10 as the King James renders it puts Korah in the ground with Dathan and Abiram. Against that, Numbers 16:35 has fire consuming the 250 men who offered incense, and Psalm 106:17 mentions only Dathan and Abiram as swallowed. What the chapter does settle is the point it makes: Korah died under God’s judgment along with his company, and what happened to them was set up as a warning for everyone who came after.

If Moses and Eleazar Were Alive, What Does “Not a Man Left” Mean?

It means not one man of those counted in the first census. Verse 64 says so directly: there was not a man “whom Moses and Aaron the priest numbered” in the wilderness of Sinai. The group being measured is the first muster roll, and the sentence of Numbers 14 fell on exactly that group, the fighting men of twenty and over.

The Levites were never included in that count (Numbers 1:47-49), which is why Eleazar and Ithamar were still alive and serving, and Moses himself was alive to take this census before he died on Mount Nebo.

Is the Land Divided by Size or by Lot?

Both, and the two rules govern different things. Verses 53 and 54 fix how much: a larger tribe receives a larger inheritance and a smaller tribe a smaller one, in proportion to the names just counted. Verse 55 fixes where: “the land shall be divided by lot.”

The lot decided which part of Canaan a tribe would settle in, and the count decided how much of it the tribe would hold, so no family could claim a leader had favoured someone else, and no family could think God had no hand in where they ended up. One qualification is worth keeping in view: Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh later asked for land east of the Jordan (Numbers 32), so the lot described here divided Canaan itself among nine and a half tribes.

Common Misunderstandings

• That the plague of Numbers 25 finished off the condemned generation. The chapter dates the census by the plague and says nothing about who died in it. Deuteronomy 2:14 puts the wasting away of that whole generation earlier, at the crossing of the brook Zered, and the men who joined themselves to Baal at Peor were more likely to be young men than old ones. Teachers read verse 1 both ways, and the text itself does not decide it.
• That the rise and fall of the tribes is a scoreboard of faithfulness. Scripture supplies a cause for Simeon and points at one for Reuben. For Ephraim, down a fifth, and Manasseh, up almost two thirds, it supplies nothing at all, and reading a verdict into those figures says more than God said. Moses blessed the two tribes after this census and still gave Ephraim “ten thousands” against Manasseh’s “thousands” (Deuteronomy 33:17), which promises Ephraim the larger future even though it had just come in the smaller. The count did not overturn the promise.
• That the Levites were left out of the count as a slight. Verse 62 gives the reason, that no inheritance of land was given to them among the other tribes. They were counted, on a different rule, from a month old rather than from twenty years.
• That taking a census was itself sinful. David’s census in 2 Samuel 24 brought judgment, and that one came with no command from God behind it; David called it sin himself afterwards (2 Samuel 24:10). This one was commanded by God, as the first one was.

Christ Connection

The New Testament reads the last two verses of this chapter and turns them toward the reader. Hebrews asks who it was that God was grieved with for forty years and answers: “was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?” (Hebrews 3:17). The bodies that never reached Canaan belonged to people who had sinned against God, and Hebrews 3:19 gives the reason in one word, unbelief.

Then comes the conclusion: “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it” (Hebrews 4:1). He aims that at the living rather than at the dead. God’s rest is still on offer, and he tells his readers to treat the offer with the fear it deserves.

Paul reads the same wilderness deaths the same way: “they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples” (1 Corinthians 10:5-6), which means the men who died on the way are set before later readers as a pattern to learn from.

From there the chapter points to Christ along four lines:

• Joshua’s name is the pointer. Joshua is one of the two survivors in verse 65, and he is the man who leads Israel in. Jesus is the Greek form of the name Joshua, and Hebrews 4:8-9 argues that if Joshua had given them the real rest, God would not afterward have spoken of another day, so a rest still remains for the people of God.
• The lot became a word for what believers inherit. The Hebrew word for the lot in verse 55 is carried into Greek as kleros, and the apostles build their language of inheritance on it. Christ sent Paul so that people might receive “inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (Acts 26:18), which is a share in what belongs to God’s own people, given to those set apart by trusting Christ. Paul thanks the Father who “hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12), meaning God Himself has made believers fit to receive it. What fell to a tribe by lot in Canaan is the picture the New Testament reaches for when it describes what belongs to a believer in Christ.
• The line to Christ is inside the census. Verse 21 names Hezron and Hamul, the sons of Pharez in the tribe of Judah. Ruth 4:18 carries that line on from Pharez to Hezron and forward to David, and Matthew 1:3 carries the same names into the genealogy of Jesus. The register of a defeated generation’s children is also the family record through which God’s promise to Abraham and to Judah travelled down to Christ.
• God counts His own by name. This chapter enrolls a nation name by name, and the New Testament keeps the picture. Paul writes that God’s foundation stands sure, “having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his” (2 Timothy 2:19), which means God is not in any doubt about who belongs to Him. Christ promises the one who overcomes, “I will not blot out his name out of the book of life” (Revelation 3:5).

One more link turns on a single word and is worth naming carefully. Verse 10 says that Dathan, Abiram and Korah “became a sign”, and the Hebrew word behind “sign” is nes, a pole or banner lifted where everyone can see it. It is the same word used of the pole Moses set the bronze serpent on (Numbers 21:8), and Jesus applied that raised serpent to Himself: “even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).

Anyone who trusts the lifted-up Son will live forever. Scripture does not draw a line between the two chapters, so this may be no more than one word doing two jobs. What the two raised signs plainly share is that Israel was told to look, and what they were looking at decided whether they were being warned or saved.

When, Where, and Why

• When: In the fortieth year after the exodus, soon after the plague at Peor and not long before Israel crossed the Jordan. Aaron had died at Mount Hor earlier in that same year (Numbers 33:38).
• Where: The plains of Moab, east of the Jordan and opposite Jericho (verse 3). The first census had been taken at Mount Sinai in the second year (Numbers 1:1). The first count prepared Israel to march; this one prepares them to cross.
• Why: Moses records the census for the two working reasons the chapter itself gives, an army to raise and a land to divide, and for a third that only the last two verses make plain. He is showing his readers that God did exactly what He said He would do in Numbers 14, down to the last man on the list.

Key Verses

Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, throughout their fathers’ house, all that are able to go to war in Israel. (Numbers 26:2)

God asks for a count of the fighting men, listed by family. This is the brief for the whole chapter, and the mention of the fathers’ houses is why the second census names the families inside each tribe when the first one gave only totals.

These were the numbered of the children of Israel, six hundred thousand and a thousand seven hundred and thirty. (Numbers 26:51)

Israel’s total came to 601,730 men. Set beside the 603,550 of Numbers 1:46, that figure carries the argument of the whole chapter in one line: a generation died and the nation did not.

Unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names. (Numbers 26:53)

Canaan will be shared out among the people just counted, in proportion to how many names each tribe has. God speaks of the land as already theirs to divide while they are still standing outside it.

Key Lessons from Numbers 26

• God carried out the sentence of Numbers 14 to the last man, so His warnings can be trusted exactly as far as His promises (Numbers 26:64-65).
• The same figures that record a generation’s death also record a nation that came out of the wilderness nearly as strong as it went in, which is mercy running alongside judgment (Numbers 26:51).
• Korah’s sons lived and served, so a family’s worst chapter does not have to be its last one (Numbers 26:11).
• To be counted here was to be named, and God still deals with people one at a time rather than in totals (Numbers 26:53).
• The place of every tribe’s inheritance fell by lot, which puts the choice of where God’s people settle in His hands rather than in a leader’s (Numbers 26:55).

To keep going through this book chapter by chapter, read our full study: The Book of Numbers Summary by Chapter (1-36).

To go deeper into what this chapter teaches, read our full study: Lessons from Numbers 26.

Bible Study Questions

1. Read Numbers 26:1-4 beside Numbers 1:1-3. What is the same in the two commands, and what has changed?
2. Verse 11 says the children of Korah did not die. What does that tell you about how God deals with the family of a man under judgment?
3. Verses 54 and 55 give two different rules for dividing the land. Why would God fix the size by the count and the place by lot?
4. Three times the roll pauses over men who were already dead (verses 9 to 11, 19 and 61). Why would Moses put those names in a list of the living?
5. Hebrews 4:1 applies verse 65 to people reading it now. What does that verse ask of you this week?
6. Which change in the table of the two censuses surprised you most, and what did you find when you went looking for a reason in the text?

Frequently Asked Questions

Numbers 26, The Full Text (KJV)

Read the full chapter below for reference.

1 And it came to pass after the plague, that the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying,

2 Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, throughout their fathers’ house, all that are able to go to war in Israel.

3 And Moses and Eleazar the priest spake with them in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying,

4 Take the sum of the people, from twenty years old and upward; as the LORD commanded Moses and the children of Israel, which went forth out of the land of Egypt.

5 Reuben, the eldest son of Israel: the children of Reuben; Hanoch, of whom cometh the family of the Hanochites: of Pallu, the family of the Palluites:

6 Of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites: of Carmi, the family of the Carmites.

7 These are the families of the Reubenites: and they that were numbered of them were forty and three thousand and seven hundred and thirty.

8 And the sons of Pallu; Eliab.

9 And the sons of Eliab; Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram. This is that Dathan and Abiram, which were famous in the congregation, who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove against the LORD:

10 And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died, what time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men: and they became a sign.

11 Notwithstanding the children of Korah died not.

12 The sons of Simeon after their families: of Nemuel, the family of the Nemuelites: of Jamin, the family of the Jaminites: of Jachin, the family of the Jachinites:

13 Of Zerah, the family of the Zarhites: of Shaul, the family of the Shaulites.

14 These are the families of the Simeonites, twenty and two thousand and two hundred.

15 The children of Gad after their families: of Zephon, the family of the Zephonites: of Haggi, the family of the Haggites: of Shuni, the family of the Shunites:

16 Of Ozni, the family of the Oznites: of Eri, the family of the Erites:

17 Of Arod, the family of the Arodites: of Areli, the family of the Arelites.

18 These are the families of the children of Gad according to those that were numbered of them, forty thousand and five hundred.

19 The sons of Judah were Er and Onan: and Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan.

20 And the sons of Judah after their families were; of Shelah, the family of the Shelanites: of Pharez, the family of the Pharzites: of Zerah, the family of the Zarhites.

21 And the sons of Pharez were; of Hezron, the family of the Hezronites: of Hamul, the family of the Hamulites.

22 These are the families of Judah according to those that were numbered of them, threescore and sixteen thousand and five hundred.

23 Of the sons of Issachar after their families: of Tola, the family of the Tolaites: of Pua, the family of the Punites:

24 Of Jashub, the family of the Jashubites: of Shimron, the family of the Shimronites.

25 These are the families of Issachar according to those that were numbered of them, threescore and four thousand and three hundred.

26 Of the sons of Zebulun after their families: of Sered, the family of the Sardites: of Elon, the family of the Elonites: of Jahleel, the family of the Jahleelites.

27 These are the families of the Zebulunites according to those that were numbered of them, threescore thousand and five hundred.

28 The sons of Joseph after their families were Manasseh and Ephraim.

29 Of the sons of Manasseh: of Machir, the family of the Machirites: and Machir begat Gilead: of Gilead come the family of the Gileadites.

30 These are the sons of Gilead: of Jeezer, the family of the Jeezerites: of Helek, the family of the Helekites:

31 And of Asriel, the family of the Asrielites: and of Shechem, the family of the Shechemites:

32 And of Shemida, the family of the Shemidaites: and of Hepher, the family of the Hepherites.

33 And Zelophehad the son of Hepher had no sons, but daughters: and the names of the daughters of Zelophehad were Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

34 These are the families of Manasseh, and those that were numbered of them, fifty and two thousand and seven hundred.

35 These are the sons of Ephraim after their families: of Shuthelah, the family of the Shuthalhites: of Becher, the family of the Bachrites: of Tahan, the family of the Tahanites.

36 And these are the sons of Shuthelah: of Eran, the family of the Eranites.

37 These are the families of the sons of Ephraim according to those that were numbered of them, thirty and two thousand and five hundred. These are the sons of Joseph after their families.

38 The sons of Benjamin after their families: of Bela, the family of the Belaites: of Ashbel, the family of the Ashbelites: of Ahiram, the family of the Ahiramites:

39 Of Shupham, the family of the Shuphamites: of Hupham, the family of the Huphamites.

40 And the sons of Bela were Ard and Naaman: of Ard, the family of the Ardites: and of Naaman, the family of the Naamites.

41 These are the sons of Benjamin after their families: and they that were numbered of them were forty and five thousand and six hundred.

42 These are the sons of Dan after their families: of Shuham, the family of the Shuhamites. These are the families of Dan after their families.

43 All the families of the Shuhamites, according to those that were numbered of them, were threescore and four thousand and four hundred.

44 Of the children of Asher after their families: of Jimna, the family of the Jimnites: of Jesui, the family of the Jesuites: of Beriah, the family of the Beriites.

45 Of the sons of Beriah: of Heber, the family of the Heberites: of Malchiel, the family of the Malchielites.

46 And the name of the daughter of Asher was Sarah.

47 These are the families of the sons of Asher according to those that were numbered of them; who were fifty and three thousand and four hundred.

48 Of the sons of Naphtali after their families: of Jahzeel, the family of the Jahzeelites: of Guni, the family of the Gunites:

49 Of Jezer, the family of the Jezerites: of Shillem, the family of the Shillemites.

50 These are the families of Naphtali according to their families: and they that were numbered of them were forty and five thousand and four hundred.

51 These were the numbered of the children of Israel, six hundred thousand and a thousand seven hundred and thirty.

52 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

53 Unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names.

54 To many thou shalt give the more inheritance, and to few thou shalt give the less inheritance: to every one shall his inheritance be given according to those that were numbered of him.

55 Notwithstanding the land shall be divided by lot: according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit.

56 According to the lot shall the possession thereof be divided between many and few.

57 And these are they that were numbered of the Levites after their families: of Gershon, the family of the Gershonites: of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites: of Merari, the family of the Merarites.

58 These are the families of the Levites: the family of the Libnites, the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Mahlites, the family of the Mushites, the family of the Korathites. And Kohath begat Amram.

59 And the name of Amram’s wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom her mother bare to Levi in Egypt: and she bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister.

60 And unto Aaron was born Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

61 And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the LORD.

62 And those that were numbered of them were twenty and three thousand, all males from a month old and upward: for they were not numbered among the children of Israel, because there was no inheritance given them among the children of Israel.

63 These are they that were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.

64 But among these there was not a man of them whom Moses and Aaron the priest numbered, when they numbered the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.

65 For the LORD had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.