



In the days of the judges, God raised up from time to time men of special ability to save Israel when she had suffered for her apostasies and had been brought to repentance. These judges saved Israel from her foreign oppressors and they varied greatly in character, from the godly Deborah (Judg.4.1-Judg.4.24-Judg.5.1-Judg.5.31) to the rather erratic champion Samson (Judg.14.1-Judg.14.20-Judg.16.1-Judg.16.31). Israel’s armies down to Solomon’s time were composed mostly of footmen, armed with swords, spears, bows and arrows, and slings, and protected by small shields, with a judge, general, or king at the head.

Numbers 1 contains a military census of Israel at Sinai just after the Exodus, and Num.26.1-Num.26.65 records a second census taken forty years later in the plains of Joab. According to the plain sense of the English versions, the number of military men was immense: over 603,000 at the Exodus and nearly as many at the Jordan. These figures imply a total population of something

Army