willing to part with him, and represented how serviceable he might be to them in their travels,' and made him such offers as induced him not to leave them," and accordingly we find his posterity settled afterwards in Canaan." о Upon the cloud's resting in the wilderness of Paran, the camp being thereby stopped from marching any further, the Israelites grew uneasy, and complained, perhaps for not being carried directly into Canaan. Their uneasiness was offensive to GOD, and he destroyed many of them with fire from heaven for it; but upon Moses' prayer the fire ceased. In a little time they murmured at having nothing to eat but manna, and were very vexatious to Moses in soliciting him to obtain some other diet for them. Moses, quite tired out with their restless humours, begged earnestly that God would be pleased, some way or other, to ease him of the great burden which lay upon him.' Hereupon GoD ordered him to choose seventy elders out of the officers, whom he had employed over the people. After Moses had chosen them, GOD was pleased to give them a portion of his spirit to qualify them for the employment they were designed for." t Jethro went his way into his own land. Exod. xviii. 27. Hobab indeed went on with Moses, but not Hobab, Moses' father-in-law, which had been Jethro; but Hobab, the son of Moses' father-in-law, or the son of Jethro. Judges i. 16. 4 Ver. 2. Ver. 11-15. t Ver. 16. u Ver. 17. Sixty-eight of the seventy came up unto Moses to the tabernacle, upon being chosen. But Eldad and Medad, two, whom Moses had nominated, seemed deşirous to decline the honour which was offered them, esteemed themselves, perhaps, not equal to the undertaking, and therefore they went not out unto the tabernacle, but remained in the camp. But GoD was pleased to convince them, that he could readily give abilities for any employment to which he should call them; and therefore he enabled them to prophesy in the camp, as the others did at the tabernacle. Eldad and Medad's prophesying in the camp was soon reported to Moses, and Joshua the son of Nun thought it would be expedient for Moses to forbid them;" supposing it would lessen Moses' authority, if these two men, who, by their not coming up to the tabernacle, might appear to have no commission under him, should be thought to have, and be allowed to use this privilege. But Moses having no aim to his own glory, remonstrated, that he wished all the Lord's people were Prophets, and that the LORD would put his Spirit upon them. This would have truly eased his burthen; for if GOD would have thus immediately revealed his will to every Israelite, all Moses' labour would have been at an end, and the people from the highest to the lowest, would all have known what they were to do as well as himself, and he not seeking his own honour, nor having at heart his private interest, × Numb. xi. 26. a Ver. 29. a b but sincerely desiring to be faithful to him that appointed him, would have sincerely rejoiced to see the purpose and design of GoD thus effectually taking place amongst his people. The elders went down with Moses into the camp, and GoD sent a wind which d brought great quantities of quails, which the people took and dried and salted for their eating. But though GoD sent them this food upon their impa➡ tience, yet he punished them for their mutinous tem Hebrews iii. 2. C Numb. xi. 30% כאמתים The Hebrew word d Ver. 31. Our English version represents the quails as having lain round about the camp as it were two cubits, (or a yard) high; but there is no word in the Hebrew text for the number two. signifies, as it were cubits high, expressing no determinate. measure, but in general a considerable height. In like manner we say, he that gathered least, gathered ten homers, ver. 32, a surprising quantity, if a homer be, as is by some computed, five of our English bushels and a half. But, perhaps, the word we here render homers, was not intended to signify in this place the particular Jewish measure so called, but should rather have been rendered heaps in general, without defining the quantity, which each heap contained. It is thus used Exod. viii, 14. and we may well suppose that each man gathered ten heaps; but five and fifty bushels a man does not seem a quantity likely to have been gathered by them. This management of quails, in order to preserve them, was usual amongst the heathens. Athen. Deipnos. lib. 9, c. 11. per, and by a plague cut off those, who had required this provision. They called the name of the place Kibroth Hattaavah, because they buried the people here who lusted. After the plague ceased, they journeyed hence to Hazeroth." At Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses for his having married a foreigner, a woman, who was not of the children of his people; for he had married the daughter of Jethro the Cushite or Arabian. Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth; and the exceeding goodness of his temper led Miriam and Aaron most warmly to oppose him upon this subject. There appears to have been no law given, which could directly affect the case of Moses. Whether Aaron inferred that his marriage was wrong, from what had been enjoined the priests, thinking Moses obliged in every respect to as great strictness as they could be, I cannot say. However, he and Miriam would admit of no plea in Moses' favour; but contended that they knew as well as he, what was lawful, and what was not; for that God had revealed his will to them as to him. This dispute might have had a very unhappy effect upon the people; for if the persons, whom they all knew to have been favoured with immediate revelations from God's will, had thus 1 evidently differed and contradicted one another about it, how should the congregation know by whom to be directed? Parties and divisions would have arisen from such contests; but God was pleased to interpose upon this occasion. The LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud to the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam," and observed to them, that he had never revealed his will to either of them, or to any others in so extraordinary a manner, as he had done to Moses," and that therefore they ought to have been afraid to speak against and contradict him;" and in order to justify Moses to the whole congregation, Miriam was struck with a leprosy, and ordered to be put out of the camp for seven days; after that, by Moses' prayer for her, she was recovered. Upon her re-admission into the camp, the Israelites removed from Hazeroth further on, in the Wilderness, of Paran." t From the place where they now encamped, Moses by God's command, sent twelve persons, having chosen one out of each tribe, to go as spies into the land of Canaan, to take a view, and to bring an account of the land and its inhabitants. The twelve persons appointed took their journey, and went over the land, and in forty days returned back to the camp." At their return, the congregation was summoned to receive their n Numb. xii. 5. Numb. xii. 16. • Ver. 6-8. xiii. 2. P Ibid. "Ver. 21-25. |