The
Expositor's Bible
Edited by
W. Robertson Nicoll, D.D., LL.D.
[Illustration]
THE EXPOSITORS' BIBLE
_Edited by_ W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, D.D., LL.D.
_New and Cheaper Edition. Printed from original plates
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OLD TESTAMENT VOLUMES
GENESIS. By Rev. Prof. Marcus Dods, D.D.
EXODUS. By Very Rev. G. A. Chadwick, D.D., Dean of Armagh.
LEVITICUS. By Rev. S. H. Kellogg, D.D.
NUMBERS. By Rev. R. A. Watson, D.D.
DEUTERONOMY. By. Rev. Prof. Andrew Harper, B.D.
JOSHUA. By Rev. Prof. W. G. Blaikie, D.D., LL.D.
JUDGES AND RUTH. By Rev. R. A. Watson, D.D.
FIRST SAMUEL. By Rev. Prof. W. G. Blaikie, D.D., LL.D.
SECOND SAMUEL. By same author.
FIRST KINGS. By F. W. Farrar, D.D., Dean of Canterbury.
SECOND KINGS. By same author.
FIRST AND SECOND CHRONICLES. By Rev. Prof. W. H. Bennett.
EZRA, NEHEMIAH, and ESTHER. By Rev. Prof. W. F. Adeney.
JOB. By Rev. R. A. Watson, D.D.
PSALMS. In 3 vols. Vol. I., Chapters I.-XXXVIII.; Vol. II.,
Chapters XXXIX.-LXXXIX.; Vol. III., Chapters XC.-CL. By Rev.
Alexander Maclaren, D.D.
PROVERBS. By Rev. R. F. Horton, D.D.
ECCLESIASTES. By Rev. Samuel Cox, D.D.
SONG OF SOLOMON and LAMENTATIONS. By Rev. Prof. W. F. Adeney.
ISAIAH. In 2 vols. Vol. I., Chapters I.-XXXIX.; Vol. II.,
Chapters XL-LXVI. By Prof. George Adam Smith, D.D., LL.D.
JEREMIAH. Chapters I.-XX. With a Sketch of his Life and Times. By
Rev. C. J. Ball.
JEREMIAH. Chapters XXI.-LII. By Rev. Prof. W. H. Bennett.
EZEKIEL. By Rev. Prof. John Skinner.
DANIEL. By F. W. Farrar, D.D., Dean of Canterbury.
THE TWELVE (minor) PROPHETS. In 2 vols. By Rev. George Adam
Smith, D.D., LL.D.
NEW TESTAMENT VOLUMES
ST. MATTHEW. By Rev. J. Monro Gibson, D.D.
ST. MARK. By Very Rev. G. A. Chadwick, D.D., Dean of Armagh.
ST. LUKE. By Rev. Henry Burton.
GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. In 2 vols. Vol. I., Chapters I.-XI.; Vol.
II., Chapters XII.-XXI. By Rev. Prof. Marcus Dods, D.D.
THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. In 2 vols. By Rev. Prof. G. T. Stokes,
D.D.
ROMANS. By Rev. Handley C. G. Moule, D.D.
FIRST CORINTHIANS. By Rev. Prof. Marcus Dods, D.D.
SECOND CORINTHIANS. By Rev. James Denney, D.D.
GALATIANS. By Rev. Prof. G. G. Findlay, D.D.
EPHESIANS. By same author.
PHILIPPIANS. By Rev. Principal Robert Rainy, D.D.
COLOSSIANS and PHILEMON. By Rev. Alexander Maclaren, D.D.
THESSALONIANS. By Rev. James Denney, D.D.
PASTORAL EPISTLES. By Rev. A. Plummer, D.D.
HEBREWS. By Rev. Principal T. C. Edwards, D.D.
ST. JAMES and ST. JUDE. By Rev. A. Plummer, D.D.
ST. PETER. By Rev. Prof. J. Rawson Lumby, D.D.
EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. By Rt. Rev. W. Alexander, Lord Bishop of
Derry.
REVELATION. By Prof. W. Milligan, D.D.
INDEX VOLUME TO ENTIRE SERIES.
_New York_: HODDER & STOUGHTON, _Publishers_
THE
BOOK OF NUMBERS
BY THE
Rev. Robert A. Watson, M.A., D.D.
AUTHOR OF
"GOSPELS OF YESTERDAY," "JUDGES AND RUTH," "THE BOOK OF
JOB," "IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE," ETC.
HODDER & STOUGHTON
NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
CONTENTS
I
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY 1
II
THE CENSUS AND THE CAMP 18
1. The Mustering: ch. i. 1-46
2. The Tribe of Levi: ch. i. 47-54
3. The Camp: ch. ii
III
PRIESTS AND LEVITES 29
1. The Priesthood: ch. iii. 1-10
2. The First-born: ch. iii. 11-13, 40-51
3. Levitical Service: chs. iii. 14-39, iv
IV
DEFILEMENT AND PURGATION 46
1. Exclusion from the Camp: ch. v. 1-4
2. Atonement for Trespass: ch. v. 5-10
3. The Water of Jealousy: ch. v. 11-31
V
NAZIRITISM: THE BLESSING OF AARON 59
Ch. vi.
VI
SANCTUARY AND PASSOVER 73
1. The Offerings of the Princes: ch. vii
2. The Candelabrum: ch. viii. 1-4
3. The Passover: ch. ix. 1-14
VII
THE CLOUD AND THE MARCH 89
1. The Guiding Cloud: ch. ix. 15-23
2. The Silver Trumpets: ch. x. 1-10
3. The Order of March: ch. x. 11-28
VIII
HOBAB THE KENITE 104
Ch. x. 29-36
IX
THE STRAIN OF THE DESERT JOURNEY 119
Ch. xi
X
THE JEALOUSY OF MIRIAM AND AARON 136
Ch. xii
XI
THE SPIES AND THEIR REPORT 151
Chs. xiii., xiv. 1-10
XII
THE DOOM OF THE UNBELIEVING 167
Ch. xiv
XIII
OFFERINGS: SABBATH-KEEPING: DRESS 179
Ch. xv
XIV
KORAH, DATHAN, AND ABIRAM 195
Chs. xvi, xvii
XV
TITHES AND CLEANSINGS 212
Chs. xviii., xix
1. Duties and Support of the Ministry
2. Water of Purification
3. Defilement by the Dead
XVI
SORROW AND FAILURE AT KADESH 222
Ch. xx
XVII
THE LAST MARCH AND THE FIRST CAMPAIGN 243
Ch. xxi
XVIII
BALAAM INVOKED 260
Ch. xxii. 1-19
XIX
BALAAM ON THE WAY 276
Ch. xxii. 20-38
XX
BALAAM'S PARABLES 290
Chs. xxii. 39-xxiv. 9
XXI
THE MATTER OF BAAL-PEOR 309
Chs. xxiv. 10-xxv. 18
XXII
A NEW GENERATION 323
Chs. xxvi., xxvii
XXIII
OFFERINGS AND VOWS 343
1. The Sacred Year: chs. xxviii., xxix
2. The Law of Vows: ch. xxx
XXIV
WAR AND SETTLEMENT 365
1. The War with Midian: ch. xxxi
2. Settlement: ch. xxxii
XXV
THE WAY AND THE LOT 382
Chs. xxxiii., xxxiv
XXVI
THE CITIES OF REFUGE 396
Chs. xxxv., xxxvi
INDEX 409
I
_INTRODUCTORY_
To summon from the past and reproduce with any detail the story of
Israel's life in the desert is now impossible. The outlines alone
remain, severe, careless of almost everything that does not bear on
religion. Neither from Exodus nor from Numbers can we gather those
touches that would enable us to reconstruct the incidents of a single
day as it passed in the camp or on the march. The tribes move from
one "wilderness" to another. The hardship of the time of wandering
appears unrelieved, for throughout the history the doings of God, not
the achievements or sufferings of the people, are the great theme.
The patriotism of the Book of Numbers is of a kind that reminds us
continually of the prophecies. Resentment against the distrustful
and rebellious, like that which Amos, Hosea, and Jeremiah express,
is felt in almost every portion of the narrative. At the same time
the difference between Numbers and the books of the prophets is wide
and striking. Here the style is simple, often stern, with little
emotion, scarcely any rhetoric. The legislative purpose reacts on
the historical, and makes the spirit of the book severe. Seldom does
the writer allow himself respite from the grave task of presenting
Israel's duties and delinquencies, and exalting the majesty of God.
We are made continually to feel the burden with which the affairs
of the people are charged; and yet the book is no poem: to excite
sympathy or lead up to a great climax does not come within the design.
Nevertheless, so far as a book of incident and statute can resemble
poetry, there is a parallel between Numbers and a form of literature
produced under other skies, other conditions--the Greek drama. The
same is true of Exodus and Deuteronomy; but Numbers will be found
especially to bear out the comparison. The likeness may be traced in
the presentation of a main idea, the relation of various groups of
persons carrying out or opposing that main idea, and the Puritanism
of form and situation. The Book of Numbers may be called eternal
literature more fitly than the _Iliad_ and _Æneid_ have been called
eternal poems; and the keen ethical strain and high religious thought
make the movement tragical throughout. Moses the leader is seen
with his helpers and opponents, Aaron and Miriam, Joshua and Hobab,
Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Balak and Balaam. He is brought into
extremity; he despairs and appeals passionately to Heaven; in an hour
of pride he falls into sin which brings doom upon him. The people,
murmuring, craving, suffering, are always a vague multitude. The
tent, the cloud, the incense, the wars, the strain of the wilderness
journey, the hope of the land beyond--all have a dim solemnity. The
occupying thought is of Jehovah's purpose and the revelation of His
character. Moses is the prophet of this Divine mystery, stands for it
almost alone, urges it upon Israel, is the means of impressing it by
judgments and victories, by priestly law and ceremony, by the very
example of his own failure in sudden trial. With a graver and bolder
purpose than any embodied in the dramatic masterpieces of Greece,
the story of Numbers finds its place not in literature only, but
in the development of universal religion, and breathes that Divine
inspiration which belongs to the Hebrew and to him alone among those
who speak of God and man.
The Divine discipline of human life is an element of the theme, but
in contrast to the Greek dramas the books of the exodus are not
individualistic. Moses is great, but he is so as the teacher of
religion, the servant of Jehovah, the lawgiver of Israel. Jehovah,
His religion, His law, are above Moses. The personality of the leader
stands clear; yet he is not the hero of the Book of Numbers. The
purpose of the history leaves him, when he has done his work, to die
on Mount Abarim, and presses on, that Jehovah may be seen as a man of
war, that Israel may be brought to its inheritance and begin its new
career. The voice of men in the Greek tragedy is, as Mr. Ruskin says,
"We trusted in the gods; we thought that wisdom and courage would
save us. Our wisdom and courage deceive us to our death." When Moses
despairs, that is not his cry. There is no Fate stronger than God;
and He looks far into the future in the discipline He appoints to
men, to His people Israel. The remote, the unfulfilled, gleams along
the desert. There is a light from the pillar of fire even when the
pestilence is abroad, and the graves of the lustful are dug, and the
camp is dissolved in tears because Aaron is dead, because Moses has
climbed the last mountain and shall never again be seen.
In respect of content, one point shows likeness between the Greek
drama and our book--the vague conception of death. It is not an
extinction of life, but the human being goes on into an existence
of which there is no definite idea. What remains has no reckoning,
no object. The recoil of the Hebrew is not indeed piteous, and
fraught with horror, like that of the Greek, although death is the
last punishment of men who transgress. For Aaron and Moses, and all
who have served their generation, it is a high and venerated Power
that claims them when the hour of departure comes. The God they have
obeyed in life calls them, and they are gathered to their people. No
note of despair is heard like that in the _Iphigenia in Aulis_,--
"He raves who prays
To die. 'Tis better to live on in woe
Than to die nobly."
Dying as well as living men are with God; and this God is the Lord of
all. Immense is the difference between the Greek who trusts or dreads
many powers above, beneath, and the Hebrew realising himself, however
dimly, as the servant of Jehovah the holy, the eternal. This great
idea, seized by Moses, introduced by him into the faith of his people,
remained it may be indefinite, yet always present to the thought of
Israel with many implications till the time of full revelation came
with Christ, and He said: "Now that the dead are raised, even Moses
showed, in the bush, when he called the Lord the God of Abraham, and
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For He is not the God of the
dead, but of the living." The wide interval between a people whose
religion contained this thought, in whose history it is interwoven,
and a people whose religion was polytheistic and natural is seen in
the whole strain of their literature and life. Even Plato the luminous
finds it impossible to overpass the shadows of pagan interpretations.
"In regard to the facts of a future life, a man," said Phædo, "must
either learn or find out their nature; or, if he cannot do this, take
at any rate the best and least assailable of human words, and, borne
on this as on a raft, perform in peril the voyage of life, unless he
should be able to accomplish the journey with less risk and danger on a
surer vessel--some word Divine." Now Israel had a Divine word; and life
was not perilous.
* * * * *
The problem which appears again and again in Moses' relation with
the people is that of the theocratic idea as against the grasping
at immediate success. At various points, from the start in Egypt
onwards, the opportunity of assuming a regal position comes to Moses.
He is virtually dictator, and he might be king. But a rare singleness
of mind keeps him true to Jehovah's lordship, which he endeavours
to stamp on the conscience of the people and the course of their
development. He has often to do so at the greatest risk to himself.
He holds back the people in what seems the hour of advance, and it
is the will of Jehovah by which they are detained. The Unseen King
is their Helper and equally their Rhadamanthine Judge; and on Moses
falls the burden of forcing that fact upon their minds.
Israel could never, according to Moses' idea, become a great people in
the sense in which the nations of the world were great. Amongst them
greatness was sought in despite of morality, in defiance of all that
Jehovah commanded. Israel might never be great in wealth, territory,
influence, but she was to be true. She existed for Jehovah, while the
gods of other nations existed for them, had no part to play without
them. Jehovah was not to be overborne either by the will or the
needs of His people. He was the self-existent Lord. The Name did not
represent a supernatural assistance which could be secured on terms, or
by any authorised person. Moses himself, though he entreated Jehovah,
did not change Him. His own desire was sometimes thwarted; and he had
often to give the oracle with sorrow and disappointment.
Moses is not the priest of the people: the priesthood comes in as
a ministering body, necessary for religious ends and ideas, but
never governing, never even interpreting. It is singular from this
point of view that the so-called Priests' Code should be attributed
confidently to a caste ambitious of ruling or practically enthroned.
Wellhausen ridicules the "fine" distinction between hierocracy and
theocracy. He affirms that government of God is the same thing as
rule of priest; and he may affirm this because he thinks so. The
Book of Numbers, as it stands, might have been written to prove that
they are not equivalent; and Wellhausen himself shows that they are
not by more than one of his conclusions. The theocracy, he says, is
in its nature intimately allied to the Roman Catholic Church, which
is, in fact, its child; and on the whole he prefers to speak of the
Jewish Church rather than the theocracy. But if any modern religious
body is to be named as a child of the Hebrew _theocracy_, it must
not be one in which the priest intervenes continually between faith
and God. Wellhausen says again that "the sacred constitution of
Judaism was an artificial product" as contrasted with the broadly
human indigenous element, the real idea of man's relation to God; and
when a priesthood, as in later Judaism, becomes the governing body,
God is, so far, dethroned. Now Moses did not give to Aaron greater
power than he himself possessed, and his own power is constantly
represented as exercised in submission to Jehovah. A theocracy might
be established without a priesthood; in fact, the mediation of the
prophet approaches the ideal far more than that of the priest. But
in the beginnings of Israel the priesthood was required, received
a subordinate place of its own, to which it was throughout rigidly
confined. As for priestly government, that, we may say, has no
support anywhere in the Pentateuch.
* * * * *
The Book of Numbers, called also "In the wilderness," opens with
the second month of the second year after the exodus, and goes
on to the arrival of the tribes in the plains of Moab by the
Jordan. As a whole it may be said to carry out the historical and
religious ideas of Exodus and Leviticus: and both the history
and the legislation flow into three main channels. They go to
establish the separateness of Israel as a people, the separateness
of the tribe of Levi and the priesthood, and the separateness and
authority of Jehovah. The first of these objects is served by the
accounts of the census, of the redemption of the first-born, the
laws of national atonement and distinctive dress, and generally the
Divine discipline of Israel recorded in the course of the book. The
second line of purpose may be traced in the careful enumeration of
the Levites; the minute allocation of duties connected with the
tabernacle to the Gershonites, the Kohathites, and the Merarites;
the special consecration of the Aaronic priesthood; the elaboration
of ceremonials requiring priestly service; and various striking
incidents, such as the judgment of Korah and his company, and the
budding of Aaron's almond twig. Lastly, the institution of some
cleansing rites, the sin offering of chap. xix. for example, the
details of punishment that fell upon offenders against the law,
the precautions enjoined with regard to the ark and the sanctuary,
together with the multiplication of sacrifices, went to emphasise
the sanctity of worship and the holiness of the unseen King. The
book is sacerdotal; it is marked even more by a physical and moral
Puritanism, exceedingly stringent at many points.
The whole system of religious observance and priestly ministration
set forth in the Mosaic books may seem difficult to account for,
not indeed as a national development, but as a moral and religious
gain. We are ready to ask how God could in any sense have been the
author of a code of laws imposing so many intricate ceremonies, which
required a whole tribe of Levites and priests to perform them. Where
was the spiritual use that justified the system, as necessary, as
wise, as Divine? Inquiries like these will arise in the minds of
believing men, and sufficient answer must be sought for.
In the following way the religious worth and therefore the inspiration
of the ceremonial law may be found. The primitive notion that Jehovah
was the exclusive property of Israel, the pledged patron of the nation,
tended to impair the sense of His moral purity. An ignorant people
inclined to many forms of immorality could not have a right conception
of the Divine holiness; and the more it was accepted as a commonplace
of faith that Jehovah knew them alone of all the families of the
earth, the more was right belief towards Him imperilled. A psalmist
who in the name of God reproves "the wicked" indicates the danger:
"Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself."
Now the priesthood, the sacrifices, all provisions for maintaining
the sanctity of the ark and the altar, and all rules of ceremonial
cleansing, were means of preventing that fatal error. The Israelites
began without the solemn temples and impressive mysteries that made
the religion of Egypt venerable. In the desert and in Canaan, till
the time of Solomon, the rude arrangements of semi-civilised life
kept religion at an everyday level. The domestic makeshifts and
confusion of the early period, the frequent alarms and changes which
for centuries the nation had to endure, must have made culture of
any kind, even religious culture, almost impossible to the mass of
the people. The law in its very complexity and stringency provided a
needful safeguard and means of education. Moses had been acquainted
with a great sacerdotal system. Not only would it appear to him natural
to originate something of a like kind, but he would see no other means
of creating in rude times the idea of the Divine holiness. For himself
he found inspiration and prophetic power in laying the foundation of
the system; and once initiated, its development necessarily followed.
With the progress of civilisation the law had to keep pace, meeting the
new circumstances and needs of each succeeding period. Certainly the
genius of the Pentateuch, and in particular of the Book of Numbers,
is not liberating. The tone is that of theocratic rigour. But the
reason is quite clear; the development of the law was determined by the
necessities and dangers of Israel in the exodus, in the wilderness, and
in idolatrous, seductive Canaan.
Opening with an account of the census, the Book of Numbers evidently
stood, from the first, quite distinct from the previous books as
a composition or compilation. The mustering of the tribes gave an
opportunity of passing from one group of documents to another, from
one stage of the history to another. But the memoranda brought
together in Numbers are of various character. Administrative,
legislative, and historical sources are laid under contribution. The
records have been arranged as far as possible in chronological order;
and there are traces, as for instance in the second account of the
striking of the rock by Moses, of a careful gathering up of materials
not previously used, at least in the precise form they now have. The
compilers collected and transcribed with the most reverent care, and
did not venture in any case to reject. The historical notices are
for some reason anything but consecutive, and the greater part of
the time covered by the book is virtually passed over. On the other
hand some passages repeat details in a way that has no parallel in
the rest of the Mosaic books. The effect generally is that of a
compilation made under difficulties by a scribe or scribes who were
scrupulous to preserve everything relating to the great lawgiver and
the dealings of God with Israel.
Recent criticism is positive in its assertion that the book contains
several strata of narrative; and there are certain passages, the
accounts of Korah's revolt and of Dathan and Abiram, for instance,
where without such a clew the history must seem not a little
confused. In a sense this is disconcerting. The ordinary reader finds
it difficult to understand why an inspired book should appear at any
point incomplete or incoherent. The hostile critic again is ready to
deny the credibility of the whole. But the honesty of the writing
is proved by the very characteristics that make some statements
hard to interpret and some of the records difficult to receive.
The theory that a journal of the wanderings was kept by Moses or
under his direction is quite untenable. Dismissing that, we fall
back on the belief that contemporary records of some incidents, and
traditions early committed to writing formed the basis of the book.
The documents were undoubtedly ancient at the time of their final
recension, whensoever and by whomsoever it was made.
By far the greater part of Numbers refers to the second year after
the exodus from Egypt, and to what took place in the fortieth year,
after the departure from Kadesh. Regarding the intermediate time
we are told little but that the camp was shifted from one place to
another in the wilderness. Why the missing details have not survived
in any form cannot now be made out. It is no sufficient explanation
to say that those events alone are preserved which struck the popular
imagination. On the other hand, to ascribe what we have to unscrupulous
or pious fabrication is at once unpardonable and absurd. Some may be
inclined to think that the book consists entirely of accidental scraps
of tradition, and that inspiration would have come better to its end
if the religious feelings of the people had received more attention,
and we had been shown the gradual use of Israel out of ignorance and
semi-barbarism. Yet even for the modern historical sense the book has
its own claim, by no means slight, to high estimation and close study.
These are venerable records, reaching back to the time they profess
to describe, and presenting, though with some traditional haze, the
important incidents of the desert journey.
Turning from the history to the legislation, we have to inquire
whether the laws regarding priests and Levites, sacrifices and
cleansings, bear uniformly the colour of the wilderness. The
origins are certainly of the Mosaic time, and some of the statutes
elaborated here must be founded on customs and beliefs older even
than the exodus. Yet in form many enactments are apparently later
than the time of Moses; and it does not seem well to maintain that
laws requiring what was next to impossible in the wilderness were,
during the journey, given and enforced as they now stand by a wise
legislator. Did Moses require, for instance, that five shekels, "of
the shekel of the sanctuary," should be paid for the ransom of the
first-born son of a household, at a time when many families must have
had no silver and no means of obtaining it? Does not this statute,
like another which is spoken of as deferred till the settlement in
Canaan, imply a fixed order and medium of exchange? For the sake of
a theory which is intended to honour Moses as the only legislator of
Israel, is it well to maintain that he imposed conditions which could
not be carried out, and that he actually prepared the way for neglect
of his own code?
It is beyond our range to discuss the date of the compilation of
Numbers as compared with the other Pentateuchal books, or the age
of the "Jehovistic" documents as compared with the "Priests' Code."
This, however, is of less moment, since it is now becoming clear that
attempts to settle these dates can only darken the main question--the
antiquity of the original records and enactments. The assertion that
Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers belong to an age later than Ezekiel
is of course meant to apply to the present form of the books. But
even in this sense it is misleading. Those who make it themselves
assume that many things in the law and the history are of far older
date, based indeed on what at the time of Ezekiel must have been
immemorial usage. The main legislation of the Pentateuch must have
existed in the time of Josiah, and even then possessed the authority
of ancient observance. The priesthood, the ark, sacrifice and feast,
the shewbread, the ephod, can be traced back beyond the time of
David to that of Samuel and Eli, quite apart from the testimony of
the Books of Moses. Moreover, it is impossible to believe that the
formula "The Lord said unto Moses" was invented at a late date as
the authority for statutes. It was the invariable accompaniment of
the ancient rule, the mark of an origin already recognised. The
various legislative provisions we shall have to consider had their
sanction under the great ordinance of the law and the inspired
prophetism which directed its use and maintained its adaptation to
the circumstances of the people. The religious and moral code as a
whole, designed to secure profound reverence towards God and the
purity of national faith, continued the legislation of Moses, and at
every point was the task of men who guarded as sacred the ideas of
the founder and were themselves taught of God. The entire law was
acknowledged by Christ in this sense as possessing the authority of
the great lawgiver's own commission.
It has been said that "the inspired condition would seem to be one
which produces a generous indifference to pedantic accuracy in
matters of fact, and a supreme absorbing concern about the moral
and religious significance of facts." If the former part of this
statement were true, the historical books of the Bible, and, we may
say, in particular the Book of Numbers, would deserve no attention
as history. But nothing is more striking in a survey of our book
than the clear unhesitating way in which incidents are set forth,
even where moral and religious ends could not be much served by the
detail that is freely used. The account of the muster-roll is a case
in point. There we find what may be called "pedantic accuracy." The
enumeration of each tribe is given separately, and the formula is
repeated, "by their families, by their fathers' houses, according
to the number of the names from twenty years old and upward, all
that were able to go forth to war." Again, the whole of the seventh
chapter, the longest in the book, is taken up with an account of the
offerings of the tribes, made at the dedication of the altar. These
oblations are presented day after day by the heads of the twelve
tribes in order, and each tribe brings precisely the same gifts--"one
silver charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and thirty shekels,
one silver bowl of seventy shekels after the shekel of the sanctuary,
both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meal offering;
one golden spoon of ten shekels full of incense; one young bullock,
one ram, one he-lamb of the first year for a burnt offering; one
male of the goats for a sin offering; and for the sacrifice of
peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five he-goats, five he-lambs
of the first year." Now the difficulty at once occurs that in the
wilderness, according to Exod. xvi., there was no bread, no flour,
that manna was the food of the people. In Numb. xi. 6 the complaint
of the children of Israel is recorded: "Now our soul is dried away;
there is nothing at all: we have nought save this manna to look
to." In Josh. v. 10 ff. it is stated that, after the passage of the
Jordan, "they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month
at even in the plains of Jericho. And they did eat of the old corn
of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes and
parched corn in the self-same day. And the manna ceased on the morrow
after they had eaten of the old corn of the land." To the compilers
of the Book of Numbers the statement that tribe after tribe brought
offerings of fine flour mingled with oil, which could only have
been obtained from Egypt or from some Arabian valley at a distance,
must have been as hard to receive as it is to us. Nevertheless,
the assertion is repeated no less than twelve times. What then? Do
we impugn the sincerity of the historians? Are we to suppose them
careless of the fact? Do we not rather perceive that in the face
of what seemed insuperable difficulties they held to what they had
before them as authentic records? No writer could be inspired and at
the same time indifferent to accuracy. If there is one thing more
than another on which we may rely, it is that the authors of these
books of Scripture have done their very utmost by careful inquiry and
recension to make their account of what took place in the wilderness
full and precise. Absolute sincerity and scrupulous carefulness
are essential conditions for dealing successfully with moral and
religious themes; and we have all evidence that the compilers had
these qualities. But in order to reach historical fact they had
to use the same kind of means as we employ; and this qualifying
statement, with all that it involves, applies to the whole contents
of the book we are to consider. Our dependence with regard to the
events recorded is on the truthfulness but not the omniscience of the
men, whoever they were, who from traditions, records, scrolls of law,
and venerable memoranda compiled this Scripture as we have it. They
wrought under the sense of sacred duty, and found through that the
inspiration which gives perennial value to their work. With this in
view we shall take up the various matters of history and legislation.
* * * * *
Recurring now, for a little, to the spirit of the Book of Numbers,
we find in the ethical passages its highest note and power as an
inspired writing. The standard of judgment is not by any means that
of Christianity. It belongs to an age when moral ideas had often to
be enforced with indifference to human life; when, conversely, the
plagues and disasters that befell men were always connected with moral
offences. It belongs to an age when the malediction of one who claimed
supernatural insight was generally believed to carry power with it, and
the blessing of God meant earthly prosperity. And the notable fact is
that, side by side with these beliefs, righteousness of an exalted kind
is strenuously taught. For example, the reverence for Moses and Aaron,
usually so characteristic of the Book of Numbers, is seen falling into
the background when the Divine judgment of their fault is recorded; and
the earnestness shown is nothing less than sublime. In the course of
the legislation Aaron is invested with extraordinary official dignity;
and Moses appears at his best in the matter of Eldad and Medad when he
says, "Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's people
were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them." Yet
Numbers records the sentence pronounced upon the brothers: "Because ye
believed Me not, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel,
therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I
have given them." And more severe is the form of the condemnation
recorded in chap. xxvii. 14: "Because ye rebelled against My word in
the wilderness of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify
Me at the waters before their eyes." The moral strain of the book
is keen in the punishment inflicted on a Sabbath-breaker, in the
destination to death of the whole congregation for murmuring against
God--a judgment which, at the entreaty of Moses, was not revoked, but
only deferred--and again in the condemnation to death of every soul
that sins presumptuously. On the other hand, the provision of refuge
cities for the unwitting man-slayer shows the Divine righteousness at
one with mercy.
It must be confessed the book has another note. In order that Israel
might reach and conquer Canaan there had to be war; and the warlike
spirit is frankly breathed. There is no thought of converting enemies
like the Midianites into friends; every man of them must be put to
the sword. The census enumerates the men fit for war. The primitive
militarism is consecrated by Israel's necessity and destiny. When the
desert march is over, Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh
must not turn peacefully to their sheep and cattle on the east side
of Jordan; they must send their men of war across the river to
maintain the unity of the nation by running the hazard of battle
with the rest. Experience of this inevitable discipline brought
moral gain. Religion could use even war to lift the people into the
possibility of higher life.
II
_THE CENSUS AND THE CAMP_
1. THE MUSTERING
NUMBERS i. 1-46
From the place of high spiritual knowledge, where through the
revelation of God in covenant and law Israel has been constituted His
nation and His Church, the tribes must now march with due order and
dignity. The sense of a Divine calling and of responsibility to the
Highest will react on the whole arrangements made for the ordinary
tasks and activities of men. Social aims may unite those who have
them in common, and the emergencies of a nation will lay constraint
on patriotic souls. But nothing so binds men together as a common
vocation to do God's will and maintain His faith. These ideas are to
be traced in the whole account of the mustering of the warriors and
the organisation of the camp. We review it feeling that the dominating
thought of a Divine call to spiritual duty and progress is far from
having control of modern Christendom. Under the New Covenant there is
a distribution of grace to every one, an endowment of each according
to his faith with priestly and even kingly powers. No chief men swear
fealty to Christ on behalf of the tribes that gather to His standard;
but each believer devotes himself to the service and receives his own
commission. Yet, while the first thought is that of personal honour and
liberty, there should follow at once the desire, the determination, to
find one's fit place in the camp, in the march, in the war. The unity
is imperative, for there is one body and one spirit, even as we are
called in one hope of our calling. The commission each receives is not
to be a free-lance in the Divine warfare, but to take his right place
in the ranks; and that place he must find.
The enumeration, as recorded in chap. i., was not to be of all
Israelites, but of men from twenty years old and upward, all that
were able to go forth to war. From Sinai to Canaan was no long
journey, and fighting might soon be required. The muster was by way
of preparation for conflicts in the wilderness and for the final
struggle. It is significant that Aaron is shown associated with Moses
in gathering the results. We see not only a preparation for war, but
also for the poll tax or tithe to be levied in support of the priests
and Levites. A sequel to the enumeration is to be found in chap.
xviii. 21: "And unto the children of Levi, behold, I have given all
the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service
which they serve, even the service of the tent of meeting." The
Levites again were to give, out of what they received, a tenth part
for the maintenance of the priests. The enactment when carried into
effect would make the support of those who ministered in holy things
a term of the national constitution.
Now taking the census as intended to impress the personal duties of
service in war and contribution for religious ends, we find in it a
valuable lesson for all who acknowledge the Divine authority. Not
remotely may the command be interpreted thus. Take the sum of them,
that they may realise that God takes the sum of them and expects of
every man service commensurate with his powers. The claim of Jehovah
went side by side with the claim on behalf of the nation, for He was
Head of the nation. But God is equally the Head of all who have their
life from Him; and this numbering of the Hebrews points to a census
which is accurately registered and never falls short of the sum of a
people by a single unit. Whoever can fight the battle of righteousness,
serve the truth by witness-bearing, aid in relieving one weak, or help
religion by personal example and willing gift--every possible servant
of God, who is also by the very possession of life and privilege a
debtor of God, is numbered in the daily census of His providence.
The measure of the ability of each is known. "To whomsoever much is
given, of him shall much be required." The Divine regard of our lives
and estimate of our powers, and the accompanying claim made upon us,
are indeed far from being understood; even members of the Church are
strangely ignorant of their duty. But is it thought that because no
Sinai shrouded in awful smoke towers above us, and now we are encamped
at the foot of Calvary, where one great offering was made for our
redemption, therefore we are free in any sense from the service Israel
was expected to render? Do any hold themselves relieved from the tithe
because they are Christ's freemen, and shirk the warfare because they
already enjoy the privileges of the victors? These are the ignorant,
whose complacent excuses show that they do not understand the law of
Divine religion.
True, the position of the Church among us is not of the kind
which the Mosaic law gave to the priesthood in Israel. Tithes are
gathered, not from those only who are numbered within the Church and
acknowledge obligation, but also from those outside, and always by
another authority than that of Divine commandment. In this way the
whole matter of the support of religion is confused in these lands
both for members of the national Churches and for those beyond their
borders. Successfully as the old Hebrew scheme may once have wrought,
it is now hopelessly out of line with the development of society.
The census does not in any way determine what a national Church can
claim. Aaron does not stand beside Moses to watch the enrolment of
the tribes, families, and households as they come to be numbered.
Yet, by the highest law of all, which neither Church nor State
can alter, the demand for service is enforced. There is a warlike
duty from which none are exempt, from which there is no discharge.
Although the ideal of an organised humanity appears as yet far off
in our schemes of government and social melioration, providentially
it is being carried into effect. Laws are at work that need no human
administration. By the Divine ordinance generous effort for the
common good and the ends of religion is made imperative. Obedience
brings its reward: "The liberal deviseth liberal things, and by
liberal things shall he stand." Neglect is also punished: the sure
result of selfishness is an impoverished life.
The census is described as having been thoroughly organised. Keil and
Delitzsch think that the registering may have taken place "according
to the classification adopted at Jethro's suggestion for the
administration of justice--viz., in thousands, hundreds, fifties, and
tens." They also defend the total of six hundred and three thousand
five hundred and fifty, which is precisely the same as that reached
apparently nine months before. It is an obvious explanation of
what appears a perplexing agreement, that the enumeration may have
occupied nine months. But the number is certainly large, much larger
than the muster-rolls of the Book of Judges would lead us to expect,
if we reckon back from them. Nor can any explanation be given that
is satisfactory in all respects. We may shrink from interfering with
these numerical statements carefully set down thousands of years ago.
Yet we feel that the haze of remoteness hangs over this roll of the
tribes and all after-reckonings based upon it.
Of the twelve princes named in chap. i. 5-15, as overseers of the
census, Nahshon, son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah, has
peculiar distinction. His name is found in the genealogy of David
given in the Book of Ruth (chap. iv. 20). It also appears in the
"book of the generation of Jesus Christ" (Matt. i.) and the roll of
Joseph's ancestry recorded by St. Luke. One after another in that
honourable line which gave the Hebrews their Psalmist and the world
its Saviour is but a name to us. Yet the life represented by the name
Nahshon, spent mainly in the wilderness, had its part in far-off
results; and so had many a life, not even named--the hard lives of
brave fathers and burdened mothers in Israel, who, on the weary march
through the desert, had their sorrow and pain, their scanty joy and
hope. Far away is the endurance of those Hebrew men and women, yet it
is related to our own religion, our salvation. The discipline of the
wilderness made men of courage, women great in faith. Beneath their
feet the Arabian sand burned, above them the sun flamed; they heard
alarms of war, and followed the pillar of smoke for their appointed
time, looking, even when they knew they looked in vain, for the
land beyond of which Jehovah had spoken. Unaware of their nation's
destiny, they toiled and suffered to serve a great Divine plan which
in the course of the ages came to ripeness. And the thought brings
help to ourselves. We too have our desert journey, our duty and
hardship, with an outlook not merely personal. It is our privilege,
if we will take it so, to aid the Divine plan for the humanity that
is to be, the great brotherhood in which Christ shall see of the
travail of His soul and be satisfied. Like a prince of Judah, or a
humble nameless mother in Israel, each may find abiding dignity of
life in doing well some allotted part in the great enterprise.
The age of service fixed for the men of the tribes may yield
suggestions for our time. It is not of warlike service we have
to think, but of that which depends on spiritual influence and
intellectual power. And we may ask whether the limits on one side
and the other have any parallel for us. Young men and women, having
reached the age of bodily and mental vigour, are to hold themselves
enrolled in the ranks of the army of God. There is a time of
learning and preparation, when knowledge is to be acquired, when
the principles of life are to be grasped, and the soul is to find
its inspiration through personal faith. Then there should come that
self-consecration by which response is made to the claim of God.
Neither should that be premature, nor should it be deferred. When an
aimless, irresolute adolescence is followed by years of drifting and
experimenting without clear religious purpose, the best opportunity
of life is thrown away. And this far too frequently occurs among
those on whom parental influence and the finest Christian teaching
have been expended. The time arrives when such young men and
women should begin to serve the Church and the world; but they
are still unprepared because they have not considered the great
questions of duty, and seen that they have a part to play on the
field of endeavour. It is true, no time can be fixed. The public
service of Christ has been begun by some in very early youth; and
the results have justified their adventure. From the humble tasks
they first undertook they have gone on steadily to places of high
responsibility, never once looking back, learning while they taught,
gaining faith while they imparted it to others. Each for himself or
herself, in this matter of supreme importance, must seek the guidance
and realise the vocation of God. But delay is often indulged, and the
twentieth, even the thirtieth year, passes without a single effort in
the holy service. One could wish for a Divine conscription, a command
laid on every one in youth to be ready at a certain day and hour to
take the sword of the Spirit.
On the other side also many need to reconsider. No time was fixed for
the end of the services to which the Israelites were summoned. As long
as a man could carry arms he was to hold himself ready for the field.
Not the increasing cares of his family, not the disinclination which
comes with years, was to weigh against the ordinance of Jehovah. But
service now, however cheerfully it may be rendered in early manhood
and womanhood, is often renounced altogether when knowledge and power
are coming to ripeness with the experience of life. Doubtless there
are many excuses to be made for heads of households who are leaving
their young folk to represent them in religion, and pretty much in
everything outside the mere maintaining of existence or the enjoyment
of it. The demands of public service all round are sometimes quite out
of proportion to the available time and strength. Yet the Christian
duty never lapses; and it is a great evil when the balance is wanting
between old and young, tried and untried.
2. THE TRIBE OF LEVI
NUMBERS i. 47-54
The tribe of Levi is not numbered with the rest. No warlike service,
no half-shekel for the sanctuary, is to be exacted from the Levite.
His contribution to the general good is to be of another kind.
Pitching their tents about the tabernacle, the men of this tribe are
to guard the sanctuary from careless or rude intrusion, and minister
unto it, taking charge of its parts and furniture, dismantling it
when it is to be removed, setting it up again when another stage of
the march is over.
In this order it is implied that, although according to the ideal of
the Mosaic law Israel was to be a holy nation, yet the reality fell
very far short of it. "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto
all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them,
Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy" (Lev. xix. 1, 2).
Again and again this command of consecration is given. But neither in
the wilderness, nor throughout the pre-exilic history, nor after the
Babylonian affliction had purged the nation of idolatry, was Israel so
holy that access to the sanctuary could be allowed to the men of the
tribes. Rather, as time went by, did the need for special consecration
of those about the temple become more evident. Although by statute the
tribe of Levi was well provided for, it cannot be said that the life
of the Levite was at any time enviable from a worldly point of view;
at the best it was a kind of honourable poverty. Something else than
mere priest-craft upheld the system which separated the whole tribe;
something else made the Levites content with their position. There
was a real and imperative sense of need to guard the sanctities of
religion, a jealousy for the honour of God, which, originating with
Moses and the priesthood, was felt throughout the whole nation.