The tribes of Israel and their war-ready populations are identified. Men 20 years and up were all added to each army.
The Levites were not numbered amongst the armies because their job was to assemble, disassemble and move the tabernacle around and perform the priestly functions.
See the discussion points below about the absurdity of the population polls and army listed in this chapter of the Bible.
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Discussion Points.
At first glance, the numbers add up:
| Reuben | 46500 |
| Simeon | 59300 |
| Gad | 45650 |
| Judah | 74600 |
| Issachar | 54400 |
| Zebulun | 57400 |
| Joseph/Ephraim | 40500 |
| Manasseh | 32200 |
| Benjamin | 35400 |
| Dan | 62700 |
| Asher | 41500 |
| Naphtali | 53400 |
| 603550 | |
Although the tribal tallies add up, the 603,550 number is absurd. Not accounting for the "fact" that the Levites were not numbered, women were not numbered, children and teenagers under the age of 20 were not numbered, and people unable to go to war were not numbered — based on the Old Testament accounts — each woman would need to have an average of 51.6 children with no infant mortality. This means that each would have to be constantly pregnant from ages 15-40 with twins (see discussion).
According to Numbers 1:17 through 1:18, Moses and Aaron had everyone gather up for the military poll. How did these two men, with no computers, pens, ink or paper keep track of over 600,000 people?
Compare the ancient Hebrew's military size with that of the United States military as of 2008/2009 (info from Wikipedia):
| Component | Military | Enlisted | Officer | Female | Civilian |
 Army |
548,000 | 456,651 | 88,093 | 73,902 | 243,172 |
 Marine Corps |
203,095 | 182,147 | 20,639 | 12,290 | |
 Navy |
332,000 | 276,276 | 51,093 | 50,008 | 182,845 |
 Air Force |
323,000 | 261,193 | 64,370 | 64,137 | 154,032 |
 Coast Guard |
41,000 | 32,647 | 8,051 | 4,965 | 7,396 |
| Total Active | 1,445,000 | 1,174,563 | 224,144 | 200,337 | 580,049 |
 Army National Guard |
353,000 | ||||
 Army Reserve |
205,000 | ||||
 Marine Forces Reserve |
40,000 | ||||
 Navy Reserve |
67,000 | ||||
 Air National Guard |
107,000 | ||||
 Air Force Reserve |
67,000 | ||||
 Coast Guard Reserve |
11,000 | ||||
| Total Reserve | 850,000 | ||||
| Other DOD Personnel | 97,976 |
The Levites must have been just as mighty as the Biblical armed forces, since the tabernacle that they were charged with moving around weighed at least 11 tons … not to mention the ark and other items.
The numbers are fanciful, at best. They're reminiscent of other exaggerated headcounts (this video includes someone's political statement, but the numbers tossed around illustrate the point):
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