Numbers 26:1-4
The plague having swept away the last of that devoted generation, which provoked the Lord to "swear in his wrath that they should not enter" Canaan; he now, after an interval of 38 years, commands another census of the Israelites to be made, to preserve the distinction of families, and to regulate the tribes previous to their entry into the promised land, as well as to ascertain the proportion of land which should be allotted to each tribe. For, though the whole was divided by lot, yet the portions were so disposed, that a numerous tribe did not draw where the lots assigned small inheritances, or the contrary.
