9 The sons of Eliab: Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram. These are that Dathan and Abiram, who were called of the congregation, who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove against Yahweh,
Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took [men]: and they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred fifty princes of the congregation, called to the assembly, men of renown; and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, You take too much on you, seeing all the congregation are holy, everyone of them, and Yahweh is among them: why then lift yourselves up above the assembly of Yahweh? When Moses heard it, he fell on his face: and he spoke to Korah and to all his company, saying, In the morning Yahweh will show who are his, and who is holy, and will cause him to come near to him: even him whom he shall choose will he cause to come near to him. This do: take you censers, Korah, and all his company; and put fire in them, and put incense on them before Yahweh tomorrow: and it shall be that the man whom Yahweh does choose, he [shall be] holy: you take too much on you, you sons of Levi. Moses said to Korah, Hear now, you sons of Levi: [seems it but] a small thing to you, that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do the service of the tent of Yahweh, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them; and that he has brought you near, and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you? and seek you the priesthood also? Therefore you and all your company are gathered together against Yahweh: and Aaron, what is he who you murmur against him? Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab; and they said, We won't come up: is it a small thing that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, but you must needs make yourself also a prince over us? Moreover you haven't brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: will you put out the eyes of these men? we won't come up. Moses was very angry, and said to Yahweh, "Don't respect their offering: I have not taken one donkey from them, neither have I hurt one of them." Moses said to Korah, You and all your company go before Yahweh, you, and they, and Aaron, tomorrow: and take every man his censer, and put incense on them, and bring you before Yahweh every man his censer, two hundred fifty censers; you also, and Aaron, each his censer. They took every man his censer, and put fire in them, and laid incense thereon, and stood at the door of the tent of meeting with Moses and Aaron. Korah assembled all the congregation against them to the door of the tent of meeting: and the glory of Yahweh appeared to all the congregation. Yahweh spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. They fell on their faces, and said, God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation? Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the congregation, saying, Get away from around the tent of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Moses rose up and went to Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of Israel followed him. He spoke to the congregation, saying, Depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all their sins. So they got them up from the tent of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side: and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood at the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little ones. Moses said, Hereby you shall know that Yahweh has sent me to do all these works; for [I have] not [done them] of my own mind. If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then Yahweh hasn't sent me. But if Yahweh make a new thing, and the ground open its mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain to them, and they go down alive into Sheol; then you shall understand that these men have despised Yahweh. It happened, as he made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground split apart that was under them; and the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who appertained to Korah, and all their goods. So they, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into Sheol: and the earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly. All Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them; for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up. Fire came forth from Yahweh, and devoured the two hundred fifty men who offered the incense.
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Commentary on Numbers 26 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Mustering of Israel in the Steppes of Moab - Numbers 26
Before taking vengeance upon the Midianites, as they had been commanded, the Israelites were to be mustered as the army of Jehovah, by means of a fresh numbering, since the generation that was mustered at Sinai (ch. 1-4) had died out in the wilderness, with the sole exception of Caleb and Joshua (Numbers 26:64, Numbers 26:65). On this ground the command of God was issued, “ after the plague,”' for a fresh census and muster. For with the plague the last of those who came out of Egypt, and were not to enter Canaan, had been swept away, and thus the sentence had been completely executed. - The object of the fresh numbering, however, was not merely to muster Israel for the war with the Midianites, and in the approaching conquest of the promised land with the Canaanites also, but was intended to serve at the same time as a preparation for their settlement in Canaan, viz., for the division of the conquered land among the tribes and families of Israel. For this reason (Num 26) the families of the different tribes are enumerated here, which was not the case in ch. 1; and generally instructions are also given in Numbers 1:52 -56, with reference to the division of Canaan. - The numbering was simply extended, as before, to the male population of the age of 20 years and upwards, and was no doubt carried out, like the previous census at Sinai, by Moses and the high priest (Eleazar), with the assistance of the heads of the tribes, although the latter are not expressly mentioned here. - The names of the families correspond, - with very few exceptions, - to the grandsons and great-grandsons of Jacob mentioned in Gen 46. - With regard to the total number of the people, and the number of the different tribes.
Mustering of the Twelve Tribes. - Numbers 26:1-4. The command of God to Moses and Eleazar is the same as in Num 1, 2, and 3, except that it does not enter so much into details.
Numbers 26:3-4
“ And Moses and Eleazar the priest spake with them ” ( דּבּר with the accusative, as in Genesis 37:4). The pronoun refers to “the children of Israel,” or more correctly, to the heads of the nation as the representatives of the congregation, who were to carry out the numbering. On the Arboth-Moab , see at Numbers 22:1. Only the leading point in their words is mentioned, viz., “from twenty years old and upwards” (sc., shall ye take the number of the children of Israel), since it was very simple to supply the words “take the sum” from Numbers 26:2.
(Note: This is, at all events, easier and simpler than the alterations of the text which have been suggested for the purpose of removing the difficulty. Knobel proposes to alter וידבּר into ויּדבּר , and לאמר into לפקד : “Moses and Eleazar arranged the children of Israel when they mustered them.” But הדבּיר does not mean to arrange, but simply to drive in pairs, to subjugate (Psalms 18:48, and Psalms 47:4), - an expression which, as much be immediately apparent, is altogether inapplicable to the arrangement of the people in families for the purpose of taking a census.),
- The words from “the children of Israel” in Numbers 26:4 onwards form the introduction to the enumeration of the different tribes (Numbers 26:5.), and the verb יהיוּ (were) must be supplied. “ And the children of Israel, who went forth out of Egypt, were Reuben ,” etc.
Numbers 26:5-11
The families of Reuben tally with Genesis 46:9; Exodus 6:14, and 1 Chronicles 5:3. The plural בּני (sons), in Numbers 26:8, where only one son is mentioned, is to be explained from the fact, that several sons of this particular son (i.e., grandsons) are mentioned afterwards. On Dathan and Abiram , see at Numbers 16:1 and Numbers 16:32. See also the remark made here in Numbers 26:10 and Numbers 26:11, viz., that those who were destroyed with the company of Korah were for a sign ( נס , here a warning); but that the sons of Korah were not destroyed along with their father.
Numbers 26:12-14
The Simeonites counted only five families, as Ohad ( Genesis 46:10) left no family. Nemuel is called Jemuel there, as yod and nun are often interchanged (cf. Ges. thes . pp. 833 and 557); and Zerach is another name of the same signification for Zohar ( Zerach , the rising of the sun; Zohar , candor , splendour).
Numbers 26:15-18
The Gadites are the same as in Genesis 46:16, except that Ozni is called Ezbon there.
Numbers 26:19-22
The sons and families of Judah agree with Genesis 46:12 (cf. Genesis 38:6.); also with 1 Chronicles 2:3-5.
Numbers 26:23-25
The families of Issachar correspond to the sons mentioned in Genesis 46:13, except that the name Job occurs there instead of Jashub . The two names have the same signification, as Job is derived from an Arabic word which signifies to return.
Numbers 26:26-27
The families of Zebulun correspond to the sons named in Genesis 46:14.
Numbers 26:28-37
The descendants of Joseph were classified in two leading families, according to his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim , who were born before the removal of Israel to Egypt, and were raised into founders of tribes in consequence of the patriarch Israel having adopted them as his own sons (Gen 48).
Numbers 26:29-34
Eight families descended from Manasseh: viz., one from his son Machir , the second from Machir's son or Manasseh's grandson Gilead , and the other six from the six sons of Gilead . The genealogical accounts in Numbers 27:1; Numbers 36:1, and Joshua 17:1., fully harmonize with this, except that Iezer (Numbers 26:30) is called Abiezer in Joshua 17:2; whereas only a part of the names mentioned here occur in the genealogical fragments in 1 Chronicles 2:21-24, and 7:14-29. In Numbers 26:33, a son of Hepher , named Zelophehad , is mentioned. He had no sons, but only daughters, whose names are given here to prepare the way for the legal regulations mentioned in Num 27 and 39, to which this fact gave rise.
Numbers 26:35-37
There were four families descended from Ephraim ; three from his sons, and one from his grandson. Of the descendants of Sutelah several links are given in 1 Chronicles 7:20.
Numbers 26:38-41
The children of Benjamin formed seven families, five of whom were founded by his sons, and two by grandsons. (On the differences which occur between the names given here and those in Genesis 46:21.) Some of the sons and grandsons of Benjamin mentioned here are also found in the genealogical fragments in 1 Chronicles 7:6-18, and 1 Chronicles 8:1.
Numbers 26:42-43
The descendants of Dan formed only one family, named from a son of Dan, who is called Shuham here, but Hushim in Genesis 46:23; though this family no doubt branched out into several smaller families, which are not named here, simply because this list contains only the leading families into which the tribes were divided.
Numbers 26:44-47
The families of Asher agree with the sons of Asher mentioned in Genesis 46:17 and 1 Chronicles 7:30, except that Ishuah is omitted here, because he founded no family.
Numbers 26:48-50
The families of Naphtali tally with the sons of Naphtali in Genesis 46:24 and 1 Chronicles 7:30.
Numbers 26:51
The total number of the persons mustered was 601,730.
Instructions concerning the Distribution of the Land. - In Numbers 26:53, Numbers 26:54, the command is given to distribute the land as an inheritance among the twelve tribes (“unto these”), according to the number of the names (Num 1:2-18), i.e., to the tribes and families that contained only a few persons, they were to make it small; to every one according to the measure of its mustered persons ( ל must be repeated before אישׁ ). In Numbers 26:55, Numbers 26:56, it is still further commanded that the distribution should take place by lot. “ According to the names on their paternal tribes shall they (the children of Israel) receive it (the land) for an inheritance .” The meaning of these words can only be, that every tribe was to receive a province of its own for an inheritance, which should be called by its name for ever. The other regulation in Numbers 26:56, “ according to the measure of the lot shall its inheritance (the inheritance of every tribe) be divided between the numerous and the small (tribe),” is no doubt to be understood as signifying, that in the division of the tribe territories, according to the comparative sizes of the different tribes, they were to adhere to that portion of land which fell to every tribe in the casting of the lots. The magnitude and limits of the possessions of the different tribes could not be determined by the lot according to the magnitude of the tribes themselves: all that could possibly be determined was the situation to be occupied by the tribe; so that R. Bechai is quite correct in observing that “ the casting of the lot took place for the more convenient distribution of the different portions, whether of better or inferior condition, that there might be no occasion for strife and covetousness,” though the motive assigned is too partial in its character. The lot was to determine the portion of every tribe, not merely to prevent all occasion for dissatisfaction and complaining, but in order that every tribe might receive with gratitude the possession that fell to its lot as the inheritance assigned it by God, the result of the lot being regarded by almost all nations as determined by God Himself (cf. Proverbs 16:33; Proverbs 18:18). On this ground not only was the lot resorted to by the Greeks and Romans in the distribution of conquered lands (see the proofs in Clericus, Rosenmüller, and Knobel ), but it is still employed in the division of lands. (For further remarks, see at Joshua 14:1.).
Mustering of the Levites. - The enumeration of the different Levitical families into which the three leading families of Levi, that were founded by his three sons Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, were divided, is not complete, but is broken off in Numbers 26:58 after the notice of five different families, for the purpose of tracing once more the descent of Moses and Aaron, the heads not of this tribe only, but of the whole nation, and also of giving the names of the sons of the latter (Numbers 26:59-61). And after this the whole is concluded with a notice of the total number of those who were mustered of the tribe of Levi (Numbers 26:62). - Of the different families mentioned, Libni belonged to Gershon (cf. Numbers 3:21), Hebroni to Kohath (Numbers 3:27), Machli and Mushi to Merari (Numbers 3:33), and Korchi , i.e., the family of Korah (according to ch. Numbers 16:1; cf. Exodus 6:21 and Exodus 6:24), to Kohath. Moses and Aaron were descendants of Kohath (see at Exodus 6:20 and Exodus 2:1). Some difficulty is caused by the relative clause, “ whom (one) had born to Levi in Egypt ” (Numbers 26:59), on account of the subject being left indefinite. It cannot be Levi's wife, as Jarchi, Abenezra, and others suppose; for Jochebed, the mother of Moses, was not a daughter of Levi in the strict sense of the word, but only a Levitess or descendant of Levi, who lived about 300 years after Levi; just as her husband Amram was not actually the son of Amram, who bore that name (Exodus 6:18), but a later descendant of this older Amram. The missing subject must be derived from the verb itself, viz., either היּלדת or אמּהּ (her mother), as in 1 Kings 1:6, another passage in which “his mother” is to be supplied (cf. Ewald , §294, b .).
Sons of Aaron: cf. Numbers 3:2 and Numbers 3:4; Exodus 6:23; Leviticus 10:1, Leviticus 10:2.
The Levites were not mustered along with the rest of the tribes of Israel, because the mustering took place with especial reference to the conquest of Canaan, and the Levites were not to receive any territory as a tribe (see at Numbers 18:20).
Concluding formula with the remark in Numbers 26:65, that the penal sentence which God had pronounced in Numbers 14:29 and Numbers 14:38 upon the generation which came out of Egypt, had been completely carried out.