Stars of Heaven, Grains of Sand,
and the Promises of God
The exceedingly high numbers of the able-bodied men over the age of twenty conscripted into the armies of Isra’el in Chapters 1 and 26 are troublesome, to say the least. The numbers of soldiers in each list total in excess of six hundred thousand (603,550 in 1:46 and 601,730 in 26:51). These numbers of able-bodied men mustered for warfare might require a total population of Isra’el estimated to be at least five million. Such numbers seem to be excessively large for the times, the locale, the wilderness journey and in comparison to what we now judge to have been the numbers of the inhabitants of the land of Canaan whom the Israelites set out to conquer.
Many faithful readers of the TaNaKh have taken these large numbers at face value and without question. In fact many people who have broad knowledge of the Bible have never considered the numbers of the chapters to be a problem; the concepts of an army of six hundred thousand and a consequent population of two-and-a-half-million (or more) in this account are often just considered to be a part of the routine data from the story of the TaNaKh . . . to be believed, not questioned. Yet, others, when looking at the numbers in the book of Numbers, believe that they are simply impossibly large.
Some have argued that these numbers may have been corrupted in translation. However, for that to have happened, there would have to be a significant reduction of the numbers in these census lists of Chapters 1 and 26. Thus, the scribal errors would have had to be massive in scope. The entire list in both chapters would have to be in error. It seems that it would take more faith to believe in a corrupted text in these lists than it does to work out the logistics of the numbers as they are presently presented.
The Bible student who does not have skills in reading biblical Hebrew may be surprised to learn that numbers in the Hebrew Bible are not presented in numerical characters, but in words. Thus, the sum for the fighting men of the tribe Reuben in 1:21 does not appear in the Masoretic Text as in English versions (46,500); rather, the numbers are words, written out in a laborious but serviceable pattern. Here are the words in transliteration, “six and [plus] forty thousand and [plus] five hundreds,” woodenly expressed.
Considerable focus has been given to the word ‘elep, translated “thousand” in these two lists. Many scholars have felt that this word for “thousand” might have a different meaning here than the usual numerical idea. The issue is made more complex in that there may be three homonyms (words with the same spelling) that could be confused, either in ancient times or today. First, Hebrew word ‘elep certainly means “thousand” and is correctly translated. Secondly, another Hebrew word ‘elep is a graphic term derived from pastoral language that was used to number herds. As one would look out over many cattle, one might speak in approximate terms of animals numbering ‘elep (“a thousand”). Thirdly, in some biblical passages the Hebrew word for “thousand” (‘elep) is a technical term for a company of men that may or may not equal one thousand, for example Numbers 31:5, Joshua 33:14 and First Samuel 23:33).
One might argue that the term ‘elep has lost all sense of a specific numerical value and means simply a “troop.” Each tribe might be composed of thirty to seventy troops, and the total of the fighting men for these troops would number in the hundreds. This would mean that for Reuben, instead of an actual count of forty-six thousand five hundred men (Numbers 1:21), there were perhaps forty-six troops with five hundred fighting men; for Simeon, instead of fifty-nine thousand three hundred men (Numbers 1:23), there were fifty-nine troops with three hundred fighting men, etc. This would yield a total of 589 troops and some 5,550 fighting men, with each troop having about nine or ten men. This is the preferred conclusion of Numbers 22-23. Others believe in dual meanings and some get into symbolic meanings.5
However, the promise of ADONAI in Genesis to Abraham and Sarah that they would have innumerable descendants are clearly in view here. In these Genesis texts, ADONAI promises descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven (see the commentary on Genesis Ef – Abram Believed the LORD and He Credited It to Him as Righteousness) and the grains of sand on the seashore (see Genesis Fp – The Abrahamic Covenant). The sheer number of stars or grains of sand are impossible to count. In addition, the Exodus generation increased so much and grew so strong that Pharaoh said: Look, the Israelites have become much too numerous for us; thus, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous. The war against the Hyksos had just recently been won, but the Egyptians worried that if war with the Hittites broke out, the Israelites would join their enemies, fight against the Egyptians and leave the country (see the commentary on Exodus Ag – Then a New King Who Did Not Know About Joseph Came to Power). The remarkably high numbers in the census lists in Numbers Chapters 1 and 26 represent God’s significant down payment on the promise of countless descendants. But the census totals also underscore the partial character of the fulfillment of the ancestral promises. God is not finished with Isra’el yet. The Promised Land still would lie in the future.6
John Calvin (1509 to 1564 noted for his Institutes of Christian Religion 1536) noted the enormous size of the numbers, but argued against anyone who would deny God’s miraculous ability to increase God’s people from one family to some five million in some two-hundred-and-fifty years. It seems to me that if ADONAI can make the walls of Jericho fall (Joshua 6:20), have Noah’s ark survive the Flood (Genesis 6-8), cause the ten plagues in Egypt (Exodus 7-12), allow the Israelites to cross the Sea of Reeds (Exodus 14), rescue Dani’el and his three friends from the fiery furnace (Dani’el 3:8-27), send manna from heaven (Exodus 16), create a pillar of cloud and fire (Exodus 13:21-22, 14:19-20), rescue Dani’el from the lion’s den (Daniel 6), rescue Jonah from the belly of a whale (Jonah 2:10), still the moon and the sun (Joshua 10:12-14), consume the burnt offering on Mount Carmel (First Kings 18:20-20), float an iron ax head (Second Kings 6:1-6), cure leprosy (Second Kings 5:1-19), cause the Israelites cross the Jordan on dry ground (Joshua 3:1-17), have water flow from a rock (Exodus 17:5-6; Numbers 20:11), give a donkey the ability to speak (Numbers 22:21-35), allow Enoch and Elijah not to experience death (Genesis 5:24; Second Kings 2:11), sweeten the waters of Marah (Exodus 15:25), end a drought (First Kings 18:41-45), raise the son of the Shunammite (Second Kings 4:8-37), raise a widow’s son from the dead (First Kings 17:22-23), part the Jordan River (Second Kings 2:14-15), multiply the widows oil (Second Kings 4:1-7), destroy 185,000 Assyrian troops in a single night (Second Kings 19:35), confuse the language of all the earth at Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), cause Aaron’s rod to bud (Numbers 17:1-11), feed one-hundred men with twenty loaves (Second Kings 4:42-44), have the earth open its mouth and swallow up Korah and his men (Numbers 16:1-40), turn Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:26), and speak from a burning bush (Exodus 3:1-4),7 that He could raise up an army in excess of six hundred thousand. Nothing is too difficult for Him.
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