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ויהי אחרי המגפה כשכלו מתי מדבר יש כאן פרשה אעפ״י שהיא באמצע הפסוק ע״י שכאן נפסקה גזרת מתי מדבר ומכאן ואילך בא למנות הבנים מבן עשרים שנה ומעלה שנכנסו לארץ. ויהי אחרי המגפה, “it was after the plague;” the “plague” referred to here is the dying in the desert of the generation of the adult Israelite males who had been redeemed from Egypt, but had lacked the faith to try and conquer the land of Canaan. This short phrase is described as an entire chapter despite its containing only three words. Our sages separated these three words from what preceded them by a cantillation mark indicating that a paragraph had been concluded. This is followed by another census of the Jewish males of military age prior to the crossing of the river Jordan.