While Israel was in Shittim, another name for the region of Israel’s staging for the conquer of Canaan; the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. The men were indulging in sexual immorality with Moab women who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. The Lord’s anger burned against them.
The Lord told Moses to take all the leaders of those people and expose them in broad daylight before the Lord, so that the Lord’s fierce anger may turn away from Israel. So Moses told the judges of Israel that each of them must put to death those of their men that had joined in worshiping other gods.
Then an Israelite man brought a Midianite woman to the entrance of the tent of meeting, in front of everyone. When Eleazar saw this, he took a spear and followed them in. He drove the spear through both of them.
Then the plague against the Israelites stopped, but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
The Lord told Moses that because of Eleazar’s actions, his anger had been turned away from the Israelites; as a result, God would make a covenant of peace with Eleazar. “He and his descendants would have a covenant of lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites. The Lord said to Moses to treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them.
After the plague the Lord said to Moses and Eleazar, son of Aaron, the priest, to take another census. The census would be of the whole Israelite community by families, all those twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army of Israel.
Then it went on to list the Israelites who came out of Egypt and their descendants.
-Reuben = 43,730
-Simeon = 22,200
-Gad = 40,500
-Judah = 76,500
-Issachar = 64,300
-Zebulun = 60,500
-Manasseh = 52,700
-Ephraim = 32,500
-Benjamin = 45,600
-Dan = 64,400
-Asher = 53,400
-Naphtali = 45,400
*Total = 601,730
The Lord said to Moses that the land was to be allotted to them as an inheritance based on the number of names. A larger group got a larger portion and a smaller group got a smaller portion. The land would be distributed by lot.
All the male Levites a month old or more numbered 23,000. They were not counted along with the other Israelites because they received no inheritance among them.
“These were those listed by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who listed the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho. But among these there was not one of those listed by Moses and Aaron the priest, who had listed the people of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For the Lord had said to them, “They shall die in the wilderness.” Not one of them was left, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.”
-Numbers 63-65
Take a look at the first census here:
https://liveandlearnjourney.com/day-42-numbers-1-2/