The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 131

11trange that in the face of the clear teaching anim~l food was. given them in qno.ntity of St. Paul in 1 Oor. rii., xiii., a.nd in view sufficient to have gorged tho vrholo nation of such cases as those of Saul (1 Sam. :a:. 10; for a month, if they had ea.red to go on xix. 28) and David (1 Sam. xvi. 13), any eating it (see b('low on ver. 33), difficulty should have been felt about this Ver. 21.-And ltoses said. Moses had passage. They shall bea.r the burden of the not recovered from the impatient and de• people with thee. It does not appear how spairiug temper into which the ill-behaviour they were to do this, nor is there any record of the people had betrayed him. He could of their work. Their gifts, ho,vever, wei-e not really h:i,ve doubted the Divine power spiritual, and we may probably assume that to do this, after what he ha.d seen in the their usefulness lay in producing and main• desert of Sin (Exod. xvi. 13), but he spoke mining a proper religious tone among the petulantly, and indeed insolently, out of t}1e people. The real difficulty which stood in misery which was yet in his heart. the way of Moses was not one of outward Ver. 22.-Shall the flocks and herds be organisation or of government, for that had slain 1 Wbich they had brou~ht out of been amply provided for ; it lay in the bad Egypt with them (see on Exod. xii. 32), and tone 11·hich prevailed among the people, and which no doubt were carefully husbanded, threatened to destroy at a.ny moment the partly in order to supply them with milk very foundations of their no.tional hope and and other produce, partly in order to ma.in• safety. We may see in these seventy not rain the sacrifices of the law. All the ftah of indeed a Sanhedrim to exercise authority and the sea. A wild expression from which discipline, but the first co=encement of nothing ca.n be fairly argued as to the pre- that prophetic order which afterwards played sent position of the camp. so large a po.rt in the religious history of Ver. 23.-ls the Lord'sha.nd waxed short1 Israel and of the early Christian Church- So that it cannot reach far enough to fulfil an order designed from the first to supple• his purposes. This simple a.nd expressive ment by the freedom and originality of their figure of speech is adopted by Isaiah (eh. 1. ministry the more formal and nnvarying 2; li.x:, 1). office~ of the priesthood. If this was the Ver. 24.-llloses went out, i. e. out of nature of their usefulness, it is not surprising the tabernacle. It is not stated that he went that they a.re never mentioned again; and it into the tabernacle to bring his complaint is observable that a similar obscurity hangs before the Lord, but the narrative obviously over the activity of the prophets of the New implies that he did (see on eh. vii. 89). Testament, who yet formed a most important Ver. 25.-The Lord c&llle down in a cloud, pa.rt of the gospel regime (cf. 1 Cor. :xiv. 29 i. e. in the cloud which was the symbol of -32 ; Eph. j,i. 20). his perpetual presence with them. At other Ver. 18.-Saneti.fy yourselves against to- morrow. By certain ablution.a, and by avoid- times this cloud dwelt (l'.;1~} above the taber• ance of legal pollution (see Exod. ::rix. 10, nacle, soaring stoodily above it in the clear 14, 15). The people were to prepare them- air ; but on certain occasions, for greater selves as for some revela.tion of God's holi- impressiveness, the cloud ea.me down nud ness a.nd majesty. In truth it was for a. filled the tabernacle, or at any 1-a.te the revelation of his wrath, and of the bitter entrance of it, while Moses stood without consequen~ of sin. There is a.bout the (cf. eh. xii. 6 and Exod. :a:nili. 9; xl. 85). words, a.a interpreted by the result, a. depth Took of the spirit which was upon him. of very terrible meaning; it was as though a Not certainly in anger, or by way of traitor, nnk:nowing of his doom, were bidden diminishing the fulness of the spirit which to a grand ceremonial on the morrow, which wa.s in Moses, but in order that the sevent;ir ceremonial should be his own execution. might participate, and be known to partict- !'or it we.a well with UI in Egypt. These pate, in a. gift origina111 and specially given false and wicked word.a, in which the base to Moses. The whole intention of the cere- ingratitude of the people reached its highest monial was to declare in the most unmistak- pitch, are repeated to them in the measago able way that the gifts of the seventy were of God with a. quiet sternness which gave no to be exercised only in union with and in sigu to their callous ears of the wrath they subordination to the media.tor of Israel. had aroused. The Tnrgums are substantially correct in Ver. 20. -But even a whole month. their paraphrase ; "The Lord iTuuu enlarge- There is some little difficulty a.bout these ment of the sphit that was upon him, and words, because the Israelites do not seem to imparted to the seventy men, the elders." have made a long stay at Kibroth-Hatta.a.vah, Theodoret very happily observes on this and the miraculous supply does not seem to passage, "Just as a. ma.n who kindles a have followed them. The words a.re words thousand flames from one does not lessen of stleru irony and displeasure, and need not the first in communicating light to the others, be litera.JJ y pressed : it was enough that so God did not dimiuish tho grace imparted OH, XI, 4---35,] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 111