Numbers 1

Suppose, therefore, of this last number, 11,000 were adults; these, added to the 3550 already stated, will make an increase of more than 14,000 in one year, or about one in 43, and this would double their number in less than half a century; which is, perhaps, not more than the present increase of population in England. In the present instance, however, a large allowance must be made for the numbers slain in war, and by divine judgments. 3. From the total number being the same here as in Exod. of this; and the alteration in one month could hardly be such as to require a fresh enumeration. In examining the different tribes, we are struck with the vast increase of Judah, which, indeed, exceeded the two tribes of Joseph, (Ephraim and Manasseh,) and eventually swallowed up all the rest.

4. In estimating the males as above, that is, at 603,550, beside 11,000 adult Levites, making in the whole, 614,550 males, beside women and children, the question arises, what must be the whole mass of the people? Dr. Clarke, the editor of Calmet, and others, estimate them at about three millions—a vast multitude, no doubt, to traverse the wilderness, a multitude which no human hand could feed; but they were fed with bread from heaven, and with water from the rock.

Notes on the verses

Ver. 46. All they that were numbered.—{Wishing i ered.—{What an astonishing increase from seventy persons who went down into Egypt about 215 years before: where they had latterly endured the severest hardships! Such was the effect of God’s promise, which cannot fail.)—Bagster. LB respecting the manner in which this v at oats a Alt some valuable calculations, with the results of which we pre- [. JUDAH. | IV. ZEBULUN. VII. Re ist Generation 3 ist Generation 20 | ist Gene Ge 31 AS ee epee 10 7795)| © Ath sek p5, 104 ath 1c =< dg or Total of 3d & 4th, 74,600 | Total of 3d & 4th, 57,400 | Total of 3d & 4th, 46,500 Il. DAN. V. ISSACHAR. VII. GAP Ist Generation 11 Ist Generation 97 Ist Generation 67 aullo ABR ¢, AEE he CN Sia 5 inti Min Irena eer wna etOs Leeder ee =.

8,082" | ad Vette oy Si aren Bier ee 260,199 ath = is =) 61,978"| 4thisP er oe 41,846 Total of 3d & 4th, 62,700 | Total of 3d & 4th, 54,400 | Total of 3d & 4th, 45,650 IIL SIMEON. | VI. NAPHTALI. IX. ASHER. Ist Generation 39 Ist Generation 26 Ist Generation 35 Total of 3d & 4th, 59,300 Total of 3d & 4th 53,400 | Total of 3d & 4th, 41,500 X. EPHRAIM. XII. MANASSEH. 1st Generation 16| 1st Generation 10 | 1. Judah, - + 74,600 Rd is tees ne) -160|))- 8d “sip ebaye sn 194 | 2) Da meee Bd sane) = 41,928], 8d.-) 2° c=) 51,610: | ogiene re aap ast multitude sprang from 75 persons, 4th - 38,572| 4th- - - 30,590] 5 Issachar, = 54,400 a ’ 6. Naphtali, - 53,400 Total of 3d & 4th, 40,500 | Total of 3d & 4th, 32,200 z Reuben 5 46,500 XI.

BENJAMIN. XII. LEVI. | £ Gad eon 1st Generation 938 1st Generation 8 | 10. Ephraim. = 40,500 Od ise jenors SSB fleeAd) 5 Sal 96] 11. Benjamin, - — 35,400 4th -: - 30,975 4th - = - 21,060 | 13. Levi, - - 22,300 Total of 3d & 4th, 35,400 | Total of 3d & 4th, 22,300 Total seressecsee 625,856 f t In 1771, all the Tartars under the Russian government, on the banks of the Wolga and the laick, marched in a vast body of 50,000 families, during eight months, in which they suffered innumerable difficulties and dangers, to the plains on the frontiers of Carapen, not far from the Ily, and offered themselves as subjects to Kien-long, emperor of China. He received them graciously, furnished them with provisions, clothes, and [ae] and allotted to each a portion of land for agriculture and pasturage.

The year following there was a second emigration of about 30,000 other Tartar families, who also submitted to the Chinese sceptre. ‘é ‘The emperor caused the history of these emigrations to be engraven on stone, in four different languages. At the usual computation of five persons to a family, here was a modern exodus of 400,000 persons. See Vint’s Geography. See (Numbers 26:51).]—Bagster,