26:1-51 Moses did not number the people but when God commanded him. We have here the families registered, as well as the tribes. The total was nearly the same as when numbered at mount Sinai. Notice is here taken of the children of Korah; they died not, as the children of Dathan and Abiram; they seem not to have joined even their own father in rebellion. If we partake not of the sins of sinners, we shall not partake of their plagues.Of the children of Asher, after their families,.... This tribe was numbered next to Dan, because it was under his standard; one of his sons is omitted, very probably dying childless, and so had no family; from the rest sprang the families of the Iimnite, Jesuite, and Benite; and, from the latter, two others, the Heberite and Malchielite; and it is remarked that Asher had a daughter named Serah, and who also is particularly mentioned as a sister of Asher's sons in Genesis 46:17 no doubt but she was a remarkable woman, either for religion, or for wisdom and prudence, or some amiable virtue or grace or another, that she is so particularly taken notice of: according to Maimonides (p) she was an heiress; for though Asher had many sons, this was his wife's daughter by another man, who had no sons, and the inheritance was his daughter's, and therefore is so particularly mentioned; she inheriting as the daughters of Zelophehad did: the number of persons in this tribe was 53,400, the increase was 11,900. (p) Apud Abendana in loc. |