All sound reasoning upon the objects and principles of such operations, would, I think, lead us to suppose, that, when they had done, in the first two years, their special temporary work, there would, in the interval that followed, be a suspension of them.

But it may be further said, It is probable, that additions were made to the system of laws in this interval. That additional laws were, during the time, communicated to the people, is, I think, not strongly probable, if probable at all. Though the system revealed in Sinai and its neighbourhood was not complete (since we know that it admitted of subsequent additions), yet it is likely, that it comprised all provisions which it was best should be promulgated for the time being. What now it most needed, was, to be made familiar, which it would be by regular and uniform practice upon it, and would not be while it continued to be subject to frequent alterations. The national institutions established, and the relations between man and man defined, permanency was now the thing most desirable. Additions and modifications, though in due time to be made, would be most advantageously made, not when all was new, and when change, even for the better, would have kept the people in an unsettled state, but when the experience of a generation had prepared them to understand, what it was that required to be added or rectified. That additions and modifications of this kind, introduced to our knowledge in the book of Deuteronomy, were matter of revelation to Moses in the wilderness, I think extremely likely. That any of them would be communicated by him to the people, immediately on their reception by himself, is what, under the circumstances to which I have referred, we should have no right to expect. That a record was not made by him, of each, at its own time, is certainly

much more than we know. And if, instead of bequeathing this record, if it were made, the form, in which he has seen fit to transmit them to posterity, is that of his comprehensive exposition of them to the people on the eve of their invasion of Canaan, I submit with confidence the question, whether this was not a form quite as natural and fit for him to adopt, as that which the alternative proposes.

Once more; there is a unity in Moses' plan. He writes of the transition of the Jews from the condition of a horde of slaves in Egypt, to that of a powerful nation, about to become free proprietors in Canaan. The subject divides itself into two parts; the emancipation, and the preparation for conquest. Both of these Moses treats at large. The space of years, which he passes over in silence, is, if I may so speak, the interlude between the two acts of the great drama.*

At Kadesh, where, with the arrival of the people on the first month of the fortieth year after leaving Egypt,f the narrative of events in their series is resumed, occasion arises for the performance of a miracle, not only impressive through its own extraordinary character, but doubly so through the recollections which it called up in the minds of those, who in their youth had seen, at Rephidim, a similar divine attestation to their leader's authority, and through the tradition, which had descended to such as were not old enough to have witnessed

* If it should occur to any one, that this chasm in the record has an unfavorable bearing on its authenticity, I will only ask, whether, the circumstances above suggested being considered, it is not much more easy to explain how it should have been left by Moses, than that it should be left by any later writer, who had nothing to do but to fill up the interval with his own imaginations. So satisfied am I of this, that I should not hesitate to adduce the fact as a subordinate proof of the Mosaic origin of the narrative.

f Compare Numb. xx. 28; xxxiii. 38.

that act. Distressed by want of water, the people reiterated their accustomed complaints, upon which Moses was commanded to "take the rod," the view of which would recall the memory of earlier miracles, and "speak to the rock" in the people's presence. "And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice. And the water came out abundantly; and the congregation drank, and their beasts also." On account of these transactions, so closely resembling those at Rephidim, the place received the same commemorative

name.

It was called, as we should express it, “a second Meribah," or place of quarrel.*

Something in the conduct of Moses and Aaron on this occasion was censurable; and they are consequently told, that they must not hope to survive to see the

* Numb. xx. 1-13.-"The whole congregation" (1, also 22). Was not this expression intended to distinguish between the host, now collected, for the invasion, at one rendezvous, and the scattered parties, who had hitherto roamed the wilderness?—"Kadesh" (1); called "MeribahKadesh" (xxvii. 14; Deut. xxxii. 51) to distinguish it from the other Meribah (Ex. xvii. 1). — “The desert of Zin,” (¡,) on the southern border of Canaan, is a very different place from that of "Sin" (?, Ex. xvi. 1), the latter being a short distance to the northwest of Sinai. -"Miriam died there and was buried there." I am very suspicious of the authenticity of these words. The fact is related nowhere else; (compare Deut. xxxii. 50; also Numb. xxxiii. 36, with 37-39;) they break the continuity of the narrative; and I find it difficult to realize, that Moses should dispose so summarily of the death of a person so intimately connected with himself, and on all accounts so considerable (compare 23-29). If a tradition to that effect existed, it would easily gain insertion, first, in a marginal gloss, and so, subsequently, in the text. If the words are authentic, I have little hesitation in regarding them as retrospective in their sense; "Miriam had died, and been buried there," that is, when, nearly forty years before, the march had been arrested there "many days." (Compare Deut. i. 46.) On this interpretation, Moses, returning after so long an interval, to the spot of his sister's burial, naturally refers in a word to that event, though he does not enlarge upon it, as he would have done, had he written while it was still recent. A reason for my dwelling on this remark will appear, when I come to treat of Deut. xxxiv. 7. —"Take the rod" (8); the rod so well known of old; compare Ex. iv. 3; xiv. 16; xvii. 5, 11.

establishment of the people in their promised home. What the fault was, does not distinctly appear. It has been differently understood to consist in their impatience, indicated by Moses' striking the rock, when he had only been bidden to speak to it, or by his striking it "twice," instead of once, as at Rephidim, or in their apparent arrogating to themselves of power to do the marvel, when they said, "Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock," when they should have been careful to "sanctify" the Lord, as the context expresses it, by ascribing the work to him. I suppose that we are not so much to look for their offence in either of these particulars, as in that general air of impatience and petulance, and want of a calm dignity and placid confidence in God, (befitting their office and their situation,) which betrayed itself in the acts and language referred to, and very probably in other parts of their conduct which are not recorded.*

And I conceive it to be an unsatisfactory way of viewing the subject, to regard them as having, on this occasion, committed a sin, which, after all their services, required, as an ultimate object, a punishment so heavy as that of their exclusion from a personal share in the great result of their anxieties and toils. The probable truth seems to me to have been, that, under the infirmities of very advanced age, they had sustained in some degree the loss of that equanimity of temper, which the momentous approaching crisis required in the nation's leaders. Their time of greatest efficiency, at least for the needs of such an occasion as was coming, had now

See also Numb. xx. 6. Compare Ps. cvi. 33. "Ye believed me not" (12). Some of the Jewish commentators understand, that Moses, remembering that he had done a like act nearly forty years before, despondingly concluded that there was to be another as long delay; and that this was the offensive want of faith, which broke out, through his irritation, in hasty acts and language.

gone by. The common good demanded, that their high trusts should be transferred to the hands of such, as, along with sufficient experience, had more of the selfpossessed and uniform energy of more vigorous years. But still, for this to be done, without any specific act of theirs justifying the measure, would have seemed severe, and left them room for dissatisfaction and complaint. An occasion had now arisen, making it fit and seasonable that that decree should go forth. After betraying their infirmity, under such public circumstances, in the people's view, they could no longer pretend that it had not come upon them, to the degree of lessening their fitness for the high responsibility they might otherwise have desired to retain. Being now self-convicted of that infirmity, their sense of right, and their public spirit, would reconcile them to the relinquishment of trusts, which, of course, they would prefer only to resign with life; nor do we read that they ventured any remonstrance against the sentence. In their exclusion from Canaan, as in that of the whole people a generation earlier, we are to recognise the consequence, not simply of a single act, but of a state of mind, which that act made manifest.

Another view, naturally connecting itself with this, may be briefly suggested. The time had come, when it was best for the people, educated for freedom, energy, and conquest, to be made to know, that henceforward they must rely on themselves, and not on supernatural interpositions of their Divine guide. This they could hardly be brought to feel, as long as the instruments of those interpositions in time past continued with them; and therefore it was fit that Moses and Aaron should be withdrawn. They, however, might have felt that they were harshly treated, in not being permitted to witness the consummation of their cares; and to any