But the statement it was credited to him ¹  was not written only for Abraham’s ²  sake,

God had told him, “Through Isaac descendants will carry on your name,” ¹ 

But God said to Abraham, “Do not be upset ¹  about the boy or your slave wife. Do ²  all that Sarah is telling ³  you because through Isaac your descendants will be counted. ⁴ 

“When you take a census ¹  of the Israelites according to their number, ²  then each man is to pay a ransom ³  for his life to the Lord when you number them, ⁴  so that there will be no plague among them when you number them.

Everyone who crosses over to those who are numbered ¹  is to pay this: a half shekel ²  according to the shekel of the sanctuary ³  (a shekel weighs twenty gerahs). The half shekel is to be an offering ⁴  to the Lord.

From the descendants of Simeon: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males numbered of them ¹  twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name individually.

And these are the Levites who were numbered according to their families: from Gershon, the family of the Gershonites; of Kohath, the family of the Kohathites; from Merari, the family of the Merarites.

Those of them who were numbered were 23,000, all males from a month old and upward, for they were not numbered among the Israelites; no inheritance was given to them among the Israelites.

Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and the people from the east covered the valley like a swarm of locusts. ¹  Their camels could not be counted; they were as innumerable as the sand on the seashore.

Solomon took a census ¹  of all the male resident foreigners in the land of Israel, after the census his father David had taken. There were 153,600 in all.

How much greater punishment do you think that person deserves who has contempt for ¹  the Son of God, and profanes ²  the blood of the covenant that made him holy, ³  and insults the Spirit of grace?

Everyone who crosses over to those numbered, from twenty years old and up, is to pay an offering to the Lord.

Those of them who were numbered, counting every male from a month old and upward, were 6,200.

These were those numbered of the Israelites, 601,730. ¹ 

These people, as well as the Anakites, are also considered Rephaites; ¹  the Moabites call them Emites.

Yet because of you ¹  we are killed all day long; we are treated like ²  sheep at the slaughtering block. ³ 

He pronounces this blessing on himself while he is alive: “May men praise you, for you have done well!”

May their names be deleted from the scroll of the living! ¹  Do not let their names be listed with the godly! ² 

Stop trusting in human beings, whose life’s breath is in their nostrils. For why should they be given special consideration?

Those who put their hope in Cush and took pride in Egypt will be afraid and embarrassed. ¹