The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 414

tuagint, roii!,' /3a11,>..,1r: •• a,r,11:ruvav tiµa in~ the holy nation with which they were to roic rpavµaria,r: avrwv : "they put to bo incorporated beyond the usual lustration death (JJC,) the kings, in addition to those with the water of separation. In after times they would have beon baptized. who fell in battle" (from ~~0, to pierce, or Ver. 20.-Puri.fy all your raiment and wound). These five kings, who are mentioned all that is made. Literally, "every v~ssel" here as having been slain in cold blood after the battle, are said in Josh. xiii. 21 to have (l~:p). This was in accordance with the been vassals (•;;i•i;:,~) of the Amoritish king principle laid down in eh. xix. that every- Sihon, and to have dwelt "in the country." thing which had come into contact with a From this it has been concluded by some corpse needed purifying. that the M:idianites at this time destroyed Ver. 21.-And Eleazar the priest said, included only certain tribes which had settled . . . This is the ordinance of the law down within the territory afterwards as· (i1j1J:liJ Tl~(1, ••law-statute," as in eh. xix. 2) signed to Reuben, and had become tributary which the Lord commanded Moses. There to Sihon. This would account for the fact is something peculiar in this expression which that the present victory was so easy and so points to the probability, either that this complete, and also for the otherwise inex- paragraph (vers. 21-24) was added after the plica hie fact that the Midianites appear a.,c,ain death of Moses, or that "the law" was as a formidable power some two centuries already beginning, even in the lifetime of later. Zur. Tbe father of Cozbi (eh. xxv. Moses, to assume the position which it a.fter- 15). Bale.am also .. they slew with the we.rds held-that, viz., of a fixed code to be sword. Not in battle, but, as the context interpreted a.ndapplied bythelivingauthority implies, by way of judicial execution (see on of the priesthood. This is the earliest in- eh. xxiv. 25; Josh. xiii. 22). . stance of the high priest declaring to the Ver. 10.-Their goodly castles. ooi•t;i. people what the la.w of God as delivered to Septuagint, ;,rai,>..uc. Tbis word, which Moses we.s, and then applying and enlarging occurs only here and in Gen. xxv. 16, no that law to meet the present circumstances. doubt signifies the pastoral villages, con- It is no doubt possible that Eleazar referred structed partly of rude stone walls, partly of the matter to Moses, but it would seem on goats-hair cloth, which the nomadic tribes of the face of the narrative that he spoke on his that country havf' used from time immemorial. own authority as high priest. When we Probably these were the proper habitations compare the ceremonial of the later Jews, so of the Midianites ; the "cities " would have precisely and minutely ordered for every con- belonged to the previous inhabitants of the ceiva.ble contingency, with the Mosaic legis- land. lation itself, it is evident that the process of Ver. 11.-The spoil.- ~~~0- Septuagint, authoritative a.mplifica.tion must have been going on from the first; but it is certainly riJv ,rpovoµ;,v. Tbe booty in goods. The strange to find that process begun while prey. nii'?!PCI- Septuagint, rci 1111:ii>..a. Tbe Moses himself was all ve and active. booty in live-stock, here including the women Ver. 22.-The brasa. Rather, "copper." and children, who are distinguished as" cap- The six metals here mentioned were those tives" (':;!~) in the next verse. commonly known to the ancients, and in Ver. 14.'-0fticers of the host. Literally, particular to the Egyptia.ns and Phcenicio.ns. "inspectors.'' Septuagint, roic im11ro,ro,, Ver. 23.-Ye shall imake it go through riJ' ovvaµ•w~. L L the fire. This wa.8 an a.ddition to the general Ver.16.-To comm.it trespass. 7p~-i!;:lt;,?. law of lustration in eh. xi.x. founded on the See on ver. 5. The word 100 seems to.be obvious fact that wa.ter does not cleanse used here much as the English word "levy" metals, while fire does. Tho spoils of the is used in such a phrase as " levying" war Midianites required purification, not only as being tainted with death, but as having been against a person. heathen property. Ver. 18.-Keep alive for yourselvea, i. e. Ver. 26.-Take the aum of the prey. No for domestic slaves in the first instance. notice is ta.ken here of the spoil (see on ver. Subsequently no doubt many of them became 11), but only of the captured children ond inferior wives of their mastera, or were mar- cattle. And the ohief fathers, Perhafs ried to their sons. Infants were proba.bly n\:i~ (fa.there) stands here for ni:i~-n ~ put to death with their mothers. (fathers' houses). So the Septuagint, oi Ver. 19.-Do ye abide without the camp apxovrE, T'WJI '11'arp1wv, ln this case at any rate the law of eh. xiL 11 sq. was to be strictly enforced. And your Ver. 27.-Divide the prey into two parta. captives, i. e. the women children who were This division was founded roughly upon the spared. No peculiar rites are here prescribed equity of the case; on the one ha.nd, all I sreel for the reception of these children of idolaters had suffered from Mid.ion ; on the other, Oil, XXXI. 1-64,] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 401