The Numberings of the People (2)

This enumeration does indeed represent an interest in numbers. But it is plain that its purpose was not to learn, through determination of numbers, the numerical strength of the nation as a fighting force. Nor does the command, "Take the sum of all the congregation. . . from twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go to war in Israel," lend support to this view. It can be shown from the context that the meaning of this instruction is: "Enumerate all of twenty years old andabove, those...