Author: Not stated but traditionally attributed to Moses.
Date: Approximately 1400 BC.
In Ten Words or Less: Faithless Israelites wander forty years in the wilderness of Sinai.
Details: Numbers begins with a census - hence the book’s name. Fourteen months after the Israelites escape Egypt, they number 603,550 men, not including the Levites. This mass of people, the newly formed nation of Israel, begins a march of approximately two hundred miles to the “promised land” of Canaan - a journey that will take decades to complete. The delay is God’s punishment of the people, who complain about food and water, rebel against Moses, and hesitate to enter Canaan because of powerful people already living there. God decrees that this entire generation will die in the wilderness, leaving the Promised Land to a new generation of more obedient Israelites.
From Know Your Bible, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.
