them the Kohathites bore the sacred furniture; the other Levites were to put. up the tabernacle age.inst the Kohathites arrived. The remaining oamps of the west and of the north followed with aome 900,000 souls. If we try to picture to ourselves a day's march between Sinai and Kadesh (for the marching orders were doubtless suspended then, and may never have been issued age.in), we have to think of 600,000 people at the first signal of departure striking their tents, forming into columns under their natural leaders, and setting forth in the direction taken by the cloudy pillar. We are not at liberty to suppose that they straggled far and wide over the face of the land, because it is evident that an orderly march is intended under the guidance of a single moving object. It is difficult to believe that a multitude so vast and so mixed could have moved off the ground in less than four or five hours at least~ even if this was possible ; but this was only one division out of four, and these were separated by some little interval, so that it would ·be already dark befoN the last division could possibly have fallen into the line of march. Now if we! turn our eyes from the beginning to the end of the day's march, we see the journey arrested by the cloudy pillar ; we see the first division of 600,000 souls turning to the right in order to take up camping ground towards the east; •when these are out of the way we see the Levites arriving and setting up the taber- nacle beside the cloudy pillar; then another division of half a, million people come up and spread themselves on the south of the tabernacle across the onward track; behind the last of these come the Kohathites with the sacred furniture, and, passing through the midst of the southern camps, rejoin at last: their :brethren in order to place the holy things in the tabernacle ; then follows ·a third division, some 360,000 strong, who march off to the left; and last of all the fourth division, which contains more than another ha.If-million, has to make a circuit· entirely round the eastern or western camps in order to take up its own quarters on the north. Undoubtedly the question forces itself on every one who permits himself to think about it, whether such orders and such numbers are compatible with one another. Even if we allow for the providential absence of all sickness and all death, it appears very doubtful whether the thing was within the limits of physical possibility. Again, we have to ask ourselves whether Moses would have separated the tabernacle from Ha sacred furniture on the march by half a million of people, who must (under any circumstances) have been many hours in getting out of the way. It may be said, and with some truth, that we scarcely know what may be done by vast multitudes animated by one spirit, habituated to rigid discipline, and (in this case) aided by many peculiar and indeed miraculous circumstances. Still there are physical limits of time and space which no energy a.n.i no discipline can overpass, ·and which no conceivable exercise of Divine poweJ can set aside. It may be granted that 2,000,000 of Israelites might have wandered for years in the peninsula. under the given conditions, and yet it may be denied that they couM follow the marching ordera THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
issued at Sinai. Without attempting to solve this question, two considerations may be pointed out which affect its character. I. No simple alteration of the text will set the figures in accord with the apparent requirements of the narra- tive. The total of 600,000 adult males is repeated a.gain and again, from Exod. xii 37 onwards; it is made up of a number of smaller totals, which are also given; and it is to some extent checked by comparison with the number of the "first-born" (whatever that Iila.y mean) and the number of Levites. 2. If the 1 numbera recorded were ·given up as untrustworthy, it is certain that nothing else in the l3ook would be-directly affected. The numbers stand quite apart, at least in this sense, that they have no value and no interest whatever of any 'moral or spiritual kind. Arithmetic enters into history, but it does not enter into religion. - The same things have; from the point of view of religion, pre- 'cisely the same value and the same meaning when done or suffered by one thousand which they would have had if done or suffered by ten thousand. If, then, any earnest student ·of Holy" Writ- should find bimself unable to accept, as historically trustworthy, the numbers given in this l3ook, he·ie not therefore driven to discard the l3ook itself, fraught as it is with so many a message to his own soul. Rather than do this-rather than cast away, as if it had no existence, all that mass of positive, albeit indirect and often subtle, evidence which goes to substantiate the truth of the record-he would do well to put aside the question of mere numbers as one which, however perplexing, cannot be looked upon as vital. He may even hold that in some way the num- bers may have been corrupted, and he may think it possible that the Divine providence which watches over the sacred writings has suffered them to be corrupted because mere numbers are of no moral or spiritual import. He may feel encouraged in this opinion by the apparently undeniable fact that the Holy Spirit who inspired St. Paul did not prevent him from misquoting a number out of this very l3ook (1 Cor. x. 8); for he cannot fail to perceive that the misquotation (supposing it to be one) does not make the slightest possible differenc11 to those holy and important lessons which the Apostle was drawing from these records. It is not by any means affirmed by the present writer that th11 numbers in question are unhistoric; nor would he deny that their accuracy is maintained by far greater scholars and theologians than himself; he would only submit to the reader that the whole question, with all its attendant diffi- culties, may be calmly considered and argued on its own merits without involving anything which is really vita.I in our faith as concerning the word of God. We should surely have leal'nt little from the perplexities and victories of faith in the last forty years if we were not prepared for the possibility of admitting many modifications into our conception of inspiration without any fear lest inspiration should become to us less real, less full, less precious than it is. The introduction to a single book is not t},e place to discuss the character of that inspiration which it shares with the othe1 ·, God-inspired Scriptures." Tha xvi INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.