Censuses and Numbers in the Old Testament
Is it possible to make consistent sense of the censuses and other mustering counts recorded in the Old Testament? English translations of the Old Testament record some six hundred thousand men plus dependants leaving Egypt during the Exodus, and the mustering of even larger numbers during later periods, culminating with a figure of 1.3 million fighting men reported by Joab when David ordered him to conduct a census (1 Sam 24:9). Many scholars have cast doubts on these numbers, some regarding them as fiction, with others considering them to have been misunderstood during the transmission process. I suggest that a number of internal pointers exist within the Old Testament to indicate that these counts of fighting men are real counts, but are not to be understood as pure numbers. Firstly, let me introduce two very clear indications of this, before presenting more circumstantial evidence. Joshua's Assault on Ai The Old Testament records Joshua's strategy to capture the walled ci