report, which, as to the fruitfulness of the land, was very agreeable; but they represented the large stature and strength of the inhabitants, so as to intimidate the people, and to induce them to think themselves in no wise able to conquer it. The camp grew into a great ferment upon this representation, and a false report of the goodness of the country gat about, and increased the discontent, notwithstanding all that Caleb, who had been one of the spies, could offer to appease it ;2 and at last such a spirit was raised among the people, that they were for making themselves a captain to lead them back to Egypt. Moses and Aaron expressed the deepest concern at this strange infatuation; and Caleb and Joshua made the utmost efforts to reduce the camp to a better temper. They remonstrated, that the land was certainly exceeding good; that it was God's design to give it to them; that since God was for them, the strength of the Canaanites against them was not to be feared; that to return to Egypt, would be a rebellion against GOD, who had so miraculously delivered, preserved, and appointed them for this undertaking. What they said was far from having the designed effect. The people were rather transported by it to greater fury, and were for having Joshua and Caleb immediately stoned; but the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation, in a manner visible to all the people.

Such an obstinacy

Ꮒ

as they were now guilty of, was an exceeding great sin against GOD; however Moses was admitted to intercede, that the whole congregation should not be destroyed. But God determined, that for this offence, none of the persons who had seen 'his glory and his miracles done in Egypt, and had thus rebelled against him, should come into the land of Canaan for their entrance into the land should now be deferred until forty years were expired from their exit out of Egypt, before which time all that generation who were twenty years old and upwards, when Moses and Aaron numbered them after the exit out of Egypt, except Caleb and Joshua, should die in the Wilderness. Moses told the people these things, at the hearing whereof they mourned greatly. They were now desirous to attempt to enter the land; but Moses cautioned them against it, assuring them, that 'GOD would not now give them success. However, they would march; but the Amalekites and Canaanites smote them and discomfited them unto Hormah.' The laws contained in the xvth chapter of Numbers, seem to have been given within the forty days, when the spies were travelling over the land of Canaan; about which time I suppose that the man was stoned, who gathered sticks on the Sabbath-day.'"

k

There is a passage in the speech of Joshua and

f Numb. xix. 11--20.

h Ver 22-38.

Ver. 41, 42, 43.
Chap. xv. 32-36.

i

Ibid. 22, 23.

* Ver. 39.

1 Ver. 44, 45.

Caleb, upon which the Jewish Rabbins founded a most whimsical conceit. Joshua and Caleb represent, that, as to the Canaanites, their defence was departed from them." The Hebrew word is Tzillam, their shadow, upon which the Rabbins thus comment : They say, that on the night of the seventeenth day of the seventh month, GoD shewed his people by the moon-shine, what should happen to them in the year following. They pretended, that if any one went out into the moon-shine in that night in a proper dress, he would see the shadow of his body diverse, according to what would happen to him. The shadow of his hand held out would want a finger, if he was to lose a friend that year. His right-hand would cast no shadow, if his son was to die; his left-hand, if his daughter. If the person himself was to die, then his shadow would appear a head, or, perhaps, his body cast no shadow at all, his shadow being departed from him. It would be trifling to endeavour to shew that Caleb and Joshua intended nothing of this sort. The use of the word shadow of protection is an easy metaphor. The strength of the Israelites was thought by Joshua and Caleb, to be the LORD's being with them; under which consideration they looked upon the Canaaanites as deserted of GoD, and therefore unable to bear up against them. This was the whole of what they endeavoured to represent to the people ; but no expression of Scripture can be so clear and

n Num. xiv. 9. p. 363.

c. 16.

• Buxtorf. Synagog. Judaic.

express, which superstition may not turn to fancy and fable. The Greeks had a whim about the shadow of those who entered the temple of the Arcadian Jupiter, not altogether unlike this fiction of the Rabbins; and the Monkish tale, which some of our vulgar people can still tell, of their shadow in the night of St. Mark's festival, was, perhaps, derived from it.

Moses was ordered to lead the Israelites back to wards the Red Sea again; and after their unsuc cessful attempt against the Canaanites," they began their retreat. We hear but little more of them for about thirty-seven years; during which time they marched up and down the Wilderness, and made seventeen encampments, from their leaving Rithmah in the Wilderness of Paran,' to their coming to Kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin." Their being obliged to make this retreat, and deferring their entrance into Canaan, raised discontents among them, and very probably occasioned the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram, which happened about this time. Two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly were concerned in it; and many thousands of the people, as may be supposed from the number of those who perished by the plague, were'swallowed up in the earth," or con

* Θεοπομπα φήσας, της εις το τη Δια αβατον εμβασίας και 'Apnadian aoxins yiyoda. Vid. Polyb. Hist. lib. 16, c. 11. Numb. xiv. 25.

Chap. xxxiii. 19....36.

with xxxiii, 18.

Ver. 44, 45.

Chap. xvi. 1, 2.

, Ver. 49.

Ver 32.

VOL. III.

K

a

с

sumed by the fire. The heads of the conspiracy were, Korah a Levite, Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, of the tribe of Reuben. They contended, that there was no reason for so great subjection to, and dependance upon Moses and Aaron; that the priesthood ought not to have been appropriated to Aaron and his family; for that all the congregation was holy, every one of them; and the LORD amongst them. They remonstrated against Moses, that he had brought them out of Egypt, a very plentiful country; that he had no real intention ever to bring them into Canaan; that he designed only to carry them about, through innumerable difficulties, until he could inure them to servitude, and make himself altogether a prince over them; that to deny this to be his aim, would suppose that the people had no eyes to see the situation of their affairs, and the prospects which were before them. Moses had by express command from GoD denounced to the congregation, that not one of them except Caleb and Joshua, should enter into Canaan; that all the rest who were above twenty years old, when they were polled after coming out of Egypt, should die in the Wilderness, and the younger generation only should come into the land. This had put them all into so great a ferment, that even a miraculous interposition of the divine power, was not immediately sufficient to sudue the spirit of their rebellion; for we read, that