The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 52

:Bethshemesh, therofore (1 Sam. vi. 19), does The first conclnsion which naturally 11.rises- not fa.II within the letter of this law, although from tliese figures is, that after all the num• :it does within its spirit. The command, bering must l1ave been mado by tens, and , thus limited, is no doubt an addition to the not by individuals. As it was impossible •provious command not to touch, but it is that 3000 persons could be employed in altogether in keeping with it. If it wa.s carrying the varions portions of the taber- •the will of God to hedge about these sa.ered nacle, it may be that each {!"?.UP of ten . sym bol.s of his presence and his worship with undertook a unit of responsibility. The- an awful sanctity, it is obvious that he was second consideration is, that the average of as much bound to defend them ageinst the men between thirty and fifty in all Levi is irre'l'erent prying of the eye as a.ga.inst the higher than modern statistics show (it is said irreverent touch of the hand ; and the prying to be twenty.five per cent. now in the whole- here prohibited would have been distinctly population), although not very materially. wilful and inexcusable. The third is, that this average is very un- Ver. 25.-They shall bear the curtains, equally distributed, rising to a most remark- &c. For these four coverings, of tapestry, able proportion in the case of Merari. It is of goa.t:s' hair, of rams' skins, and of sea• quite clear that something must have dis• cow skin respectively, see Exod. xxvi. Jn turbed the reli!.tive numbers as between' the addition to these, the Gershonites carried all Merarites and the other families. It has been the hangings belonging to the tabernacle suggested that the small number of ma.le and to the outer court, with the single ex• Levites generally, a.nd the small number of ception of the "veil" which wa.s wrapped male Kohathites, between thirty and fifty round the ark. especially, may have been caused by heavy Ver. 26.-And their cords, aud all the losses incurred in carrying out the Divine instrumentll of their service. Taking this sentence upon the worshippers of the golden verse in contiection with ver. 31, we must calf (Exod. xxxil.). But-I. The slow in• nndersta.nd the word "their" as applying to crease of Levi continued to be very observable- the things mentioned in the previous verse. down to the time of David ; while the other The Mera.rites carried the cords, &c, of the tribes grew from 600,000 to 1,300,000, he- hangings of the court. only increased to 38,000 (1 Chron. xxili. 3). -Ver. 28.-Vnder the hand of Ithamar, as 2. The average of males over thirty is already also were the Merarites. He had been already higher among the Kohathites than might engaged in overseeing the constrnctfon of the have been expected ; it is the largeness of tabernacle (Exod. n:rriii 21). the number, not the smallness, which needs Yer. 31. -This is the charge of their to be explained. 3. It is Merari, and not burdea., viz., all the solid parts of the fabric Koho.th, that is markedly distinguished from of the tabernacle and its court ; by fa.r the the other two : there is little difference be• heaviest burden, and so allotted to the largest tween Kohath and Gershon. It is evident number. that something must have happened to the Ver. 32.-:By name ye shall reckon the tribe of Levi, and in especial to the family instruments of the charge of their buden. of Merari, to reduce very greatly the number This injunction only occurs here. The of births within the last thirty years. We f.eptuagint has "number them by name, do not know what the causes were, or why and all the articles borne by them." Per• they should have pressed much more heavily haps the solid parts of the fabric were on one tribe, or one family, tban on nD.other; numbered for convenience of setting up, but it is easy to see that many such ea.uses and, therefore, were assigned each to its may have acted, and acted uneqna.1ly, under ovm bearer. the cruel tyranny of Pharaoh. The children Ver. 48.-Those that were numbered of may have been· systematically slaughtered, the111 were eight thouaand and be hlllldred or marriages may have largely ceased, whilo and fourscore. The cenaus of each family Moses was in the land of Midian. If this is described in the same form of words with were ienerally the case, it would much much particularity. No doubt it was canied diminish the estimated total of the nation, out with extreme solicitude, as made for a and still more the estima.ted difficulties of purpose especially sacred and important. the march. The results are remarkable in more ways Ver. 49.-Thus were they numbered of than one. The following table presents the him. Literally, "and his mustering." It numbers in ea.eh family above one month, may have the mea.ning given to it in the and between the ages of thirty and fifty. A. V. (and so the Septuagint and Targums), or it m11y be transla.ted "mustered things," Kohath, 8600 2750 per cent, 32 i. e. things assigned to him in the mustering, f;ershon, 7500 2630 ,. , , 35 and read with the previous words, ." Ever:} .Merari, 6200 3200 ,. ., 51 one to his service, nnd to hie burden, and 22,300 8580 ,, ' 38 his mustered things."  OU, IV, 1-49.] THE BOOK OF -NUMBERS. }.'l