Numbers 26:2

Number. This was done, that the general might know what forces he could muster to attack the nations of Chanaan on the west side of the Jordan, and also in order that the lands might be properly distributed. The war lasted seven years, and the distribution of lands was not completed till some time afterwards. It is not clear that those who were not enrolled at this time, as being 20 years of age, would have any portion, except that of their fathers, allotted to them; but it seems however rational, that those who were arrived at that age when the distribution was made, would have their share like the rest. There were 1820 people fewer than in the register which was taken before, (chap. i.,) thirteen months after the departure from Egypt. The Levites seem not to have been numbered with the utmost exactitude, as only five families are mentioned, (ver. 58, Jansenius,) though there were many more, 1 Paralipomenon xxiii. 6, &c. Their numbers amount to only 23,000. (Calmet)

They had rather increased in the desert during 38 years; (see chap. iii. 39,) as had also the tribes of Juda, Issachar, and Zabulon, which lay to the east; of Manasses, (who perhaps on that account precedes Ephraim) and Benjamin, to the west; Dan and Aser to the north. Nephtali proved deficient; so did likewise the tribes of Ruben, Simeon, and Gad, who were stationed to the south of the tabernacle. When they were numbered the first and the second time (Exodus xxxviii. 25, and Numbers i. 46,) they amounted to 603,550, exclusively of the Levites. Now they could only count 601,730 men fit for war. Considering their frequent disasters, it is even a matter of surprise that their ranks were not thinned still more, particularly as we are assured that all who had been numbered before, except Josue and Caleb, the Levites, and such as had kept themselves free from murmuring, had perished, ver. 64. (Haydock)