1)
Verse 2 already said that there were 400,000 Bnei Yisrael. Why is this repeated?
1.
Malbim: This teaches that not one of them returned home. 1 Fearful, weak-hearted people who fear and similar [people exempt from fight] all went [to fight]. 2
1
They sent a 10th of them to prepare provisions! Perhaps they already returned. (PF)
2
Perhaps such people did not come from the beginning! In the last year in the Midbar, there were over 550,000 "Yotzei Tzava" in Yisrael, excluding Binyamin. Many hold like Seder Olam, that Pilegesh b'Giv'ah was shortly after Yehoshua died. Surely Yisrael did not decrease in number so much in his lifetime; many did not come at all. (PF)
