Question: How many times did God order a census be taken in the book of Numbers?
Answer: Two. (Numbers 1, 26)
Comments: The book of Numbers contains two censuses. It is from this numbering of the people that the book derives its name. At the outset of the book, God orders Moses to take the number of those able to bear arms—of all the men "from twenty years old and upward." There were 603,550 Israelites found to be fit for military service. (Numbers 2:32).
The results of the new census, taken just before the entry into the land of Canaan, gives the total number of males from twenty years and upward as 601,730 (Numbers 26:51) and the number of the Levites from a month old and upward as 23,000 (Numbers 26:62). This census showed that none of the Israelites who had bickered against Moses were still living and as such the conquest of the Promsied Land could begin.
But among these there was not a man of those who were numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest, who numbered the sons of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. (Numbers 26:64, NASB)
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