The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 128

and of aome,perplexity. There does not seem Sic., i. 86, 62 ; Herod., ii. ~3 ; Strabo, xvii. any room for them in the regulations laid p. 829). Cucumbers. C't:trpi?. Cucumbers of down for Israel, nor a.re they mentioned in peculiar softness and flavoiir a.re spoken of ony other place except at Exod.. xii. 88. In by Egyptian travellers as jrudw in EqypttJ Levit. xriv. 10 we read of the son of an omniu,n 77Ulgatissimus. Melons. Cl'IJ~~~- Israelitish woman by an Egyptian father, and Water-melons, still called batt.ieh, grow in this might lead us to conjecture that o. great Egypt, as in all hot, moist lands, like weeds, part of tlie "mixed multitude" was the off- and are as much the luxury of the poorest 11pring of such left-handed alliances. These as of the richest. Leeks. i'¥0- This word half-breeds, according to the general rule in auch cases, would follow their mothers; they mmally means grass (as in Ps. eiv. 14), and would be regarded with contempt by the may do so here, for the modern Egyptians Jews of pure blood, and would accompany eat a. kind of field-clover freely. The Septu- the march as hangers-on of the various tribes agint, however, translates it by rd 1rpa11a, with which they were connected. As to leeks or chives, which Rf:Tees better with the their fate, it mo.y be probably concluded, from context. Pliny (Nat. Hist. 19, 88) speaks of it the reason of things and from the absence of as " laudatissimus p<m"US in Egypt0." Onions. any further notice of them, that they found 0;~1."ll· Garlic. C;P,11&, These are men- their way back to the ala very and the indulg- tioned in the well-known passage of Herodotus ences of Egypt ; they were bou.nd by no such (ii. 125) as forming the staple food of the strong restraints and animated by no such workmen at the pyramids; these still form I\ national feelings as the true people of the Lord. large part of the diet of the labouring classes And the children of Israel also wept again. in Egypt, as in other Mediterranean coun- This expression, again (Hebrew, :m&, used tries. If we look at these different articles of adverbially), would seem to point to some food together, so naturally and inartificially former weeping, and this is generally found mentioned in this verse, we find a strong in the "murmuring" of which they hnd argument for the genuineness of the narra- been guilty in the desert of Sin (Exod. xvi. tive. They nro exactly the luxuries which 2, 3). This, however, is unsatisfactory for an Egypti011 labourer of that day would have several reasons: first, because that occurrence cried out for, if deprived of them ; they nro ,vas too remote, having been more than n not the luxuries which a Jew of Palestine year afo; second, because there is no men- would covet, or would even think of. The tion o any" weeping" at that time; third, very words here used for the cucumber, the because the matter of complaint on the two melon, and the garlic were probably Egyptian, occasions was really quite different: tlien for they may still be recognised in the com- they murmured faithlessly at the blank starv- mon names of those vegetables in Egypt. ation which apparently attired them in the Yer. 6.-0ur soul is dried away. This face ; now they weep greedily at the absence exaggerated statement expressed their craving of remembered luxuries. It is therefore for the juicy a1,d snvoury food of which they much more likely that the expression has had been thinking, and which Willi obviously regard to the "complaining" which had just unnttainuble in the wilderness. There ill a taken place at Tabeerah. It was indeed physical cm ving in man for variety of diet, wonderful that the punishment then infiicted and especially for such condiments and did not check the sin ; wonderful that it fta vours as he has been used to o.11 his life, burst out again in an aggravated form o.lmost which mnkes the lack· of them a real hard- immediately. But such was the obstinacy of ship. It is not necessary to condemn the this people, that Divine vengeance, which Israelites for foaling very keenly the loss of only perhaps affected a few, and only lasted their accustomed food, which is notoriously for a brief space, was not sufficient to silence the ono thing which the poorest classes are their wicked clamour. Wb.o shall give us lenst able to bear ; it is only necessary to ftesh to eat t ,~~-Septuagint, rpia-meaus condemn them for making this one loss of flesh-meat genemlly. They had flocks and more account them all their gain. There i1 herds it is true, but theywere no doubt care- nothing at all, beside thia manna, before fully preserved, and the increase of them our eyes. Rather, "we have nothing {':al )'~) would little more than suffice for aa.erifice ; except that our eye (fulls) upon this manna." no one would dre~. of slaughtering them These graphic words speak of the longing for ordinary eating. looks which turned in every direction nfter Yer. 6.-We remember the fl.ah, which the o.ccustomed dainties, only to fall with we did eat in Egypt freely, i. e. gratis. No disgust upon the inevitable manna. It wus doubt this was nn exaggeration on the part very ungrateful of them to speak disparag- of the murmurers, but it is attested by clas- ingly of the manna, which Willi good and ■ical writers that fish awa.rmnd in the Nile wholesome food, and sufficient to keep them waters, and cost next to 11othing (Diod. in health and strength ; but it ill useless to 108 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [on. x1. 4-35.