Those Antagonistic Relatives, Ammonites and Moabites Could Be Our Relatives

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

 "G-d invited Moses up to Mount Nebo where He showed His beloved prophet the Promised Land before his death. Deuteronomy 34:4–5 records, “Then the Lord said to him, ‘This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, “I will give it to your descendants.” I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.’ And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said.”

Jordan River runs from Mt. Hermon to the Dead Sea of about 87 miles directly but has to wind around for 200 miles. Tributaries from Transjordan are Rivers Yarmuk, Jabboak, Heshbon

Abraham had a nephew named Lot.  Lot traveled from Aram-Naharaim with his Uncle Abe to Canaan with him on his contingent.  Lot's father was Haran who was Abraham's brother, both sons of Terah of Ur of the Chaldees.  Each traveled with their own sheep and sheepherders to their new site for this was to be a permanent move.

The sheepherders had a quarrel over pasture-land and invading each other's choice spots.  They parted company with Lot settling in the city of Sodom.  This was a poor choice of people, as he was captured by 5 kings (like mayors of their towns) who had just attacked the country.  Abraham rescued Lot. He had all the sheepherders with him.  It was quite the escape, with Sodom on fire and Lot's wife looking back at it and turning into salt, quite a hot fire at that.  At a later  point, his daughters produced 2 sons Lot had sired when drunk, Ammon and Moab.  From them came the Ammonites and the Moabites.  

    1.   Ammonites, one of the Bull worshippers;   didn't listen to the lecture from Lot's Uncle Abraham about what  G-d was not.  

Ammonites were found in Transjordan and of course were Semitic, related to Abraham. Remember that this was in the days of human sacrificing.  

 They were known best  from the 13th to 18th centuries BCE, then declined, and were absorbed into Arab tribes. They kept attacking the Israelites after Israelites had occupied Canaan.  The Ammonites were defeated at the hands of Jephtah, the Israelite judge who lived in Gilead and King Saul.   Jephtah even defeated the Ephraimites, his cousins,  who  opposed his leadership. The Bible repeats the story  Jephtah said that before fighting the Ammonites, he vowed to sacrifice whatever came first from his home, should he return safely;  he was met by his daughter and,, with her consent, performed his vow.  (Judg: 11).  (I notice that she and Abraham's son, Isaac, also went along with being human sacrifices).  Back then, they may have taken that ritual to be the norm, hard to believe, though.

Abraham's DNA, I figure, would be the same as Moses and his brother, Aaron;  and Aaron had to be in today's DNA lingo, a J1 haplotype as they were from the tribe of Levi, one of the 12 tribes of Jacob.  Of course, the DNA does mutate somewhat through 4,000 years so would be carrying that knowledge, too.  All of the males born with Abraham as the origin should be of J1. J1 is known as the Cohen gene-meaning from the direct line of Aaron.  All other Levites may have an altered line of J1.   

They were changed with new titles from Israelites to Jews much later after Solomon's death in 920 BCE, to past 135 CE when the Romans killed Bar Kokhba who held Jerusalem for 3 years and then was killed.  Those remnants in Judah became known as Jews.

 Great question! The Hebrew Bible doesn’t have a whole lot to say about individual Moabite men, and those texts that do talk about Moabite men (like Num 22-24) don’t talk about them in relationship to Moabite women.

This is probably because the Moabites, who were Israel’s close neighbors, were primarily of concern to the Israelites when it came to war or Moab’s political alliances with Israel’s enemies or to intermarriage. So what Moabite men and women did amongst themselves wasn’t really important to the biblical authors. It only mattered when they interacted with the Israelites in some way.

The alleged sexual promiscuity of the Moabite women was primarily a concern to biblical authors who believed that these women would lead Israelite men into worshiping Moabite gods (see Num 25:1-5 and 1Kgs 11:1-8). The idea that the foreign woman is a dangerous temptress is a very common theme in the Bible; it is probably a literary device rather than a reflection of historical reality—that is, these are ancient “yo’ mama” slanders, not historical facts. The role of Moabite men in influencing Moabite women’s behavior doesn’t really come into the picture, because the stories aren’t about actual relationships and actual people. Yo, yea of little faith, our DNA might give us an idea through Mt haplotypes,, and remember, this was back in the days of human sacrificing.  Sex offenses, hmmm, a whole town was slaughtered because of a rape.    

   2. Moabites were living in Transjordan which is bounded by the Heshbon River in the North, and the  Zered River in  the South, the Jordan River and the Dead Sea to the West, and the Syrian Desert on the East.                                        

 They were the brothers of the Ammonites.  They spoke a biblical Hebrew.  Moabites took the land from the Rephaim (Emim), an  even more ancient people in Transjordania in the time of Abraham who apparently settled near Jerusalem in the "Valley of Rephaim."                            

During the 40 years of the Exodus (c.1579-1500 BCE) part of the Moab land came under the rule of the Amorite monarch, Sihon.  After his defeat by the Israelites, it was occupied by the Israelites, giving all three reason to fight over it.  Moabites originally were divided into family tribes, then united into a single kingdom, and it was their 2nd ruler, King Balak who summoned Balaam (Heathen prophet who was divinely inspired) to curse the Israelites.   Of course, the curse was turned into a blessing on the Israelites. 

                                                Baal Peor
 It was on Balaam's advise that the Midianites invited the Israelites to worship Baal Peor and Balaam was killed by the Israelites on the battlefield.  Balaam had the characteristics of a Mesopotamian priest and soothsayer but also appears as a faithful servant of G-d.  The rabbis listed him as one of the 7 prophets who spoke to heathen nations.  the biblical report of Balaam's reproof by his ass (donkey) is interpreted by Maimonides as a vision.  

Resource:

The new Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.bibleodyssey.org/articles/moabite-men/

Those Moabites, People of Southern Transjordan, Now Jordan and Connection to Israelites

Nadene Goldfoot                                          

Moab was an ancient county in what became Southern Transjordan.  It was bounded by the Heshbon River in the North and the Zered River in the South, the Jordan River and Dead Sea to the West, and the Syrian Desert on the East.  OMRI was king of Israel from 887 to 876 BCE.  He subdued Moab.  The Assyrians called Israel not by its name, Israel, but Omri.  Omri founded a dynasty.
                                                                         Descendants of Haran

1   Haran
. 2   Lot
..... 3   Ammon
..... 3   Moab
..... 3   Daughter 1
..... 3   Daughter 2
. 2   Iskah
. 2   Milcah b: in Ur of Chaldees d: in Haran
..... +NAHOR II b: in Ur of Chaldees d: in Haran
..... 3   Uz
..... 3   Buz
..... 3   Kemuel
..... 3   Chesed
..... 3   Hazo
..... 3   Pildash
..... 3   Jidlaph
..... 3   Bethuel
. 2   Sarai-Sarah d: in Hebron
..... +Abram-Abraham b: in Ur of the Chalees d: in Hebron
..... 3   Isaac b: in Negev
......... +Rebekah b: in Aram

Moabites of c2,000 BCE were related to the Israelites  by being descended from Lot as told in Genesis 19:37. Moab was Lot's son.   Their language was like biblical Hebrew.  The Israelites were instructed to not engage in conquering or even to battle with the Moabites.  The Torah forbids intermarriage with a Moabite. (Deut.23:4.)  However, the Talmud interpreted this meaning that only males could not marry a Moabite woman, and the prohibition was abolished in the Mishnaic Period.  RUTH WAS A MOABITE.  

 The Ammonites were another people like them from Lot.  Originally, the Moabites were divided into small tribes, and tribes were usually a group of a family male line, like son sons of Jacob were, with each son the leader of his descendants who banded together into one tribe.  The Moabites then united into a single kingdom like Israel.
                                                                     

Tel Heshbon with iron-age pool in Jordan
It lay on the border between Reuben and Gad, the latter tribe seems eventually to have occupied it (Jos 13:26). It was later assigned, as a town of Gad, to the Levites (Jos 21:39; 1 Chr 6:81). The Moabites reconquered the city in the period of the divided kingdom and occupied it in the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah (Is 15:4; 16:8, 9; Jer 48:2, 33, 34). However, during Jeremiah’s lifetime it seems to have changed hands again, since he refers to it as an Ammonite city in one of his later oracles (Jer 49:2, 3). The Ammonites seem to have taken it during an invasion of the Moabite territory referred to in Ezekiel (ch 25:9, 10). It was in the possession of Alexander Jannaeus in the time of the Maccabees, and was later ruled by Herod the Great (Jos. Ant. xiii. 15. 4; xv. 8. 5), who fortified it and made it into a garrison city called Esbus.

In the Patriarchal Era of c2,000 BCE to c1500 BCE, The Moabites  had settled in their land which had been captured from the Rephaim or Emim, told in (Deut. 2:10-11).  These were an ancient people that lived in what had later become Transjordania but was in the time of Abraham as  told in Gen. 14:5.  Some of the Moabites settled near Jerusalem in the Valley of Rephaim.

In the Exodus Period of c1579 BCE to c1539 BCE , part of this territory, between the Jabbok and Arnon Rivers,  came under the rule of the Amorite monarch, King Sihon whose capital was Heshbon.  Sihon had taken much of this area from the Moabites as in Num 21;21, but after his defeat by the Israelites, their land was occupied by Israel and this became the cause of contention between Israel, Moab and Ammon.  Sihon had made the mistake of refusing the Israelites passage across his territory during the Exodus and the Israelites defeated and killed him.  His land was then partitioned between the tribes of Reuben and Gad, 2 of the twelve tribes of Jacob.
                                                                             

Heathen Balaam on his ass that will speak to him
telling him where he was wrong.  

 
It was during their 2nd ruler, King BALAK, that we have this Shabbat's story to read from the Torah  listed under Numbers 22:2 to 25:9 entitled, BALAK.  Balak had summoned Balaam, a heathen Moabite prophet to curse the Israelites.  He was divinely inspired and instead had uttered blessings instead of curses as in Num 22:5.  Balaam possessed the characteristics of a Mesopotamian priest and soothsayer but as it turned out, also appeared as a faithful servant of G-d.  On the one hand, Balaam had done evil to Israel.  He had told the Midianites to invite the Israelites to worship Baal Peor and then was killed by the Israelites on the battlefield as in Num. 31:16 and Josh 13:22.  He had caused Israel's lapse into immorality.   He had a vision, explained Maimonides, of Balaam's ass who reproofed him in his own language.
                                                                       

King Eglon of Moab, celebrating taking Jericho

Naomi, the Judean and Ruth, the Moabite
Ruth was Naomi's daughter in law
Ruth had just become a widow, and they are gleaning for wheat to make bread.

      King Eglon  of the 12th century BCE was a king of the Moabites.  Under him, they had extended their territory to the Jericho region until Eglon was killed by the Judge, Ehud, of the tribe of Benjamin.  By doing this, Ehud had saved Israel from the oppression of King Eglon  as told in Judges 3.  Talmudic legend shows Eglon as the father of RUTH.

Judges were tribal leaders the Israelites used before they turned to choosing their first king, who would be Saul.  Saul lived in the 11th century BCE and was also from the tribe of Benjamin, being the son of Kish.   The people felt they also needed a king when they were facing the threats of the Philistines and the Ammonites.  The prophet, Samuel, stepped up and chose Saul.  Saul was an organizer and managed to organize an army and trained them and they managed to defeat their enemy.  They had a great victory at Michmash, stopping the Philistines.  Then they took on an expedition against the Moabites that punished their enemy and also took on the Ammonites and Arameans as well.
                                                                           

King David 

King David, born in Bethlehem,son of Jesse from the tribe of Judah, King  of Israel ruled from c1010 BCE to 970 BCE  and conquered the Moabites.  (II Samuel 8:2) The land stayed under the rule of the Northern Kingdom of Israel  down to the rebellion of Mesha of Moab.  David's great grandmother was RUTH, THE MOABITE. David's father was Jesse, son of Oved, son of Boaz, Ruth's 2nd husband, relative of her 1st husband, Mahlon whose mother was Naomi.  Now, Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin and David became Saul's armor-bearer when he was 25 years old,  and was best friends with Saul's son, Jonathan.  He also married Saul's daughter, Michal.   David was from the tribe of Judah.  His mother was Ithra's daughter.  Ithra was his grandfather, an Ishmaelite,   and  father of Amasa, commanding general in the rebel army of Absalom, 3rd son of David. Amasa led a charmed life because David appointed Amasa as his general after Absalom's rising against him.  So Amasa would have been his uncle, an uncle who rebelled against his kingship but who kept his seat of power as a general when it was over.

Another king of Moab was MESHA.  He had the honor of setting up the Mesha Stele (Moabite Stone)  at the Moabite capital, Dibon.  It was a stone that he set up and inscribed the story of his successful revolt against King Joram (Jehoram from 853BCE -843BCE) of Israel as told in II Kings 3:4.  The Israelite king was the son of King Ahab of Israel.  Jehoram had united with King Jehoshaphat (875BCE -851BCE) of Judah against their common enemy, Mesha, .  The outcome was that Moab regained its independence.
                                                                           

In the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III, (745-726 BCE) Moab became an Assyrian province.  Tiglath reformed Assyrian administration and started the policy of exiling hostile people of conquered countries.  He invaded N Syria in 743 BCE and levied tribute on King Menahem of Israel.  In 734 BCE he invaded Philistia, conquered Damascus in 733 BCE and took a large part of the kingdom of Israel and banished the people of Galilee to Transjordania (Moab).  Then he exated tribute from Ahaz of Jodah and from Ammon, Moab and Edom.  Laer he gained control of Babylon and ruled there under the alias of Pul
                                                                          

During the Persian Period,c538 BCE, caused by the Babylonian Empire's Cyrus conquering  Israel.  Arabs entered the country and assimilated with the inhabitants.  Jews were in exile for 2 centuries in Mesopotamia.  The Book of Esther was written about this period.  Moab was conquered by the Hasmoneans and was later incorporated by the Romans in Arabia. The Hasmonians Dynasty was founded by a priestly family, Mattathias of Modiin.  He had 5 sons, Judah, the Maccabee, Jonathan, Simon, John and Eleazar who directed the revolt against the hellenizing policy by the Syrian King Antiochus Epiphanes.  from 166 to 164 BCE, the Hasmoneans fought a number of successful battles against the Syrians and Judah captured Jerusalem in 164 BCE and rededicated the Temple (Chanukah).  
                                                                               

Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein has been King of Jordan since the 1999 death of his father, King Hussein. According to Abdullah, he is a 41st-generation direct descendant of Muhammad as he belongs to the Hashemite family—who have ruled Jordan since 1921

Abdullah I bin al-Hussein, former King of TransJordan, born in Mecca, Hejaz, Ottoman Empire, was the second of three sons of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif and Emir of Mecca and his first wife Abdiyya bint Abdullah. He was educated in Constantinople and Hejaz. Today his grandson, Abdullah is king of Jordan.

The population of the land of TransJordan, which was to become the eastern part of Israel according to the League of Nations, was from the  Muslim empires starting in the 7th century, partial crusader control in the mid-Middle Ages (country of Oultrejordain) and finally, Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo) since 13th century and the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century until World War I. The people from these eras were the staff of the empires.  It was never populated by any of them or turned into a separate state.  In 1880 when the first aliyah of Jews came from Russia, they had to deal with the Turkish administrators.  

Black September was a Palestinian terrorist organization.  "The group's name is derived from the Black September conflict which began on 16 September 1970, when King Hussein of Jordan declared military rule in response to fedayeen attempting to seize his kingdom  — resulting in the deaths and expulsion of thousands of Palestinians fighters from Jordan.  Since then, Abdullah II has married a Palestinian girl.  Many Palestinians live in Jordan.  This is why many consider Jordan as Palestine.  They have their state already, almost, but Abdullah II wants to have no part of it.  He will not accept anymore Palestinians in his state.  

Update: 7/9/17 "Consider for a moment, that if Jordan agrees to grant citizenship to all Palestinians, as their law currently provides, and invites the return of all of them to live and work in Jordan, the conflict would soon be ended. While King Abdullah isn’t about to do so, the Jordan Opposition Coalition (JOC) would. This coalition represents all opposition groups in Jordan that back a secular state. The JOC since its creation six years ago has supported good relations with Israel. It does not include groups that support terrorism. This alliance has agreed to work together in order to form the government of Jordan should King Abdullah abdicate. Although at least 75% of Jordanians are Palestinians, the King has disenfranchised them to a great extent in favor of the ethnic Hashemites and Bedouins. " I want to point out that the 1.7 million Palestinians living in Israel are full citizens in every way except compulsary service in the IDF.  That is voluntary for them.  

Again, there is no way to say that Palestinians are Moabites, an extinct people.  Most all were immigrants from surrounding lands, coming in to find work.  They were the poorer of the neighbors.  Those few that had owned land had sold it to the Jews, who found they were only too happy to sell it to them at exorbitant prices and enjoy the fruits of the sale in better places like Damascus or Beirut and Paris.  They had been taken advantage of by the Ottoman Empire as it was, hardly able to stay above water financially, and many hadn't.  

  Resource:  The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM2aByYM1cM
https://amaicjudgesera.wordpress.com/2017/02/22/eglons-jericho/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_September_Organization
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Jordan
http://www.israpundit.org/the-ultimate-alternate-israel-palestine-solution-3/?utm_source=phplist3392&utm_medium=email&utm_content=HTML&utm_campaign=ISRAPUNDIT+DAILY+DIGEST++JULY+9%2F17#more-63625330*****update

Living Alone Is Israel's Fate

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                   

Exodus-Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt and to the Promised Land

I am always inspired by this website's awesome finds in our Torah that ring true in today's world.  Here's one that sure fits today's position of Israel.  To think that this was written down almost 4,000 years ago is amazing!  It's earth-shaking!

It says that  the Jewish people shall not be reckoned  among the nations.  In other words, the Great Plan for us was already known that we were a stiff-necked people and that others would react as they do. They were to remain as independent thinkers.   Webster's dictionary tells us that reckon means: count, estimate, compute, to determine by reference to a fixed basis,  to regard, consider, think, to settle accounts, judge, suppose, depend, calculate, rely.

The result is that Israelis are to live alone.  They cannot be counted as  part of a pack.  Israel is not to be swayed by others.  Jews have the Mosaic LAW and that is what they judge themselves with.
                                                                           

The biblical story of Balaam's old she donkey scolding Balaam for hitting her is interpreted by
Maimonides as a vision that he had.  Balaam thought his donkey was mocking him
with her braying and he hit her 3 times at which she asked him why?  

Balaam was a heathen prophet who was invited by Balak, the king of Moab (Ruth's home of Southern Transjordan) , to curse the Israelites when they neared his country during their walking of the Exodus from Egypt to their Promised Land.  Instead, when he opened his mouth, out came Blessings instead of Curses.  Numbers 33-1:16 tells of Balaam's following advice to the Midianites to invite the Israelites to worship Baal Peor-the local Canaanite deity, worshipped with sexual orgies on Mt. Peor in Moab.  Of course, being men, the Israelites were temporarily attracted to this cult during the time of traveling through the land.  The result of this instigating was of being killed by the Israelites on the battlefield.   Balaam was not an Israelite  prophet but was a Mesopotamian priest and soothsayer. Even so, he  was a faithful servant of G-d as well.  He was among the 7 prophets who spoke to heathen nations of that day with success.  Evidently he was tuned into the the creator but wasn't capable  of understanding the full message.

Incredible view from Israel's highest peak | 15 Adar II 5776  (March 25)

For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations Numbers 23:9 (The Israel Bible™) כִּי-מֵרֹאשׁ צֻרִים אֶרְאֶנּוּ וּמִגְּבָעוֹת אֲשׁוּרֶנּוּ  הֶן-עָם לְבָדָד יִשְׁכֹּן וּבַגּוֹיִם לֹא יִתְחַשָּׁב במדבר כג: ט kee may-rosh tzu-reem er-e-nu u-mig-va-ot a-shu-re-nu hel am l'-va-dad yish-kon u-va-go-yeem lo yit-kha-shav

Shabbat Inspiration Today's verse describes an attempt by the wicked Balaam to curse the Jewish people. His plan was foiled by God, and instead he utters a reluctant compliment, “Indeed this is a people that dwells alone and is not counted among the nations.” For better and for worse, the Jews have always been set aside from among the nations and singled out for special treatment. Israel receives an utterly disproportionate amount of coverage by the media, most of it negative, yet there is an inherently positive lesson in this solitude: the people of Israel are singled out for a holy purpose. They are chosen by God to remain faithful to Him and to fulfill the Biblical mandate of teaching His truths to the world.  Resource: Israel365 Tanakh, The Stone Edition, Numbers: 23-9. The new Standard Jewish Encyclopedia Webster's Dictionary, 7th new collegiate edition

Meeting the Amaleks and Midianites on the Exodus

Nadene Goldfoot                                            

603,550 people were on the march, the Exodus,  moving away from Egypt and heading for Canaan, 394.6 miles away. By today's standards, it could be traveled on Route 40 by car in 7 hours 39 minutes.  Instead, it took this many people on foot or by camel or donkeys 40 years.

 This is as if the whole city of Portland, Oregon USA (609,456 in 2013)  were on the march from Portland, Oregon to the boarder of Idaho, Ontario, Oregon. That distance is 375 miles and on I-84E that can be traveled in 5 hours 50 minutes.

The difference between a family and moving a large city on foot is quite large with this happening all of  when Moses, the leader, was already 80 years old which was back in the year 1,311 BCE or 3,326 years ago.  Back then, Moses was using G-d as his Garmin and Ipad, getting directions  constantly.
                                                                                                                                           

Moses took this route from Rameses in Egypt to Canaan

Going through Midian by the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba and Moab  near the Dead Sea was a huge problem. The map above shows 17 stop-overs that were not as cozy as any motels.
                                                                             

 They had to make little 3 sided booth-like structures or Sukkahs that the Israelites built out of wood and boughs  for the protected they needed on their 40-year journey in the desert.  For a roof they used the leafy boughs or even straw if they found that.

Not long on the Exodus at Rephidim, Amalek came and battled Israel.  They've been Israel's eternal enemies.  Balaam had made a prophecy about them that though they were first among the nations they would be destroyed completely (Numbers).  They were a nomadic people and had killed off the weak and weary Israelites. Their presence was a standing threat to the peace of the country.  Joshua led the Israelites in defeating them later.     It was there at Rephidim that they had no water to drink and attacked Moses verbally about it.  The history here is explained that they needed to learn to trust in G-d by prayer when faced with deprivation.
                                                                       

 Israel had settled in the Shittim (plains)  of Moab and the men were confronted with harlots (prostitutes)  and many could not resist these women as they participated in sexual orgies with them. They could not resist such temptation!  These gals had invited the men to feasts they had for their many gods and they wined and dined the men and then got them to bow down to their idols.  The men became attached to the idol, Baal-Peor with their practice of orgies, and G-d was not happy at all with them.  Baal Peor was the local Canaanite deity, worshipped with sexual orgies on Mt. Peor in Moab.  This cult only attracted the Israelites temporarily as Moses put a final stop to this attraction.

Moses got the message.  It wasn't good.   He was told to order 1,000 men from each of the 12 tribes to form a legion of 12,000.  Phineas, son of Elazar the Kohen was to be the leader of them.  They went against the Midianites and killed every male and their kings, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba and Balaam, son of Beor.
                                                             

Midian was a Beduin tribe related to Abraham.  They traveled with camel caravans of incense from Gilead to Egypt, and later to other countries.  They had been closely connected with the Israelites.  Moses himself had fled from the Pharaoh to Midian and married the daughter of Jethro.  During this Exodus period, the princes of Midian cooperated with Moab against Israel.  The Israelite commanders  took the women and their young children and all their cattle and flocks and wealth as spoils of war.  They burned their cities.

Moses was still angry  with his commanders because it was the females of Midian who followed Balaam's word to betray Israelites.  Balaam had finally experienced true prophecy from G-d in telling Balak, King of Moab,  what the future held.  He was one who at first tried to curse the Israelites.  Then he told Balak to entice Jewish men to debauchery because he knew that sexual morality was the foundation of Jewish holiness and that G-d did not tolerate immorality.   The officers had allowed their troops to spare the women and they had been known to have participated in the orgies.   Moses  ordered the women to be killed as well and teen-aged boys, and spare the young children to keep for themselves.  This was the retribution that had been promised against the Midianites because of their responsibility for the Israelites' immorality and idolatry that had been introduced to them by Balaam to Balak,  who asked for curses on the Israelites in the first place in order to bring them down.
                                                                             

Jacob and his 4 wives and 12 children with Leah on the left with her 6 sons; Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Isssachar and Zebulun  and 1 daughter, Dinah; Rachel with Benjamin and Jacob being Joseph is already in Egypt as a young man, and then the former handmaidens-Zilpah (Leah's servant)  with Gad and Asher and Bilhah (Rachel's servant)  with Dan and Naphtali,  with 2 boys each.  

In the first census of the Israelite population on the march, there were 74,600 of the tribe of Judah, the largest tribe in both census.   By the 2nd census they had increased by 1,900 people to the total of 76,500.  In contrast, the tribe of  Simeon had started with 59,300 and lost 37,100 people, bringing them to the total of only 22,200, making them the smallest of the 12 tribes.  After they arrived in Canaan, they received territory within the lot of Judah in 2 distinct places in the Negev but was of minor importance.  When Hezekiah was king of Judah (720-692 BCE) , they took possession of the Arab areas of Seir. Some settled in the mountains of Ephraim.

Resource: Tanakh, Stone Edition, chart 11 in appendix B.
 http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/41/4159000.html

Census Time of the 12 Tribes of Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                                                       

Moses was born in 1391 BCE and died in 1271 BCE as best as has been figured.  He led the Israelites out of Egypt and into the Promised Land which was Canaan .  When he started he was 80 years old  So it was in the year 1311 BCE that this exodus started.  He didn't make it as he took 40 years to get there, so died at age 120 outside of the land and Joshua had to take over his position of entering the land.  They found that it was important to take a count, a census of the tribes and this is recorded in the Torah twice under NUMBERS, one of the 5 books of Moses.

Every Jew was counted individually as they passed in front of Moses and Aaron at the beginning of their trek away from Egypt and presented proof of his tribal descent. This happened on the 1st of the 2nd month, in the 2nd year after their exodus from Egypt.    They received their blessing and guidance.  Once counted the tribes were arrayed around the Tabernacle, demonstrating that the presence of G-d was the starting point.  It was the central focus of the nation then and for always.  "Jews are a nation by virtue of the Torah."  It is their reason for being a nation,  their raison d'etre.  By accepting this they became a people and by following the Torah they remain a people.  They camped around the Tabernacle which held the Tablets of the Law and marched with it wherever G-d led them.  Our saying is, "More than the Jews have preserved the Sabbath, the Sabbath has preserved the Jews."  The Jews follow their law in that the Sabbath starts on sundown Friday night and ends on Saturday night with the showing of 3 stars in the sky.

The biblical commentator, Rashi, noted that at the beginning of NUMBERS it was G-d who counted the nation at every significant turn.  They were counted as individuals which shows the worth of every person counted.  It would have been easier to count them in masses but sheer numbers wasn't the point of the census.  Each person was to feel that they mattered and that they had a personal responsibility to grow and contribute.  Each tribe had their own uniqueness and each individual was precious in his own right.

Our 5 books of Moses in Numbers tells how the nation slid and an entire generation had to die through the 40 years of walking, but their children came out of it strong and courageous.  They were ready to claim their destiny as the heirs to the blessings of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as they gathered around the Tabernacle ready to follow Moses.

The 2nd census was taken after the plague.This was a plague that killed 24,000 people who were part of the exodus.  The people  had settled in Shittim and  started seeing the women of Shittim who came over to them and were being very suggestive.  The foreign women invited the Israelite men to their feasts of their gods and they complied and started to praise their god, Baal-peor. Now,  sexual morality is the foundation of Jewish holiness and we are not to be immoral.  Balaam, a great magician,  counseled Balak, king of Moab,  to entice Jewish men to break their law and they did for the offer of sex. Balaam had told Balak that the only way to harm the people of Israel was to seduce them into sin. For only then would G-d punish His people.  One man was so brazen as to bring his paramour right to Moses and sinned in public view.  You can imagine what he was doing.  He was killed for doing this-the punishment of the period.    This evidently was the plague that hit the Israelite  men.   Then  G-d spoke to Moses and to Elazar, son of Aaron the Kohen and told them to take a census of the entire assembly of the Children of Israel, from 21 years of age and up, according to their fathers' houses, all who go out to the legion in Israel.

What we learn from this is that the 600,000 some people on the exodus did not march continually every day, but they did take a break once in a while and here that break led to the death of many for fornicating and starting to worship other gods.  It was not an easy task to change their habits. Here the Moabites were guilty of enticing them to sin in the hopes that G-d would then destroy them.  What has happened to the Moabites now days?  Do you think they are hiding out in some canyon someplace?  I'm afraid not.  They have long disappeared. They may be showing up in DNA tests as a few segments of genes, but as a people, known on this planet-no.  If there are descendants, they are not known as the Moabites anymore.   But Am Yisrael Chai.  The Jewish people are still here.  There are now 6 million Jews  in Israel according to the latest census.

TRIBE                                                        POPULATION      POPULATION      POPULATION
                                                              NUMBERS CH. 1      NUMBERS CH 26      CHANGE

1. Reuben                                             46,500                          43,730                          -2,770
2. Simeon                                             59,300                          22,200                        -37,100
3. Judah                                              74,600                          76,500                         + 1,900 
4. Issachar                                           54,400                          64,300                          + 9,900
5. Zebulun                                           57,400                           60,500                         + 3,100
6. Dan                                                 62,700                           64,400                         + 1,700
7. Naphtali                                          53,400                           45,400                          - 8,000
8. Gad                                                45,650                           40,500                          - 5,150
9. Asher                                             41,500                            53,400                        +11,900
10. Ephraim                                       40,500                            32,500                          - 8,000
11. Manasseh                                    32,200                            52,700                        +20,500
12. Benjamin                                     35,400                            45,600                        +10,200
TOTALS                                        603,550                          601,730                          -1,820

Resource: Tanach, The Stone Edition, ArtScroll Series, Mesorh Heritage Foundation
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/246644/jewish/Balaam-and-Balak.htm