18-20. say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against to-morrow, and ye shall eat flesh--that is, "prepare yourselves," by repentance and submission, to receive to-morrow the flesh you clamor for. But it is evident that the tenor of the language implied a severe rebuke and that the blessing promised would prove a curse.
21-23. Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand ... Shall the flocks and herds be slain for them, to suffice them?--The great leader, struck with a promise so astonishing as that of suddenly furnishing, in the midst of the desert, more than two millions of people with flesh for a whole month, betrayed an incredulous spirit, surprising in one who had witnessed so many stupendous miracles. But it is probable that it was only a feeling of the moment--at all events, the incredulous doubt was uttered only to himself--and not, as afterwards, publicly and to the scandal of the people. (See on [Nu 20:10]). It was, therefore, sharply reproved, but not punished.
24. Moses ... gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people, &c.--The tabernacle was chosen for the convocation, because, as it was there God manifested Himself, there His Spirit would be directly imparted--there the minds of the elders themselves would be inspired with reverential awe and their office invested with greater respect in the eyes of the people.
25. when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease--As those elders were constituted civil governors, their "prophesying" must be understood as meaning the performance of their civil and sacred duties by the help of those extraordinary endowments they had received; and by their not "ceasing" we understand, either that they continued to exercise their gifts uninterruptedly the first day (see [1Sa 19:24]), or that these were permanent gifts, which qualified them in an eminent degree for discharging the duty of public magistrates.
26-29. But there remained two of the men in the camp--They did not repair with the rest to the tabernacle, either from modesty in shrinking from the assumption of a public office, or being prevented by some ceremonial defilement. They, however, received the gifts of the Spirit as well as their brethren. And when Moses was urged to forbid their prophesying, his answer displayed a noble disinterestedness as well as zeal for the glory of God akin to that of our Lord ([Mr 9:39]).
31-35. There went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, &c.--These migratory birds (see on [Ex 16:13]) were on their journey from Egypt, when "the wind from the Lord," an east wind ([Psa 78:26]) forcing them to change their course, wafted them over the Red Sea to the camp of Israel.
let them fall a day's journey--If the journey of an individual is meant, this space might be thirty miles; if the inspired historian referred to the whole host, ten miles would be as far as they could march in one day in the sandy desert under a vertical sun. Assuming it to be twenty miles this immense cloud of quails ([Psa 78:27]) covered a space of forty miles in diameter. Others reduce it to sixteen. But it is doubtful whether the measurement be from the center or the extremities of the camp. It is evident, however, that the language describes the countless number of these quails.
as it were two cubits high--Some have supposed that they fell on the ground above each other to that height--a supposition which would leave a vast quantity useless as food to the Israelites, who were forbidden to eat any animal that died of itself or from which the blood was not poured out. Others think that, being exhausted with a long flight, they could not fly more than three feet above the earth, and so were easily felled or caught. A more recent explanation applies the phrase, "two cubits high," not to the accumulation of the mass, but to the size of the individual birds. Flocks of large red-legged cranes, three feet high, measuring seven feet from tip to tip, have been frequently seen on the western shores of the Gulf of Akaba, or eastern arm of the Red Sea [Stanley; Shubert].
Chapter 12
Nu 12:1-9. Miriam's and Aaron's Sedition
1. an Ethiopian woman--Hebrew, "a Cushite woman"--Arabia was usually called in Scripture the land of Cush, its inhabitants being descendants of that son of Ham (see on [Ex 2:15]) and being accounted generally a vile and contemptible race (see on [Am 9:7]). The occasion of this seditious outbreak on the part of Miriam and Aaron against Moses was the great change made in the government by the adoption of the seventy rulers [Nu 11:16]. Their irritating disparagement of his wife (who, in all probability, was Zipporah [Ex 2:21], and not a second wife he had recently married) arose from jealousy of the relatives, through whose influence the innovation had been first made ([Ex 18:13-26]), while they were overlooked or neglected. Miriam is mentioned before Aaron as being the chief instigator and leader of the sedition.
2. Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not also spoken by us?--The prophetical name and character was bestowed upon Aaron ([Ex 4:15], ) and Miriam ([Ex 15:20]); and, therefore, they considered the conduct of Moses, in exercising an exclusive authority in this matter, as an encroachment on their rights ([Mi 6:4]).
3. the man Moses was very meek--([Ex 14:13]; , ; [Nu 14:13]; ; [De 9:18]). This observation might have been made to account for Moses taking no notice of their angry reproaches and for God's interposing so speedily for the vindication of His servant's cause. The circumstance of Moses recording an eulogium on a distinguishing excellence of his own character is not without a parallel among the sacred writers, when forced to it by the insolence and contempt of opponents ([2Co 11:5]; , ). But it is not improbable that, as this verse appears to be a parenthesis, it may have been inserted as a gloss by Ezra or some later prophet. Others, instead of "very meek," suggest "very afflicted," as the proper rendering.
4. the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam--The divine interposition was made thus openly and immediately, in order to suppress the sedition and prevent its spreading among the people.
5. the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood the door of the tabernacle--without gaining admission, as was the usual privilege of Aaron, though it was denied to all other men and women. This public exclusion was designed to be a token of the divine displeasure.
6-7. Hear now my words--A difference of degree is here distinctly expressed in the gifts and authority even of divinely commissioned prophets. Moses, having been set over all God's house, (that is, His church and people), was consequently invested with supremacy over Miriam and Aaron also and privileged beyond all others by direct and clear manifestations of the presence and will of God.
8. with him will I speak mouth to mouth--immediately, not by an interpreter, nor by visionary symbols presented to his fancy.
apparently--plainly and surely.
not in dark speeches--parables or similitudes.
the similitude of the Lord shall he behold--not the face or essence of God, who is invisible ([Ex 33:20]; [Col 1:15]; [Joh 1:18]); but some unmistakable evidence of His glorious presence ([Ex 33:2]; ). The latter clause should have been conjoined with the preceding one, thus: "not in dark speeches, and in a figure shall he behold the Lord." The slight change in the punctuation removes all appearance of contradiction to [De 4:15].
Nu 12:10-16. Miriam's Leprosy
10. the cloud departed from the tabernacle--that is, from the door to resume its permanent position over the mercy seat.
Miriam became leprous--This malady in its most malignant form ([Ex 4:6]; [2Ki 5:27]) as its color, combined with its sudden appearance, proved, was inflicted as a divine judgment; and she was made the victim, either because of her extreme violence or because the leprosy on Aaron would have interrupted or dishonored the holy service.
11-13. On the humble and penitential submission of Aaron, Moses interceded for both the offenders, especially for Miriam, who was restored; not, however, till she had been made, by her exclusion, a public example [Nu 12:14, 15].
14. her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days?--The Jews, in common with all people in the East, seem to have had an intense abhorrence of spitting, and for a parent to express his displeasure by doing so on the person of one of his children, or even on the ground in his presence, separated that child as unclean from society for seven days.
15. the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again--Either not to crush her by a sentence of overwhelming severity or not to expose her, being a prophetess, to popular contempt.
16. pitched in the wilderness of Paran--The station of encampments seems to have been Rithma ([Nu 33:19]).
Chapter 13
Nu 13:1-33. The Names of the Men Who Were Sent to Search the Land
1-2. The Lord spake unto Moses, Send thou men, that they may search the land, of Canaan--Compare [De 1:22], whence it appears, that while the proposal of delegating confidential men from each tribe to explore the land of Canaan emanated from the people who petitioned for it, the measure received the special sanction of God, who granted their request at once as a trial, and a punishment of their distrust.
3. those men were heads of the children of Israel--Not the princes who are named (Nu 10:14-16, 18-[20, 22-27]), but chiefs, leading men though not of the first rank.
16. Oshea--that is, "a desire of salvation." Jehoshua, by prefixing the name of God, means "divinely appointed," "head of salvation," "Saviour," the same as Jesus [Mt 1:21, Margin].
17. Get you up this way ... , and go up into the mountain--Mount Seir ([De 1:2]), which lay directly from Sinai across the wilderness of Paran, in a northeasterly direction into the southern parts of the promised land.
20. Now the time was the time of the first grapes--This was in August, when the first clusters are gathered. The second are gathered in September, and the third in October. The spies' absence for a period of forty days determines the grapes they brought from Eshcol to have been of the second period.
21-24. So they ... searched the land--They advanced from south to north, reconnoitering the whole land.
the wilderness of Zin--a long level plain, or deep valley of sand, the monotony of which is relieved by a few tamarisk and rethem trees. Under the names of El Ghor and El Araba, it forms the continuation of the Jordan valley, extending from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akaba.
Rehob--or, Beth-rehob, was a city and district situated, according to some, eastward of Sidon; and, according to others, it is the same as El Hule, an extensive and fertile champaign country, at the foot of Anti-libanus, a few leagues below Paneas.
as men come to Hamath--or, "the entering in of Hamath" ([2Ki 14:25]), now the valley of Balbeck, a mountain pass or opening in the northern frontier, which formed the extreme limit in that direction of the inheritance of Israel. From the mention of these places, the route of the scouts appears to have been along the course of the Jordan in their advance; and their return was by the western border through the territories of the Sidonians and Philistines.
26. they came ... to Kadesh--an important encampment of the Israelites. But its exact situation is not definitely known, nor is it determined whether it is the same or a different place from Kadesh-barnea. It is supposed to be identical with Ain-el-Weibeh, a famous spring on the eastern side of the desert [Robinson], or also with Petra [Stanley].
27-28. they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey--The report was given publicly in the audience of the people, and it was artfully arranged to begin their narrative with commendations of the natural fertility of the country in order that their subsequent slanders might the more readily receive credit.
29. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south--Their territory lay between the Dead and the Red Seas, skirting the borders of Canaan.
Hittites ... dwell in the mountains--Their settlements were in the southern and mountainous part of Palestine ([Ge 23:7]).
the Canaanites dwell by the sea--The remnant of the original inhabitants, who had been dispossessed by the Philistines, were divided into two nomadic hordes--one settled eastward near the Jordan; the other westward, by the Mediterranean.
32. a land that eateth up the inhabitants--that is, an unhealthy climate and country. Jewish writers say that in the course of their travels they saw a great many funerals, vast numbers of the Canaanites being cut off at that time, in the providence of God, by a plague or the hornet ([Jos 24:12]).
men of a great stature--This was evidently a false and exaggerated report, representing, from timidity or malicious artifice, what was true of a few as descriptive of the people generally.