The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 393

•CHAPTERS XXVIII., XXIX. throughout an nlmost immediate settlement in Canaan. It is also plain thnt a system so TU ROUTINE OJ' SAORII!'IOIAL OI!'I!'ERINGS elaborate, and entailing so much care and (cha. :a:viii., :nix.). Ver. 1.-The Lord expense, could he.rdly have come into regular spake unto lllloaes. It is impossible to say use during the conquest, or for some time with any assurance whether the law of offer- after. It cannot, therefore, be said with any ings contained in these two chapters was special force that the present section finds its really given to Moses shortly before his natural pince here. All we can nffirm is thut death, or whether it was ever given in this the system itself was of Di vine origin, nnd connected and completed form. It is ob- dnted in snbstnnce from the days of Moses. vious tha.t the formula with which the In nny case, therefore, it is rightly intro- section OJ?Ons might be used with equal pro- duced with the usual formnln which attests priety to introduce a digest of the law on this that it cnme from God, nnd cnme through subject compiled by Moses himself, or by Moses. It must be noted thnt n grent some subsequent editor of his writings from variety of observances which were zenlonsly n number of scnttered regula.tions, written or followed by the Jews of later nges find no oml, which ha.d Divine authority. It is place here. Compare, e. g., the ceremonial indeed quite true thnt this routine of sacrifice pouring of water during the fenst of taber- was only suitable for times of settled habit- nacles, to which nllusion is mnde by the ation in the promised land, and therefore prophet Isaiah (xii. 3) nnd our Lord (John there is a certain propriety in its introduc- vii. 37, 38), tion here on the eve of the entry into Canaan. Ver. 2. -lilly offering, and my bread. But it must be remembered, on the other Literally, "my korban, my bread." The hand, that the same thing holds true of very general term korban (anything offered to much of the legislation given nt Mount Sinai, God: cf. eh. vii. 3; Murk vii. 11) is here and avowedly of that comprised in eh. xv. restricted by the words which follow to the (see ver. 2), which yet appears from its position to have been given before the rebel- ment offering. "Bread " (CO?.) is translated lion of Kornh in the wilderness. It is indeed "food" in Lcvit. iii. 11, 16 (see the note plain thnt the ritual, festal, e.nd sncri.6.cial there). Sweet savour. IJ'~.. Septuagint, system, both as elaborated in Leviticus and rii; ~ ..,.~,, ruwUai; (sec on Gen. viii. 21 ; LcYit. 18 supplemented in Nnmbel'!!, presupposed iii 16 ; Ephes. v. 2). 580 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [cns. xxvm., xxix.