Komentaryo sa Mga Bilang 26:51: Rabbeinu Bahya & Chizkuni

שש מאות אלף ואלף שבע מאות ושלושים, “six hundred and one thousand seven hundred and thirty.” Remember that both this number and the number 603,550 given in Numbers 1,47 is not the total number of Israelites; their total number was beyond the ability of the enumerators to determine. On both occasions of the census only men over the age of twenty who were potentially soldiers in the army were counted. No doubt the total number of Israelites comprised many sick people, many who were physically weak and not fit to serve in the army, and many old people all of whom were not included in the count given by the Torah. As a result of all this the total number of the Jewish people was never revealed in Scripture. Ever since the family of Yaakov descended to Egypt they became the recipients of the Divine blessing which resulted in over 600,000 males leaving Egypt, not counting the children. The number reported in Exodus 12,37 remained the same throughout the revelation at Mount Sinai when a renewed blessing was bestowed on the people as per Numbers 1,1.

From all the above we learn that when the Torah was given at Mount Sinai the people already knew the precise number of males over 20. During the short ten months until the count in the desert of Sinai their number climbed to one that was beyond counting. The truth is that the number of Jews is beyond determination by means of a census. There has never been a time in Jewish history when the total number of Jews was known. G’d had already foretold Avraham that the number of his descendants would exceed the ability of people to count them (Genesis 15,5). Moses too said to the people shortly before his death (Deut. 1,10) “and here, as of this day, you are as numerous as the stars in heaven,” i.e. beyond counting. Even Bileam, our perennial opponent and sworn enemy, testified that ”the dust of Yaakov has defied the ability to be counted, neither have even a quarter of the Jewish nation been counted” (Numbers 23,10).
We find that when David gave instructions (which were only partially carried out) to take a census of Israel’s fighting men that the number Yoav reported as having been counted was 1,3 million people (Samuel II 24,9). If this was the number of active, arms-bearing male Israelites at that time, the total number of Jews must have been several times that number. The verses in Scripture are even more convincing than extrapolations arrived at by our intelligence. Concerning the future, the prophet Isaiah states clearly that at that time the Jewish people will be more numerous than any (or all) the nations of the earth (as per Isaiah 54,1): “for the children of the forlorn wife shall outnumber those of the espoused, says the Lord.” Once the great ingathering of the Jews in exile will be in progress the number of Jews will be seen to be even far greater still. This is the meaning of Isaiah 49,12: “Look these are coming from afar, these from the north and the west and these from the land of Sinnim.” The prophet continues in verse 21 of that chapter: “and you will say to yourself, ‘who bore these for me when I was bereaved and barren, exiled and disdained; by whom then were these raised? I was left all alone and where have these been?’” You will note that the prophet mentioned the word “these”, אלה, three times in each of these verses! This is an allusion to the fact that the Shechinah will return with the exiles at the time of the redemption. This Shechinah which consists of the six extremities of the globe is alluded to by David who used the word שמר, “to guard, to protect” six times in connection with the G’d of Israel protecting His people (Psalm 121).

אלה פקודי בני ישראל וגו, “these were those who were numbered among the Children of Israel, six hundred thousand, seventeen hundred and thirty.” This total is smaller than the total reported at the previous census by eighteen hundred and twenty. If this total had been greater than the previous total they would have said that they were now numerically strong enough to take on the Canaanites militarily. G-d wanted to demonstrate to the people under the command of Joshua that though there were slightly fewer Israelite soldiers than forty years earlier when the spies had considered themselves too weak to conquer the Canaanites, they still would manage to do so, not because of their numbers but because of G-d’s assistance. When one enjoys His assistance numbers become irrelevant. (This point was made even more pronouncedly during the days of Gideon in Judges 7,7.)