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GOD, and made an atonement for the children of Israel. God declared this to Moses by a special revelation. And that God indeed did reveal it; and that it was not a pretence of Moses to protect Phineas, was apparent to the congregation, being sufficiently attested by the plague's ceasing as soon as Zimri was dead. I am sensible that what is already offered, is sufficient to vindicate the behaviour of Phineas. If GOD himself declared him to be acquitted, who should condemn him? And his example can lay no foundation for a dangerous imitation; for it will in no wise prove, that an illegal action, though proceeding from a most upright heart, zealously affected in a good thing, is ever to be justified, unless Gon, by an express and well-attested revelation from heaven, declares his patronage and acceptance of it. But, 6. I might add further, that what Phineas did, was not only the effect of zeal, but rather GoD revealed himself to him before he attacked Zimri, and required him to cut off that high offender; and consequently Phineas had ás clear and full a commission for what he did, as Moses had for the discharge of the offices unto which GoD appointed him, though Moses and the congregation were not at first apprised of it. Phineas is said, by the death of Zimri, to have made an atonement for the children of Israel. But what merit could there be in the death of Zimri?

How could

that expiate the sins of the congregation? Or what

4 Numb. xxv. 10, 11, 12, 13.

Num. xxv. 13.

* Ver. 8.

had Phineas to do in pretending to make atonement, unless God had appointed him? For no man taketh this honour to himself, nor can perform this office with any effect, but he that is called of God as was Aaron. Or if Phineas had been entitled to endeavour to procure a reconciliation of Gon to his people, he must surely have attempted it in some way which GOD appointed; and not by a strange service, which GOD commanded him not," and which must therefore have been more likely to offend than to please him.*. But all these difficulties are fully cleared by what Moses was ordered to declare to the Israelites: Wherefore say, Behold I give unto him my covenant of peace. The verse is injudiciously translated. The Hebrew words, hinneni Nothen lo Barithi Shalom, signify, behold it was I, who gave to him my covenant of peace, and the declaration was intended to inform the congregation that Phineas had not done a rash action, moved to it by a mere warmth of heart, but that GOD had directed him to what he had performed; made him an express covenant upon his per

t Heb. v. 4.

"See Lev. x. 1. &c.

* See the case of Nadab and Abihu, b. xi.

y Numb. xxv. 12.

a

The Hebrew text is thus written and pointed:

נתן לו את בריתי שלום

הנני

i. c. Ecce me dantem illi pactum meum pacis.

Ecce, me,

dantem, i. e. Ecce me, qui dabam, The participle is of the imperfect tense as well as of the present.

forming it; assured him, that the doing it should obtain pardon for the people; and that upon the death of Zimri and Cozbi slain by his hand, the wickedness, which had been committed in the camp, should be forgiven. In this view of the fact all is clear, and it is easy to see how a covenant of peace was given to Phineas; how he was enabled to make atonement for the people; and in what sense the death of the offenders slain by him was such atonement; and what he did stands clear of the objections which can be offered against an irregular zeal; for it was not an instance of such a zeal, but of one more defensible, namely, of a zealous and intrepid performance of what God by an express revelation had required of him.

GOD was indeed pleased to promise here, ver. 13. by Moses, an addition to the favour before granted to Phineas. God before gave him his covenant of peace; but this extended no further than to the making him the instrument of obtaining pardon for the sin, upon account of which the people were under his displeasure. But now, because Phineas was zealous for his GoD, and had performed the service to which he was called, with a ready heart; GOD was pleased to promise that the grant made to him should stand in force, until it conveyed the priesthood to him, and to his seed after him. Our translators render the 13th verse, And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the cove

a

Numb. xxv. 13.

nant of an everlasting priesthood; but this version is far from expressing the true meaning of the place. The Hebrew words rightly translated are, And it shall be to him, and to his seed after him, a covenant, or grant, of the everlasting priesthood: i. c. My grant or promise shall not here expire, upon his hav ing obtained what I agreed to give him, namely, a pardon for my people; but shall continue still in force, to assure him, that in due time he shall himself be high-priest and his seed after him. GoD had before this time limited the priesthood to Aaron and his descendants, and it was to be to them an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations; it was ever to descend by inheritance in their families from generation to generation. Now this it might have done, though neither Phineas nor any child of his had ever been possessed of it; for Phineas and his son or sons, whether he had one or more, might have died before Eleazar, and in such case, Eleazar's next heir would have had the priesthood, and it would have gone down to his, and not to Phineas' descendants. But the promise now made to Phineas, was an assurance to him of God's protection to preserve both him and his seed, so that the priesthood should descend to them. The commentators have, I think, all of them run into a difficulty, which they are not able to get out of.

b The Hebrew words are,

והיתה לו ולזרעו אחריו ברית כהנת עולם

Seculi sacerdotii pactum cum post ejus semini et ei erit et.

e Exod. xl. 15.

They suppose that the term everlasting, is here joined to the priesthood, to express the continuance of the priesthood amongst Phineas' descendants; as if GOD here had promised Phineas and his seed after him the grant of an everlasting priesthood; or of a priesthood which should ever remain in their hands, without being at any time translated into any other branch of Aaron's family. But then they are at a loss how to make out the performance of this promise; for they observe that Eli, who was high-priest in the days of Samuel, was of the family of Ithamar; and that therefore the priesthood went out of the hands of the descendants of Phineas, when it came to Eli, and that it did not return again to them until, after some successions, it came again to Zadoc in the days of David. But I think this difficulty might be avoided. We need not suppose that the priesthood is here called everlasting, to express a design of a perpetual continuance of it to Phineas' descendants; but rather the term everlasting is the appellation annexed to the priesthood in its limitation to the family of Aaron ;* and suggests no more than that the priesthood of Aaron should descend to them. God made to Phineas and to his seed after him, not an everlasting grant of the priesthood, as some commentators take it ; nor a grant of an everlasting priesthood, as our English

Vid. Cleric. Comment. in loc.

• Exod. xl. 15.

The critics write the text, Barith Kehunnah Le Nolam, Pactum Sacerdotii sempiternum, A covenant of the priesthood for ever. Le Clerc says, Fœdus Sacerdotii perpe.

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