rather to insinuate that he was not guilty of such a Crime as might make Men justly forfeit what they had for their Children as well as for themselves For all the Family of Dathan and Abiram perished and it is taken notice of as a singular Mercy that the Children of Korah did not XXVI 10 11. But died in his own Sin i. e. For his own Sin which God had declared should not affect the Children XIV 31. For to that General Sin in which all the People were engaged these words seem to refer And so it was his own sin not with respect to the rest of the People for they were all alike guilty but with respect to his Children it being a personal Guilt in which they were not concerned The Jews commonly say that Zelophehad was the Man that was stoned for gathering Sticks on the Sabbath-day For which they have no authority but a fancy of R. Aquiba who is sharply reproved for it by another considerable Rabbi who saith it is a rash Judgment for if it were true since the Scripture conceals it he ought not to have revealed it but hath reproached a just Man for any thing that appears See Selden Lib. II. de Synedr cap. 1. sect 9. And had no Son As was found when the People were numbred XXVI 33. Ver. 4. Why should the name of our Father be done Verse 4 away from among his Family One Family of the Tribe of Manasseh viz. the Hepherites being in danger to be wholly extinguished R. Judah will have the word Name in this place to signifie as much as hereditary possession and so he thinks it signifies XXV Deut. 6. as Mr. Selden observes out of Pesikta Lib. de Successionibus cap. 14. Because he hath no Son Merely for want of Issue-Male when he hath left many Daughters Give unto us therefore a possession among the Brethren of our Father Let us come in for a share among those that are descended from Manasseh Which if they did the Name of their Father could not be thereby preserved but by the Son of one of these Daughters taking upon him not the Name of his Father that begat him but of his Mother's Grand-father viz. Hepher which was ordered afterwards by a general Law XXV Deut. 6. Verse 5 Ver. 5. And Moses brought their Cause before the LORD This was too difficult a Cause though there seemed to be a great deal of Reason on their side to be judged by the great Court before-mentioned and therefore it was referred to Moses alone as other weighty Causes used to be See XV. 32. XXV 4. for neither Eleazar nor any other Person before whom it was brought v. 2. are here mentioned as the Judges of this matter And he durst not judge it though the equity appeared very plain without bringing it before the LORD for his direction which he could have upon all important occasions XXV Exod. 22. VII Numb 89. Verse 6 Ver. 6. And the LORD spake unto Moses saying This shows that the Cause was devolved upon Moses alone for the LORD tells him and no other Person how it should be determined Verse 7 Ver. 7. The Daughters of Zelophehad c. The LORD approves of their Claim and gives a Sentence in their favour Thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their Father's Brethren Because the word for them in the Hebrew is of the Masculine Gender some think it signifies they were to be considered as if they had been Sons And thou shalt cause the Inheritance of their Father to pass unto them So that they were to enjoy what would have faln to his share had he been alive ob indutam defuncti patris personam as the Lawyers speak because they stood in the place of their dead Father and represented his Person And accordingly they put in their Claim at the Division of the Land and had their Portion therein according to this Decision XVII Josh 2 3 c. How the Portion was divided among them according to the Hebrew Doctors Mr. Selden shows at large in his Book de Successionibus in bona defunctii cap. 23. Ver. 8. And thou shall speak unto the Children of Israel Verse 8 saying Upon this occasion he passes this special Case into a General Law to be hereafter observed If a Man die and have no Son then ye shall cause his Inheritance to pass unto his Daughter It being a reason as Maimonides observes More Nevochim P. III. cap. 42. that what a Man leaves should come to his Family and to those who are next of Kin to him for the nearer any Person is to us we are inclined by natural affection to have the greater regard to him But all this is to be understood of Land as for Money and moveable Goods which were of his own getting the Father might dispose of them by his Will to whom he pleased Ver. 9. And if he have no Daughter then ye shall give his Inheritance unto his Brethren Unless his Father was alive who undoubtedly the Jews say was Verse 9 the next Heir but not mentioned because it was not necessary Or as some say because it was too sad a thing to speak of a Fathers burying all his Children without Issue See Selden de Success in bona defuncti cap. 12. Where he observes that according to the Rule v. 11. it must come to the Father because he is nearest of kin to it And therefore the Jews interpret this as if Moses had said If he have Daughter he shall give his inheritance to the next of his Kindred to his Father for instance and afterwards ye shall give it to his Brethren i. e. the Children of his Father And the same is to be said of the Grandchildren unto whom the Brethren of a Father dying without issue are heirs For the Grandfather stands in the same relation to a Father that a Father doth to his Son Verse 11 Ver. 11. And if his Father have no Brethren then ye shall give it to his Kinsman that is next of Kin to him of his Family and he shall possess it To his Brothers Children or to those who are descended from them or from his Fathers ' Brethren But no consideration was to be had of his Mother's Kindred as the Jewish Lawyers say who could never be capable of the Inheritance Which they gather not only from these words which determine the Inheritance to his Family i. e. the Family of the Father before-mentioned not to the Family of the Mother but from the frequent mention of the Father of Mischpachoth which we translate Families or rather Kindreds of the Fathers in the Books of Moses Chronicles Ezra and others From whence this solemn Maxim of the Talmudists The Family or Kindred of the Mother is never called by the name of Kindred That is it hath not the effect of a Kindred in Successions to Inheritances Which is the same with that in the ancient Book Siphri Families follow the Fathers as Mr. Selden
them cap. 1. sect 6. Annot. 8. on Sota And uncover the Woman's head He was to strip her of all her Head-attire as the manner was if we may believe Philo in all Judicial Proceedings to loose her Hair and tear her Garments down to her Breast which he bound about her as the Jews say with an Egyptian Cord. And if she had any Gold or Jewels or other Ornaments about her they were all taken from her and she was clothed with a black Garment All which were plain Tokens of her lamentable Condition And put the Offering of Memorial in her hands After he had put it into a Frying-pan under which he held his own hand II Lev. 7. and at the same time held in his other hand the bitter Water which he shewed her Which is the Jealousie-offering Offered purely upon the account of her Husbands Jealousie as he told her And the Priest shall have in his hand the bitter Water So called because they put Wormwood or some such thing into it to give it a bitter taste as Maimonides and the ancient Rabbins fancy But the later Doctors say Nothing was mixt with this Water but Dust and yet it became bitter in the mouth So Nachman and others But the most probable account of all others is that this Water was called bitter from its direful Effects upon the Body of the Woman if she was guilty To which Exposition Jacob Abendana inclines See Wagenseil upon the Mischna Sotae cap. 3. sect 5. Annot. 1. Which causeth the Curse Or rather Which was given her with Curses and dreadful Imprecations blotted out with the bitter Water v. 21 23. as R. Bechai expounds it Verse 19 Ver. 19. And the Priest shall charge her by an Oath Adjure her to tell Truth in the manner following And say unto the Woman if no Man hath lien with thee c. If thou art Innocent of that whereof thou art suspected Be thou free from the bitter Water c. It shall have no ill effect upon thee Verse 20 Ver. 20. But if thou hast gone aside c. Art guilty of Adultery Verse 21 Ver. 21. Then the Priest shall charge the Woman with an Oath of Cursing This is no new Adjuration but only another part of that which began v. 19. and is continued in this and the foregoing So that these three Verses contain the intire form of Adjuration which the Priest was to pronounce in a Language which the Woman understood as the Jewish Doctors observe otherwise how could the Woman answer Amen as R. Ismael saith in Siphre exactly according to the Apostle's Doctrine 1 Corinth XIV 16. And the Priest was to signifie to her that this proceeding was meerly to satisfie her Husband's Jealousie by discovering the Truth Thus this whole matter is related by the Author of Ez Hechajim an incomparable MS. as Wagenseil calls it who hath it in his possession The Priest pronounces this Curse in a Language which she understands and signifies to her in the Vulgar Tongue that these things are done purely because her Husband is jealous of her she having been secretly with one whose Company he forbad her to keep and then saith in a Tongue familiar to her IF NO OTHER MAN HAVE LAYN WITH THEE BUT THY HUSBAND c. BE THOU FREE FROM THESE BITTER WATERS c. BUT IF THOU HAST BEEN FALSE TO HIM c. THE LORD MAKE THEE A CURSE c. Unto which the Woman was to answer AMEN AMEN By which words she not only consented to what the Priest said but made the same Imprecation upon her self The LORD make thee a Curse So that when Men would imprecate any evil to another they should say Let that befal thee which befel such a Woman as Rasi expounds it And an Oath among thy People A form of Execration as the aforesaid MS. expounds it or as Rasi will have it when Men called God to Witness they should say If I swear falsly let God punish me as he did such a Woman These Execrations were tacitly supposed in the Oaths among the Pagans as our great Selden shews at large Lib. II. de Synedr cap. 11. pag. 461 c. where he observes out of Porphyry that the ancient Indians had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lake of Probation or Trial And in his Marmora Arundeliana p. 28. there is this form of Imprecation in the League between the City of Smyrna and Magnesia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let it be well with me if I swear truly but if falsly let destruction be both to my self and to my Posterity And at this day there is a Custom in the Kingdom of Siam to determine dubious Cases by giving a Lump of Rice impregnated as my Author speaks with Curses to a Man to eat Which if he can swallow without vomiting he carries the Cause and his Friends carry him home in great Triumph c. So Jodocus Schoutenius who was Director of the East-India Company there 1636. When the LORD doth make thy Thigh to rot and thy Belly to swell When they see the dreadful effect of this Water in the rotting of thy Thigh after thy Belly is swelled For the swelling of the Belly it appears by the next Verse preceded the rotting of the Thigh Such Imprecations were in use in Homer's time it appears by Agamemnon's Prayer wherein he calls Jupiter and all the rest of the Gods to bear Witness of his Sincerity wishing them to send a Multitude of Pains and Griefs upon him if he forswore himself Iliad XIX v. 264 265. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 22 Ver. 22. And this Water that causeth the Curse Or For this Water c. Shall go into thy Bowels c. If thou art guilty it shall produce the following Effects To make thy belly to swell By the Belly the Jews understand the Womb and the Bowels which swelled till they burst And thy Thigh to rot By her Thigh is meant the Secret Parts of her Body as Chaskuni observes on this place And both Bochartus and Heinsius have given many Instances of the use of the word in this sense The former in his Hierozoic P. II. L. V. cap. 15. and the latter in his Aristarch Sac. cap. 1. And thus we read in the Passion of SS Perpetuana Faelic that when Perpetuana was thrown to the Beasts and lay on the Ground she drew back her Coat which was torn from her side ad velamentum femoris to cover her Thigh from being seen pudoris magis memor quam doloris having a greater sense of Modesty than of Pain pag. 32. Edit Oxon. The Mischna here observes not impertinently with what measure Men mete it shall be measured to them again for in the very part that offended she suffered for her Crime I noted before v. 17. that there were such ways of Trial anciently among the Gentiles but I am apt to think they were all later than the times of Moses who did not ordain these Rites
Appendix to Wagenseil's Annotations upon Sota p. 1186. And offer it upon the Altar At the South-Corner of it Ver. 26. And the Priest shall take an handful of the Verse 26 Offering even the Memorial thereof See upon the second Chapter of Leviticus v. 2. And burn it upon the Altar The rest of it the Priests were to eat unless her Husband himself was a Priest in which case it was all thrown among the Ashes See Selden in the place above-named Where he also observes that if she confessed the Fact or her Husband would not have her drink or either of them died before she drunk or a Witness of the Adultery appear'd which made the Waters useless the whole Sacrifice was burnt and not only a Memorial thereof All which is in the Mischna Sect. III. and IV. And afterward shall cause the Woman to drink of the Water The Sacrifice therefore was first offered though the Mischna say that if the Priest gave her the Water to drink first and then presented the Offering he did not do amiss Verse 27 Ver. 27. And when he hath made her to drink the Water By this it appears he might force her to drink if she would not do it by perswasion Then it shall come to pass that if she be defiled and have done Trespass against her Husband that the Water that causeth the Curse shall enter into her and become bitter c. These Effects here mentioned presently followed For she grew pale and her Eyes were ready to start out of her Head c. so that they cryed out Carry her forth carry her forth lest she defile the Court of the Temple by dying there as the Mischna saith Cap. III. Sect. 4. The Adulterer also if we may believe the Jews died the same day and hour Nay his Belly swelled as hers did and his secret Parts rotted as the Author of Ez. Hechajim saith in Wagenseil upon Sota Cap. V. Sect. 1. Where he adds that all this came to pass in case her Husband had never offended in the same kind For if he had at any time defiled the Marriage-bed then this Water had not these Effects upon his Wife though she had been faulty Which the Gemara also affirms Verse 28 Ver. 28. And if the Woman be not defiled but be clean then she shall be free Receive no harm at all by drinking the Water And shall conceive Seed If she was barren before she became fruitful after this trial and also bare a Man-child if we may believe the Jews and had easie labour Her Beauty also increased her Health was confirmed and if she had any Disease it was cured They observe also that if after she was thus cleared she kept company again with the same Man whom her Husband suspected and by his renewed Admonition had required her not to be in private with him this potion was not repeated but she was dismissed from being his Wife without any Dowry But if she kept company with any other Person privately after Admonition to the contrary this potion might be repeated as often as she offended with new Lovers Thus that MS. Ez. Hechajim so highly commended by Wagenseil Who also adds that in case her Husband put her away after her Acquittal and she married another Man who had the same ground of Jealousie that her former Husband had because of her Familiarity with the same Person whom he had forbidden her to keep company withal her new Husband might bring her to a new trial by this Water And so might as many Husbands as she should marry one after another if she gave the like occasion of Jealousie Ver. 29. This is the Law of Jealousies Whereby Verse 29 God declared himself to be privy to the most secret Sins and to be both the Preserver of Conjugal Faith and Chastity and the Protector of Innocence And provided that Man and Wife should live happily together by keeping Men from cruel and furious Proceedings against their Wives when they entertained a Jealousie of them willing them to commend the Case to God and by containing Wives in their Duty out of dread of this Punishment Which was so terrible as Maimonides well observes even to innocent Women that they would have given all they had to avoid it nay wish'd rather to die than undergo such a publick Infamy of having their Head uncovered their Hair cut off as he represents it their Garment torn to their Breasts and so to stand in the Sanctuary before a great multitude of Men and Women and the whole Sanhedrin More Nevochim P. III. Cap. XLIX When a Wife goes aside If the Man went aside from her she had not the same Action against him because the Family was not so much injured by his going aside as by hers which brought a spurious Brood to inherit his Estate To another instead of her Husband Hence the Talmudists conclude such an Action did not lie against a Woman who was only espoused or that waited for her former Husband's Brother to take her to Wife if they gave Suspicion of being defiled So the Mischna Cap. IV. Sect. I. And is defiled By that other Man with whom she went aside Verse 30 Ver. 30. Or when the Spirit of Jealousie cometh upon him and he be jealous over his Wife It appears by the first words of this Law v. 13 14. that whether she was really defiled or there was only a vehement Suspicion of it which bred a Jealousie in him the Husband had liberty to bring her to this trial for his own Satisfaction Which Law was rather permissive than preceptive And shall set the Woman before the LORD That he might show whether there was cause for her Husband's Jealousie or not See v. 18. And the Priest shall execute upon her all this Law Though the Man was not bound to bring her to this Trial but rather the contrary if he could otherwise get rid of his Jealousie yet the Priest was bound to proceed against her according to the foregoing Rules when she was set before the LORD to be tried And he might set her before him on any day that was not a Festival and in any hour of the day but not in the night nor might he give the Drink to two suspected Women at one and the same time Ver. 3. Then shall the Man be guiltless from iniquity Verse 31 and the Woman shall bear her iniquity By Iniquity here is to be understood the Punishment due to Iniquity For the Wife or her Parents if she appeared to be innocent could have no action against the Husband upon the Account of this Accusation And if she was guilty she was justly punished for her Crime and her Husband had no reason to say as the Jews speak in Pesikta Wo is me that I have killed a Daughter of Israel c. for he is here pronounced innocent in that matter by the Eternal God Who doth not exercise a Tyranny as they there go on over his Creatures nor gives them Precepts
of them both together In the first Month of the second year after they were come out of the Land of Egypt In which Month they were commanded to keep the Passover in memory of their wonderful Deliverance from the Land of Egypt Verse 2 Ver. 2. Let the Children of Israel also keep the Passover at his appointed season Aaron having been lately consecrated and having offered all sorts of Sacrifices for himself and for the People and God having declared his acceptance by Fire from Heaven VIII IX Lev. God commanded the People should keep the Passover which he had lately admonished them was one of the Feasts of the LORD XXIII Lev. 5. But the first order for the observation of it being that they should keep this Service when they came to the promised Land XII Exod. 25. they might thence conclude there lay no Obligation upon them to keep it here in the Wilderness And therefore by a Special Precept they are required to keep it when the year was come about to the time of its first Observation that the memory of so singular a Benefit might not presently slip out of their mind See XIII Exod. 5. Ver. 3. In the fourteenth day of this Month at Even Verse 3 ye shall keep it in his appointed Season So it was ordained XII Exod. 6. XXIII Lev. 5. According to all the Rites of it With unleavened Bread and bitter Herbs and the other Rites mentioned XII Exod. 9 10. And according to all the Ceremonies thereof If there be any difference between Ceremonies and Rites I should think this belongs to their Eating it in haste with their Loyns girt Shoes on their Feet and Staves in their hands XII Exod. 11. Unto which they were not bound when they came into the Land of Canaan when they were no longer Travellers but it is likely were observed here in the Wilderness when they were in an unsettled Condition Ver. 4. And Moses spake unto the Children of Israel Verse 4 that they should keep the Passover According to all the Rites and Ceremonies belonging to it Ver. 5. And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first Month at Even It was not hard to procure so much Flour as would serve to make Verse 5 unleavened Bread for that Even from some of their Neighbours about the Wilderness See IV. 7. In the Wilderness of Sinai Where they rested almost a whole Year But after they removed from thence were so uncertain in their Motions from place to place that they did not Circumcise their Children who consequently could not eat of the Passover And therefore we never read of its being kept after this during their forty Years stay in the Wilderness nor would they have been obliged as I said to keep it now without this Special Command Yet their Doctors say That this is written by Moses as a reproach to the Israelites that they observed no Passover in the Wilderness but this one alone Yet there are Christian Writers who deliver it as the Opinion of the Hebrews themselves that they kept another Passover a little before they ended their Wandrings in the Wilderness viz. in the first Month of the Year wherein Miriam died See Selden de Synedr Lib. II. cap. 2. n. 1. According to all that the LORD commanded Moses so did the Children of Israel They kept the Passover on the fourteenth Day at Even but perhaps did not keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven Days following For here is no mention of that and it had not been easie to provide so much Bread the want of which was supplied by Manna Verse 6 Ver. 6. And there were certain Men who were defiled by the dead Body of a Man And by a late Law for there is Nothing about this in the Original Law of the Passover XII Exod. no Unclean Person might eat of Holy Things VII Lev. 20. That they could not keep the Passover on that day On the fourteenth Day of the first Month at Even when the rest kept the Passover who were not defiled And they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day On the very Day that the Passover was kept Ver. 7. And these Men said unto him Though Verse 7 they came before them both whom they found sitting together yet they applied themselves to Moses only as the Supreme Judge in such singular Cases For the Judges which were constituted by the Advice of Jethro could not resolve this hard question and therefore they resorted to Moses unto whose Judgment all difficult Causes were reserved XVIII Exod. 22 26. See Selden L. II. de Synedriis cap. 1. n. 3. We are defiled by the dead Body of a Man And therefore some may think should have been excluded out of the Camp according to what was ordained V. 2. and consequently kept from coming with such Questions or about any other Business to Moses But it must be considered that when this hapned the Law now mentioned was not given for this was in the first Month of the second Year and that Law was not given till the second Month when the Camps were formed Wherefore are we kept back It was against their will that they were defiled by the dead Body of a Man which perhaps they were bound to bury and therefore they expostulate with Moses about their being denied the Liberty which others had pleading in effect it was not their Fault that they were defiled by the Dead but rather their Unhappiness and therefore why might they not challenge a Right in this Sacrifice as well as others seeing they had not forfeited it by any voluntary Guilt That we may not offer an Offering of the LORD The Passover is called the KORBAN of the LORD because it was to be killed and its Blood sprinkled which shows it to be properly a Sacrifice and then eaten by God's Commandment in a grateful remembrance of an exceeding great Benefit which shows it to be an Eucharistical Sacrifice For though the first Sacrifice in Egypt was to procure Deliverance to them and to avert the Evil which fell on the Egyptians by the destroying Angel Yet ever after it was a Thanksgiving for Deliverance then wrought by God's special favour to them Of which there was a compendious Commemoration made in their Paschal Rites XII Exod. 25 26 27. In his appointed season among the Children of Israel For if they did not perform this Service now they knew it was not lawful to be done at any other time Verse 8 Ver. 8. And Moses said unto them stand still Or wait here a while In which words Moses himself acknowledges the difficulty of the case which he could not resolve till he had first consulted the Divine Majesty about it Which teach Judges not to be ashamed to confess their Ignorance and take advice in Matters dubious as the Hierusalem Targum here observes But I see no such good ground for the other part of his Observation on this Verse that there being four difficult
yet they followed its motion This is a great Instance of their Obedience in this Particular for having rested but one Night they might be weary and very unwilling to take down their Tents and the Tabernacle and Travel again the next Morning Whether it was by Day or by Night that the Cloud was taken up they journeyed This is a further Instance of their being perfectly guided by God in this Matter that though they were at rest in their Beds yet if notice was given of the motion of the Cloud they rose up and went after it For they were sensible their safety depended upon the Protection and Guidance of this Cloud Ver. 22. Or whether it were two Days or a Month Verse 22 or a Year that the Cloud tarried upon the Tabernacle c. These words may seem superfluous saith Maimonides P. III. More Nevochim cap. 50. unto those who do not consider the intention of Moses in this Relation Which was to confute the conceit of prophane People who imagined the reason of the Israelites staying so long in the Wilderness was because they lost their way For the Arabians he saith in his days still called the Wilderness in which they travelled the wandring Desert fancying the Israelites here bewildred as we speak and could not find their way out but wandred like Men in the dark backward and forward not knowing which way to turn themselves Therefore the Scripture punctually shows that all their Removals which were irregular and the Time they rested in any Place which was very unequal being sometimes for eighteen Years some only for one Day or one Night were all ordered by a special direction of God For which Cause all the Circumstances of their Motion are recited so particularly by Moses Which shows also that the way from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea on the Borders of the Land of Canaan was a plain known and beaten Road of about eleven days Journey which it was not easie for them to miss And therefore the Cause of their going about and of their staying forty years in the Wilderness is that which Moses relates Verse 23 Ver. 23. At the commandment of the LORD they rested in the Tents c. This is the usual recapitulation of what goes before See Chapt. II. 34. IV. 49. VI. 21. And here was the more necessary because it gives an account of a most material thing their long stay in the Desert through which God thought fit to lead them XIII Exod. 17 18. They kept the charge of the LORD Moved or rested according to the Direction which God gave them At the commandment of the LORD See v. 18. By the hand of Moses By his Ministry who told them they were to be guided in their Motions by the Cloud And therefore they expected no other Commandment but that the LORD being in that Cloud and telling them by its Motion or Rest what they should do And when it did move no question it was so leisurely as that they their Children and Cattel might follow it with ease and be able to take their necessary Refreshment It is observable that in all these verses 18 20 23. where it is said they journeyed or rested al pi at the Mouth which we well translate at the Commandment of the LORD Onkelos renders it at the Mouth or Commandment of the WORD of the LORD Which WORD he takes to have given to Moses all the Commandments he received For so he translates those words XXV Exod. 22. And there will I meet thee by these and I will prepare or appoint my WORD to thee there to deliver that is the Divine Oracles and Answers to him CHAP. X. Chapter X Ver. 1. AND the LORD spake unto Moses saying Verse 1 This Commandment concerning the Trumpets it is very likely was given before but not mentioned till now when there was an occasion for one principal use of them viz. the removal of their Camp v. 11. Ver. 2. Make thee two Trumpets There were several Verse 2 sorts of Trumpets of different form among the Ancients as Eustathius shows upon Homer's Iliad Ε p. 1138. where he mentions six The second of which was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turned up round like a Ram's horn which he saith the Egyptians used it being found out by Osiris when they called the People to their Sacrifices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was called in their Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now in this Moses opposed the Egyptians which they would do well to take notice of who make their Customs to be of the greatest Antiquity for those which he here ordered to be made were long such as we use at present So Josephus tells us in whom there is a large description of them Lib. III. Antiq. cap. 11. where he saith they were a Cubit long and narrow like a Pipe but wider as ours are at the bottom Though only two be now ordered for present use it did not hinder their making more hereafter when both Priests and People also were multiplied See 2 Chron. V. 12. where in Solomon's time there were an hundred and twenty Priests sounding with Trumpets And Josephus mentions a vast number more Lib. VIII Antiq. cap. 2. Of silver These being Sacred Trumpets as Josephus frequently calls them it was fit they should be made of this pure Metal which gave them also a shriller sound Of one whole piece shalt thou make them As he did the Candlestick XXV Exod. 31. which made them the more firm and apter to give a certain and distinct sound That thou mayest use them for the calling of the Assembly and for the journeying of the Camps These are the two great uses for which they were designed Unto which some think a third is added v. 9. See there It is certain that in v. 10. another use of them is assigned Ver. 3. And when they i. e. The Priests v. 8. Shall blow With an equal and continued sound Verse 3 With them With both the Trumpets as appears from v. 4. All the Assembly shall assemble themselves to thee By this kind of sound with both the Trumpets the People understood that the whole Congregation was called to meet together At the Door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation Which seems to have been the usual place where they assembled and made their meeting the more solemn because it was before the LORD Ver. 4. And if they blow but with one Trumpet then Verse 4 the Princes which are Heads c. If only one Trumpet made the sound before-mentioned it was intended to summon only the Princes of Israel to attend Moses Shall gather themselves to thee At the Door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation as was said before Ver. 5. When ye blow an alarm When they did Verse 5 not simply blow with a long even and plain blast but with an interrupted and a broken or trembling sound which had as the Jews say a plain Note before and after that a quavering We generally explain it by a Tara-tan-tara
kindled greatly Which brake forth shortly after in a great plague upon them v. 34. And Moses also was displeased The same Phrase with that v. 1. It was evil in the Eyes of Moses i. e. Grieved him so that it made him wish himself rid of the burden of their Government Ver. 11. And Moses said unto the LORD I suppose Verse 11 he went into the Sanctuary to bewail himself and pray God to relieve him See v. 24. Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy Servant By committing this People to his charge And wherefore have I not sound favour in thy sight By granting the Prayer which he made at his first Call to this Office III Exod. 2. IV. 10. That thou layest the burden of this People upon me i. e. The principal Care of such an untractable Multitude upon one Man to whom they resorted in all difficulties XVIII Exod. 22 26. Ver. 12. Have I conceived all this People have I begotten Verse 12 them Are they my Children that I should make provision for the Satisfaction of all their desires That thou hast said unto me carry them in thy Bosom as a nursing Father beareth the sucking Child unto the Land c. Take a tender Care of them as a Parent doth of a little Infant and conduct them into Canaan c. Nothing can more lively express the Affection that Princes ought to have for their People if they have any regard to the Will of God than this Divine Command to Moses Verse 13 Ver. 13. Whence should I have Flesh to give unto all this People It is impossible for me to do what they desire For they weep unto me saying Give us Flesh that we may eat And yet they will not be satisfied without it He seems to be affected with their weeping as the most loving Parents are with the Tears of a sucking Child when it cries for that which they have not for it Verse 14 Ver. 14. I am not able to bear all this People alone because it is too heavy for me Let me have some joined to me to take part of this trouble with me and help to manage them in such Mutinies For it is beyond my strength to undergo the toil of hearing all their Complaints and appeasing their Tumults Some may imagine there was no reason for this request he having several Persons already appointed to assist him by the advice of Jethro XVIII Exod. But Rasi thinks those Men were burnt in the late fire because they did not suppress the beginning of this Mutiny v. 1. but perhaps join in it And so Bechai But the true account is rather this that they were set only to hear and judge smaller Causes all the weighty and difficult Causes being still brought before Moses to whom also the last Appeal was made in every Cause Which was so great a burden that he complained for want of help in those great things which lay wholly upon him See XVIII Exod. 22. Ver. 15. And if thou deal thus with me If thou leavest me still alone in this Office Kill me I pray thee out of hand if I have found favour in thy sight I shall take it for the greatest Verse 15 kindness to be taken immediately out of the World And let me not see my wretchedness Live to be a most miserable Creature For to see wretchedness is to be wretched as to see death is to dye LXXXIX Psal 48. And what could make such a tender Parent as he was more miserable than their perpetual untowardness together with the intolerable trouble it would give him to see heavy Punishments continually befal them for their Wickedness and the Enemies of God rejoyce in their Ruin Ver. 16. And the LORD said unto Moses Here Verse 16 is not the least sign of God's dislike of this Expostulation of Moses with God which seems not very dutiful because the Vexation this stubborn People gave him was really so great that he had reason to desire to be eased of it Which though he begged with much earnestness yet no doubt with no less submission to God's holy Will and Pleasure Gather unto me These words are interpreted by the Talmudists as if the meaning was that they may be a Sanhedrim to my Land i. e. a holy perpetual standing Council to endure throughout all Generations For wheresoever we meet with this word li unto me they think it signifies a thing to be established by God to all Generations The Examples they alledge of it are these of Aaron and his Sons he saith they shall Minister unto me in the Priests Office XXVIII Exod. 41. and of the Levites he saith III Numb 12. they shall be mine or unto me and of the Israelites XXV Lev. 55. unto me the Children of Israel are Servants The like is said of the First-born III Numb 13. of the Sanctuary XXV Exod. 18. of the Altar XX Exod. 24. of the holy Oyntment XXX Exod. 31. of the Kingdom of David 1 Sam. XVI 1. and of the Sacrifices XXVIII Numb 2. See Mr. Selden Lib. II. de Synedr cap. 4. n. 2. Seventy Men of the Elders of Israel This Number is generally thought both by the Jewish and Christian Writers to be derived from the number of Persons that came down into Egypt with Jacob XLVI Gen. 27. Who saith R. Bechai were a kind of Prototype of this Number in future Ages For hence they were governed by so many Elders when they were in Egypt III Exod. 16. where there is no mention indeed made of Seventy but he gathers it from what followed and those were the Seventy whom we find at the giving of the Law a little after they came out of Egypt XXIV Exod. 1 9. who are called Nobles or Great Men v. 11. So that this number was not now first constituted but rather continued and confirmed Whom thou knowest to be the Elders of the People For there were many Elders out of whom Seventy were chosen See XXIV Exod. 1. And Officers over them That is saith R. Bechai whom thou knowest to be of the number of those who when they were Officers in Egypt over the People were beaten by Pharaoh's Task-masters V Exod. 14. Which word Officers doth not signifie Men that had any Judicial Authority but only such as had an inspection over others to see they did their Work and to give an account of them But it is very likely they were Persons of note who had more than ordinary Understanding and Breeding which advanced them to be Inspectors of others And therefore the Talmudists rightly observe that the Elders and Officers here mentioned were no doubt Men of Wisdom and Judgment who knew how to use the Authority that was committed to them And it is not improbable as some of them affirm that they were chosen out of those lesser Courts which were erected by the Advice of Jethro See Selden in the same place sect 5. who at large confutes Baronius and others who say that the number of the great Sanhedrim which
derived its Original from hence was Seventy two and makes it appear they were only Seventy and with Moses their Head Seventy one sect 8. And it is not unworthy our notice that about the same time as he observes sect 12. that this number of Seventy Judges was here constituted in the Wilderness the great Judicature in Areopagus was constituted among the Greeks viz. in the Reign of Cecrops the first King of Athens after the Ogygian Flood when according to Eusebius the People of Israel were brought out of Egypt The Marmora Arundeliana indeed say this Court was erected in the time of Cranaus but that makes no great difference for he was the Successor of Cecrops We do not find of what number it consisted but it is certain it was the highest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all the Courts among the Greeks And it is no less observable that as that Court began about the same time with the Constitution of this among the Hebrews so they both ended in the Reign of the Emperor Vespasian as the said Mr. Selden shows in that Book cap. 16. sect 10. And bring them unto the Tabernacle of the Congregation That there they might be as it were consecrated unto God and that the People might know they received their Authority from him That they may stand there with thee As those Men who were to be sharers with him in his Authority and were like to him in Wisdom Piety and Descent So Maimonides glosses upon these words in Hilk Sanhedr cap. 2. where he saith none were made Members of the Sanhedrim but Priests and Levites and such of the Israelites as were descended from the noblest Families and quotes these words to prove it Verse 17 Ver. 17. And I will come down In a visible manner verse 25. And talk with thee there To declare perhaps in their Audience that he appointed them to the Office of being the Assistants of Moses in the Government And I will take of the Spirit which is upon thee and put it upon them He did not take away from Moses any of the Gifts which he had bestowed upon him nor did he diminish them but conferred upon these Men some of the Gifts which are here meant by Spirit viz. of Wisdom and Judgment and Courage with all others that were needful in a Governor This R. Solomon Jarchi illustrates by the comparison of a great Lamp set up in a room at which many others are lighted without the least diminution of its Light See further verse 25. And they shall bear the burden of the People with thee By this it appears it was the Spirit of Government which God intended to give them that they might ease Moses by assisting him with the same Authority that he had to hinder or to appease such Mutinies as now the People were faln into That thou bear it not thy self alone That all the Murmurings of the People might not be only against him but some of their Complaints might be diverted unto others Who might also help him in the judging of such Causes as had hitherto been reserved to him alone For it is plain that these Seventy Persons made an higher Court than any of those constituted by the advice of Jethro Cornelius Bertram indeed fansies that these Rulers of Thousands Hundreds Fifties and Tens not being sufficient for the business committed to them though he likewise conceives they had some of their several Families joyned with them God appointed these Seventy for their assistance to whom they were to bring all Causes which they could not determine before they troubled Moses with them Lib. de Repub. Jud. cap. 6. But our learned Mr. Thorndike in his Rights of the Church chap. 2. hath well observed that those Captains were to be in place only during the Pilgrimage of the Wilderness For when they came to the Land of Promise the Law provided that Judges and Ministers should be ordained in every City XVI Deut. 18. who if there fell any difference about the Law were to repair to the place where God dwelt to the Successors of Moses and these Seventy for Resolution in it XVII Deut. 11 12. For as he judiciously notes in his Review p. 69. sutable to what is here delivered they were assumed to assist Moses in his great Office of judging the hardest Causes and by that Law XVII Deut. 8 c. were afterwards made a standing Court resident at the Place of the Tabernacle to judge the last Result of all Causes concerning the Law and to determine all Matter of Right not determined by the Letter of the same Ver. 18. And say thou unto the People All that he said hitherto concerned Moses himself in answer to his Request Now he tells him what he should Verse 18 say to the People in answer to their Complaint Sanctifie your selves Here the word Sanctifie seems to signifie no more but to prepare and make themselves ready to receive what they desired So the Chaldee expounds it and so the word is translated by us several times in the Book of Jeremiah VI. 4. XII 3. LI. 28. Against to morrow He seems at the same time to gratifie Moses and satisfie them for his setting the Seventy Elders before the LORD and their eating Flesh succeed one another Or else he immediately gathered the Elders and the next day the Quails came for their Food And ye shall eat Flesh for ye have wept in the Ears of the LORD c. You shall have what you long for with such vehemence that it hath made you utter Complaints against the LORD Verse 19 Ver. 19. Ye shall eat not one day As they did about a Year ago XVI Exod. 12 13. Nor two days nor five days c. Not for a short time only Verse 20 Ver. 20. But even a whole Month. So long the Hebrews gather from hence they staid in this part of the Wilderness of Paran Or rather a little longer For they came hither on the twenty third Day of the second Month in the Even on which if we suppose the Fire to have burnt among them v. 1. and that the next Morning which is scarce credible they lusted after Flesh and in a tumultuous manner demanded it of Moses who promised they should have it we must allow a little time for the constituting of the Seventy Elders And suppose it was done on the twenty fifth Day and that the next Day the Quails came as we translate it they were two Days in gathering them From whence if we begin this Month it will appear they stayed here longer than that space Vntil it come out at your Nostrils Till you be glutted with it and vomit it up so violently that it come not only out at your Mouth but at your Nostrils And it be loathsom to you Which was both the Cause and the Effect of Vomiting Because that ye have despised the LORD Forgetting all that he had done for them as if it had been nothing and slighting his Servant
the LORD create a Creature i. e. do something that was never seen nor heard of in the World before The Jews in several of their Books particularly in Pirke Avoth say there are ten things which God created after the World was perfected and they mention the mouth of the Earth for one of them that is the gaping of the Ground to swallow up these wicked People Which is said to be created as Aben-Ezra well observes because by this Miracle God altered the Course of Nature and did a thing extraordinary And the Earth open her mouth and swallow them up with all that appertain unto them i. e. On a sudden when there is no Earthquake but all is calm and still and it swallow up none but them alone And they go down quick into the Pit Be buried alive when they are in perfect health By this place it is apparent that the Hebrew word Sheol doth often signifie the Grave which Bellermine and others most earnestly contend never signifies so but Hell which from hence he asserts to be in the Center of the Earth Lib. IV. de Christo cap. 10. not observing that if it signifie Hell in this verse and v. 33. then the Houses of these Men and their Houshold-stuff and all that appertained to them went down thither which is very absurd It is hard also to think that all their little Children went down into Hell for their Father's sin though they did into the Grave Then ye shall understand that these Men have provoked the LORD You shall be sufficiently convinced that they have unjustly accused me and brought this destruction upon themselves Verse 31 Ver. 31. And it came to pass that as he had made an end of speaking all the words that the Ground clave asunder that was under them He had no sooner done speaking but immediately what he said was verified which made it the more remarkable Ver. 32. And the Earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up Viz. Dathan and Abiram before-mentioned Verse 32 v. 27. who stood in the Door of their Tents outfacing Moses And their Houses i. e. All their Family or as Moses himself hath explained it XI Deut. 6. Their Housholds and their Tents and all the Substance that was in their possession And all the Men that appertained unto Korah We are not told what became of Korah himself for it is not said he was swallowed up but all that appertained to him i. e. all that were at that time in his Tent His whole Family except his Sons who escaped XXVI 11. taking warning I suppose from what Moses said v. 26. Which hath made some think that Korah was at the Head of his Two hundred and fifty Men who were the great Abetters of his Faction who if he had forsaken them at this Trial that was made who were in the right we may well think would have withdrawn themselves also and not have stood to it without their Chieftain as we find they did v. 35. Yet he is not mentioned there as perishing with them by Fire from the LORD and Moses seems to say XXVI 10. that Dathan and Abiram were swallowed up together with Korah who had as much reason or more perhaps to think it necessary to be with that other Company which he had gathered against Moses v. 19. and to incourage them to persist in their Resolution than to be with the Two hundred and fifty Men who were Men of such Authority v. 2. that they may be thought to have needed none to support them It may be added also that the word appertaineth is not here in the Hebrew which makes these words sound as if the meaning were only those that were of Korah's Family but simply all the Men that were to Korah i. e. were gathered to him and were at that time with him Which seems to be an Indication that they and he were swallowed up together How many there were that staid with him there is not certain but the generality left him v. 27. where it is expresly said they gat up from the Tabernacle of Korah Dathan and Abiram as Moses had commanded v. 24. Which may be taken for a further Indication that he was swallowed up in the Tabernacle where he was or in his own Tent after he came out of that Tabernacle But those places I observed before may be otherwise understood that place also which is the main foundation of this Opinion XXVI 10. may likewise receive another Interpretation as I shall show when I come thither And they that are of the other Opinion think his Tabernacle and his Family and all his Houshold-stuff might be swallowed up though he himself was not with them but was burnt by Fire with the Two hundred and fifty Men that offered Incense for Moses bad him take his Censer as well as they v. 17. Which since they did and put Fire and Incense therein why should it be thought he did not do the same It seems to me highly probable that he did otherwise he would have seemed to distrust his Cause but it must be confessed that it is obscure which way he perished and therefore it is not fit to contend about it And all their Goods All their Houshold-stuff and Cattle and whatsoever was in or about their Tents Ver. 33. They and all that appertained to them See XI Deut. 6. Went down alive into the Pit As Moses had foretold v. 30. Verse 33 And the Earth closed upon them This made it the more wonderful that the Earth having swallowed them all up had no Cleft remaining in it but closed up again and was as firm as before And they perished from among the Congregation Were never more seen Ver. 34. And all Israel that were round about them Verse 34 fled at the cry of them Though they were at a distance from their Tents whence they had removed on all sides v. 27. yet they heard them shriek so loudly as they sunk down into the Ground that it put them into a great fright and made them fly still further off For they said lest the Earth swallow us up also Some of them were conscious to themselves that they had favoured this wicked Faction and all of them knew how highly they had lately offended God by their unbelief and murmuring Chapt. XIV which might make them justly fear the same Fate with their Brethren Ver. 35. And there came out a Fire from the LORD Verse 35 From the Glory of the LORD which appeared unto all the Congregation v. 19. as ready to decide the Controversie This fell out either at the same time the Earth swallowed up Dathan and Abiram or immediately after it And consumed the two hundred and fifty Men that offered Incense Which was a plain declaration that they usurped the Office of Priests and therefore were thus punished by God himself for their presumption It is not certain whether they were devoured by the Fire or only struck dead as Men are sometimes on a sudden by
them out of the Land I hope by the conjunction of thy Curses with my Sword I may be able to destroy them or at least to drive them out of this Country For I wot that him whom thou blessest is blessed and he whom thou cursest is cursed The ancient Prophets had such power with God to obtain great Blessings from him for others as appears by the story of Abraham and Abimelech XX Gen. 10. and of Jacob who blessed Pharaoh XLVII Gen. 7. and afterward all his own Sons And no doubt their Imprecations were as powerful when there was a just cause for them according to what we read 2 Kings II. 24. And it is likely while Balaam who was a Prophet as appears by what follows and is so called by St. Peter continued a good Man he blessed and cursed no other way but by Prayer to God and by Imprecations in his Name Which was imitated by other great Men particularly by King Cambyses in his Speech to the Persians recorded by Herodotus in Thalia cap. 65. where he saith If you do what I require then let your Land bring forth plentifully and your Wives and your Flocks be fruitful and your selves enjoy your liberty but if you do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I imprecate the quite contrary things to these to fall upon you But when Balaam degenerated into a false Prophet and became a Diviner then he used Spells and Inchantments as is plain by this History and such Rites and Ceremonies as were the Invention of wicked Spirits which Pharaoh's Magicians the Jews fancy made use of to stop the Israelites at the Red Sea See XIV Exod. 2. Ver. 7. And the Elders of Moab and the Elders of Verse 7 Midian I take these two Nations to have been ancient Confederates but the Jewish Tradition is that they had been always at Enmity and now reconciled by a common Danger Just as two Mastiffs so they explain it who are continually fighting when they see the Wolf set upon one of them joyn together for their Defence because if he devour the one the other will not long survive him Departed with the rewards of divination in their hand It was the Custom among God's People when they came to consult with a Prophet to bring him a Present as appears from 1 Sam. IX 7 8. And indeed from ancient time Men were not wont to approach great Persons without one See XLIII Gen. 11 25 26. And they came unto Balaam and spake unto him the words of Balak Delivered their Message having first as the manner was made him the Present Ver. 8. And he said unto them Lodge with me this Verse 8 night That was the time it seems wherein he was wont to receive Answers to his Enquiries either in a Dream or by Apparitions or some other way There are those who think he now began to betray the naughtiness of his heart in taking time to advise about this Matter which if he had been a faithful Servant of God he would instantly have rejected with Disdain And it is likely enough by what follows that he was as desirous of their Money as they were of his Imprecations And I will bring you word again as the LORD shall speak unto me You shall have my Answer according to the Directions which the LORD shall give me By this I take it to be evident that he was not a Stranger to the true God with whose Name it is certain he was acquainted and it is probable had received Revelations from him till he became a covetous mercenary Prophet and addicted himself to Superstitious Rites and Ceremonies Making use of Teraphim perhaps which had been of ancient practice in his Country and worshipping God perhaps by other Images See XXXI Gen. 19 24 30 49. where it is evident that Laban had still communication with the LORD though he used Teraphim and calls them his Gods Which perhaps put that idle conceit into the Head of some of the Jews that it was one and the same Person who is there called Laban and here Balaam Who falling as I said unto Idolatrous Practices was forsaken by God and delivered up to the impostures of Evil Spirits though he still continued to enquire of the LORD Who was pleased at this time to make his Mind known to him for the Preservation of his People Israel And the Princes of Moab abode with Balaam As did those of Midian also who are mentioned in the foregoing verse Though some of the Jews have a fancy that the Elders of Midian went away which they give as the reason that they are not here mentioned as soon as they heard Balaam say he would address himself for Advice unto the LORD who they knew would be favourable to Israel And on the other side some Christians have been of Opinion that he addressed himself to the LORD only to try if he could draw him by his Charms to take part with the Moabites Just as the Romans when they laid Siege to a City endeavoured by all means they could invent to perswade the Tutelar Gods of that place to forsake it and come over to their side Which Rite is described by Macrobius Ver. 9. And God came unto Balaam As he is said Verse 9 to have done unto Abimelech in a Dream XX Gen. 3. Where I observed that Maimonides makes a distinction between God's coming to a Person and his speaking to him But that cannot be made use of here for God did both come and speak to Balaam as appears from v. 32 35. where we read the Angel of the LORD spake to him And here it will be fit to note That all Nations of whom we have any knowledge have been possessed with this Opinion that God was wont to appear frequently unto Men especially cum recentes à Deo essent as Seneca speaks in Epist. XC when they were newly come out of his hand and that he also was pleased to reveal his Mind and Will unto them by some means or other particularly by his Angels whom he sent on Messages to them as long as there was any Goodness left among them This is most admirably expressed by Catullus Praesentes namque ante domos invisere castas Saepius sese mortali ostendere caetu Coelicolae nondum spreta pietate solebant See Huetius in his Quaestiones Alnetanae Lib. II. cap. 12. n. 1 2. And indeed no account can be given how it came into the Head of Homer and other Poets to bring in the Gods appearing so oft as they do upon every occasion if God had not been wont in ancient time to manifest himself not only to the Israelites but to other Nations also especially before the distinction of this People from them So he did to Abimelech Laban c. as well as to Abraham Isaac and Jacob. For as Dr. Jackson hath well observed in his first Book upon the Creed chap. 11. if they had never heard nor read of any such thing all the Wits in the
he spake these words I see him As Balak desired he might XXII 41. though for another purpose that he might curse them And from the Hills I behold him The same thing again in other words according to the manner of the Eastern People And both these may relate not only to the present view he had of the Camp of Israel but to their future Settlement in their own Land wherein they were represented to him as dwelling securely under the special Protection of the Almighty Lo the People shall dwell In the Land of Canaan Alone Not mingled with other Nations but separated from them by different Laws Religion and Manners It seems also to import their Security and Safety by the Situation of their Country and God's care of them And shall not be reckoned among the Nations Be a peculiar People by themselves and therefore not liable to the power of my Curses like other Nations All this came to pass partly by the natural situation of their Country which was surrounded with high Mountains and rocky Precipices so that the coming to it was very difficult but more especially by their Rites and Customs and particularly by their Diet which restrained them from common Conversation with other Nations because they could not eat of their Food Swines flesh for instance which was a delicate Dish among the Gentiles was an Abomination to the Israelites By which means they were the better secured from learning the Religion of the Gentiles having so little Communication with them that they were called by Diodorus Siculus and others an unsociable People and thought to have an Enmity to the rest of the World Ver. 10. Who can count the dust of Jacob This may refer either to their present or their future Increase which was so great that they might be compared to the Dust of the Earth or the Sand on the Verse 10 Sea-shore which is without number Hereby he confirmed the Promise made by God to Abraham XIII Gen. 16. and to Israel XXVIII 14. where he saith expresly Thy Seed shall be as the dust of the Earth And the number of the fourth part of Israel Any one of their Camps every one of which was grown to a vast number For the whole Host of Israel was divided into four Camps under the Standards of Judah Reuben Ephraim and Dan as we read in the second Chapter of this Book one of which Camps lay more plainly before him than the rest viz. that on the West under the Standard of Ephraim Let me die the death of the righteous By the Righteous he means Israel who were now a People free from Idolatry which was the great Crime of those days And he desires either to be as happy as they in the other World or that he might not die an immature and violent Death but enjoy such a long Life here as was promised to them The Author of Sephar Cosri takes it in the former sence alledging this place as a proof that a future state was believed in ancient Times though not so clearly expressed in the Prophetical Writings as other things are for there is a certain Prayer saith he of one that prophecied by the Holy Ghost who desired that he might die the death of the righteous Pars I. sect 115. And my last end be like his Or Let my Posterity for so the word we here translate last end often signifies CIX Psal 13. XI Dan. 4. or those that come after me be like unto his Descendants Ver. 11. And Balak said unto Balaam what hast thou done unto me This is very surprising I took thee to curse mine Enemies and behold thou Verse 11 hast blessed them altogether Thou hast not only frustrated my desires in not cursing them but quite contrary hast pronounced great Blessings upon them For so the Hebrew words signifie Blessed them with blessings Verse 12 Ver. 12. And he answered and said Must I not take heed to speak that which the LORD hath put in my mouth He had told him so before more than once XXII 23. XXIII 3. and now makes him Judge Whether it was safe for him to disobey the LORD to comply with his Desires Verse 13 Ver. 13. And Balak said unto him come I pray thee with me to another place He thought Balaam gave him a reasonable Answer and therefore gently intreats him to make a trial whether God would be pleased to be more favourable to his desires if he sought him in some other place For whatsoever Balaam thought of this matter Balak was possessed with a Superstitious Fancy that the very Place or Prospect had been a Cause concurrent to produce the contrary Effect to what he desired and therefore intreated he would come with him to another where he might not see too many of them at once From whence thou maist see them It seems this was thought necessary to make their Curses effectual that they should have a sight of those whom they cursed and that they should look upon them Thou shalt see but the utmost part of them The Skirts of their Camps And shalt not see them all He imagined perhaps that Balaam was affrighted at the sight of their Multitude and therefore durst not meddle with them And curse me them from thence He seems to desire him to curse only that small parcel of the Israelites whom he saw in the utmost part of the Camp hoping he might by degrees get them all in like manner destroyed Ver. 14. And he brought him unto the field of Zophim Verse 14 Or as some translate it unto Sedâ— Zophim a place by the very name apt to enchant a Superstitious Mind with expectation of Success as Dr. Jackson speaks It is thought by some to be so called from the Watchers that were placed here which the word Zophim imports To the top of Pisgah A very high Mountain in the Country of Moab from whence one might see a great way and take a view of all the Parts of Canaan III Deut. 27. XXXIV 1 2 c. but on that side of it whether Balak brought him Balaam could not see much of the Camp of Israel It is likely he thought by bringing him to a place so exceeding high he should be nearer Heaven and so procure a more favourable Audience than before And built seven Altars and offered a Bullock and a Ram on every Altar As he had done before at Balaam's desire in another High-place v. 1 2. for there only he imagined their Sacrifices would be acceptable From hence Conradus Pellicanus concludes Balaam to have been a Worshipper of the true God as Jethro was because he still continues to offer only such clean Creatures as were wont to be sacrificed to him by his own People Ver. 15. And he said unto Balak stand here by thy Burnt-offering The same Direction which he had given before v. 3. Verse 15 While I meet the LORD yonder In a place to which he pointed Balaam made a peradventure of it before whether the
Verse 2 Moab Called the People Invited them to a Feast For the ordinary Charms unto Idolatry were good Victuals and bad Women Vnto the Sacrifices of their Gods To eat of the Sacrifices which had been offered to their Gods particularly to Baal-Peor These Feasts upon their Sacrifices were very magnificent among the Heathen being accompanied with Musick and Dancing and sometimes pompous Processions which inticed youthful Minds to partake of them Here the Israelites casting their Eyes upon the Daughters of Moab which doubtless on this occasion appeared in the best Dress and richest Ornaments were smitten with their Beauty and courted their Enjoyment Who would not yield to this Motion but upon condition that they would first worship their Gods whereupon pulling a little Image of Peor out of their Bosom they presented it to the Israelites to kiss it and desired them to eat of the Sacrifices that had been offered to him Thus the Jewish Doctors tell the story And indeed it hath been observed by the Writers of the Church that Women have been the most dangerous Seducers of Men from the true Religion being from the beginning the Spreaders of the old Heresies For Simon Magus advanced his Heresie Helenae meretricis adjutus auxilio being assisted by the help of the Harlot Helena Nicolaus of Antioch also choros duxit foemineos The famous Marcion sent before him some Roman Ladies to prepare his way Apelles Montanus Arius Donatus did all take the same course as St. Hierom shows in his Book adversus Pelagianos And the People did eat Which was an act of Idolatry as to eat of the LORD's Sacrifices was an Act of Divine Worship whereby they owned themselves the Servants of the Gods of Moab See XXXIV Exod. 15. And bowed down to their Gods This was still a more plain act of idolatrous Worship expresly forbidden by God in the second Commandment Verse 3 Ver. 3. And Israel was joyned unto Baal-Peor This seems to signifie that they were devoted to the Service of this Idol in great affection with which they performed the forenamed actions The Jews commonly take this Baal-Peor to have been no better than a Priapus and the worship of him to have consisted in such obscene Practices or Postures at least as are not fit to be named Particularly their great Commentary upon Numbers saith That the Israelites being unwilling to enjoy their Women upon those terms they told them they needed only uncover their Nakedness before Baal-Peor which was all the Worship required of them unto which they easily submitted This Maimonides himself relates for a truth that his Worship consisted in revealing their Secret Parts before him More Nevochim P. III. cap. 45. But Solomon Jarchi goes further making this Worship to consist in Actions as ridiculous as they were beastly All which seems to me very unlikely and so it doth to several Men of great Judgment particularly Mr. Selden who thinks with great probability that Peor as I observed before XXIII 28. being the name of a Mountain in the Country of Moab the Temple of Baal stood upon it by whom some understand Saturn others the Sun which is most likely and thence he was called Baal-Beor because there he was especially worshipped as Jupiter was called Olympius because he was worshipped in a famous Temple which stood on the Mountain Olympus And every one knows that anciently they chose the highest Mountains before all other places for the Divine Service insomuch that at Jerusalem the Temple was set upon the Hill of Sion which the Psalmist saith God preferred before all other places LXXVIII Psal 68. Or Peor perhaps was the name of some great Prince as the same Mr. Selden conjectures translated into the number of the Gods for the Psalmist saith CVI Psal 28. that when they worshipped Baal-Peor they are the Sacrifices of the dead Which seems to signifie that in him they worshipped some dead Man who perhaps was the first Institutor of this Worship whatsoever it was Another great Man of our own Nation hath said much to strengthen this Opinion having shown at large that the ancient Heathens were wont to Deify the Souls of Men and Canonize them after Death and these we called Baalim Being accounted an inferiour sort of Deities who they fancied were Ministers for them to their Caelestial Gods See Mr. Mede Book III. p. 724 c. Yet it must be acknowledged that there are others of great note who take all for truth which the Jewish Writers report concerning the filthy Worship of Baal-Peor and imagine that Fornication was a part of it as in future times it was both among the Greeks and Romans in the Worship of some of their Gods For what the Jews found then practised they fancied was done in these early days But it is observable that the more ancient the Books of the Jews are which speak of this matter the less they say of the impurities in the Service of Baal-Peor For Example the Hierusalem Talmud hath none of that leud stuff in it which Solomon Jarchi upon this place took out of the Babylonian which was composed long after the former And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel As appeared immediately by the severe punishment he inflicted on them both for their Idolatry and for their Fornication Verse 4 Ver. 4. And the LORD said unto Moses take all the Heads of the People and hang them up The plain meaning seems to be that he should take i. e. cause to be apprehended the Heads of the People i. e. the Rulers of Thousands and Hundreds and other principal Persons in their Tribes who had been guilty of the foul Idolatry before-mentioned and by hanging them up put a stop to the Peoples lewdness when they saw these great Men made Publick Examples of God's Displeasure For it is very likely more of the Princes of the People were guilty besides Zimri especially if it be true which the Samaritan Chronicle affirms that the Daughters of the chief Men of Moab were sent finely dressed to allure the Israelites and one of the King's Daughters among the rest But though the LXX and the Vulgar and Symmachus thus understand it that he commanded the Heads of the People to be hanged up yet a great many other ancient Translators and many famous Doctors take the word Otham them whom he commanded to be hanged up not to refer to the Heads of the People but to such as had joyned themselves to Baal-Peor and they interpret the foregoing words as if he had bid him take unto him i. e. to his assistance the Heads of the People as they think he did as is related in the next verse The Judges indeed there mentioned seem to me to be distinct from the Heads of the People and Moses did not take them to his Assistance but commanded them to do their duty Yet it must be acknowledged that there is a great current of Interprepreters which runs the other way as if Moses was commanded to
observes Lib. II. de Jure Belli Pacis cap. 20. sect 9. and see Selden de Jure Nat. Gent. Lib. IV. cap. 4. But this Judgment as they call it seems not to be well grounded upon the Fact of Phineas who was a publick Person and had an extraordinary motion not to be imitated by private Men nor was it followed till the latter times of the state of that Nation Through her belly The Vulgar hath it through her Secret Parts And so the Jews in Pirke Eliezer c. 47. and in other Books such as Pesikta and Siphri where they make many Miracles to have concurred in this Fact particularly they say that the Relations of Zimri going to fall upon Phineas for killing their Prince the Angel of the LORD smote them and cut them off So the Plague was stayed from the Children of Israel It seems a Pestilential Disease as Josephus calls it swept away many of the Offenders who could not so speedily be punished by the Judges But it stopt immediately upon this pious Act of Phineas Verse 9 Ver. 9. And those that died of the Plague were Twenty and four thousand There were but Twenty and three thousand who died of the Plague it self as the Apostle tells us 1 Cor. X. 8. but there were a thousand more taken off in the Plague time or during the Plague as the Hebrew words may be read For in the Twenty and four thousand Moses comprehends all those who were killed by the Sword in the day of the Plague as the Phrase is v. 18. whereas St. Paul reckons those only who died of the Pestilence as many have observed particularly Bochartus Lib. II. Hieroz cap. 34. P. I. It is probable that from hence it was that the Author of the Samaritan Chronicle took up a Conceit that the King of Moab sent Twenty four thousand Damsels to Seduce the Israelites as Hottinger reports his words in his Smegma Orientale cap. 8. p. 448. Verse 10 Ver. 10. And the LORD spake unto Moses saying After the Plague was stayed it is likely Moses went into the Tabernacle to give God thanks for his Mercy to his People and then he spake to him what here follows Verse 11 Ver. 11. Phineas the Son of Eleazar the Son of Aaron the Priest hath turned my Wrath away from the Children of Israel Though they wept and mourned before the Door of the Tabernacle yet that did not prevail so much for Mercy as this Heroick Act of Justice While he was zealous for my sake among them With a fervent and courageous Affection vindicated the Divine Honour by a speedy punishment of those notorious Offenders That I consumed not the Children of Israel in my Jealousie Did not proceed to destroy them by the Pestilence when I was so highly incensed against them For it is observed by Herodotus himself in his Euterpe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for great Crimes there are as great Punishments sent from God which is necessary for the Publick Good For unless by such means a stop be put to open Impurities to Murders and such like Crimes not only all Civil Society will be overturned but Nations become so wicked that they will be fit for nothing but to be rooted out by the Divine Vengeance as the Canaanites were Thus Cicero discourses Philip. VIII In Corpore si quid ejusmodi est quod reliquo corpori noceat c. In the Body if there be any thing which hurts the rest of the Body it is necessary to cut it off or to burn it that some one Member rather than the whole Body perish And so it is in the Body of the Commonwealth Vt totum salvum sit quicquid est pestiferum amputetur that the whole may be preserved let that which is infectious be lopped off Ver. 12. Wherefore say Unto Phineas or unto Verse 12 all the People Behold I give thee my Covenant of Peace The word Peace in Scripture comprehends all manner of Blessings and therefore this is a solemn Promise and Engagement to make him and his Family prosperous the particular Blessing which he entails upon him following in the next verse But some will have this to signifie that he should be the great Reconciler of God to his People and make Peace between them hereafter as he had done at present Philo seems to think this and the Priesthood to be two distinct things when he saith God crowned his Piety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with two Gifts Peace and the Priesthood And the Jews make Peace to consist in a long Life of Prosperity which was fulfilled in Phineas his Person who lived till the latter times of the Judges XXI Judg. 28. Pirke Elieser interprets it he gave him the life of this World and of the next Verse 13 Ver. 13. And he shall have it and his Seed after him It shall continue in his Family Even the Covenant of an everlasting Priesthood This is the particular Happiness which God settled upon him and his Posterity as long as their State lasted Which was with some limitation it appears by this that after some Successions in the Line of Phineas the Priesthood came for a time into the Family of Eli who was descended from Ithamar the youngest Son of Aaron The reason of it is not mentioned in the Scripture but some great Sin it is reasonable to suppose provoked God to set aside the Line of Eleazar for some years till Eli's Sons also became so wicked that the Priesthood was taken from them and restored in the days of Solomon to the Posterity of Phineas with whom it continued as long as the Priesthood lasted What Sin this was and when committed we do not know Some of the Hebrew Doctors are so bold as to say it was because Phineas would not absolve Jephthah from his Vow as Mr. Selden observes Lib. I. de Success in Pontif. cap. 2. But as there is no ground for this and such like fancies which others of them have so it is more probable that some of Phineas's Successors offended rather than he himself his Posterity for four Generations holding the Priesthood before it was translated to Eli as Josephus and others mentioned by Selden in the place before-named make account Aegidius Camartus in his Book de Rebus Eliae cap. 3. sect 5. and Corn. Bertram cap. 15. de Republ. Jud. imagine that in those confused times none of the Priests were found fit to administer the Affairs of the Nation but Eli alone and therefore he was appointed by God to it as appears from 1 Sam. II. 30. But L'Empereur in his Annotations upon Bertram well observes That it being the constant course of God's proceedings to continue his Mercies to the Israelites according to his promise while they were obedient but to take them away when they became disobedient it is highly reasonable to conclude there was some great Offence given to God by some of the Race of Phineas which was the cause that they lost this Dignity But
Princes of the Congregation went forth to meet them without the Camp Hearing they were returned victorious they went to congratulate them before they came at the Camp for which there was also another reason mentioned v. 19. This shows that Eleazar was not so infirm as some suppose and affords an argument to strengthen their Opinion who think Joshua was now General of the Host otherwise he would have been mentioned together with Moses and Eleazar as going to meet them being chosen his Co-adjutor and therefore Superiour to all the Princes that are here joyned with them Ver. 14. And Moses was wroth with the Officers of Verse 14 the Host with the Captains over Thousands and Captains over Hundreds which came from the Battle Who were more to blame than the Soldiers whose duty it was to obey not to give orders which they received no doubt from the Officers to kill only the Men. Here now is an Argument to the contrary that Joshua did not Command in chief but this being only a Detachment as they now speak from the Host of Israel was led by some inferiour Officer The first Captain of Thousands perhaps for if Joshua had been there Moses would have expostulated with him or rather there would have been no cause for this Rebuke he being a Man in whom was the Spirit XXVII 18. Ver. 15. And Moses said unto them have ye saved all the Women alive Unless he had commanded them to be killed one cannot see that they deserved to be Verse 15 chidden because they proceeded according to the Rules of all worthy Warriours who killed only those who could bear Arms against them But either he had given some Directions who should be killed or he expected they should have considered that the Women had killed more by their Blandishments than their Husbands could do by their Arms for they had not killed one Man v. 49. and therefore should have been destroyed as the most mischievous for so it follows in the next verse Verse 16 Ver. 16. Behold Reflect upon what is lately past and consider These caused the Children of Israel through the counsel of Balaam to commit Trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor and there was a Plague among the Congregation of the LORD By these they had been inveigled into an heinous Sin and made obnoxious to a very heavy Punishment which God inflicted upon them on that account For though the Moabitish Women had a great hand in it XXV 1. yet those of Midian seem to have been the chief Seducers v. 6 17 18. and perhaps he feared might be so again Verse 17 Ver. 17. Now therefore kill every Male among the little ones That the Nation might be extirpated as far as lay in their power And kill every Woman that hath known Man by lying with him For these it is to be supposed had been the most instrumental in the Crime before-mentioned either by prostituting themselves or their Daughters to the Lust of the Israelites and thereby drawing them to Idolatry In which Sin they were so settled that there was no hope of reclaiming them but they might rather if they had been saved alive have inticed the Israelites to commit the same again Ver. 18. But all the Women-children that have not Verse 18 known a Man by lying with him keep alive Being young there was some hope they might be brought off from Idolatry and become Proselytes to the true Religion For your selves To be sold as Slaves to any other Nation or to be kept as Servants or taken to be their Wives after such preparation as the Law required XXI Deut. 16 17 c. This was a peculiar Case wherein a middle course was held between those that were of the Seven Nations of Canaan and those that were not If they were not of those Seven Nations the Israelites might take the Women and little Ones unto themselves XX Deut. 14 15. If they were every thing that breathed was to be destroyed v. 16 17. But here the Midianites being guilty of a very great Crime against the LORD and against his People are punished more heavily than other Nations though not so heavily as those of Canaan were to be For they killed all the Women that were not Virgins as well as all the Males both little and great but spared the rest together with the Cattle c. Such an Execution was made in after times upon one of the Cities of Israel upon an high Contempt of Publick Authority in a very great Exigency XXI Judges 11. There is a Rule in XX Deut. 10. that when they came to fight against any City they should proclaim Peace to it and if they would accept it they should only make the Inhabitants Tributaries to them From whence a Question arising whether this extended to the Seven Nations of Canaan it is resolved by Maimonides that it did which he proves from XI Josh 19 20. But so great was the Sin of this People that they neither sent offers of Peace to them now nor were they to make any Peace with them hereafter XXIII Deut. 6. And the reason is there given because they hired Balaam to curse them which is as true of the Midianites as of the Moabites Notwithstanding which Maimonides determines that though the Israelites did not send Messengers of Peace to them yet if they of their own accord sent to desire Peace of the Israelites they were not to reject them See Cunaeus de Repub. Hebr. Lib. II. cap. 20. Verse 39 Ver. 19. And do ye abide without the Camp seven days As unclean Persons For though it was lawful to kill Men in a just War against them yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo speaks because of the most ancient and common Kindred between all Mankind if was fit Men should use some Purification to cleanse themselves from that which looks like a Crime though it was none Whosoever hath killed any Person and whosoever hath touched any slain purifie both your selves The whole Army that went to the War were to stay without the Camp seven days and such of them as had had their Hands in Blood or had touched a dead Body though killed by another were to use a special Purification which was made by the Water of Separation mentioned XIX 9 c. And your Captives Or the Prey that they had taken of Garments and other things mentioned in the next verse and so the word is translated v. 26. For we cannot think that the Persons they had taken being Gentiles were to be purified with that Water which was peculiar to the Jews On the third day and on the seventh day So the Law was XIX 11 12. And such Purifications were common among the Gentiles especially the Greeks upon the like occasions as Mr. Selden observes L. IV. de Jure Nat. Gent. cap. ult Grotius L. II. de Jure Belli Pacis cap. 24. n. 10. To whom add our late learned Dr. Spencer L. III. Dissert 3. sect 1. where
to die for it Verse 17 Ver. 17. And if he smite him with throwing a stone In the Hebrew it is with a stone of the hand That is say the Jews with a great Stone that fills the hand not with a small Stone with which he could not be presumed to intend to kill him though he chanced to do it by hitting him in the Eye or some other very tender part Wherewith he may die With a Stone big enough to kill him And he die So that it appears he died of that blow He is a Murderer the Murderer shall surely be put to death He is as guilty as the forenamed Person who smote with an Instrument of Iron and his fleeing to the City of Refuge shall not protect him from Death Verse 18 Ver. 18. If he smite him with an hand weapon of wood Such as a Battoon as we now speak or a Club or any such kind of Instrument as is likely to kill him Wherewith he may die c. It made no difference with what kind of Weapon or Instrument he was killed whether it were of Iron Wood or Stone if he were killed wittingly and knowingly it was Murder and the guilty Person was to suffer for it Aul. Gellius hath collected the Names of the several Weapons which are mentioned in ancient History of which there are near thirty Lib. X. Noct. Attic. c. 25. one of which called Lingula he is pleased to explain being then not common and saith it was a little Sword in the form of a Tongue like our Poniard I suppose or Dagger or long Knife which was a dangerous Weapon because Men might hide it under their Clothes and kill others while they were in familiar discourse with them Ver. 19. The avenger of blood himself See v. 12. Verse 19 Shall slay the Murderer This is thought by many to be a mere permission not a Precept But the Jews think otherwise that the next of Kin i. e. the Heir of him that was slain stood bound to do his indeavour to avenge his Blood If he would not saith Maimonides or if he was not able or if no such Avenger was to be found i. e. the Murderer himself was the next Heir or the Man slain was a Proselyte of Justice without Issue he was to be prosecuted and put to Death by the Court of Judgment and that by the Sword See Selden Lib. IV. de Jure Nat. Gent. cap. 1. When he meeteth him he shall slay him He was not bound to stay for the Sentence of the Court but might kill him wheresoever he found him See v. 31. Ver. 20. But if he thrust him of hatred c. Or rather for if he thrust him c. That is if by any other means besides those mentioned v. 16 17 18. he kill'd Verse 20 a Man wittingly either by pushing him down violently from an high or steep place or throwing him into the Water or hurling a Stone at him or letting any thing fall down upon his Head though never so slily if Death followed and it appeared he bare a hatred to him he was to suffer Death as in the former Cases See XIX Deut. 11. Now this was a sufficient proof of hatred to him if being a Neighbour and they having some difference he had not spoken to him for three whole days together Verse 21 Ver. 21. Or in enmity smote him with his hand that he die he that smote him shall surely be put to death If he gave him only a blow with his fist of which he died and it was proved he had Enmity to him it was sufficient to make him a Murderer and it warranted the Avenger of Blood to kill him or obliged him to prosecute him so that the City of Refuge should not save him The revenger of blood shall slay the murderer when he meeteth him The Civil Law declared him to be unworthy to enjoy the Inheritance of one that was murdered if he neglected to prosecute the Person that killed him in some Court of Justice But the Jewish Law allowed or rather required a great deal more that the next of Kin should kill the Murderer with his own hands if he met him And thus the Abyssines at this day as Ritterhusius observes out of Alvarez deliver the Murderer into the hand of the next Kinsman to torture him The reason of which Law among the Jews was as the same Ritterhusius observes de Jure Asylorum cap. 4. because they being all descended from one and the same Stock and equally partaking of the same right they were all concerned in the shedding of the Blood of any one of them especially they who were nearest to him in Blood who seemed to be all struck at and injured in him So that the Law with great reason allowed them to avenge the Blood of him that was slain With which these Verses of Ovid he thinks agrees Cum tibi sint fratres fratres ulciscere laesos Cumque pater tibi sit jura tuere patris Ver. 22. But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity Verse 22 Killed him after the manner fore-mentioned v. 20. in a violent Passion having no such Intention and being perhaps highly provoked by him or by chance as we speak and unawares it being proved that there was no Enmity between them no signs of hatred before this Fact Or cast upon him any thing without laying in wait Happen to hit him with any thing without design to hurt him See XXI Exod. 13. XIX Deut. 5. Ver. 23. Or with any Stone wherewith he may die Verse 23 See v. 17. Seeing him not and casting it upon him that he die Throwing it at something else or playing with it and having no thought of him because he did not see him And was not his enemy neither sought his harm Not having any quarrel with him nor threatning him or any other way discovering that he sought to do him mischief Ver. 24. Then the Congregation That is the Judges to whom the Trial of such Causes belonged See v. 12. Where I observed that the Elders of the City Verse 24 of Refuge judged whether the Man-slayer who fled thither should be received or not upon a summary hearing of the Cause and such Examination as they could make at present But the full Examination of it was reserved to the Judges of the place where the Fact was committed Shall judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood They sent for him out of the City of Refuge to be brought before them who heard what could be alledged against him and what he could say for himself According to these judgments Upon Trial they proceeded to give Judgment according to the foregoing Rules which in brief are these If a Man had no intention to kill another but it was purely involuntary he was to be acquitted If there appeared any design upon his Life or such hatred and enmity as might move them to conclude he had an intention to kill him he was to be put