How Moses's First Census Surprise Was Done

 Nadene Goldfoot                                         

We're all familiar with the USA's census which is done every 10 years and has happened since August 2, 1790. 

The six inquiries in 1790 called for the name of the head of the family and the number of persons in each household of the following descriptions:

• Free White males of 16 years and upward (to assess the country's industrial and military potential)
• Free White males under 16 years
• Free White females
• All other free persons
• Slaves

 One man or woman has been given an area to visit and write down the names of the people in it.  When it first started, only the men's names were written and the women and children amounted to tally marks on the sheet until 1850, when all names were written.

Moses also took 2 census during his 40 year period, one at the beginning and one at the end.  He wrote down the names of every male age 20 and up along with the names of their fathers.  He assigned the leader from each of the 12 tribes to accompany Moses and Aaron in the count.  

By only counting real men aged 20 and over, the 1st count reveals that they had 603,550 men, while the 2nd count revealed that they had 601,730, a loss of 1,820 over the 40 years.  Most populations increase, but they had a loss due to attacks on their population over the 40 years.  

Since the tribe of Judah will be the surviving tribe which also included Benjamin and Simeon's tribal members as well, we see that Judah ended with 76,500, an additional 1,900.  Benjamin ended with 45,600, an additional 10,200.  They did very well.  Simeon ended with 22,200.  They had lost 37,100 men.  Perhaps their population was older, losing the elderly sooner.  We don't know the ages of each tribal members other than being 20 and older.  The three tribes making up Judah started off with 144,300 men over age 20.  Simeon had the biggest loss of population of all 12 tribes, and Manasseh had the biggest gain (20,500) of all 12 tribes.  

           Jacob and his sons from Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah

1. Reuben:  Elizur, son of Shedeur.  

2. Simeon:  Shelumiel, son of Zurishaddai*****

3. Judah:  Nachshon, son of Amminadab*****

4. Issachar:  Nathanel, son of Zuar

5. Zebulun:  Eliab, son of Helon

6. for children of Joseph:  Ephraim--- Elishama, son of Ammihud;  

7.                                        Manasseh---  Gamaliel, son of Pedahzur 

8. Benjamin:  Abidan, son of Gideonl*****

9. Dan:  Ahiezer, son of Ammishaddai

10. Asher:  Pagiel, son of Ochran

11.  Gad:  Eliasaph, son of Deuel

12. Naphtali:  Ahira, son of Enan

                                The 12 sons of Jacob  

On the1st of the  2nd month out during the Exodus, everyone was gathered together, group together according to the family's genealogy and standing with those males aged 20 and up together.  Here in the Wilderness of the Sinai, they were counted.  Reuben's count was 46,500, and that wasn't anyone under 20, male or female or any females of any age; only fighting aged soldiers at that moment up to past the age of fighting.  Actually, Jacob had had  11 sons and 1 daughter, Dinah.  Joseph was given the count of 2 for his 2 sons on the trek as he was the most important of all the sons.  According to the Torah, Moses and Aaron had been commanded by G-d to take the census count. 

 The tribal affiliation went by the tribe the father belonged to.  Tribes could have had mixed marriages, but when the time came to stand with your tribe, they were patrilineal.  A father from Judah and a mother from Asher belonged to the tribe of Judah.  The leader of each tribe was expected to know the genealogy of everyone.  Notice, genealogy was most important.  For people involved in sheep raising and profiting from that, they understood genealogy quite well.  

Our history is that the Torah was written by Moses himself over the 40 year period.  He was the only one who had the education to read and write.  All the others were freed slaves by Moses and his slave brother, Aaron.  Moses had been the adopted son of the daughter of the pharaoh, a princess, so had received a royal education.

Jacob's name had been changed to Israel to show his development and understanding.  

Back in Genesis 32-4, we learned that in order to get along with Esau, Jacob had to do 3 things that are what we should also copy in getting along with Esau's people:  Practical measures of prayer (not  thinking our own righteousness will help us alone) gifts (appeasement) and battle (Rambam). This comment was written by Maimonedes in 1138 in Spain.   

Moses, by Jewish calendar count, was born in Egypt in 1391 BCE and died 120 years later in 1271 BCE. His birthday was therefore 3,413 years ago.  This is the Jewish year of 5782:   2022 on the typical world calendar of today.   The name of the pharaoh was never mentioned in the Torah.  He's thought to have been Rameses.  

The world has long thought that the numbers in the Exodus are numbers of exaggeration, and that this many people would have been impossible. Why?  Did they think that Moses was not telling the truth?  That many people would not have been possible? 

There is no reason to think that Egypt would have published a true accounting of the slaves they had kept.  So far, they have not published the same number of slaves in their possession.  So we have only Moses's accounting of their own freed slaves.  Not only do we have numbers, but names. The names of the tribes have not changed, nor the names of Moses and Aaron, Joshua, etc.   

 

Of course, the numbers are rounded out a bit, translated not from Roman numerals such as V, X, C, etc,  or Arabic such as 1,30,100, but from Egyptian, which was even more different, so you can argue with Egyptian translators on that note.  

Resource:

Torah: Numbers: 1,1-26 Parashas Bamidbar