by fuch an Accident, or that were in a Journey, fhould keep the Paffover a Month after their Brethren (y). We have no Account of any Thing done more, until the first Day of the fecond Month; fo that we have here fixteen Days Interval, and in this space I imagine, the Laws recorded in Leviticus, from the Beginning of the xith Chapter to the end of that Book, were given, except the Laws contained in the three laft Chapters; for thefe were given to Mofes, not at the Door of the Tabernacle, but upon the Mount (p). The Son of Shelomith the Daughter of Dibri, of the Tribe of Dan, was ftoned for Curfing and Blafpheming about this Time (9). On the firft Day of the fecond Month, A. M. 2514. Mofes was commanded to take the Number of the Congregation by a Poll of every Male, of twenty Years old and upwards (r), excepting the Levites who were not to be here numbred (s): And in order to the taking this Poll, twelve Perfons were named to be Princes of the Tribes of their Fathers (t); and they affembled their Tribes, and gave in upon this first Day of the Month, each the Names and Number of the Perfons in the Tribe he was fet over (u): After this Mofes received a Command to appoint the Order, in which the Hoft of the Ifraelites was to march (y) ver. 10, 11. (9) Levit, xxiv. (†) ver. 4.-17. (p) xxv. 1. xxiv. 46. xxvii. 34. and and encamp (w): In the next Place he was directed to take the Number of the Levites, and to appoint to their feveral Families their refpective Services, and to fet apart the whole Tribe for the Miniftry of the Tabernacle (y): In the more ancient Times, the Firstborn of every Family was to be the Minifter of Religion (≈); but in the Jewish Inftitution God thought fit to difmifs the First-born from this Service, and to direct the Levites to be dedicated to him inftead of them (a): As many as there were Levites, over and above the First-born of the Levites, who, by being the First-born, were before this Inftitution holy unto the Lord, so many of the First-born of the other Tribes were difcharged from attending upon the Service of the Tabernacle, and accordingly there being twenty and two thousand Levites (b), these were accepted instead of fo many of the first-born Males of the Children of Ifrael: The whole Number of the First-born of the Ifraelites were twenty two thoufand, two hundred, threefcore and thirteen (c): and the whole Number of the Levites were, of the Sons of Gershon, seven thousand five hundred (d); of the Sons of Kohath eight thousand fix hundred (e); of the Sons of Merari fix thousand two hundred (f); in all twenty two thousand three hundred ; and yet we are told that there (w) Numb.ii. (a) Levit. iii. 12. (d) ver. 22. (y) Numb. iii. (z) See Vol. I. B. V. (b) Numb. iii. 39. (c) ver. 43.) (f) ver. 34. (e) ver. 28. M 2 were were two hundred threescore and thirteen of the First-born of the Children of Ifrael more than the Levites (g), that is more than there were Levites to be accepted inftead of them; but this is a difficulty eafy to be accounted for; for of the Levites many were the First-born of their Families, namely three hundred of them; fo that there remained twenty two thousand only, who were not First-born, and might therefore be accepted instead of the Firft-born of the other Tribes; and thus we must understand the 39th Verfe of the iiid Chapter of Numbers. All that were numbred of the Levites, which Mofes and Aaron numbred at the Commandment of the Lord, throughout their Families, all the Males from a Month old and upward, were twenty and two thoufand (b): All that were numbred, i. e. in order to be taken instead of the Firft-born, were fo many; for if the firft-born Levites be included, if the Sum of the whole Tribe be taken, they amount to three hundred more, as any one may fee by putting together the feveral Sums of the three Families (); but there being three hundred first-born Levites, and twenty two thousand two hundred threefcore and thirteen firft-born Ifraelites of the other Tribes, there would indeed remain two hundred threefcore and thirteen First-born more than there were Levites to answer them, and therefore for these God ordered five She (g) Numbers iii. 4. 34. (b) ver. 39. (i) ver. 22, 28, 1 kels kels of the Sanctuary a-piece, to be taken in lieu of each of them (k). The Laws mentioned in the vth and vith and viiith Chapters of Numbers, were given about this Time, and the Levites were confecrated to their Miniftry according to all that the Lord had commanded (); and when all this was done, and the Tabernacle hereby fully fet up (m), all its Officers and Ministers being duly appointed, the Princes of the Tribes made their Offerings (2): The Princes offered each on a Day by himself (0); so that they were twelve Days bringing in their refpective Offerings: The Camp began to march on the twentieth Day (p); the Offerings were therefore over probably a Day or two before the twentieth, and must therefore have begun on the fifth or fixth Day, and confequently what I have mentioned, as previous to the Princes Offerings, from the Polling the People to the finishing the Confecration of the Levites, took up four or five Days. About the eighteenth Day of the Month, Mofes had two Silver Trumpets made, (q), for the calling of an Affembly (r) or to fummon to a Meeting the Heads of the Congregation (s), or for the blowing an Alarm for marching the Camp (t); and on the twentieth Day the Cloud was taken off from the Tabernacle, and the Israelites prepared (k) The Shekel of the Sanctuary is, as I have before computed it, about 2s. 6d. of our Money; fo that they paid each Man about 12s. 6d. for his Redemption. (1) Numbers viii. 20. (m) vii. 1. (n) ver. 2. (o) ver. 11. (2) Numbers x. 2. (r) Ibid, (p) x. 11. (s) ver. 4. (t) ver. 5. to march in due order (u), and by the Direction of the Cloud they journeyed three Days together from the Wilderness of Sinai into the Wilderness of Paran (w): Before they began their March, Mofes asked Hobab the Son of Jethro his Father-in-law to continue with them," but he was defirous to return into his own Land and to his Kindred (x): Mofes was unwilling to part with him, and reprefented how ferviceable he might be to them in their Travels (y), and made him fuch Offers as induced him not to leave them (2), and accordingly we find his Pofterity fettled afterwards in Ca-. naan (a). Upon the Cloud's refting in the Wilderness of Paran, the Camp being thereby stopped from marching any further, the Ifraelites grew uneafy (6), and complained, perhaps for their not being carried directly into Canaan: Their Uneafinefs was offenfive to God, and he deftroyed many of them with Fire from Heaven for it (bb); but upon Mafes's Prayer the Fire (u) ver. 11. (w) ver. 12. (x) There appears fome little Confufion in the Scripture Accounts of Jethro, from the different Names given him in different Places; but it is no unufual thing to find many Names given to one and the fame Perfon. From Numbers x. 29. it appears that Jethro was called Raguel, and from Judges iv. 11. that he was alfo called Hobab. He had a Son also, whose Name was Hobab, Numbers x. 29. but there is no room for a careful Reader to mistake the one Hobab for the other. Some learned Writers have indeed imagined, that Jethro did not leave Mofes, but went with him thro' the Wilderness; but Mofes fays exprefly, that Jethro went his way into his own Land. Exod. xviii. 27. Hobab indeed went on with Mofes, but not Hobab, Mofes's Fatherin-law, which had been Jethro; but Hobab the Son of Mofes's Father-in-law, or the Son of Jethro. (y) Numb. x. 31. (z) Ver. (a) Judges i. 16. (b) Numb. xi. 1. (bb) Ibid. ceased 32. 1 |