NUMBERS-RUTH by C.F. Keil & F. Delitzsch To the Students of the Words, Works and Ways of God: THE FOURTH BOOK OF MOSES(NUMBERS) INTRODUCTION CONTENTS, AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.

The fourth book of Moses, which the Jews call either Vayedabber rbæd; ), from the opening word, rp;s]mi ( Ariqmoi> , Numeri, LXX, Vulg.), or µydwqp recensiones (= liber recensionum), and to which the heading rB;d]mi (in the wilderness) is given in the Masoretic texts with a more direct reference to its general contents, narrates the guidance of Israel through the desert, from Mount Sinai to the border of Canaan by the river Jordan, and embraces the whole period from the second month of the second year after the exodus from Egypt to the tenth month of the fortieth year.

As soon as their mode of life in a spiritual point of view had been fully regulated by the laws of Leviticus, the Israelites were to enter upon their journey to Canaan, and take possession of the inheritance promised to their fathers. But just as the way from Goshen to Sinai was a preparation of the chosen people for their reception into the covenant with God, so the way from Sinai to Canaan was also a preparation for the possession of the promised land. On their journey through the wilderness the Israelites were to experience on the one hand the faithful watchfulness and gracious deliverance of their God in every season of distress and danger, as well as the stern severity of the divine judgments upon the despisers of their God, that they might learn thereby to trust entirely in the Lord, and strive after His kingdom alone; and on the other hand they were to receive during their journey the laws and ordinances relating to their civil and political constitution, and thereby to be placed in a condition to form and maintain themselves as a consolidated nation by the side of and in opposition to the earthly kingdoms formed by the nations of the world, and to fulfil the task assigned them by God in the midst of the nations of the earth. These laws, which were given in part at Sinai, in relation to the external and internal organization of the tribes of Israel as the army and the congregation of Jehovah, and in part on various occasions during the march through the desert, as well as after their arrival in the steppes of Moab, on the other side of the Jordan opposite to Jericho, with especial reference to the conquest of Canaan and their settlement there, are not only attached externally to the history itself in the order in which they were given, but are so incorporated internally into the historical narrative, according to their peculiar character and contents, as to form a complete whole, which divides itself into three distinct parts corresponding to the chronological development of the history itself.

The First part, which extends from Numbers 1-10:10, contains the preparations for departing from Sinai, arranged in four groups:-viz., (1) the outward arrangement and classification of the tribes in the camp and on their march, or the numbering and grouping of the twelve tribes around the sanctuary of their God (ch. 1 and 2), and the appointment of the Levites in the place of the first-born of the nation to act as servants of the priests in the sanctuary (ch. 3 and 4); (2) the internal or moral and spiritual organization of the nation as the congregation of the Lord, by laws relating to the maintenance of the cleanliness of the camp, restitution for trespasses, conjugal fidelity, the fulfilment of the vow of the Nazarite, and the priestly blessing (ch. and 6); (3) the closing events at Sinai, viz., the presentation of dedicatory offerings on the part of the tribe princes for the transport of the tabernacle and the altar service (ch. 7), the consecration of the Levites (ch. 8), and the feast of Passover, with an arrangement for a supplementary Passover (Numbers 9:1-14); (4) the appointment of signs and signals for the march in the desert (Numbers 9:5-10:10).

In the Second part (Numbers 10:11-21), the history of the journey is given in the three stages of its progress from Sinai to the heights of Pisgah, near to the Jordan, viz., (1) from their departure from the desert of Sinai (Numbers 10:11-36) to their arrival at the desert of Paran, at Kadesh, including the occurrences at Tabeerah, at the graves of lust, and at Hazeroth (ch. and 12), and the events at Kadesh which led God to condemn the people who had revolted against Him to wander in the wilderness for forty years, until the older generation that came out of Egypt had all died (ch. 13 and 14); (2) all that is related of the execution of this divine judgment, extending from the end of the second year to the reassembling of the congregation at Kadesh at the beginning of the fortieth year, is the history of the rebellion and destruction of Korah (ch. 16-17:15), which is preceded by laws relating to the offering of sacrifices after entering Canaan, to the punishment of blasphemers, and to mementos upon the clothes (ch. 15), and followed by the divine institution of the Aaronic priesthood (Numbers 17:16-28), with directions as to the duties and rights of the priests and Levites (ch. 18), and the law concerning purification from uncleanness arising from contact with the dead (ch. 19); (3) the journey of Israel in the fortieth year from Kadesh to Mount Hor, round Mount Seir, past Moab, and through the territory of the Amorites to the heights of Pisgah, with the defeat of the kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, and the conquest of their kingdoms in Gilead and Bashan (ch. 20 and 21).

In the Third part (ch. 22-36), the events which occurred in the steppes of Moab, on the eastern side of the plain of Jordan, are gathered into five groups, with the laws that were given there, viz., (1) the attempts of the Moabites and Midianites to destroy the people of Israel, first by the force of Balaam’s curse, which was turned against his will into a blessing (ch. 22-24), and then by the seduction of the Israelites to idolatry (ch. 25); (2) the fresh numbering of the people according to their families (ch. 26), together with a rule for the inheritance of landed property by daughters (Numbers 27:1-11), and the appointment of Joshua as the successor of Moses (Numbers 27:12-23); (3) laws relating to the sacrifices to be offered by the congregation on the Sabbath and feast days, and to the binding character of vows made by dependent persons (ch. 28-30); (4) the defeat of the Midianites (ch. 31), the division of the land that had been conquered on the other side of the Jordan among the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh (ch. 32), and the list of the haltingplaces (Numbers 33:1-49); (5) directions as to the expulsion of the Canaanites, the conquest of Canaan and division of it among the tribes of Israel, the Levites and free cities, and the marriage of heiresses (ch. 33:50-36).

I. PREPARATIONS FOR THE DEPARTURE OF ISRAEL FROM SINAI.

NUMBERS 1:1-10:10. Numbering of the People of Israel at Sinai.

Four weeks after the erection of the tabernacle (cf. Numbers 1:1 and Exodus 40:17), Moses had the number of the whole congregation taken, by the command of God, according to the families and fathers’ houses of the twelve tribes, and a list made of all the males above twenty years of age for service in the army of Jehovah (Numbers 1:1-3). Nine months before, the numbering of the people had taken place for the purpose of collecting atonement-money from every male of twenty years old upwards (Exodus 30:11ff., compared with Numbers 38:25-26), and the result was 603,550, the same number as is given here as the sum of all that were mustered in the twelve tribes (Numbers 1:46). This correspondence in the number of the male population after the lapse of a year is to be explained, as we have already observed at Exodus 30:16, simply from the fact that the result of the previous census, which was taken for the purpose of raising headmoney from every one who was fit for war, was taken as the basis of the mustering of all who were fit for war, which took place after the erection of the tabernacle; so that, strictly speaking, this mustering merely consisted in the registering of those who had been numbered in the public records, according to their families and fathers’ houses.

It is most probable, however, that the numbering and registering took place according to the classification adopted at Jethro’s suggestion for the administration of justice, viz., in thousands, hundred, fifties, and tens (Exodus 18:25), and that the number of men in the different tribes was reckoned in this way simply by thousands, hundreds, and tens-a conclusion which we may draw from the fact, that there are no units given in the case of any of the tribes. On this plan the supernumerary units might be used to balance the changes that had taken place in the actual condition of the families and fathers’ houses, between the numbering and the preparation of the muster-rolls, so that the few changes that had occurred in the course of nine months among those who were fit for war were not taken any further into consideration, on account of their being so inconsiderable in relation to the total result.

A fresh census was taken 38 years later in the steppes of Moab (ch. 26), for the division of the land of Canaan among the tribes according to the number of their families (Numbers 33:54). The number which this gave was 601,730 men of twenty years old and upwards, not a single one of whom, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, was included among those that were mustered at Sinai, because the whole of that generation had died in the wilderness (Numbers 26:63ff.). In the historical account, instead of these exact numbers, the number of adult males is given in a round sum of 600,000 (Numbers 11:21; Exodus 12:37). To this the Levites had to be added, of whom there were 22,000 males at the first numbering and 23,000 at the second, reckoning the whole from a month old and upwards (Numbers 3:39; 26:62). Accordingly, on the precarious supposition that the results obtained from the official registration of births and deaths in our own day furnish any approximative standard for the people of Israel, who had grown up under essentially different territorial and historical circumstances, the whole number of the Israelites in the time of Moses would have been about two millions. f1 Modern critics have taken offence at these numbers, though without sufficient reason. f2 When David had the census taken by Joab, in the closing years of his reign, there were 800,000 men capable of bearing arms in Israel, and 500,000 in Judah (2 Samuel 24:9). Now, if we suppose the entire population of a country to be about four times the number of its fighting men, there would be about five millions of inhabitants in Palestine at that time. The area of this land, according to the boundaries given in Numbers 34:2-12, the whole of which was occupied by Israel and Judah in the time of David, with the exception of a small strip of the Phoenician coast, was more than square miles. f3 Accordingly there would be 10,000 inhabitants to each square mile (German); a dense though by no means unparalleled population; so that it is certainly possible that in the time of Christ it may have been more numerous still, according to the account of Josephus, which are confirmed by Dio Cassius (cf. C. v. Raumer, Palästina, p. 93). And if Canaan could contain and support five millions of inhabitants in the flourishing period of the Israelitish kingdom, two millions or more could easily have settled and been sustained in the time of Joshua and the Judges, notwithstanding the fact that there still remained large tracts of land in the possession of the Canaanites and Philistines, and that the Israelites dwelt in the midst of the Canaanitish population which had not yet been entirely eradicated (Judg 3:1-5).

If we compare together the results of the two numbering in the second and fortieth years of their march, we shall find a considerable increase in some of the tribes, and a large decrease in others. The number of men of twenty years old and upwards in the different tribes was as follows:- 1st Numbering — 2nd Numbering Reuben 46,500 43,730 Simeon 59,300 22,200 Gad 45,650 40,500 Judah 74,600 76,500 Issachar 54,400 64,300 Zebulon 57,400 60,500 Ephraim 40,500 32,500 Manasseh 32,200 52,700 Benjamin 35,400 45,600 Dan 62,700 64,400 Asher 41,500 53,400 Naphtali 53,400 45,400 Total 603,550 601,730 Consequently by the second numbering Dan had increased 1700, Judah 1900, Zebulon 3100, Issachar 9900, Benjamin 10,200, Asher 11,900, Manasseh 20,900. This increase, which was about 19 per cent. in the case of Issachar,29 per cent. in that of Benjamin and Asher, and 63 per cent. in that of Manasseh, is very large, no doubt; but even that of Manasseh is not unparalleled. The total population of Prussia increased from 10,349,031 to 17,139,288 between the end of 1816 and the end of 1855, that is to say, more than 65 per cent. in 39 years; whilst in England the population increased 47 per cent. between 1815 and 1849, i.e., in 34 years. On the other hand, there was a decrease in Reuben of 2770, in Gad of 5150, and Ephraim of 8000, in Naphtali of 8000, and in Simeon of 37,100. The cause of this diminution of 6 per cent. in the case of Reuben,12 per cent. in Gad,15 per cent. in Naphtali, 20 per cent. in Ephraim, and nearly 63 per cent. in Simeon, it is most natural to seek for in the different judgments which fell upon the nation. If it be true, as the earlier commentators conjectured, with great plausibility, on account of the part taken by Zimri, a prince of the tribe (Numbers 25:6,14), that the Simeonites were the worst of those who joined in the idolatrous worship of Baal Peor, the plague, in which 24,000 men were destroyed (Numbers 25:9), would fall upon them with greater severity than upon the other tribes; and this would serve as the principal explanation of the circumstance, that in the census which was taken immediately afterwards, the number of men in that tribe who were capable of bearing arms had melted away to 22,200. But for all that, the total number included in the census had only been reduced by 1820 men during the forty years of their journeying through the wilderness.

The tribe of Levi appears very small in comparison with the rest of the tribes. In the second year of their journey, when the first census was taken, it only numbered 22,000 males of a month old and upwards; and in the fortieth year, when the second was taken, only 23,000 (Numbers 3:39; 26:62). “Reckoning,” says Knobel, “that in Belgium, for example, in the rural districts, out of 10,000 males, 1074 die in the first month after their birth, and 3684 between the first month and the twentieth year, so that only 5242 are then alive, the tribe of Levi would only number about 13,000 men of 20 years old and upwards, and consequently would not be half as numerous as the smallest of the other tribes, whilst it would be hardly a sixth part the size of Judah, which was the strongest of the tribes.” But notwithstanding this, the correctness of the numbers given is not to be called in question. It is not only supported by the fact, that the number of the Levites capable of service between the ages of 30 and 50 amounted to 8580 (Numbers 4:48)-a number which bears the most perfect proportion to that of 22,000 of a month old and upwards-but is also confirmed by the fact, that in the time of David the tribe of Levi only numbered 38,000 of thirty years old and upwards (1 Chron 23:3); so that in the interval between Moses and David their rate of increase was still below that of the other tribes, which had grown from 600,000 to 1,300,000 in the same time.

Now, if we cannot discover any reason for this smaller rate of increase in the tribe of Levi, we see, at any rate, that it was not uniform in the other tribes. If Levi was not half as strong as Manasseh in the first numbering, neither Manasseh nor Benjamin was half as strong as Judah; and in the second numbering, even Ephraim had not half the number of men that Judah had.

A much greater difficulty appears to lie in the fact, that the number of all the male first-born of the twelve tribes, which was only 22,273 according to the census taken for the purpose of their redemption by the Levites (Numbers 3:43), bore no kind of proportion to the total number of men capable of bearing arms in the whole of the male population, as calculated from these. If the 603,550 men of twenty years old and upwards presuppose, according to what has been stated above, a population of more than a million males; then, on the assumption that 22,273 was the sum total of the first-born sons throughout the entire nation, there would be only one first-born to 40 or 45 males, and consequently every father of a family must have begotten, or still have had, from 39 to 44 sons; whereas the ordinary proportion of first-born sons to the whole male population is one to four.

But the calculation which yields this enormous disproportion, or rather this inconceivable proportion, is founded upon the supposition that the law, which commanded the sanctification of the male first-born, had a retrospective force, and was to be understood as requiring that not only the first-born sons, who were born from the time when the law was given, but all the first-born sons throughout the entire nation, should be offered to the Lord and redeemed with five shekels each, even though they were fathers or grandfathers, or even great-grandfathers, at that time. Now if the law is to be interpreted in this sense, as having a retrospective force, and applying to those who were born before it was issued, as it has been from the time of J. D. Michaelis down to that of Knobel, it is an unwarrantable liberty to restrict its application to the first-born sons, who had not yet become fathers themselves-a mere subterfuge, in fact, invented for the purpose of getting rid of the disproportion, but without answering the desired end. f5 If we look more closely at the law, we cannot find in the words themselves “all the first-born, whatsoever openeth the womb” (Exodus 13:2, cf.

Numbers 3:12), or in the ratio legis, or in the circumstances under which the law was given, either a necessity or warrant for any such explanation or extension. According to Exodus 13:2, after the institution of the Passover and its first commemoration, God gave the command, “Sanctify unto Me all the first-born both of man and of beast;” and added, according to vv. 11ff., the further explanation, that when the Israelites came into the land of Canaan, they were to set apart every first-born unto the Lord, but to redeem their first-born sons. This further definition places it beyond all doubt, that what God prescribed to His people was not a supplementary sanctification of all the male first-born who were then to be found in Israel, but simply the sanctification of all that should be born from that time forward.

A confirmation of this is to be found in the explanation given in Numbers 3:13 and 8:17: “All the first-born are Mine; for on the day that I smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, I hallowed unto Me all the first-born in Israel, both man and beast.” According to this distinct explanation, God had actually sanctified to Himself all the first-born of Israel by the fact, that through the blood of the paschal lamb He granted protection to His people form the stroke of the destroyer (Exodus 12:22-23), and had instituted the Passover, in order that He might therein adopt the whole nation of Israel, with all its sons, as the people of His possession, or induct the nation which He had chosen as His first-born son (Exodus 4:22) into the condition of a child of God. This condition of sonship was henceforth to be practically manifested by the Israelites, not only by the yearly repetition of the feast of Passover, but also by the presentation of all the male first-born of their sons and their cattle to the Lord, the first-born of the cattle being sacrificed to Him upon the altar, and the first-born sons being redeemed from the obligation resting upon them to serve at the sanctuary of their God. Of course the reference was only to the first-born of men and cattle that should come into the world from that time forward, and not to those whom God had already sanctified to Himself, by sparing the Israelites and their cattle. f6 This being established, it follows that the 22,273 first-born, who were exchanged for the Levites (Numbers 3:45ff.), consisted only of the firstborn sons who had been born between the time of the exodus from Egypt and the numbering of the twelve tribes, which took place thirteen months afterwards. Now, if, in order to form an idea of the proportion which this number would bear to the whole of the male population of the twelve tribes of Israel, we avail ourselves of the results furnished by modern statistics, we may fairly assume, according to these, that in a nation comprising 603,550 males above 20 years of age, there would be 190,000 to 195,100 between the ages of 20 and 30. f7 And, supposing that this was the age at which the Israelites married, there would be from 19,000 to 19,500 marriages contracted upon an average every year; and in a nation which had grown up in a land so celebrated as Egypt was in antiquity for the extraordinary fruitfulness of its inhabitants, almost as many first-born, say at least 19,000, might be expected to come into the world. This average number would be greater if we fixed the age for marrying between 18 and 28, or reduced it to the seven years between 18 and 25. f8 But even without doing this, we must take into consideration the important fact that such averages, based upon a considerable length of time, only give an approximative idea of the actual state of things in any single year; and that, as a matter of fact, in years of oppression and distress the numbers may sink to half the average, whilst in other years, under peculiarly favourable circumstances, they may rise again to double the amount. f9 When the Israelites were groaning under the hard lash of the Egyptian taskmasters, and then under the inhuman and cruel edict of Pharaoh, which commanded all the Hebrew boys that were born to be immediately put to death, the number of marriages no doubt diminished from year to year. But the longer this oppression continued, the greater would be the number of marriages concluded at once (especially in a nation rejoicing in the promise of numerous increase which it had received from its God), when Moses had risen up and proved himself, by the mighty signs and wonders with which he smote Egypt and its haughty king, to be the man whom the God of the fathers had sent and endowed with power to redeem His nation out of the bondage of Egypt, and lead it into Canaan, the good land that He had promised to the fathers. At that time, when the spirits of the nation revived, and the hope of a glorious future filled every years, there might very well have been about 38,000 marriages contracted in a year, say from the time of the seventh plague, three months before the exodus, and about 37,600 children born by the second month of the second year after the exodus, 22,273 of them being boys, as the proportion of male births to female varies very remarkably, and may be shown to have risen even as high as 157 to 100, whilst among the Jews of modern times it has frequently been as high as 6 to 5, and has even risen to 3 to 2 (or more exactly 29 to 20). f10 In this way the problem before us may be solved altogether independently of the question, whether the law relates to all the first-born sons on the father’s side, or only to those who were first-born on both father’s and mother’s side, and without there having been a daughter born before. This latter view we regard as quite unfounded, as a mere subterfuge resorted to for the purpose of removing the supposed disproportion, and in support of which the expression “opening the womb” (fissura uteri, i.e., qui findit uterum) is pressed in a most unwarrantable manner. On this point, J. D.

Michaelis has correctly observed, that “the etymology ought not to be too strongly pressed, inasmuch as it is not upon this, but upon usage chiefly, that the force of words depends.” It is a fact common to all languages, that in many words the original literal signification falls more and more into the background in the course, of years, and at length is gradually lost sight of altogether.

Moreover, the expression “openeth the womb” is generally employed in cases in which a common term is required to designate the first-born of both man and beast (Exodus 13:2,12-15; 34:19-20; Numbers 3:12-13; 8:16-17; 18:15; Ezek 20:16); but even then, wherever the two are distinguished, the term rwOkB] is applied as a rule to the first-born sons, and rf,p, to the first-born of animals (comp. Exodus 13:13b with v. 12 and 13a; and Numbers 34:20b with vv. 19 and 20a). On the other hand, where only first-born sons are referred to, as in Deuteronomy 21:15-17, we look in vain for the expression peter rechem, “openeth the womb.” Again, the Old Testament, like modern law, recognises only first-born sons, and does not apply the term first-born to daughters at all; and in relation to the inheritance, even in the case of two wives, both of whom had born sons to their husband, it recognises only one first-born son, so that the fact of its being the first birth on the mother’s side is not taken into consideration at all (cf. Genesis 46:8; 49:3; Deuteronomy 21:15-17).

And the established rule in relation to the birthright-namely, that the first son of the father was called the first-born, and possessed all the rights of the first-born, independently altogether of the question whether there had been daughters born before-would no doubt be equally applicable to the sanctification of the first-born sons. Or are we really to believe, that inasmuch as the child first born is quite as often a girl as a boy, God exempted every father in Israel whose eldest child was a daughter from the obligation to manifest his own sonship by consecrating his first-born son to God, and so demanded the performance of this duty from half the nation only? We cannot for a moment believe that such an interpretation of the law as this would really be in accordance with the spirit of the Old Testament economy.

NUMBERS 1:1 Muster of the Twelve Tribes, with the Exception of that of Levi.

Before the departure of Israel from Sinai, God commanded Moses, on the first of the second month in the second year after the exodus from Egypt, to take the number of the whole congregation of the children of Israel, “according to their families, according to their fathers’ houses (see Exodus 6:14), in (according to) the number of their names,” i.e., each one counted singly and entered, but only “every male according to their heads of twenty years old and upwards” (see Exodus 30:14), viz., only ab;x; axeyAlK; “all who go forth of the army,” i.e., all the men capable of bearing arms, because by means of this numbering the tribes and their subdivisions were to be organized as hosts of Jehovah, that the whole congregation might fight as an army for the cause of their Lord (see at Exodus 7:4).

NUMBERS 1:4-16 Moses and Aaron, who were commanded to number, or rather to muster, the people, were to have with them “a man of every tribe, who was headman of his fathers’ houses,” i.e., a tribe-prince, viz., to help them to carry out the mustering. Beth aboth (“fathers’ houses”), in v. 2, is a technical expression for the subdivisions in which the mishpachoth, or families of the tribes, were arranged, and is applied in v. 4 according to its original usage, based upon the natural division of the tribes into mishpachoth and families, to the fathers’ houses which every tribe possessed in the family of its firstborn.

In vv. 5-15, these heads of tribes were mentioned by name, as in Numbers 2:3ff., 7:12ff., 10:14ff. In v. 16 they are designated as “called men of the congregation,” because they were called to diets of the congregation, as representatives of the tribes, to regulate the affairs of the nation; also “princes of the tribes of their fathers,” and “heads of the thousands of Israel:” “prince,” from the nobility of their birth; and “heads,” as chiefs of the alaphim composing the tribes. Alaphim is equivalent to mishpachoth (cf. Numbers 10:4; Josh 22:14); because the number of heads of families in the mishpachoth of a tribe might easily amount to a thousand (see at Exodus 18:25). In a similar manner, the term “hundred” in the old German came to be used in several different senses (see Grimm, deutsche Rechts-alterthümer, p. 532).

NUMBERS 1:17-47 This command was carried out by Moses and Aaron. They took for this purpose the twelve heads of tribes who are pointed out (see at Lev 24:11) by name, and had the whole congregation gathered together by them and enrolled in genealogical tables. dLeyæt]hi , to announce themselves as born, i.e., to have themselves entered in genealogical registers (books of generations). This entry is called a rqæp] , mustering, in v. 19, etc. In vv. 20- 43 the number is given of those who were mustered of all the different tribes, and in vv. 44-47 the total of the whole nation, with the exception of the tribe of Levi. “Their generations” (vv. 20, 22, 24, etc.), i.e., those who were begotten by them, so that “the sons of Reuben, Simeon,” etc., are mentioned as the fathers from whom the mishpachoth and fathers’ houses had sprung. The l] before ˆwO[m]vi ˆBe in v. 22, and the following names (in vv. 24, 26, etc.), signifies “with regard to” (as in Isaiah 32:1; Psalm 17:4, etc.).

NUMBERS 1:48-54 Moses was not to muster the tribe of Levi along with the children of Israel, i.e., with the other tribes, or take their number, but to appoint the Levites for the service of the dwelling of the testimony (Exodus 38:21), i.e., of the tabernacle, that they might encamp around it, might take it down when the camp was broken up, and set it up when Israel encamped again, and that no stranger (zar, non-Levite, as in Lev 22:10) might come near it and be put to death (see ch. 3). The rest of the tribes were to encamp every man in his place of encampment, and by his banner (see at Numbers 2:2), in their hosts (see ch. 2), that wrath might not come upon the congregation, viz., through the approach of a stranger. ãx,q, , the wrath of Jehovah, breaking in judgment upon the unholy who approached His sanctuary in opposition to His command (Numbers 8:19; 18:5,22). On the expression “keep the charge” (shamar mishmereth), see at Genesis 26:5 and Lev 8:35. NUMBERS 2:1-2 Order of the Twelve Tribes in the Camp and on the March.

The twelve tribes were to encamp each one by his standard, by the signs of their fathers’ houses, opposite to the tabernacle (at some distance) round about, and, according to the more precise directions given afterwards, in such order that on every side of the tabernacle three tribes were encamped side by side and united under one banner, so that the twelve tribes formed four large camps or divisions of an army. Between these camps and the court surrounding the tabernacle, the three leading mishpachoth of the Levites were to be encamped on three sides, and Moses and Aaron with the sons of Aaron (i.e., the priests) upon the fourth, i.e., the front or eastern side, before the entrance (Numbers 3:21-38). lg,D, , a standard, banner, or flag, denotes primarily the larger field sign, possessed by every division composed of three tribes, which was also the banner of the tribe at the head of each division; and secondarily, in a derivative signification, it denotes the army united under one standard, like shmei>a , or vexillum. It is used thus, for example, in vv. 17, 31, 34, and in combination with hn,jmæ in vv. 3, 10, 18, and 25, where “standard of the camp of Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan” signifies the hosts of the tribes arranged under these banners. twOa , the signs (ensigns), were the smaller flags or banners which were carried at the head of the different tribes and subdivisions of the tribes (the fathers’ houses). Neither the Mosaic law, nor the Old Testament generally, gives us any intimation as to the form or character of the standard (degel). According to rabbinical tradition, the standard of Judah bore the figure of a lion, that of Reuben the likeness of a man or of a man’s head, that of Ephraim the figure of an ox, and that of Dan the figure of an eagle; so that the four living creatures united in the cherubic forms described by Ezekiel were represented upon these four standards. f11 NUMBERS 2:3-31 Order of the tribes in the camp and on the march.

The standard of the tribe of Judah was to encamp in front, namely towards the east, according to its hosts; and by its side the tribes of Issachar and Zebulun, the descendants of Leah, under the command and banner of Judah: an army of 186,400 men, which was to march out first when the camp was broken up (v. 9), so that Judah led the way as the champion of his brethren (Genesis 49:10).

Verse 4-9. “His host, and those that were numbered of them” (cf. vv. 6, 8, 11, etc.), i.e., the army according to its numbered men.

Verse 10-16. On the south side was the standard of Reuben, with which Simeon and Gad, descendants of Leah and her maid Zilpah, were associated, and to which they were subordinated. In v. 14, Reuel is a mistake for Reuel (Numbers 1:14; 7:42; 10:20), which is the reading given here in 118 MSS cited by Kennicott and Deuteronomy Rossi, in several of the ancient editions, and in the Samaritan, Vulgate, and Jonah Saad., whereas the LXX, Onk., Syr., and Pers. read Reuel. This army of 151,450 men was to break up and march as the second division.

Verse 17 . The tabernacle, the camp of the Levites, was to break up after this in the midst of the camps (i.e., of the other tribes). “As they encamp, so shall they break up,” that is to say, with Levi in the midst of the tribes, “every man in his place, according to his banner.” dy; , place, as in Deuteronomy 23:13; Isaiah 57:8.

Verse 18-24. On the west the standard of Ephraim, with the tribes of Manasseh and Benjamin, that is to say, the whole of the descendants of Rachel, 108,100 men, as the third division of the army.

Verse 25-30. Lastly, towards the north was the standard of Gad, with Asher and Naphtali, the descendants of the maids Bilhah and Zilpah, 157,600 men, who were to be the last to break up, and formed the rear on the march.

Verse 31. lg,D, (according to their standards) is equivalent to ab;x; (according to their hosts) in vv. 9, 16, and 24, i.e., according to the hosts of which they consisted.

NUMBERS 2:32-34 In v. 32 we have the whole number given, 603,550 men, not including the Levites (v. 33, see at Numbers 1:49); and in v. 34 the concluding remark as to the subsequent execution of the divine command-an anticipatory notice, as in Exodus 12:50; 40:16, etc. NUMBERS 3:1-4 Muster of the Tribe of Levi.- As Jacob had adopted the two sons of Joseph as his own sons, and thus promoted them to the rank of heads of tribes, the tribe of Levi formed, strictly speaking, the thirteenth tribe of the whole nation, and was excepted from the muster of the twelve tribes who were destined to form the army of Jehovah, because God had chosen it for the service of the sanctuary.

Out of this tribe God had not only called Moses to be the deliverer, lawgiver, and leader of His people, but Moses’ brother Aaron, with the sons of the latter, to be the custodians of the sanctuary. And now, lastly, the whole tribe was chosen, in the place of the first-born of all the tribes, to assist the priests in performing the duties of the sanctuary, and was numbered and mustered for this its special calling.

Verse 1-4. In order to indicate at the very outset the position which the Levites were to occupy in relation to the priests (viz., Aaron and his descendants), the account of their muster commences not only with the enumeration of the sons of Aaron who were chosen as priests (vv. 2-4), but with the heading: “These are the generations of Aaron and Moses in the day (i.e., at the time) when Jehovah spake with Moses in Mount Sinai (v. 1). The toledoth (see at Genesis 2:4) of Moses and Aaron are not only the families which sprang from Aaron and Moses, but the Levitical families generally, which were named after Aaron and Moses, because they were both of them raised into the position of heads or spiritual fathers of the whole tribe, namely, at the time when God spoke to Moses upon Sinai.

Understood in this way, the notice as to the time is neither a superfluous repetition, nor introduced with reference to the subsequent numbering of the people in the steppes of Moab (Numbers 26:57ff.). Aaron is placed before Moses here (see at Exodus 6:26ff.), not merely as being the elder of the two, but because his sons received the priesthood, whilst the sons of Moses, on the contrary, were classed among the rest of the Levitical families (cf. 1 Chron 23:14).

Verse 2-4. Names of the sons of Aaron, the “anointed priests (see Lev 8:12), whose hand they filled to be priests,” i.e., who were appointed to the priesthood (see at Lev 7:37). On Nadab and Abihu, see Lev 10:1-2. As they had neither of them any children when they were put to death, Eleazar and Ithamar were the only priests “in the sight of Aaron their father,” i.e., during his lifetime. “In the sight of:” as in Genesis 11:28. NUMBERS 3:5-10 The Levites are placed before Aaron the priest, to be his servants.

Verse 6. “Bring near:” as in Exodus 28:1. The expression µynip; `rmæ[; is frequently met with in connection with the position of a servant, as standing before his master to receive his commands.

Verse 7-8. They were to keep the charge of Aaron and the whole congregation before the tabernacle, to attend to the service of the dwelling, i.e., to observe what Aaron (the priest) and the whole congregation were bound to perform in relation to the service at the dwelling-place of Jehovah. “To keep the charge:” see Numbers 1:53 and Genesis 26:5. In v. 8 this is more fully explained: they were to keep the vessels of the tabernacle, and to attend to all that was binding upon the children of Israel in relation to them, i.e., to take the oversight of the furniture, to keep it safe and clean.

Verse 9. Moses was also to give the Levites to Aaron and his sons. “They are wholly given to him out of the children of Israel:” the repetition of ˆtæn; here and in Numbers 8:16 is emphatic, and expressive of complete surrender (Ewald, §313). The Levites, however, as nethunim, must be distinguished from the nethinim of non-Israelitish descent, who were given to the Levites at a later period as temple slaves, to perform the lowest duties connected with the sanctuary (see at Josh 9:27).

Verse 10. Aaron and his sons were to be appointed by Moses to take charge of the priesthood; as no stranger, no one who was not a son of Aaron, could approach the sanctuary without being put to death (cf.

Numbers 1:53 and Lev 22:10).

NUMBERS 3:11-13 God appointed the Levites for this service, because He had decided to adopt them as His own in the place of all the first-born of Egypt. When He slew the first-born of Egypt, He sanctified to Himself all the first-born of Israel, of man and beast, for His own possession (see Exodus 13:1-2). By virtue of this sanctification, which was founded upon the adoption of the whole nation as His first-born son (see p. 341), the nation was required to dedicate to Him its first-born sons for service at the sanctuary, and sacrifice all the first-born of its cattle to Him. But now the Levites and their cattle were to be adopted in their place, and the first-born sons of Israel to be released in return (vv. 40ff.). By this arrangement, through which the care of the service at the sanctuary was transferred to one tribe, which would and should henceforth devote itself with undivided interest to this vocation, not only was a more orderly performance of this service secured, than could have been effected through the first-born of all the tribes; but so far as the whole nation was concerned, the fulfilment of its obligations in relation to this service was undoubtedly facilitated. Moreover, the Levites had proved themselves to be the most suitable of all the tribes for his post, through their firm and faithful defence of the honour of the Lord at the worship of the golden calf (Exodus 32:26ff.). It is in this spirit, which distinguished the tribe of Levi, that we may undoubtedly discover the reason why they were chosen by God for the service of the sanctuary, and not in the fact that Moses and Aaron belonged to the tribe, and desired to form a hierarchical caste of the members of their own tribe, such as was to be found among other nations: the magi, for example, among the Medes, the Chaldeans among the Persians, and the Brahmins among the Indians. hwO;hy] ynæa ttæK; , “to Me, to Me, Jehovah” (vv. 13, 41, and 45; cf. Ges. §121, 3).

NUMBERS 3:14-20 The muster of the Levites included all the males from a month old and upwards, because they were to be sanctified to Jehovah in the place of the first-born; and it was at the age of a month that the latter were either to be given up or redeemed (comp. vv. 40 and 43 with Numbers 18:16). In vv. 17-20 the sons of Levi and their sons are enumerated, who were the founders of the mishpachoth among the Levites, as in Exodus 6:16-19.

NUMBERS 3:21-26 The Gershonites were divided into two families, containing 7500 males.

They were to encamp under their chief Eliasaph, behind the tabernacle, i.e., on the western side (vv. 23, 24), and were to take charge of the dwellingplace and the tent, the covering, the curtain at the entrance, the hangings round the court with the curtains at the door, and the cords of the tent, “in relation to all the service thereof” (vv. 25ff.); that is to say, according to the more precise injunctions in Numbers 4:25-27, they were to carry the tapestry of the dwelling (the inner covering, Exodus 26:1ff.), and of the tent (i.e., the covering made of goats’ hair, Exodus 26:7ff.), the covering thereof (i.e., the covering of rams’ skins dyed red, and the covering of seacow skin upon the top of it, Exodus 27:16), the hangings of the court and the curtain at the entrance (Exodus 27:9,16), which surrounded the altar (of burnt-offering) and the dwelling round about, and their cords, i.e., the cords of the tapestry, coverings, and curtains (Exodus 27:14), and all the instruments of their service, i.e., the things used in connection with their service (Exodus 27:19), and were to attend to everything that had to be done to them; in other words, to perform whatever was usually done with those portions of the sanctuary that are mentioned here, especially in setting up the tabernacle or taking it down. The suffix in rt;yme (v. 26) does not refer to the court mentioned immediately before; for, according to v. 37, the Merarites were to carry the cords of the hangings of the court, but to the “dwelling and tent,” which stand farther off. In the same way the words, “for all the service thereof,” refer to all those portions of the sanctuary that are mentioned, and mean “everything that had to be done or attended to in connection with these things.”

NUMBERS 3:27-31 The Kohathites, who were divided into four families, and numbered 8600, were to encamp on the south side of the tabernacle, and more especially to keep the charge of the sanctuary (v. 28), viz., to take care of the ark of the covenant, the table (of shew-bread), the candlestick, the altars (of incense and burnt-offering), with the holy things required for the service performed in connection therewith, and the curtain (the veil before the most holy place), and to perform whatever had to be done (“all the service thereof,” see at v. 26), i.e., to carry the said holy things after they had been rolled up in covers by the priests (see Numbers 4:5ff.).

NUMBERS 3:32 As the priests also formed part of the Kohathites, their chief is mentioned as well, viz., Eleazar the eldest son of Aaron the high priest, who was placed over the chiefs of the three Levitical families, and called hD;qup] , oversight of the keepers of the charge of the sanctuary,” i.e., authority, superior, of the servants of the sanctuary. NUMBERS 3:33-37 The Merarites, who formed two families, comprising 6200 males, were to encamp on the north side of the tabernacle, under their prince Zuriel, and to observe the boards, bolts, pillars, and sockets of the dwelling-place (Exodus 26:15,26,32,37), together with all the vessels thereof (the plugs and tools), and all that had to be done in connection therewith, also the pillars of the court with their sockets, the plugs and the cords (Exodus 27:10,19; 35:18); that is to say, they were to take charge of these when the tabernacle was taken down, to carry them on the march, and to fix them when the tabernacle was set up again (Numbers 4:31-32).

NUMBERS 3:38,39 Moses and Aaron, with the sons of the latter (the priests), were to encamp in front, before the tabernacle, viz., on the eastern side, “as keepers of the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of Israel,” i.e., to attend to everything that was binding upon the children of Israel in relation to the care of the sanctuary, as no stranger was allowed to approach it on pain of death (see Numbers 1:51).

Verse 39. The number of the Levites mustered, 22,000, does not agree with the numbers assigned to the three families, as 7500 + 8600 + 6200 = 22,300. But the total is correct; for, according to v. 46, the number of the first-born, 22,273, exceeded the total number of the Levites by 273. The attempt made by the Rabbins and others to reconcile the two, by supposing the 300 Levites in excess to be themselves first-born, who were omitted in the general muster, because they were not qualified to represent the firstborn of the other tribes, is evidently forced and unsatisfactory. The whole account is so circumstantial, that such a fact as this would never have been omitted. We must rather assume that there is a copyist’s error in the number of one of the Levitical families; possibly in v. 28 we should read vwOkv; for vve (8300 for 8600). The puncta extraordinaria above ˆwOrhaæ are intended to indicate that this word is either suspicious or spurious (see at Genesis 33:5); and it is actually omitted in Sam., Syr., and 12 MSS, but without sufficient reason: for although the divine command to muster the Levites (vv. 5 and 14) was addressed to Moses alone, yet if we compare Numbers 4:1,34,37,41,45, where the Levites qualified for service are said to have been mustered by Moses and Aaron, and still more Numbers 4:46, where the elders of Israel are said to have taken part in the numbering of the Levites as well as in that of the twelve tribes (Numbers 1:3-4), there can be no reason to doubt that Aaron also took part in the mustering of the whole of the Levites, for the purpose of adoption in the place of the firstborn of Israel; and no suspicion attaches to this introduction of his name in v. 39, although it is not mentioned in vv. 5, 11, 14, 40, and 44.

NUMBERS 3:40-48 After this, Moses numbered the first-born of the children of Israel, to exchange them for the Levites according to the command of God, which is repeated in vv. 41 and 44-45 from vv. 11-13, and to adopt the latter in their stead for the service at the sanctuary (on vv. 41 and 45, cf. vv. 11- 13). The number of the first-born of the twelve tribes amounted to 22,273 of a month old and upwards (v. 43). Of this number 22,000 were exchanged for the 22,000 Levites, and the cattle of the Levites were also set against the first-born of the cattle of the tribes of Israel, though without their being numbered and exchanged head for head. In vv. 44 and 45 the command of God concerning the adoption of the Levites is repeated, for the purpose of adding the further instructions with regard to the 273, the number by which the first-born of the tribes exceeded those of the Levites. “And as for the redemption of the 273 (lit., the 273 to be redeemed) of the first-born of the children of Israel which were more than the Levites, thou shalt take five shekels a head,” etc. This was the general price established by the law for the redemption of the first-born of men (see Numbers 18:16). On the sacred shekel, see at Exodus 30:13. The redemption money for 273 first-born, in all 1365 shekels, was to be paid to Aaron and his sons as compensation for the persons who properly belonged to Jehovah, and had been appointed as first-born for the service of the priests.

NUMBERS 3:49-51 “The redeemed of the Levites” are the 22,000 who were redeemed by means of the Levites. In v. 50, the Chethibh µwOyd]pi is the correct reading, and the Keri yWdp; an unnecessary emendation. The number of the firstborn and that of the Levites has already been noticed at pp. 654, 655.

NUMBERS 4:1 Rules of Service, and Numbering of the Levites Qualified for Service. After the adoption of the Levites for service at the sanctuary, in the place of the first-born of Israel, Moses and Aaron mustered the three families of the Levites by the command of God for the service to be performed by those who were between the ages of 30 and 50. The particulars of the service are first of all described in detail (vv. 4-33); and then the men in each family are taken, of the specified age for service (vv. 34-49). The three families are not arranged according to the relative ages of their founders, but according to the importance or sacredness of their service.

The Kohathites take the lead, because the holiest parts of the tabernacle were to be carried and kept by this family, which included the priests, Aaron and his sons. The service to be performed by each of the three Levitical families is introduced in every case by a command from God to take the sum of the men from 30 years old to 50 (see vv. 1-3, 21-23, and 30).

NUMBERS 4:2-3 Service of the Kohathites, and the number qualified for service. “Take the sum of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi:” i.e., by raising them out of the sum total of the Levites, by numbering them first and specially, viz., the men from 30 to 50 years of age, “every one who comes to the service,” i.e., who has to enter upon service “to do work at the tabernacle.” ab;x; (Angl. ‘host’) signifies military service, and is used here with special reference to the service of the Levites as the militia sacra of Jehovah.

NUMBERS 4:4-6 The service of the Kohathites at the tabernacle is (relates to) “the most holy” (see at Exodus 30:10). This term includes, as is afterwards explained, the most holy things in the tabernacle, viz., the ark of the covenant, the table of shew-bread, the candlestick, the altar of incense and altar of burntoffering, together with all the other things belonging to these. When the camp was broken up, the priests were to roll them up in wrappers, and hand them over in this state to the Kohathites, for them to carry (vv. 5-15).

First of all (vv. 5, 6), Aaron and his sons were to take down the curtain between the holy place and the most holy (see Exodus 26:31), and to cover the ark of testimony with it (Exodus 25:10). Over this they were to place a wrapper of sea-cow skin (tachash, see Exodus 25:5), and over this again another covering of cloth made entirely of hyacinth-coloured purple (as in Exodus 28:31). The sea-cow skin as to protect the inner curtain, which was covered over the ark, from storm and rain; the hyacinth purple, to distinguish the ark of the covenant as the throne of the glory of Jehovah.

Lastly, they were to place the staves into the rings again, that is to say, the bearing poles, which were always left in their places on the ark (Exodus 25:15), but had necessarily to be taken out while it was being covered and wrapped up.

NUMBERS 4:7-8 Over the table of shew-bread (Exodus 25:23) they were to spread a hyacinth cloth, to place the plates, bowls, wine-pitchers, and drink-offering bowls (Exodus 25:29) upon the top of this, and to lay shew-bread thereon; and then to spread a crimson cloth over these vessels and the shew-bread, and cover this with a sea-cow skin, and lastly to put the bearing poles in their places.

NUMBERS 4:9-10 The candlestick, with its lamps, snuffers, extinguishers (Exodus 25:31-37), and all its oil-vessels (oil-cans), “wherewith they serve it,” i.e., prepare it for the holy service, were to be covered with a hyacinth cloth, and then with a wrapper of sea-cow skin, and laid upon the carriage. fwOm (vv. and 12), bearing frame, in Numbers 13:23 bearing poles.

NUMBERS 4:11-12 So again they were to wrap up the altar of incense (Exodus 30:1), to adjust its bearing poles; and having wrapped it up in such coverings, along with the vessels belonging to it, to lay it upon the frame.

NUMBERS 4:13-14 The altar of burnt-offering was first of all to be cleansed from the ashes; a crimson cloth was then to be covered over it, and the whole of the furniture belonging to it to be placed upon the top; and lastly, the whole was to be covered with a sea-cow skin. The only thing not mentioned is the copper laver (Exodus 30:18), probably because it was carried without any cover at all. The statement in the Septuagint and the Samaritan text, which follows v. 14. respecting its covering and conveyance upon a frame, is no doubt a spurious interpolation.

NUMBERS 4:15 After the priests had completed the wrapping up of all these things, the Kohathites were to come up to carry them; but they were not to touch “the holy” (the holy things), lest they should die (see Numbers 1:53; 18:3, and comp. 2 Samuel 6:6-7).

NUMBERS 4:16 The oversight of the oil for the candlestick (Exodus 27:20), the incense (Exodus 30:34), the continual meat-offering (Exodus 29:40), and the anointing oil (Exodus 30:23), belonged to Eleazar as the head of all the Levites (Numbers 3:32). He had also the oversight of the dwelling and all the holy things and furniture belonging to it; and, as a comparison of vv. and 33 clearly shows, of the services of the Kohathites also.

NUMBERS 4:17-18 In order to prevent as far as possible any calamity from befalling the Levites while carrying the most holy things, the priests are again urged by the command of God to do what has already been described in detail in vv. 5-15, lest through any carelessness on their part they should cut off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites, i.e., should cause their destruction; viz., if they should approach the holy things before they had been wrapped up by Aaron and his sons in the manner prescribed and handed over to them to carry. If the Kohathites should come for only a single moment to look at the holy things, they would die. ‘al-tak¦riytuw, “cut ye not off,” i.e., “take care that the Kohathites are not cut off through your mistake and negligence” (Ros.). “The tribe of the families of the Kohathites:” shebet, the tribe, is not used here, as it frequently is, in its derivative sense of tribe (Tribus), but in the original literal sense of stirps.

NUMBERS 4:19 “This do to them:” sc., what is prescribed in vv. 5-15 with reference to their service. NUMBERS 4:20 [læB; , “like a swallow, a gulp,” is probably a proverbial expression, according to the analogy of Job 7:19, for “a single instant,” of which the Arabic also furnishes examples (see A. Schultens on Job 7:19). The Sept. rendering, exa>pina , conveys the actual sense. A historical illustration of v. 20 is furnished by 1 Samuel 6:19. f12 NUMBERS 4:21-26 The service of the Gershonites is introduced in vv. 21-23 in the same manner as that of the Kohathites in vv. 1-3; and in vv. 24-26 it is described in accordance with the brief notice and explanation already given in Numbers 3:24-26.

NUMBERS 4:27 Their service was to be performed “according to the mouth (i.e., according to the appointment) of Aaron and his sons, with regard to all their carrying (all that they were to carry), and all their doing.”-”And ye (the priests) shall appoint to them for attendance (in charge) all their carrying,” i.e., all the things they were to carry. tr,m,v]mi rqæp] , to give into keeping. The combination of rqæp] with b¦ and the accusative of the object is analogous to b¦ ˆtæn; , to give into a persons’ hand, in Genesis 27:17; and there is no satisfactory reason for any such emendations of the text as Knobel proposes.

NUMBERS 4:28 “Their charge (mishmereth) is in the hand of Ithamar,” i.e., is to be carried out under his superintendence (cf. Exodus 38:21).

NUMBERS 4:29-30 “Service of the Merarites.-Vv. 29 and 30, like vv. 22 and 23. rqæp] , to muster, i.e., to number, equivalent to varo ac;n; , to take the number. NUMBERS 4:31,32 Vv. 31 and 32, like Numbers 3:36 and 37. “The charge of their burden” (their carrying), i.e., the things which it was their duty to carry.

NUMBERS 4:32-33 l¦kaal-k¦leeyhem: with regard to all their instruments, i.e., all the things used for setting up, fastening, or undoing the beams, bolts, etc.; see Numbers 3:36 and Exodus 27:19.

NUMBERS 4:34-48 Completion of the prescribed mustering, and statement of the number of men qualified for service in the three Levitical families: viz., Kohathites, 2630 Gershonites, and 3200 Merarites-in all, 8580 Levites fit for service: a number which bears a just proportion to the total number of male Levites of a month old and upwards, viz., 22,000 (see above, p. 655).

NUMBERS 4:49 “According to the commandment of Jehovah, they appointed them through the hand of Moses (i.e., under his direction), each one to his service, and his burden, and his mustered things rqæp] ), i.e., the things assigned to him at the time of the mustering as his special charge (see Exodus 38:21).

SPIRITUAL ORGANIZATION OF THE CONGREGATION OF ISRAEL.

From the outward organization of the tribes of Israel as the army of Jehovah, the law proceeds to their internal moral and spiritual order, for the purpose of giving an inward support, both moral and religious, to their outward or social and political unity. This is the object of the directions concerning the removal of unclean persons from the camp (Numbers 5:1-4), the restitution of anything unjustly appropriated (vv. 5-10), the course to be pursued with a wife suspected of adultery (vv. 11-31), and also of the laws relating to the Nazarite (Numbers 6:1-21), and to the priestly blessing (vv. 22-27). NUMBERS 5:1-4 Removal of Unclean Persons out of the Camp.- As Jehovah, the Holy One, dwelt in the midst of the camp of His people, those who were affected with the uncleanness of leprosy (Lev 13), of a diseased flux, or of menstruation (Lev 15:2ff., 19ff.), and those who had become unclean through touching a corpse (Numbers 19:11ff., cf. Lev 21:1; 22:4), whether male or female, were to be removed out of the camp, that they might not defile it by their uncleanness. The command of God, to remove these persons out of the camp, was carried out at once by the nation; and even in Canaan it was so far observed, that lepers at any rate were placed in special pest-houses outside the cities (see at Lev 13:45-46).

NUMBERS 5:5-10 Restitution in Case of a Trespass.- No crime against the property of a neighbour was to remain without expiation in the congregation of Israel, which was encamped or dwelt around the sanctuary of Jehovah; and the wrong committed was not to remain without restitution, because such crimes involved unfaithfulness l[æmæ , see Lev 5:15) towards Jehovah. “If a man or a woman do one of the sins of men, to commit unfaithfulness against Jehovah, and the same soul has incurred guilt, they shall confess their sin which they have done, and (the doer) shall recompense his debt according to its sum” varo , as in Lev. 5:24), etc. µd;a;h; taOFjæAlK;m; , one of the sins occurring among men, not “a sin against a man” (Luther, Ros., etc.). The meaning is a sin, with which a l[æmæ was committed against Jehovah, i.e., one of the acts described in Lev. 5:21-22, by which injury was done to the property of a neighbour, whereby a man brought a debt upon himself, for the wiping out of which a material restitution of the other’s property was prescribed, together with the addition of a fifth of its value, and also the presentation of a sinoffering (Lev. 5:23-26).

To guard against that disturbance of fellowship and peace in the congregation, which would arise from such trespasses as these, the law already given in Lev. 5:20 is here renewed and supplemented by the additional stipulation, that if the man who had been unjustly deprived of some of his property had no Goël, to whom restitution could be made for the debt, the compensation should be paid to Jehovah for the priests. The Goël was the nearest relative, upon whom the obligation rested to redeem a person who had fallen into slavery through poverty (Lev 25:25). The allusion to the Goël in this connection presupposes that the injured person was no longer alive. To this there are appended, in vv. 9 and 10, the directions which are substantially connected with this, viz., that every heave-offering (Terumah, see at Lev 2:9) in the holy gifts of the children of Israel, which they presented to the priest, was to belong to him (the priest), and also all the holy gifts which were brought by different individuals. The reference is not to literal sacrifices, i.e., gifts intended for the altar, but to dedicatory offerings, first-fruits, and such like. ‘et-qaadaashaayw ‘iysh, “with regard to every man’s, his holy gifts...to him (the priest) shall they be; what any man gives to the priest shall belong to him.” The second clause serves to explain and confirm the first. tae : as far, with regard to, quoad (see Ewald, §277, d; Ges. §117, 2, note).

NUMBERS 5:11-31 Sentence of God upon Wives Suspected of Adultery.

As any suspicion cherished by a man against his wife, that she either is or has been guilty of adultery, whether well-founded or not, is sufficient to shake the marriage connection to its very roots, and to undermine, along with marriage, the foundation of the civil commonwealth, it was of the greatest importance to guard against this moral evil, which was so utterly irreconcilable with the holiness of the people of God, by appointing a process in harmony with the spirit of the theocratical law, and adapted to bring to light the guilt or innocence of any wife who had fallen into such suspicion, and at the same time to warn fickle wives against unfaithfulness.

This serves to explain not only the introduction of the law respecting the jealousy-offering in this place, but also the general importance of the subject, and the reason for its being so elaborately described.

Verse 12-15. If a man’s wife went aside, and was guilty of unfaithfulness towards him (v. 13 is an explanatory clause), through a (another) man having lain with her with emissio seminis, and it was hidden from the eyes of her husband, on account of her having defiled herself secretly, and there being no witness against her, and her not having been taken (in the act); but if, for all that, a spirit of jealousy came upon him, and he was jealous of his wife, and she was defiled,...or she was not defiled: the man was to take his wife to the priest, and bring as her sacrificial gift, on her account, the tenth of an ephah of barley meal, without putting oil or incense, “for it is a meat-offering of jealousy, a meat-offering of memory, to bring iniquity to remembrance.” As the woman’s crime, of which her husband accused her, was naturally denied by herself, and was neither to be supported by witnesses nor proved by her being taken in the very act, the only way left to determine whether there was any foundation or not for the spirit of jealousy excited in her husband, and to prevent an unrighteous severance of the divinely appointed marriage, was to let the thing be decided by the verdict of God Himself. To this end the man was to bring his wife to the priest with a sacrificial gift, which is expressly called ˆB;r]q; , her offering, brought `l[æ “on her account,” that is to say, with a meat-offering, the symbol of the fruit of her walk and conduct before God. Being the sacrificial gift of a wife who had gone aside and was suspected of adultery, this meat-offering could not possess the character of the ordinary meatofferings, which shadowed forth the fruit of the sanctification of life in good works (p. 456); could not consist, that is to say, of fine wheaten flour, but only of barley meal.

Barley was worth only half as much as wheat (2 Kings 7:1,16,18), so that only the poorer classes, or the people generally in times of great distress, used barley meal as their daily food (Judg 7:13; 2 Kings 4:42; Ezek 4:12; John 6:9,13), whilst those who were better off used it for fodder (1 Kings 5:8). Barley meal was prescribed for this sacrifice, neither as a sign that the adulteress had conducted herself like an irrational animal (Philo, Jonathan, Talm., the Rabb., etc.), nor “because the persons presenting the offering were invoking the punishment of a crime, and not the favour of God” (Cler., Ros.): for the guilt of a woman was not yet established; nor even, taking a milder view of the matter, to indicate that the offerer might be innocent, and in that case no offering at all was required Knobel), but to represent the questionable repute in which the woman stood, or the ambiguous, suspicious character of her conduct. Because such conduct as hers did not proceed from the Spirit of God, and was not carried out in prayer: oil and incense, the symbols of the Spirit of God and prayer (see pp. 435 and 457), were not to be added to her offering. It was an offering of jealousy ha;n]qi , an intensive plural), and the object was to bring the ground of that jealousy to light; and in this respect it is called the “meatoffering of remembrance,” sc., of the woman, before Jehovah (cf. Numbers 10:10; 31:54; Exodus 28:12,29; 30:16; Lev 23:24), namely, “the remembrance of iniquity,” bringing her crime to remembrance before the Lord, that it might be judged by Him.

Verse 16-18. The priest was to bring her near to the altar at which he stood, and place her before Jehovah, who had declared Himself to be present at the altar, and then to take holy water, probably water out of the basin before the sanctuary, which served for holy purposes (Exodus 30:18), in an earthen vessel, and put dust in it from the floor of the dwelling. He was then to loosen the hair of the woman who was standing before Jehovah, and place the jealousy-offering in her hands, and holding the water in his own hand, to pronounce a solemn oath of purification before her, which she had to appropriate to herself by a confirmatory Amen, Amen. The water, which the priest had prepared for the woman to drink, was taken from the sanctuary, and the dust to be put into it from the floor of the dwelling, to impregnate this drink with the power of the Holy Spirit that dwelt in the sanctuary. The dust was strewed upon the water, not to indicate that man was formed from dust and must return to dust again, but as an allusion to the fact, that dust was eaten by the serpent (Genesis 3:14) as the curse of sin, and therefore as the symbol of a state deserving a curse, a state of the deepest humiliation and disgrace (Micah 7:17; Isaiah 49:23; Psalm 72:9).

On the very same ground, an earthen vessel was chosen; that is to say, one quite worthless in comparison with the copper one. The loosening of the hair of the head (see Lev 13:45), in other cases a sign of mourning, is to be regarded here as a removal or loosening of the female head-dress, and a symbol of the loss of the proper ornament of female morality and conjugal fidelity. During the administration of the oath, the offering was placed in her hands, that she might bring the fruit of her own conduct before God, and give it up to His holy judgment. The priest, as the representative of God, held the vessel in his hand, with the water in it, which was called the “water of bitterness, the curse-bringing,” inasmuch as, if the crime imputed to her was well-founded, it would bring upon the woman bitter suffering as the curse of God.

Verse 19-22. The oath which the priest required her to take is called, in v. 21, hl;a; h[;Wbv] , “oath of cursing” (see Genesis 26:28); but it first of all presupposes the possibility of the woman being innocent, and contains the assurance, that in that case the curse-water would do her no harm. “If no (other) man has lain with thee, and thou hast not gone aside to union ha;m]fu , accus. of more precise definition, as in Lev 15:2,18), under thy husband,” i.e., as a wife subject to thy husband (Ezek 23:5; Hos 4:12), “then remain free from the water of bitterness, this curse-bringing,” i.e., from the effects of this curse-water. The imperative is a sign of certain assurance (see Genesis 12:2; 20:7; cf. Ges. §130, 1). “But if thou hast gone aside under thy husband, if thou hast defiled thyself, and a man has given thee his seed beside thy husband,”...(the priest shall proceed to say; this is the meaning of the repetition of [bæv; , v. 21), “Jehovah shall make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, by making thy hip to fall and thy belly to swell; and this curse-bringing water shall come into thy bowels, to make the belly to vanish and the hip to fall.” To this oath that was spoken before her the woman was to reply, “true, true,” or “truly, truly,” and thus confirm it as taken by herself (cf. Deuteronomy 27:15ff.; Neh 5:13).

It cannot be determined with any certainty what was the nature of the disease threatened in this curse. Michaelis supposes it to be dropsy of the ovary (hydrops ovarii), in which a tumour is formed in the place of the ovarium, which may even swell so as to contain 100 lbs. of fluid, and with which the patient becomes dreadfully emaciated. Josephus says it is ordinary dropsy (hydrops ascites: Ant. iii. 11, 6). At any rate, the idea of the curse is this: Di> w>n ga>r hJ aJmarti>a dia> tou>twn hJ timwri>a (“the punishment shall come from the same source as the sin,” Theodoret). The punishment was to answer exactly to the crime, and to fall upon those bodily organs which had been the instruments of the woman’s sin, viz., the organs of child-bearing.

Verse 23-27. After the woman’s Amen, the priest was to write “these curses,” those contained in the oath, in a book-roll, and wash them in the bitter water, i.e., wash the writing in the vessel with water, so that the words of the curse should pass into the water, and be imparted to it; a symbolical act, to set forth the truth, that God imparted to the water the power to act injuriously upon a guilty body, though it would do no harm to an innocent one. The remark in v. 24, the priest was to give her this water to drink is anticipatory; for according to v. 26 this did not take place till after the presentation of the sacrifice and the burning of the memorial of it upon the altar. The woman’s offering, however, was not presented to God till after the oath of purification, because it was by the oath that she first of all purified herself from the suspicion of adultery, so that the fruit of her conduct could be given up to the fire of the holiness of God. As a known adulteress, she could not have offered a meat-offering at all. But as the suspicion which rested upon her was not entirely removed by her oath, since she might have taken a false oath, the priest was to give her the curse-water to drink after the offering, that her guilt or innocence might be brought to light in the effects produced by the drink. This is given in v. as the design of the course prescribed: “When he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, the water that causeth the curse shall come (enter) into her as bitterness (i.e., producing bitter sufferings), namely, her belly shall swell and her hip vanish: and so the woman shall become a curse in the midst of her people.”

Verse 28. “But if she have not defiled herself, and is clean (from the crime of which she was suspected), she will remain free (from the threatened punishment of God), and will conceive seed, ” i.e., be blessed with the capacity and power to conceive and bring forth children.

Verse 29-31. Vv. 29-31 bring the law of jealousy to a formal close, with the additional remark, that the man who adopted this course with a wife suspected of adultery was free from sin, but the woman would bear her guilt (see Lev 5:1), i.e., in case she were guilty, would bear the punishment threatened by God. Nothing is said about what was to be done in case the woman refused to take the oath prescribed, because that would amount to a confession of her guilt, when she would have to be put to death as an adulteress, according to the law in Lev 20:10; and not she alone, but the adulterer also. In the law just mentioned the man is placed on an equality with the woman with reference to the sin of adultery; and thus the apparent partiality, that a man could sue his wife for adultery, but not the wife her husband, is removed. But the law before us applied to the woman only, because the man was at liberty to marry more than one wife, or to take concubines to his own wife; so that he only violated the marriage tie, and was guilty of adultery, when he formed an illicit connection with another man’s wife. In that case, the man whose marriage had been violated could proceed against his adulterous wife, and in most instances convict the adulterer also, in order that he might receive his punishment too. For a really guilty wife would not have made up her mind so easily to take the required oath of purification, as the curse of God under which she came was no easier to bear than the punishment of death. For this law prescribed no ordeal whose effects were uncertain, like the ordeals of other nations, but a judgment of God, from which the guilty could not escape, because it had been appointed by the living God.

NUMBERS 6:1-21 The Nazarite.- The legal regulations concerning the vow of the Nazarite are appended quite appropriately to the laws intended to promote the spiritual order of the congregation of Israel. For the Nazarite brought to light the priestly character of the covenant nation in a peculiar form, which had necessarily to be incorporated into the spiritual organization of the community, so that it might become a means of furthering the sanctification of the people in covenant with the Lord. f13 Verse 1-2. The words, “if a man or woman make a separate vow, a Nazarite vow, to live consecrated to the Lord,” with which the law is introduced, show not only that the vow of the Nazarite was a matter of free choice, but that it was a mode of practising godliness and piety already customary among the people. Nazir, from nzr to separate, lit., the separated, is applied to the man who vowed that he would make a separation to (for) Jehovah, i.e., lead a separate life for the Lord and His service. The origin of this custom is involved in obscurity. There is no certain clue to indicate that it was derived from Egypt, for the so-called hair-offering vows are met with among several ancient tribes (see the proofs in Spencer, de legg. Hebr. rit. iv. 16, and Knobel in loc.), and have no special relationship to the Nazarite, whilst vows of abstinence were common to all the religions of antiquity. The Nazarite vow was taken at first for a particular time, at the close of which the separation terminated with release from the vow. This is the only form in which it is taken into consideration, or rules are laid down for it in the law before us. In after times, however, we find life-long Nazarites among the Israelites, e.g., Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist, who were vowed or dedicated to the Lord by their parents even before they were born (Judg 13:5,14; Samuel 1:11; Luke 1:15). f14 Verse 3-4. The vow consisted of the three following points, vv. 1-4: In the first place, he was to abstain from wine and intoxicating drink (shecar, see Lev 10:9); and neither to drink vinegar of wine, strong drink, nor any juice of the grape (lit., dissolving of grapes, i.e., fresh must pressed out), nor to eat fresh grapes, or dried (raisins). In fact, during the whole period of his vow, he was not to eat of anything prepared from the vine, “from the kernels even to the husk,” i.e., not the smallest quantity of the fruit of the vine. The design of this prohibition can hardly have been, merely that, by abstaining from intoxicating drink, the Nazarite might preserve perfect clearness and temperance of mind, like the priests when engaged in their duties, and so conduct himself as one sanctified to the Lord (Bähr); but it goes much further, and embraces entire abstinence from all the deliciae carnis by which holiness could be impaired. Vinegar, fresh and dried grapes, and food prepared from grapes and raisins, e.g., raisin-cakes, are not intoxicating; but grape-cakes, as being the dainties sought after by epicures and debauchees, are cited in Hos 3:1 as a symbol of the sensual attractions of idolatry, a luxurious kind of food, that was not in harmony with the solemnity of the worship of Jehovah. The Nazarite was to avoid everything that proceeded from the vine, because its fruit was regarded as the sum and substance of all sensual enjoyments.

Verse 5. Secondly, during the whole term of his vow of consecration, no razor was to come upon his head. Till the days were fulfilled which he had consecrated to the Lord, he was to be holy, “to make great the free growth (see Lev 10:6) of the hair of his head.” The free growth of the hair is called, in v. 7, “the diadem of his God upon his head,” like the golden diadem upon the turban of the high priest (Exodus 29:6), and the anointing oil upon the high priest’s head (Lev 21:12). By this he sanctified his head (v. 11) to the Lord, so that the consecration of the Nazarite culminated in his uncut hair, and expressed in the most perfect way the meaning of his vow (Oehler). Letting the hair grow, therefore, was not a sign of separation, because it was the Israelitish custom to go about with the hair cut; nor a practical profession of a renunciation of the world, and separation from human society (Hengstenberg, pp. 190-1); nor a sign of abstinence from every appearance of self-gratification (Baur on Amos 2:11); nor even a kind of humiliation and self-denial (Lightfoot, Carpzov. appar. p. 154); still less a “sign of dependence upon some other present power” (M. Baumgarten), or “the symbol of a state of perfect liberty” (Vitringa, obss. ss. 1, c. 6, §9; cf. Numbers 6:22,8). The free growth of the hair, unhindered by the hand of man, was rather “the symbol of strength and abundant vitality” (cf. 2 Samuel 14:25-26). It was not regarded by the Hebrews as a sign of sanctity, as Bähr supposes, but simply as an ornament, in which the whole strength and fulness of vitality were exhibited, and which the Nazarite wore in honour of the Lord, as a sign that he “belonged to the Lord, and dedicated himself to His service,” with all his vital powers. f15 Verse 6-8. Because the Nazarite wore the diadem of his God upon his head in the growth of his hair, and was holy to the Lord during the whole period of his consecration, he was to approach no dead person during that time, not even to defile himself for his parents, or his brothers and sisters, when they died, according to the law laid down for the high priest in Lev 21:11. Consequently, as a matter of course, he was to guard most scrupulously against other defilements, not only like ordinary Israelites, but also like the priests. Samson’s mother, too, was not allowed to eat anything unclean during the period of her pregnancy (Judg 13:4,7,14).

Verse 9-11. But if any one died suddenly in a moment “by him” `l[æ , in his neighbourhood), and he therefore involuntarily defiled his consecrated head, he was to shave his head on the day of his purification, i.e., on the seventh day (see Numbers 19:11,14,16, and 19), not “because such uncleanness was more especially caught and retained by the hair,” as Knobel fancies, but because it was the diadem of his God (v. 7), the ornament of his condition, which was sanctified to God. On the eighth day, that is to say, on the day after the legal purification, he was to bring to the priest at the tabernacle two turtle-doves or young pigeons, that he might make atonement for him (see at Lev 15:14-15,29ff., Numbers 14:30-31, and 12:8), on account of his having been defiled by a corpse, by preparing the one as a sin-offering, and the other as a burnt-offering; he was also “to sanctify his head that same day,” i.e., to consecrate it to God afresh, by the unimpeded growth of his hair.

Verse 12. He was then “to bring a yearling sheep as a trespass-offering;” and the days that were before were “to fall,” i.e., the days of consecration that had already elapsed were not to be reckoned on account of their having fallen, “because his consecration had become unclean.” He was therefore to commence the whole time of his consecration entirely afresh, and to observe it as required by the vow. To this end he was to bring a trespass-offering, as a payment or recompense for being reinstated in the former state of consecration, from which he had fallen through his defilement, but not as compensation “for having prolonged the days of separation through his carelessness with regard to the defilement; that is to say, for having extended the time during which he led a separate, retired, and inactive life, and suspended his duties to his own family and the congregation, thus doing an injury to them, and incurring a debt in relation to them through his neglect” (Knobel).

For the time that the Nazarite vow lasted was not a lazy life, involving a withdrawal from the duties of citizenship, by which the congregation might be injured, but was perfectly reconcilable with the performance of all domestic and social duties, the burial of the dead alone excepted; and no harm could result from this, ether to his own relations or the community generally, of sufficient importance to require that the omission should be repaired by a trespass-offering, from which neither his relatives nor the congregation derived any actual advantage. Nor was it a species of fine, for having deprived Jehovah of the time dedicated to Him through the breach of the vow, or for withholding the payment of his vow for so much longer a time (Oehler in Herzog). For the position of a Nazarite was only assumed for a definite period, according to the vow; and after this had been interrupted, it had to be commenced again from the very beginning: so that the time dedicated to God was not shortened in any way by the interruption of the period of dedication, and nothing whatever was withheld from God of what had been vowed to Him, so as to need the presentation of a trespass-offering as a compensation or fine.

And there is no more reason for saying that the payment of the vow was withheld, inasmuch as the vow was fulfilled or paid by the punctual observance of the three things of which it was composed; and the sacrifices to be presented after the time of consecration was over, had not in the least the character of a payment, but simply constituted a solemn conclusion, corresponding to the idea of the consecration itself, and were the means by which the Nazarite came out of his state of consecration, without involving the least allusion to satisfaction, or reparation for any wrong that had been done.

The position of the Nazarite, therefore, as Philo, Maimonides, and others clearly saw, was a condition of life consecrated to the Lord, resembling the sanctified relation in which the priests stood to Jehovah, and differing from the priesthood solely in the fact that it involved no official service at the sanctuary, and was not based upon a divine calling and institution, but was undertaken spontaneously for a certain time and through a special vow.

The object was simply the realization of the idea of a priestly life, with its purity and freedom from all contamination from everything connected with death and corruption, a self-surrender to God stretching beyond the deepest earthly ties, “a spontaneous appropriation of what was imposed upon the priest by virtue of the calling connected with his descent, namely, the obligation to conduct himself as a person betrothed to God, and therefore to avoid everything that would be opposed to such surrender” (Oehler). In this respect the Nazarite’s sanctification of life was a step towards the realization of the priestly character, which had been set before the whole nation as its goal at the time of its first calling (Exodus 19:5); and although it was simply the performance of a vow, and therefore a work of perfect spontaneity, it was also a work of the Spirit of God which dwelt in the congregation of Israel, so that Amos could describe the raising up of Nazarites along with prophets as a special manifestation of divine grace.

The offerings, with which the vow was brought to a close after the time of consecration had expired, and the Nazarite was released from his consecration, also corresponded to the character we have described.

Verse 13-15. The directions as to the release from consecration are called “the law of the Nazarite” (v. 13), because the idea of the Nazarite’s vows culminated in the sacrificial festival which terminated the consecration, and it was in this that it attained to its fullest manifestation. “On the day of the completion of the days of his consecration,” i.e., on the day when the time of consecration expired, the Nazarite was to bring to the tabernacle, or offer as his gifts to the Lord, a sheep of a year old as a burnt-offering, and an ewe of a year old as a sin-offering; the latter as an expiation for the sins committed involuntarily during the period of consecration, the former as an embodiment of that surrender of himself, body and soul, to the Lord, upon which every act of worship should rest. In addition to this he was to bring a ram without blemish as a peace- offering, together with a basket of unleavened cakes and wafers baked, which were required, according to Lev 7:12, for every praise-offering, “and their meat and drink-offerings,” i.e., the gifts of meal, oil, and wine, which belonged, according to Numbers 15:3ff., to the burnt-offerings and peace-offerings.

Verse 16. The sin-offering and burnt-offering were carried out according to the general instructions.

Verse 17. The completion of the consecration vow was concentrated in the preparation of the ram and the basket of unleavened bread for the peaceoffering, along with the appropriate meat-offering and drink-offering.

Verse 18. The Nazarite had also to shave his consecrated head, and put the hair into the altar-fire under the peace-offering that was burning, and thus hand over and sacrifice to the Lord the hair of his head which had been worn in honour of Him.

Verse 19, 20. When this had been done, the priest took the boiled shoulder of the ram, with an unleavened cake and wafer out of the basket, and placed these pieces in the hands of the Nazarite, and waved them before Jehovah. They then became the portion of the priest, in addition to the wave-breast and heave-leg which fell to the priest in the case of every peace-offering (Lev 7:32-34), to set forth the participation of the Lord in the sacrificial meal (see pp. 540, 541). But the fact that, in addition to these, the boiled shoulder was given up symbolically to the Lord through the process of waving, together with a cake and wafer, was intended to indicate that the table-fellowship with the Lord, shadowed forth in the sacrificial meal of the peace-offering, took place here in a higher degree; inasmuch as the Lord directed a portion of the Nazarite’s meal to be handed over to His representatives and servants for them to eat, that he might thus enjoy the blessedness of having fellowship with his God, in accordance with that condition of priestly sanctity into which the Nazarite had entered through the vow that he had made.

Verse 20. “After that the Nazarite may drink wine” (again), probably at the sacrificial meal, after the Lord had received His share of the sacrifice, and his release from consecration had thus been completed.

Verse 21. “This is the law of the Nazarite, who vowed his sacrificial gifts to the Lord on the ground of his consecration,” i.e., who offered his sacrifice in accordance with the state of a Nazarite into which he had entered. For the sacrifices mentioned in vv. 14ff. were not the object of a special vow, but contained in the vow of the Nazarite, and therefore already vowed (Knobel). “Beside what his hand grasps,” i.e., what he is otherwise able to perform (Lev 5:11), “according to the measure of his vow, which he vowed, so must he do according to the law of his consecration,” i.e., he had to offer the sacrifices previously mentioned on the ground of his consecration vow. Beyond that he was free to vow anything else according to his ability, to present other sacrificial gifts to the Lord for His sanctuary and His servants, which did not necessarily belong to the vow of the Nazarite, but were frequently added. From this the custom afterwards grew up, that when poor persons took the Nazarite’s vow upon them, those who were better off defrayed the expenses of the sacrifices (Acts 21:24; Josephus, Ant. xix. 6, 1; Mishnah Nasir, ii. 5ff.). NUMBERS 6:22-26 The Priestly or Aaronic Blessing.- The spiritual character of the congregation of Israel culminated in the blessing with which the priests were to bless the people. The directions as to this blessing, therefore, impressed the seal of perfection upon the whole order and organization of the people of God, inasmuch as Israel was first truly formed into a congregation of Jehovah by the fact that God not only bestowed His blessing upon it, but placed the communication of this blessing in the hands of the priests, the chosen and constant mediators of the blessings of His grace, and imposed it upon them as one portion of their official duty. The blessing which the priests were to impart to the people, consisted of a triple blessing of two members each, which stood related to each other thus: The second in each case contained a special application of the first to the people, and the three gradations unfolded the substance of the blessing step by step with ever increasing emphasis.-The first (v. 24), “Jehovah bless thee and keep thee,” conveyed the blessing in the most general form, merely describing it as coming from Jehovah, and setting forth preservation from the evil of the world as His work. “The blessing of God is the goodness of God in action, by which a supply of all good pours down to us from His good favour as from their only fountain; then follows, secondly, the prayer that He would keep the people, which signifies that He alone is the defender of the Church, and that it is He who preserves it with His guardian care” (Calvin).-The second (v. 25), “Jehovah make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee,” defined the blessing more closely as the manifestation of the favour and grace of God. The face of God is the personality of God as turned towards man. Fire goes out from Jehovah’s face, and consumes the enemy and the rebellious (Lev 10:2, cf. Numbers 17:10; 20:3; Ex. 13:24; Ps. 34:17), and also a sunlight shining with love and full of life and good (Deut. 30:30; Ps. 27:1; 43:3; 44:4). If “the light of the sun is sweet, and pleasant for the eyes to behold” (Eccl 11:7), “the light of the divine countenance, the everlasting light (Psalm 36:10), is the sum of all delight” (Baumg.).

This light sends rays of mercy into a heart in need of salvation, and makes it the recipient of grace.-The third (v. 26), “Jehovah lift up His face to thee, and set (or give) thee peace” (good, salvation), set forth the blessing of God as a manifestation of power, or a work of power upon man, the end of which is peace (shalom), the sum of all the good which God sets, prepares, or establishes for His people. lae µynip; ac;n; , to lift up the face to any one, is equivalent to looking at him, and does not differ from `ˆyi[æ ac;n; or µWc (Genesis 43:29; 44:21). When affirmed of God, it denotes His providential work upon man. When God looks at a man, He saves him out of his distresses (Psalm 4:7; 33:18; 34:16).-In these three blessings most of the fathers and earlier theologians saw an allusion to the mystery of the Trinity, and rested their conclusion, (a) upon the triple repetition of the name Jehovah; (b) upon the ratio praedicati, that Jehovah, by whom the blessing is desired and imparted, is the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and (c) upon the distinctorum benedictionis membrorum consideratio, according to which bis trina beneficia are mentioned (cf. Calovii Bibl. illustr. ad h. l.).

There is truth in this, though the grounds assigned seem faulty. As the threefold repetition of a word or sentence serves to express the thought as strongly as possible (cf. Jeremiah 7:4; 22:29), the triple blessing expressed in the most unconditional manner the thought, that God would bestow upon His congregation the whole fulness of the blessing enfolded in His Divine Being which was manifested as Jehovah. But not only does the name Jehovah denote God as the absolute Being, who revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Spirit in the historical development of His purpose of salvation for the redemption of fallen man; but the substance of this blessing, which He caused to be pronounced upon His congregation, unfolded the grace of God in the threefold way in which it is communicated to us through the Father, Son, and Spirit. f16 NUMBERS 6:27 This blessing was not to remain merely a pious wish, however, but to be manifested in the people with all the power of a blessing from God. This assurance closes the divine command: “They shall put My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”

CLOSING EVENTS AT SINAI.

NUMBERS 7:1 And it came to pass on the day that Moses had fully set up the tabernacle, and had anointed it, and sanctified it, and all the instruments thereof, both the altar and all the vessels thereof, and had anointed them, and sanctified them; Presentation of Dedicatory Gifts by the Princes of the Tribes.

Verse 1. This presentation took place at the time µwOy ) when Moses, after having completed the erection of the tabernacle, anointed and sanctified the dwelling and the altar, together with their furniture (Lev 8:10-11).

Chronologically considered, this ought to have been noticed after Lev 8:10. But in order to avoid interrupting the connection of the Sinaitic laws, it is introduced for the first time at this point, and placed at the head of the events which immediately preceded the departure of the people from Sinai, because these gifts consisted in part of materials that were indispensably necessary for the transport of the tabernacle during the march through the desert. Moreover, there was only an interval of at the most forty days between the anointing of the tabernacle, which commenced after the first day of the first month (cf. Exodus 40:16 and Lev 8:10), and lasted eight days, and the departure from Sinai, on the twentieth day of the second month (Numbers 10:11), and from this we have to deduct six days for the Passover, which took place before their departure (Numbers 9:1ff.); and it was within this period that the laws and ordinances from Lev 11 to Numbers 6 had to be published, and the dedicatory offerings to be presented. Now, as the presentation itself was distributed, according to vv. 11ff., over twelve or thirteen days, we may very well assume that it did not entirely precede the publication of the laws referred to, but was carried on in part contemporaneously with it. The presentation of the dedicatory gifts of one tribe-prince might possibly occupy only a few hours of the day appointed for the purpose; and the rest of the day, therefore, might very conveniently be made use of by Moses for publishing the laws. In this case the short space of a month and a few days would be amply sufficient for everything that took place.

NUMBERS 7:2-3 The presentation of six waggons and twelve oxen for the carriage of the materials of the tabernacle is mentioned first, and was no doubt the first thing that took place. The princes of Israel, viz., the heads of the tribehouses (fathers’ houses), or princes of the tribes (see Numbers 1:4ff.), “those who stood over those that were numbered,” i.e., who were their leaders or rulers, offered as their sacrificial gift six covered waggons and twelve oxen, one ox for each prince, and a waggon for every two. bx; `hl;g;[ , aJma>xav lamphni>kav (LXX), i.e., according to Euseb. Emis., twowheeled vehicles, though the Greek scholiasts explain lamph>nh as signifying aJ>maxa perifanh>v basilikh> and reJ>dion perifane>v oJ esti>n aJ>rma skepasto>n (cf. Schleussner, Lex. in LXX s.v.), and Aquila, aJ>maxai skepastai> , i.e., plaustra tecta (Vulg. and Rabb.). The meaning “litters,” which Gesenius and Deuteronomy Wette support, can neither be defended etymologically, nor based upon bx; in Isaiah 66:20.

NUMBERS 7:4-6 At the command of God, Moses received them to apply them to the purposes of the tabernacle, and handed them over to the Levites, “to every one according to the measure of his service,” i.e., to the different classes of Levites, according to the requirements of their respective duties.

NUMBERS 7:7-9 He gave two waggons and four oxen to the Gershonites, and four waggons and eight oxen to the Merarites, as the former had less weight to carry, in the coverings and curtains of the dwelling and the hangings of the court, than the latter, who had to take charge of the beams and pillars (Numbers 4:24ff., 31ff.). “Under the hand of Ithamar” (v. 8); as in ch. 4:28,33. The Kohathites received no waggon, because it was their place to attend to “the sanctuary” (the holy), i.e., the holy things, which had to be conveyed upon their shoulders, and were provided with poles for the purpose (Numbers 4:4ff.).

NUMBERS 7:10-11 Presentation of dedicatory gifts for the altar.

Verse 10. Every prince offered “the dedication of the altar,” i.e., what served for the dedication of the altar, equivalent to his sacrificial gift for the consecration of the altar, “on the day,” i.e., at the time, “that they anointed it.” “Day:” as in Genesis 2:4. Moses was directed by God to receive the gifts from the princes on separate days, one after another; so that the presentation extended over twelve days. The reason for this regulation was not to make a greater display, as Knobel supposes, or to avoid cutting short the important ceremony of consecration, but was involved in the very nature of the gifts presented. Each prince, for example, offered, (1) a silver dish (kearah, Exodus 25:29) of 130 sacred shekels weight, i.e., about 4 1/2 lbs.; (2) a silver bowl (mizrak, a sacrificial bowl, not a sacrificial can, or wine-can, as in Exodus 27:3) of 70 shekels weight, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a meat-offering; (3) a golden spoon (caph, as in Exodus 25:29) filled with incense for an incense-offering; (4) a bullock, a ram, and a sheep of a year old for a burnt-offering; (5) a shaggy goat for a sin-offering; (6) two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, and five sheep of a year old for a peace-offering.

Out of these gifts the fine flour, the incense, and the sacrificial animals were intended for sacrificing upon the altar, and that not as a provision for a lengthened period, but for immediate use in the way prescribed. This could not have been carried out if more than one prince had presented his gifts, and brought them to be sacrificed on any one day. For the limited space in the court of the tabernacle would not have allowed of 252 animals being received, slaughtered, and prepared for sacrificing all at once, or on the same day; and it would have been also impossible to burn 36 whole animals (oxen, rams, and sheep), and the fat portions of 216 animals, upon the altar.

NUMBERS 7:12-88 All the princes brought the same gifts. The order in which the twelve princes, whose names have already been given at Numbers 1:5-15, made their presentation, corresponded to the order of the tribes in the camp (ch. 2), the tribe-prince of Judah taking the lead, and the prince of Naphtali coming last. In the statements as to the weight of the silver kearoth and the golden cappoth, the word shekel is invariably omitted, as in Genesis 20:16, etc.-In vv. 84-86, the dedication gifts are summed up, and the total weight given, viz., twelve silver dishes and twelve silver bowls, weighing together 2400 shekels, and twelve golden spoons, weighing 120 shekels in all. On the sacred shekel, see at Exodus 30:13; and on the probable value of the shekel of gold, at Exodus 38:24-25. The sacrificial animals are added together in the same way in vv. 87, 88.

NUMBERS 7:89 Whilst the tribe-princes had thus given to the altar the consecration of a sanctuary of their God, through their sacrificial gifts, Jehovah acknowledged it as His sanctuary, by causing Moses, when he went into the tabernacle to speak to Him, and to present his own entreaties and those of the people, to hear the voice of Him that spake to him from between the two cherubim upon the ark of the covenant. The suffix in tae points back to the name Jehovah, which, though not expressly mentioned before, is contained implicite in ohel moëd, “the tent of meeting.” For the holy tent became an ohel moëd first of all, from the fact that it was there that Jehovah appeared to Moses, or met with him d[æy; , Exodus 25:22). rbæd; , part. Hithpael, to hold conversation. On the fact itself, see the explanation in Exodus 25:20,22. “This voice from the inmost sanctuary of Moses, the representative of Israel, was Jehovah’s reply to the joyfulness and readiness with which the princes of Israel responded to Him, and made the tent, so far as they were concerned, a place of holy meeting”’ (Baumg.). This was the reason for connecting the remark in v. 89 with the account of the dedicatory gifts.

NUMBERS 8:1-4 Consecration of the Levites.

The command of God to consecrate the Levites for their service, is introduced in vv. 1-4 by directions issued to Aaron with regard to the lighting of the candlestick in the dwelling of the tabernacle. Aaron was to place the seven lamps upon the candlestick in such a manner that they would shine paanaayw ‘el-muwl. These directions are not a mere repetition, but also a more precise definition, of the general instructions given in Exodus 25:37, when the candlestick was made, to place the seven lamps upon the candlestick in such a manner that each should give light over against its front, i.e., should throw its light upon the side opposite to the front of the candlestick (see p. 434). In itself, therefore, there is nothing at all striking in the renewal and explanation of those directions, which committed the task of lighting the lamps to Aaron; for this had not been done before, as Exodus 27:21 merely assigns the daily preparation of the candlestick to Aaron and his sons; and their being placed in the connection in which we find them may be explained from the signification of the seven lamps in relation to the dwelling of God, viz., as indicating that Israel was thereby to be represented perpetually before the Lord as a people causing its light to shine in the darkness of this world (p. 435).

And when Aaron is commanded to attend to the lighting of the candlestick, so that it may light up the dwelling, in these special instructions the entire fulfilment of his service in the dwelling is enforced upon him as a duty. In this respect the instructions themselves, coupled with the statement of the fact that Aaron had fulfilled them, stand quite appropriately between the account of what the tribe-princes had done for the consecration of the altar service as representatives of the congregation, and the account of the solemn inauguration of the Levites in their service in the sanctuary. The repetition on this occasion (v. 4) of an allusion to the artistic character of the candlestick, which had been made according to the pattern seen by Moses in the mount (Exodus 25:31ff.), is quite in keeping with the antiquated style of narrative adopted in these books.

NUMBERS 8:5-7 Consecration of the Levites for their service in the sanctuary.

The choice of the Levites for service in the sanctuary, in the place of the first-born of the people generally, has been already noticed in Numbers 3:5ff., and the duties binding upon them in ch. 4:4ff. But before entering upon their duties they were to be consecrated to the work, and then formally handed over to the priests. This consecration is commanded in vv. 7ff., and is not called vdeq; , like the consecration of the priests (Exodus 29:1; Lev 8:11), but rhef; to cleanse. It consisted in sprinkling them with sin-water, shaving off the whole of the hair from their bodies, and washing their clothes, accompanied by a sacrificial ceremony, by which they were presented symbolically to the Lord as a sacrifice for His service. The first part of this ceremony had reference to outward purification, and represented cleansing from the defilement of sin; hence the performance of it is called hit¦chaTee’ (to cleanse from sin) in v. 21. “Sprinkle sin-water upon them.” The words are addressed to Moses, who had to officiate at the inauguration of the Levites, as he had already done at that of the priests. “Water of sin” is water having reference to sin, designed to remove it, just as the sacrifice offered for the expiation of sin is called ha;F;jæ (sin) in Lev 4:14, etc.; whilst the “water of uncleanness” in Numbers 19:9,13, signifies water by which uncleanness was removed or wiped away.

The nature of this purifying water is not explained, and cannot be determined with any certainty. We find directions for preparing sprinkling water in a peculiar manner, for the purpose of cleansing persons who were cured of leprosy, in Lev 14:5ff., 50ff.; and also for cleansing both persons and houses that had been defiled by a corpse, in Numbers 19:9ff. Neither of these, however, was applicable to the cleansing of the Levites, as they were both of them composed of significant ingredients, which stood in the closest relation to the special cleansing to be effected by them, and had evidently no adaptation to the purification of the Levites. At the same time, the expression “sin-water” precludes our understanding it to mean simply clean water. So that nothing remains but to regard it as referring to the water in the laver of the sanctuary, which was provided for the purpose of cleansing the priests for the performance of their duties (Exodus 30:18ff.), and might therefore be regarded by virtue of this as cleansing from sin, and be called “sin-water” in consequence. “And they shall cause the razor to pass over their whole body,” i.e., shave off all the hair upon their body, “and wash their clothes, and so cleanse themselves.” r[æTæ `rbæ[; is to be distinguished from jlæG; .

The latter signifies to make balk or shave the hair entirely off, which was required of the leper when he was cleansed (Lev 14:8-9); the former signifies merely cutting the hair, which was part of the regular mode of adorning the body. The Levites also were not required to bathe their bodies, as lepers were (Lev 13:8-9), and also the priests at their consecration (Lev 8:6), because they were not affected with any special uncleanness, and their duties did not require them to touch the most holy instruments of worship. The washing of the clothes, on the other hand, was a thing generally required as a preparation for acts of worship (Genesis 35:2; Exodus 19:10), and was omitted in the case of the consecration of the priests, simply because they received a holy official dress. rhef; for rhef; , as in 2 Chron 30:18. NUMBERS 8:8 After this purification the Levites were to bring two young bullocks, one with the corresponding meat-offering for a burnt-sacrifice, the other for a sin-offering.

NUMBERS 8:9 Moses was then to cause them to draw near before the tabernacle, i.e., to enter the court, and to gather together the whole congregation of Israel, viz., in the persons of their heads and representatives.

NUMBERS 8:10 After this the Levites were to come before Jehovah, i.e., in front of the altar; and the children of Israel, i.e., the tribe-princes in the name of the Israelites, were to lay their hands upon them, not merely “as a sign that they released them from the possession of the nation, and assigned them and handed them over to Jehovah” (Knobel), but in order that by this symbolical act they might transfer to the Levites the obligation resting upon the whole nation to serve the Lord in the persons of its first-born sons, and might present them to the Lord as representatives of the firstborn of Israel, to serve Him as living sacrifices.

NUMBERS 8:11 This transfer was to be completed by Aaron’s waving the Levites as a wave-offering before Jehovah on behalf of the children of Israel, i.e., by his offering them symbolically to the Lord as a sacrifice presented on the part of the Israelites. The ceremony of waving consisted no doubt in his conducting the Levites solemnly up to the altar, and then back again. On the signification of the verb, see at Lev 7:30. The design of the waving is given in v. 11, viz., “that they might be to perform the service of Jehovah” (vv. 24-26 compared with Numbers 4:4-33).

NUMBERS 8:12-19 The Levites were then to close this transfer of themselves to the Lord with a sin-offering and burnt-offering, in which they laid their hands upon the sacrificial animals. By this imposition of hands they made the sacrificial animals their representatives, in which they presented their own bodies to the Lord as a living sacrifice well-pleasing to Him (see pp. 508, 509). The signification of the dedication of the Levites, as here enjoined, is still further explained in vv. 13-19. The meaning of vv. 13ff. is this: According to the command already given (in vv. 6-12), thou shalt place the Levites before Aaron and his sons, and wave them as a wave-offering before the Lord, and so separate them from the midst of the children of Israel, that hthou cleanse them and wave them. The same reason is assigned for this in vv. 16, 17, as in Numbers 3:11-13 lKo rwOkB] for kaal-b¦kowr, cf. Numbers 3:13); and in vv. 18 and 19, what was commanded in Numbers 3:6-9 is described as having been carried out. On v. 19b see Numbers 1:53.

NUMBERS 8:20-22 Vv. 20-22 contain an account of the execution of the divine command.

NUMBERS 8:23-25 The Levitical period of service is fixed here at twenty-five years of age and upwards to the fiftieth year. “This is what concerns the Levites,” i.e., what follows applies to the Levites. “From the age of twenty-five years shall he (the Levite) come to do service at the work of the tabernacle; and at fifty years of age shall he return from the service of the work, and not work any further, but only serve his brethren at the tabernacle in keeping charge,” i.e., help them to look after the furniture of the tabernacle. “Charge” (mishmereth), as distinguished from “work,” signified the oversight of all the furniture of the tabernacle (see Numbers 3:8); “work” (service) applied to laborious service, e.g., the taking down and setting up of the tabernacle and cleaning it, carrying wood and water for the sacrificial worship, slaying the animals for the daily and festal sacrifices of the congregation, etc. 26b. “So shalt thou do to the Levites (i.e., proceed with them) in their services.” trom;v]mi from tr,m,v]mi , attendance upon an official post. Both the heading and final clause, by which this law relating to the Levites’ period of service is bounded, and its position immediately after the induction of the Levites into their office, show unmistakeably that this law was binding for all time, and was intended to apply to the standing service of the Levites at the sanctuary; and consequently that it was not at variance with the instructions in ch. 4, to muster the Levites between thirty and fifty years of age, and organize them for the transport of the tabernacle on the journey through the wilderness (Numbers 4:3-49). The transport of the tabernacle required the strength of a full-grown man, and therefore the more advanced age of thirty years; whereas the duties connected with the tabernacle when standing were of a lighter description, and could easily be performed from the twenty-fifth year (see Hengstenberg’s Dissertations, vol. ii. pp. 321ff.). At a later period, when the sanctuary was permanently established on Mount Zion, David employed the Levites from their twentieth year (1 Chron 23:24-25), and expressly stated that he did so because the Levites had no longer to carry the dwelling and its furniture; and this regulation continued in force from that time forward (cf. 2 Chron 31:17; Ezra 3:8). But if the supposed discrepancy between the verses before us and Numbers 4:3,47, is removed by this distinction, which is gathered in the most simple manner from the context, there is no ground whatever for critics to deny that the regulation before us could have proceeded from the pen of the Elohist.

NUMBERS 9:1-5 The Passover at Sinai, and Instructions for a Supplementary Passover.

Vv. 1-5. On the first institution of the Passover, before the exodus from Egypt, God had appointed the observance of this feast as an everlasting statute for all future generations (Exodus 12:13,24-25). In the first month of the second year after the exodus, that is to say, immediately after the erection of the tabernacle (Exodus 40:2,17), this command was renewed, and the people were commanded “to keep the Passover in its appointed season, according to all its statutes and rights;” not to postpone it, that is, according to an interpretation that might possibly have been put upon Exodus 12:24-25, until they came to Canaan, but to keep it there at Sinai.

And Israel kept it in the wilderness of Sinai, in exact accordance with the commands which God had given before (Exodus 12). There is no express command, it is true, that the blood of the paschal lambs, instead of being smeared upon the lintel and posts of the house-doors (or the entrances to the tents), was to be sprinkled upon the altar of burnt-offering; nor is it recorded that this was actually done; but it followed of itself from the altered circumstances, inasmuch as there was not destroying angel to pass through the camp at Sinai and smite the enemies of Israel, whilst there was an altar in existence now upon which all the sacrificial blood was to be poured out, and therefore the blood of the paschal sacrifice also. f16 NUMBERS 9:6-7 There were certain men who were defiled by human corpses (see Lev 19:28), and could not eat the Passover on the day appointed. These men came to Moses, and asked, “Why are we diminished (prevented) from offering the sacrificial gift of Jehovah at its season in the midst of the children of Israel (i.e., in common with the rest of the Israelites)?” The exclusion of persons defiled from offering the Passover followed from the law, that only clean persons were to participate in a sacrificial meal (Lev 7:21), and that no one could offer any sacrifice in an unclean state.

NUMBERS 9:8 Moses told them to wait (stand), and he would hear what the Lord, of whom he would inquire, would command.

NUMBERS 9:9-14 Jehovah gave these general instructions: “Every one who is defiled by a corpse or upon a distant journey, of you and your future families, shall keep the Passover in the second month on the fourteenth, between the two evenings,” and that in all respects according to the statute of this feast, the three leading points of which-viz., eating the lamb with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, leaving nothing till the next day, and not breaking a bone (Exodus 12:8,10,46)-are repeated here.

But lest any one should pervert this permission, to celebrate the Passover a month later in case of insuperable difficulties, which had only been given for the purpose of enforcing the obligation to keep the covenant meal upon every member of the nation, into an excuse for postponing it without any necessity and merely from indifference, on the ground that he could make it up afterwards, the threat is held out in v. 13, that whoever should omit to keep the feast at the legal time, if he was neither unclean nor upon a journey, should be cut off; and in v. 14 the command is repeated with reference to foreigners, that they were also to keep the law and ordinance with the greatest minuteness when they observed the Passover: cf. Exodus 12:48-49, according to which the stranger was required first of all to let himself be circumcised. In v. 14b, hy;h; stands for hy;h; , as in Exodus 12:49; cf. Ewald, §295, d. w ... w] et...et, both...and. SIGNS AND SIGNALS FOR THE MARCH.

With the mustering of the people and the internal organization of the congregation, the preparations for the march from the desert of Sinai to the promised land of Canaan were completed; and when the feast of the Passover was ended, the time for leaving Sinai had arrived. Nothing now remained to be noticed except the required instructions respecting the guidance of the people in their journey through the wilderness, to which the account of the actual departure and march is appended. The account before us describes first of all the manner in which God Himself conducted the march (Numbers 9:15-23); and secondly, instructions are given respecting the signals to be used for regulating the order of the march (Numbers 10:1-10).

NUMBERS 9:15-23 Signs for Removing and Encamping.

On their way through the desert from the border of Egypt to Sinai, Jehovah Himself had undertaken to guide His people by a cloud, as the visible sign and vehicle of His gracious presence (Exodus 13:21-22). This cloud had come down upon the dwelling when the tabernacle was erected, whilst the glory of the Lord filled the holy of holies (Exodus 40:34-38). In v. 15 the historian refers to this fact, and then describes more fully what had been already briefly alluded to in Exodus 40:36-37, namely, that when the cloud rose up from the dwelling of the tabernacle it was a sign for removing, and when it came down upon the dwelling, a sign for encamping. In v. 15a, “on the day of the setting up of the dwelling,” Exodus 40:34-35, is resumed; and in v. 15b the appearance of the cloud during the night, from evening till morning, is described in accordance with Exodus 40:38. (On the fact itself, see the exposition of Exodus 13:21-22). `tWd[e lh,ao ˆK;v]mi , “the dwelling of the tent of witness” (l used for the genitive to avoid a double construct state: Ewald, §292, a).

In the place of ohel moëd, “tent of the meeting of Jehovah with His people,” we have here “tent of witness” (or “testimony”), i.e., of the tables with the decalogue which were laid up in the ark of the covenant (Exodus 25:16), because the decalogue formed the basis of the covenant of Jehovah with Israel, and the pledge of the gracious presence of the Lord in the tabernacle. In the place of “dwellings of the tent of witness,” we have “dwelling of witness’ (testimony) in Numbers 10:11, and “tent of witness” in ch. Numbers 18:2; 17:22, to denote the whole dwelling, as divided into the holy place and the holy of holies, and not the holy of holies alone. This is unmistakeably evident from a comparison of the verse before us with Exodus 40:34, according to which the cloud covered not merely one portion of the tabernacle, but the whole of the tent of meeting (ohel moëd).

The rendering, “the cloud covered the dwelling at the tent of witness,” i.e., at that part of it in which the witness (or “testimony”) was kept, viz., the holy of holies, which Rosenmüller and Knobel adopt, cannot be sustained, inasmuch as l] has no such meaning, but simply conveys the idea of motion and passage into a place or condition (cf. Ewald, §217, d); and the dwelling or tabernacle was not first made into the tent of witness through the cloud which covered it.

Verse 16. The covering of the dwelling, with the cloud which shone by night as a fiery look, was constant, and not merely a phenomenon which appeared when the tabernacle was first erected, and then vanished away again.

Verse 17. “In accordance with the rising of the cloud from the tent, then afterwards the children of Israel broke up,” i.e., whenever the cloud ascended up from the tent, they always broke up immediately afterwards; “and at the place where the cloud came down, there they encamped.” The ˆkæv; , or settling down of the cloud, sc., upon the tabernacle, we can only understand in the following manner, as the tabernacle was all taken to pieces during the march: viz., that the cloud visibly descended from the height at which it ordinarily soared above the ark of the covenant, as it was carried in front of the army, for a signal that the tabernacle was to be set up there; and then this had been done, it settled down upon it.

Verse 18. As Jehovah was with His people in the cloud, the rising and falling of the cloud was “the command of the Lord” to the Israelites to break up or to pitch the camp. As long, therefore, as the cloud rested upon the dwelling, i.e., remained stationary, they continued their encampment.

Verse 19-23. Whether it might rest many days long ( Ëyria’h, , to lengthen out the resting), or only a few days (Genesis 34:30), or only from evening till morning, and then rise up again in the morning, or for a day and a night, or for two days, or for a month, or for days (yamim), i.e., a space of time not precisely determined (cf. Genesis 4:3; 40:4), they encamped without departing. “Kept the charge of the Lord” (vv. 19 and 23), i.e., observed what was to be observed towards Jehovah (see Lev 8:35). With rv,a vye , “was it that,” or “did it happen that,” two other possible cases are introduced. After v. 20a, the apodosis, “they kept the charge of the Lord,” is to be repeated in thought from v. 19. The elaboration of the account (vv. 15-23), which abounds with repetitions, is intended to bring out the importance of the fact, and to awaken the consciousness not only of the absolute dependence of Israel upon the guidance of Jehovah, but also of the gracious care of their God, which was thereby displayed to the Israelites throughout all their journeyings.

NUMBERS 10:1-4 The Silver Signal-Trumpets.- Although God Himself appointed the time for removal and encampment by the movement of the cloud of His presence, signals were also requisite for ordering and conducting the march of so numerous a body, by means of which Moses, as commander-in-chief, might make known his commands to the different divisions of the camp. To this end God directed him to prepare two silver trumpets of beaten work (mikshah, see Exodus 25:18), which should serve “for the calling of the assembly, and for the breaking up of the camps,” i.e., which were to be used for this purpose. The form of these trumpets is not further described. No doubt they were straight, not curved, as we may infer both from the representation of these trumpets on the triumphal arch of Titus at Rome, and also from the fact, that none but straight trumpets occur on the old Egyptian monuments (see my Arch. ii. p. 187). With regard to the use of them for calling the congregation, the following directions are given in vv. 3, 4: “When they shall blow with them (i.e., with both), the whole congregation (in all its representatives) shall assemble at the door of the tabernacle; if they blow with only one, the princes or heads of the families of Israel shall assemble together.”

NUMBERS 10:5-6 To give the signal for breaking up the camp, they were to blow h[;WrT] , i.e., a noise or alarm. At the first blast the tribes on the east, i.e., those who were encamped in the front of the tabernacle, were to break up; at the second, those who were encamped on the south; and so on in the order prescribed in ch. 2, though this is not expressly mentioned here. The alarm was to be blown [Sæmæ , with regard to their breaking up or marching.

NUMBERS 10:7 But to call the congregation together they were to blow, not to sound an alarm. [qæT; signifies blowing in short, sharp tones. heeriya` = h[;WrT] [qæT; , blowing in a continued peal.

NUMBERS 10:8-10 These trumpets were to be used for the holy purposes of the congregation generally, and therefore not only the making, but the manner of using them was prescribed by God Himself. They were to be blown by the priests alone, and “to be for an eternal ordinance to the families of Israel,” i.e., to be preserved and used by them in all future times, according to the appointment of God. The blast of these trumpets was to call Israel to remembrance before Jehovah in time of war and on their feast-days.

Verse 9. “If ye go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you, and ye blow the trumpets, ye shall bring yourselves to remembrance before Jehovah, and shall be saved (by Him) from your enemies.” hm;j;l]mi awOB, to come into war, or go to war, is to be distinguished from hm;j;l]mi awOB, to make ready for war, go out to battle (Numbers 31:21; 32:6).

Verse 10. “And on your joyous day, and your feasts and new moons, he shall blow the trumpets over your burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, that they may be to you for a memorial (remembrance) before your hj;m]ci µwOy is any day on which a practical expression was given to their joy, in the form of a sacrifice. The d[æy; are the feasts enumerated in chs. 28 and and Lev 23. The “beginnings of the months,” or new-moon days, were not, strictly speaking, feast-days, with the exception of the seventh new moon of the year (see at Numbers 28:11). On the object, viz., “for a memorial,” see Exodus 28:29, and the explanation, p. 450. In accordance with this divine appointment, so full of promise, we find that in after times the trumpets were blown by the priests in war (Numbers 31:6; 2 Chron 13:12,14; 20:21-22,28) as well as on joyful occasions, such as at the removal of the ark (1 Chron 15:24; 16:6), at the consecration of Solomon’s temple (2 Chron 5:12; 7:6), the laying of the foundation of the second temple (Ezra 3:10), the consecration of the walls of Jerusalem (Neh 12:35,41), and other festivities (2 Chron 29:27). 2. JOURNEY FROM SINAI TO THE STEPPES OF MOAB.

The straight and shortest way from Sinai to Kadesh, on the southern border of Canaan, was only a journey of eleven days (Deuteronomy 1:2).

By this road God led His people, whom He had received into the covenant of His grace at Sinai, and placed under the discipline of the law, to the ultimate object of their journey through the desert; so that, a few months after leaving Horeb or Sinai, the Israelites had already arrived at Kadesh, in the desert of Zin, on the southern border of the promised land, and were able to send out men as spies, to survey the inheritance of which they were to take possession. The way from Sinai to the desert of Zin forms the first stage in the history of the guidance of Israel through the wilderness to Canaan.

FROM SINAI TO KADESH. Removal of the Camp from the Desert of Sinai.

NUMBERS 10:11-12 After all the preparations were completed for the journey of the Israelites from Sinai to Canaan, on the 20th day of the second month, in the second year, the cloud rose up from the tent of witness, and the children of Israel broke up out of the desert of Sinai, [Sæmæ , “according to their journeys” (lit., breaking up; see at Genesis 13:3 and Exodus 40:36,38), i.e., in the order prescribed in Numbers 2:9,16,24,31, and described in vv. 14ff. of this chapter. “And the cloud rested in the desert of Paran.” In these words, the whole journey from the desert of Sinai to the desert of Paran is given summarily, or as a heading; and the more minute description follows from v. 14 to Numbers 12:16. The “desert of Paran” was not the first station, but the third; and the Israelites did not arrive at it till after they had left Hazeroth (Numbers 12:16). The desert of Sinai is mentioned as the starting-point of the journey through the desert, in contrast with the desert of Paran, in the neighbourhood of Kadesh, whence the spies were sent out to Canaan (Numbers 13:2,21), the goal and termination of their journey through the desert.

That the words, “the cloud rested in the desert of Paran” (v. 12b), contain a preliminary statement (like Genesis 27:23; 37:5, as compared with v. 8, and 1 Kings 6:9 as compared with v. 14, etc.), is unmistakeably apparent, from the fact that Moses’ negotiations with Hobab, respecting his accompanying the Israelites to Canaan, as a guide who knew the road, are noticed for the first time in vv. 29ff., although they took place before the departure from Sinai, and that after this the account of the breaking-up is resumed in v. 33, and the journey itself described, Hence, although Kurtz (iii. 220) rejects this explanation of v. 12b as “forced,” and regards the desert of Paran as a place of encampment between Tabeerah and Kibrothhattaavah, even he cannot help identifying the breaking-up described in v. 33 with that mentioned in v. 12; that is to say, regarding v. 12 as a summary of the events which are afterwards more fully described.

The desert of Paran is the large desert plateau which is bounded on the east by the Arabah, the deep valley running from the southern point of the Dead Sea to the Elanitic Gulf, and stretches westwards to the desert of Shur (Jifar; see Genesis 16:7; Exodus 15:22), that separates Egypt from Philistia: it reaches southwards to Jebel et Tih, the foremost spur of the Horeb mountains, and northwards to the mountains of the Amorites, the southern border of Canaan. The origin and etymology of the name are obscure. The opinion that it was derived from rp , to open wide, and originally denoted the broad valley of Wady Murreh, between the Hebrew Negeb and the desert of Tih, and was then transferred to the whole district, has very little probability in it (Knobel). All that can be regarded as certain is, that the El-paran of Genesis 14:6 is a proof that in the very earliest times the name was applied to the whole of the desert of Tih down to the Elanitic Gulf, and that the Paran of the Bible had no historical connection either with the kw>mh Fara>n and tribe of Farani>tai mentioned by Ptol. (v. 17, i. 3), or with the town of Fara>n , of which the remains are still to be seen in the Wady Feiran at Serbal, or with the tower of Faran Ahrun of Edrisi, the modern Hammân Faraun, on the Red Sea, to the south of the Wady Gharandel. By the Arabian geographers, Isztachri, Kazwini, and others, and also by the Bedouins, it is called et Tih, i.e., the wandering of the children of Israel, as being the ground upon which the children of Israel wandered about in the wilderness for forty years (or more accurately, thirty-eight).

This desert plateau, which is thirty German miles (150 English) long from south to north, and almost as broad, consists, according to Arabian geographers, partly of sand and partly of firm soil, and is intersected through almost its entire length by the Wady el Arish, which commences at a short distance from the northern extremity of the southern border mountains of et Tih, and runs in nearly a straight line from south to north, only turning in a north-westerly direction towards the Mediterranean Sea, on the north-east of the Jebel el Helal. This wady divides the desert of Paran into a western and an eastern half. The western half lies lower than the eastern, and slopes off gradually, without any perceptible natural boundary, into the flat desert of Shur (Jifar), on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The eastern half (between the Arabah and the Wady el Arish) consists throughout of a lofty mountainous country, intersected by larger and smaller wadys, and with extensive table-land between the loftier ranges, which slopes off somewhat in a northerly direction, its southern edge being formed by the eastern spurs of the Jebel et Tih. It is intersected by the Wady el Jerafeh, which commences at the foot of the northern slope of the mountains of Tih, and after proceeding at first in a northerly direction, turns higher up in a north-easterly direction towards the Arabah, but rises in its northern portion to a strong mountain fortress, which is called, from its present inhabitants, the highlands of the Azazimeh, and is bounded on both south and north by steep and lofty mountain ranges.

The southern boundary is formed by the range which connects the Araif en Nakba with the Jebel el Mukrah on the east; the northern boundary, by the mountain barrier which stretches along the Wady Murreh from west to east, and rises precipitously from it, and of which the following description has been given by Rowland and Williams, the first of modern travellers to visit this district, who entered the terra incognita by proceeding directly south from Hebron, past Arara or Aroër, and surveyed it from the border of the Rachmah plateau, i.e., of the mountains of the Amorites (Deuteronomy 1:7,20,44), or the southernmost plateau of the mountains of Judah (see at Numbers 14:45):-”A gigantic mountain towered above us in savage grandeur, with masses of naked rock, resembling the bastions of some Cyclopean architecture, the end of which it was impossible for the eye to reach, towards either the west or the east. It extended also a long way towards the south; and with its rugged, broken, and dazzling masses of chalk, which reflected the burning rays of the sun, it looked like an unapproachable furnace, a most fearful desert, without the slightest trace of vegetation. A broad defile, called Wady Murreh, ran at the foot of this bulwark, towards the east; and after a course of several miles, on reaching the strangely formed mountain of Moddera (Madurah), it is divided into two parts, the southern branch still retaining the same name, and running eastwards to the Arabah, whilst the other was called Wady Fikreh, and ran in a north-easterly direction to the Dead Sea. This mountain barrier proved to us beyond a doubt that we were now standing on the southern boundary of the promised land; and we were confirmed in this opinion by the statement of the guide, that Kadesh was only a few hours distant from the point where we were standing” (Ritter, xiv. p. 1084). The place of encampment in the desert of Paran is to be sought for at the north-west corner of this lofty mountain range (see at Numbers 12:16).

NUMBERS 10:13-21 In vv. 13-28 the removal of the different camps is more fully described, according to the order of march established in ch. 2, the order in which the different sections of the Levites drew out and marched being particularly described in this place alone (cf. vv. 17 and 21 with Numbers 2:17). First of all (lit., “at the beginning”) the banner of Judah drew out, with Issachar and Zebulun (vv. 14-16; cf. Numbers 2:3-9). The tabernacle was then taken down, and the Gershonites and Merarites broke up, carrying those portions of its which were assigned to them (v. 17; cf. Numbers 4:24ff., and 31ff.), that they might set up the dwelling at the place to be chosen for the next encampment, before the Kohathites arrived with the sacred things (v. 21). The banner of Reuben followed next with Simeon and Gad (vv. 18-21; cf. Numbers 2:10-16), and the Kohathites joined them bearing the sacred things (v. 21). vD;q]mi (= vd,qo , Numbers 7:9, and vd,qo vd,qo , Numbers 4:4) signifies the sacred things mentioned in Numbers 3:31. In v. 21b the subject is the Gershonites and Merarites, who had broken up before with the component parts of the dwelling, and set up the dwelling, µa;BoAd[æ , against their (the Kohathites’) arrival, so that they might place the holy things at once within it. NUMBERS 10:22-28 Behind the sacred things came the banners of Ephraim, with Manasseh and Benjamin (see Numbers 2:18-24), and Dan with Asher and Naphtali (ch. 2:25-31); so that the camp of Dan was the “collector of all the camps according to their hosts,” i.e., formed that division of the army which kept the hosts together.

NUMBERS 10:29-32 The conversation in which Moses persuaded Hobab the Midianite, the son of Reguel (see at Exodus 2:16), and his brother-in-law, to go with the Israelites, and being well acquainted with the desert to act as their leader, preceded the departure in order of time; but it is placed between the setting out and the march itself, as being subordinate to the main events. When and why Hobab came into the camp of the Israelites-whether he came with his father Reguel (or Jethro) when Israel first arrived at Horeb, and so remained behind when Jethro left (Exodus 18:27), or whether he did not come till afterwards-was left uncertain, because it was a matter of no consequence in relation to what is narrated here. f18 The request addressed to Hobab, that he would go with them to the place which Jehovah had promised to give them, i.e., to Canaan, was supported by the promise that he would do good to them (Hobab and his company), as Jehovah had spoken good concerning Israel, i.e., had promised it prosperity in Canaan. And when Hobab declined the request, and said that he should return into his own land, i.e., to Midian at the south-east of Sinai (see at Exodus 2:15 and 3:1), and to his kindred, Moses repeated the request, “Leave us not, forasmuch as thou knowest our encamping in the desert,” i.e., knowest where we can pitch our tents; “therefore be to us as eyes,” i.e., be our leader and guide-and promised at the same time to do him the good that Jehovah would do to them. Although Jehovah led the march of the Israelites in the pillar of cloud, not only giving the sign for them to break up and to encamp, but showing generally the direction they were to take; yet Hobab, who was well acquainted with the desert, would be able to render very important service to the Israelites, if he only pointed out, in those places where the sign to encamp was given by the cloud, the springs, oases, and plots of pasture which are often buried quite out of sight in the mountains and valleys that overspread the desert. What Hobab ultimately decided to do, we are not told; but “as no further refusal is mentioned, and the departure of Israel is related immediately afterwards, he probably consented” (Knobel). This is raised to a certainty by the fact that, at the commencement of the period of the Judges, the sons of the brotherin- law of Moses went into the desert of Judah to the south of Arad along with the sons of Judah (Judg 1:16), and therefore had entered Canaan with the Israelites, and that they were still living in that neighbourhood in the time of Saul (1 Samuel 15:6; 27:10; 30:29).

NUMBERS 10:33-34 “And they (the Israelites) departed from the mount of Jehovah (Exodus 3:1) three days’ journey; the ark of the covenant of Jehovah going before them, to search out a resting-place for them. And the cloud of Jehovah was over them by day, when they broke up from the camp.” Jehovah still did as He had already done on the way to Sinai (Exodus 13:21-22): He went before them in the pillar of cloud, according to His promise (Exodus 33:13), on their journey from Sinai to Canaan; with this simple difference, however, that henceforth the cloud that embodied the presence of Jehovah was connected with the ark of the covenant, as the visible throne of His gracious presence which had been appointed by Jehovah Himself. To this end the ark of the covenant was carried separately from the rest of the sacred things, in front of the whole army; so that the cloud which went before them floated above the ark, leading the procession, and regulating its movements in the direction it took in such a manner that the permanent connection between the cloud and the sanctuary might be visibly manifested even during their march. It is true that, in the order observed in the camp and on the march, no mention is made of the ark of the covenant going in front of the whole army; but this omission is no more a proof of any discrepancy between this verse and Numbers 2:17, or of a difference of authorship, than the separation of the different divisions of the Levites upon the march, which is also not mentioned in Numbers 2:17, although the Gershonites and Merarites actually marched between the banners of Judah and Reuben, and the Kohathites with the holy things between the banners of Reuben and Ephraim (vv. 17 and 21). f19 The words, “the cloud was above them” (the Israelites), and so forth, can be reconciled with this supposition without any difficulty, whether we understand them as signifying that the cloud, which appeared as a guiding column floating above the ark and moved forward along with it, also extended itself along the whole procession, and spread out as a protecting shade over the whole army (as O. v. Gerlach and Baumgarten suppose), or that “above them” (upon them) is to be regarded as expressive of the fact that it accompanied them as a protection and shade. Nor is Psalm 105:39, which seems, so far as the words are concerned, rather to favour the first explanation, really at variance with this view; for the Psalmist’s intention is not so much to give a physical description of the phenomenon, as to describe the sheltering protection of God in poetical words as a spreading out of the cloud above the wandering people of God, in the form of a protection against both heat and rain (cf. Isaiah 4:5-6).

Moreover, vv. 33b and 34 have a poetical character, answering to the elevated nature of their subject, and are to be interpreted as follows according to the laws of a poetical parallelism: The one thought that the ark of the covenant, with the cloud soaring above it, led the way and sheltered those who were marching, is divided into two clauses; in v. 33b only the ark of the covenant is mentioned as going in front of the Israelites, and in v. 34 only the cloud as a shelter over them: whereas the carrying of the ark in front of the army could only accomplish the end proposed, viz., to search out a resting-place for them, by Jehovah going above them in the cloud, and showing the bearers of the ark both the way they were to take, and the place where they were to rest. The ark with the tables of the law is not called “the ark of testimony” here, according to its contents, as in Exodus 25:22; 26:33-34; 30:6, etc., but the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, according to its design and signification for Israel, which was the only point, or at any rate the principal point, in consideration here. The resting-place which the ark of the covenant found at the end of three days, is not mentioned in v. 34; it was not Tabeerah, however (Numbers 11:3), but Kibroth-hattaavah (ch. 11:34-35; cf. ch. 33:16).

NUMBERS 10:35,36 In vv. 35 and 36, the words which Moses was in the habit of uttering, both when the ark removed and when it came to rest again, are given not only as a proof of the joyous confidence of Moses, but as an encouragement to the congregation to cherish the same believing confidence. When breaking up, he said, “Rise up, Jehovah! that Thine enemies may be scattered, and they that hate Thee may flee before Thy face;” and when it rested, “Return, Jehovah, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel!” Moses could speak in this way, because he knew that Jehovah and the ark of the covenant were inseparably connected, and saw in the ark of the covenant, as the throne of Jehovah, a material pledge of the gracious presence of the Almighty God.

He said this, however, not merely with reference to enemies who might encounter the Israelites in the desert, but with a confident anticipation of the calling of Israel, to strive for the cause of the Lord in this hostile world, and rear His kingdom upon earth. Human power was not sufficient for this; but to accomplish this end, it was necessary that the Almighty God should go before His people, and scatter their foes. The prayer addressed to God to do this, is an expression of bold believing confidence-a prayer sure of its answer; and to Israel it was the word with which the congregation of God was to carry on the conflict at all times against the powers and authorities of a whole hostile world. It is in this sense that in Psalm 68:2, the words are held up by David before himself and his generation as a banner of victory, “to arm the Church with confidence, and fortify it against the violent attacks of its foes” (Calvin). bWv is construed with an accusative: return to the ten thousands of the hosts of Israel, i.e., after having scattered Thine enemies, turn back again to Thy people to dwell among them. The “thousands of Israel,” as in Numbers 1:16. f20 OCCURRENCES AT TABEERAH AND KIBROTHHATTAAVAH.

NUMBERS 11:1-2 After a three days’ march the Israelites arrived at a resting-place; but the people began at once to be discontented with their situation. f21 The people were like those who complain in the ears of Jehovah of something bad; i.e., they behaved like persons who groan and murmur because of some misfortune that has happened to them. No special occasion is mentioned for the complaint. The words are expressive, no doubt, of the general dissatisfaction and discontent of the people at the difficulties and privations connected with the journey through the wilderness, to which they gave utterance so loudly, that their complaining reached the ears of Jehovah. At this His wrath burned, inasmuch as the complaint was directed against Him and His guidance, “so that fire of Jehovah burned against them, and ate at the end of the camp.” b] r[æB; signifies here, not to burn a person (Job 1:16), but to burn against. “Fire of Jehovah:” a fire sent by Jehovah, but not proceeding directly from Him, or bursting forth from the cloud, as in Lev 10:2. Whether it was kindled through a flash of lightning, or in some other such way, cannot be more exactly determined. There is not sufficient ground for the supposition that the fire merely seized upon the bushes about the camp and the tents of the people, but not upon human beings (Ros., Knobel). All that is plainly taught in the words is, that the fire did not extend over the whole camp, but merely broke out at one end of it, and sank down again, i.e., was extinguished very quickly, at the intercession of Moses; so that in this judgment the Lord merely manifested His power to destroy the murmurers, that He might infuse into the whole nation a wholesome dread of His holy majesty.

NUMBERS 11:3 From this judgment the place where the fire had burned received the name of “Tabeerah,” i.e., burning, or place of burning. Now, as this spot is distinctly described as the end or outermost edge of the camp, this “place of burning” must not be regarded, as it is by Knobel and others, as a different station from the “graves of lust.” “Tabeerah was simply the local name give to a distant part of the whole camp, which received soon after the name of Kibroth-hattaavah, on account of the greater judgment which the people brought upon themselves through their rebellion. This explains not only the omission of the name Tabeerah from the list of encampments in Numbers 33:16, but also the circumstance, that nothing is said about any removal from Tabeerah to Kibroth- Hattaavah, and that the account of the murmuring of the people, because of the want of those supplies of food to which they had been accustomed in Egypt, is attached, without anything further, to the preceding narrative. There is nothing very surprising either, in the fact that the people should have given utterance to their wish for the luxuries of Egypt, which they had been deprived of so long, immediately after this judgment of God, if we only understand the whole affair as taking place in exact accordance with the words of the texts, viz., that the unbelieving and discontented mass did not discern the chastising hand of God at all in the conflagration which broke out at the end of the camp, because it was not declared to be a punishment from God, and was not preceded by a previous announcement; and therefore that they gave utterance in loud murmurings to the discontent of their hearts respecting the want of flesh, without any regard to what had just befallen them. NUMBERS 11:4-9 The first impulse to this came from the mob that had come out of Egypt along with the Israelites. “The mixed multitude:” see at Exodus 12:38.

They felt and expressed a longing for the better food which they had enjoyed in Egypt, and which was not to be had in the desert, and urged on the Israelites to cry out for flesh again, especially for the flesh and the savoury vegetables in which Egypt abounded. The words “they wept again” bWv used adverbially, as in Genesis 26:18, etc.) point back to the former complaints of the people respecting the absence of flesh in the desert of Sin (Exodus 16:2ff.), although there is nothing said about their weeping there. By the flesh which they missed, we are not to understand either the fish which they expressly mention in the following verse (as in Lev 11:11), or merely oxen, sheep, and goats; but the word rc;B; signifies flesh generally, as being a better kind of food than the bread-like manna.

It is true they possessed herds of cattle, but these would not have been sufficient to supply their wants, as cattle could not be bought for slaughtering, and it was necessary to spare what they had. The greedy people also longed for other flesh, and said, “We remember the fish which we ate in Egypt for nothing.” Even if fish could not be had for nothing in Egypt, according to the extravagant assertions of the murmurers, it is certain that it could be procured for such nominal prices that even the poorest of the people could eat it. The abundance of the fish in the Nile and the neighbouring waters is attested unanimously by both classical writers (e.g., Diod. Sic. i. 36, 52; Herod. ii. 93; Strabo, xvii. p. 829) and modern travellers (cf. Hengstenberg, Egypt, etc., p. 211 Eng. tr.). This also applies to the vegetables for which the Israelites longed in the desert. The aVuqi , or cucumbers, which are still called katteh or chate in the present day, are a species differing from the ordinary cucumbers in size and colour, and distinguished for softness and sweet flavour, and are described by Forskal (Flor. Aeg. p. 168), as fructus in Aegypto omnium vulgatissimus, totis plantatus agris. ‘abaTichiym: water-melons, which are still called battieh in modern Egypt, and are both cultivated in immense quantities and sold so cheaply in the market, that the poor as well as the rich can enjoy their refreshing flesh and cooling juice (see Sonnini in Hengstenberg, ut sup. p. 212). ryxij; does not signify grass here, but, according to the ancient versions, chives, from their grass-like appearance; laudatissimus porrus in Aegypto (Plin. h. n. 19, 33). lx,B, : onions, which flourish better in Egypt than elsewhere, and have a mild and pleasant taste.

According to Herod. ii. 125, they were the ordinary food of the workmen at the pyramids; and, according to Hasselquist, Sonnini, and others, they still form almost the only food of the poor, and are also a favourite dish with all classes, either roasted, or boiled as a vegetable, and eaten with animal food. µWv : garlic, which is still called tum, tom in the East (Seetzen, iii. p. 234), and is mentioned by Herodotus in connection with onions, as forming a leading article of food with the Egyptian workmen. Of all these things, which had been cheap as well as refreshing, not one was to be had in the desert. Hence the people complained still further, “and now our soul is dried away,” i.e., faint for want of strong and refreshing food, and wanting in fresh vital power (cf. Psalm 22:16; 102:5): “we have nothing lKo ˆyiaæ , there is nothing in existence, equivalent to nothing to be had) except that our eye (falls) upon this manna,” i.e., we see nothing else before us but the manna, sc., which has no juice, and supplies no vital force.

Greediness longs for juicy and savoury food, and in fact, as a rule, for change of food and stimulating flavour. “This is the perverted nature of man, which cannot continue in the quiet enjoyment of what is clean and unmixed, but, from its own inward discord, desires a stimulating admixture of what is sharp and sour” (Baumgarten). To point out this inward perversion on the part of the murmuring people, Moses once more described the nature, form, and taste of the manna, and its mode of preparation, as a pleasant food which God sent down to His people with the dew of heaven (see at Exodus 16:14-15, and 31). But this sweet bread of heaven wanted “the sharp and sour, which are required to give a stimulating flavour to the food of man, on account of his sinful, restless desires, and the incessant changes of his earthly life.” In this respect the manna resembled the spiritual food supplied by the word of God, of which the sinful heart of man may also speedily become weary, and turn to the more piquant productions of the spirit of the world.

NUMBERS 11:10-15 When Moses heard the people weep, “according to their families, every one before the door of his tent,” i.e., heard complaining in all the families in front of every tent, so that the weeping had become universal throughout the whole nation (cf. Zech 12:12ff.), and the wrath of the Lord burned on account of it, and the thing displeased Moses also, he brought his complaint to the Lord. The words “Moses also was displeased,” are introduced as a circumstantial clause, to explain the matter more clearly, and show the reason for the complaint which Moses poured out before the Lord, and do not refer exclusively either to the murmuring of the people or to the wrath of Jehovah, but to both together. This follows evidently from the position in which the clause stands between the two antecedent clauses in v. 10 and the apodosis in v. 11, and still more evidently from the complaint of Moses which follows. For “the whole attitude of Moses shows that his displeasure was excited not merely by the unrestrained rebellion of the people against Jehovah, but also by the unrestrained wrath of Jehovah against the nation” (Kurtz). But in what was the wrath of Jehovah manifested? It broke out against the people first of all when they had been satiated with flesh (v. 33). There is no mention of any earlier manifestation. Hence Moses can only have discovered a sign of the burning wrath of Jehovah in the fact that, although the discontent of the people burst forth in loud cries, God did not help, but withdrew with His help, and let the whole storm of the infuriated people burst upon him.

Verse 11-14. In Moses’ complaint there is an unmistakeable discontent arising from the excessive burden of his office. “Why hast Thou done evil to Thy servant? and why have I not found favour in Thy sight, to lay upon me the burden of all this people?” The “burden of all this people” is the expression which he uses to denote “the care of governing the people, and providing everything for it” (C. a. Lap.). This burden, which God imposed upon him in connection with his office, appeared to him a bad and ungracious treatment on the part of God. This is the language of the discontent of despair, which differs from the murmuring of unbelief, in the fact that it is addressed to God, for the purpose of entreating help and deliverance from Him; whereas unbelief complains of the ways of God, but while complaining of its troubles, does not pray to the Lord its God. “Have I conceived all this people,” Moses continues, “or have I brought it forth, that Thou requirest me to carry it in my bosom, as a nursing father carries the suckling, into the promised land?” He does not intend by these words to throw off entirely all care for the people, but simply to plead with God that the duty of carrying and providing for Israel rests with Him, the Creator and Father of Israel (Exodus 4:22; Isaiah 63:16). Moses, a weak man, was wanting in the omnipotent power which alone could satisfy the crying of the people for flesh. `l[æ hk;B; , “they weep unto me,” i.e., they come weeping to ask me to relieve their distress. “I am not able to carry this burden alone; it is too heavy for me.”

Verse 15. “If Thou deal thus with me, then kill me quite græh; inf. abs., expressive of the uninterrupted process of killing; see Ewald, §280, b.), if I have found favour in Thine eyes (i.e., if Thou wilt show me favour), and let me not see my misfortune.” “My misfortune:” i.e., the calamity to which I must eventually succumb.

NUMBERS 11:16-17 There was good ground for his complaint. The burden of the office laid upon the shoulders of Moses was really too heavy for one man; and even the discontent which broke out in the complaint was nothing more than an outpouring of zeal for the office assigned him by God, under the burden of which his strength would eventually break down, unless he received some support. He was not tired of the office, but would stake his life for it if God did not relieve him in some way, as office and life were really one in him.

Jehovah therefore relieved him in the distress of which he complained, without blaming the words of His servant, which bordered on despair. “Gather unto Me,” He said to Moses (vv. 16, 17), “seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest as elders and officers (shoterim, see Exodus 5:6) of the people, and bring them unto the tabernacle, that they may place themselves there with thee. I will come down (see at v. 25) and speak with thee there, and will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them, that they may bear the burden of the people with thee.”

NUMBERS 11:18-20 Jehovah would also relieve the complaining of the people, and that in such a way that the murmurers should experience at the same time the holiness of His judgments. The people were to sanctify themselves for the next day, and were then to eat flesh (receive flesh to eat). hit¦qadeesh (as in Exodus 19:10), to prepare themselves by purifications for the revelation of the glory of God in the miraculous gift of flesh. Jehovah would give them flesh, so that they should eat it not one day, or two, or five, or ten, or twenty, but a whole month long (of “days,” as in Genesis 29:14; 41:1), “till it come out of your nostrils, and become loathsome unto you,” as a punishment for having despised Jehovah in the midst of them, in their contempt of the manna given by God, and for having shown their regret at leaving the land of Egypt in their longing for the provisions of that land.

NUMBERS 11:21-23 When Moses thereupon expressed his amazement at the promise of God to provide flesh for 600,000 men for a whole month long even to satiety, and said, “Shall flocks and herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them?” he was answered by the words, “Is the arm of Jehovah too short (i.e., does it not reach far enough; is it too weak and powerless)? Thou shalt see now whether My word shall come to pass unto thee or not.”

NUMBERS 11:24-30 After receiving from the Lord this reply to his complaint. Moses went out (sc., “of the tabernacle,” where he had laid his complaint before the Lord) into the camp; and having made known to the people the will of God, gathered together seventy men of the elders of the people, and directed them to station themselves around the tabernacle. “Around the tabernacle,” does not signify in this passage on all four sides, but in a semicircle around the front of the tabernacle; the verb is used in this sense in Numbers 21:4, when it is applied to the march round Edom.

Verse 25. Jehovah then came down in the cloud, which soared on high above the tabernacle, and now came down to the door of it (Numbers 12:5; Exodus 33:9; Deuteronomy 31:15). The statement in ch. Numbers 9:18ff., and Exodus 40:37-38, that the cloud dwelt ˆkæv; ) above the dwelling of the tabernacle during the time of encampment, can be reconciled with this without any difficulty; since the only idea that we can form of this “dwelling upon it” is, that the cloud stood still, soaring in quietness above the tabernacle, without moving to and fro like a cloud driven by the wind.

There is no such discrepancy, therefore, as Knobel finds in these statements. When Jehovah had come down, He spoke to Moses, sc., to explain to him and to the elders what was about to be done, and then laid upon the seventy elders of the Spirit which was upon him. We are not to understand this as implying, that the fulness of the Spirit possessed by Moses was diminished in consequence; still less to regard it, with Calvin, as signum indignationis, or nota ignominiae, which God intended to stamp upon him.

For the Spirit of God is not something material, which is diminished by being divided, but resembles a flame of fire, which does not decrease in intensity, but increases rather by extension. As Theodoret observed, “Just as a person who kindles a thousand flames from one, does not lessen the first, whilst he communicates light to the others, so God did not diminish the grace imparted to Moses by the fact that He communicated of it to the seventy.” God did this to show to Moses, as well as to the whole nation, that the Spirit which Moses had received was perfectly sufficient for the performance of the duties of his office, and that no supernatural increase of that Spirit was needed, but simply a strengthening of the natural powers of Moses by the support of men who, when endowed with the power of the Spirit that was taken from him, would help him to bear the burden of his office. We have no description of the way in which this transference took place; it is therefore impossible to determine whether it was effected by a sign which would strike the outward senses, or passed altogether within the sphere of the Spirit’s life, in a manner which corresponded to the nature of the Spirit itself.

In any case, however, it must have been effected in such a way, that Moses and the elders received a convincing proof of the reality of the affair. When the Spirit descended upon the elders, “they prophesied, and did not add;” i.e., they did not repeat the prophesyings any further. ãsæy; alo is rendered correctly by the LXX, kai> ouk e>ti prose>qento ; the rendering supported by the Vulgate and Onkelos, nec ultro cessaverunt (“and ceased not”), is incorrect. aBenæt]hi , “to prophesy,” is to be understood generally, and especially here, not as the foretelling of future things, but as speaking in an ecstatic and elevated state of mind, under the impulse and inspiration of the Spirit of God, just like the “speaking with tongues,” which frequently followed the gift of the Holy Ghost in the days of the apostles. But we are not to infer from the fact, that the prophesying was not repeated, that the Spirit therefore departed from them after this one extraordinary manifestation. This miraculous manifestation of the Spirit was intended simply to give to the whole nation the visible proof that God had endowed them with His Spirit, as helpers of Moses, and had given them the authority required for the exercise of their calling. Verse 26. But in order to prove to the whole congregation that the Spirit of the Lord was working there, the Spirit came not only upon the elders assembled round Moses, and in front of the tabernacle, but also upon two of the persons who had been chosen, viz., Eldad and Medad, who had remained behind in the camp, for some reason that is not reported, so that they also prophesied. “Them that were written,” conscripti, for “called,” because the calling of the elders generally took place in writing, from which we may see how thoroughly the Israelites had acquired the art of writing in Egypt.

Verse 27-28. This phenomenon in the camp itself produced such excitement, that a boy r[ænæ , with the article like fylip; in Genesis 14:13) reported the thing to Moses, whereupon Joshua requested Moses to prohibit the two from prophesying. Joshua felt himself warranted in doing this, because he had been Moses’ servant from his youth up (see at Exodus 17:9), and in this capacity he regarded the prophesying of these men in the camp as detracting from the authority of his lord, since they had not received this gift from Moses, at least not through his mediation. Joshua was jealous for the honour of Moses, just as the disciples of Jesus, in Mark 9:38-39, were for the honour of their Lord; and he was reproved by Moses, as the latter afterwards were by Christ.

Verse 29. Moses replied, “Art thou jealous for me? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that Jehovah would put His Spirit upon them!” As a true servant of God, who sought not his own glory, but the glory of his God, and the spread of His kingdom, Moses rejoiced in this manifestation of the Spirit of God in the midst of the nation, and desired that all might become partakers of this grace.

Verse 30. Moses returned with the elders into the camp, sc., from the tabernacle, which stood upon an open space in the midst of the camp, at some distance from the tents of the Levites and the rest of the tribes of Israel, which were pitched around it, so that whoever wished to go to it, had first of all to go out of his tent. f22 No account has been handed down of the further action of this committee of elders. It is impossible to determine, therefore, in what way they assisted Moses in bearing the burden of governing the people. All that can be regarded as following unquestionably from the purpose given here is, that they did not form a permanent body, which continued from the time of Moses to the Captivity, and after the Captivity was revived again in the Sanhedrim, as Talmudists, Rabbins, and many of the earlier theologians suppose (see Selden de Synedriis, l. i. c. 14, ii. c. 4; Jo. Marckii sylloge dissertatt. phil. theol. ad V. T. exercit. 12, pp. 343ff.). On the opposite side vid., Relandi Antiquitates, ss. ii. 7, 3; Carpz. apparat. pp. 573f., etc.

NUMBERS 11:31-32 As soon as Moses had returned with the elders into the camp, God fulfilled His second promise. “A wind arose from Jehovah, and brought quails (salvim, see Exodus 16:13) over from the sea, and threw them over the camp about a day’s journey wide from here and there (i.e., on both sides), in the neighbourhood of the camp, and about two cubits above the surface.” The wind was a south-east wind (Psalm 78:26), which blew from the Arabian Gulf and brought the quails-which fly northwards in the spring from the interior of Africa in very great numbers (see p. 364)-from the sea to the Israelites. zWG, which only occurs here and in the Psalm of Moses (Psalm 90:10), signifies to drive over, in Arabic and Syriac to pass over, not “to cut off,” as the Rabbins suppose: the wind cut off the quails from the sea. v fæ n; , to throw them scattered about (Exodus 29:5; 31:12; 32:4).

The idea is not that the wind caused the flock of quails to spread itself out as much as two days’ journey over the camp, and to fly about two cubits above the surface of the ground; so that, being exhausted with their flight across the sea, they fell partly into the hands of the Israelites and partly upon the ground, as Knobel follows the Vulgate (volabant in aëre duobus cubitis altitudine super terram) and many of the Rabbins in supposing: for hn,jmæ `l[æ v fæ n; does not mean to cause to fly or spread out over the camp, but to throw over or upon the camp. The words cannot therefore be understood in any other way than they are in Psalm 78:27-28, viz., that the wind threw them about over the camp, so that they fell upon the ground a day’s journey on either side of it, and that in such numbers that they lay, of course not for the whole distance mentioned, but in places about the camp, as much as two cubits deep.

It is only in this sense of the words, that the people could possibly gather quails the whole of that day, the whole night, and the whole of the next day, in such quantities that he who had gathered but little had collected ten homers. A homer, the largest measure of capacity among the Hebrews, which contained ten ephahs, held, according to the lower reckoning of Thenius, 10,143 Parisian inches, or about two bushels Dresden measure.

By this enormous quantity, which so immensely surpassed the natural size of the flocks of quails, God purposed to show the people His power, to give them flesh not for one day or several days, but for a whole month, both to put to shame their unbelief, and also to punish their greediness. As they could not eat this quantity all at once, they spread them round the camp to dry in the sun, in the same manner in which the Egyptians are in the habit of drying fish (Herod. ii. 77).

NUMBERS 11:33 But while the flesh was still between their teeth, and before it was ground, i.e., masticated, the wrath of the Lord burned against them, and produced among the people a very great destruction. This catastrophe is not to be regarded as “the effect of the excessive quantity of quails that they had eaten, on account of the quails feeding upon things which are injurious to man, so that eating the flesh of quails produces convulsions and giddiness (for proofs, see Bochart, Hieroz. ii. pp. 657ff.),” as Knobel supposes, but as an extraordinary judgment inflicted by God upon the greedy people, by which a great multitude of people were suddenly swept away.

NUMBERS 11:34 From this judgment the place of encampment received the name Kibrothhattaavah, i.e., graves of greediness, because there the people found their graves while giving vent to their greedy desires.

NUMBERS 11:35 From the graves of greediness the people removed to Hazeroth, and there they remained hy;h; as in Exodus 24:12). The situation of these two places of encampment is altogether unknown. Hazeroth, it is true, has been regarded by many since Burckhardt (Syr. p. 808) as identical with the modern Hadhra (in Robinson’s Pal. Ain el Hudhera), eighteen hours to the north-east of Sinai, partly because of the resemblance in the name, and partly because there are not only low palm-trees and bushes there, but also a spring, of which Robinson says (Pal. i. p. 223) that it is the only spring in the neighbourhood, and yields tolerably good water, though somewhat brackish, the whole year round. But Hadhra does not answer to the Hebrew chaatsar, to shut in, from which Hazeroth (enclosures) is derived; and there are springs in many other places in the desert of et Tih with both drinkable and brackish water.

Moreover, the situation of this well does not point to Hadhra, which is only two days’ journey from Sinai, so that the Israelites might at any rate have pitched their tents by this well after their first journey of three days (Numbers 10:33), whereas they took three days to reach the graves of lust, and then marched from thence to Hazeroth. Consequently they would only have come to Hadhra on the supposition that they had been about to take the road to the sea, and intended to march along the coast to the Arabah, and so on through the Arabah to the Dead Sea (Robinson, p. 223); in which case, however, they would not have arrived at Kadesh. The conjecture that Kibroth-hattaavah is the same as Di-Sahab (Deuteronomy 1:1), the modern Dahab (Mersa Dahab, Minna el Dahab), to the east of Sinai, on the Elanitic Gulf, is still more untenable. For what end could be answered by such a circuitous route, which, instead of bringing the Israelites nearer to the end of their journey, would have taken them to Mecca rather than to Canaan? As the Israelites proceeded from Hazeroth to Kadesh in the desert of Paran (Numbers 13:3 and 26), they must have marched from Sinai to Canaan by the most direct route, through the midst of the great desert of et Tih, most probably by the desert road which leads from the Wady es Sheikh into the Wady ez-Zuranuk, which breaks through the southern border mountains of et Tih, and passes on through the Wady ez-Zalakah over el Ain to Bir-et-Themmed, and then due north past Jebel Araif to the Hebron road. By this route they could go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea in eleven days (Deuteronomy 1:2), and it is here that we are to seek for the two stations in question. Hazeroth is probably to be found, as Fries and Kurtz suppose, in Bir-et-Themmed, and Kibrothhattaavah in the neighbourhood of the southern border mountains of et Tih.

REBELLION OF MIRIAM AND AARON AGAINST MOSES.

NUMBERS 12:1-3 All the rebellions of the people hitherto had arisen from dissatisfaction with the privations of the desert march, and had been directed against Jehovah rather than against Moses. And if, in the case of the last one, at Kibroth- hattaavah, even Moses was about to lose heart under the heavy burden of his office; the faithful covenant God had given the whole nation a practical proof, in the manner in which He provided him support in the seventy elders, that He had not only laid the burden of the whole nation upon His servant Moses, but had also communicated to him the power of His Spirit, which was requisite to enable him to carry this burden. Thus not only was his heart filled with new courage when about to despair, but his official position in relation to all the Israelites was greatly exalted. This elevation of Moses excited envy on the part of his brother and sister, whom God had also richly endowed and placed so high, that Miriam was distinguished as a prophetess above all the women of Israel, whilst Aaron had been raised by his investiture with the high-priesthood into the spiritual head of the whole nation.

But the pride of the natural heart was not satisfied with this. They would dispute with their brother Moses the pre-eminence of his special calling and his exclusive position, which they might possibly regard themselves as entitled to contest with him not only as his brother and sister, but also as the nearest supporters of his vocation. Miriam was the instigator of the open rebellion, as we may see both from the fact that her name stands before that of Aaron, and also from the use of the feminine verb rbæd; in v. 1. Aaron followed her, being no more able to resist the suggestions of his sister, than he had formerly been to resist the desire of the people for a golden idol (Exodus 32). Miriam found an occasion for the manifestation of her discontent in the Cushite wife whom Moses had taken. This wife cannot have been Zipporah the Midianite: for even though Miriam might possibly have called her a Cushite, whether because the Cushite tribes dwelt in Arabia, or in a contemptuous sense as a Moor or Hamite, the author would certainly not have confirmed this at all events inaccurate, if not contemptuous epithet, by adding, “for he had taken a Cushite wife;” to say nothing of the improbability of Miriam having made the marriage which her brother had contracted when he was a fugitive in a foreign land, long before he was called by God, the occasion of reproach so many years afterwards.

It would be quite different if, a short time before, probably after the death of Zipporah, he had contracted a second marriage with a Cushite woman, who either sprang from the Cushites dwelling in Arabia, or from the foreigners who had come out of Egypt along with the Israelites. This marriage would not have been wrong in itself, as God had merely forbidden the Israelites to marry the daughters of Canaan (Exodus 34:16), even if Moses had not contracted it “with the deliberate intention of setting forth through this marriage with a Hamite woman the fellowship between Israel and the heathen, so far as it could exist under the law; and thus practically exemplifying in his own person that equality between the foreigners and Israel which the law demanded in various ways” (Baumgarten), or of “prefiguring by this example the future union of Israel with the most remote of the heathen,” as O. v. Gerlach and many of the fathers suppose.

In the taunt of the brother and sister, however, we meet with that carnal exaggeration of the Israelitish nationality which forms so all-pervading a characteristic of this nation, and is the more reprehensible the more it rests upon the ground of nature rather than upon the spiritual calling of Israel (Kurtz).

Verse 2-3. Miriam and Aaron said, “Hath Jehovah then spoken only by Moses, and not also by us?” Are not we-the high priest Aaron, who brings the rights of the congregation before Jehovah in the Urim and Thummim (Exodus 28:30), and the prophetess Miriam (Exodus 15:20)-also organs and mediators of divine revelation? “They are proud of the prophetic gift, which ought rather to have fostered modesty in them. But such is the depravity of human nature, that they not only abuse the gifts of God towards the brother whom they despise, but by an ungodly and sacrilegious glorification extol the gifts themselves in such a manner as to hide the Author of the gifts” (Calvin).- “And Jehovah heard.” This is stated for the purpose of preparing the way for the judicial interposition of God. When God hears what is wrong, He must proceed to stop it by punishment.

Moses might also have heard what they said, but “the man Moses was very meek ( prau>v , LXX, mitis, Vulg.; not ‘plagued,’ geplagt, as Luther renders it), more than all men upon the earth.” No one approached Moses in meekness, because no one was raised so high by God as he was.

The higher the position which a man occupies among his fellow-men, the harder is it for the natural man to bear attacks upon himself with meekness, especially if they are directed against his official rank and honour. This remark as to the character of Moses serves to bring out to view the position of the person attacked, and points out the reason why Moses not only abstained from all self-defence, but did not even cry to God for vengeance on account of the injury that had been done to him. Because he was the meekest of all men, he could calmly leave this attack upon himself to the all-wise and righteous Judge, who had both called and qualified him for his office. “For this is the idea of the eulogium of his meekness. It is as if Moses had said that he had swallowed the injury in silence, inasmuch as he had imposed a law of patience upon himself because of his meekness” (Calvin).

The self-praise on the part of Moses, which many have discovered in this description of his character, and on account of which some even of the earlier expositors regarded this verse as a later gloss, whilst more recent critics have used it as an argument against the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, is not an expression of vain self-display, or a glorification of his own gifts and excellences, which he prided himself upon possessing above all others. It is simply a statement, which was indispensable to a full and correct interpretation of all the circumstances, and which was made quite objectively, with reference to the character which Moses had not given to himself but had acquired through the grace of God, and which he never falsified from the very time of his calling until the day of his death, either at the rebellion of the people at Kibroth-hattaavah (ch. 11), or at the water of strife (at Kadesh (ch. 20). His despondency under the heavy burden of his office in the former case (ch. 11) speaks rather for than against the meekness of his character; and the sin at Kadesh (ch. 20) consisted simply in the fact, that he suffered himself to be brought to doubt either the omnipotence of God, or the possibility of divine help, in account of the unbelief of the people. f23 No doubt it was only such a man as Moses who could speak of himself in such a way-a man who had so entirely sacrificed his own personality to the office assigned him by the Lord, that he was ready at any moment to stake his life for the cause and glory of the Lord (cf. Numbers 11:15, and Exodus 32:32), and of whom Calmet observes with as much truth as force, “As he praises himself here without pride, so he will blame himself elsewhere with humility,”-a man or God whose character is not to be measured by the standard of ordinary men (cf. Hengstenberg, Dissertations, vol. ii. pp. 141ff.).

NUMBERS 12:4-10 Jehovah summoned the opponents of His servant to come at once before His judgment-seat. He commanded Moses, Aaron, and Miriam suddenly to come out of the camp (see at Numbers 11:30) to the tabernacle. Then He Himself came down in a pillar of cloud to the door of the tabernacle, i.e., to the entrance to the court, not to the dwelling itself, and called Aaron and Miriam out, i.e., commanded them to come out of the court, and said to them (vv. 6ff.): “If there is a prophet of Jehovah to you (i.e., if you have one), I make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream µyrit;a , lit., “in him,” inasmuch as a revelation in a dream fell within the inner sphere of the soul-life).

Not so My servant Moses: he is approved in My whole house; mouth to mouth I speak to him, and as an appearance, and that not in enigmas; and he sees the form of Jehovah. Why are ye not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?” aybin; = ttæK; aybin; , the suffix used with the noun instead of the separate pronoun in the dative, as in Genesis 39:21; Lev 15:3, etc. The noun Jehovah is in all probability to be taken as a genitive, in connection with the word aybin; (“a prophet to you”), as it is in the LXX and Vulg., and not to be construed with the words which follow (“I Jehovah will make Myself known”). The position of Jehovah at the head of the clause without a preceding ykinOa; (I) would be much more remarkable than the separation of the dependent noun from the governing noun by the suffix, which occurs in other cases also (e.g., Lev 6:3; 26:42, etc.); moreover, it would be by no means suited to the sense, as no such emphasis is laid upon the fact that it was Jehovah who made Himself known, as to require or even justify such a construction.

The “whole house of Jehovah” (v. 7) is not “primarily His dwelling, the holy tent” (Baumgarten)-for, in that case, the word “whole” would be quite superfluous-but the whole house of Israel, or the covenant nation regarded as a kingdom, to the administration and government of which Moses had been called: as a matter of fact, therefore, the whole economy of the Old Testament, having its central point in the holy tent, which Jehovah had caused to be built as the dwelling-place of His name. It did not terminate, however, in the service of the sanctuary, as we may see from the fact that god did not make the priests who were entrusted with the duties of the sanctuary the organs of His saving revelation, but raised up and called prophets after Moses for that purpose. Compare the expression in Hebrews 3:6, “Whose house we are.” ˆmæa; with b] does not mean to be, or become, entrusted with anything (Baumgarten, Knobel), but simply to be lasting, firm, constant, in a local or temporal sense (Deuteronomy 28:59; 1 Samuel 2:35; 2 Samuel 7:16, etc.); in a historical sense, to prove or attest one’s self (Genesis 42:20); and in an ethical sense, to be found proof, trustworthy, true (Psalm 78:8; 1 Samuel 3:20; 22:14: see Delitzsch on Hebrews 3:2).

In the participle, therefore, it signifies proved, faithful, pisto>v (LXX). “Mouth to mouth” answers to the “face to face” in Exodus 33:11 (cf.

Deuteronomy 34:10), i.e., without any mediation or reserve, but with the same closeness and freedom with which friends converse together (Exodus 33:11). This is still further strengthened and elucidated by the words in apposition, “in the form of seeing (appearance), and not in riddles,” i.e., visibly, and not in a dark, hidden, enigmatical way. ha,r]mæ is an accusative defining the mode, and signifies here not vision, as in v. 6, but adspectus, view, sight; for it forms an antithesis to ha;r]mæ in v. 6. “The form (Eng. similitude) of Jehovah” was not the essential nature of God, His unveiled glory-for this no mortal man can see (vid., Exodus 33:18ff.)-but a form which manifested the invisible God to the eye of man in a clearly discernible mode, and which was essentially different, not only from the visionary sight of God in the form of a man (Ezek 1:26; Dan 7:9 and 13), but also from the appearances of God in the outward world of the senses, in the person and form of the angel of Jehovah, and stood in the same relation to these two forms of revelation, so far as directness and clearness were concerned, as the sight of a person in a dream to that of the actual figure of the person himself. God talked with Moses without figure, in the clear distinctness of a spiritual communication, whereas to the prophets He only revealed Himself through the medium of ecstasy or dream.

Through this utterance on the part of Jehovah, Moses is placed above all the prophets, in relation to God and also to the whole nation. The divine revelation to the prophets is thereby restricted to the two forms of inward intuition (vision and dream). It follows from this, that it had always a visionary character, though it might vary in intensity; and therefore that it had always more or less obscurity about it, because the clearness of selfconsciousness and the distinct perception of an external world, both receded before the inward intuition, in a dream as well as in a vision. The prophets were consequently simply organs, through whom Jehovah made known His counsel and will at certain times, and in relation to special circumstances and features in the development of His kingdom. It was not so with Moses. Jehovah had placed him over all His house, had called him to be the founder and organizer of the kingdom established in Israel through his mediatorial service, and had found him faithful in His service. With this servant ( qera>pwn , LXX) of His, He spake mouth to mouth, without a figure or figurative cloak, with the distinctness of a human interchange of thought; so that at any time he could inquire of God and wait for the divine reply. Hence Moses was not a prophet of Jehovah, like many others, not even merely the first and highest prophet, primus inter pares, but stood above all the prophets, as the founder of the theocracy, and mediator of the Old Covenant. Upon this unparalleled relation of Moses to God and the theocracy, so clearly expressed in the verses before us, the Rabbins have justly founded their view as to the higher grade of inspiration in the Thorah. This view is fully confirmed through the history of the Old Testament kingdom of God, and the relation in which the writings of the prophets stand to those of Moses. The prophets subsequent to Moses simply continued to build upon the foundation which Moses laid.

And if Moses stood in this unparalleled relation to the Lord, Miriam and Aaron sinned grievously against him, when speaking as they did. V. 9.

After this address, “the wrath of Jehovah burned against them, and He went.” As a judge, withdrawing from the judgment-seat when he has pronounced his sentence, so Jehovah went, by the cloud in which He had come down withdrawing from the tabernacle, and ascending up on high.

And at the same moment, Miriam, the instigator of the rebellion against her brother Moses, was covered with leprosy, and became white as snow.

NUMBERS 12:11-12 When Aaron saw his sister smitten in this way, he said to Moses, “Alas! my lord, I beseech thee, lay not this sin upon us, for we have done foolishly;” i.e., let us not bear its punishment. “Let her (Miriam) not be as the dead thing, on whose coming out of its mother’s womb half its flesh is consumed;” i.e., like a still-born child, which comes into the world half decomposed. His reason for making this comparison was, that leprosy produces decomposition in the living body.

NUMBERS 12:13 Moses, with his mildness, took compassion upon his sister, upon whom this punishment had fallen, and cried to the Lord, “O God, I beseech Thee, heal her.” The connection of the particle an; with lae is certainly unusual, but yet it is analogous to the construction with such exclamations as ywOa (Jeremiah 4:31; 45:3) and hNehi (Genesis 12:11; 16:2, etc.); since lae in the vocative is to be regarded as equivalent to an exclamation; whereas the alteration into laæ , as proposed by J. D. Michaelis and Knobel, does not even give a fitting sense, apart altogether from the fact, that the repetition of an; after the verb, with an; laæ before it, would be altogether unexampled.

NUMBERS 12:14,15 Jehovah hearkened to His servant’s prayer, though not without inflicting deep humiliation upon Miriam. “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be ashamed seven days?” i.e., keep herself hidden from Me out of pure shame. She was to be shut outside the camp, to be excluded from the congregation as a leprous person for seven days, and then to be received in again. Thus restoration and purification from her leprosy were promised to her after the endurance of seven days’ punishment. Leprosy was the just punishment for her sin. In her haughty exaggeration of the worth of her own prophetic gift, she had placed herself on a par with Moses, the divinely appointed head of the whole nation, and exalted herself above the congregation of the Lord. For this she was afflicted with a disease which shut her out of the number of the members of the people of God, and thus actually excluded from the camp; so that she could only be received back again after she had been healed, and by a formal purification. The latter followed as a matter of course, from Lev 13 and 14, and did not need to be specially referred to here. 15b,16. The people did not proceed any farther till the restoration of Miriam. After this they departed from Hazeroth, and encamped in the desert of Paran, namely at Kadesh, on the southern boundary of Canaan.

This is evident from ch. 13, more especially v. 26, as compared with Deuteronomy 1:19ff., where it is stated not merely that the spies, who were sent out from this place of encampment to Canaan, returned to the congregation at Kadesh, but that they set out from Kadesh-barnea for Canaan, because there the Israelites had come to the mountains of the Amorites, which God had promised them for an inheritance.

With regard to the situation of Kadesh, it has already been observed at Genesis 14:7, that it is probably to be sought for in the neighbourhood of the fountain of Ain Kades, which was discovered by Rowland, to the south of Bir Seba and Khalasa, on the heights of Jebel Helal, i.e., at the northwest corner of the mountain land of Azazimeh, which is more closely described at Numbers 10:12 (see pp. 688, 689), where the western slopes of this highland region sink gently down into the undulating surface of the desert, which stretches thence to El Arish, with a breadth of about six hours’ journey, and keeps the way open between Arabia Petraea and the south of Palestine. “In the northern third of this western slope, the mountains recede so as to leave a free space for a plain of about an hour’s journey in breadth, which comes towards the east, and to which access is obtained through one or more of the larger wadys that are to be seen here (such as Retemat, Kusaimeh, el Ain, Muweileh).” At the north-eastern background of this plain, which forms almost a rectangular figure of nine miles by five, or ten by six, stretching from west to east, large enough to receive the camp of a wandering people, and about twelve miles to the E.S.E. of Muweileh, there rises, like a large solitary mass, at the edge of the mountains which run on towards the north, a bare rock, at the foot of which there is a copious spring, falling in ornamental cascades into the bed of a brook, which is lost in the sand about 300 or 400 yards to the west.

This place still bears the ancient name of Kudees. There can be no doubt as to the identity of this Kudees and the biblical Kadesh. The situation agrees with all the statements in the Bible concerning Kadesh: for example, that Israel had then reached the border of the promised land; also that the spies who were sent out from Kadesh returned thither by coming from Hebron to the wilderness of Paran (Numbers 13:26); and lastly, according to the assertions of the Bedouins, as quoted by Rowland, this Kudes was ten or eleven days’ journey from Sinai (in perfect harmony with Deuteronomy 1:2), and was connected by passable wadys with Mount Hor. The Israelites proceeded, no doubt, through the wady Retemat, i.e., Rithmah (see at Numbers 33:18), into the plain of Kadesh. (On the town of Kadesh, see at Numbers 20:16.) f25 SPIES SENT OUT. MURMURING OF THE PEOPLE, AND THEIR PUNISHMENT.

When they had arrived at Kadesh, in the desert of Paran (Numbers 13:26), Moses sent out spies by the command of God, and according to the wishes of the people, to explore the way by which they could enter into Canaan, and also the nature of the land, of its cities, and of its population (Numbers 13:1-20). The men who were sent out passed through the land, from the south to the northern frontier, and on their return reported that the land was no doubt one of pre-eminent goodness, but that it was inhabited by a strong people, who had giants among them, and were in possession of very large fortified towns (vv. 21-29); whereupon Caleb declared that it was quite possible to conquer it, whilst the others despaired of overcoming the Canaanites, and spread an evil report among the people concerning the land (vv. 30-33). The congregation then raised a loud lamentation, and went so far in their murmuring against Moses and Aaron, as to speak without reserve or secrecy of deposing Moses, and returning to Egypt under another leader: they even wanted to stone Joshua and Caleb, who tried to calm the excited multitude, and urged them to trust in the Lord.

But suddenly the glory of the Lord interposed with a special manifestation of judgment (Numbers 14:1-10).

Jehovah made known to Moses His resolution to destroy the rebellious nation, but suffered Himself to be moved by the intercession of Moses so far as to promise that He would preserve the nation, though He would exclude the murmuring multitude from the promised land (vv. 11-25). He then directed Moses and Aaron to proclaim to the people the following punishment for their repeated rebellion: that they should bear their iniquity for forty years in the wilderness; that the whole nation that had come out of Egypt should die there, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua; and that only their children should enter the promised land (vv. 26-39). The people were shocked at this announcement, and resolved to force a way into Canaan; but, as Moses predicted, they were beaten by the Canaanites and Amalekites, and driven back to Hormah (vv. 40-45).

These events form a grand turning-point in the history of Israel, in which the whole of the future history of the covenant nation is typically reflected.

The constantly repeated unfaithfulness of the nation could not destroy the faithfulness of God, or alter His purposes of salvation. In wrath Jehovah remembered mercy; through judgment He carried out His plan of salvation, that all the world might know that no flesh was righteous before Him, and that the unbelief and unfaithfulness of men could not overturn the truth of God. f26 NUMBERS 13:1-20 Despatch of the Spies of Canaan.

Vv. 1ff. The command of Jehovah, to send out men to spy out the land of Canaan, was occasioned, according to the account given by Moses in Deuteronomy 1:22ff., by a proposal of the congregation, which pleased Moses, so that he laid the matter before the Lord, who then commanded him to send out for this purpose, “of every tribe of their fathers a man, every one a ruler among them, i.e., none but men who were princes in their tribes, who held the prominent position of princes, i.e., distinguished persons of rank; or, as it is stated in v. 3, “heads of the children of Israel,” i.e., not the tribe-princes of the twelve tribes, but those men, out of the total number of the heads of the tribes and families of Israel, who were the most suitable for such a mission, though the selection was to be made in such a manner that every tribe should be represented by one of its own chiefs.

That there were none of the twelve tribe-princes among them is apparent from a comparison of their names (vv. 4-15) with the (totally different) names of the tribe-princes (Numbers 1:3ff., 7:12ff.). Caleb and Joshua are the only spies that are known. The order, in which the tribes are placed in the list of the names in vv. 4-15, differs from that in Numbers 1:5-15 only in the fact that in v. 10 Zebulun is separated from the other sons of Leah, and in v. 11 Manasseh is separated from Ephraim. The expression “of the tribe of Joseph,” in v. 11, stands for “of the children of Joseph,” in Numbers 1:10; 34:23. At the close of the list it is still further stated, that Moses called Hoshea (i.e., help), the son of Nun, Jehoshua, contracted into Joshua (i.e., Jehovah-help, equivalent to, whose help is Jehovah). This statement does not present any such discrepancy, when compared with Exodus 17:9,13; 24:13; 32:17; 33:11, and Numbers 11:28, where Joshua bears this name as the servant of Moses at a still earlier period, as to point to any diversity of authorship.

As there is nothing of a genealogical character in any of these passages, so as to warrant us in expecting to find the family name of Joshua in them, the name Joshua, by which Hosea had become best known in history, could be used proleptically in them all. On the other hand, however, it is not distinctly stated in the verse before us, that this was the occasion on which Moses gave Hosea the new name of Joshua. As the Vav consec. frequently points out merely the order of thought, the words may be understood without hesitation in the following sense: These are the names borne by the heads of the tribes to be sent out as spies, as they stand in the family registers according to their descent; Hosea, however, was named Joshua by Moses; which would not by any means imply that the alteration in the name had not been made till then. It is very probable that Moses may have given him the new name either before or after the defeat of the Amalekites (Exodus 17:9ff.), or when he took him into his service, though it has not been mentioned before; whilst here the circumstances themselves required that it should be stated that Hosea, as he was called in the list prepared and entered in the documentary record according to the genealogical tables of the tribes, had received from Moses the name of Joshua. In vv. 17-20 Moses gives them the necessary instructions, defining more clearly the motive which the congregation had assigned for sending them out, namely, that they might search out the way into the land and to its towns (Deuteronomy 1:22). “Get you up there hz, in the south country, and go up to the mountain.” Negeb, i.e., south country, lit., dryness, aridity, from bg,n, , to be dry or arid (in Syr., Chald, and Samar.). Hence the dry, parched land, in contrast to the well-watered country (Josh 15:19; Judg 1:15), was the name given to the southern district of Canaan, which forms the transition from the desert to the strictly cultivated land, and bears for the most part the character of a steppe, in which tracts of sand and heath are intermixed with shrubs, grass, and vegetables, whilst here and there corn is also cultivated; a district therefore which was better fitted for grazing than for agriculture, though it contained a number of towns and villages (see at Josh 15:21-32). “The mountain” is the mountainous part of Palestine, which was inhabited by Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites (v. 29), and was called the mountains of the Amorites, on account of their being the strongest of the Canaanitish tribes (Deuteronomy 1:7,19ff.). It is not to be restricted, as Knobel supposes, to the limits of the so-called mountains of Judah (Josh 15:48-62), but included the mountains of Israel or Ephraim also (Josh 11:21; 20:7), and formed, according to Deuteronomy 1:7, the backbone of the whole land of Canaan up to Lebanon.

Verse 18-20. They were to see the land, “what it was,” i.e., what was its character, and the people that dwelt in it, whether they were strong, i.e., courageous and brave, or weak, i.e., spiritless and timid, and whether they were little or great, i.e., numerically; (v. 19) what the land was, whether good or bad, sc., with regard to climate and cultivation, and whether the towns were camps, i.e., open villages and hamlets, or fortified places; also (v. 20) whether the land was fat or lean, i.e., whether it had a fertile soil or not, and whether there were trees in it or not. All this they were to search out courageously (hit¦chazeeq, to show one’s self courageous in any occupation), and to fetch (some) of the fruits of the land, as it was the time of the first-ripe grapes. In Palestine the first grapes ripen as early as August, and sometimes even in July (vid., Robinson, ii. 100, ii. 611), whilst the vintage takes place in September and October.

NUMBERS 13:21-22 Journey of the Spies; Their Return, and Report.- Verse 21. In accordance with the instructions they had received, the men who had been sent out passed through the land, from the desert of Zin to Rehob, in the neighbourhood of Hamath, i.e., in its entire extent from south to north. The “Desert of Zin” (which occurs not only here, but in Numbers 20:1; 27:14; 33:36; 34:3-4; Deuteronomy 32:51, and Josh 15:1,3) was the name given to the northern edge of the great desert of Paran, viz., the broad ravine of Wady Murreh (see p. 689), which separates the lofty and precipitous northern border of the table-land of the Azazimeh from the southern border of the Rakhma plateau, i.e., of the southernmost plateau of the mountains of the Amorites (or the mountains of Judah), and runs from Jebel Madarah (Moddera) on the east, to the plain of Kadesh, which forms part of the desert of Zin (cf. Numbers 27:14; 33:36; Deuteronomy 32:51), on the west.

The south frontier of Canaan passed through this from the southern end of the Dead Sea, along the Wady el Murreh to the Wady el Arish (Numbers 34:3).- “Rehob, to come (coming) to Hamath,” i.e., where you enter the province of Hamath, on the northern boundary of Canaan, is hardly one of the two Rehobs in the tribe of Asher (Josh 19:28 and 30), but most likely Beth-rehob in the tribe of Naphtali, which was in the neighbourhood of Dan Lais, the modern Tell el Kadhy (Judg 18:28), and which Robinson imagined that he had identified in the ruins of the castle of Hunin or Honin, in the village of the same name, to the south-west of Tell el Kadhy, on the range of mountains which bound the plain towards the west above Lake Huleh (Bibl. Researches, p. 371). In support of this conjecture, he laid the principal stress upon the fact that the direct road to Hamath through the Wady et Teim and the Bekaa commences here. The only circumstance which it is hard to reconcile with this conjecture is, that Beth-rehob is never mentioned in the Old Testament, with the exception of Judg 18:28, either among the fortified towns of the Canaanites or in the wars of the Israelites with the Syrians and Assyrians, and therefore does not appear to have been a place of such importance as we should naturally be led to suppose from the character of this castle, the very situation of which points to a bold, commanding fortress (see Lynch’s Expedition), and where there are still remains of its original foundations built of large square stones, hewn and grooved, and reminding one of the antique and ornamental edifices of Solomon’s times (cf. Ritter, Erdkunde, xv. pp. 242ff.).-Hamath is Epiphania on the Orontes, now Hamah (see at Genesis 10:18).

After the general statement, that the spies went through the whole land from the southern to the northern frontier, two facts are mentioned in vv. 22-24, which occurred in connection with their mission, and were of great importance to the whole congregation. These single incidents are linked on, however, in a truly Hebrew style, to what precedes, viz., by an imperfect with Vav consec., just in the same manner in which, in 1 Kings 6:9,15, the detailed account of the building of the temple is linked on to the previous statement, that Solomon built the temple and finished it; so that the true rendering would be, “now they ascended in the south country and came to Hebron awOB is apparently an error in writing for awOB), and there were `qn;[; dykiy; , the children of Anak,” three of whom are mentioned by name. These three, who were afterwards expelled by Caleb, when the land was divided and the city of Hebron was given to him for an inheritance (Josh 15:14; Judg 1:20), were descendants of Arbah, the lord of Hebron, from whom the city received its name of Kirjath-Arbah, or city of Arbah, and who is described in Josh 14:15 as “the great (i.e., the greatest) man among the Anakim,” and in Josh 15:13 as the “father of Anak,” i.e., the founder of the Anakite family there. For it is evident enough that `qn;[; (Anak) is not the proper name of a man in these passages, but the name of a family or tribe, from the fact that in v. 33, where Anak’s sons are spoken of in a general and indefinite manner, `qn;[; ˆBe has not the article; also from the fact that the three Anakites who lived in Hebron are almost always called `qn;[; dykiy; , Anak’s born (vv. 22, 28), and that `qn;[; ˆBe (sons of Anak), in Josh 15:14, is still further defined by the phrase `qn;[; dykiy; (children of Anak); and lastly, from the fact that in the place of “sons of Anak,” we find “sons of the Anakim” in Deuteronomy 1:28 and 9:2, and the “Anakim” in Deuteronomy 2:10; 11:21; Josh 14:12, etc.

Anak is supposed to signify long-necked; but this does not preclude the possibility of the founder of the tribe having borne this name. The origin of the Anakites is involved in obscurity. In Deuteronomy 2:10-11, they are classed with the Emim and Rephaim on account of their gigantic stature, and probably reckoned as belonging to the pre-Canaanitish inhabitants of the land, of whom it is impossible to decide whether they were of Semitic origin or descendants of Ham (see p. 130). It is also doubtful, whether the names found here in vv. 21, 28, and in Josh 15:14, are the names of individuals, i.e., of chiefs of the Anakites, or the names of Anakite tribes.

The latter supposition is favoured by the circumstance, that the same names occur even after the capture of Hebron by Caleb, or at least fifty years after the event referred to here. With regard to Hebron, it is still further observed in v. 22b, that it was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt. Zoan-the Tanis of the Greeks and Romans, the San of the Arabs, which is called Jani, Jane in Coptic writings-was situated upon the eastern side of the Tanitic arm of the Nile, not far from its mouth (see Ges. Thes. p. 1177), and was the residence of Pharaoh in the time of Moses (see p. 337). The date of its erection is unknown; but Hebron was in existence as early as Abraham’s time (Genesis 13:18; 23:2ff.).

NUMBERS 13:23-24 The spies also came into the valley of Eshcol, where they gathered pomegranates and figs, and also cut down a vine-branch with grapes upon it, which two persons carried upon a pole, most likely on account of its extraordinary size. Bunches of grapes are still met with in Palestine, weighing as much as eight, ten, or twelve pounds, the grapes themselves being as large as our smaller plums (cf. Tobler Denkblätter, pp. 111, 112).

The grapes of Hebron are especially celebrated. To the north of this city, on the way to Jerusalem, you pass through a valley with vineyards on the hills on both sides, containing the largest and finest grapes in the land, and with pomegranates, figs, and other fruits in great profusion (Robinson, Palestine, i. 316, compared with i. 314 and ii. 442). This valley is supposed, and not without good ground, to be the Eshcol of this chapter, which received its name of Eshcol (cluster of grapes), according to v. 24, from the bunch of grapes which was cut down there by the spies. This statement, of course, applies to the Israelites, and would therefore still hold good, even if the conjecture were a well-founded one, that this valley received its name originally from the Eshcol mentioned in Genesis 14:13,24, as the terebinth grove did from Mamre the brother of Eshcol.

NUMBERS 13:25-29 In forty days the spies returned to the camp at Kadesh (see at Numbers 16:6), and reported the great fertility of the land (“it floweth with milk and honey,” see at Exodus 3:8), pointing, at the same time, to the fruit they had brought with them; “nevertheless,” they added yKi sp,a, , “only that”), “the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are fortified, very large: and, moreover, we saw the children of Anak there.” Amalekites dwelt in the south (see at Genesis 36:12); Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites in the mountains (see at Genesis 10:15-16); and Canaanites by the (Mediterranean) Sea and on the side of the Jordan, i.e., in the Arabah or Ghor (see at Genesis 13:7 and 10:15-18).

NUMBERS 13:30 As these tidings respecting the towns and inhabitants of Canaan were of a character to excite the people, Caleb calmed them before Moses by saying, “We will go up and take it; for we shall overcome it.” The fact that Caleb only is mentioned, though, according to Numbers 14:6, Joshua also stood by his side, may be explained on the simple ground, that at first Caleb was the only one to speak and maintain the possibility of conquering Canaan.

NUMBERS 13:31 But his companions were of an opposite opinion, and declared that the people in Canaan were stronger than the Israelites, and therefore it was impossible to go up to it.

NUMBERS 13:32-33 Thus they spread an evil report of the land among the Israelites, by exaggerating the difficulties of the conquest in their unbelieving despair, and describing Canaan as a land which “ate up its inhabitants.” Their meaning certainly was not “that the wretched inhabitants were worn out by the laborious task of cultivating it, or that the land was pestilential on account of the inclemency of the weather, or that the cultivation of the land was difficult, and attended with many evils,” as Calvin maintains. Their only wish was to lay stress upon the difficulties and dangers connected with the conquest and maintenance of the land, on account of the tribes inhabiting and surrounding it: the land was an apple of discord, because of its fruitfulness and situation; and as the different nations strove for its possession, its inhabitants wasted away (Cler., Ros., O. v. Gerlach). The people, they added, are hD;mi vyai , “men of measures,” i.e., of tall stature (cf. Isaiah 45:14), “and there we saw the Nephilim, i.e., primeval tyrants (see at Genesis 6:4), Anak’s sons, giants of Nephilim, and we seemed to ourselves and to them as small as grasshoppers.”

NUMBERS 14:1-4 Uproar among the People.

Verse 1-4. This appalling description of Canaan had so depressing an influence upon the whole congregation (cf. Deuteronomy 1:28: they “made their heart melt,” i.e., threw them into utter despair), that they raised a loud cry, and wept in the night in consequence. The whole nation murmured against Moses and Aaron their two leaders, saying “Would that we had died in Egypt or in this wilderness! Why will Jehovah bring us into this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should become a prey (be made slaves by the enemy; cf. Deuteronomy 1:27-28)? Let us rather return into Egypt! We will appoint a captain, they said one to another, and go back to Egypt.”

NUMBERS 14:5-10 At this murmuring, which was growing into open rebellion, Moses and Aaron fell upon their faces before the whole of the assembled congregation, namely, to pour out their distress before the Lord, and move Him to interpose; that is to say, after they had made an unsuccessful attempt, as we may supply from Deuteronomy 1:29-31, to cheer up the people, by pointing them to the help they had thus far received from God. “In such distress, nothing remained but to pour out their desires before God; offering their prayer in public, however, and in the sight of all the people, in the hope of turning their minds” (Calvin). Joshua and Caleb, who had gone with the others to explore the land, also rent their clothes, as a sign of their deep distress at the rebellious attitude of the people (see at Lev 10:6), and tried to convince them of the goodness and glory of the land they had travelled through, and to incite them to trust in the Lord. “If Jehovah take pleasure in us,”; they said, “He will bring us into this land.

Only rebel not ye against Jehovah, neither fear ye that people of the land; for they are our food i.e., we can and shall swallow them up, or easily destroy them (cf. Numbers 22:4; 24:8; Deuteronomy 7:16; Psalm 14:4). “Their shadow is departed from them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not!” “Their shadow” is the shelter and protection of God (cf. Psalm 91; 121:5). The shadow, which defends from the burning heat of the sun, was a very natural figure in the sultry East, to describe defence from injury, a refuge from danger and destruction (Isaiah 30:2). The protection of God had departed from the Canaanites, because God had determined to destroy them when the measure of their iniquity was full (Genesis 15:16; cf.

Exodus 34:24; Lev 18:25; 20:23). But the excited people resolved to stone them, when Jehovah interposed with His judgment, and His glory appeared in the tabernacle to all the Israelites; that is to say, the majesty of God flashed out before the eyes of the people in a light which suddenly burst forth from the tabernacle (see at Exodus 16:10).

NUMBERS 14:11-19 Intercession of Moses.- Vv. 11, 12. Jehovah resented the conduct of the people as base contempt of His deity, and as utter mistrust of Him, notwithstanding all the signs which He had wrought in the midst of the nation; and declared that He would smite the rebellious people with pestilence, and destroy them, and make of Moses a greater and still mightier people. This was just what He had done before, when the rebellion took place at Sinai (Exodus 32:10).

But Moses, as a servant who was faithful over the whole house of God, and therefore sought not his own honour, but the honour of his God alone, stood in the breach on this occasion also (Psalm 106:23), with a similar intercessory prayer to that which he had presented at Horeb, except that on this occasion he pleaded the honour of God among the heathen, and the glorious revelation of the divine nature with which he had been favoured at Sinai, as a motive for sparing the rebellious nation (vv. 13-19; cf. Exodus 32:11-13, and 34:6-7).

The first he expressed in these words (vv. 13ff.): “Not only have the Egyptians heard that Thou hast brought out this people from among them with Thy might; they have also told it to the inhabitants of this land. They (the Egyptians and the other nations) have heard that Thou, Jehovah, art in the midst of this people; that Thou, Jehovah, appearest eye to eye, and Thy cloud stands over them, and Thou goest before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Now, if Thou shouldst slay this people as one man, the nations which have heard the tidings of Thee would say, Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which He sware to them, He has slain them in the desert.” In that case God would be regarded by the heathen as powerless, and His honour would be impaired (cf. Deuteronomy 32:27; Josh 7:9). It was for the sake of His own honour that God, at a later time, did not allow the Israelites to perish in exile (cf.

Isaiah 48:9,11; 52:5; Ezek [mæv; (vv. 13, 14), et audierunt et dixerunt; w] - w] = et-et, both-and.

The inhabitants of this land (v. 13) were not merely the Arabians, but, according to Exodus 15:14ff., the tribes dwelling in and round Arabia, the Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, and Canaanites, to whom the tidings had been brought of the miracles of God in Egypt and at the Dead Sea. [mæv; , in v. 14, can neither stand for [mæv; yKi (dixerunt) se audivisse, nor for [mæv; rv,a , qui audierunt. They are neither of them grammatically admissible, as the relative pronoun cannot be readily omitted in prose; and neither of them would give a really suitable meaning. It is rather a rhetorical resumption of the [mæv; in v. 13, and the subject of the verb is not only “the Egyptians,” but also “the inhabitants of this land” who held communication with the Egyptians, or “the nations” who had heard the report of Jehovah (v. 15), i.e., all that God had hitherto done for and among the Israelites in Egypt, and on the journey through the desert. “Eye to eye:” i.e., Thou hast appeared to them in the closest proximity.

On the pillar of cloud and fire, see at Exodus 13:21-22. “As one man,” equivalent to “with a stroke” (Judg 6:16).-In vv. 17, 18, Moses adduces a second argument, viz., the word in which God Himself had revealed His inmost being to him at Sinai (Exodus 34:6-7). The words, “Let the power be great,” equivalent to “show Thyself great in power,” are not to be connected with what precedes, but with what follows; viz., “show Thyself mighty by verifying Thy word, ‘Jehovah, long-suffering and great in mercy,’ etc.; forgive, I beseech Thee, this people according to the greatness of Thy mercy, and as Thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now.” ac;n; (v. 19) = `ˆwO[; ac;n; (v. 18). NUMBERS 14:20-23 In answer to this importunate prayer, the Lord promised forgiveness, namely, the preservation of the nation, but not the remission of the wellmerited punishment. At the rebellion at Sinai, He had postponed the punishment “till the day of His visitation” (Exodus 32:34). And that day had now arrived, as the people had carried their continued rebellion against the Lord to the furthest extreme, even to an open declaration of their intention to depose Moses, and return to Egypt under another leader, and thus had filled up the measure of their sins. “Nevertheless,” added the Lord (vv. 21, 22), “as truly as I live, and the glory of Jehovah will fill the whole earth, all the men who have seen My glory and My miracles...shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers.” The clause, “all the earth,” etc., forms an apposition to “as I live.” Jehovah proves Himself to be living, by the fact that His glory fills the whole earth.

But this was to take place, not, as Knobel, who mistakes the true connection of the different clauses, erroneously supposes, by the destruction of the whole of that generation, which would be talked of by all the world, but rather by the fact that, notwithstanding the sin and opposition of these men, He would still carry out His work of salvation to a glorious victory. The yKi in v. 22 introduces the substance of the oath, as in Isaiah 49:18; 1 Samuel 14:39; 20:3; and according to the ordinary form of an oath, µai in v. 23 signifies “not.”-”They have tempted Me now ten times.” Ten is used as the number of completeness and full measure; and this answered to the actual fact, if we follow the Rabbins, and add to the murmuring (1) at the Red Sea, Exodus 14:11-12; (2) at Marah, Exodus 15:23; (3) in the wilderness of Sin, Exodus 16:2; (4) at Rephidim, Exodus 17:1; (5) at Horeb, Exodus 32; (6) at Tabeerah, Numbers 11:1; (7) at the graves of lust, Numbers 11:4ff.; and (8) here again at Kadesh, the twofold rebellion of certain individuals against the commandments of God at the giving of the manna (Exodus 16:20 and 27). The despisers of God should none of them see the promised land. NUMBERS 14:24 But because there was another spirit in Caleb-i.e., not the unbelieving, despairing, yet proud and rebellious spirit of the great mass of the people, but the spirit of obedience and believing trust, so that “he followed Jehovah fully” (lit., “fulfilled to walk behind Jehovah”), followed Him with unwavering fidelity-God would bring him into the land into which he had gone, and his seed should possess it. rjæaæ alem; here, and at Numbers 32:11-12; Deuteronomy 1:36; Josh 14:8-9; 1 Kings 11:6, is a constructio praegnans for rjæaæ Ëlæy; alem; ; cf. 2 Chron 34:31.) According to the context, the reference is not to Hebron particularly, but to Canaan generally, which God had sworn unto the fathers (v. 23, and Deuteronomy 1:36, comp. with v. 35); although, when the land was divided, Caleb received Hebron for his possession, because, according to his own statement in Josh 14:6ff., Moses had sworn that he would give it to him.

But this is not mentioned here; just as Joshua also is not mentioned in this place, as he is at vv. 30 and 38, but Caleb only, who opposed the exaggerated accounts of the other spies at the very first, and endeavoured to quiet the excitement of the people by declaring that they were well able to overcome the Canaanites (Numbers 13:30). This first revelation of God to Moses is restricted to the main fact; the particulars are given afterwards in the sentence of God, as intended for communication to the people (vv. 26-38).

NUMBERS 14:25 The divine reply to the intercession of Moses terminated with a command to the people to turn on the morrow, and go to the wilderness to the Red Sea, as the Amalekites and Canaanites dwelt in the valley. “The Amalekites,” etc.: this clause furnishes the reason for the command which follows. On the Amalekites, see at Genesis 36:12, and Exodus 17:8ff. The term Canaanites is a general epithet applied to all the inhabitants of Canaan, instead of the Amorites mentioned in Deuteronomy 1:44, who held the southern mountains of Canaan. “The valley” is no doubt the broad Wady Murreh (see at Numbers 13:21), including a portion of the Negeb, in which the Amalekites led a nomad life, whilst the Canaanites really dwelt upon the mountains (v. 45), close up to the Wady Murreh. NUMBERS 14:26-38 Sentence upon the Murmuring Congregation.

After the Lord had thus declared to Moses in general terms His resolution to punish the incorrigible people, and not suffer them to come to Canaan, He proceeded to tell him what announcement he was to make to the people.

Verse 27. This announcement commences in a tone of anger, with an aposiopesis, “How long this evil congregation” (sc., “shall I forgive it,” the simplest plan being to supply ac;n; , as Rosenmüller suggests, from v. 18), “that they murmur against Me?”

Verse 28-31. Jehovah swore that it should happen to the murmurers as they had spoken. Their corpses should fall in the desert, even all who had been numbered, from twenty years old and upwards: they should not see the land into which Jehovah had lifted up His hand (see at Exodus 6:8) to lead them, with the sole exception of Caleb and Joshua. But their children, who, as they said, would be a prey (v. 3), them Jehovah would bring, and they should learn to know the land which the others had despised.

Verse 32-33. “As for you, your carcases will fall in this wilderness. But your sons will be pasturing (i.e., will lead a restless shepherd life) in the desert forty years, and bear your whoredom (i.e., endure the consequences of your faithless apostasy; see Exodus 34:16), until your corpses are finished in the desert,” i.e., till you have all passed away.

Verse 34. “After the number of the forty days that he have searched the land, shall ye bear your iniquity, (reckoning) a day for a year, and know My turning away from you,” or ha;WnT] , abalienatio, from now’ (Numbers 32:7).

Verse 35. As surely as Jehovah had spoken this, would He do it to that evil congregation, to those who had allied themselves against Him d[æy; , to bind themselves together, to conspire; Numbers 16:11; 27:3). There is no ground whatever for questioning the correctness of the statement, that the spies had travelled through Canaan for forty days, or regarding this as a socalled round number-that is to say, as unhistorical. And if this number is firmly established, there is also no ground for disputing the forty years’ sojourn of the people in the wilderness, although the period during which the rebellious generation, consisting of those who were numbered at Sinai, died out, was actually thirty-eight years, reaching from the autumn of the second year after their departure from Egypt to the middle of the fortieth year of their wanderings, and terminating with the fresh numbering (ch. 26) that was undertaken after the death of Aaron, and took place on the first of the fifth month of the fortieth year (Numbers 20:23ff., compared with ch. 33:38).

Instead of these thirty-eight years, the forty years of the sojourn in the desert are placed in connection with the forty days of the spies, because the people had frequently fallen away from God, and been punished in consequence, even during the year and a half before their rejection; and in this respect the year and a half could be combined with the thirty-eight years which followed into one continuous period, during which they bore their iniquity, to set distinctly before the minds of the disobedient people the contrast between that peaceful dwelling in the promised land which they had forfeited, and the restless wandering in the desert, which had been imposed upon them as a punishment, and to impress upon them the causal connection between sin and suffering. “Every year that passed, and was deducted from the forty years of punishment, was a new and solemn exhortation to repent, as it called to mind the occasion of their rejection” (Kurtz).

When Knobel observes, on the other hand, that “it is utterly improbable that all who came out of Egypt (that is to say, all who were twenty years old and upward when they came out) should have fallen in the desert, with the exception of two, and that there should have been no men found among the Israelites when they entered Canaan who were more than sixty years of age,” the express statement, that on the second numbering there was not a man among those that were numbered who had been included in the numbering at Sinai, except Joshua and Caleb (Numbers 26:64ff.), is amply sufficient to overthrow this “improbability” as an unfounded fancy. Nor is this statement rendered at all questionable by the fact, that “Aaron’s son Eleazar, who entered Canaan with Joshua” (Josh 14:1, etc.), was most likely more than twenty years old at the time of his consecration at Sinai, as the Levites were not qualified for service till their thirtieth or twenty-fifth year.

For, in the first place, the regulation concerning the Levites’ age of service is not to be applied without reserve to the priests also, so that we could infer from this that the sons of Aaron must have been at least twenty-five or thirty years old when they were consecrated; and besides this, the priests do not enter into the question at all, for the tribe of Levi was excepted from the numbering in ch. 1, and therefore Aaron’s sons were not included among the persons numbered, who were sentenced to die in the wilderness.

Still less does it follow from Josh 24:7 and Judg 2:7, where it is stated that, after the conquest of Canaan, there were many still alive who had been eye-witnesses of the wonders of God in Egypt, that they must have been more than twenty years old when they came out of Egypt; for youths from ten to nineteen years of age would certainly have been able to remember such miracles as these, even after the lapse of forty or fifty years.

Verse 36-38. But for the purpose of giving to the whole congregation a practical proof of the solemnity of the divine threatening of punishment, the spies who had induced the congregation to revolt, through their evil report concerning the inhabitants of Canaan, were smitten by a “stroke before Jehovah,” i.e., by a sudden death, which proceeded in a visible manner from Jehovah Himself, whilst Joshua and Caleb remained alive.

NUMBERS 14:39-45 (cf. Deuteronomy 1:41-44). The announcement of the sentence plunged the people into deep mourning. But instead of bending penitentially under the judgment of God, they resolved to atone for their error, by preparing the next morning to go to the top of the mountain and press forward into Canaan. And they would not even suffer themselves to be dissuaded from their enterprise by the entreaties of Moses, who denounced it as a transgression of the word of God which could not succeed, and predicted their overthrow before their enemies, but went presumptuously `hl;[; `lpæ[; ) up without the ark of the covenant and without Moses, who did not depart out of the midst of the camp, and were smitten by the Amalekites and Canaanites, who drove them back as far as Hormah. Whereas at first they had refused to enter upon the conflict with the Canaanites, through their unbelief in the might of the promise of God, now, through unbelief in the severity of the judgment of God, they resolved to engage in this conflict by their own power, and without the help of God, and to cancel the old sin of unbelieving despair through the new sin of presumptuous self-confidencean attempt which could never succeed, but was sure to plunge deeper and deeper into misery. Where “the top (or height) of the mountain” to which the Israelites advanced was, cannot be precisely determined, as we have no minute information concerning the nature of the ground in the neighbourhood of Kadesh. No doubt the allusion is to some plateau on the northern border of the valley mentioned in v. 25, viz., the Wady Murreh, which formed the southernmost spur of the mountains of the Amorites, from which the Canaanites and Amalekites came against them, and drove them back. In Deuteronomy 1:44, Moses mentions the Amorites instead of the Amalekites and Canaanites, using the name in a broader sense for all the Canaanites, and contenting himself with naming the leading foes with whom the Amalekites who wandered about in the Negeb had allied themselves, as Bedouins thirsting for booty. These tribes came down (v. 45) from the height of the mountain to the lower plateau or saddle, which the Israelites had ascended, and smote them and ttæK; (from ttæK; , with the reduplication of the second radical anticipated in the first: see Ewald, §193, c.), “discomfited them, as far as Hormah,” or as Moses expressed it in Deuteronomy 1:44, They “chased you, as bees do” (which pursue with great ferocity any one who attacks or disturbs them), “and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah.” There is not sufficient ground for altering “in Seir” into “from Seir,” as the LXX, Syriac, and Vulgate have done. But b¦see`iyr might signify “into Seir, as far as Hormah.” As the Edomites had extended their territory at that time across the Arabah towards the west, and taken possession of a portion of the mountainous country which bounded the desert of Paran towards the north (see at Numbers 34:3), the Israelites, when driven back by them, might easily be chased into the territory of the Edomites. Hormah (i.e., the ban-place) is used here proleptically (see at Numbers 21:3).

OCCURRENCES DURING THE THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS OF WANDERING IN THE WILDERNESS.

After the unhappy issue of the attempt to penetrate into Canaan, in opposition to the will of God and the advice of Moses, the Israelites remained “many days” in Kadesh, as the Lord did not hearken to their lamentations concerning the defeat which they had suffered at the hands of the Canaanites and Amalekites. Then they turned, and took their journey, as the Lord had commanded (Numbers 14:25), into the wilderness, in the direction towards the Red Sea (Deuteronomy 1:45; 2:1); and in the first month of the fortieth year they came again into the desert of Zin, to Kadesh (Numbers 20:1). All that we know respecting this journeying from Kadesh into the wilderness in the direction towards the Red Sea, and up to the time of their return to the desert of Zin, is limited to a number of names of places of encampment given in the list of journeying stages in Numbers 33:19-30, out of which, as the situation of the majority of them is altogether unknown, or at all events has not yet been determined, no connected account of the journeys of Israel during this interval of thirtyseven years can possibly be drawn.

The most important event related in connection with this period is the rebellion of the company of Korah against Moses and Aaron, and the reestablishment of the Aaronic priesthood and confirmation of their rights, which this occasioned (chs. 16-18). This rebellion probably occurred in the first portion of the period in question. In addition to this there are only a few laws recorded, which were issued during this long time of punishment, and furnished a practical proof of the continuance of the covenant which the Lord had made with the nation of Israel at Sinai. There was nothing more to record in connection with these thirty-seven years, which formed the second stage in the guidance of Israel through the desert. For, as Baumgarten has well observed, “the fighting men of Israel had fallen under the judgment of Jehovah, and the sacred history, therefore, was no longer concerned with them; whilst the youth, in whom the life and hope of Israel were preserved, had as yet no history at all.” Consequently we have no reason to complain, as Ewald does (Gesch. ii. pp. 241, 242), that “the great interval of forty years remains a perfect void;” and still less occasion to dispose of the gap, as this scholar has done, by supposing that the last historian left out a great deal from the history of the forty years’ wanderings. The supposed “void” was completely filled up by the gradual dying out of the generation which had been rejected by God. VARIOUS LAWS OF SACRIFICE. PUNISHMENT OF A SABBATH-BREAKER. Command to Wear Tassels upon the Clothes.

NUMBERS 15:1-31 Verse 1-2. Regulations concerning Sacrifices.-Vv. 1-16. For the purpose of reviving the hopes of the new generation that was growing up, and directing their minds to the promised land, during the mournful and barren time when judgment was being executed upon the race that had been condemned, Jehovah communicated various laws through Moses concerning the presentation of sacrifices in the land that He would give them (vv. 1 and 2), whereby the former laws of sacrifice were supplemented and completed. The first of these laws had reference to the connection between meat-offerings and drink-offerings on the one hand, and burnt-offerings and slain-offerings on the other.

Verse 3-5. In the land of Canaan, every burnt and slain-offering, whether prepared in fulfilment of a vow, or spontaneously, or on feast-days (cf. Lev 7:16; 22:18, and 23:38), was to be associated with a meat-offering of fine flour mixed with oil, and a drink-offering of wine-the quantity to be regulated according to the kind of animal that was slain in sacrifice. (See Lev 23:18, where this connection is already mentioned in the case of the festal sacrifices.) For a lamb cb,K, , i.e., either sheep or goat, cf. v. 11), they were to take the tenth of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with the quarter of a hin of oil and the quarter of a hin of wine, as a drink-offering. In v. 5, the construction changes from the third to the second person. `hc;[; , to prepare, as in Exodus 29:38.

Verse 6-7. For a ram, they were to take two tenths of fine flour, with the third of a hin of oil and the third of a hin of wine.

Verse 8-10. For an ox, three tenths of fine flour, with half a hin of oil and half a hin of wine. The bræq; (3rd person) in v. 9, between `hc;[; in v. 8, and bræq; in v. 10, is certainly striking and unusual, but no so offensive as to render it necessary to alter it into bræq; . Verse 11-12. The quantities mentioned were to be offered with every ox, or ram, or lamb, of either sheep or goat, and therefore the number of the appointed quantities of meat and drink-offerings was to correspond to the number of sacrificial animals.

Verse 13-14. These rules were to apply not only to the sacrifices of those that were born in Israel, but also to those of the strangers living among them. By “these things,” in v. 13, we are to understand the meat and drinkofferings already appointed.

Verse 15-25. “As for the assembly, there shall be one law for the Israelite and the stranger,...an eternal ordinance...before Jehovah.” lh;q; , which is construed absolutely, refers to the assembling of the nation before Jehovah, or to the congregation viewed in its attitude with regard to God.

A second law (vv. 17-21) appoints, on the ground of the general regulations in Exodus 22:28 and 23:19, the presentation of a heaveoffering from the bread which they would eat in the land of Canaan, viz., a first-fruit of groat-meal ( tsoyri[\ tyviare ) baked as cake hL;jæ ). Arisoth, which is only used in connection with the gift of first-fruits, in Ezek 44:30; Neh 10:38, and the passage before us, signifies most probably groats, or meal coarsely bruised, like the talmudical ˆsær][æ , contusum, mola, far, and indeed far hordei. This cake of the groats of first-fruits they were to offer “as a heave-offering of the threshing-floor,” i.e., as a heave-offering of the bruised corn, in the same manner as this (therefore, in addition to it, and along with it); and that “according to your generations” (see Exodus 12:14), that is to say, for all time, to consecrate a gift of first-fruits to the Lord, not only of the grains of corn, but also of the bread made from the corn, and “to cause a blessing to rest upon his house” (Ezek 44:30). Like all the gifts of first-fruits, this cake also fell to the portion of the priests (see Ezek. and Neh. ut sup.).

To these there are added, in vv. 22, 31, laws relating to sin-offerings, the first of which, in vv. 22-26, is distinguished from the case referred to in Lev 4:13-21, by the fact that the sin is not described here, as it is there, as “doing one of the commandments of Jehovah which ought not to be done,” but as “not doing all that Jehovah had spoken through Moses.”

Consequently, the allusion here is not to sins of commission, but to sins of omission, not following the law of God, “even (as is afterwards explained in v. 23) all that the Lord hath commanded you by the hand of Moses from the day that the Lord hath commanded, and thenceforward according to your generations,” i.e., since the first beginning of the giving of the law, and during the whole of the time following (Knobel). These words apparently point to a complete falling away of the congregation from the whole of the law. Only the further stipulation in v. 24, “if it occur away from the eyes of the congregation through error” (in oversight), cannot be easily reconciled with this, as it seems hardly conceivable that an apostasy from the entire law should have remained hidden from the congregation.

This “not doing all the commandments of Jehovah,” of which the congregation is supposed to incur the guilt without perceiving it, might consist either in the fact that, in particular instances, whether from oversight or negligence, the whole congregation omitted to fulfil the commandments of God, i.e., certain precepts of the law, sc., in the fact that they neglected the true and proper fulfilment of the whole law, either, as Outram supposes, “by retaining to a certain extent the national rites, and following the worship of the true God, and yet at the same time acting unconsciously in opposition to the law, through having been led astray by some common errors;” or by allowing the evil example of godless rulers to seduce them to neglect their religious duties, or to adopt and join in certain customs and usages of the heathen, which appeared to be reconcilable with the law of Jehovah, though they really led to contempt and neglect of the commandments of the Lord. f28 But as a disregard or neglect of the commandments of God had to be expiated, a burnt-offering was to be added to the sin-offering, that the separation of the congregation from the Lord, which had arisen from the sin of omission, might be entirely removed. The apodosis commences with hy;h; in v. 24, but is interrupted by [m µai , and resumed again with `hc;[; , “it shall be, if...the whole congregation shall prepare,” etc. The burntoffering, being the principal sacrifice, is mentioned as usual before the sinoffering, although, when presented, it followed the latter, on account of its being necessary that the sin should be expiated before the congregation could sanctify its life and efforts afresh to the Lord in the burnt-offering. “One kid of the goats:” see Lev 4:23. fp;v]mi (as in Lev 5:10; 9:16, etc.) refers to the right established in vv. 8, 9, concerning the combination of the meat and drink-offering with the burnt-offering. The sin-offering was to be treated according to the rule laid down in Lev 4:14ff. Verse 26. This law was to apply not only to the children of Israel, but also to the stranger among them, “for (sc., it has happened) to the whole nation in mistake.” As the sin extended to the whole nation, in which the foreigners were also included, the atonement was also to apply to the whole.

Verse 27-29. In the same way, again, there was one law for the native and the stranger, in relation to sins of omission on the part of single individuals.

The law laid doon in Lev 5:6 (cf. Lev 4:27ff.) for the Israelites, is repeated here in vv. 27, 28, and in v. 28 it is raised into general validity for foreigners also. In v. 29, jr;z]a, is written absolutely for jr;z]a, .

Verse 30-31. But it was only sins committed by mistake (see at Lev 4:2) that could be expiated by sin-offerings. Whoever, on the other hand, whether a native or a foreigner, committed a sin “with a high hand,”- i.e., so that he raised his hand, as it were, against Jehovah, or acted in open rebellion against Him-blasphemed God, and was to be cut off (see Genesis 17:14); for he had despised the word of Jehovah, and broken His commandment, and was to atone for it with his life. µyrit;a `ˆwO[; , “its crime upon it;” i.e., it shall come upon such a soul in the punishment which it shall endure.

NUMBERS 15:32-36 The History of the Sabbath-Breaker is no doubt inserted here as a practical illustration of sinning “with a high hand.” It shows, too, at the same time, how the nation, as a whole, was impressed with the inviolable sanctity of the Lord’s day. From the words with which it is introduced, “and the children of Israel were in the wilderness,” all that can be gathered is, that the occurrence took place at the time when Israel was condemned to wander about in the wilderness for forty years. They found a man gathering sticks in the desert on the Sabbath, and brought him as an open transgressor of the law of the Sabbath before Moses and Aaron and the whole congregation, i.e., the college of elders, as the judicial authorities of the congregation (Exodus 18:25ff.). They kept him in custody, like the blasphemer in Lev 24:12, because it had not yet been determined what was to be done to him. It is true that it had already been laid down in Exodus 31:14-15, and 35:2, that any breach of the law of the Sabbath should be punished by death and extermination, but the mode had not yet been prescribed. This was done now, and Jehovah commanded stoning (see Lev 20:2), which was executed upon the criminal without delay.

NUMBERS 15:37-38 (cf. Deuteronomy 22:12). The command to wear Tassels on the Edge of the Upper Garment appears to have been occasioned by the incident just described. The Israelites were to wear txiyxi , tassels, on the wings of their upper garments, or, according to Deuteronomy 22:12, at the four corners of the upper garment. tWsK] , the covering in which a man wraps himself, synonymous with dg,B, , was the upper garment, consisting of a fourcornered cloth or piece of stuff, which was thrown over the body-coat (see my Bibl. Archäol. ii. pp. 36, 37), and is not to be referred, as Schultz supposes, to the bed-coverings also, although this garment was actually used as a counterpane by the poor (see Exodus 22:25-26). “And upon the tassel of the wing they shall put a string of hyacinth-blue,” namely, to fasten the tassel to the edge of the garment. txiyxi (fem., from xyxi , the glittering, the bloom or flower) signifies something flowery or bloom-like, and is used in Ezek 8:3 for a lock of hair; here it is applied to a tassel, as being made of twisted threads: LXX kra>speda ; Matt 23:5, “borders.”

The size of these tassels is not prescribed. The Pharisees liked to make them large, to exhibit openly their punctilious fulfilment of the law. For the Rabbinical directions how to make them, see Carpzov. apparat. pp. 197ff.; and Bodenschatz, kirchliche Verfassung der heutigen Juden, iv. pp. 11ff.

NUMBERS 15:39-41 “And it shall be to you for a tassel,” i.e., the fastening of the tassel with the dark blue thread to the corners of your garments shall be to you a tassel, “that ye, when ye see it, may remember all the commandments of Jehovah, and do them; and ye shall not stray after your hearts and your eyes, after which ye go a whoring.” The zizith on the sky-blue thread was to serve as a memorial sign to the Israelites, to remind them of the commandments of God, that they might have them constantly before their eyes and follow them, and not direct their heart and eyes to the things of this world, which turn away from the word of God, and lead astray to idolatry (cf. Prov 4:25-26). Another reason for these instructions, as is afterwards added in v. 40, was to remind Israel of all the commandments of the Lord, that they might do them and be holy to their God, and sanctify their daily life to Him who had brought them out of Egypt, to be their God, i.e., to show Himself as God to them.

REBELLION OF KORAH’S COMPANY.

The sedition of Korah and his company, with the renewed sanction of the Aaronic priesthood on the part of God which it occasioned, is the only important occurrence recorded in connection with the thirty-seven years’ wandering in the wilderness. The time and place are not recorded. The fact that the departure from Kadesh is not mentioned in ch. 14, whilst, according to Deuteronomy 1:46, Israel remained there many days, is not sufficient to warrant the conclusion that it took place in Kadesh. The departure from Kadesh is not mentioned even after the rebellion of Korah; and yet we read, in Numbers 20:1, that the whole congregation came again into the desert of Zin to kadesh at the beginning of the fortieth year, and therefore must previously have gone away. All that can be laid down as probable is, that it occurred in one of the earliest of the thirty-seven years of punishment, though we have no firm ground even for this conjecture.

NUMBERS 16:1-3 Verse 1-2. The authors of the rebellion were Korah the Levite, a descendant of the Kohathite Izhar, who was a brother of Amram, an ancestor (not the father) of Aaron and Moses (see at Exodus 6:18), and three Reubenites, viz., Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, of the Reubenitish family of Pallu (Numbers 26:8-9), and On, the son of Peleth, a Reubenite, not mentioned again. The last of these (On) is not referred to again in the further course of this event, either because he played altogether a subordinate part in the affair, or because he had drawn back before the conspiracy came to a head. The persons named took jqæl; ), i.e., gained over to their plan, or persuaded to join them, 250 distinguished men of the other tribes, and rose up with them against Moses and Aaron. On the construction jqæl; (vv. 1 and 2), Gesenius correctly observes in his Thesaurus (p. 760), “There is an anakolouthon rather than an ellipsis, and not merely a copyist’s error, in these words, ‘and Korah,...and Dathan and Abiram, took and rose up against Moses with 250 men,’ for they took men, and rose up with them against Moses,” etc. He also points to the analogous construction in 2 Samuel 18:18.

Consequently there is no necessity either to force a meaning upon jqæl; , which is altogether foreign to it, or to attempt an emendation of the text. “They rose up before Moses:” this does not mean, “they stood up in front of his tent,” as Knobel explains it, for the purpose of bringing v. 2 into contradiction with v. 3, but they created an uproar before his eyes; and with this the expression in v. 3, “and they gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron,” may be very simply and easily combined. The 250 men of the children of Israel who joined the rebels no doubt belonged to the other tribes, as is indirectly implied in the statement in Numbers 27:3, that Zelophehad the Manassite was not in the company of Korah.

These men were “princes of the congregation,” i.e., heads of the tribes, or of large divisions of the tribes, “called men of the congregation,” i.e., members of the council of the nation which administered the affairs of the congregation (cf. 1:16), “men of name” µve vyai , see Genesis 6:4).

The leader was Korah; and the rebels are called in consequence “Korah’s company” (vv. 5, 6; Numbers 26:9; 27:3). He laid claim to the highpriesthood, or at least to an equality with Aaron (v. 17). Among his associates were the Reubenites, Dathan and Abiram, who, no doubt, were unable to get over the fact that the birthright had been taken away from their ancestor, and with it the headship of the house of Israel (i.e., of the whole nation). Apparently their present intention was to seize upon the government of the nation under a self-elected high priest, and to force Moses and Aaron out of the post assigned to them by God-that is to say, to overthrow the constitution which God had given to His people.

Verse 3. rab-laakem, “enough for you!” bræ , as in Genesis 45:28), they said to Moses and Aaron, i.e., “let the past suffice you” (Knobel); ye have held the priesthood and the government quite long enough. It must now come to an end; “for the whole congregation, all of them (i.e., all the members of the nation), are holy, and Jehovah is in the midst of them.

Wherefore lift ye yourselves above the congregation of Jehovah?” The distinction between `hd;[e and lh;q; is the following: `hd;[e signifies conventus, the congregation according to its natural organization; qhl signifies convocatio, the congregation according to its divine calling and theocratic purpose. The use of the two words in the same verse upsets the theory that hwO;hy] `hd;[e belongs to the style of the original work, and hwO;hy] lh;q; to that of the Jehovist. The rebels appeal to the calling of all Israel to be the holy nation of Jehovah (Exodus 19:5-6), and infer from this the equal right of all to hold the priesthood, “leaving entirely out of sight, as blind selfishness is accustomed to do, the transition of the universal priesthood into the special mediatorial office and priesthood of Moses and Aaron, which had their foundation in fact” (Baumgarten); or altogether overlooking the fact that God Himself had chosen Moses and Aaron, and appointed them as mediators between Himself and the congregation, to educate the sinful nation into a holy nation, and train it to the fulfilment of its proper vocation. The rebels, on the contrary, thought that they were holy already, because God had called them to be a holy nation, and in their carnal self-righteousness forgot the condition attached to their calling, “If ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant” (Exodus 19:5).

NUMBERS 16:4-5 When Moses heard these words of the rebels, he fell upon his face, to complain of the matter to the Lord, as in Numbers 14:5. He then said to Korah and his company, “To-morrow Jehovah will show who is His and holy, and will let him come near to Him, and he whom He chooseth will draw near to Him.” The meaning of ttæK; rv,a is evident from µyrit;a rjæB; rv,a . He is Jehovah’s, whom He chooses, so that He belongs to Him with his whole life. The reference is to the priestly rank, to which God had chosen Aaron and his sons out of the whole nation, and sanctified them by a special consecration (Exodus 28:1; 29:1; Lev 8:12,30), and by which they became the persons “standing near to Him” (Lev 10:3), and were qualified to appear before Him in the sanctuary, and present to Him the sacrifices of the nation.

NUMBERS 16:6-14 To leave the decision of this to the Lord, Korah and his company, who laid claim to this prerogative, were to take censers, and bring lighted incense before Jehovah. He whom the Lord should choose was to be the sanctified one. This was to satisfy them. With the expression rab-laakem in v. 7, Moses gives the rebels back their own words in v. 3. The divine decision was connected with the offering of incense, because this was the holiest function of the priestly service, which brought the priest into the immediate presence of God, and in connection with which Jehovah had already shown to the whole congregation how He sanctified Himself, by a penal judgment on those who took this office upon themselves without a divine call (Lev 10:1-3). Vv. 8ff. He then set before them the wickedness of their enterprise, to lead them to search themselves, and avert the judgment which threatened them.

In doing this, he made a distinction between Korah the Levite, and Dathan and Abiram the Reubenites, according to the difference in the motives which prompted their rebellion, and the claims which they asserted. He first of all (vv. 8-11) reminded Korah the Levite of the way in which God had distinguished his tribe, by separating the Levites from the rest of the congregation, to attend to the service of the sanctuary (Numbers 3:5ff., 8:6ff.), and asked him, “Is this too little for you? The God of Israel (this epithet is used emphatically for Jehovah) has brought thee near to Himself, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee, and ye strive after the priesthood also. Therefore...thou and thy company, who have leagued themselves against Jehovah:...and Aaron, what is he, that he murmur against him?” These last words, as an expression of wrath, are elliptical, or rather an aposiopesis, and are to be filled up in the following manner: “Therefore,...as Jehovah has distinguished you in this manner,...what do ye want? Ye rebel against Jehovah! why do ye murmur against Aaron? He has not seized upon the priesthood of his own accord, but Jehovah has called him to it, and he is only a feeble servant of God” (cf. Exodus 16:7).

Moses then (vv. 12-14) sent for Dathan and Abiram, who, as is tacitly assumed, had gone back to their tents during the warning given to Korah.

But they replied, “We shall not come up.” `hl;[; , to go up, is used either with reference to the tabernacle, as being in a spiritual sense the culminating point of the entire camp, or with reference to appearance before Moses, the head and ruler of the nation. “Is it too little that thou hast brought us out of a land flowing with milk and honey (they apply this expression in bitter irony to Egypt), to kill us in the wilderness (deliver us up to death), that thou wilt be always playing the lord over us?” The idea of continuance, which is implied in the inf. abs., rræc; , from rræc; , to exalt one’s self as ruler (Ges. §131, 36), is here still further intensified by µGæ . “Moreover, thou hast not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, or given us fields and vineyards for an inheritance (i.e., thou hast not kept thy promise, Exodus 4:30 compared with Numbers 3:7ff.). Wilt thou put out the eyes of these people?” i.e., wilt thou blind them as to thy doings and designs? NUMBERS 16:15 Moses was so disturbed by these scornful reproaches, that he entreated the Lord, with an assertion of his own unselfishness, not to have respect to their gift, i.e., not to accept the sacrifice which they should bring (cf.

Genesis 4:4). “I have not taken one ass from them, nor done harm to one of them,” i.e., I have not treated them as a ruler, who demands tribute of his subjects, and oppresses them (cf. 1 Samuel 12:3).

NUMBERS 16:16-17 In conclusion, he summoned Korah and his associates once more, to present themselves the following day before Jehovah with censers and incense.

NUMBERS 16:18-22 The next day the rebels presented themselves with censers before the tabernacle, along with Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation also assembled there at the instigation of Korah. The Lord then interposed in judgment. Appearing in His glory to the whole congregation (just as in Numbers 14:10), He said to Moses and Aaron, “Separate yourselves from this congregation; I will destroy them in a moment.” By assembling in front of the tabernacle, the whole congregation had made common cause with the rebels. God threatened them, therefore, with sudden destruction. But the two men of God, who ere so despised by the rebellious faction, fell on their faces, interceding with God, and praying, “God, Thou God of the spirits of all flesh! this one man (i.e., Korah, the author of the conspiracy) hath sinned, and wilt Thou be wrathful with all the congregation?” i.e., let Thine anger fall upon the whole congregation. The Creator and Preserver of all beings, who has given and still gives life and breath to all flesh, is God of the spirits of all flesh. As the author of the spirit of life in all perishable flesh, God cannot destroy His own creatures in wrath; this would be opposed to His own paternal love and mercy. In this epithet, as applied to God, therefore, Moses appeals “to the universal blessing of creation. It is of little consequence whether these words are to be understood as relating to all the animal kingdom, or to the human race alone; because Moses simply prayed, that as God was the creator and architect of the world, He would not destroy the men whom He had created, but rather have mercy upon the works of His own hands” (Calvin). The intercession of the prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 64:8, is similar to this, though that is founded upon the special relation in which God stood to Israel.

NUMBERS 16:23-26 Jehovah then instructed Moses, that the congregation was to remove away `hl;[; , to get up and away) from about the dwelli