The Biblical Antiquities of Philo, Chapter 14
THE BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES OF PHILO
TRANSLATED FROM THE OLD LATIN VERSION
BY
M. R. JAMES, LITT.D., F.B.A.
CHAPTER XIV.
XIV. At that time God said unto him: Begin to number my people from 20 years and upwards unto 40 years, that I may show your tribes all that I declared unto their fathers in a strange land. For by the 50th part of them did I raise them up out of the land of Egypt, but 40 and 9 parts of them died in the land of Egypt.
Num. 1:2
2. When thou hast ordered them and numbered them (or, While ye abode there. And when thou hast numbered them, etc.), write the tale of them, till I fulfil all that I spake unto their fathers, and set them firmly in their own land: for I will not diminish any word of those I have spoken unto their fathers, even of those which I said to them: Your seed shall be as the stars of heaven for multitude. By number shall they enter into the land, and in a short time shall they become without number.
3. Then Moses went down and numbered them, and the number of the people was 604,550. But the
tribe of Levi numbered he not among them, for so was it commanded him; only he numbered them that were upwards of 50 years, of whom the number was 47,300. Also he numbered them that were below 20 years, and the number of them was 850,850. And he looked over the tribe of Levi and the whole number of them was CXX. CCXD. DCXX. CC. DCCC. 1
Num. 1:46
4. And Moses declared the number of them to God; and God said to him: These are the words which I spake to their fathers in the land of Egypt, and appointed a number, even 210 years, unto all that saw my wonders. Now the number of them all was 9000 times 10,000, 200 times 95,000 men, besides women, and I put to death the whole multitude of them 1 2 because they believed me not, and the 50th part of them I was left and I sanctified them unto me. Therefore do I command the generation of my people to give me tithes of their fruits, to be before me for a memorial of how great oppression I have removed from them.
5. And when Moses came down and declared these things to the people, they mourned and lamented and abode in the desert two years.
Footnotes
117:1 XIV. 3. The number at the end of this verse is hopelessly corrupt.
118:1 i.e. 2,180,000.
118:2 4. The number 2,180,000 seems as if it ought to bear a relation to the 210 years spent in Egypt: qu. 2,100,000?
