The Pulpit Commentary — Numbers — Section 457

Levites numbered nearly 50,000 souls (see on better opportunity of se Lting forth tho true eh. xxri. 62), so that each Levitical city ideal of what Jewish hfo should be. would have an !f,Verage population of about V'!r: 11.-Ye shall appoint you cities to 1000 to start with. There seems no suffi• be 01 ties of refuge for you. God had ah-endy dent reason for supposing that they shared an~ouneed the.~ he would appoint o place th_eir towns with men of the surrounding whither one guilty of unpremeditated man- tribe. Even if the provision made for their slaughter might flee for safety (Exod. xxi. habit.ation was excessive at first (which does 18). The expression there used does not not appear), yet their rate of increase should point to more than one "place" but it is have been exceptionally high, inasmuch as n_ot inconsistent with soveral. Probably the they were not liable to military service. It right of sanctuary has been recognised from is possible that mystica.1 reasons led to the th!l earliest times in which any local appropri• selection of the number forty-eight (12 x 4, ation of places to sacred purposes has been both typica.l of universality), but it is made. It is an instinct of religion to look at least equally probable that it wa.s de- upon one who has escaped into a sacred en• termined by the actual numbers of the closure as being under the personal protection tribe. o! the presiding deity. It is certain that the T"er. 8.-And the cities which ye shall nght was largely recognised in Egypt, where give shall be, &c. Rather, "And as to the the priestly ca.ste wa.s so powerful and am• cities which ye shall give from the possession bitious ; and this is no doubt the reason of the children of Israel, from the many ye (humanly speaking) for the promise in shall multiply, and from the few ye shall Exod. xxi. 13, and for the command in the decrease." What seems to be a general rule following verse. Inasmuch as the whole of of proportionate giving is laid down here, Canaan was the Lord's, any places within it but it was not carried out, and it is not easy might be endowed with rights of sanctuary, to see how it could have been. From the but it was obviously suitable that they arge combined territory of Judah and should be Levitical cities; the Divine pre, Simeon nine cities were indeed surrendered rogative of mercy could nowhere be better (Josh. m.), but all the rest, great and small, exercised, nor would any citizens be better gave up four apiece, except Napht&li, which q_ualilied to pronounce and to uphold the gave up three oaly. .A.s the territory of nghtful decision in each case. N aphtali ww; apparently large in proportion Ver. 12.-From the avenger. Hebrew, to its numbers, this was probably for no ~~;. Septuagint, 0 orxumiiw11 TO alp.a. other reason than that the tribe stood last In all other passages (twelve in number) on the list. Every one. Hebrew, ti 1~. It where the word occurs in this sense it is was in fact each tribe that surrendered so qualified by the addition "of blood." Stand• many cities, but since the tribal inheritance ing by itself, it is everywhere else translated was the joint property of all the tribesmen, "kinSI11an," or (more properly) "redeemer," every man felt that he was a party to the and is constantly applied in that sense to gift. No doubt it was the Divine intention God our Saviour (Job m. 25; Isa. Wii. 16 to foster in the tribes as far a.s possible this &c.). The two ideas, however, which seem local feeling of interest and property in the to ua so distinct, and even ao opposed, Levites who dwelt among them (compare the e.re in their origin one. To the men of expression "thl!:ir scribes and Pharisees" in the primitive age, when public jia.stice was Luke v. 30). The dispersion of the Levites not, and when might WEIS right, the ouly (however mysteriously connected with the protector wa.s one who could and would prophecy of Gen. xlix. 6-7) was obviously avenge them of their wrongs, a.nd by avenging designed to form a bond of unity for all prevent their repetition. This champion of Jsrael by diffusing the knowledge and love the injured individual, ormther fe.mily,-for of the national religion, and by keeping up e. • wrongs were thought of as belong• eonstant communication between the future to families rather than to individue.ls,- capital and all the provinces. According to was their goel, who had their peace, their the Divine idea.I Israel 118 a wholtl was " the safety, above all, their honour, in his charge. election" (;, itcXoyr,) from all the earth, the For no sentiments spring up quicker, 11.nd Levites were the i1:Xoy71 of Israel, and the none exercise a more tyrannous sway, than priests the h:Xoy,j of Levi. The priestly the sentiment of honour, which in its various family was at present too small to be influ· and often strangely distorted forms ha11 ential, bnt the Levites were numerous always perhaps outweighed all other con• enough to have leavened the whole nation if sidcrations in the minds of men. Now the they had walked worthy of their calling. earliest form in which the sentiment of Th~y were gathered together in towns of honour asserted i':sclf was in the blood-feud. t~e1r own, partly no doubt in order to avoid If one member of a family wns slain, an in• dispute!!, but partly that the7 might have a tolerable ehame and sen11e of contumely OR, XXXV, 1-34.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 447