Numbers 26:23 Meaning and Explanation
“Of the sons of Issachar after their families: of Tola, the family of the Tolaites: of Pua, the family of the Punites:”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Some names in a genealogy reappear later in unexpected places. Tola is one of them. A man of Issachar carrying that name shows up in the book of Judges as a deliverer of the nation, which gives this bare clan entry an afterlife worth following into Israel's later story.
Issachar's registration begins with two clan heads, Tola and Pua, whose families are entered as the Tolaites and the Punites at the start of a section that runs through the next two verses.
The Context of Numbers 26:23
Issachar comes fifth in this census, after Judah and before Zebulun, matching the birth order of Leah's sons. Verse 23 opens the tribe's section, verse 24 adds two more clan heads, and verse 25 gives the total of sixty-four thousand three hundred. Genesis 46:13 names Issachar's sons as Tola, Phuvah, Job, and Shimron, four men whose four clans are exactly what Numbers 26 records. The count is taken in the plains of Moab, and the introductory phrase after their families matches the wording used for the other tribes.
What Does Numbers 26:23 Mean?
Two clan heads are given, with a slight surprise in the second. Tola yields the Tolaites in the expected way. Pua yields the Punites, where the ending does not simply attach to the name as printed, and Genesis 46:13 spells the father Phuvah while 1 Chronicles 7:1 has Puah. Hebrew names of this kind admit more than one English spelling because the underlying consonants can be represented in several ways. The verse itself passes over all of that without comment and does what the chapter always does, tying a present population to a named ancestor so that the count can stand.
Issachar's four clans mark a tribe that had grown considerably. Numbers 1:29 puts the tribe at fifty-four thousand four hundred at Sinai, and verse 25 of this chapter records sixty-four thousand three hundred, a gain of nearly ten thousand in a generation that had seen plague, rebellion, and forty years of hard travel. The clan structure held while the numbers rose. Issachar's territory would later lie in the fertile country around the valley of Jezreel according to Joshua 19:17 through 23, some of the best farmland in Canaan, which suits the agricultural picture of Issachar drawn in Genesis 49:14 and 15.
The name Tola returns in Judges 10:1, where a man of Issachar bearing it, the son of a Puah, arose to defend Israel and judged the nation for twenty-three years from a town in mount Ephraim. Both names from verse 23 stand in that single sentence, which suggests the family kept using them across centuries. Scripture gives that Tola no dramatic battle and no famous saying. He defended Israel, judged it, died, and was buried. Some of God's work in a nation comes through people whose whole record is a quiet stretch of years without disaster.
Numbers 26:23 in the Original Language
tola (תּוֹלָע), 'Tola' -- a worm, and in particular the crimson yielding grub whose dye colored the scarlet fabric of the tabernacle. The word occurs as a common noun elsewhere in the Old Testament, and here it serves as a personal name in the line of Issachar.
Bible Verses Related to Numbers 26:23
“And the sons of Issachar; Tola, and Phuvah, and Job, and Shimron.”
- Genesis 46:13
“And after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir in mount Ephraim.”
- Judges 10:1
“Now the sons of Issachar were, Tola, and Puah, Jashub, and Shimrom, four.”
- 1 Chronicles 7:1
“Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Issachar, were fifty and four thousand and four hundred.”
- Numbers 1:29
Where Numbers 26:23 Echoes in Scripture
First Chronicles 7:1 and 2 returns to this exact family and adds a later count. It names the four sons of Issachar in the same order and then follows the line of Tola into a roll of chiefs described as mighty men of valour, whose number in the days of David reached twenty-two thousand six hundred. One clan named in a single phrase in Numbers 26 had become a body of that size centuries afterward. The habit of counting Israel by families ran from Moses to the monarchy.
How to Apply Numbers 26:23 Today
Two names, no story, and one of them turns up generations later attached to a man who kept a nation steady for twenty-three years. Families pass down more than property. They pass down names, habits, expectations, and a sense of what a person from this house does. We can think carefully about what our households are handing forward. Choosing a name, telling a grandparent's story, keeping a practice of prayer at the table, all of it forms people we will never meet. The quiet transmission that runs through a clan list is available to any home that wants it.
Reflection & Prayer
What are we passing to the next household in our line without meaning to? A prayer: God of every generation, You work through families over long stretches of time. Make our home a place where faith is handed on plainly. Let those who come after us inherit something steadier than we found, and let Your name be honored in ours.