The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 10

tho.t Kuenen objocts to the historio credibility of the conquest on the ground tho.t it was much too easily accomplished(' The Religion of Israel,' Vol. L eh. ii. p. 131). As to the possibility of finding room in Cana.an for two millions more of people than it had previously contained, it is sufficient to reply, (1) that in order t.o make room for them e. pretty considerable removal of the earlier inhabitants was effected. by meane of the sword, and (2) that it is doubtful if the remaining Canaanitish population, though increased by the influx of three millions of Israelites, would be as large as the five millions of inhabitants tho.t were contained in Palestine in the flourishing period of the Isra.elitish kingdom. III. THE N'UM13EB OF THE FIRST-BORN. Rationalising critics appear to be unanimous in pitching upon this as an insuperable obstacle t.o the historical validity of the Mosaic narrative. It will accordingly be desirable to state the difficulty in their own words. "According to eh. i. 46 and ii. 32, the number of all the male Israelites from twenty years old and upwards was, without the Levites, 603,550. If, however, the number of the first-born of the male sex, reckoned from one month old and upwards, amounted orily to a little over 22,000 (according t.o eh. iii), the number of them from twenty years old and upward could only be reckoned at from about 11,000 to 14,000, and in that the first-born of the Levites would also be com- prehended, so that from the rest of the tribes they would only amount t.o from about 10,000 to 13,000. According to this the proportion of the first-born males to the whole of the male Israelites would only be as one to forty-five. But this is a proportion that we cannot well think could have really existed" (Bleak, 'Introd. to Pent.,' Vol. I. p. 315). "At one time the number of men able to bear arms above twenty years of age is said to amount to 603,550, exclusive of the Levites; soon afterwards, however, the number of the first-born males is set down at 22,273. A comparison of these two statements is sufficient to show the fictitious character of the whole census; for from it we may deduce that every mother, taking one with another, must have brought into the world no less than forty-two male children; or, in other words, that only one first-born child is to be allowed for every forty- !wo males" (Bohlen, 'Introd. to Pent.,' p. 113). The problem is stated in sub- .itantially equivalent terms by Yater 'on Numb. iii. 391' Colenso • on the Pent.,' Pa.rt I. eh. xiv., Kuenen in 'The Religion of Israel,' Vol. L eh. ii. p. 172, e.nd others; e.nd as thus presented it has met with various replies. 1. Michaelis has endeavoured to resolve it by supposing that polygamy extensively prevailed among the Israelites, and that only the first-born of the fathers were counted (' Lawa of Moses,' ii. § 94) ; but, as Keil properly observes, '' polygamy never prevailed among the Israelites or any other people with anything like the universality which this would suppose,'' and, besides, the expression "cm -ito!3'' (eh. iii. 12) distinctly points to the first- born on the mother's side, in ;hich v c"a.se, as Kurtz remarks, "the existence of polygamy would only serve to render the difficulty perfectly colossal." 2. Haver- nick has so far modified the above opinion as to hold that the first-born on the sides of both parents were alone reckoned, but this is a purely arbitrary assumption, and tends rather to increase the.n remove the perplexity. 3. Baumgarten has suggested that only the first-born under six yel\l's of age were numbered, adducing in support of this view that all above that age had been redeemed by partaking of the passover in Egypt, but such a sentiment has no foundation in anything con- tained in Scripture. 4. Kurtz has advanced a number of considerations which in his judgment afford an adequate explanation of the otherwise inexplicable fact:- (1) the rarity of polygamy, which lessened the proportion of the first-born; but, on Xurtz's own theory that oh, iii. 12 points to the mother's first-born, the rarity  THE AUTHENTICITY AND AUTHORSHIP OF