BOOK IV. NUMBERS
Chapter i., v. 14, chap, ii., v. 14. In one we find Eliasaph the son of Reul, in the other Eliasaph the son of Deuel. In chap. vii., vv. 42 and 47, and in chap, x., v. 20, it is also Eliasaph son of Deuel. Which is right?
Verse 46. By this verse we learn that the number of Jews, warriors (not including the Levites), capable of bearing arms, was 603,550; and taking old and young into consideration, you can hardly compute these at more than three out of each ten, which would leave a total of about 2,000,000 males, the proportion of females would be upwards of 2,000,000 more; these, together with male and female slaves, and the tribe of Levi, must have made upwards of 5,000,000 people. This would be an immense number to pass through a desert, where water and food were deficient.
Verse 49, see chap, iii., v. 15. The Lord must have changed his original intention.
Chapter iii., v. 39. 22,000 is incorrect, it should be 22,300 – viz., Gershonites 7,500, Kohathites 8,600, Meranites 6,200. This may seem a trifling error, but in a revelation from God we are not prepared to expect errors at all; and in this case it is a grave error, and not a mere slip of the copyist, or transcriber, for in verse 46 we are told that the first-born were 273 more in number than the male Levites, when in feet they were twenty-seven less. It is very extraordinary that the Levites should be comparatively so few in number, especially when we consider them as the most favoured by God. The whole of the Levites, male and female, could not be much over 50,000, while the other tribes averaged 350,000 each.
Chapter iv., v. 20. The same mystery as before observed, coupled with the usual threat of death to deter the uninitiated from too closely examining the things of God.
Verse 23. By this the Levites are to serve from thirty to fifty; in chap, viii., v. 24, it is from twenty-five to fifty.
Chapter v., w. 8, 9, and 10. Here is a complete identification of the rights of the Lord with those of the priest, 'Let the trespass be recompensed unto the Lord, even unto the priest.' Whether this Book be a revelation from God or not, it is quite clear that it is the interest of the priesthood to support it.
Verses 17 to 27. We have read of various ordeals amongst savage nations, and it is customary to deplore the ignorance and barbarity of the nations amongst whom these customs are allowed to prevail. If we abide by this style of criticism, what must we say of the legislator who established the ordeal of the waters of jealousy?
Chapter vii., v. 89. 'And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with him, then he heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy-seat that was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubims: and he spake unto him.' This voice is uttered in the hearing of no one but Moses. The Douay reads, 'And when Moses entered into the tabernacle of the covenant to consult the oracle, he heard the voice of one speaking to him from the propitiary that was over the ark, between the two cherubims, and from this place he spake to him.' Is not this similar to the oracle-consulting of other nations? It is admitted now, by all intelligent men, that the oracles of Delphos, of Ammon, and of Dodona, were only instances of jugglery and cunning, practised by the priest on the people. In what respects are the oracles of the Jews superior? In an able article on the word 'oracle,' in Brande's Dictionary is the following quotation: —
'The general characteristics of oracles were ambiguity, obscurity, and convertability; so that one answer would agree with several various, and sometimes directly opposite events. Thus when Croesus was on the point of invading the Medes, he consulted the oracle of Delphi as to the success of the enterprise, and received for answer, "That by passing the River Halys, he would ruin a mighty empire." But whether it was his own empire, or that of his enemies, that was destined to be ruined, was not intimated, and in either case the oracle could not fail to be right. The answer of the oracle to 'Pyrrhus is another well-known instance of this sort of ambiguity. "Aio, te Æacida, Romanos vincere posse" – as it might either be interpreted in favour of, or against, Pyrrhus. This ambiguity and equivocation was not, however, the worst feature that characterised the oracles of antiquity. They were at once ambiguous and venal. A rich or a powerful individual seldom found much difficulty in obtaining a response favourable to his projects, how unjust or objectionable soever. But such and so powerful is the influence of superstition, that this system of fraud and imposture maintained a lengthened ascendancy, and interested responses of the oracles frequently sufficed to excite bloody wars, and to spread desolation through extensive States.'
Chapter ix., vv. 15 to 17. The 'cloud and appearance of fire' might have been easily produced by Moses himself, and, judging by the context, it is a fair presumption, they being always rendered subordinate to his plans.
Chapter x., v. 9. Is it intended to be implied that the blowing the alarm with trumpets, will the more readily bring God to the aid of the Jews? If not, what is the meaning of this verse?
Chapter xi., v. 4. It is not easy to understand how the Israelites could be without flesh food, when we are told in Exodus, chap, xii., v. 38, that they took with them out of Egypt 'flocks and herds, even very much cattle.'
Verse 16. If Moses had no assistance in the government of the Jews, he must have entirely neglected the advice of Jethro, his father-in-law, referred to on page 56.
Chapter xii., v. 1. The following is from Dr. Giles's 'Hebrew Records': – 'The country to which the wife of Moses belonged, here called Ethiopia, is Cush in the original Hebrew, and may fairly be interpreted in a very wide sense. Ethiopia, also, in Grecian history, designated not only the modern Ethiopia, but parts of Egypt, Arabia, and, perhaps, other neighbouring countries. We may then freely admit that the Ethiopian woman here mentioned was the same person elsewhere described as Jethro's daughter, but the manner in which her name is here introduced, is perfectly incompatible with her having been already described, and that so fully, in Exodus ii., as the daughter to the priest of Midian, and married to Moses, possibly several years before the strife, which Miriam and Aaron now stirred up on her account. This leads to the following conclusion, either that the two accounts of the wife of Moses were written by two distinct authors, or that the Ethiopian woman whom Moses married was not the same as the daughter of Jethro priest of Midian. In the former case the whole Pentateuch, as it now is, cannot be considered as the work of Moses; in the latter case, the mixture of the Israelites with other tribes would appear to have begun very early after the Exodus, and to have been carried to a very great extreme.'
Chapter xiii., vv. 2 to 17. Why were these people sent to spy out the land? God could have told his people all the particulars without this. In ordering them to be sent, he must have foreknown and foreordained that they should report falsely, and that the Israelites should believe their report, in which case it is difficult to justify the forty years wandering in the wilderness.
Verse 22. 'Hebron' has been noticed on page 5.
Verses 23 and 24. Bishop Patrick's note on this verse is highly sensible and becoming: – 'The place was called the Brook Eschol. That is, when the Israelites got possession of the land, they called this brook or valley "Eschol" in memory of this bunch of grapes, for so Eschol signifies.' But the book, which relates that the place was called Eschol, cannot have been written until the act of naming had taken place.
Verse 33 is meant figuratively, otherwise the sons of Anak would be of tremendous height and size.
Chapter xiv., w. 1 to 4. This murmuring displeases God, but grave consideration is required to understand why God was so displeased, Twelve men, all equally trustworthy (as far as we can glean their characters from the Book), are sent to view the promised land; ten report unfavourably, and two, on the contrary, give a favourable account. The balance of evidence is therefore very strong, and yet God is displeased, because the Israelites put faith in the unfavourable report. The case is even stronger than this. One of the two favourable witnesses (Joshua) was a servant and partisan of Moses, and might well be suspected of giving a highly coloured account of the country, according to the wishes of his leader. Later historians have even rendered more unfavourable the account given by the ten, rather than corroborate that of Joshua and Caleb. Voltaire quotes a letter from St. Jerome, in which he speaks of the land of promise as being about 160 miles long, and about fifty broad, all beyond being desert, that from Jerusalem to Bethlehem there is nothing but pebbles, and scarce any water to drink during the summer season. Verses 11 to 37. There is here a repetition of the mode in which Moses reasoned and expostulated with God, pointed out on page sixty-two, the same fear lest the Egyptians should hear of God's wrath against the Israelites, and ultimately the same change is effected. In verse 20, the Lord says: 'I have pardoned according to thy word,' and immediately notified that instead of pardoning the people, he intended them all to die on their journey to the promised land.
Verses 43 to 45. In Exodus, chap. 17, vv. 14 and 16, God swore to utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven, and to have war with them from generation to generation. In this chapter he aids and assists them to destroy the Israelites.
Verse 45. 'Hormah.' This verse could not have been written by Moses, as the city of Zephath was not called Hormah until after the death of Joshua (vide Judges, chap, i., v. 17): in chap, xxi., vv. 1 to 3, we find an account of the destruction of a city, and the naming it Hormah 'This' (says Dr. Shuckford, as quoted in the Family Bible) 'was effected in the days of Joshua (Joshua, chap, xii., v. 14), or a little after his death' (Judges, chap, i., v. 17). Yet Dr. Shuckford did not perceive that the relation of an event, which happened in the days of Joshua, could not have come from the pen of Moses. The second of the above-mentioned texts – namely, the first three verses of Numbers xxi., describe the fulfilment of Israel's vow – not in a mere word or short sentence, such as others – which the commentators explain by saying that they are interpolations. The present text is too full for us to suppose so: it is evidently an integral part of the main narrative, and cannot be separated from it. The whole of this part of the history, therefore, is liable to the same observation which has been so often made, that it was written by some one who lived long after the time of Moses (vide Dr. Giles's 'Hebrew Records').
Chapter xv., vv. 32 to 36. These verses are the species upon which fanatics ground their opposition to a free Sunday. The organ blower may work in the organ loft of his parish church till the perspiration streams from his brow – no serious voice checks his labour, but should he dare take his accordion into the green fields, and there, with lighter labour, beguile away his Sunday morning or afternoon, immediately the reverend pastor, the pious churchwarden, the devout and stately beadle, the meek and humble pew opener, with a thunder-like chorus-voice shout after him, 'Sabbath-breaker, thy doom is hell.' This sentence is printed in small capitals on a little tract – this tract does great good. John Phillips, of Hare Street, Spitalfields, weaver, having been at work at his loom from early on the previous Monday morning until late on the Saturday evening, and feeling tired thereby, determines to take Mrs. Phillips and his three children into Victoria Park; and, preparatory to this, John Phillips hammers at a small piece of leather in the endeavour to fix it to the sole of his boot, which is out of repair, suddenly his room door opens, and a Scripture-reader enters, who solemnly hands John the above-mentioned tract, and the following dialogue takes place: – S. R. – You are now breaking the Sabbath-day.
John P. – This is a work of necessity; the boot must be mended before I can go out.
S. R. – If you read Numbers, you will find that a man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath-day was put to death; and although you will not probably die to-day, you will go to hell by-and-by. You should go to church.
John P. – If I did go there, every one would shrink from the mean dresses of myself and family. If the free seats were full, we should have to stand in the centre aisle, while those who paid to go to heaven comfortably reclined on the cushions of their half-empty pews, or knelt on their comfortable hassocks. In the green fields it is different, the daisy is as bright, the grass as green, and the clover as sweet to me as to the richest man in England; the sun shines on me although my dress is corduroy. I feel better and happier to be free for a few hours from the dense and smoky atmosphere of this house, and I cannot believe I shall go to hell for that.
The Scripture Reader departs, and wends his way to Ebenezer Chapel. This chapel is situate in a narrow street, between a sugar-baker's and a soap-boiler's premises, and he cannot help regretting, as he smells the foul exhalations from the sewer-grating, and the overcrowded grave-yard, that it is unlawful to stroll into the green fields on the Lord's-day.
The bell-ringer, the grave-digger, the priest, the sexton, the choristers, the organist, the organ-blower, the beadle, the pew-opener, the bishop, the bishop's coachman, and groom, all ply on the Sunday their several avocations without fear or threat of punishment; but if John Thomas on that day, instead of driving my lord bishop to church, and afterwards retiring to a neighbouring mews, to smoke his pipe in an orthodox manner, until service is over, were to drive into the green fields, or wander by the river side, he would most assuredly bring upon himself denunciations of future damnation. By the fruit ye shall judge of the tree. The fruit of this Sunday tree has been hypocritical, outside show, a false and empty parade of Bibles and gilt-edged prayer-books, grim faces, and constrained manners – this some people call religion.
Chapter xvi. contains the history of a rebellion on the part of Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and On, against the authority of Moses, connected with which there are several curious features; the rebels are swallowed up and consumed by an explosion and fire, which of course is sent by the Lord; but as Moses took a whole day to make the necessary preparations, it is quite possible to account for the destruction of Korah and his party in a more comprehensible manner. It is apparent that Moses had a direct interest in the destruction of these men, who wished to share the power he had arrogated to himself.
By verses 29 and 30 it is clear that the manner of their destruction was pre-arranged by Moses; and it is also clear that the Israelites themselves took this view of the matter, for in verse 41 we find them charging Moses and Aaron with having killed the people of the Lord.
Chapter xvii., w. 1 to 8. This miracle of Aaron's rod budding amongst the other rods was easy of accomplishment, when we remember how carefully the tabernacle was guarded by Moses and his priests, who had every facility for changing one rod for a branch from a fruit bearing tree. The rod, according to this account, budded, blossomed, and bore fruit, all within twenty-four hours.
Verse 6 says, there were 'twelve rods, and the rod of Aaron was among their rods.' The Douay says, 'there were twelve rods, beside the rod of Aaron.'
Verses 12 and 13. These verses are a sufficient evidence of the care taken bv Moses to prevent the people inspecting too closely his thaumaturgic tabernacle.
Chapter xviii., v. 15. See chap, iii., vv. 12 and 41. There is some confusion in these texts, as by the latter it was only the surplus number, beyond the number of the Levites, who were to be redeemed with money – here all are to pay the five shekels.
Verses 20 to 24. It is much to be regretted that our priests never imagined that this part of the revelation had any personal relation to them; great attention has been paid to the tithe part of the Book, but our reverend pastors have most wonderfully overlooked the part which says, 'Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land.' This, they say, only applies to the Jews. On what principle, then, does any part of the Book apply to the Gentiles?
Chapter xix. contains a direction to the priest to burn a red heifer, the ashes of which heifer become water, by a process not described; or rather if the writer had condescended to be explicit, I suppose he means that the ashes are to be mixed with water, this water is a kind of holy water, with which every unclean person is to be sprinkled, under pain of death. Amongst a people numbering 5,000,000, some must have had great difficulty in getting access to this water, especially those residing at a great distance from the place where the ashes were kept.
Chapter xx. In the Douay translation of v. 6, Moses and Aaron say, 'O Lord God, hear the cry of this people, and open to them thy treasure, a fountain of living water, that being satisfied, they may cease to murmur.' These words are entirely omitted in our version, and it would seem that some other portion of the original account must be lost, as we find the Lord reproaching Moses and Aaron for their exhibition of unbelief, of which we have no account here.
Verses 10 and 11. This is a miracle. Voltaire says: —
'A miracle, according to the true meaning of the word, is something admirable; and agreeably to this all is miracle. The stupendous order of nature, the revolution of a hundred millions of worlds round a million of suns, the activity of light, the life of animals, all are grand and perpetual miracles.
'According to common acceptation, we call a miracle the violation of these divine and eternal laws. A solar eclipse, at the time of the full moon, or a dead man walking two leagues, and carrying his head in his arms, we denominate a miracle.
'Many natural philosophers maintain that in this sense there are no miracles, and advance the following arguments: – 'A miracle is the violation of mathematical, divine, immutable, eternal laws. By the very exposition itself a miracle is a contradiction in terms: a law cannot at the same time be immutable and violated. But they are asked, cannot a law, established by God himself be suspended by its author?
'They have the hardihood to reply that it cannot; and that it is impossible a being, infinitely wise, can have made laws to violate them. He could not, they say, derange the machine, but with a view of making it work better; but it is evident that God, all-wise and omnipotent, originally made this immense machine, the universe, as good and perfect as he was able; if he saw that some imperfections would arise from the nature of matter, he provided for that in the beginning; and accordingly he will never change anything in it.
'Moreover God can do nothing without reason; but what reason could induce him to disfigure, for a time, his own work?
'It is done, they are told, in favour of mankind. They reply, we must presume, then, that it is in favour of all mankind; for it is impossible to conceive that the divine nature should occupy itself only about a few men in particular, and not for the whole human race; and even the whole human race itself is a very small concern; it is less than a small ant-hill, in comparison with all the beings inhabiting immensity. But is it not the most absurd of all extravagances to imagine that the Infinite Supreme should, in favour of three or four hundred emmets on this little heap of earth, derange the operation of the vast machinery that moves the universe?
'But, admitting that God chose to distinguish a small number of men by particular favours, is there any necessity that in order to accomplish this object he should change what he established for all periods and for all places? He certainly can have no need of this inconsistency, in order to bestow favours on any of his creatures: his favours consist in his laws themselves: he has foreseen all, and arranged all, with a view to them. All invariably obey the force which ne has impressed for ever on nature.
'For what purpose would God perform a miracle? To accomplish some particular design upon living beings? He would, then, in reality, be supposed to say – I have not been able to effect, by my construction of the universe, by my divine decrees, by my eternal laws, a particular object. I am now going to change my eternal ideas and immutable laws, to endeavour to accomplish what I have not been able to do by means of them. This would be an avowal of his weakness, not of his power; it would appear in such a being an inconceivable contradiction. Accordingly, therefore, to dare to ascribe miracles to God, is, if man can in reality insult God, actually offering him that insult. It is saying to him, You are a weak and inconsistent being. It is therefore absurd to believe in miracles; it is, in fact, dishonouring the divinity.'
Verses 23 to 29. Aaron's death is rather curiously related; it was certainly a sudden death, and the account almost conveys the idea that Moses and Eleazer killed Aaron in the mount.
Chapter xxi., vv. 1 to 3, have been before noticed; in addition it is only necessary to observe, that the Israelites could scarcely have destroyed the cities of the Canaanites, until they had entered the land of Canaan, into which it is alleged they did not go in the lifetime of Moses.
Verses 8 and 9. See Exodus, chap, xx., v. 4. Dr. Giles observes: —
'The reason why God commanded Moses to adopt this course has not been recorded; but the fact would probably be susceptible of a satisfactory explanation, if we were acquainted more fully with the serpent-worship which existed among the ancient people of Egypt. In the absence of certain information, it may be supposed that the Israelites had been taught to hold serpents in great respect whilst they were in Egypt, and that Moses availed himself of their superstition to bend them the better to his will.'
In our version, verse 8, Moses is told to make a 'fiery serpent:' in the Douay, he is told to make a 'brazen serpent' – fiery serpents are very rare animals.
Verse 14. 'The Book of the wars of the Lord.' What book is this? Who was the author of it? What has become of it? Was it inspired? Was it more ancient than the Pentateuch? In answer to all these questions, we can say but little, except this, that the book referred to is one of several books quoted from in our Bible, and now lost; the authorship is unknown; it must have been a well-known book at the time Numbers was written, and, consequently, more ancient than Numbers. There are many other books quoted from, which are also lost.
The following is from the 'Hebrew Records,' in reference to this subject: —
'In St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, ix., 19, we read thus: —
'"For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people, according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people."
'The writer of this epistle must also have had more sources of information than we now possess; for the account which he gives in the verse before us does not exactly tally with any of the various verses in the Levitical Law, where the subject is related. Nothing is said of the "book" being sprinkled with the blood, even if the other parts of the description are allowed to bear a sufficient resemblance.
'Another remarkable instance bearing upon my present argument, is the account which St. Jude gives of a contest between Michael and the Devil: —
'"Yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the Devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, 'Lord rebuke thee!'"
'It is not known to what St. Jude alludes in this verse; nothing is said in the Old Testament of any contest between the Devil and the archangel Michael.
'In St. Paul's Second Epistle to Timothy, chap, iii., v. 8, are found the names of two of the magicians who competed with Moses in magical arts in the presence of Pharaoh, King of Egypt.
'"Now, as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth; men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith."
'It is presumed that the names, "Jannes" and "Jambres," not found in the Books of Moses, became known to St. Paul through the medium of other writings, in which many particulars of Jewish history were recorded, but now no longer in existence.
Several circumstances of the life and acts of Moses are known to us, only because they are noticed in the New Testament, no mention being made of them in the old Jewish Scriptures. For instance, in Acts vii., v. 22, etc., we are told that —
'"Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds. And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren of Israel, etc."
'But in the Book of Exodus the account of these things is much shorter, and nothing is said of the age of Moses at the time referred to.
'Neither is there any authority in the Pentateuch for the remark which occurs in Hebrews xi., 24: —
'"By faith Moses, when he came to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter."
'These circumstances make it probable that there were other original records in the time of St. Paul, which have since perished.
'This conclusion is supported by the admitted fact that many books which have perished are quoted in the Old Testament itself. Such are the books of Jasher, Enoch, the Wars of the Lord, and many others.
A perplexing train of argument opens to us from a consideration of these facts. If the books which have perished were of value, why have they perished? If they were of no value, why have valuable writers, like St. Paul, quoted them? It is supposed that they were of inferior authority, but this point has not been proved. If the existing books are genuine relics of a high antiquity, yet some of the lost books were more ancient still. The same Providence which has preserved the one has suffered the others to sink, even though those which have floated down the stream of time are imperfect on many points, which the others would have supplied.
Chapter xxii., v. 1. 'On this side Jordan:' the Douay has it 'beyond the Jordan:' the Hebrew is [ – ] (beyond, across, over, or on the other side), see also page 6. It is evident in this case either that the translators must have falsified the text to support their theory that Moses was the writer of the book, or that there is a very extraordinary coincidence of error. The whole of this subject has been carefully examined in Dr. Giles's 'Hebrew Records,' pp. 284 to 289.
Chapters xxii., xxiii., and xxiv. It is not at all wonderful that the barbarous Midianites and Moabites should have looked upon Balaam as a prophet, whose curse or blessing would affect the success of the Jews. In the dark ages we have many instances of persons revered by the people of their countries, because they were believed to possess supernatural powers; but is an inexplicable matter when we find the superstitions of the ignorant people shared by God himself. God communicated with Balaam. God said, 'Thou shalt not curse this people.' God came to Balaam repeatedly; at first he forbade him to go to Balak, and afterwards gave him permission; and then God's anger is kindled because Balaam, in consequence of such permission, went with Balak's messengers, and the angel of the Lord is sent to stand in Balaam's way. I have remarked upon angels in pages 33 and 34; those who wish to read more orthodox comments are referred to Dr. Pye Smith's 'Christian Theology,' p. 327. This angel is invisible to the wise man, Balaam, but is at once perceived by his ass. Is this intended as a covert sneer? Did the writer mean that asses are always the first to perceive invisible angels? The angel has 'his sword drawn in his hand' – this sword (being also only visible to the ass), must have been (like Macbeth's dagger) manufactured from different material from the swords commonly in use. The ass obstinately refusing to go forward (and asses very often do refuse to go forward, rather staying because a church, an angel, or a Bible stops the way, than progressing with Freethinking searchers toward the truth), is beaten by Balaam. The ass indignantly remonstrates, inquiring why he is beaten; and as Balaam manifested no surprise whatever when his ass spoke, we must conclude that the phenomenon was not entirely new to him. The fable concludes by relating that Balaam blessed the Jews, instead of cursing them.
Chapter xxiii., v. 19. According to the Bible account, God has repented several times (Genesis, chap, vi., vv. 6 and 7; Exodus, chap. xxxii., v. 14; 1 Samuel, chap, xv., v. xi.; 2 Samuel, chap. xxiv.,v. 16).
In chap, xxiv., v. 15, our version reads, 'The man whose eyes are open hath said: 'the Douay has it,' The man whose eye is stopped up hath said: 'the Breeches Bible renders it, 'The man whose eyes were shut up hath said.'
Chapter xxv., v. 4. See Deuteronomy, chap, iv., v. 31, 'The Lord thy God is a merciful God.'
Verse 9. '24,000.' In 1 Corinthians, chap, x., v. 8, the number is given as '23,000.'
Chapter xxvi., vv. 10 and 11. The Douay says, 'And there was a great miracle wrought; that when Core (Korah) perished, his sons did not perish.' Our version omits the miracle, out says, that 'the children of Korah died not:' yet in chap, xvi., vv. 32 and 33, we are told that 'the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods, they and all that appertained unto them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them, and they perished from among the congregation.'