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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Numbers 26:52 - 26:65
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Concerning the Divisions of the Land and the Levites
v. 52. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
v. 53. Unto these, in accordance with the census just taken, shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names, each tribe being given a territory whose extent should be proportionate to its own size.
v. 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, this consideration applying to the size of the tribal territory, as it would be known after the name of the head of the tribe.
v. 56. Notwithstanding the land shall be divided by lot, not only to avoid all dissatisfaction and complaint, but also to cause every tribe to accept the territory assigned to it as the gift of God, for so the outcome of the lot was generally regarded; according to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit.
v. 56. According to the lot shall the possession thereof be divided between many and few. Thus the relative situation of each tribe's inheritance in Canaan was determined and, at the same time, all cause for dispute removed.
v. 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.
v. 58. These are the families of the Levites: the family of the Libnites, which belonged to the Gershonites, the family of the Hebronites, which belonged to the Kohathites, the family of the Mahlites, the family of the Mushites, both of which belonged to the Merarites, the family of the Korathites, which belonged to the Kohathites. And Kohath begat Amram.
v. 59. And the name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom her mother bare to Levi in Egypt, Exo_2:1-2; Exo_6:20; and she bare unto Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam, their sister.
v. 60. And unto Aaron was born Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
v. 61. And Nadab and Abihu died when they offered strange fire before the Lord, Lev_10:1-2.
v. 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, Num_18:20.
v. 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; the census was made under their direction.
v. 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, chaps. 1 and 2; the entire generation of people who had been twenty years old and more at the time of the departure out of Egypt had passed away in the wilderness. Cf Num_14:29-38.
v. 65. For the Lord had said of them, They shall surely die in the wilderness. Cf 1Co_10:5-6. And there was not left a man of them, save Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun, the two spies that had opposed the majority report with such emphasis. The judgments of the just and holy God are often carried out with terrifying exactness, as a standing warning to the unbelieving generation of all times.