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THE appellation commonly given by the Jews to the fourth Book of the Pentateuch, as in the case of the titles of the other Books, is derived from one of the words which occur in the first verse of the first chapter -viz., bemidbar: "in the desert." The names given to it in the Greek, Latin, and English versions-viz., 'Apieμol, Numeri, Numbers-are derived from the account which it contains of the results of the census which was taken shortly after the Exodus, and of that which was taken at the expiration of the wanderings in the wilderness.

The contents of this book may be described as follows:

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CHAPTERS 1.1-X.10.

The preparations for the departure from Mount Sinai, and for the march into the land of Canaan : including (1) the numbering of the males of eleven tribes, from twenty years old and upwards, who were capable of bearing arms; (2) the numbering of the Levites, from one month old and upwards; (3) the numbering of the firstborn, and the substitution of the Levites for the firstborn; (4) the order of encampment and of the march; (5) the regulations for the preservation of order in the camp; (6) some additional legislation, either supplementary to, or explanatory of, that which is contained in the Books of Exodus and Leviticus; (7) the law of the Nazarites; (8) the form of priestly blessing; (9) the offerings of the princes for the service of the Tabernacle; (10) instructions concerning lighting the lamps of the golden candlestick, the consecration of the Levites, and the respective ages at which they were to enter on the various parts of their service; (11) the celebration of the first Passover after the Exodus; (12) the appointment of the Passover of the second month; (13) the description of the miraculous guidance of the people; and (14) the directions respecting the use of the silver trumpets.

CHAPTERS X. 11-XIV. 45.

These chapters contain the account of (1) the departure of the Israelites from Sinai; (2) the order of the march; (3) the invitation of Moses to Hobab; (4) the watchwords of the march; (5) the murmurings of the people against God and against Moses; (6) the fire at Taberah; (7) the prophesying of Eldad and Medad; (8) the miraculous supply of quails; (9) the plague at Kibroth-hattaavah; (10) the insurrection of Miriam and Aaron against Moses, and the leprosy of Miriam ; (11) the expedition of the spies into the land of Canaan, and their report; (12) the judgment denounced against the generation which was numbered at Sinai; and (13) the presumptuous attempt to enter Canaan by way of the Negeb, and the discomfiture at Hormah.

CHAPTERS XV.1-XIX. 22.

These chapters contain (1) some legislative enactments which were to be held in abeyance during the sojourn in the wilderness, and which were to come into operation after the entrance into Canaan; (2) the account of the insurrection of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and the plague which followed upon it; (3) the miraculous confirmation of the Aaronic priesthood by the blossoming of Aaron's rod; (4) a more accurate definition of the respective duties of the priests and Levites; and (5) the law for the purification of those who were defiled by contact with the dead, by means of the ashes of the red heifer.

CHAPTERS XX. 1-XXV. 18.

These chapters contain the account of (1) the abode in Kadesh-Barnea; (2) the second recorded miraculous supply of water; (3) the sentence pronounced against Moses and Aaron; (4) the refusal of the King of Edom to grant the Israelites a passage through his land; (5) the death of Aaron; (6) the expedition against the King of Arad; (7) the plague of the fiery serpents, and the construction and erection of the brazen serpent; (8) the march to Mount Pisgah; (9) the victory_over Sihon, the King of the Amorites, and Og, the King of Bashan; (10) the history of Balak and Balaam; and (11) the plague at Shittim.

CHAPTERS XXVI. 1—XXXVI. 13.

These chapters contain the account of (1) the second census of the people; (2) the inheritance of the daughters of Zelophehad; (3) the consecration of Joshua; (4) the enlargement of the law respecting the two daily lambs and the Sabbath-day offerings; (5) the law respecting the vows of women; (6) the war against Midian; (7) the assignment of the land on the eastern side of the Jordan to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh; (8) a list of the encampments; (9) the renewed command concerning the expulsion of the Canaanites and the destruction of their idolatrous images; (10) the determination of the boundaries of the land, and the list of men appointed to distribute it; (11) the regulations respecting the Levitical cities and the cities of refuge; and (12) laws respecting the tribal inheritance, and the limitation of the right of marriage in regard to heiresses.

THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.

The period of time embraced in the Book of Numbers is clearly defined. The narrative begins with the command which was given to Moses to take a census of the people "on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt" (chap. i. 1). The death of Aaron, as

recorded in chap. xxxiii. 38, took place "in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first day of the fifth month." The interval between these two events is exactly thirtyeight years and three months; and inasmuch as the last recorded events in the Book of Numbers took place on the eastern side of the Jordan, and the rehearsal of the law, as contained in the Book of Deuteronomy, took place in the beginning of the eleventh month of the fortieth year (Deut. i. 3), and the passage of the Jordan was effected under Joshua on the tenth day of the first month of the following year (Josh. iv. 19), it will appear that the entire period embraced in the Book of Numbers is somewhat short of thirty-nine years.

ANTIQUITY OF THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.

The antiquity of this Book is proved by the numerous references which are found in the later books to the events which are recorded in it. The following will suffice by way of illustration :

(1) In Joshua i. 7 reference is made to the charge which Moses gave to Joshua by the commandment of the Lord (Num. xxvii. 23). It may be observed that the same Hebrew word which is here rendered "gave a charge," is used also in Josh. i. 7, where it is rendered "commanded."

(2) In Joshua ii. 10 we find a reference to the utter destruction of Sihon and Og, which is recorded in Numbers xxi. 24-35.

(3) In Joshua v. 6 we find a reference to the oath which the Lord sware that He would not show the land of promise to the men of war who came out of Egypt, and to the fact that all the men of war who came out of Egypt were consumed in the wilderness, "because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord." In Numbers xiv. 28-32 we find the oath to which reference is made; and in Numbers xxvi. 63-65 we find a statement that at the later census there was not left a man of those who were numbered at the former census, save Joshua and Caleb. Nor is this all: for we find an agreement in the two accounts which is corroborative of the historical accuracy of both. It has been alleged as a discrepancy between the threat and its recorded accomplishment, that Eleazar, who acted as a priest shortly after the Exodus, and who was therefore, in all probability, upwards of twenty years of age at the first census, was not only engaged in making the second census, but is found amongst those who entered into the land of Canaan. On a closer examination, however, of the threat of exclusion, as recorded in the Book of Numbers, and its fulfilment, as recorded both in the Book of Numbers and in the Book of Joshua, it will be found to refer only to those who were enrolled at the first census taken at Sinai as men of war over twenty years of age, and consequently that the tribe of Levi, which was not included in that census, was not included in the sentence of extermination. In like manner, in Joshua v. 6, it is stated, not as it has been commonly supposed, that all the Israelites who were over twenty years of age perished in the wilderness, but "all the people that were men of war" -i.e., the "six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty," who are expressly described in Numbers i. 45 as "all that were able to go forth to war in Israel."

(4) The reference in Joshua xvii. 4 to the inheritance of the daughters of Zelophehad accords verbally with that contained in Numbers xxvii. 7. In the latter place Moses is said to have received a command to

"give them a possession of an inheritance among their father's brethren." In the former place it is said that Joshua, "according to the commandment of the Lord, gave them an inheritance among the brethren of their father."

(5) The reference to the Kenites in 1 Sam. xv. 6 not only derives elucidation from Numbers x. 29-32, but reflects light upon that passage. The result of the invitation which Moses gave to Hobab to accompany the Israelites on their march through the wilderness is not recorded in the Book of Numbers. We learn, however, from Judges i. 16 that "the children of the Kenite" accompanied the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah; and in 1 Sam. xv. 6 Saul refers to the kindness which the Kenites showed to the children of Israel as a well-established fact.

(6) One of the most conclusive indications of the reception of the Book of Numbers by the later writers of Holy Scripture, as containing a true history of the events which are recorded in it, will be found in the incidental allusion to the order of the marches through the wilderness, which we find in Ps. lxxx. 2, "Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up Thy strength, and come and save us." This Psalm was manifestly composed, as it is implied in the first verse, whilst the Temple of Solomon was still standing, but subsequently to the separation of the kingdom in the time of Rehoboam. The combination of the tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, though partially explained by their common origin as descendants of Jacob by Rachel, presents upon the surface the obvious difficulty that Benjamin was attached to the southern, and Ephraim and Manasseh to the northern kingdom. A closer examination, however, of the Psalm, when elucidated by the order of the march, as prescribed in the second chapter of Numbers, will suffice to make the allusion of the Psalmist obvious. The reference in verse 1 is to the supernatural guidance of the hosts of Israel, and the mind of the writer would naturally revert to that period of the history of his people when Divine guidance was most needed and most manifestly displayed. Now we find from Numbers ii. 18-22, that during their encampments in the wilderness the three tribes here mentioned pitched together on the west side of the Tabernacle; and we find in verse 17 of the same chapter a direction which we are told (see Numbers x. 21, 22), was observed when the camp broke up and the Israelites commenced their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai-viz., that the Tabernacle of the congregation was to set forward in such order that the eastern and southern camps were to precede it, and that the western camp, which, as we have seen, was composed of the three tribes here named, was to follow it. When, moreover, we bear in mind that the sacred Ark was commonly regarded and designated as the ark of God's strength (Ps. cxxxii. 8), there can remain little doubt of the reference of the writer of Psalm lxxx. to the prescribed order of the encampment and to the marches through the wilderness, as recorded in the Book of Numbers, when he gave utterance to the prayer, "Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up Thy strength and come and save us."

(7) A few other references in the later Books to the Book of Numbers may be more briefly noticed. (1) In 1 Sam. xv. 29 we find a quotation from Num, xxii. 19.

(2) In 1 Sam. xxx. 7, 8, and elsewhere, we find allusions to the mode of inquiry of the Lord, of which the first mention is found in Num. xxvii. 21.

(3) In Ps. lxxviii. 16, there appears to be an allusion to the miraculous supply of water at Kadesh, as related in Num. xx. 7-11, the word rendered rock being sela, as in Numbers, not zur,* as in Exod. xvii. 6.

(4) In Jer. xlviii. 45, we find a reference to, or rather a quotation from, Num. xxi. 28, and an obvious allusion to Num. xxiv. 17.

(5) In Josh. xxii. 17, Ps. cvi. 28, and Hosea ix. 10, we find an allusion to the idolatrous abominations of Baalpeor, as recorded in Num. xxv.

(6) In Amos ii. 9, we find an allusion to the gigantic size of the Anakim, as related in Num. xiii. 33.

(7) In Obad. verses 4, 19, we find allusions to Num. xxiv. 18, 21.

The above will suffice as illustrations of references, which might be almost indefinitely multiplied, to the history of the Israelites, and to events connected with that history, as they are recorded in the Book of Numbers. It is scarcely too much to affirm that no inconsiderable portion of the contents of this Book might be recovered from the various references and allusions to it which are dispersed over the later Books of the Old Testament.

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THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.

Much which has been said upon the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch generally applies with special force to the authorship of the Book of Numbers. One portion of this Book, viz. the catalogue of the stations or encampments of the Israelites, as recorded in chap. xxxiii, is expressly ascribed to Moses in the following words: And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys, by the commandment of the Lord" (verse 2). Some of the legislative enactments which are found only in the Book of Numbers, or which are recapitulated in the Book of Deuteronomy, arc expressly assigned to Moses in the Book of Joshua. Such, e.g., are the following: (1) the law that the Levites were to have no separate inheritance of land amongst the children of Israel (Josh. xiii. 14, 33; xiv. 3, 4, compared with Num. xviii. 20-24; Deut. x. 9; xiv. 27; xviii. 1, 2), but only cities to dwell in, with their suburbs taken out of the inheritance of the other tribes (Josh. xxi. 2, compared with Num. xxxv. 1-4); and (2) the assignment by lot of the inheritance of the nine tribes and a half on the west of the Jordan, and of the two tribes and a half on the east of the Jordan (Josh. xiv. 2, 3; xviii. 7, compared with Num. xxvi. 55; xxxii. 33, xxxiii. 54; xxxiv. 13).

The presumption thus afforded that the Book of Numbers was written by Moses, is confirmed by the numerous indications which it contains that it is the work of a contemporary writer, who lived in the desert, and who was familiar with the history, customs, and institutions of Egypt. The minuteness of the details which the Book of Numbers contains respecting the order of the march through the wilderness, and the various incidents which occurred in the course of it, the remarkable manner in which the history and the legislation are interwoven, and more particularly the

The word zur occurs in Ps. lxxviii. 15, and in Is. xlviii. 21, in which places, however, there may be a reference to the later miracle at Kadesh, as well as to the earlier miracle at Rephidim.

The assignment of the inheritances by lot, in regard to their relative position, and by the instrumentality of particular individuals appointed for the purpose, in regard to the amount of territory to be possessed by each tribe, as commanded by Moses, and as carried into execution by Joshua, is deserving of particular attention.

Dr. Smith has some interesting and important remarks on the identity of the historian and the legislator throughout the Pentateuch, showing that those who acknowledge Moses to have been the legislator, must also acknowledge Moses as the historian (The Pentateuch and its Authorship, pp. 365-375).

insertion of additional legislation arising out of the protracted wanderings in the desert (as e.g., that contained in xix. 14), point to the conclusion that the writer of the Book was either an eye-witness of the scenes which he records, or a forger whose skill has been unequalled in after ages. The topographical notices, again, testify to an aquaintance with the history of Egypt (as e.g., xiii. 22), and also with that of the surrounding nations, previously to the entrance into the land of Canaan (as e.g., xxi. 13); whilst the allusions to Egyptian customs, products and institutions, and also to particular incidents of Egyptian history, are such as cannot, with any great amount of probability, be ascribed to any writer between the days of Moses and those of Solomon (e.g., xi. 5, 6, 7 ; * xxi. 5-9; † xxxiii. 4; ‡ xxxiii. 6—8).

Again, the contrast between the general allusions to the topography of Canaan, such as might well have been obtained from traditional sources, or from the reports of the spies, as compared with the more minute descriptions given in the Book of Joshua, precisely corresponds with the recorded history of Moses. Thus, while in the Book of Joshua the boundaries of Canaan are expressed with great minuteness, in the Book of Numbers they are laid down in general terms § (comp. Josh. xv. with Num. xxxiv.). It may be observed further, that the fact that the boundaries assigned to the promised land were never actually realised, even in the days of David and of Solomon, affords a strong argument in support of the belief that the Books in which they are described were not written at the late period to which they are assigned by some modern critics, in which case the original assignment would naturally have been made to accord with the actual extent of the kingdom. It must be observed further, that the statistics of the Book of Numbers stop short of the death of Moses, and that the records of families are restricted to the Mosaic era. Thus, e.g., we read of the promise given to Phinehas and to his seed after him of an everlasting priesthood (xxv. 13), and we find mention of the part which Phinehas took in one of the latest expeditions in which Moses was engaged (xxxi. 6), but we must have recourse to the Books of Chronicles and of Ezra if we desire to obtain information concerning his descendants.

OBJECTIONS TO THE MOSAIC AUTHORSHIP OF THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.

It will be desirable in this place to notice some of the principal objections which have been urged against the historical accuracy, and the Mosaic authorship, of the Book of Numbers, premising only that those objections which rest upon passages in which Moses speaks as a prophet, not as an historian, do not fall within the scope of a work such as the present.

The best coriander seed is said by Pliny to come from Egypt. See Smith's Pentateuch and its Authorship, &c., p. 319. fb., p. 340.

We find the prediction in Exod. xii. 12, "Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment," but we find no express account of its fulfilment. The allusion in Num. xxxiii. 4, to the fulfilment of the prediction, shows that the writer understood how the plagues of Egypt had a direct bearing upon the superstitious objects of Egyptian worship. (See Smith's Pentateuch and its Authorship, pp. 322-329, and Canon Cook's notes on the plagues in The Speaker's Commentary.)

§ The difference in the minuteness with which the northern and the southern boundaries of Canaan are described in the Book of Numbers, is deserving of notice; but the difference in the minuteness with which the latter, which must have been the boundary best known to those who were for so many years in its vicinity, is described in the Book of Numbers and in that of Joshua, is yet more remarkable.

I. THE ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST CENSUS.

The difficulties in the account of the census which was taken on the plain of Sinai, as it is related in Numbers 1, may be enumerated as follows:

(1) The precise agreement in the number of Israelites above twenty years of age as recorded in this census, with the number which is recorded in Ex. xxxviii. 26, where the reference is to a transaction which probably took place about six or seven months previously.

(2) The fact that the numbers of the respective tribes are round numbers, and, with the exception of the tribe of Gad, which has a complete fifty, that all the numbers are in round hundreds.

It has been suggested, in regard to the first difficulty, that there is nothing impossible in the fact that the number of the Israelites should not have been diminished by deaths in the course of six or seven months. This supposition, however, independently of its improbability, does not meet the real difficulty, inasmuch as there must in all probability have been many at the later date who had completed their twentieth year who Icould not have been included in the census of those who were twenty years old and upwards, which was taken six or seven months previously. The supposition that the number of those who died in the course of the following six or seven months was exactly equal to the number of those who attained their twentieth year in the interval, is equally improbable with the supposition that no deaths occurred in the interval; and, in any case, the difficulty attending the round numbers, on the supposition that they represent accurately the results of two distinct censuses, taken at two distinct periods, is one which, in the absence of any indication of miraculous agency, seems to be insuperable.

Both of the difficulties, however, which have been stated above, vanish, or may in any case be regarded as capable of a satisfactory solution, if it be admitted that it was one and the same census to which reference is made in the Book of Exodus and in that of Numbers. The following reasons may be assigned for the belief that there was only one general census taken in the plain of Sinai :

(1) The time occupied in taking the census, which is recorded in 2 Sam. xxiv.-viz., nine months and twenty days-suggests the inference that a complete census of the population, even in the time of Moses, must have occupied some considerable time.

(2) No adequate reason can be assigned for the necessity of a second census within six or seven months of a previous census.

(3) It is obvious, from the agreement of the numbers, that the tribe of Levi, which, we are expressly told, was not included in the census recorded in Numbers (see Num. i. 48, 49, ii. 33), was not included in the census to which reference is made in Exod. xxxviii., where no such exemption is mentioned, and no allusion is made to the subsequent command to number the males of the tribe of Levi from one month and upwards And, further, whereas the atonement number is expressly mentioned in Exod. xxxviii., no allusion is made to it in Num. i.

(4) We find reference made in Num. xxvi. 64, 65, to two numberings only, viz., that which was taken on the plain of Sinai, and that which was taken in the steppes of Moab, from which fact it seems reasonable to infer that two numberings only of the people were made.

Now, since the atonement money which was paid at the numbering recorded in Exod. xxxviii. was used in

the construction of the Tabernacle, it is obvious that that money must have been paid previously to the first day of the first month of the year after the Exodus, at which time the Tabernacle was erected. Inasmuch, however, as the census was thus directly connected with the Tabernacle; and the census of the Levites, and also that of the firstborn, both of which were made previously to the twentieth day of the second month, in the year after the Exodus (Num. x. 11), and included all who were one month old and upwards, may be reasonably supposed to have included all who were born during the first month after the erection of the Tabernacle, and who were consequently a month old and upwards on the first day of the second month of the year after the Exodus (Num. iii. 15, 40); a reasonable probability arises that the day of the erection of the Tabernacle was that which was regarded in every case as the day by reference to which the age of the Israelites was to be ascertained and recorded. The census of the males of the several tribes, from twenty years old and upwards, being taken with reference to military service, would naturally be made in companies, which companies probably consisted of fifty or a hundred; and inasmuch as the number was taken of necessity some time previously to the erection of the Tabernacle (the atonement money being required, as already stated, for the service of the Tabernacle), it was impossible to ascertain with minute accuracy the number of those who would be alive on the day at which the Tabernacle was to be set up; and hence the odd numbers in excess of the last fifty or a hundred of those who would have completed their twentieth year at the erection of the Tabernacle, or of whose birthdays no record had been kept during the bondage in Egypt, may have been set over against the probable diminutions by death during the interval, and omitted from the sum total of each tribe. It is impossible to determine accurately the precise details which were obtained at the earlier and at the later enumeration. The amount of silver received at the earlier period sufficed to determine the number of those who paid, every man his half shekel. It is reasonable to suppose that the names of those who paid the half shekel were duly registered, and probably under their respective tribes, although there is no record of the number of each tribe in Exodus. Such a registration would naturally form the basis of the more complete census described in Numbers i., in which every man was enrolled, not only under his own tribe, but according to the two subdivisions of the tribes into "families" and "fathers' houses," according to the "number of names" included in the earlier registration. Other particulars may or may not have been included in the later registration, but if the supposition be correct that the object of the census was to associate the people with the Tabernacle, as the dwelling-place of Jehovah, it is reasonable to suppose that the same day-viz., the day of the erection of the Tabernacle-was that to which reference was made alike in the earlier and in the later registration.

In regard to the round numbers of the tribes at the later registration in the plains of Moab-in which all are recorded in tens, and all, except the tribe of Reuben, in hundreds-it is reasonable to suppose that, as on the former occasion, the registration took place in military companies of tens, fifties, or hundreds. And inasmuch as during the disbandment of the people, after their first arrival at Kadesh-Barnea, it is probable that no exact registration of births was kept, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the odd numbers were disregarded, or rather set off against the