when there was no natural supply (see on 1 Cor. x. 4). He provided them also with raiment and shoes, so that they had the " food 1md clothing" which are the actual necessaries of life. 2. Josh. v. 4--8. It may seem strange that no children were circumcised between Egypt and Canaan, considering the extreme importance assigned to the rit& (see on Exod. iv. 24-26). If any children were born before the first arrival at Kadeeh (see note on eh. x. 28), it is probable that their circumcision was postponed in view of a speedy settlement in the land of promise. After that time the general neglect of religious ordinances and the extreme uncertainty of their movements (eh. ix. 22) would sufficiently account for the general disuse of the rite. It is only reasonable to conclude that the passover also was omitted during all this period. Even if the material elements for its celebration could have been provided, it i& hardly possible that the men who came out of Egypt only to die in that wilderness- could have brought themselves to renew the memory, so bitter to them, of that great but fruitless deliverance. And with the passover we may probably conclude that the whole sacrificial system fell into abeyance, save so far as it might be maintained by the zeal of the Levites alone (see below on eh. xix.). 3. Ezek. xx. 10-26. This is a strong indictment against Israel in the wilderness., and all the more because the children are reproached in the same strain as the fathers. It is apparently to the former that the difficult verses 25 and 26 refer exclusively. If so, we have two facts of grave moment made known to us through the prophet. 1. That the Lord, by way of punishment, gave them statutes and judgment which were not good. 2. That they systematically offered their first-born to Moloch. It is only necessary here to point out that these statements occur in the course of an impassioned invective, and must therefore be taken as the extreme expression of on& si<le only of a state of things which may have had other aspects. 4. Amos v. 25, 26 ; Acts vii. 42, 43. Thie again is a strong indictment. It is- indeed contended that Amoe v. 26 should be read in the present t.ense, and that St. Stephen was misled by an error of the Septuagint. This, however, introduces a much greater difficulty ; and even apart from the quotation in the Acts, the ordinary reading is the more natural and probable (see note on eh. xiv. 33). While, therefore, the general impression left upon us by these passages is dark indeed, it is hopeless to look for anything definite or precise as to the moral and! religions condition of the people at this time. A similar obscurity hangs over theiP" movel.llente and proceedings. We have nothing to guide us except the probabilities- of the case, and a list of stations which really tells us nothing. It is only reasonable to suppose that the marching orders issued at Sinai fell ipso facto into abeyance, when the short, swift, decisive march for which they were designed came to an abrupt conclusion. We have no authority for supposing that the host held together during these years of wandering which hiid no aim but waste of time, and no end but death. The presumption is that they scattered themselves far and wide over the wildemeae- (itself of no great extent), just as present convenience dictated. Disease, and death,- and all those other incidents revived in full force which make the simultaneous- - march in close array of two million people an impossibility. No doubt the head,. quarters of the host and nation, Moses_and Aaron, and the Levites generally, remained with the ark, and formed, whr.revcr they might be, the visible and representutive centre of the national life and worship. It is of the movements of this permanent centre, which contained in itself all that was really distinctive and abiding in Israel, that Moses speaks in eh. xxxiii., and elsewhere; and no doubt these move- ments were made in implicit obedience to the signals of God, given by the cloudy (lII, XV, 1-31.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 181
pilla.r (eh. ix. 21, 22). It is quite possible tha.t while the ark removed from time to time, some portion of the people remained sta.tionary at Kadesh, until the " whole congregation" (see on eh. l[J[, 1) was reassembled there once more. If this were the case, the peculiar phraseology of Deut. i. 46 as compared with the following verse may be satisfactorily explained.