STATISTICS. An early Mosaic law required that when the people were numbered the firstborn of man and of beast should be set apart, the first to be redeemed, and the others, with one exception (Exod. xiii :t2, 13; xxii :29), offered to God. A later enactment (Exod. xxx :r2, 13) required that whenever the census was taken an offering of a half-shekel should be made by every man above twenty years of age. The instances of numbering the people which are mentioned in the Old Testa ment are as follows : (1) During the encampment at Sinai in the third or fourth month after the Exodus (Exod. xxxviii :26). This was done largely for the pur pose of raising money for the Tabernacle. The result of the census was 603,55o men. This was the exact figure, which is sometimes alluded to in round numbers as the 600.000 who left Egypt (Exod. xii :27).
(2) Apparently somewhat later a census was taken for the purpose of ascertaining the number of fighting men between the ages of twenty and fifty, and also to determine the amount of the edemption offering due on account of the first born, both of men and of animals. On this occa sion the numbers were taken of all the firstborn males of the whole people over a month old. This included also those of the same age in the tribe of Levi.
The Levites, whose numbers amounted to 22, 000, were taken in lieu of the firstborn males of the rest of Israel, whose numbers were 22,273, and for the number o"cr 22,000 a money payment of five shekels each was made to Aaron and his sons (Num. iii :39, 51). The results were the same as at first, and this circumstance has led some critics to suppose that the two accounts pertain to the same census, the first showing one object of the numbering, while the second relates to the other purpose.
(3) Another census was taken thirty-eight years afterwards, before the entrance into Canaan, and this time the total number of males, with the ex ception of the Levites, amounted to 6o1,73o show ing a decrease of 1,870. Most of the tribes had
shown an increase, but the greatest loss was in the tribe of Simeon ; and this may probably be ac counted for by the plague which followed the crimes of Zimri and others (Num. xxv :1, 9). None were numbered in this census who were in cluded in the first, except Caleb and Joshua, the others having died in the wilderness (Nuns. xxvi : 64, 65).
(4) The next regular census was taken during the reign of David, who presumptuously ordered the people to be numbered without requiring the legal offering of the half shekel. The number of Israel was found to be 1,too,000, and of Judah, 470,000, making a total of 1,57o,o00, besides the tribes of Levi and of Benjamin, which were not numbered (i Chron. xxi :5, 6), the census not being completed because "there fell wrath for it against Israel. Neither was the [total] number put in the account of the Chronicles of King Da vid" (i Chron. xxvii (5) The census which was begun under David was completed by Solomon, who caused all cap tives and foreigners also to be numbered. These classes amounted to 153,600, and they were em ploved in the work of construction ( Josh. ix :27 ; t Kings v :i 5 ; ix :20, 21 ; 1 Chron. xxii :2 : 2 Chron. ii :17, 18).
In noting the somewhat varying accounts of Jo scphus and others, we must consider the different times of the taking of the census. and also the fact that sometimes the whole number of the peo ple is given, sometimes all of the men over twenty years of age, and sometimes only the adult males, exclusive of the tribe of Levi, or the priesthood.
(See DISCREPANCIES, BIBLICAL.) E. A. R.