Why do the Israelites try to stone Joshua and Caleb instead of Moses and Aaron? Why do Moses and Aaron remain on their faces throughout Joshua and Caleb’s speech? If the story takes place in Israel’s second year in the wilderness, and they are punished to wander for 40 years, shouldn’t the total duration in the wilderness be 41+ years?
King David conducts a census, which brings about a divine plague killing 70,000 people. During the first wilderness census, Exodus requires the Israelites to pay a half shekel to avoid a plague. What’s so dangerous about a census?
The Priestly Torah has two different conceptions of why/how the firstborn Israelites are exempt from serving as priests. Is a questionable firstborn census an effort to weigh in on this dispute?
Weighing the historicity of the exodus story entails more than addressing the lack of archaeological evidence.
Two Problems In Parashat Bemidbar
