The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 368

EXPOSITION. the original but the brief instruction given CH.APTER llVL to the census-takers-" from twenty reara T:n SEOOND MUSTll.RING (vers. 1- 66). old and upward, as on the former ocC88lon." Ver. 1.-n ea.me to pass after the plague. And the children of Iuael which went fcnh This plagae wa.s the last event which seriously out of the land of Egypt. This is the diminished the numbers of the Israelites; punctuation of the Tl!,l'gums and most of the perhaps it was the last event which dimin• versions. The Septuagint, however, detaches ished them at all, for it seems to be through• these words from the previous sentence e.nd out implied that none died except through makes them a general heading for the cata.- their own fault. It is often supposed that logue which follows. It may be objected to this plagae carried off the last survivors of this tha.t the people now nUlllbered did not the genemtion condemned at Kadesh (see come out of Egypt, a full ha.lf having been ver. 64}; but this is opposed to the statement born in the wilderness, but see on eh, :uiiL in Dent. il. H, 15, and is essentially im· 22; xxiv. 8. probable. The victims of the plague would Ver. 5.-The children cf lleuben. The surely be those who had joined themselves four names here registered as distinguishing to Baa.l-Peor ; and these again would surely families within the tribe of Reuben e.gree be the younger, not the older, men in Israel. with the lists given in Gen, xlvi. 9; hod. It is pa.rt of the moral of the story that these vi. 14 ; l Chron. v. a. . offenilers deprived themselves, not merely of Ver. 7. -These .. the familiea of the a few remaining days, but of ma.ny years of lleubenite1. The mustering according to happy rest wmch might have been theirs. Ver. 2.-Take the rnun of all the con- families (nhl?t?Q-Septuagint, oijµo1) was gregation. This was certainly not com- the distinguishing fea.tnre of this censns, manded with a view to the war against because it was preparatory to a territorial Midis.n, which was -0f no military import- settlement in Cana.an, in which the unity of ance, and W118 actually prosecuted with no the family should be preserved as well na the more than 12,000 men (cb. n:xi. 5). A unity of the tribe. • general command to "vex the Midianites" Ver. 8.-And the sons of Pallu. This had indeed been given (cb. xxv. 17) on the particular genealogy is added because or the principle of just retribution (cf. 2 Thess. i. special interest which attached to the fate 6), but no attempt seems to have been made of certain members of the family. The to act upon it until a more specific order was plural " sons" is to be explained here not issued (eh. :u.ri 2). In any case the present from the fact (which hu nothing to do with mustering has to do with somethmg far it) that several grandsons are a.fterwards more important, viz., with the approaching mentioned, but from the faot that \).:jl~ ("and llettlement of the people in its own territory. the sonii ") we.a the conventional bending of This is clear from the instructions given m a famil,: liet and was written down by the vers. 52-56, and from the distribution of transcnber W~re he noticed that only one the tribes into families. Fx-om twenty year,. name followed. Sec on eh. i. a. Ver, 10.-Swallowed them up together Ver. 3.-Spake with them. i. e. no doubt with the responsible chiefs, who mUBt have with Xox-all. M1P-Mt$1 OQk ll?1l:l!, Se~• 811llisted in this census, as in the previous one tua~int ,caTi'll'IUI avTot'i: ,cal Kopl. This (eh. i. 4), although the fact is not men- distinct statement, which is not modified, in tioned. the Targum~, seems decisive as to the. fate of Ver. 4-.-Take the 1um. of tht peoplt, Korah. )f indeed it were quite certain from Thtee words a.re not in the text, out are tJ1e detailed narrative in eh. xvi. thet Komh borrowed from ver. 2. :Nothing is set down in :rerishcd with his own comp1111y, e.nd not (lh XXVI. 1-66,] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 355