behaviour. When the people were in distress here by want of water, GoD vouchsafed to hear their com plaint, and directed Moses and Aaron to give them a demonstration, that his power was ready at hand miraculously to relieve them. They had been once before in the same strait; when GoD thought fit to cause a rock, upon Moses' striking it with his rod, to pour forth water. But here Moses and Aaron were commanded to take the rod; to go and stand before a rock appointed them, having summoned the people to see how God would relieve them; then they were to speak only to the rock, and the rock was to give forth water. Had the Israelites been here prone to entertain any superstitious fancy of the virtue of that rod, which had been the instrument of so many miracles, what an opportunity had Moses to convince them of their folly, and evidencing, that neither himself, nor Aaron, nor the rod, was of any importance, but that God could have perfected the same wonders by a word only, if he had thought fit to have done them in that manner. But instead of thus discharging himself, he took the rod, and he and Aaron gathered the congregation, and he said unto them: Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lift up his hand, and smote the rock twice; and the water came out abundantly. In this he spoke and acted unadvisedly; for he did not speak or act according to the commission which God had given him; but 'Exod. xvii. Psalm cvi. 32. m m Numb. xx. 10, 11. spake and acted of himself, too great an argument of an affectation of raising his own credit; for he that speaketh of himself, seeketh his own glory.° Moses expressed himself to have had this sense of things upon another occasion. When Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not; Moses remonstrated their crime to Aaron in the clearest terms, and declared, that GoD would be sanctified in them that came nigh him, and glorified before all the people. But here he and Aaron joined in a part very different from these sentiments.' Their duty was to have glorified GOD in the sight of the congregation, by punctually performing what he had directed. But instead of this, they did and said what he commanded them not, and thereby gave the Israelites an opportunity to imagine that the supply might come from them; from their power and ability to procure it. And for this reason, because they were not strictly careful to promote the glory of GoD, instead of raising their own credit among the people; they were sentenced not to lead the Israelites into the land of Canaan. Kadesh, near which the Israelites were at this time encamped, was a city upon the borders of the land of • John vii. 18. P. Levit. x. 3. 1 The 12th verse of xxth of Numbers should be thus translated. Because, ye were not faithful to me, to (sanc tify or) glorify me, in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. Edom; from the neighbourhood of which place Moses sent messengers unto the king of Edom to ask leave to march through his country. The Israelites had received a strict charge not to make any attempt against this people; and Moses' message was in terms of the greatest assurance of friendship to them. He acknowledged the relation between them and Israel, and promised, in the most explicit manner, that he would only pass through their country, without fo raging any part of it, or injuring any person inhabi tant of it. But the Edomites were not willing to run the venture. Hitherto they had been governed by dukes; but about this time apprehending danger, they made a king, thinking it necessary to unite under one head for their common preservation. This king of Edom refused to admit the Israelites into his terri tories, and guarded his frontiers with numerous forces ; whereupon the Israelites were obliged to march another way, and therefore moved from Kadesh to mount Hor. Upon mount Hor Aaron died, and Eleazar his son was appointed high-priest in his place. Aaron was a hundred and twenty years old when he died in mount Hor," and died there in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, and so died, A. M. 2553. The king of Arad, a city in the southern parts of Canaan, upon the Israelites coming near his borders, attacked them, and took some of them prisoners. The Israelites had offered no violence to his country, and were so provoked at this attempt upon them, that they vowed a vow unto the LORD, that if they should hereafter be able, they would utterly destroy this peo ple; and they were enabled, and did perform this vow in the days of Joshua, or in a little time after his death. The third verse of this xxist chapter of Numbers seems to intimate, that the Israelites at this time conquered these Canaanites, and utterly destroyed them and their cities. But this was not fact; for the king of Arad is one of those who were conquered by Joshua ; and the vengeance here threatened was either executed upon this people by his hand, or completed by Judah and Simeon, when they slew the Canaanites that inhabited Zephath, and utterly destroyed it. The kingdom of Arad was not conquered in the days of Moses, and therefore we cannot suppose, that the remark here inserted, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities, was of his writing. I think Moses left the text thus: And Israel vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities, and called the name of the place Hormah, i. e. Israel called the Numb. xxi. 1. d e See Josh. xii. 14. 1 Ver. 2. As to place so in token, that if ever it should be in their power, they designed to make it desolate.' what is added in the third verse, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites, and that they utterly destroyed them and their cities; the thing was not done, and therefore the remark could not be made in the days of Moses. The words perhaps might be written, by way of observation, in the margin of some ancient MS. of the Pentateuch, after the Israelites had destroyed the Canaanites; copiers from such a MS. might afterwards transcribe it from the margin into the text, and thereby occasion it to come down to us as part of it. The king of Edom refusing to admit the Israelites to pass through his country, and the king of Arad opposing them upon the frontiers of his kingdom'; they were obliged to retire back into the wilderness, and therefore decamped from mount Hor. They were ordered to march towards the Red Sea, and to fetch a compass round about the land of Edom. They began this expedition, but the soul of the people was much ́discouraged because of the way.' They remonstrated to Moses all the difficulties which would attend it; complained that they should be distressed for want of water, and that, as to the manna, they loathed it," and therefore were not willing to go again through a desart, where they could expect no other provision. The word Hormah signifies a place devoted to de struction. |