EXPOSITION. cherubim in the ta.bemacle, and these in CHAPTER II. their turn borrowed from the religious art of THE ENCAMPING OF THE TRIBES (eh. ii). Egypt. But the tradition of the J ewe is too Yer. 1.-The Lord spake 11I1to Jllloses and fluctuating to carry any weight. The Targum unto Aa.ro11. Probably when they had of Palestine assigns to Judah the lion, but to finished the census, and brought the results Reuben a stag, to Ephraim a young man, and into the tabernacle. to Dan a basilisk serpent. Yer. 2.-Shall pitch by his own standard. Ver. 5.-ll'ext 'llllto him. Whether the We a.re not told how they had pitched hither- leading tribe occupied the centre or one ex- Lo ; the tribal and family order now enforced treme of its own side of the encampment is was the natural order, but in the absence of a matter of mere speculation. precise directions would sometimes be de- Ver. 9.-Theae shall first set forth. No parted from. With the ensign. Rather, order to set forth had been given, but the "ensigns" (othoth, in the plural). Ea.eh tribe, necessity of doing so was understood, and it would seem (see ver. 3l), had its standard is here anticipated, as in eh. i. 51. (degel), and each family in the tribe its Ver. 14..-Beuel. Probably an error of -ensign (oth,). Far off. Rather, "over transcription for Deuel, which actually ap- -against," i. e. facing the t.abernacle, with a pears here in many MSS. The Septuagint, -certain space (perhaps 2000 cnbits, Josh. iii. however, has Raguel (see eh. i. 14 ; vii. 4) between. 42, &c.). The errot' is utterly unimportant, Ver. 3.-0n the ea.st. The van, the post except as proving the possibility of errors in -of hononr. The general direction indeed of the sacred text. their march was northwards, not eastwards ; Ver. 17.-Then the tabernacle . . shall but nothing can obliterate the natural pre- set forward. Thus it was provided that, •eminence given to the east by the sunrise, whether at rest or on the march, the Divine the BC:1ttering of light upon the earth, the habitation should be exactly in the midst of daily symbol of the day-spring from on high. Israel "The standard of the camp of Judah. Judah Ver. 24..-All that were numbered of the led the way not because he was the greatest camp of Ephraim. All the descendants of in number, for the ord6r of the tribes was Rachel, forming at this time the smallest of -not determined by this consideration, but the four divisions, although destined to be• becallSe of his place in prophecy, and as the come very numerous. Their association in ancestor of the Messiah (Gen. :tlix. 10). the camp was continued in the promised .According to Aben Ezra and other Jewish land, for the greater part of their territory expositors, the device upon the standard of was coterminous. Subsequently, however, Judah was a young lion, and this agrees the ~reat division of the kmgdom separated "'ith Rev. v. 5. The same authorities assign BenJa.min for ever from his brethren. In to Reuben a man, to Ephraim an ox (cf. the· third rank. Immediately behind the "Deut. xxxiii. 17), to Dan an eagle. If it tabernacle. This position is clearly alluded were so, we should find in these bannel'B the to in Pa. lxxx. 1, 2. origin of the forms of the living creatures Ver. 25.-The standard of .. Dan. In in the visions of Ezekiel and St. John (Ezek. the light of its subsequent history, it is re- i. 26 ; x. 1 ; Rev. iv. 4-6), unless, indeed, markable that this tribe should at this tim"! ~he devices on the standards were thcm- have been so prominent and so honoured. ael ves ta.ken from the symbolic forms of the Da.n is, so to speak, the Judas among tha (JH, JI, t- 84. J THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.
twelve. In history he ends by melting away Moab the desired room might perhaps have into the heathen among whom he intruded been found, but scarcely anywhere in the himself. In the sacred writings be ends by wilderness of Paran. We must conclude, being omitted altogether; he bas no part in therefore, that this order of encampment was the new Jerusalem-perhaps on account of an ideal order, beautiful indeed by reason of the idolatry connected with his name (see its faultless regularity and equality, but only Judges xviii; Rev. vii.). to be attaineJ in practi~ as circumstances Ver. 34.-So they pitched. The Targum should permit, more or less. Indeed, that of Palestine (which embodies the traditional the foursquare symmetry of the camp had' learning of the Palestinian Jews of the an ideal meaning and significance more- 17th century) says that the camp covered a really, because more :permanently, important space of twelve square miles. Modem than its actual realisation at the time, is Wliters, starting from some measurements evident from its recurrence again and again of the Roman camps given by Polybius, in the Apocalyptic writings (see Ezek. xlviii. compute the necessary space at three or 20, and especially Rev. :u:i. 16). It is im- three and a half miles square. This would possible to help seeing that the description require the strictest discipline and economy of the heavenly Zion is that of a city, but of of space, and makes no provision for cattle; a city modelled upon the pattern of the but supposing that the women and children camp in the wilderness. Here is one of were closely packed, it might suffice. It is, those cases in which the spiritual signific~nce however, evident that there would be very of an order is of such importance that it few places in the wilderness, if any, where matters comparatively little whether it could , more than three square miles of fairly level be literally carried out or not. ground could be found. In the plains of