The account of the setting apart of the tribe of Levi has been especially urged as bearing the marks of fiction ; but this account is strongly confirmed by the distribution of the cities of the Levites (Numb, xxxv ; Josh. xxi). This distribution is an undeniable fact, and the exist- ence of these Levitical towns may be appealed to as a document proving that the Levites were really set apart. Our opponents have vainly endeavored to find contradictions ; for instance, in the system of tithing (ch. xviii), which, they say, is not mentioned in Deu- teronomy, where the tithes are applied to different pur- poses (Dent, xii, 6, 7, 17-19; xiv, 22 sq. ; xxvi, 12-15). But there were two sorts of tithes : one appointed for the maintenance of the Levites, and the other to defray the expenses of public banquets, of which the Levites also partook on account of their position in society (comp. Neh. xiii, 10; Tobit i, 7).
It has also been asserted that the book of Numbers contradicts itself in ch. iv, 2, 3, and viii, 24, with respect to the proper age of Levites for doing duty. But the first of these passages speaks about carrying the taber- nacle, and the second about performing sacred functions in the tabernacle. To carrj^ the tabernacle was heavier work, and required an age of thirty years. The functions within the tabernacle were comparatively easy, for which an age of twenty-five years was deemed sufficient.
The opinions of those writers who deem that the book of Numbers had a mythical character are in contradic- tion with passages like x, 26 sq., where Hobab is re-
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quested by Moses to aid the march through the wilder- ness. Such passages Avere written by a conscientious reporter, whose object was to state facts, who did not conliiie himself merely to the relation of miracles, and who does not conceal the natural occurrences which preceded the marvellous events in ch. xi sq. How are our opponents able to reconcile these facts ? Here again they require the aid of a new hypothesis, and speak of fragments loosely connected.
The author of the book of Numbers proves himself to be intimately acquainted with Egypt. The produc- tions mentioned in ch. xi, 5 are, according to the most accurate investigations, really those which in that coun- try chiefly served for food. lu ch. xiii and xxii we find a notice concerning Zoan (Tanis), which indicates an ex- act knowledge of Egyptian history, as well in the author as in his readers. In ch. xvii, 2, where the writing of a name on a stick is mentioned, we tind an allusion characteristic of Egyptian customs (comp. Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Erjyptians, i, 388),
The history of the rebellion of the sons of Korah (xvi, 17) has certainly some coloring of the marvellous, but it nevertheless bears the stamp of truth. It is absurd to suppose that a poet who wrote ch. xvii, 6 sq., in order to magnify the priestly dignity, should have represented the Levites themselves as the chief authors of these criminal proceedings. This circumstance is the more important, because the descendants of Korah (xxvi, 11) afterwards became one of the most distinguished Le- A'itical families. In this position we find them as early as the times of David ; so that it is inconceivable how anybody should have entertained the idea of inventing crime to be charged upon one of the ancestors of this illustrious family.
Many vestiges of antiquity are found in ch. xxi. Tlie whole chapter, indeed, bears a characteristicallj^ antique impress, which manifests itself in all those ancient po- ems that are here communicated onlj' in fragments, as required for the illustration of the narrative. Even such critical sceptics as De Wette consider these poems to be relics of the Mosaic period. But they are so closel}' connected with history as to be unintelligible without a knowledge of the facts to which they refer. Narratives like the history of Balaam (ch. xxii-xxiv) furnish also numerous proofs of their high antiquit}'. These confirmations are of the greatest importance, on account of the many marvellous and enigmatical points of the narrative. Compare, for instance, the geograph- ical statements, which are uncommonly accurate, in ch. xxii, 1, 3(), 39 ; xxiii, 14, 15, 27, 28 ; see Hengstenberg's Gesch. Bileam's (Berlin, 1812), p. 221 sq. (See above.)
The nations particularly mentioned in Balaam's prophecy — the Amalekites, Edomites, Moabites, and Kenites — belong to the Mosaic period. In ch. xxiv, 7, it is stated that the king of Israel would be greater than Agag; and it can be proved that Agag was a standing title of the Amalekitish princes, and that conse- quently there is no necessity to refer this declaration to that king Agag whom Saul vanquished. The Kenites, at a later period, disappeared entirely from history. A prophet from jNIesopotamia was likely to make particu- lar mention of Assliur (xxiv, 22). There is also a re- markable iirediction that persons sailing from the coast of Chittim should subdue Asshur and Eber (xxiv, 24). The inhabitants of the West should vanquish the dwellers in tlie East. Tlie writers who consider the predictions of IJalaam to have been written after the events to which they refer bring us down to so late a period as the Grecian age, in which the whole passage coukl have been inserted only under the supjiosition of most arbitrary dealings with history. The truth of the Biblical narrative here asserts its power. Tliere occur similar accounts, in which it is strikingly evident that they proceeded from the hands of an author contempo- rary with the events: for instance, ch. xxxii, in which the distribution of the transjordanic territory is re- corded; and even the account, which has so frequently