Numbers 11

No. 11 1 And the people were as murmurers, speaking evil in the ears of the LORD: and when the LORD heard it, his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, 2 and devoured in the uttermost part of the camp. And the people cried unto Moses; and 3 Moses prayed unto the LORD, and the fire abated. And the name of that place was called Taberah: because the fire of the LORD burnt among them. 4 And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel 5 also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt for nought; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions,

6 and the garlick : but now our soul is dried away ; there is nothing at all : we have nought 7 save this manna to look to. And the manna was like coriander seed, and the appearance 8 thereof as the appearance of bdellium. The people went about, and gathered it, and ground it in mills, or beat it in mortars, and seethed it in pots, and made cakes of it : and the taste 9 of it was as the taste of fresh oil. And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the 10 manna fell upon it. And Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent : and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly ; and Moses was 11 displeased. And Moses said unto the LORD, Wherefore hast thou evil entreated thy servant ? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this peo- 12 ple upon me ? Have I conceived all this people ? have I brought them forth, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing-father carrieth the sucking 13 child, unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers ? Whence should I have flesh to 14 give unto all this people ? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. I 15 am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight ; and let me not see my wretchedness. 16 And the LORD said unto Moses, Gather unto me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them ; and bring them unto the 17 tent of meeting, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there : and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them ; and 18 they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow, and ye shall eat flesh : for ye have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat ? for it was well with 19 us in Egypt : therefore the LORD will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. Ye shall not eat one day, 20 nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days ; but a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you : because that ye have rejected the LORD 21 which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt ? And Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen ; and thou hast 22 said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month. Shall flocks and herds be slain for them, to suffice them ? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them ? 23 And the LORD said unto Moses, Is the LORD’s hand waxed short ? now shalt thou see whether 24 my word shall come to pass unto thee or not. And Moses went out, and told the people the words of the LORD : and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them 25 round about the Tent. And the LORD came down in the cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and put it upon the seventy elders : and it came to pass, 26 that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, but they did so no more. But there remained two men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad : and the spirit rested upon them ; and they were of them that were written, but had 27 not gone out unto the Tent : and they prophesied in the camp. And there ran a young man, 28 and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. And Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, one of his chosen men, answered and said, My lord Moses, 29 forbid them. And Moses said unto him, Art thou jealous for my sake ? would God that all the 30 LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his spirit upon them ! And Moses gat 31 him into the camp, he and the elders of Israel. And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day’s journey on this side, and a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and about two cubits 32 above the face of the earth. And the people rose up all that day, and all the night, and all the next day, and gathered the quails : he that gathered least gathered ten homers : and they 33 spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp. While the flesh was yet be- tween their teeth, ere it was chewed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, 34 and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague. And the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah : because there they buried the people that lusted.

This and the following three chapters recount the successive rebellions of the Israelites after their departure from Sinai ; culminating in that by which they brought upon themselves the sentence of personal exclusion from the land of promise. Incidentally the narrative furnishes some details of the northward march. Espin.

1. We read of their murmurings several times when they came first out of Egypt. But we do not read of any plagues inflicted on them for their murmurings, as there were now; for now they had had great experience of God’s care of them, and therefore now to distrust him was so much the more inexcusable. Now a fire was kindled against Jacob (Ps. 78:21). H.—The indulgence allowed to their weakness at the first is no longer conceded to them after the training and organization they had undergone—and after the further opportunities afforded them of understanding their relations to the Lord, and their experience of his care and bounty, his power and judgments. All murmurings before Sinai are passed over, or merely rebuked—all murmuring and rebellion after Sinai bring down punishment and doom. They have now a law, and know what it exacts from them, and by that law they must be judged. So in this case, the fire of the Lord came, and “consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.” The name of Taberah, or the burning, was given to the spot in sorrowful memory of the event. Kit.

2. The prevalency of Moses’s intercession for them; when Moses prayed unto the Lord (he was always ready to stand in the gap to turn away the wrath of God), God had respect to him and his offering, and the fire was quenched. By this it appears that God delights not in punishing, for when he has begun his controversy, he is soon prevailed with to let it fall. Moses was one of those worthies who by faith quenched the violence of fire. H. 3. Taberah. 34. Kibroth-hattaavah. The “burning,” which gave to the place the name of Taberah, occurred on the outer edge of the camp (verse 1). Taberah was then the name of a spot in or near the station of Kibroth-hattaavah, and accordingly is not named in the list of encampments given (Nu. 33). Espin. 4. Mixed multitude. We should very imperfectly realize to our minds the idea of the great Hebrew camp if we ignored the existence in it of a large body of Egyptian people of the lowest order. In Ex. 12:38 they are described as “a great rabble,” for such is the literal import of the Hebrew phrase. In the grosser discontents and low repinings, it is “the mixed multitude” who take the lead; and in De. 29:10, the members of this great body—the strangers of the camp—seem to be described as having become servants to the Hebrew host: “Thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood to the drawer of thy water.” Kit.

5,6. God “had opened the doors of heaven,” so as to supply them with the “corn of heaven,” and the bread “of angels,” and yet they complain that they are famished, while they are abundantly supplied. They complain that there is nothing before their eyes but manna: as if their loathing of this excellent and abundant food was actual famine. Calv.—They were madly in love with the idolatries of Egypt. Hence, on every little distress, “Let us go back to Egypt,” was their never-ceasing cry. It was not merely the flesh pots—the fish, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic—it was the spiritual luxury of Egypt, her superstitions, with which the people were so debauched; a debauchery, which neither gentleness nor severity, neither mercy nor vengeance, neither the blaze of miracle nor the terrors of prophetic denunciation, could ever wholly overcome; a debauchery, of whose malignant virus the nation was at last purged only in the fiery furnace of a seventy years’ captivity. E. C. W.

Oh, the precious time that is buried in the grave of murmuring! When the murmurer should be praying, he is murmuring against the Lord; when he should be hearing, he is murmuring against Divine providences; when he should be reading, he is murmuring against instruments; and in these and a thousand other ways do murmurers expend that precious time which some would redeem with a world. Brooks.

7-9. The manna was sufficiently palatable for all practical purposes and had the necessary elements for the real bread—the staff of life—for a whole nation during forty years of wilderness life, with its alternations of marchings and encampments; of labor and of rest.

The points which evinced the miraculous hand of God were—that it came from no known or possible source of supply in the kingdom of nature; that it fell in the full amount needed for the thousands of Israel; fell on each of six mornings but not at all on the seventh, the Sabbath; that the average amount on five of these mornings was a supply for one day, while on the morning next preceding the Sabbath, a double quantity fell, being a supply for two days; that the gathering for the first five days of the week could be kept only one day, but the double supply of the sixth day remained sweet and pure for two days; and moreover, a quantity laid up by God’s command in the sacred ark remained unchanged for many generations. Thus wonderfully did the Almighty impress his hand upon every feature of this bread from heaven! H. C. (See Section 97.)

11-15. These murmurings of theirs reflected great dishonor upon God, and Moses laid to heart the reproaches cast on him. They knew that he did his utmost for their good, and that he did nothing, nor could, without a Divine appointment; and yet to be thus continually clamored against by an unreasonable ungrateful people would break in upon the temper even of Moses himself. God considered this, and therefore we do not find that he chid him. Yet Moses expressed himself otherwise than became him upon this provocation, and came short of his duty both to God and Israel in these expostulations. He speaks distrustfully of the Divine grace, when he despairs of being able to bear all this people (verse 14). Had the work been much less, he could not have gone through it in his own strength: but had it been much greater, through God strengthening him he might have done it. It was worst of all passionately to wish for death, and desire to be killed out of hand because just at this time his life was made a little uneasy to him (verse 15). Is this Moses? Is this the meekest of all the men on the earth? The best have their infirmities, and fail sometimes in the exercise of that grace which they are most eminent for. But God graciously overlooked Moses’s passion at this time. H.—God was exceeding merciful to the sin of Moses, because it was of human infirmity, and because it was the petulant outbreak of a mind and heart overcharged with grief and failure. Even so did our Lord bear with his apostles, and will bear with all the errors and outbreaks of an honest heart. R. W.

The Lord permits even the stronger language of dissatisfaction in his servant, as already before (Ex. 32:11). The wish to die was certainly a despairing and therefore a sinful wish. But God would rather that his servants should lay open before him in their prayers even such unholy movements of their heart, than that they should express their sorrow in any other way. In no way can this hidden sin of murmuring, of fear, of despondency, be so completely removed as by making it known to the merciful and gracious One. Gri.

16. Note the Divine dignity and goodness of the Lord’s answer. The one thing in Moses’s prayer which was reasonable he allowed at once; the rest he passed over without answer or reproof, as though it had never been uttered. R. W.

16,17,24. Seventy men of the elders of Israel.** The selection of the seventy elders and the prophetic gift bestowed on them is plainly distinct in character from the selection of judges (Section 155), as well as later in time. Not merely the exclusive judgeship, but the sole exercise of the prophetic office was too heavy a burden, and needed to be shared with others. Birks.

The Hebrew Theocracy was engrafted upon a previously existing patriarchal government, and therefore it recognized this previous system as substantially the common law of the land, to be in force except so far as modified by special legislation under the new régime given from the Lord through Moses. This principle is illustrated in the powers and functions of the elders, known as “heads of the house of their fathers;” “princes;” “heads of the thousands of Israel” (Ex 6:25, and Nu. 3:24, 30, 35, and 1:16, and 10:4). H. C.—The elders or chiefs of the tribes, who appear as the background of the primitive constitution, existed before the exodus (Ex. 4:29). The priests were not part of them (2 Ch. 31:2). Through all the changes of the office, the name still continued. From time to time it appears in the settled period of the monarchy. On the dissolution of the kingdom it reasserts something of its original importance. Out of the elders of the desert thus grew the elders of the synagogues; and out of the elders of the synagogues—with no change of name except that which took place in passing from Hebrew to Greek and from Greek to the languages of modern Europe—the “Presbyters” of Christendom. That word and that office, so limited in its present meaning, is the direct descendant of the rudest and most primitive forms of the Jewish nation. The Christian Presbyter represents not the sacerdotal, but the primitive element of the ancient Church. Stanley.

The distinguishing office, in every age alike, is the “elder,” the successor of the patriarch. Already, when Moses comes to Egypt there are elders to receive him and examine his commission. Moses makes no change in the government—the elders continue to rule. One great source of confusion in reading the Law of Moses and his history arises from the fact that, like all other nations, the title of elder was given also to the civil magistrates of the courts set up at the suggestion of Jethro. But the careful reader will find that no ancient system of government kept the civil and ecclesiastical so distinct as the system of Moses. It is very easy in any case to see whether the elders who act are Church elders or civil magistrates, even though the ultimate appeal of both was to Jehovah himself at the tabernacle. In all subsequent times the same government is found. Jeremiah is condemned to prison by an ecclesiastical court of the elders; Ezekiel, a captive among the captives on the far-distant Chebar, is found sitting with the “elders” of Judah in council when the message of Jehovah comes to him. So chief priests and elders counselled at Christ’s birth and death—so the Apostle Paul, called the elders at Ephesus—so at Jerusalem a synod was of elders with apostles. Now you may see significance of John’s vision of twenty-four elders that represented the Church still organized, as it stands before the great throne.

To Israel as a church was given the Passover, the Sinai Law with its ritual of worship and ecclesiastical law. To the Israelites as a State was given, in fulfilment of the covenant with Abraham, to inherit as a civil government the land of Canaan. As a church, not as a State, Israel, under the Mosaic forms of ordinance, worshipped Jehovah. As a State, not as a church, the people administered civil government and punished with pains and penalties the transgression of the civil law. Nor did it make it less a civil government that Jehovah was its theocratic King, to direct and decide cases in the last resort. As a church, not as a State, Israel had priests and elders and Levites to administer in spiritual things. As a State, not as a church, Israel had judges and magistrates who wielded the sword of power. As a church, not as a State, Israel had ecclesiastical courts to adjudge in what were called the “Lord’s matters,” with a supreme court of last resort (see De. 17:8-12 and 2 Ch. 19:5-11). As a State, not as a church, Israel had a series of civil courts for “the King’s matters,” appealing in the last resort to a supreme court and the oracle, as may be seen from the same passages. As a church, Israel admitted foreigners into membership by the rite of circumcision and to all the privileges of the people of God. As a State, Israel excluded foreigners from civil dignities and from the right to inherit or hold real estate. As a church Israel changed not, nor could change, the form and order of the Church’s administration. As a State Israel could and did change its form of government from chieftain and republican to monarchical rulers. As a church Israel continued to exist, even after being carried away from Canaan. In the captivity, though without the temple and altar, the prophets still conferred with the presbytery or eldership; and after the captivity the Church still continued, whereas the State as an independent government perished at the captivity. Any one bearing these points in mind as he studies the Mosaic institutes and the subsequent hishistory will be surprised to find how readily the whole system may be understood with this key; and how strange is the confusion of ideas under either the popular or the scientific theory of the Mosaic system, which represents the Law at Mount Sinai as certain vague moral and ritual precepts, together with certain semi-political laws organizing a sort of half church, half State, with which the Christian Church has nothing to do. S. R.

21-23. The record of this weakness of faith on the part of one who, according to the same history, had been accustomed to Divine interpositions equally remarkable with anything here promised, shows the thorough honesty of the narrator; while it affords some measure whereby to estimate the extent to which so great a multitude must have been indebted to extraordinary sources for their daily supply. Had there been anything like a suitable provision for their subsistence, either in the desert or obtainable from friendly tribes, the above promise would not have been received by Moses with such incredulity as to call forth the rebuke that followed (verse 23). D. M.—How, in these wide deserts, this host of more than two millions of souls could find supplies for their support without a constant miracle, I am unable to divine. Yet among them we read only of occasional longings and complaints; while the tribes that now roam over the same regions, numbering scarcely as many thousands, are exposed to famine and privation of every kind; and at the best obtain only a meagre and precarious subsistence. Robinson.

The sacred writer, with singular candor, under the moving of the Holy Spirit, records not only his own utter disgust with a temper in his people so unreasonable and ungrateful, but the influence of such a spirit in enfeebling his own faith. With the giving way of his patience there comes upon him also a spirit of unbelief that leads him also to murmur. And when the fullest assurance is given by Jehovah—“The Lord will give you flesh, and ye shall eat”—the querulous, desponding Moses replies with incredulity and unbelief. We are ready to exclaim in amazement: Is this the Moses, the man of heroic faith? And yet, with all this exhibition of an improper spirit, there is no record of any fault found with him. The Lord is merciful and gracious. He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. It is simply of the Lord’s mercy that we are not consumed. How often comes home this reproof: “Is the Lord’s hand shortened?” S. R.—Whatever our unbelieving hearts may suggest to the contrary, it is certain that God’s hand is not short, his power cannot be restrained by anything but his own will, with him nothing is impossible. That hand is not short which measures the waters, metes out the heavens, and grasps the winds. And this is sufficient to silence all our distrusts when means fail us, Is anything too hard for the Lord? H.

25. Then, to show in sight of all men that he had appointed such help, yet only as a help to Moses, God “cause down in a cloud,” spake unto Moses, and then put of his spirit upon these “elders.” In manifestation of this new gift “they prophesied,” by which, however, we are to understand probably that “speaking in the spirit” which in the New Testament also is designated as “prophesying.” A. E.

27. Eldad and Medad do prophesy.** These, it seems, made two of the seventy elders—they were written though they went not out to the Tabernacle—they were enrolled as of the elders, but went not to meet God at the Tabernacle, probably at that time prevented by some hindrance—but they continued in the camp using their new function in exhorting the people. A. C.—The Spirit of God found them out in the camp, and there they prophesied—that is, they exercised their gift of praying, preaching, and praising God. The Spirit of God is not tied to the Tabernacle, but, like the wind, blows where he listeth. There was a special providence in it that these two should be absent, for thus it appeared that it was indeed a Divine Spirit which the elders were actuated by, and that Moses gave them not that Spirit, but God himself. H.

28. My lord Moses, forbid them. Probably he did not know that they had been enrolled, and he was naturally jealous for the honor of Moses—a jealousy which was not at all unnecessary, as the events of the next chapter proved. The prophesying of Eldad and Medad in the camp might well seem like the setting up of an independent authority not in harmony with that of Moses. R. W.

Moses, having no aim to his own glory, replied that he wished “all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them.” If God would have thus immediately revealed his will to every Israelite, the people would all have known what they were to do, as well as Moses himself; and he, not seeking his own honor, but sincerely desiring to be “faithful to him that appointed him,” would have heartily rejoiced to see the Divine purpose and design thus effectually taking place among his people. Shuckford.

“Would God,” was the longing of Moses, “that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them!” His desire was fulfilled at Pentecost, and is realized now. Every believer possesses the Holy Spirit, not for his own spiritual life only, but to be a witness for Christ, as were the hundred and twenty at Pentecost. Equally does the charge to publish the glad tidings, and the promise of adequate power come to every one, according to that closing command of inspiration, “Let him that heareth say, Come!” Nay, more, the tongue of fire, the gift of utterance in its fitting measure, is always bestowed upon the kindled heart. Every one who seeks humbly and prayerfully to be a witness for Christ, in the home, in the ways of toil, in the spheres of intercourse, in the house of prayer, by the printed page, with the lips, and by the life, every such faithful disciple of the living Master shall receive his promised gift, the Pentecostal power of the Holy Ghost! B.

31,32. The quail migrates in vast flocks and regularly crosses the Arabian Desert, flying for the most part by night. The period when they were brought to the camp of Israel was in spring, when on their northward migration from Africa. According to their well-known instinct, they would follow up the coast of the Red Sea till they came to its bifurcation by the Sinaitic peninsula, and then, with a favoring wind, would cross at the narrow part, resting near the shore before proceeding. Accordingly, we read that the wind brought them up from the sea, and that, keeping close to the ground, they fell thick as rain about the camp in the month of April, according to our calculation. Thus the miracle consisted in the supply being brought to the tents of Israel by the special guidance of the Lord in exact harmony with the known habits of the bird. The Israelites “spread them out,” when they had taken them before they were sufficiently refreshed to escape, “round about the camp,” to dry them and prepare them for food, exactly as Herodotus tells us the Egyptians were in the habit of doing, drying them in the sun. Again, it was at even that they began to arrive, and by the morning the whole flock had settled. I have myself seen the ground in Algeria, in the month of April, covered with quails for an extent of many acres at daybreak, where in the preceding afternoon there had not been one. Tristram.

33. Hardly had they tasted the flesh ere the plague began among them. Even so greed has its natural reaction of misery, even in the life of this world, but it has its Divine punishment in the soul. “He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul,” says the Psalmist (106 : 15), revealing the spiritual truth which lay hid in this history. No man can cater greedily for his body without impoverishing his soul; no man can gratify eagerly his carnal appetites without incurring spiritual disease. R. W.—He had formerly pardoned the murmurings for which he now punished them. The same sin repeated is death, whose first act found remission: relapses are desperate where the sickness itself is not. It is a mortal thing to abuse the lenity of God: it is presumptuous madness to hope that God will quietly suffer us to provoke him how we will. It is more mercy than we are entitled to if he forbear us once: it is his justice to punish us the second time: it is our own fault if we will not profit by former warnings. Bp. H.

34. The remembrance of this is preserved in the name given to the place. Moses called it Kibroth-hattaavah, the graves of lusters, or of lust. And well it had been, if these graves of Israel’s lusters had proved the graves of Israel’s lust: the warning was designed to be so, but it had not its due effect, for it follows (Ps. 78 : 32). For all this, they sinned still. H.

MIRIAM AND AARON SPEAK AGAINST MOSES. JEHOVAH VINDICATES MOSES AND PUNISHES MIRIAM. AT HAZEROTH.

No. 11 35 FROM Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed unto Hazeroth; and they abode at Hazeroth.

12 1 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married: for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only with Moses? hath he not spoken also with us? And the LORD heard it. Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. And the LORD spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tent of meeting. And they three came out. And the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words: if there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, I will speak with him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so; he is faithful in all mine house: with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches; and the form of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses? And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed. And the cloud removed from over the Tent; and, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said unto Moses, Oh my lord, lay not, I pray thee, sin upon us, for that we have done foolishly, and for that we have sinned. Let her not, I pray, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother’s womb. And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, Heal her, O God, I beseech thee. And the LORD said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? let her be shut up without the camp seven days, and after that she shall be brought in again. And Miriam was shut up without the camp seven days: and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again.

1. Miriam stands foremost as the author of this revolt against Moses, which originated in spiritual pride; and for that reason she is chiefly subjected to the punishment. Aaron, consistently with the well-known softness of his character, allows himself to be drawn by his sister into the same sin, takes her side, and joins her in reproaching their brother. C. G. B.—Is not this Aaron, that was brother in nature, and by office joint commissioner with Moses, that made his brother an intercessor for him to God in the case of his idolatry, that climbed up the hill of Sinai with Moses, whom the mouth and hand of Moses consecrated a high-priest unto God? Is not this Miriam, the elder sister of Moses, Miriam that led the triumph of the women and sung gloriously to the Lord? Who would not have thought this should have been their glory, to have seen the glory of their own brother? Bp. H.

A Cushite woman. The name of Cush, the son of Ham, is applied in Scripture not only to Africa but to Arabia. Zipporah may have been called a Cushite, not as being herself of the children of Cush, but as belonging to a country which had received from them its name. Kit.

For the first time we here encounter that pride of Israel after the flesh and contempt for all other nations, which appeared throughout their after history in proportion as they misunderstood the spiritual meaning of their calling. Miriam and Aaron now actually boasted in that prophetic gift, which should have only wrought in them a sense of deep humility. A. E.—Admitting the existence of any sense in which Jethro’s daughter could be called a Cushite, it is obvious that her arrival might be very unwelcome to Miriam, since the wife of Moses would at least share the deference and attention which had hitherto belonged to his sister alone. The high consideration with which Jethro had been treated on his visit to the camp, and the influential position now taken by his son Hobab, may have been distasteful to Aaron. Yet his own position in the commonwealth was in some respects superior to that of Moses himself. The function of Moses was temporary, and would pass away with his life; whereas his own was permanent in himself and his heirs, and would leave him and them the foremost and most important persons in the State. He might not, therefore, always regard with patience the degree in which the full development of his own high office was superseded by the existing authority of Moses. That he was discontented is certain—that he made no secret of that discontent is clear—and that it had its principal source in the jealousy entertained of the powers exercised by Moses, is plainly stated. Kit.

By this contention of his own brother and sister with respect to the supremacy it was clearly shown that Moses was sustained by the power of God alone. At the same time it appears how natural is ambition to the minds of almost all men. Aaron and Miriam contend with their own brother for the supremacy; and yet they had received the most abundant proofs that he, whom they desire to overthrow, had been elevated by the hand of God, and was thus maintained in his position. For Moses had arrogated nothing to himself; therefore it was not allowable that man should attempt to undermine the dignity of that high office which God had conferred upon him. Besides, God had ennobled their own house and name in the person of Moses, and out of favor to him they had also been endued with peculiar gifts of their own. Aaron too had been by his brother associated with himself; Moses had allowed the high-priesthood to be transferred to him and his descendants, and thus had placed his own in subjection to them. What, then, was there for Aaron to begrudge his brother, when so exalted a dignity was vested in his own sons, while all the race of Moses was degraded? Culv.

God had spoken by Moses, but he had sometimes spoken also by them; and they intended to make themselves equal with him, though God had so many ways distinguished him. Striving to be greatest is a sin which easily besets disciples themselves, and it is exceeding sinful. Even those that are well preferred are seldom pleased if others be better preferred. Those that excel are commonly envied. H.—Pride is lightly the ground of all sedition. Which of their faces shined like Moses? Which of them had fasted twice forty days? Which of them ascended up to the top of Sinai, and was hid with smoke and fire? Which of them received the Law twice in two several tables, from God’s own hand? And yet they dare say, “Hath God spoken only by Moses?” They do not deny Moses’s honor, but they challenge a part with him; and as they were the elder in nature, so they would be equal in dignity, equal in administration. And yet how unfit were they? One, a woman, whom her sex debarred from rule; the other, a priest, whom his office sequestered from earthly government. Self-love makes men unreasonable, and teaches them to turn the glass to see themselves bigger, others less than they are. It is a hard thing for a man willingly and gladly to see his equals lifted over his head, in worth and opinion. Nothing will more try a man’s grace than questions of emulation. That man hath true light which can be content to be a candle before the sun of others. Bp. H.

3. There is about these words, as also about the passages in which Moses no less unequivocally records his own faults (Nu. 20:12; Ex. 4:24; De. 1:37), the simplicity of one who bare witness of himself, but not to himself (cf. Matt. 11:28, 29). The words are inserted to explain how it was that Moses took no steps to vindicate himself, and why consequently the Lord so promptly intervened. Espin.

No man could have given more proofs of his courage than Moses. He slew the Egyptian; he confronted Pharaoh in his own court; he beat the Midianite shepherds; he feared not the troops of Egypt; he durst behold the face of

God amid all the terrors of Sinai: and yet that Spirit which made and knew his heart, says, “He was very meek above all men upon earth.” Mildness and fortitude may well lodge together in one breast: to correct the misconceptions of these men who think none valiant but those that are fierce and cruel. Bp. H.—When God’s honor was concerned, as in the case of the golden calf, no man more zealous than Moses, but when his own honor was touched, no man more meek. God’s people are the meek of the earth (Zeph. 2: 3), but some are more remarkable than others for this grace, as Moses, who was thus fitted for the work he was called to, which required all the meekness he had and sometimes more. And sometimes the unkindness of our friends is a greater trial of our meekness than the malice of our enemies. Christ himself records his own meekness (Matt. 11: 29), I am meek and lowly in heart; and the copy of meekness which Christ has set was without a blot, that of Moses was not. H.

At his earliest call Moses prayed that Aaron might be the leader instead of himself; at Sinai he besought that his name might be blotted out if only his people might be spared; in the desert, he wished that not only he, but all the Lord’s people might prophesy. He founded no dynasty; his own sons were left in deep obscurity; his successor was taken from the rival tribe of Ephraim. He himself presents the highest type and concentration of endurance and self-abnegation. Stanley.—As we read this history, we can see that the service of Moses was rendered all for love, and nothing for reward. All he desired was the welfare of his countrymen, and their prosperous settlement in the land which God had covenanted to give them. He was the most heavily-burdened man in the encampment, and was literally only the highest among them, because he was the servant of all. W. M. T.

Meekness is the attribute assigned to Moses. But he was not meek to begin with. He was not meek when he smote the Egyptian and hid him in the sand; nor when, descending the mountain at sight of the people’s idolatry, he dashed in pieces the tables consecrated by the holograph of heaven, and for the moment felt that it was no use taking further pains with such a people. But seldom has the triumph been more complete. The man Moses became exceeding meek; and throughout all the sequel Meribah is the one brief outburst which interrupts the sweetness and self-control of nearly forty years. Hamilton.

4,5. But there was One who guarded the honor of Moses too well for him to be afflicted at the hard speeches even of a sister and a brother. It is emphatically remarked that “the Lord heard it.” They were all three—the two brothers and the sister—suddenly summoned before the door of the tabernacle. To that door the pillar of cloud visibly moved, and the voice of the Lord spoke to them from it in words well suited to fill their hearts with shame. Kit.—Moses had often showed himself zealous for God’s honor, and now God showed himself jealous for his reputation; for those that honor God he will honor, nor will he ever be behind-hand with any that appear for him. Judges of old sat in the gate of the city to try causes, and so on this occasion the Shechiaah in the cloud of glory stood at the door of the tabernacle. H.

—Come out ye three unto the tabernacle. God calls Aaron and Miriam to the tabernacle, that the very sanctity of the place may cast down their haughtiness; that in the presence of God they at length might learn to revere Moses, whose cause is upheld by God. Calv.

5-8. Because he was meek and complained not, therefore the Lord struck in for him the more. The less a man strives for himself, the more is God his champion. No sooner is the word out of Miriam’s mouth than the word of God’s reproof meets it. Moses was zealously careful for God’s glory, and now God is zealous for his. They had equalled themselves to Moses, God prefers him to them. Their plea was that God had spoken by them, as well as by Moses; God’s reply is, That he hath in a more entire fashion spoken to Moses than them. God spake to the best of them but either in their dream, sleeping; or in vision, waking; but to Moses he spake with more inward illumination, with more lively representation: to others, as a stranger; to Moses, as a friend. God had never so much magnified Moses to them, but for their envy. Bp. H.

7. Moses was a man of great integrity and tried fidelity. He is faithful in all my house. This is put first in his character, because grace excels gifts, love excels knowledge, and sincerity in the service of God puts a greater honor upon a man, and recommends him to the Divine favor, more than learning, abstruse speculations, and an ability to speak with tongues. God intrusted Moses to deliver his mind in all things to Israel; Israel intrusted him to treat for them with God; and he was faithful to both. Moses was therefore honored with clearer discoveries of God’s mind, and a more intimate communication with God, than any other prophet whatsoever. H.

8. With him will I speak mouth to mouth.** Moses received the Word of God direct from him and plainly, not through the medium of dream, vision, parable, dark saying, or such like (cf. Ex. 33 : 11 ; De. 34 : 10). Espin.—“Were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?” Notice the emphasis of that expression, “again-t my servant, against Moses?” We ought to be afraid to speak against any one, much more against those whom God has a mind to honor. This is the devil’s proper sin, for he is “the accuser of the brethren.” T. Manton.

9. God’s departure was a sign of immediate condemnation, because there was no need of any further questioning. After God had convicted them of their sin, he first pronounced sentence against Miriam, and then suddenly withdrew. That “the cloud departed” is added in explanation. Calv.

10. Since she would acknowledge no difference betwixt herself and her brother Moses, every Israelite now sees his face glorious, hers leprous. Now both Moses and Miriam need to wear a veil : the one to hide his glory ; the other, her deformity. Bp. H.—God’s wrath was exceedingly kindled against Miriam, because she had inflamed her brother’s mind. It was just that the blame should rest on her, since she had been the origin of the evil. In sparing Aaron, he had regard to the priesthood, inasmuch as in his person it would have been subjected to disgrace. Calv.

11,12. Aaron, that but just now joined with his sister in speaking against Moses, here is forced for himself and his sister to make a penitent address to him, and in the highest degree to magnify him (as if he had the power of God to forgive and heal), whom he had so lately vilified. H.—Lay not the sin upon us. Aaron speaks to Moses almost as if he were praying to God, so completely does he recognize in his brother the representative of God, in a far higher sense than himself. R. W.

13,14. O admirable meekness of Moses! His people rebelled against him : God proffers revenge ; he would rather die than they should perish. His sister rebels against him ; God works his revenge ; he will not give God peace till she be recured. Behold a worthy and noble pattern for us to follow. How far are they from this disposition who are not only content God should revenge, but are ready to prevent God’s revenge with their own! God’s love to Moses suffers him not immediately to obtain his suit for Miriam. If the judgment had been at once inflicted and removed, there had been no exexample of terror for others : God either denies or defers the grant of our requests for our good. It was fit for all that Miriam should continue some while leprous. There is no policy in a sudden removal of just punishment : unless the rain so fall that it lie and soak into the earth, it profits nothing. If the judgments of God should be only as passengers, and not sojourners for a little, they would be no whit regarded. Bp. H.

14. The act in question was not uncommon in itself, and in significance clearly marked (see De. 25 : 9). It was the distinctive note of public disgrace inflicted by one who had a right to inflict it. In the case of a father, it meant that he was thoroughly ashamed of his child, and judged it best (which would be only in extreme cases) to put his child to shame before all the world. So public a disgrace would certainly be felt in patriarchal times as a most severe calamity, and entailed by ordinary custom (as we learn here) retirement and mourning for seven days at least. How much more, when her Heavenly Father had been driven to inflict a public disgrace upon her for perverse behavior, should the shame and the sorrow not be lightly put away, but patiently endured for a decent period! R. W.

15. The punishment was as humiliating as it was public. Her tongue, so free upon her brother’s conduct, is mute enough now, except to cry if any approached her, “Unclean!” “unclean!” She who aspired to be Queen of Israel is cast forth as an unclean thing from the camp. When the dreadful punishment was finished she came back to the camp humbled, and no doubt strengthened in her soul by the correction she had received. There is no further record of her until the record of her death. S. R.

The Israelites are stayed seven days in the station of Hazeroth, for the punishment of Miriam. Og, Sihon, and the kings of Canaan resisted Israel, but hindered not their passage ; their own sins only stay them from removing. Afflictions are not crosses to us in the way to heaven, in comparison to our sins. Bp. H.

These things were written for our instruction. The lesson here has a very close application to all who engage as the Lord’s instruments and agents in the work of building up Christ’s kingdom. When those so engaged forget the nature of their calling, and fall into contentions and bickerings about their relative position as agents for Jehovah, the result must in the end be shame and humiliation to the envious and jealous and damage to the cause of Christ, about which he will surely make inquisition. How much of the strifes and bickering between Christians of the same church, and between different churches of the same body, and between different sects comes not from earnestly contending for the faith, but from the narrow jeal.

ousies and envyings wholly personal with those who indulge them? How often is it simply the Miriams and Aarons giving way to their petty jealousy under cover of scruples of conscience! S. R.

FROM HAZEROTH TO KADESH IN WILDERNESS OF PARAN. TWELVE SPIES TRAVERSE THE LAND OF CANAAN. REPORT OF TEN, AND OF CALEB AND JOSHUA. REBELLION OF THE PEOPLE. UPON MOSES’ PLEADING JEHOVAH REMITS JUDGMENT OF DESTRUCTION, BUT ANNOUNCES THEIR DOOM OF FORTY YEARS’ WANDERING AND DEATH IN THE DESERT. THE TEN SPIES DESTROYED BY PLAGUE. PRESUMPTUOUS ATTACK UPON THEIR NEAREST ENEMIES PUNISHED BY ISRAEL’S DEFEAT.