The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 112

journey. The meaning of this is some- Under any ordinary circumstances, however what doubtful The Septuagint has l(;pav (see next note) the work of the rear-guard in ,rpwro,, the foremost set out; the Vulgate, collecting stragglers and in taking charge of profecl,i BWnt per Nrmaa /l'Ua8, Perhaps it such as had fainted by the way must have means, "they journeyed in the order of pre- been arduous and important in the extreme. cedence" e.ssi~ed to them by their marching Ver. 28.-Thua were the journeyinga. orders in eh. tl. Rather, "these were the journeyings," the Ver. 14.-According to their armies. In marchings of the various hosts of which the each camp, and under each of the four stand- nation was composed. The question may ards, there were three tribal hosts, each 11.Il here be asked, which is considered more at army in itself. large in the Introduction, how it was possible Ver. 17.-And the tabernacle was taken for a nation of more than two million souls, down. That is, the fabric of it ; the boards, containing the usual proportion of aged curtains, and other heavy portions which people, women, and children, to march as were pa.eked upon the six waggons provided here represented, in compact columns closely for the purpose (eh. vii. 6-9). And the following one another, without straggling, sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari set without confusion, without incalculable suf- forward. Between the first and second fering and loss of life. That the line of divisions of the host. In eh. ii. it had been march was intended to be compact and un- directed in general terms that "the taber- broken is plain (amongst other things) from nacle" should set forward with the camp of the directions given about the tabernacle. the Levites in the midst of the host, between The fabric was sent on in advance with the the second 11.Ild third divisions. At that time evident intent that it should be reared up the duties of the several Levitical families and ready to receive the holy things by the had not been specified, and the orders for time they arrived. Yet between the fabric the taking down and transport of the taber- and the furniture there marched more than nacle and its furniture had not been given half a million of people (the camp of Reuben), in detail. It would be historically an error, all of whom had to reach the camping ground and theologically a superstition, to imagine and tum off to the right before the Kohath- that Divine commands such as these had no ites could rejoin their brethren. Now dis- elasticity, and left no room for adaptation, cipline and drill will do wonders in the way under the teaching of experience, or for the of ordering nnd expediting the movements sake of obvious convenience. Whether the even of vast multitudes, if they are thoroughly present modification was directly commanded under control ; the family organisation also by God himself, or whether it was made on of the tribes, and the long leisure which they the authority of Moses, does not here appear. had enjoyed at Sinai, gave every opportunity There can be no question that subsequent of perfecting the necessnry discipline. But theocratic rulers of Israel cluimed and used it is clear that no discipline could make such e. large liberty in modifying the Divinely- an arrangement as the one 11bove mentioned originated ritual o.nd order. Compare the feasible under the ordinary circumstances of case of the passover, the armngements of human life. It would be absolutely necessary Solomon's temple as corresponding with to eliminate all the casu11lties and all the those of the tabernacle, and even the use of sicknesses which would naturally clo~ and the ail ver trumpets. The Septuagint has the hinder the m11rch of such a multitu<le, in future tense here, ,ra91>..oiia1 r,)v ar:r1v71v "· order that it might be corn pressed within r. >..., as if to mark it as a fresh command. the required limits of timo and sp11ce. H11vo Ver. 21.-The pe.notuary. Rather, "the we any ground for supposing that these holy things." ~:!i?'PiJ, equivalent to tho casualties and sicknesses were eliminnted 1 1:1 1~~µ ij'j, of eh. iv. 4. Septuagint, rd In answering this question we must clearly distinguish between the journey from Sinai ay,a. The sacred furniture mentioned in to Kadesh, on the borders of Pnlestino, which, eh. iii 81 (but cf. ver. 88). The other did was a journey of only eleven days (Deut. i. set up the taberne.ole. Literally, " they set 2), and the subsequent wanderings of the up," but no doubt it means the Gershonites people of Israel. It is the eleven days' jour- and Merarites, whose business it was. neyonly with which we are concerned, because Ver. 26.-The rereward of all the oe.mps. it was for this journey only that provision Literally, "the collector," or "the gatherer, was made and orders were given by the God of all the camps." The word is applied by of IsmeL During the subsequont ye11rs of Isaiah to God himself (Isa. Iii. 12 ; !viii. 8) wandering and of excommunication, there as to him that "ge.thereth the outcasts of can _be no doubt that the marching orders Israel." Dan ma1 have been the collector fell mto abeyance as entirely n.s lhe 1111crificinl of all the camps sunply in the sense that his system and the rite of circumcision itself. host closed in all the others from behind, During these years the various camps m11.y and in pitohing completed the full number, have acattered tholllllelves abroad, marched, 90 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [ea. li:, 11-211.