CHAPTER I.

THE Israelites, at the date of the opening of this book, had remained about a year in the vicinity of Mount Sinai, whither they had arrived within little more than a month after their departure from Egypt. During this time of nearly thirteen months they had erected and furnished the Tabernacle, and had received the various laws and institutions recorded in the preceding books, and had been undergoing a certain preliminary discipline or training in the matters of divine worship, which infinite wisdom saw to be of the utmost importance for them in the circumstances in which they were placed. They had but recently been delivered from a state of degrading bondage, and had come forth from under the hand of their oppressors as a somewhat rude and uncultivated horde, requiring to be put through a kind of educational process before they would be fit to answer, in all respects, the ends of their marvellous selection and segregation | as a peculiar people. These ends were in a great measure typical and representative. A "church in the wilderness" was to be formed that should, in its distinguishing economy of rites and ceremonies, laws and judgments, fitly foreshadow that future Christian and spiritual Church, in which it was ordained that all those shadows should be turned into substance. It was indeed a burdensome yoke that was to be imposed upon them, and it is not difficult to perceive that their shoulders must be grad

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ually inured to the load which they were called, for so many ages, to bear. Hence their protracted stay at Sinai, which would naturally tend to break them in to the service allotted them in their typical capacity-a capacity in which it appears from the whole drift of the Epistle to the Hebrews they were mainly called to act. For this end it was necessary, moreover, that a certain external order and organization should be adopted, whereby the analogous arrangements of the ulterior spiritual body, of long subsequent development, should be suitably set forth. Hence it was that a special mustering and enumeration, of the people, together with a prescribed form of encampment, was ordered at the time of the commencement of the present history, for which we may in addition suggest a number of collateral ends to be answered; as, (1.) That the people might have palpable evidence how fully the Lord had made good his promise to Abraham of multiplying his seed. (2.) That every Israelite might know for himself and be able to declare to his posterity, from what tribe he descended and to what family he belonged, and this more especially with a view that the genealogy of the future Messiah might be clearly ascertained. (3.) That in case of an attack from their enemies, they might know their strength as a military body; in which character however they are to be looked upon as pre-eminently typical of a church militant, for nothing can be conceived more abhorrent to the

CHAPTER I. ND the LORD spake unto the LORD Moses in the wilderness of

divine love and wisdom than wars and conquests viewed in any other light. They may be permitted, but never approved. (4.) That a more orderly method of march in their journey to Canaan might be secured. "It is a rout and a rabble," says Henry, "not an army, that is not mustered and put in order." With these prefatory remarks we enter upon the critical exposition of the text.

The Mustering of the Tribes. V. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai. The true rendering of this clause depends upon the determination of the question, whether the census here ordered to be taken is the same with that previously mentioned, Ex. 30:12. 38:26, or an entirely different one-a point about which commentators greatly differ. In the one case, the present would be the correct rendering; in the other it would. be, "The Lord had said." The identity of the two enumerations is favored by the identity of the sum total of each, viz. 603,550, and by the difficulty of conceiving why a second numbering should be ordered within so short a time-not more than a few monthsafter the first. But on the other hand, it is disfavored by the express specification of dates. The census mentioned Ex. 30:12 and 38:26 was evidently ordered in reference to the poll-tax of half a shekel which was to accompany it, and from which a portion of the revenue necessary for the work of the Tabernacle was to be derived. Indeed, it is expressly stated Ex. 38: 25-27, that the silver sockets of the Tabernacle were made out of the half shekels conributed on this occasion. The cen

Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day

a Ex. 19, 1. Num. 10, 12.

we

sus, therefore, which yielded this fund must have been taken previous to the erection of the sacred edifice, and this, we learn, was finished and set up on the first day of the first month of the second year of the sojourn in the wilderness. But in the passage before us the command to number the people was given on the first day of the second month of the same year, or precisely one month after the erection of the sanctuary. Were it not for this very explicit mention of dates we should be inclined to Mr. Kitto's opinion, who remarks of the present census, that " may doubt whether the enumeration in Ex. 38:26 is the result of a different one. A census must always occupy some time in making, and yet we find an interval of only a few months between the two periods; and if we suppose them different it is impossible to conceive why a second enumeration should so immediately follow the first. Besides, the amount stated in both instances is the same, namely, 603,550— an identity of numbers scarcely possible even in the interval of a few months, had the enumerations been different. We therefore think that the census is the same: it was completed doubtless in time to make the poll-tax available for the works of the Tabernacle, and the result is stated incidentally in Ex. 38: 26, in connection with the amount; while here we have a more particular account of the same enumeration in order to show the relative strength of the different tribe." This would be a very probable view of the matter but for the difficulty stated above. If the census was made in time to be available for the work of the Tabernacle, it must have been made prior to the first day of

of the second month, in the second year after they were come

the first month of the second year; but that brings it in conflict with the present, which was not ordered till the first day of the second month. In this emergency Rosenmuller adopts the suggestion of Vater, that the text has been tampered with by some one who, supposing that a new census is here spoken of, took the liberty to affix a false notation of the time. But as we are opposed from principle to all such gratuitous expedients in the way of solving difficulties, it remains, if possible, to find some solution which shall not impeach the integrity of the sacred text, and we have satisfied our own mind that in the command here given as to numbering the congregation, the previous one was to be assumed as a basis. As far as the bare numbers were concerned, the tables or register already made out would answer; and this accounts for the fact that the sum total is the same in both cases. Prof. Palfrey here remarks, with great probability, that "the second was not so much a distinct counting, as a more formal verification of the first." When Eleazar and Ithamar," he adds, "had already so recently made out their enumeration of the people for one purpose, it is altogether unlikely that their lists would be disregarded, and a work so onerous be gone through a second time de integro. It is safely to be presumed, that the list first made would be put into the hands of the officers who were to superintend the new enrolment; and that as the number, supposing it to have been accurately stated in the first instance, could not have become materially different in so short a space of time, the main purpose would be to authenticate it, without disturbing it any further than to count, instead of each individual in any com

out of the out of the land of Egypt, saying,

pany who had died in the interval, the name of some one who had grown up to full age.” (Lect. on Jewish Ant. vol. I. p. 313.) Thus too Dr. Chalmers (Script. Readings in loc.) :—“ Henry speaks of their being numbered before from Ex. 38:25, 26, and remarks on the perfect coincidence of the two censuses. But may it not have been one census, even the present one? We have only to suppose that the levy, though begun and proceeded with, was not completed till after the enumeration was finished.” The object of the measure in the present case was not therefore precisely the same that it was before. Then it was to obtain a revenue per capita for the service of the sanctuary. Now it was with a view to order and arrangement among the different tribes, as well as to ascertain, perhaps, their relative strength. But this design will disclose itself more fully as we unfold the import of terms in what follows. We simply remark at present that the difference between this and the former numbering we regard as the difference between a census and a muster. What that is the reader will soon be able to apprehend.

באהל מועד

-¶ In the tabernacle of the congregation. Heb. beohel moëd, in the tabernacle of appointment, or of stated meeting. Gr. "Tent or tabernacle of witness," doubtless from its containing the book of the law, which is frequently spoken of as the witness of the covenant established between the Lord and his people. See Note on Ex. 27:21. Tabernacle of witness.'-Coverdale. Tent of the congregation.'Ainsworth. 'Tabernacle of the covenant.'-Douay. 'Public tent.'—Purver. There were three places in which the Lord gave audience to Moses, and from which he spake to him. One was at