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9 and honey. Only rebel not ye against the LORD, do not murmur, nor give way to unbelieving fears, neither fear the people of the land; for they, instead of eating us up, [are] bread for us their defence, their shadow, that is, their protection and courage is departed from them; and though hitherto God hath preserved them from being destroyed, because their sins were not full, yet he hath withdrawn his help from them, and pill certainly give them up to destruction; and the LORD [is] with us: fear them not.

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But all the congregation raised an outcry against them, and bade stone them with stones. And so great was their infatuation, that they probably would have done so, had not the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel, to stop their furious attempt. 11 And Moses drew near to know the will of God; And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me by their unbelief and murmuring? and how long will it be ere they believe me for all the signs which I have showed among 12 them? I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, will deprive them of the land promised to their fathers, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they. Thus God was pleased to try the fidelity of Moses, his affection to Israel, and regard for God's glory.

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And Moses immediately pleads in their behalf, and said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear [it] and boast of it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from 14 among them; And they will tell [it] to the inhabitants of this land, the Canaanites: [for] they have heard that thou LORD [art] among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and [that] thy cloud standeth over them, and [that] thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and 15 in a pillar of fire by night. Now [if] thou shalt kill [all] this people as one man, then the nations which 16 have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, could work no more miracles for them, nor effect what he had promised, therefore he hath 17 slain them in the wilderness. And now, I beseech thee, let

the power of my Lord be great, appear to be so, by pardoning their sin, (v. 19.) according as thou hast spoken, saying, 18 The LORD [is] long suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing [the guilty,] visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation ;] thou hast threatened 19 to visit, but not to destroy as one man at once, therefore Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people many transgressions, from Egypt even until now. A strange

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plea! even the greatness of past transgressions, and past forgivenesses.

And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word, to thy intercession, for the present, and as to that universal 21 destruction threatened against them, v. 12; But [as] truly [as] I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD; the report of the glorious and righteous acts of God in punishing this 22 rebellious people in the manner following: Because all those men which have seen my glory, my glorious works and appearances in the cloud and in the tabernacle, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, have tempted me, have dared and defied me, now these ten times, many times, or liter23 ally ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it ;' none who are above twenty years old, who came out of Egypt, and con24 curred in this wickedness, shall see Canaan! But my servant Caleb, and Joshua also, because he had another spirit with him, different from, and more excellent than that which the rest of the spies had, (see Joshua xiv. 9.) and hath followed me fully, in a full and constant obedience, with a faithful heart, and in the midst of dangers, trials, and extremities, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. 25 (Now the Amalekites, and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley, or, lay in ambush there, being alarmed at the approach of the Israelites ;) Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, or the way that leads to the Red sea, and to Egypt; whither you desired to return, v. 4.*

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And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, say 27 ing, How long [shall I bear with] this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the 28 children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, [As truly as] I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken 29 in mine ears, so will I do to you: Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, 30 which have murmured against me,t Doubtless ye shall not come into the land [concerning] which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the 31 son of Nun. But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which 32 ye have despised. But [as for] you, your carcasses they shall 33 fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, the

Bp. Patrick is of opinion, that they began to murmur again at this declaration, and on this God repeats his threatening.

Observe here, that the Levites who were not numbered, and the pious Israelites who did not murmur, are excepted.

punishment due to your rebellions and breach of covenant, until 34 your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, [even] forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, [even] forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise, know to your 35 cost, what it is to charge me with a breach of promise.* I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congre gation, that are gathered together against me: in this wil derness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

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And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned and made all the congregation to murmur against 37 him, by bringing up a slander upon the land, Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the 38 plague before the LORD. But Joshua the son of Nun, and **Caleb the son of Jephunneh, [which were] of the men that went to search the land, lived [still ;] were not hurt by it. 39) *And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Isra 40 el and the people mourned greatly. And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we [be here,] and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned. What Moses had said, and the death of the spies, had such an effect upon all the people, that they would enter the land immediately, 41 contrary to God's express command. And Moses said, Where. fore even now do ye transgress the commandment of the LORD? 42 but it shall not prosper. Go not up, for the LORD [is] not

among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies. 43 For the Amalekites, and the Canaanites [are] there before

you, and ye shall fall by the sword, (v. 25.) because ye are - turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be 44 with you. But they, as mad now one way, as they had been be fore in the other, presumed to go up unto the hill top nevertheless, the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp: but they slighted this, and fared accordingly.

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Then the Amalekites came down, like bees in great swarms, and with great fury, (see Deut. i. 44.) and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, [even] unto Hormah, that is, destruction, so called from this melancholy affair.||

The LXX render it, the greatness and fury of my indignation, by the awful manner in which I will break in upon you.

The Jews say, they died by a disorder that made their tongues to swell and hang out of their mouths: or rather, as the twelve spies stood before the Lord at the tabernacle, fire came out of the cloud and destroyed ten of them.

No wonder they mourned, but it was too late, Psalm cvi. 25. The Jews keep an yearly fast on this occasion..

Thus their carcasses began to fall in the wilderness. On this occasion it is thought that Moses composed the ninetieth Psalm; in which he laments the shortness of life, and prays for grace to make a wise improvement of their calamitous state.

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REFLECTIONS. MANN

HE exhortation which Paul gives to the Corinthians, in his first epistle, ch. x. 10. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer, may be properly applied to us; as we are in great danger of the same sin. If Israel, after all the miracles before related, behaved so perversely and wickedly, who can say he is in no danger of sin, particularly of unbelief, of distrust, of having ill thoughts of God, and of being discontented and impatient? Of all these was Isra el's sin composed; and they are all too common in the world. Men are apt to complain for they know not what; raise difficulties were there are none; murmur at this or that condition, when the fault is in their own spirit and temper. Let us carefully at tend to the advice of the Psalmist, Harden not your hearts as in the day of provocation in the wilderness, lest God should swear in his wrath that we shall not enter into his rest. The apostle en larges upon this in the third and fourth chapters of his epistle to the Hebrews, which will, perhaps, appear to have peculiar beauty and force, after what we have been reading. Since we have Canaan before us, that rest which remaineth for the people of God; let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into that rest, any of us come short of it through unbelief. Let us not be discouraged by difficulties, or we shall certainly perish. There is no happiness for us if we are excluded the heavenly Canaan. It is of great importance therefore that we take heed, lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. We may be ready to blame Israel, and to think it impossible we should be so foolish; but the apostle thought there was danger, for he says, these things were written for our admonition; wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

2. Let us be encouraged from the example of Caleb and Joshua, to follow the Lord fully to follow him universally, without dividing, that is, without having two masters, two interests, or two objects of pursuit: uprightly, without dissembling; cheerfully, without disputing; and constantly, without declining. It is a delightful character, and well pleasing both to God and man, to be resolutely good in a degenerate age. May we thus follow him, whatever we bear, or whatever we part with, for the testimony of a good conscience. It is to be feared, that good men have generally as great odds against them as the good spies had; that there are ten wicked to two good, We have need to exercise great caution, lest evil examples seduce or terrify us. We have need of great resolution, must gird up the loins of our mind, break through difficulties, and not follow a multitude to do evil. Those that are zealous for God in a crooked and perverse generation, shall be owned by him with peculiar honour another day; they shall be distinguished, as those two good men were, from the rest; they shall be mine, saith the Lord, in that day when I make up my jewels.

CHAP. XV.

To show that God intended to bring the children of these rebels into Canaan, he enacts more laws for their conduct when they came there. Here is the law of sundry offerings and the stoning of a sabbath breaker.

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1 ND the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land of your habitations, which I give unto you, 3 And will make an offering by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice in performing a vow, or in a free will offering, or in your solemn feasts, to make a sweet savour unto 4 the LORD, of the herd or of the flock: Then shall he that offereth his offering unto the LORD bring a meat offering of a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth [part] of an hin of 5 oil. And the fourth [part] of an hin of wine for a drink offering shalt thou prepare with the burnt offering or sacrifice, 6 for one lamb. Or for a ram, thou shalt prepare [for] a meat offering two tenth deals of flour mingled with the third [part] 7 of an hin of oil. And for a drink offering thou shalt offer the third [part] of an hin of wine, [for] a sweet savour unto the 8 LORD. And when thou preparest a bullock [for] a burnt offering, or [for] a sacrifice in performing a vow, or peace offer9 ings unto the LORD: Then shall he bring with a bullock a meat offering of three tenth deals of flour mingled with half 10 an hin of oil. And thou shalt bring for a drink offering half

an hin of wine, [for] an offering made by fire, of a sweet sa11 vour unto the LORD. Thus shall it be done for one bullock, 12 or for one ram, or for a lamb, or a kid. According to the number that ye shall prepare, so shall ye do to every one according to their number, that is, for so many cattle, there should 13 be so many meat and drink offerings. All that are born of the country shall do these things after this manner, in offering an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.

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And if a stranger sojourn with you, or whosoever [be] among you in your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD; as ye do, so he shall do; which was designed to encourage strangers to settle among them and embrace their religion, and lead the Jews 15 to be kind to them and entertain them. One ordinance [shall be both] for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth [with you,] an ordinance for ever in your

The reason why meat and drink offerings attended their sacrifices was, because the sacrifices were feasts, and called the food and bread of God. The temple was his palace, the altar his table; and as bread and wine, as well as flesh, make part of our entertainments, so God required them at his table; and oil also, which was used instead of butter among them; in other places salt and frankincense were required.

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