Numbers 26:24 Meaning and Explanation
“Of Jashub, the family of the Jashubites: of Shimron, the family of the Shimronites.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →A single name in this line has puzzled readers for a long time. The Genesis list of Issachar's sons reads Job where Numbers reads Jashub, and the difference opens a small window on how these registers were kept and copied over the centuries that separate the two books.
Issachar's roll is completed by two further clans, the Jashubites and the Shimronites, filling out the tribe's four family groups before the total is reported in the verse that follows.
The Context of Numbers 26:24
This verse completes the Issachar section begun in verse 23, which named Tola and Pua. Verse 25 then reports sixty-four thousand three hundred men. In the chapter's sequence, Issachar stands between Judah and Zebulun. The census is taken by Moses and Eleazar the priest in the plains of Moab, by Jordan near Jericho, among people who had grown up in the wilderness. Genesis 46:13 lists four sons of Issachar, and 1 Chronicles 7:1 lists the same four with Jashub standing in the position Genesis assigns to Job.
What Does Numbers 26:24 Mean?
The verse names Jashub and Shimron and moves straight on to the tribal total in the next line. Jashub stands where Genesis 46:13 reads Job, and 1 Chronicles 7:1 supports the form used here, which suggests a name known in more than one shape within the family. The man has no connection to the Job of the book that bears that name, who belonged to the land of Uz. Shimron is spelled identically in all three lists. A town called Shimron also appears in Joshua 11:1 in the north of Canaan, in country lying near the later territory of Issachar and Zebulun.
Reaching four clans matters for the shape of the chapter. Every tribe is presented as a complete set of families, and the totals in verses 53 through 56 will be applied through those groups when the land is divided. A tribe with four clans divides its inheritance four ways at the first level. This is why the chapter spends so many verses on names that carry no stories with them. The register is the legal foundation for the settlement described in Joshua, and leaving out a clan would have cost real families their portion of the country.
Names carry weight in Scripture beyond simple identification. God changes Abram to Abraham and Jacob to Israel at turning points. He tells Moses his own name at the bush. Isaiah 43:1 speaks of calling his people by name and claiming them as his own. Revelation 2:17 promises a white stone with a new name written on it, known to the one who receives it. Jashub and Shimron would mean nothing to us apart from this list, and even so they are held in the book God gave. Being named and kept is one of the steadiest kindnesses Scripture describes.
Bible Verses Related to Numbers 26:24
“Now the sons of Issachar were, Tola, and Puah, Jashub, and Shimrom, four.”
- 1 Chronicles 7:1
“Unto these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names.”
- Numbers 26:53
“And the fourth lot came out to Issachar, for the children of Issachar according to their families.”
- Joshua 19:17
“Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.”
- Revelation 7:7
Where Numbers 26:24 Echoes in Scripture
Revelation 7:4 through 8 stages one more counting of Israel by tribe, and Issachar appears there with twelve thousand sealed, the same figure given to every tribe in that vision. The pattern of tribe by tribe registration, established in books like Numbers, is picked up at the far end of Scripture and set in a new frame. Whatever else that passage means, its form deliberately recalls chapters like this one, where the people of God are counted family by family and none is passed over.
How to Apply Numbers 26:24 Today
Chapters like this one are where many reading plans stall. A page of unfamiliar names can feel like a wall. It helps to read with a different aim, watching what the passage is doing instead of hunting a lesson in every line. Here the aim is completeness, so we can read for that and give thanks that God's people were counted whole. A slow pass through a genealogy, looking up one name and asking what the list accomplishes, can turn a discouraging page into an interesting one and keep us in the whole of Scripture.
Reflection & Prayer
Which parts of the Bible do we routinely skip, and what might be waiting there? A prayer: Lord, You gave us all of Scripture, including the pages that feel dry to us. Give us curiosity where we have had impatience. Teach us to read slowly, and let even a list of names show us something true about how You keep Your people.