REGISTRATION
Enrollments mentioned in the Bible were usually by name and lineage according to tribe and household, and involved more than a simple census or count of heads. These national registrations served various purposes, such as for taxation, assignments of military service, or (for those Levites included) appointments to duties at the sanctuary.
AT SINAI
At Jehovah’s command the first registration took place during the encampment at Sinai in the second month of the second year following the exodus from Egypt. Not only were all males listed who were twenty years old and upward—eligible for service in the army—but the Law also placed on the registered ones a head tax of half a shekel for the service of the tabernacle. (Ex. 30:11-16; Num. 1:1-3, 18, 19) The total number listed amounted to 603,550, excluding the Levites, who had no inheritance in the land. These paid no tabernacle tax and were not required to serve in the army.—Num. 1:44-47; 2:32, 33; 18:20, 24.
The record in the book of Numbers shows that a count was also made of the number of firstborn males from the twelve tribes, and of all the Levite males, from a month old and upward. (Num. 3:14, 15) This was because Jehovah had bought the firstborn ones as his when he saved them from the destruction of the firstborn in Egypt. Now he desired to use the Levites as his specially sanctified ones for sanctuary service. The Levites were therefore to be given to Jehovah by Israel to redeem the firstborn of the other tribes. The count showed that there were 22,000 male Levites and 22,273 non-Levite firstborn. (Num. 3:11-13, 39-43) To redeem the 273 firstborn in excess of the Levites, a five-shekel payment to the sanctuary was required for each.—Num. 3:44-51.
Also the Kohathites, Gershonites and Merarites between thirty and fifty years of age were numbered. These were given special assignments of service at the sanctuary. (Num. 4:34-39) To assist Moses in this undertaking a chieftain was selected out of each tribe to take the responsibility and oversight of the registration in his tribe.—Num. 1:4-16.
ON THE PLAINS OF MOAB
A second recorded registration is the one taken on the plains of Moab, after the scourge because of Israel’s sin in connection with Baal of Peor. It was found then that the number of men twenty years old and upward was 601,730, a decrease of 1,820 from the census taken nearly thirty-nine years earlier. (Num. 26:1, 2, 51) The decrease was in great measure due to God’s decree at the time the spies brought back a bad report. (Num. 13:30-33; 14:28-30) The count of Levites from a month old and upward was 23,000, or 1,000 more than the first census.—Num. 26:57, 62.
DAVID’S CALAMITOUS REGISTRATION
A registration taken toward the end of King David’s reign is also recorded, one that brought calamity. The account at 2 Samuel 24:1 reads: “And again the anger of Jehovah came to be hot against Israel, when one incited David against them, saying: ‘Go, take a count of Israel and Judah.’” The original Hebrew allows for part of this verse to be rendered “when he incited David against them.” (NW, 1955 ed., ftn.) The translation of the verse in The Bible in Basic English reads: “Again the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and moving David against them, he said, Go, take the number of Israel and Judah.” Hence, some commentators consider that the “one” or “he” who incited David to take the census was Jehovah. His ‘anger against Israel,’ according to this view, predated the census, and was due to their recent rebellions against Jehovah and his appointed king, David, when they followed first ambitious Absalom, then the good-for-nothing Sheba the son of Bichri in opposition to David.—2 Sam. 15:10-12; 20:1, 2.
The parallel account at 1 Chronicles 21:1, however, reads: “And Satan [or, “a resister”] proceeded to stand up against Israel and to incite David to number Israel.” (NW, 1955 ed., ftn.) Of course, this could be harmonized with the view that Jehovah “incited” David if the incitement is viewed as something that Jehovah purposely allowed, as by removing his protection or restraining hand so that Satan could incite David to this action. (Compare 1 Kings 22:21-23; 1 Samuel 16:14; see FOREKNOWLEDGE, FOREORDINATION, page 598, paragraphs 4-6.) On the other hand, the “resister,” the “one” moving David to decide on this calamitious course, may have been some bad counselor. On David’s part, there may have been wrong motive due to pride and trust in the numbers of his army, hence a failing to manifest full reliance on Jehovah. In any case, it is clear that David’s motive in this instance was not to glorify God.
Objected to by Joab
When ordered to take the registration, David’s general Joab objected, saying, “May Jehovah your God even add to the people a hundred times as many as they are while the very eyes of my lord the king are seeing it. But as for my lord the king, why has he found delight in this thing?” (2 Sam. 24:3) Joab’s words imply that the national strength did not depend on numbers, but on Jehovah, who could supply numbers if that was his will. Joab, at David’s insistence, took the census, but unwillingly, the report stating: “Levi and Benjamin he did not register in among them, because the king’s word had been detestable to Joab” (Levi not being counted, in accord with the law at Numbers 1:47-49). Joab either stopped before registering Benjamin or delayed the progress of the registration and David came to his senses and called a halt to it before Joab had completed it. (1 Chron. 21:6) Joab may have avoided Benjamin because he did not want to stir up this tribe that was the tribe of Saul, which had fought David’s army under Joab before uniting with the other tribes under David. (2 Sam. 2:12-17) No doubt because the making of the count was wrong, it was not entered into the “account of the affairs of the days of King David.”—1 Chron. 27:24.
The count revealed that Israel had 1,100,000 men and Judah had 470,000, according to the record at 1 Chronicles 21:5. The report at 2 Samuel 24:9 says 800,000 men of Israel and 500,000 men of Judah. Some believe that a scribal error exists. But it is unwise to ascribe error to the record when the circumstances, methods of counting, and so forth, are not fully understood. The two accounts may have reckoned the number from different viewpoints. For example, it is possible that members of the standing army and/or their officers were counted, or omitted. And different methods of reckoning may have caused a variation in the listing of certain men, as to whether they were under Judah or Israel. We find what may be such an instance at 1 Chronicles chapter 27. Here twelve divisions of the army are listed, naming all the tribes except Gad and Asher, and naming Levi and the two half tribes of Manasseh. This may have been because the fighting men of Gad and Asher were combined under other heads at the time, or for other reasons not stated.
Jehovah’s judgment
Jehovah’s prophet Gad was sent to David, giving David, the authorizer of the census, a choice of one of three forms of punishment: a famine for three years, the sword of Israel’s enemies overtaking Israel for three months, or a pestilence for three days. David, leaning on God’s mercy rather than man’s, chose “to fall into the hand of Jehovah”; in the pestilence that followed, 70,000 persons died.—1 Chron. 21:10-14.
Here another variation is found between the Samuel and Chronicles accounts. Whereas 2 Samuel 24:13 says seven years of famine, 1 Chronicles 21:12 says three. (The Septuagint Version reads “three” in the Samuel account.) One proffered explanation is that the seven years referred to at Second Samuel would, in part, be an extension of the three years of famine that came due to the sin of Saul and his house against the Gibeonites. (2 Sam. 21:1, 2) The current year (the registration took nine months and twenty days [2 Sam. 24:8]) would be the fourth, and three years to come would make seven. Although the difference may have been due to a copyist’s error, it may be said again that a full knowledge of all the facts and circumstances should be had before reaching such a conclusion.
FOR THE TEMPLE SERVICE
Sometime later David, who was now quite old, had the Levites numbered for future temple service, with Jehovah’s apparent approval. This count revealed that there were 38,000 Levites thirty years of age and upward, all able-bodied men. They were listed as follows: 24,000 supervisors, 6,000 officers and judges, 4,000 gatekeepers and 4,000 musicians.—1 Chron. 23:1-5.
In connection with the building of the temple we read: “Then Solomon took a count of all the men that were alien residents, who were in the land of Israel, after the census that David his father had taken of them; and there came to be found a hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred. So he made seventy thousand of them burden bearers and eighty thousand cutters in the mountain and three thousand six hundred overseers for keeping the people in service.”—2 Chron. 2:17, 18.
LATER REGISTRATIONS
Other registrations were taken by succeeding kings of Israel and Judah. In the days of King Amaziah the men in Judah and Benjamin from twenty years upward numbered 300,000. (2 Chron. 25:5) In King Uzziah’s registration the army forces were 307,500 men, with 2,600 of the heads of the paternal houses over them.—2 Chron. 26:11-13.
The returning exiles under Zerubbabel, in 537 B.C.E., were also enumerated, totaling 49,897, made up of 42,360 of the congregation apart from 7,337 slaves and 200 singers (the Masoretic text of Nehemiah says 245 singers).—Ezra 2:64, 65; Neh. 7:66, 67; see NEHEMIAH, BOOK OF.
AT THE TIME OF JESUS’ BIRTH
Two registrations are mentioned in the Christian Greek Scriptures as taking place after Judea came under subjection to Rome. Such were not merely to ascertain population figures but, rather, were mainly for purposes of taxation and conscription of men for military service. Concerning the first of these we read: “Now in those days [c. 2 B.C.E.] a decree went forth from Caesar Augustus for all the inhabited earth to be registered; (this first registration took place when Quirinius was governor of Syria;) and all people went traveling to be registered, each one to his own city.” (Luke 2:1-3) This edict of the emperor proved providential, for it compelled Joseph and Mary to journey from the city of Nazareth to Bethlehem in spite of the fact that Mary was then heavy with child; thus Jesus was born in the city of David in fulfillment of prophecy.—Luke 2:4-7; Mic. 5:2.
Two registrations under Quirinius
Bible critics have said that the only census taken while Publius Sulpicius Quirinius was governor of Syria was about 6 C.E., which event sparked a rebellion by Judas the Galilean and the Zealots. (Acts 5:37) This was really the second registration under Quirinius, for inscriptions discovered at Rome and Antioch revealed that some years earlier Quirinius had served as the emperor’s legate in Syria at the time Saturninus was proconsul. Concerning this, the Dictionnaire du Nouveau Testament in Crampon’s French Bible (1939 ed., p. 360) says: “The scholarly researches of Zumpt (Commentat. epigraph., II, 86-104; De Syria romana provincia, 97-98) and of Mommsen (Res gestœ divi Augusti) place beyond doubt that Quirinius was twice governor of Syria.” Many scholars locate the time of Quirinius’ first governorship as somewhere between the years 4 to 1 B.C.E., probably from 3-2 B.C.E. Their method of arriving at these dates, however, is not solid and the actual period of governorship remains indefinite. (See QUIRINIUS.) His second governorship ran from 759 to 765 [6 to 12 C.E.], as Josephus expressly attests.
So historian and Bible writer Luke was correct when he said concerning the registration at the time of Jesus’ birth: “this first registration took place when Quirinius was governor of Syria,” distinguishing it from the second, which occurred later under the same Quirinius and to which Gamaliel makes reference as reported by Luke at Acts 5:37.