“T sware.” Of the oath of God and his swearing we must deal afterwards expressly. The declared unalterable purpose of God about the dying of that people in the wilderness, expressed in the way of an oath, is that which is in- tended. And God is said to swear in his wrath, because he declared that pur- pose of his under a particular provocation. The whole matter is recorded, Num. xiv. 21-23, and verses 28-35, “ But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lorp. Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt, and in the wilderness, have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it... ... Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the Lorn, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will Ido to you: your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness ; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me, doubtless ye shall not come into the land concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunnch, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your car- casses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your careasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, (each day for a year,) shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years; and ye shall know my breach of promise. I the Lorp have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.”
VER. 7-11.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 15
We have here the especial occasion of this swearing of God. The whole fabric of the ark and tabernacle being finished, the worship of God established, the law and rules of their polity being given unto them, and a blessed frame of govern- ment in things sacred and civil set up amongst them, their military camp, charge, and order in marching, to avoid emulation and confusion, being dis- posed, all things seemed to be in a great readiness for the entrance of the people into the promised land. Whereas they were but a confused multitude when they came out of Egypt, God had now formed them into a beautiful order both in church and state. This he insists on in his dealings with them, Ezek. xvi. Why should they now stay any longer in that wilderness, which was neither meet to entertain them nor designed for their habitation? Wherefore, to prepare a way for their entrance into Canaan, spies are sent by God’s direction, with excellent instructions, to search out the land, Num. xiii. 17-20. Upon their return, the peevish, cowardly, unbelieving multitude, terrified with a false report which they made, fall into an outrageous repining against God and sedition against their ruler.
Hereupon the Lord, wearied as it were with their continued provocations, and especially displeased with their last, whereby they had, what lay in them, frus- trated his intentions towards them, threatened to consume the people as one man, chap. xiv. 12; but Moses, pleading with him the interest of his own name and glory, prevailed to divert the execution of that commination. And yet so great was this provocation, and so absolutely had the people of that generation disco- vered themselves to be every way unfit to follow the Lord in that great work, that, to show the greatness of their sin, and the irrevocableness of his purpose, he sware with great indignation concerning them, in manner and form above declared. %
Ei cioeAevoovrat,—* if they shallenter.” So in the Hebrew, }827-58,—if they shall enter.” So, frequently in the place of Numbers from whence the story is taken. The expression is imperfect, and relates to the oath of God wherein he sware by himself. As if he had said, ‘ Let me not live,’ or ¢ not be God, if they enter;’ which is the greatest and highest asseveration that so they should not do. And the concealment of the engagement is not, as some suppose, from a xa6os, causing an abruptness of speech, but from the reverence of the person spoken of. The expression is perfectly and absolutely negative. So Mark viii. 12, with Matt. xvi. 4; 1 Sam. xiv. 44; 1 Kings xx. 10.
Eis riv xararavely wov,—* into my rest.” The pronoun “my” is taken either efficiently or subjectively. If in the first way, the rest that God would give this people is intended ;—‘ They shall not enter into the land which I promised to give unto Abraham and his seed, as a state of rest, after all their wanderings and peregrinations upon my call and command.’ Or it may be expounded subjec- tively, for the rest of God himself; that is, the place wherein he would fix his worship and therein rest. And this seems to be the proper meaning of the word “my rest;” that is, ‘the place where I will rest, by establishing my worship therein.’ Hence this was the solemn word of blessing at the moving of the ark of God, “ Arise, O Lorn, into thy rest;” so Ps. cxxxii. 8,2 Chron. vi. 41. “A place for the Lorp, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob,” Ps. exxxii. 5. So he calls his worship his rest and the place of his rest, Isa. xi. 10, and Ixvi. 1. And the Targumist renders these words, “Into the rest of the house of my sanc- tuary:” as he speaks elsewhere, “This is my rest for ever;” which place is cited by Rashi on these words.’