avoid noticing the abrupt hansition from eh. xiv. to eh. xv. ; and thus again no reader who had any ear for literary style could fail to isolate in his own mind the story of Balaam from the narrative which precedes and follows it. Perhaps the only question which could be seriously raised on this subject is the propriety of treating the Itinerary as a separate section. The character, however, of the passage is so distinct, and it is so clearly separated from what follows by the formula of eh. xxxiii. 50, tha.t there seems no alternative if we wish to· follow the natural lines of division. It will be seen that of the thirteen sections, eight are narrative, four are- legislative, and one (the last) is of a mixed character. :B. O.N TlIE CHRONOLOGY OP TBB BooL The dates given in the Book itself are (excluding the date of the departure from Rameses, eh. xxxiii. 3) only four; but the reference to the setting up of the tabernacle is equivalent to a fifth. We have, therefore, the following as fixed points in the narrative. 1. The dedication of the tabernacle, with the offering of the princes (vii. 1, 2) and the descent of the sacred cloud (ix. 15) 1st day of Abib in year 2. 2, The second passover (ix. 5) ... ... 14th day of Abib in year 2'. 3. The census at Sinai (i 1) let day of Zif in year 2~ 4. The supplemental passover (ix. 11) 14th day of Zif in year 2. 5. The start for Canaan (x. 11) ... 20th day of Zif in year 2. 6. The death of Aaron (:x:xxiii. 38) 1st day of Ab in year 40. There is, however, a note of time in this Book which is more important than any date, for in eh. xiv. an exile of forty years is denounced against the Beni- Israel; and although it is not stated at what precise point the exile terminated, yet we may safely conclude that it was either at or very near the conclusion of this Book. If, therefore, we had no subsequent data to guide us, we should say that eh. i.-x. 10 covers a space of one month, twenty days ; eh. x. 11-xiv. a space which may be variously estimated from two months to four months; eh. :x:v.-xx. 28 a space of very nearly thirty-eight years (of which the great bulk would coincide with chs. xv.-:rix.); and the remainder a space of nearly two years. It is, however, stated in Deut. i. 3 that Moses began his last addl'ess to the people on the fust day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, i. e. exactly six months after the death of Aaron, and only five months after the departure from Mount Hor. This does no doubt crowd the events of the last period into a strangely brief space of time, and shortens the time of wandering from forty to thirty-eight and a half years. The latter difficulty, although not to be lightly paBsed over, is yet fairly met by the assumption that the Divine mercy (which ever loves to take hold on any excuse for leniency) was moved to include the time of wandering already spent in the term of punishment inflicted at Kadesh. The former difficulty is more serious, for it implies a hurry which does not appear upon the face of the narrative. We may, however, 11{lmember that a generation which had grown up in the desert, hardened to exposure, and inured THE BOOK OP NUMBERS. ., to fatigue, would move with a swiftness and strike with a vigour altogether foreign to the nation which came out of Egypt. The actual distance traversed. -by the main bulk of the people (more than 200 miles) need not have oceupled more than a month, and some of the operations recorded. may have been carried -0n simult.aneoUBly. It will not, however, be forgotten that the difficulty adsea from a comparison of two dates, neither of which is found in the main nan-. tive of the Book of Numbers. c. 011' THIii ComosmoN 011' TBll BOOK, AND TBll SEQUDOB 011' l'l'S CONTENTS.
If we compare the table of contents with the table of dates, we shall see at ence that the earlier portions of the narrative are out of chronological order, and we shall not find any sufficient reason assigned for this dislocation. On the con- trary, closer examination will leave the greater certainty that eh. vii and eh. viii. to ver. 4 (at least) connect themselves rather with Exod. xl. or Levit. ix. than with their present context.. It appears, also, from the synopsis of the Book, that nai:rative alternates with legislation in Bllch a way as cut it up into clearly marked sections. It is asserted that the legislative matter thus interspersed grows out of, and shows a natural connection with, the narrative. This is true in some cases, but in many more cases it is not true. E. g. it is at least plaUBible in the case of the law for the exclusion of the unclean which interrupts the narrative in eh. v. 1-4. But it is not even plausible with respect to the laws which follow to the end of eh. vi. ; no Ingenuity can show any special connec- tion between the preparations for departure from Sinai and the trial of jealousy or the Nazirite vow. A.gain, it is possible to argue that the law which regulated the respective offices and emoluments of the priest.a and Levites finds It.a proper place after the record of Korah's rebellion; and also that the ordinance of the red heifer was historically connected with the sentence of death in the wilder- ness and the compulsory disuse of the ordinary routine of sacrifice. But it could hardly be seriously contended that the fragmentary enactment.a of eh. xv. or the regulations of eh. :u:x. have the least apparent connection with their place in the record. It is not at all too much to say, with regard to the greater number of the laws in this Book, that their position is arbitrary as far as we can now see, and that the reasons assigned for their standing where they do are purely arti- ficial It does not follow that there were not actual reasons, unknown to us, why these laws should have been revealed at times corresponding to their posi- tion; nevertheless, the presumption which arises upon the face of the record is certainly this, that the legislative matter fn this Book consists mainly of frag- ment.a of the Levitical legislation which have in some way become detached and have been interspersed through the narrative. One exception, however, is so obvious that It must be noted: the routine of sacrifice in chs. uviii., mx. is not a fragment, nor an Isolated enactment ; it is a recapitulation in a very com- plete form of the whole law so far as it applied to a distinct and important; "fl INTRODUCTION TO