25 October 2017 Navigate to the English index: index-topical-hb.
What follows should be a collection of every single claim the Bible makes about the total population of ancient Israel and Judah. It is a product of a KJV electronic search for the words “thousand”, “thousands”, “million”, and “millions”. I’ve also added the Benjamite population after their near-extermination in Judges. If my search missed anything else, please let me know, and I’ll add it.
In addition to the internal contradictions, most of the numbers are wildly implausible by historical standards. Israel and Judah were small compared to the great powers, but even later when the Roman Empire reached its peak, its total number of soldiers was somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000.
At the end of Genesis, we are told that the Israelites numbered “seventy souls,” referring almost entirely to men, and not counting their wives or children, or any non-related slaves they may have had with them.
Exodus 12:37 numbers the total of Israelites at about 600,000 men, not counting children. Exodus 38:28 gives the figure more precisely at 603,550. Numbers 1 gives a run-down for each tribe, before coming to the same exact figure, not including Levites. Numbers 3:39 gives the number of Levites at 22,000. Numbers 11:21 has Moses giving the number of soldiers at 600,000. A generation later, Numbers 26 records another generation numbering at 601,730.
Judges 5:8 would seem to put the military population at 40,000. Judges 7:3 indicates that Gideon was able to muster 32,000 soldiers. Judges 12:6 describes the death of 42,000 men from the tribe of Ephraim. Judges 20:2 puts the Israelite army at 400,000.
Judges 20:15 puts the Benjamite army at 26,000 men before the war of near-extermination, of whom Judges 20:35 records that 25,100 were killed, and six hundred escaped (20:47).
In 1 Samuel 11:8, a census by Saul resulted in the figure of 300,000 for Israel, and 30,000 for Judah. Another enumeration by Saul, later, gave 200,000 for Israel and 10,000 for Judah.
2 Samuel 6:1 describes “all the chosen men of Israel” as 30,000 in the time of David. 2 Samuel 24:9 gives the figures for David’s census as 800,000 soldiers for Israel, and 500,000 for Judah. But Chronicles records that the same census found 1,100,000 for Israel and 470,000 for Judah. In David’s old age, 1 Chronicles 23 records 38,000 Levites. 1 Chronicles 27 reports an army in the time of David drawn from a rotating pool totaling 288,000 men.
In the time of David, the Chronicler gives 22,600, 36,000, and 87,000 for various family groups from Issachar (1 Chronicles 7). For the tribe of Benjamin, similar numbers are given for 22,034, 20,200, and 17,200 (ditto). For the tribe of Asher, 26,000 (ditto).
In 1 Chronicles 12, a difficult passage, a variety of people come to David to “turn over” the kingdom to him: of Judah 6,800, of Simeon 7,100, of Levi 8,300, of Benjamin 3,000, of Ephraim 20,800, of half-Manasseh 18,000, of Zebulun 50,000, of Naphtali 37,000, of Dan 28,600, of Asher 40,000, of the Transjordanian tribes 120,000, for a total of about 340,000 people not including a number for Issachar.
1 Kings 4:26 records that Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 charioteers. 2 Chronicles 2:17 records that in the time of Solomon the number of foreigners living in the land of Israel were 150,360.
1 Kings 12:21 gives the whole army of Judah and Benjamin as 180,000 warriors in the time of Rehoboam. 2 Chronicles 11:1 gives the same numbers.
In the time of Abijah of Judah and Jeroboam I, the Chronicler gives 400,000 and 800,000 troops, respectively (2 Chronicles 13:3). 500,000 of the Israelite troops then die (13:17).
Asa (of Judah), according to the Chronicler, had an army of 300,000 Judahites and 280,000 Benjamites who fought with arrows and such (2 Chronicles 14:8). They successfully defeated a Kushite army of 1,000,000 men (14:9). Elsewhere (2 Chronicles 17), the Chronicler says that Asa had 780,000 Judahites and 380,00 Benjamites.
In 2 Kings 13:7, the army of Jehoahaz of Israel was reduced to 10,000.
Amaziah of Judah is said to have numbered 300,000 warriors of Benjamin and Judah (2 Chronicles 25:5). And he hired 100,000 soldiers from Israel (25:6).
Uzziah (of Judah) had an army of 307,500 (2 Chronicles 26:13).
In the time of Jeroboam II and Jotham, the number of the Transjordanian tribes is given by the Chronicler at 44,760 (1 Chronicles 5:18).
We read that Pekah took 200,000 Judahites captive (2 Chronicles 28:8).
2 Kings 24:16 seems to give a total of 7,000 soldiers at the time of the Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah 52:28-30 record three deportations, totalling about 4,600 people in all.
Ezra 2:64-5 and Nehemiah 7:66-67 give the returnees from the Babylonian captivity as 42,360, along with 7,337 slaves.