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Moses' Age.

DEUTERONOMY, XXXIV.

Moab, over against Beth-peor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.

(7) And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye 1 Heb., moisture. was not dim, nor his natural force 2 abated.

(8) And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and 2 Heb., fled. mourning for Moses were ended.

(9) And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses

sisted his resurrection. When the contest took place we cannot say. But Moses, who died and was buried, and Elijah, who was translated, "appeared in glory" on the holy mount, and the New Testament gives no hint of difference between them. We do not know how Moses could have appeared as a disembodied spirit so as to be seen of men.

(8) The children of Israel wept for Moses .. thirty days. .-As they did for Aaron, his brother (Num. xx. 29). It is remarkable that the burial and the tomb of Aaron are only alluded to in chap. x. 6. (See Note and Excursus on that passage.) Miriam was buried in Kadesh (Num. xx. 1).

(9) And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom.- Probably we should connect this with the preceding verse, "The days of mourn ing for Moses were ended," and ended more naturally because Joshua proved so well able to meet the wants of the people.

Moses had laid his hands upon him.-- See Num. xxvii. 18, 23. It is the first example of "ordination” in Holy Scripture.

The Praise of Moses.

had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the LORD commanded Moses.

(10) And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, (11) in all the signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, (12) and in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.

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And did as the Lord commanded Moses. -Not "commanded Joshua.' Joshua would not separate himself from the law given by his Master. Is it not true that when the Israel of God hearken to the true Joshua, they must needs do as the Lord commanded Moses?*

(10) And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.-Probably these words are later than the time of Joshua, when longer experience gave men the power to see how far inferior the prophets were to their great predecessor in this respect. The difference is most clearly set forth in Num. xii. 7, 8. (See Notes on that passage.)

It may be worth while to remark that nowhere does this phrase occur so often as in the record of the setting up of the tabernacle in the last chapter of Exodus. Seven times it is written there that all was done as the Lord commanded Moses. Is it not a figure of the "true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man"-the temple of His Body, which was prepared "to do Thy will, O God"?

EXCURSUS ON NOTES TO DEUTERONOMY.

EXCURSUS ON CHAPTER X. 6, 7.

THESE verses have always seemed to me to present the greatest difficulty in the whole of Deuteronomy. If it were not for their beautiful spiritual connection with the context, I should not know how to account for their presence in this place at all. And even so, the difference between this allusion to Aaron's death and the account given in Numbers, and the superficial resemblance between the four stages of the journey of Israel here mentioned, and four stages which belong to a different period (in Num. xxxiii. 31–34)—together create a somewhat formidable perplexity. The Samaritan Pentateuch increases the confusion by introducing here the stages mentioned in Num. xxxiii. 34-37-an obvious attempt to harmonise the accounts of two distinct things. The LXX. version of Deuteronomy x. 6, 7 supports the Hebrew text. The fact that the burial of Aaron is alluded to in this place only, shows that the verses in Deuteronomy cannot have been taken from those in Numbers. The following comparison will show the difference.

IN THE FOURTH PERIOD OF THE EXODUS. (Num. xxxiii. 30-33.)

"The children of Israel journeyed from Hashmonah to Moseroth; from Moseroth to Bene-jaakan; from Bene-jaakan to Horhagidgad, from Horhagidgad to Jotbathah.”

Three other encampments-at Ebronah,Eziongaber, and Kadesh-intervened before their arrival at Mount Hor, where Aaron died, in the fifth period of the Exodus, on the first day of the month.

N.B.-The fourth period of the Exodus has no dates mentioned.

The fifth period begins with the death of Miriam at Kadesh in the first month of the fortieth year. Num, xx. 1.

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The places are not mentioned in the same order in the two passages, and the difference in the form of the words shows that neither passage is copied from the other. All four sites are at present unknown. The

additional particulars given in Deuteronomy suggest a reason why Israel should re-visit two of the four places; namely, because of the water which was to be had from the wells of the children of Jaakan, and in Jotbath, the "land of rivers of waters."

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The return of Israel in the last period of the Exodus to four places previously visited is in no way remarkable. We are told that they were compelled, about the time of Aaron's death, to "journey from Mount Hor to compass the land of Edom," which the Edomites would not permit them to cross (Num. xxi. 4, and xx. 21). The return to these former encampments may have enhanced the weariness and annoyance of the people, so that their soul was much discouraged because of the way," and if they were travelling in a different direction, they may well have revisited these four places in a different order. They need not have encamped at all of them the second time. The narrative in Deuteronomy merely says "they journeyed from," not "they encamped in." There is no reason why the district of Mount Hor may not have been called Mosera or Moseroth. And the name chastisement" may have been given to it by Moses, like many other significant names in the Exodus (Meribah, Kibroth-hattaavah &c.), in consequence of what took place there.

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Further there is some reason to believe that the number of the "goings out" of Israel in the Exodus, given in Num. xxxiii. is made to be 42 for a special reason, like the forty-two generations of Matt. i., in which there are at least three evidently intentional omissions. And therefore we need not be surprised at the insertion of places elsewhere, which are not included in that list. No place is mentioned twice in Num. xxxiii. Yet the children of Israel were certainly twice at Kadesh (for Numb. xiii. 26 and xx. 1, cannot refer to the same time), and probably twice at many other places.

The real difficulty is not in the facts related in Deut. x. 6, 7, but in the question why they should be narrated there. Further, they are narrated in the third person, "the children of Israel journeyed," but all the other portions of their journey are narrated in the first person (Deut. i. 19, we went; and so ii. 1, 8, 13, iii. 1, 26). A reader of Deuteronomy who was not already familiar with the earlier books, would naturally suppose that at this period of the discourse the children of Israel did journey, as the narrative says. It is only by close attention that the verses are seen to refer to a time previous to the beginning of the book, but much later than the events recapitulated in Deut. x. 5, 8.

In form, these verses correspond to what may be called the historical or editorial, as distinct from the hortatory portions of Deuteronomy; as the title, chap. i. 1-5; the parenthetical notes, chap. ii. 10-12, and 20-23; chaps. iii. 14, and iv. 41-43, 44-49; with the historical portions of the last six chapters of the book. Upon the whole, I am disposed to think that the only

DEUTERONOMY.

reason for the insertion of these verses is the spiritual reason which I have given in the notes.

From the wells of the children of Jaakan, or perversity, the people of God removed to Mosera the place of chastisement, where their great High Priest*

The following passage from the Talmudical treatise, Pirké Aboth of Rabbi Nathan (section 34), may serve to show that the comparison between Christ and Aaron is not peculiar to the New Testament:-" These are the two sons of fresh oil who stand by the Lord of the whole earth" (Zech. iv. 14). "These are Aaron and Messiah. And I cannot say which of them is the best beloved. But when he saith (Ps. cx. 4), Jehovah hath sworn and will not repent, Thou art priest for ever, then I know that the King Messiah is beloved above the Priest of Righteousness."

died and was buried; and another priest arose in his stead. From thence they journeyed unto the mount of the congregation (Gudgod or Gidgad; compare Gad), and from thence to Jotbath (of which the root is good or goodness), a land of rivers of waters—the usual symbol in Scripture for the Holy Spirit given on Mount Zion, the "mount of the congregation" of Jehovah. (See St. John vii. 37-39.)

The explanations given by the Jewish commentators are of a spiritual character, and in principle I am disposed to think them correct, though the details are far too fanciful for reproduction, or for our present acceptance.

ADDITIONAL NOTE ON CHAP.

THE original expression, eshdath or esh dath, sometimes written as one word, and sometimes as two, has created some difficulty. Esh is "fire," and dath, if taken as a distinct word, is "law." But dath does not appear elsewhere in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, until we meet it in the book of Esther, where it occurs frequently. It is also found in Ezra viii. 36. In the Chaldee of Daniel and Ezra it occurs six times. Modern authorities assert that it is properly a Persian word. But since it is found in the Chaldee of Daniel, it was in use among the Chaldæans before the Persian empire. The word has Semitic affinities. The Hebrew syllable theth would have nearly the same meaning. A datum (or dictum) is the nearest equivalent that we have. There seems no reason to doubt that the word dath had obtained a place both in Chaldee and in Hebrew at the time of the Captivity. It is perfectly possible that its existence in Chaldee dates very much earlier. We must remember that Chaldee was the language of the family of Abraham before they adopted Hebrew. "A Syrian ready to perish was my father," is the confession dictated by Moses in Deut. xxvi. 5. Syriac and Chaldee in the Old Testament are names of the same language. In the Babylonish captivity the Jews really returned to their ancestral language. It is therefore quite conceivable that Chaldæan words lingered among them until the Exodus; and this word

XXXIII. 2. "A FIERY LAW."

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dath, if it be a true Chaldæan word, may be an example. But, obviously, these Chaldæan reminiscences would be fewer as the years rolled on. The three Targums all take dath to be "law" in this place. The LXX. has "angels " (ayyeλo), instead of the combination eshdath. Possibly the word was taken as ashdoth (plural of the Chaldee ashda), meaning rays (of light?) and so "angels." Comp., "He maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire;" they ran and returned as a flash of lightning (Ps. civ. 4; Ezek. i. 14). It is also possible that the LXX. read r instead of d in the word which they had before them, and that they arrived at the meaning "angels" through the Hebrew word sharath, to minister.' The confusion between r and d, which are extremely alike in Hebrew, is very common. The parallels referred to in the notes on the verse show that "fiery law" will yield a good sense. The only question is whether dath, "law." can be reasonably supposed to have occurred in the Mosaic writings. If the word were at all generally known at that period, to whatever language it properly belonged, it would hardly have escaped such a man as Moses. I think it quite possible that the common translation may be right. The Hebrew commentators accept it. The only alternative I can suggest is that of the LXX., which cannot be verified with certainty.

THE BOOK OF JOSHUA.

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