Matthew Henry on Numbers 26:5-51
This is the register of the tribes as they were now enrolled, in the same order that they were numbered in ch. 1. Observe,
I. The account that is here kept of the families of each tribe, which must not be understood of such as we call families, those that live in a house together, but such as were the descendants of the several sons of the patriarchs, by whose names, in honour of them, their posterity distinguished themselves and one another. The families of the twelve tribes are thus numbered: - Of Dan but one, for Dan had but one son, and yet that tribe was the most numerous of all except Judah, Num 26:42, Num 26:43. Its beginning was small, but its latter end greatly increased. Zebulun wa…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Numbers 26:12
The sons of Simeon--It is supposed that this tribe had been pre-eminent in the guilt of Baal-peor and had consequently been greatly reduced in numbers.
Thus God's justice and holiness, as well as His truth and faithfulness, were strikingly displayed: His justice and holiness in the sweeping judgments that reduced the ranks of some tribes; and His truth and faithfulness in the extraordinary increase of others so that the posterity of Israel continued a numerous people.
John Gill on Numbers 26:19
And the sons of Judah were Er and Onan,.... And besides these he had Shelah, Pharez, and Zerah, from whom families sprang, but none from the two first: for
Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan; where they were born; and that because of their sins, as the Targum of Jonathan adds, see
Genesis 38:7-10 so that there were but three families sprang from Judah, the Shelanites, Pharzites, and Zarhites; only the family of the Pharzites was divided into two families, the Hesronites and the Hamulites, so called from two sons of Pharez; the number of these families amounted to 76,500, so that there was an increase of 1900 since the last muster, which answers to Jacob's blessing, that he should be a…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin