The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 169

,ro,, 11 p,111 ravr17v ; The verb is mpplied from of " discouraging," or " tnrning away:• the sense. (Septuagint, ivari 8,.a11rpltp,r•~-, He~~ 1t Ver. 29.-All that were numbered of you, must mean "my withdrawal, or my .. from twenty yeara old (cf. eh. i. 18, 19, turning a.side from you." They should 47). All th11t had been enrolled as the know by sad' experience tha.t " with the soldiers of the Lord, to fight his battles an<l froward " God will "show " himself '' fro- their own, but he.d refused, nnd hnd incurred we.rd" (Ps. xviii. 26). the guilt of mutiny. Ver. 37.-Died by the pla.gue before the Ver. 30.-Sware. Literally, "lifted up Lord. Septuagint, lv rp 1r>..r,yp. "Plague" my hnnd" (see on Gen. xiv. 22). And has here its older signification of "stroke," J'oshua the aon of Nun. The exception in or visitation of God. We are not told what favour of his "minister," Joshua, had been death they died, but it wa_s sudden _,m<l. taken for granted in the brief answer of Go_d exceptional enough to ma.rk 1t as the direct to Moses • in the fuller announcement of his consequence of their sinful con~uct. . . purposes 'to the congregation it was natural Ver. 40. -Early in the morning. W1sh m;: that he too should be mentioned by name. to anticipate the retrograde movement com- Ver. 33.-Your children shall wander. manded by God (ver. 25). ~~o the top of Literally, "shall pasture." Cl'l/1. Septuagint, the mountain. What summit 1s here spoken of 119 the object of th~ir enterprise. is quite icrovra, v,µoµwo,. It was not altogether a uncertain. Probably 1t was some ridge not threat, for it implied that the L?rd would ~e far distant which seemed to them from below their Shepherd and would proVIde for their to be the heiaht of land, but wa..s itself com- wants in their wanderings. For~ ree.ra. manded by l~ftier heights beyond. For we This period wa.s made up by countmg m the ha.ve sinned. The prospect of being taken year and a. ha.If since the exodus. It wns at their own word, a.nd being excluded from one of those many cases in which the word the la.nd which lay so near, broual.it home to of God was fulfilled in the mea.ning !Lild sub- them a. sense of their folly; bat their repent- stance of it, but not in the letter. The dela.y a.nce merely consisted in a frantic effort to which had a.lrca.J.y occurred wa.s itself practi- a.void the punishment which their sin had cally due to the same spirit of mutiny which incurred. had grown to a. head a.t Kadesh ; it was Ver. 41.-And llloeee said, i. e. ha.d ea.id, therefore stiictly equitable to count it a.s before they left the camp (cf. ver. 44, ancl pa.rt of the punishment inflicted (see on Deut. i. 42). Deut. ii. 14). And bea.r your whoredoma. Ver. 44.-They presumed to go up. This "Whoredom" had been a.I.ready used (Exod. gives the sense very well : they were deaf to xxxiv. 16) n.s a. synonym for idola.try in its a.11 persuasion or commaml to stay. Septu- a.spect of spiritua.l unfaithfulness, and there agint, 8,a/3,aaaµ,vo,, avif317aav. Thus they is no reason to depa.rt from tha.t well-marked added to a.n evil distrust in the power of meaning here. That the Jews were ~ty God an a.lmost more evil trust in their own of idolatry in the wilderness is distinctly power. It does not seem correct to say that a.sserted (cf. Acts vii 42, 43) ; a.nd these "unbelief" was the real cause of both errors idolatrous practices, ca.rried on no doubt -unbelief, firstly in God's promises, and se- in secret, must have been a. sore trial to condly in his three.ta. It was rather one of the generation which grew up amidst them those m11ny cnses in which men seek to atone (cf. Josh. xxiv. 14, 23), for a. fa.ult on one side by rushing into llS Ver. 34.-After the number of the da.ya, greut a. fault on the other side. They spoke .. ea.oh da.y for a. yea.r. It is snid, and truly, brave words a.bout the "place which the that the connection between the two periods Lord ha.th promised," as though it were in- was a.rbitrary, a.nd that the a.pparent corre- deed obedience a.nd trust which spurred them spondence lay only upon the surface. Exa.ctly on, instead of presumption and sel.6.ahness. for this reason it wa.s the better fitted to fix The a.rk of the covenant of the Lord, a.nd itself in the mind of a. na.tion incapa.ble of llloeee, depa.rted not out of the camp. The following II deeper 11nd more spiritual a.nalogy plainest possible token th11t the Lord wa.s of guilt and punishment. It served the not with them. With Moses remained no purpose which God had in view, viz., to doubt all the Levites, and the silver trum- make them foel that the qua.ntity a.s well as pets, and Joshu11, nnd perhaps the bulk o! the quality of their punishment wa.s entirely the people. due to themselves ; and it needed no other Ver. 46.-The A.malekites came down, a.nd justification. If God assigns reasons a.t all, the Ca.naa.nitee. See on Deut. i. 44. They he a.ssigns such a.s can be understood by those came down from the summit of the moun. to whom he speaks. Ye ahall know my ta.in country, a.nd drove the Israelites off the breaoh of promile. 'l'.lt$~)T;I, The noun s11ddle, or lower level, to which they had only occurs elsewhere in Job xxxiil. 10, but ascended. Discomfited them. Septuagint, the verb is found in eh. 1n:xii, 7 in the Rcnse rr:arirr:o,j,a11 abrov,, "cut them up." Unto  1:;o THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [OBB. XllL. ll:IT~