Numbers is called numbers because there is a lot of counting going on: counting the men 20 and over by tribe and clan, counting the Levites, counting the firstborn of every tribe. There are 603,500 men over twenty in the wilderness right now, excluding the Levites, who are consecrated to take care of the Tabernacle, and the Ark, and the Sacrifices. There are 22,763 Levites (I think), and there are 22,000 firstborn males.
Women and children? Nothing said about them.
It's clear that part of the counting has to do with who is going to do the fighting. This is the army of the Israelites.
There's this part about how you handle it if a man suspects his wife is having an affair and is jealous, but doesn't KNOW it. He takes her to the priest and the priest pronounces a curse, (making sure that if the guy is just jealous the curse will not be activated, but if the wife is unfaithful it will), and if the wife truly is unfaithful she will be barren. And sick.
I can't help thinking: what if the man is unfaithful? Doesn't matter.
This is what people mean when they say the word "patriarchal."
tomorrow we read Numbers 9 - 21; Sunday Numbers 22 - 32
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