Are we correct in stating that every male Israelite over 20 years of age that came out of Egypt perished in the wilderness? God’s edict applied to “all that were numbered.”1 The details of this numbering are found in the first chapter of Numbers, and we see from verse 3 that it applied to “men of war” only, and that the Levites were not numbered (verse 49). Of the 12 men who were chosen to represent the children of Israel in the spying out of the land of Canaan there was no representative of the tribe of Levi, because the Levites were to have no inheritance in the Promised Land. This was confirmed by Moses and Eleazar in the plains of Moab at the second census.2 Moses, in his recapitulation at the end of their wanderings twice refers to “the men of war” being consumed from their midst.3
We know that Eleazar the priest, son of Aaron, came out of Egypt, and also went into the Promised Land, and we nowhere find his name mentioned as an exception, as we do those of Caleb and Joshua. I think we may infer from this that the Levites were not included in the punishment which God passed upon the murmurers.
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Author: P. H. Adams
Keywords: Numbering of Israel, Israel's first census, Census
Bible reference(s): Numbers 1:20, Numbers 14:29-30, Deu 2:14-16, Numbers 26:62, Num 3:15-16
Source: “Problems,” The Testimony, Vol. 13, No. 155, November 1943, pp. 274-5.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.