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that Moses first raised the assessment, then ordered the free-will-offering, and when the materials were collected he delivered them to the workmen, and ap pointed them to begin the tabernacle. Now if he proceeded thus, the poll mentioned in the first chapter of Numbers was near six months later, than this numbering and assessing the people; for the tabernacle was probably about five months in making, and the poll in Numbers i. was taken a month after finishing and erecting the tabernacle as above. it may seem very odd, that two different polls of one and the same people, taken thus at two different times, should agree exactly to a man; one would rather imagine, that in a growing people, the number of deaths of the aged could not answer to the advance of young persons to the age they were polled at; but that in the space of one or of six or seven months, there must be a considerable variation in so great a company as the camp of the Israelites. And if we duly attend to it, we find this was the fact in the case before us. The number of men indeed in each poll is the same exactly, there being 608,550 men in each of them but then the same persons were not allowed to be taken down in both the polls. To the first poll came all the Israelites from twenty years old and upwards, but in the second poll the Levites were not numbered. When the first poll was taken,

* Exod. xxxi. 3. Numb. i. 45.

Numb, i. 47

Ibid. xxxviii. 26.

• Exod, xxx, 14.

I say, all the Israelites were numbered, no tribe excepted; for the Levites were not then separated from the congregation; but at the taking the se cond poll, the Levites were to be numbered by themselves, and in another manner." And thus at

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taking the first poll, the whole camp, Levites included, consisted of 608,550 men, of and above twenty years old. At the second poll the camp consisted of the like number of 603,550 men, of the age above-mentioned, without any Levites in the computation; so that as many persons as were grown up to the age of twenty years in the space of time between taking the two polls, as the number of Levites of twenty years old and upwards at the first poll amounted to, supposing, what I think may be allowed, that no one person died in the camp in this interval.b

* The separation of the Levites was at taking the second poll. Numb. iii. 6. Gon having directed them not to be numbered in it. Chap. i. 48, 49.

i. 48. iii. 2 Exod. xxxviii. 26.

a Numb. i. 46.

If we consider the whole body of the Israelites as under the protection of a particular providence, and in hopes, each person for himself and children, of living to go into the promised land: if we add to this, that sickness and an early death were not frequent in these ages, but were thought judgments for particular sins. See vol. ii. b. ix. Numb. xxvii. 3. it will not be hard to imagine that five or six months might pass without a death in the camp. And if we further reflect, that the younger part

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On the first day of the first month, of the second year after the departure out of Egypt, i. e. about the middle of our March, A. M. 2514, Moses reared up the tabernacle, and placed the ark in it, and hung up the vail, and put the table of shew-bread in its place, and set the bread in order upon it, and put the candlestick in its place, and lighted the lamps, and placed the golden altar of incense in the tent before the vail, and he burnt sweet incense thereon; and set up the hanging at the door of the tabernacle, and set the laver in its place, and reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court-gate. This is what Moses is represented to have done this day: and all the parts of the taber

d

of the camp were so numerous, as in about eight or nine and thirty years to grow up into a body of 601,730 men of twenty years old and upwards, without the Levites, and without any of the persons that were now twenty, except Joshua and Caleb, to be numbered amongst them, Numb. xxvi. 51-64, it may not seem improbable that the persons at this time near twenty years old, but not completely so, should be sufficient to afford in five or six months an addition to the camp, not only equal to the number of Levites of twenty years old and upwards, who were taken from it, and who were, I conceive, in number not above eight or ten thousand. See Numbers iv. 48, but also to a farther number of aged men, if any such must be supposed to have died in this interval.

d What is mentioned ver. 31, 32, and his sons washed their hands and

Exodus xl. 17–33. that Moses and Aaron feet at the laver, was

nacle being ready to be put together, and the ark and altar completely finished, fit for their respective places, all this may very well be conceived to be done in the space of time allotted to it, an hour or two before night. Now when Moses had thus raised the tabernacle, GoD was pleased to give the people a visible and miraculous demonstration, that it was erected according to his directions; for a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle." And this visible evidence of the divine presence continued from this time, until the Israelites had finished their journeys through the wil derness; for the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys; and when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not, till the day that it was taken up. Thus GoD was pleased to appoint himself, as it were, a visible dwelling amongst men; for the tabernacle was built, that he might dwell amongst his people, that there might be a known and determined place, where he would at all

f

not now done; but at such times as they went into the tent of the congregation, or approached the altar, and is here. set down only to tell the use of the laver.

e Exod. xl. 34.

See Numb. ix. 15-23.

f Exod. xl. 36, 37, 38.

* Exod. xxv. 8.

h

times vouchsafe to meet them and commune with them, and give them a sensible evidence of his being nigh unto them in all things, that they might have occasion to call upon him for; and this was the first structure which was erected in the world for the pur poses of religion. The Israelites had a most strict charge to destroy utterly all the places, wherein the na tions of Canaan had served their gods, whether they were upon the high mountains, or upon the hills, or under green trees. But we do not find, that they had any buildings to erase; rather all they had to do, was to overthrow their altars, to break their pillars, to cut down, and to burn their groves with fire, to hew down the graven images of their gods, and to destroy the names of them out of the place where they had erected them." after-times, when houses were built for the idolatrous worship, we find express mention of the demolishing them, by the persons who engaged in reforming the people. Thus Jehu brake down the house of Baal," as did Jehoiada in like manner; and the Israelites would unquestionably have been as expressly commanded to demolish such structures, had there been any, when they entered Canaan; the heathen nations had no thought of building houses to their gods, until after the Israelites had their tabernacle.

Exod. xxv. 22, xxix. 43-45.

* See vol. ii. book viii.

i Deut. iv. 7.

Deut. xii. 2.

m Ver. 3. vii. 5. Exod. xxxiv. 13, xxiii. 24.

2 Kings x. 27.

2 Kings xi. 18. 2 Chron. xxiii. 17.

In

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