Bible Word of the Day
Census (Numbering the People)
Meaning
The word census means to count the number of people, either as a whole or for a selected group within the population. Within the Bible, we see that a census was carried out several times for a variety of reasons. These reasons included population count, to get the number of men eligible for military service or to show genealogy as in the case of Noah’s sons, or the descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Some examples include the book of Numbers which shows two census one for military service and one for population count. The Gospels recount the Roman census, which brought Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born in fulfillment of Bible prophecy. In 2nd Samuel we see where David sinned against the Lord and performed a census of the people because of his pride. After which God punished the nation because of David’s actions. And in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah we see a census performed to show the number of people returned from Babylonian captivity in order to establish genealogy.
“Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.” (Book of Genesis 9:18-19)
“Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ Then He brought him outside and said, ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.'” (Book of Genesis 12:1-3, )
“Again the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah.’ So the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, ‘Now go throughout all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people.’ Then Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to the king. And there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men. And David’s heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, ‘I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.'” (Book of 2nd Samuel 24:1-2, 9-10)
“And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.” (Gospel of Luke 2:1-5)