26:2 Take the sum. The total adult male population at this time, forty years after the first census, was 601,730 (Numbers 26:51), less than it was when they started (603,550–see Numbers 1:46), in contrast to its rapid proliferation while in Egypt (Exodus 1:7). Many had perished in the wilderness in the various plagues and judgments sent by God, including all who were twenty years old or more at the time when the spies brought back their fearful report from the promised land (Numbers 14:29; 26:63-65).