The Fallible Study Bible

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Numbers26:23–25

The Tribe of Issachar

✦ Public-domain source — quoted & attributed⚙ AI synthesis — generated, verify

Numbers 26:23–25 — The Tribe of Issachar. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

23

These were the descendants of Issachar by their clans: The Tolaite clan from Tola, the Punite clan from Puvah,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

bə·nê yiś·śā·š·ḵār lə·miš·pə·ḥō·ṯām hat·tō·w·lā·‘î miš·pa·ḥaṯ tō·w·lā‘ hap·pū·nî miš·pa·ḥaṯ lə·p̄u·wāh

Word by word9 · parsed
בְּנֵ֤יbə·nê[These were] the descendantsH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine plural construct
bənê (H1121), "sons of" — masculine plural construct, the recurring hinge of the census formula.
יִשָּׂשכָר֙yiś·śā·š·ḵārof IssacharH3485
√ Yissâˢkâr — Jissaskar, a son of JacobNounpropermasculine singular
Yiśśāśkār (H3485), Issachar — ninth son of Jacob, borne by Leah (Genesis 30:18). Scripture itself plays on the name: Leah cries "God has given me my wages (śəḵārî)" — the root śāḵar, "to hire," heard inside the proper name, so that "Issachar" rings as "there is a reward / hire." The wordplay is the text's own, not this tool's: a tribe whose very name means wages is here paid out in bodies counted for the land. Jacob's blessing keeps the image of labor, calling Issachar "a strong donkey lying down between the saddlebags," a tribe that bends its shoulder to bear (Genesis 49:14–15).
לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֔םlə·miš·pə·ḥō·ṯāmby their clansH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iPreposition-lNounfeminine plural constructthird person masculine plural
lə-mišpəḥōṯām (H4940), "by their clans" — the unit of reckoning throughout Numbers 26 is the mišpāḥâ, the clan, intermediate between the tribe and the father's house.
הַתּוֹלָעִ֑יhat·tō·w·lā·‘îThe TolaiteH8440
√ Tôwlâʻîy — a Tolaite (collectively) or descendants of TolaArticleNounpropermasculine singular
hat-tôlā‘î (H8440), the Tolaite clan, named for Tola. The personal name Tôlā‘ is also the ordinary Hebrew word for the crimson worm (tôlā‘, the coccus insect crushed for scarlet dye) — the same term that colors "scarlet like crimson" in Isaiah 1:18 and that the Sufferer takes on his own lips, "I am a worm and not a man" (Psalm 22:6). Whether Issachar's son was named for the worm the text does not say, and the census makes no comment; the resonance is the lexicon's, noted here only as a possibility, not pressed as meaning.
מִשְׁפַּ֖חַתmiš·pa·ḥaṯclanH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine singular construct
תּוֹלָ֕עtō·w·lā‘from TolaH8439
√ Tôwlâʻ — Tola, the name of two IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
Tola reappears generations later as a judge of Israel — "Tola son of Puah" of Issachar (Judges 10:1) — carrying both clan-names of this verse forward into the period of the Judges.
הַפּוּנִֽי׃hap·pū·nîthe PuniteH6324
√ Pûwnîy — a Punite (collectively) or descendants of an unknown PunArticleNounpropermasculine singular
hap-pûnî (H6324), the Punite clan, named from Puvah/Pua. This branch's eponym is one of the few Issacharite names with no later narrative attached — a name kept on the roll for its own sake.
מִשְׁפַּ֖חַתmiš·pa·ḥaṯclanH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine singular construct
לְפֻוָ֕הlə·p̄u·wāhfrom PuvahH6312
√ Pûwʼâh — Puah or Puvvah, the name of two IsraelitesPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
24

the Jashubite clan from Jashub, and the Shimronite clan from Shimron.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

hay·yā·šū·ḇî miš·pa·ḥaṯ lə·yā·šūḇ haš·šim·rō·nî miš·pa·ḥaṯ lə·šim·rōn

Word by word6 · parsed
הַיָּשׁוּבִ֑יhay·yā·šū·ḇîthe JashubiteH3432
√ Yâshubîy — a Jashubite, or descendant of JashubArticleNounpropermasculine singular
hay-yāšûḇî (H3432), the Jashubite clan. In Genesis 46:13 this same son of Issachar appears as Iob (Job), one of the clearest name-variants between the Genesis household list and the Numbers census.
מִשְׁפַּ֖חַתmiš·pa·ḥaṯclanH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine singular construct
לְיָשׁ֕וּבlə·yā·šūḇfrom JashubH3437
√ Yâshûwb — Jashub, the name of two IsraelitesPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
Yāšûḇ (H3437), "Jashub" — the name recurs only a handful of times in the canon (also in the post-exilic list of Ezra 10:29), making it a rare lexeme rather than a common word.
הַשִּׁמְרֹנִֽי׃haš·šim·rō·nî[and] the ShimroniteH8117
√ Shimrônîy — a Shimronite (collectively) or descendants of ShimronArticleNounpropermasculine singular
haš-šimrōnî (H8117), the Shimronite clan. The eponym Shimron son of Issachar must be distinguished from the Canaanite royal city Shimron whose king joined the northern coalition against Joshua (Joshua 11:1).
מִשְׁפַּ֖חַתmiš·pa·ḥaṯclanH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine singular construct
לְשִׁמְרֹ֕ןlə·šim·rōnfrom ShimronH8110
√ Shimrôwn — Shimron, the name of an Israelite and of a place in PalestinePreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular
Šimrôn (H8110), "Shimron" — fourth and last of Issachar's sons listed; completes the four clans (Tola, Puvah, Jashub, Shimron) that make up the tribe in this census.
25

These were the clans of Issachar, and their registration numbered 64,300.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

’êl·leh miš·pə·ḥōṯ yiś·śā·š·ḵār lip̄·qu·ḏê·hem ’ar·bā·‘āh wə·šiš·šîm ’e·lep̄ ū·šə·lōš mê·’ō·wṯ

Word by word9 · parsed
אֵ֛לֶּה’êl·lehTheseH428
√ ʼêl-leh — these or thosePronouncommon plural
’ēlleh (H428), "these" — the closing demonstrative of the Issachar section, matching the opening of v. 23.
מִשְׁפְּחֹ֥תmiš·pə·ḥōṯ[were] the clansH4940
√ mishpâchâh — a family, iNounfeminine plural construct
mišpəḥōṯ (H4940), "the clans" — feminine plural construct, gathering the four families of vv. 23–24 under one summary head.
יִשָּׂשכָ֖רyiś·śā·š·ḵārof IssacharH3485
√ Yissâˢkâr — Jissaskar, a son of JacobNounpropermasculine singular
לִפְקֻדֵיהֶ֑םlip̄·qu·ḏê·hemand their registration numberedH6485
√ pâqad — to visit (with friendly or hostile intent)Preposition-lVerbQalQalPassParticiplemasculine plural constructthird person masculine plural
lip̄qudêhem (H6485), "their numbered ones" — a Qal passive participle of pāqaḏ, so literally "the ones who were mustered/visited." The root spans a remarkable range: to muster troops, to appoint over a charge, to attend to in mercy, and to call to account in judgment (the same verb stands behind "visiting the iniquity of the fathers," Exodus 20:5). A census is therefore not a neutral tally but a visitation of the covenant people, here narrowed to the men of fighting age (cf. Numbers 26:2, "able to go to war"). The passive form quietly keeps God the unnamed agent: they are the visited ones, not merely the listed ones.
אַרְבָּעָ֧ה’ar·bā·‘āh. . . 64,300H702
√ ʼarbaʻ — fourNumbermasculine singular
64,300 — the total for Issachar. At the first wilderness census the tribe numbered 54,400 (Numbers 1:28–29); this is an increase of 9,900, one of the larger gains and a sign of the tribe's vitality on the plains of Moab.
וְשִׁשִּׁ֛יםwə·šiš·šîm. . .H8346
√ shishshîym — sixtyConjunctive wawNumbercommon plural
אֶ֖לֶף’e·lep̄. . .H505
√ ʼeleph — hence (the ox's head being the first letter of the alphabet, and this eventually used as a numeral) a thousandNumbermasculine singular
’elep̄ (H505), "thousand" — the Hebrew letter aleph itself takes its name from the ox; the word doubles as a term for a clan-sized military company.
וּשְׁלֹ֥שׁū·šə·lōš. . .H7969
√ shâlôwsh — threeConjunctive wawNumberfeminine singular construct
מֵאֽוֹת׃סmê·’ō·wṯ. . .H3967
√ mêʼâh — a hundredNumberfeminine plural

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. A roll of sons, clan by clan — 23–24

The unit is a fragment of a ledger: the tribe of Issachar inside the second wilderness census, taken on the plains of Moab a generation after Sinai. Four clans answer to four sons — Tola, Puvah, Jashub, Shimron — each introduced by the same Hebrew construct, bənê, "sons of," and ordered lə-mišpəḥōṯām, "clan by clan." John Gill notes the placement: "This tribe was numbered next to Judah, because it was under his standard" — the census follows the marching order of the camp (Numbers 2:5), not chance. The roll is not a crowd but a structure: tribe, clan, father's house.

Two of the four names carry an old textual seam, and the public-domain voices converge on it with unusual agreement. The Pulpit Commentary lines this list up against the others — "The sons of Issachar. As in Genesis 46:13 ; 1 Chronicles 7:1 , except that in Genesis we have Job instead of Jashub; the two names, however, appear to have the same meaning." Matthew Poole records both variants together: "Pua, called also Phuvah , Genesis 46:13 ; as his brother Jashub , Numbers 26:24 , is called Job , Genesis 46:13 ." Keil & Delitzsch reach for the etymology to reconcile them: "The two names have the same signification, as Job is derived from an Arabic word which signifies to return." The takeaway is honest and small: Scripture's own lists spell these clan-fathers two ways, and the older commentators do not paper over it — they name the difference and account for it.

ii. The number, and what it confesses — 25

The section closes the way every tribal section in the chapter closes — ’ēlleh, "these," then the muster. Issachar's pəqudîm, its "numbered ones," come to 64,300. The verb under "registration" is pāqaḏ, "to visit, to muster": the count is a visitation of the covenant people, men "able to go to war" (Numbers 26:2). John Gill does the arithmetic against the first census: "the number of warlike men in it was 64,300; their increase since the last numbering of them is 9900." Matthew Poole simply marks it — "A great increase." The tribe that numbered 54,400 at Sinai (Numbers 1:28–29) has grown, against the grain of forty wilderness years and the plague at Peor.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read the whole table of totals theologically: God's "justice and holiness in the sweeping judgments that reduced the ranks of some tribes; and His truth and faithfulness in the extraordinary increase of others so that the posterity of Israel continued a numerous people." The numbers are not filler. Set beside Simeon's collapse from 59,300 to 22,200, Issachar's gain testifies — in plain figures — that the God who judges also keeps His word to multiply Abraham's seed.

iii. Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool's own fallible reading (⚙) — 23–25

Held against the rule that Scripture alone is the final authority, three things stand out in this dry list — offered to be tested, not trusted:

The names are kept because the promise is kept. A census of Issachar exists only because the seed of Abraham is being counted into the land God swore to give. Each clan-name is a receipt against an ancient pledge (Genesis 15:5). JFB is right that the totals preach: increase here is faithfulness made countable.

Scripture is honest about its own variants. The text gives "Jashub" where Genesis 46 gives "Job," "Puvah" where Genesis spells it otherwise — and rather than hide it, the commentators expose and explain it. A book that records its own spelling-seams is a book confident enough to be checked, the Berean posture in miniature.

God's justice and mercy are written in the same ledger. The same chapter that grows Issachar by 9,900 shrinks Simeon by tens of thousands. The arithmetic refuses sentimentality: the LORD who is faithful to multiply is the same LORD who judged Peor.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

This list is the opposite of an interruption in the story; it is the story, told in the one form a promise of innumerable seed can finally be checked against — a count. To read a census faithfully is to read God keeping His word one name at a time, and to let the falling totals confess His judgment as plainly as the rising ones confess His mercy. Test this against the text; keep only what the Word supports.

A census is a promise being kept out loud, one name at a time — that line is this tool's reading, not a verse.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The fourfold genealogy of Issachar — Genesis → Numbers → Chronicles structural / thematic — confirmed

The same four sons of Issachar are listed in the household that went down to Egypt (Genesis 46:13), here in the second census, and again in the post-conquest genealogy of 1 Chronicles 7:1 — Tola, Puvah/Pua, Jashub/Job, Shimron. The Pulpit Commentary and Keil & Delitzsch both line these lists up directly. It is a structural genealogical parallel, not a quotation: the same family carried across the canon, with the known spelling-variants Job/Jashub and Puvah/Pua intact.

Genesis 46:13 · 1 Chronicles 7:1

basis: Genealogical parallel list of the same family; shared rare lexemes H3485 Yissâˢkâr (in 40 vv), H8439 Tôwlâʻ (in 5 vv), H6312 Pûwʼâh (in 4 vv). Tiered structural rather than verbal because these are corresponding genealogies, not a citation of one by another.

Tola of Issachar — the clan-name returns as a judge verbal / quotation — confirmed

Generations later, Israel is delivered by "Tola son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar" (Judges 10:1). Both clan-names of Numbers 26:23 — Tola (H8439) and Puah/Puvah — surface together in this one judge, who "arose to save Israel" and judged twenty-three years. The recurrence of these two rare proper names side by side is a genuine verbal link: the Verifier confirms H8439 Tôwlâʻ occurs in only five verses canon-wide, so its reappearance is no coincidence of common vocabulary.

Judges 10:1 · 1 Chronicles 7:2

basis: Rare shared lexeme H8439 Tôwlâʻ (in only 5 vv canon-wide), with Pûwʼâh (H6312, 4 vv) recurring alongside it in Judges 10:1 — a low-frequency verbal correspondence, not shared common vocabulary. 1 Chronicles 7:2 also carries H8439 Tôwlâʻ.

The census of the second generation — first muster to second structural / thematic — confirmed

Issachar's 64,300 here is set against its 54,400 at the first Sinai census (Numbers 1:28–29) — an increase of 9,900 that Gill and Poole both note. The two musters share the framing vocabulary (Issachar, mišpāḥâ "clan," pāqaḏ "to muster") and the same purpose: numbering the men able to go to war. This is a structural pairing of the two wilderness censuses, the book's own before-and-after.

Numbers 1:28 · Numbers 1:29

basis: Shared framing lexemes H3485 Yissâˢkâr (in 40 vv) and H4940 mishpâchâh (in 224 vv, a common term); same census structure and purpose. Common vocabulary, so tiered structural rather than verbal.

Shimron son of Issachar vs. Shimron the Canaanite city flagged — verify source

The clan-father Šimrôn (H8110) of v. 24 shares his exact spelling with a Canaanite royal city — Shimron, whose king joins Jabin's northern coalition against Joshua (Joshua 11:1) and which later falls within Zebulun's allotment (Joshua 19:15). The Verifier matches the identical Strong's number, but the referents differ: one is a man of Issachar, the other a town in the north. Because the shared lexeme links a person to a place — a homonym, not the same entity — the connection is left flagged rather than asserted as a real thread.

Joshua 11:1 · Joshua 19:15

basis: Shared lexeme H8110 Shimrôwn (in 5 vv), but the referents are distinct — Shimron the son of Issachar here vs. Shimron the Canaanite city in Joshua. Same spelling, different entity; the verbal match does not establish a genuine cross-reference. Flagged on purpose.

Counting the innumerable seed — the census and the Abrahamic oath (cross-Testament) structural / thematic — confirmed

The reason a tribe is counted at all is the oath to Abraham: "I will surely multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore" (Genesis 22:17). The New Testament looks back at exactly this and reads the swelling totals as the oath kept — "and so from one man, and him as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore" (Hebrews 11:12). Issachar's 64,300, up 9,900 on the wilderness years, is one line of that arithmetic. This is a thematic, not a verbal, link: it spans Testaments and languages (Hebrew census ↔ Greek epistle), so it rests on the shared promise-of-innumerable-seed motif, never on a shared Strong's number.

Genesis 22:17 · Hebrews 11:12

basis: Shared theological motif — the census embodies the Abrahamic promise of multiplied seed (Genesis 22:17), which Hebrews 11:12 expressly declares fulfilled. Cross-Testament (Hebrew ↔ Greek), so it cannot and does not claim a shared lexeme; tiered structural/thematic, never verbal, by rule.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The seed counted, the promise kept widely-held

A census of Israel is the visible accounting of God's oath to Abraham — "I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth" (Genesis 13:16). Each name on the Issachar roll is a portion of that promise made countable. The line runs to the One in whom the promise to Abraham finally lands: "the seed... who is Christ" (Galatians 3:16), in whom "all the families of the earth" are blessed (Genesis 12:3). The numbered tribes are an installment; the Seed is the fulfillment.

Genesis 13:16 · Galatians 3:16

Tola, who 'arose to save' — a shadow of the true Deliverer novel

The clan of Tola named here produces, generations on, a deliverer: "Tola... arose to save Israel" (Judges 10:1). Every judge who rises to save is a partial, failing figure of the Savior whose very name is "the LORD saves" — the deliverers of the book of Judges leave Israel needing rescue again, pointing past themselves to the one Deliverer who saves "to the uttermost" (Hebrews 7:25). This is a figural reading, not a claim the text makes of Tola directly; held as suggestive, not certain.

Judges 10:1 · Hebrews 7:25

Numbered ones — and the book of the living widely-held

The census takes a pəqudîm, a roll of "numbered/visited ones" (pāqaḏ). The motif of being counted among God's people runs forward to the register the New Testament calls "the book of life" (Philippians 4:3; Revelation 21:27), where the names that matter are those written in by the Lamb. The wilderness muster of fighting men foreshadows the deeper enrollment — not who can go to war, but whose name is kept by Christ.

Philippians 4:3 · Revelation 21:27

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

This unit is a census fragment — the tribe of Issachar in the second wilderness numbering (Numbers 26). The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), CC0. The named voices are public-domain (Poole 1685; Gill 1746–63; Keil & Delitzsch 1860s; the Pulpit Commentary 1880s; the Geneva Study Bible 1599; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown 1871), quoted verbatim and attributed in place. Two honesty notes specific to this unit: (1) The repeated Henry/Barnes/JFB block-comment on Numbers 26:1–51 is a section comment, not verse-specific; the genuinely verse-bound observations come from Poole, Keil & Delitzsch, the Pulpit Commentary, and Gill, which is why those carry most of the load here. (2) Several thread badges rest on shared proper names. Where the name is rare and points to the same family (Tola, Pua), the link is real; where the same spelling points to two different things (Shimron the man vs. Shimron the town), the link is flagged rather than asserted. The transliterations, literal renderings, divergence notes, and the 9,900 increase computed against Numbers 1:28–29 are this tool's own work (⚙) — careful but fallible; check them against a lexicon (BDB, HALOT) and the Hebrew text. "Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so." (Acts 17:11)

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)