18)Forty thousand and five hundred.--This shows a decrease of 5,150. Reuben, Simeon, and Gad encamped together on the south of the Tabernacle (Numbers 2:10), and had probably been mutually contaminated by each other's evil example.
26:1-51 Moses did not number the people but when God commanded him. We have here the families registered, as well as the tribes. The total was nearly the same as when numbered at mount Sinai. Notice is here taken of the children of Korah; they died not, as the children of Dathan and Abiram; they seem not to have joined even their own father in rebellion. If we partake not of the sins of sinners, we shall not partake of their plagues.
The children of Gad, after their families tribe was numbered next to Simeon,.... because it lay encamped with that under the standard of Reuben. There is a little variation in the names of two or three of his sons, from those by which they are called Genesis 46:16, instead of Ziphion, here Zephon; and for Haggai, here Haggi; and what is much wider, for Ezbon, here Ozni. Seven families sprang from Gad, whose number now was 40,500; they were diminished since their last numbering 5150; it is probable this tribe, being a warlike tribe, suffered very much in their attempt to enter the land of Canaan contrary to the will of God, and were repulsed and defeated by the Amalekites, Numbers 16:40.
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18) Forty thousand and five hundred.--This shows a decrease of 5,150. Reuben, Simeon, and Gad encamped together on the south of the Tabernacle (Numbers 2:10), and had probably been mutually contaminated by each other's evil example.