The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 164

Ne~b they were to make their way into the and tho following details or their journey are mountain or hill countiy which formed the appended to the geneml statement of ver. 21 back-bone of Southern P&l.estine, from the in that inMtificial style or narrative still Wady )Iurreh on the south to the plain of common in the East, On the name Hebron Esdraelon on the north. In after ages it and the ;perplexities which it causes see o~ formed the permanent centre of the Jewish Gen. xii.I. 18 ; xxiii. 2. Where Ahi.man race and Jewish power. Cf. Judges i. 9 Sheeha.i, and Talma.i, the children of Anak, where the three natural divisions of Southern Palestine are mentioned together : -,:,:, (17 were. i'~l-',:, 1:'.>~. "Annk's progeny." 1 Septuagint, yEvtai 'Evnx (as in ver. 28 h,0Hv11), the mountain; ::IJl/1:1 (o Noro~): the and Josh. xv. U b.), means simply "de• steppe; M~;!~;:t (17 moiv11), the maritime soondants of Anak." The Beni-Anak(Beni• plain. Ana.kim in Deut. i. 28 ; Anakim in Dent. ii. Ver. 18. - Whether they be i;trong or 10, &c.) were a tribe whose remote and per- weak, few or many. It would appear t.ha.t haps legendaiy ancestor 'l'l'a8 A.nak son of Moses was guilty of some indiscretion a.t Arba. (see on Josh. xiv. 15). These three least in giving these directions. Whether the chiefs of the Beni-Anak a.re said to have been people were strong or weak, many or few expelled from Hebron fifty years later by should have beP,n nothing to the Ismelites'. Caleb (Josh. xv. H; Judges i. 20). The It was God that gave them the l1md • they gigantic size which the Anikim shared with had only to take possession boldly. ' the Emim and Rephaim, other remnants of Ver. 20.-A.nd what the land is. It is the abori~a.l inhnbitants, may have been impossible to suppose that Moses needed accompanied by remarkable longevity ; or himself to be informed on such J>articula.rs they may have been quite young at the as are here mentioned. The mteroourse time of this visit ; or finally, they may not between Egypt and Palestine was comr.ara.• have been individu&is nt &I.I, but families tively easy and frequent (see on Gt;n. . 7), or clans. :Now :Hebron was built seven and no edncated Hebrew could have failed 7ear1 before Zoan in Egypt. Hebron was t.o make himself a.cqna.inted with the main m existence at the time of Abraham. Zoan features of his fathers' home. We may see was Tanis, near the mouth of the eastern bmnch of the Nile (see on Ps. hxviii. 12, in these instructions a confirmation of the 48). statement in Dent. i., that it was at the exodusIf had it be true that the Pharaoh of the his royal residence at Zoan, desire of the people, and for !Mir satisfaction that the spies were sent. The time of th; of the city, have Moses may or had access to the a.rcbives he may have learnt the date first-ripe grapes. The end of July: the of its foundation from the priests who gave regular vintage is 11. month or more la.ter. Ver. 21. - From the wilderness of Zin. him his Egyptian education. That there Ti:e ertreme southe:n boundary of the_pro• was any real connection between the two IIllSed la.nd (eh. ::a:nv. 3, 4; Josh. rv. 1. 3). places is extremely problematical, nor is it possible to give any reason for the abrupt There seems to be but one marked natural insertion here ot a fragment of history so feature which could hsve been chosen for minute and in itself so unimportant. There th11.t pnrpose-the broad sandy depression is, however, no one but Moses to whom the called the Wady Murreh, which divides the mountain mass of the .A.zazimeh from the statement can with any sort of likelihood be traced ; a later writer could have hnd no Ra.khma.h plateau, the southern extremity of authority for making the statement, and no the highlands of Judah. The plain of Kudes possible reason for inventing it. communicates with it at its upper or western end, and may be counted a. part of it. Unto Ver. 28.-The brook or Eshcol. Ra.ther, Behob, as men come to llamath. Septuagint, " the va.iley of Eshcol," for it is not a. la.n•i .... , Poo/3 Eitrropwoµivwv Aiµa6. Hamath, of brooks. Probably between Hebron and now Ha.mah, was in Greek times Epiphaneia, Jerusalem, where the grapes are still excep• on the Orontes, outside the limits of Jewish tionally fine, and the clusters of great size. rnle. The southern entrance to it lay be- They bare it between two on a ate.I'. Not tween the ranges of Libanus a.nd Anti• on account of its weight, but simply in order libanus (see note on eh. xxxiv. 8). The Re- not to spoil it. Common sense dictates the hob here mentioned is not likely to have been like precaution still in like cases. either of the Rchobs in the territory of Asher Ver. 24.-The plaoe was called the brook (Josh. :rix. 28-30), but the Beth-rehob fur- Bshcol, beeause of the cluster. It is very ther to the east, a.nd near to where Dan-Laish probable that it was already known as the ~as afterwards built (Judges xvili. 28). It valley of Eshcol, from the friend of Abra- ~es 011 the route to Hama.th, and was at one ham, who bore that name and lived in that time a place of some importance in the neighbourhood (Gen. xiv. 13, 24). If so it ~-ion of the Syria!lll (2 Sam. x. 6). is an a.dmimble inste.nee of the loose w&y Ver. 22.-And ea.me Ullto Hebron. This in which etymologies are treated in the Old ans. xm., xiv.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 145