before all the people I will be glorified." They then only sanctified and glorified GoD, when they dispensed to his people, as parts of his religion, what he had commanded; but when they varied from it, or performed or enjoined, as part of it, what he commanded not, then they assumed to themselves a power which belonged not to them; then they spake and acted of themselves, and he that in these points speaketh of himself, seeketh not God's, but his own glory.*

GOD had directed, that the Israelites should keep the passover at its appointed season ; and accordingly they prepared for it against the fourteenth day of the month at even, in order to observe it according to the rites thereof. But on the fourteenth day a doubt arose about the persons who had touched the dead bodies of Nadab and Abihu, whether they were fit to keep the passover; Moses enquired of GOD about them, and received an order, that all persons hindered by such an accident, or that were on a journey, should keep the passover a month after their brethren. have no account of any thing done more, until the first day of the second month; so that we have here sixteen days interval, in which space, I imagine, the laws recorded in Leviticus, from the beginning of the xith chapter to the end of that book, were given, except the laws contained in the three last chapters; for these were given to Moses, not at the door of the

We

tabernacle, but upon the mount. The son of Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan, was stoned for cursing and blaspheming about this time."

On the first day of the second month, À. M. 2514.

Moses was commanded to take the number of the congregation by a poll of every male, of twenty years old and upwards, excepting the Levites who were not to be here numbered. And in order to taking this poll, twelve persons were named to be princes of the tribes of their fathers; and they assembled their tribes, and gave in upon this first day of the month,. each the names and number of the persons in the tribe. over which he was set." After this Moses received a command to appoint the order, in which the host of the Israelites was to march and encamp. In the next. place he was directed to take the number of the Levites; and to appoint to their several families their respective services, and to set apart the whole tribe. for the ministry of the tabernacle. In the more. ancient times, the first-born of every family was to be the minister of religion; but in the Jewish institution. Gon thought fit to dismiss the first-born from this service, and to direct the Levites to be dedicated to him, instead of them." As many Levites as were over and above the first-born of the Levites, who, by being the first-born, were before this institution holy unto the

LORD; so many of the first-born of the other tribes were discharged from attending upon the service of the tabernacle. Accordingly, there being twenty and two thousand Levites," these were accepted instead of so many of the first-born males of the children of Israel. The whole number of the first-born of the Israelites were twenty-two thousand, two hundred, threescore and thirteen. The whole number of the Levites were, of the sons of Gershon, seven thousand five hundred; of the sons of Kohath, eight thousand six hundred; of the sons of Merari, six thousand two hundred; in all twenty-two thousand three hundred; and yet we are told that there were two hundred threescore and thirteen of the first-born of the children of Israel more than the Levites; that is, more than there were Levites to be accepted instead of them. But this difficulty is easy to be accounted for ; because many of the Levites were the first-born of their families, namely, three hundred of them; so that there remained twenty-two thousand only, who were not first-born, and might therefore be accepted instead of the first-born of the other tribes; and thus we must understand the 39th verse of the iiid. chapter of Numbers. All that were numbered of the Levites, which Moses and Aaron numbered, at the commandment of the LORD, throughout their families; all the males from a month old and upward, were twenty and two thousand. All that were numbered, i. e. in

order to be taken instead of the first-born, were so many; for if the first-born Levites be included, if the sum of the whole tribe be taken, they amount to three hundred more, as any one may see by putting together the several sums of the three families." But there being three hundred first-born, Levites, and twentytwo thousand two hundred threescore and thirteen first-born Israelites of the other tribes; there would indeed remain two hundred threescore and thirteen first-born more than there were Levites to answer them; therefore for these GoD ordered five shekels of the sanctuary a-piece, to be taken in lieu of each of them. The laws mentioned in the vth, vith, and viiith chapters of Numbers, were given about this time, and the Levites were consecrated to their ministry, according to all that the LORD had commanded; and when all this was done, and the tabernacle hereby fully set up," all its officers and ministers being duly appointed, the princes of the tribes made their offerings. The princes offered each on a day by himself; so that they were twelve days bringing in their respective offerings. The camp began to march on the twentieth day; the offerings were therefore over, probably, a day or two before the twentieth, and

x

a

с

"Numbers iii. 22, 28, 34.

The shekel of the sanctuary is, as I have before computed it, about two shillings and sixpence of our money; so that they paid cach man about twelve shillings and sixpence for his redemption. y Numbers viii. 20.

2

Chap. vii. 1. Ver. 2.

Ver. 11.

cx. 11.

d

must therefore have begun on the fifth or sixth day; and consequently what I have mentioned, as previous to the princes' offerings, from the polling the people to the finishing the consecration of the Levites, took up four or five days. About the eighteenth day of the month, Moses had two silver trumpets made, for calling of an assembly, or to summon to a meeting the heads of the congregation, or for the blowing an alarm for marching the camp; and on the twentieth day the cloud was taken off from the tabernacle, and the Israelites prepared to march in due order ;" and by the direction of the cloud, they journeyed three days together, from the wilderness of Sinai into the wilderness of Paran. Before they began their march, Moses asked Hobab, the son of Jethro, his father-in-law, to continue with them, but he was desirous to return into his own land, and to his kindred. Moses was un

d Numbers x. 2. g Ver. 5.

e Ibid.

1 Ver. 4.

h Ver. 11.

i Ver. 12.

There appears some little confusion in the Scripture accounts of Jethro, from the different names given him in different places; but it is no unusual thing to find many names given to one and the same person. From Numbers x. 29. it appears that Jethro was called Raguel, and from Judges iv. 11. that he was also called Hobab. He had a son also, whose name was Hobab, Numbers x. 29. but there is no room for a careful reader to mistake the one Hobab for the other. Some learned writers have indeed imagined, that Jethro did not leave Moses, but went with him through the wilderness; but Moses says expressly, that