κατὰ ἀριθμόν. πᾶν ἀρσενικὸν ἀπὸ μηνιαίου καὶ ἐπάνω, ὀκτακισχίλιοι καὶ ἐξακόσιοι, φυλάσσοντες τὰς φυλακὰς τῶν ἁγίων. Au. Ver. 28 In the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, were eight thousand and six hundred, keeping the charge of the sanctuary. And Aaron. Most commentators consider this word as an interpolation. The point over each of its letters, probably The word, "and Aaron," has a word is wanting in the Samaritan, Syriac, designed as a mark of spuriousness. and Coptic, and also in eight of Dr. Kennicott's and in four of De Rossi's MSS. Moses alone, as Houbigant observes, was comGed. And the number which was num-manded to number the Levites (ver. 5, 11, bered of them [Syr. and one MSS.] reckoning all the males, &c. Booth." And those of them that were numbered, the males," &c. Houbigant adopts as genuine the Syr. The text in verse 22 justifies it. Au. Ver.-Eight thousand and six hundred. Others.-Eight thousand and three hundred. See notes on verses 22 and 39. 40, 44, 51); for as the money with which the firstborn were redeemed was to be paid to Aaron and his sons (ver. 48), it was decent that he, whose advantage it was that the number of the firstborn should exceed, should not be authorized to take that number himself.-Bagster's Bible. Rosen.-Vox punctis super literis singulis est insignita; nulla, uti credibile est, alia ex causa, quam ut hoc modo notaretur, vocem illam in aliis codd. abesse, vid. Eichhorn Einl. in d. A. T., p. i., § 118. Deest etiam in 8 Codd. Kennicott. et in 4 Rossian. Nec habet id nomen textus Samar., Twenty and two thousand. Pool.-Object. But if the particular numbbers, mentioned ver. 22, 28, 31, be put together, they make exactly 22,300. Answ. The odd 300 are omitted here, either accord πᾶσα ἡ ἐπίσκεψις τῶν Λευιτῶν, οὓς ἐπε-ing to the use of the Holy Scripture, where among whom are Houbigant and Michaelis, in so great numbers small sums are commonly neglected, or because they were the firstborn of the Levites [so Patrick], and therefore belonged to God already, and so could not be given to him again instead of the other firstborn. See Lev. xxvii. 26. If this number of firstborn seem very small to come from 22,000 Levites, it must be considered, that only such firstborn are here named as were males, and such as continued in their parents' families, not such as had erected new families of their own. Add to this, that God so ordered things by his wise providence for divers weighty reasons, that this tribe should be much the least of all the tribes, as is evident by comparing the numbers of the other tribes from twenty years old, Numb. i., with the number of this from a month old; and therefore it is not strange if the number of their firstborn be less than in other tribes. Although if the other tribes had been computed from a month old, as this was, their number of 600,000 had probably been double or treble to that; and consequently the number of their firstborn being 22,273, ver. 43, would have been as unproportionable to their whole sum, as this of 300 firstborn Levites seems to their whole number. And some add, that only those firstborn are numbered, both in this and in the other tribes, which were born since they came out of Egypt, when God challenged all, that it would be greater than the number of the firstborn to be his. the firstborn of the other tribes, 22,273; Ged.—“Here," says (very honestly) Del- which sum is, in ver. 46, said to be greater gado, "appears a seeming contradiction: the than the first-born of the Levites, by 273; total of the Levites expressed here is 22,000; therefore the sum 22,000, in ver. 39, is the and, summing up the number of particular true sum. This will be readily granted; but families, we find it to be 22,300. But how is this sum to be reconciled with the the rabbins tell us, from tradition, that the sum of the Koathites, in ver. 28? Why 300 could not serve to ransom the firstborn, thus: the surplus of 300 Levites arising as they themselves were firstborn." Such from the three sums in ver. 22, 28, 34, are is the Jewish solution of this difficulty: let to be deducted, as being themselves firstborn, us now see how Christian interpreters have and, in that quality, already consecrated to cut the knot. De Lyra, Munster, Oleaster, God, and consequently could not stand as a Tostatus, Cajetan, De Muis, Ainsworth, and redemption price for others. This is the even Le Clerc, adopt the rabbinical hypo- solution of Hezel, Schulz, and Rosenmüller, thesis, namely, that neither the firstborn of and, in fact, the same with that of the the Levites nor the priests of the race of Rabbins and De Lyra; consequently, liable Aaron were comprehended in the 22.000 to the same objections: for, in the first mentioned in ver. 29, although they made a place, how is it known that those 300 Levites part of the three sums mentioned in ver. 22, ' were firstborn; or that, if firstborn, they 28, and 31. But this explication is very were not by Moses accounted in the sum justly exploded by Bonfrerius, who observes, total of the Levites? But in this hypothat it is incredible, not to say impossible, thesis, another knot is yet to be untied, that in the number of 22,300 persons there which Rosenmüller himself confesses to be a should be only 300 first-born. Others, puzzling one: fatendum est difficultatem hanc esse momenti haud exigui, sed tentari | only 300 firstborn, it is hardly possible. saltem debet illius explicatio. Well, let us On the whole, then, I cannot but acquiesce see how the attempt will succeed. The dif- in the opinion of those interpreters who ficulty lies in Bonfrerius's objection, already think that, in ver. 28, a letter has been mentioned: Is it credible, that, among the dropped out of the text; and that, for w Levites, there were only 300 firstborn, when, we should read why. in each of the other tribes, at an average, Rosen."nos iis viris doctis accedimus, there must have been 1,855? Even this qui errorem notarunt vs. 28, ubi legitur, number of firstborn, of a people who are quum sit legendum (is), tres, ut said, in another place to have above 600,000 summa Levitarum, quæ singulis ex numeris men fit for war, is very few. "Incredibilis conficiatur, non jam sit 22,300, sed 22,000. primogenitorum paucitas in populo qui ha- Nam tali emendatione facta, solitam suam bebat 603,555 ætatis militaris, quibus adhuc diligentiam Moses adhibet in numeris noaddendi masculi inter primum expletum tandis, cum docet, primogenitos Israelitas mensem et vicesimum annum, id vero est, fuisse 22,273, Levitas 22,000, atque adeo pæne omnes viginti annos nondum nati. primogenitos Israelitas fuisse plures Levitis Sed si etiam de hoc numero remittamus, et, numero 273." Quæ quidem Hubigantii conpro binis adultis in censum relatis, sumamus jectura, et J. D. Michaeli magis probata, singulos modo fuisse natu minores, quam ut quam quod Kennicottus conjecit in Diss. I., numerari deberent, tamen erunt ex 42 Is- super ratione textus Hebr. V. T., p. 86, vers. raelitis singuli tantum primogeniti, quod Lat., mendum esse in numero Gersonitarum primâ fronte incredibile." Such is the vs. 22, ubi nota numeri 200, (literas enim statement of Rosenmüller himself with pro vocibus ad numeros exprimendos olim respect to the paucity, in general, of the ab Hebræis adhibitas statuit), facile comfirstborn of the Israelites. "But the dif- mutata fuerit cum 7, nota numeri 500. ficulty," says he, "is at least diminished, if Cui conjecturæ hoc potissimum obstat, quod not entirely done away, by considering, 1st, parum verisimile sit, in antiquissimis codd. that in the computation are not to be in- Caph finale exstitisse, quale nec Samarita cluded those who, although firstborn, were habent, quorum scripturæ antiquissima Healready married, and had families of their braica simillima fuerit. own: 2dly, that, in all such families where a female was the firstborn, there could be no firstborn male: 3dly, that, in the most numerous polygamist families, none was to be accounted a firstborn, but the father's first male offspring." Of these three argu Ver. 41, 45. ἀπὸ εἴκοσι καὶ πέντε ἐτῶν καὶ ἐπάνω ἕως πεντήκοντα ἐτῶν, πᾶς ὁ εἰσπορευόμενος λειτουργεῖν ποιῆσαι πάντα τὰ ἔργα ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ Tov μapтupiov. Au. Ver.-3 From thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter into the host, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation. two others are mere assumptions. It is nowhere said that married firstborn were to be exempted: all the firstborn males, without exception, are ordered to be redeemed, from the age of one month upward, without any Limitation of time or situation in life. The last argument is founded on an evident misapprehension: it supposes that it was the father's firstborn male that was only to be numbered, whereas it is clear that it was the mother's firstborn, 102 0. See ch. iii. 2, and viii. 16; also Exod. xiii. 2, 12, 15; and xxxiv. 19. So that if a man had four wives; and each of these brought him Pool.-Object. They might enter upon a son for her first child, they must all be this work at their twenty-fifth year, Numb. accounted firstborn. Still, then, the small viii. 21, and in David's time and afterward number of firstborn, even of the other tribes, at their twentieth year. Answ. 1. Their is scarcely credible; but in regard to the first entrance upon their work was at their Levites, in the supposition that they had twenty-fifth year, when they began From thirty years, &c. So most commentators. as learners, and acted only under the inspec- teria fuisse admissos. Probabilius est quod tion and direction of their brethren; but in conjecit Chaskuni, Levitas anno 25, ad their thirtieth year they were completely leviora quidem admissos ministeria, quale admitted to a full discharge of their whole erat observare ne quis alienus manum rebus office. 2. David, being a prophet, and sacris admoveret; sed non ante 30, ad bajuparticularly directed by God in the affairs of landum adhibitos fuisse, quod sarcinarum the temple, might and did make a change in bajulatio ætatem firmam ac robustam posthis matter, which he might the better do, ceret. Obverti quidem possit, si ita se res both because it was but a change in a habuisset, legem diserte hæc distinguere circumstance, and because the magnificence oportuisse. Sed quum h. 1. de munere porof the temple, and the great multitude of tandi tabernaculi ejusque partium agatur, sacred utensils and sacrifices, required a haud adeo necesse videbatur ea de re diserte greater number of attendants than formerly monere. Quare non est, cur quam cap. 8, legimus pericopen ab alio auctore consignatur statuamus, quæ Vateri est sententia, in Commentar., p. iii., p. 18. was necessary. All that enter into the host. Bp. Patrick.-Into the host.] Or, into the warfare. For their watching continually, as &c.), made them a sort of militia, who were encamped, as appears by the foregoing chapter, about the tabernacle for its security. Besides which, there was other work which might make their service as laborious as a soldier's life is, and give it the name of entering into the host; which manner of speaking St. Paul uses unto Timothy, 1 Tim. i. 18, where he exhorts him to war a good Ged., Booth.-From the age of twentyfive years.] The present texts, both Hebrew and Samaritan, have thirty years; and so all the versions, save Sept., which, in my opinion, has alone preserved the true reading; which is that of P. P. ch. viii. 24, as a guard, about the tabernacle (ch. iii. 7, marked in my Var. Read. By Rosenmüller and others the number thirty is defended, and reconciled with ch. viii. 24, in this manner. In that chapter, say they, it is a question only of selecting Levites for the general service of the tabernacle, but here of selecting Levites for carrying it and its utensils; an office which required the full vigour of age. This is taking for granted what was to be proved. In ch. viii. 21, warfare. there is no distinction made in the age of Rosen.-, Omnis in agmen veniat, the Levites who were to attend to the service i. e., in numerum Levitarum eorum, qui in of the convention tent, and surely the carry- tabernaculi deportatione occupati erant. ing of the tabernacle and its utensils was a vs. 47. part of that service. The only distinction fiftieth year; after which they were dis Ver. 4, 5. 4 Cf. זאת עֲבֹדַת בְּנֵי קָהָת בְּאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד liere made is of those who had passed their T 5 וּבָא אַהֲרֹן וּבָנָיו -pensed from the harder service of the taber קְדֶשׁ הַקְדָשִׁים : בִּנְסְעַ הַמַּחֲנֶה וְהוֹרְדוּ אֵת פָּרֹכֶת nacle, but still ministered with their brethren at the convention tent.-Ged. 4 καὶ ταῦτα τὰ ἔργα τῶν υἱῶν Κααθ ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ τοῦ μαρτυρίου. ἅγιον τῶν ἁγίων, καὶ εἰσελεύσεται Ααρὼν καὶ υἱοὶ αὐτοῦ, ὅταν εξαίρῃ ἡ παρεμβολὴ, καὶ καθελοῦσι τὸ καταπέτασμα τὸ συσκιάζον, καὶ κατακαλύψουσιν ἐν αὐτῷ τὴν κιβωτὸν τοῦ μαρτυρίου. A trigesimo ætatis anno usque ad quinquagesimum. Hoc repugnare videtur ei, quod legitur viii. 21, Levitas esse eligendos inde a 25 metatis anno. LXX, ne Moses a se dissentire videretur, posuerunt et h. 1. ἀπὸ εἴκοσι καὶ πέντε ἐτῶν. Eudem aetatis numerum habent et vss. 23, 30, 35, 38, 43, 47, pro . Sed quum Cod. Samar. et interpretes veteres omnes cum Cod. Masorethico consentiant, vix dubium est, Græcos interpp. pro arbitrio numerum annorum mutasse. Sunt, qui velint, post Maimonidem, Levitas a 25 ætatis anno edoctos fuisse per quinquennium, quae essent Levitarum ministeria, atque Bp. Patrick. The next verses explain elapso demum quinquennio ad ipsa minis- what this service was: or, if the word about Au. Ver.-4 This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation, about the most holy things: 5 And when the camp setteth forward, Aaron shall come, and his sons, and they shall take down the covering vail, and cover the ark of testimony with it: (in the latter end of the verse) were quite | skins." (See v. 25; and compare v. 8, 10, left out, the sense would be more clear-11, 12, 14.) "this shall be the service of the sons of Bp. Patrick.-Wholly of blue.] Or, of Kohath, &c. the most holy things;" that is, perfect blue. This was the third covering of the ark, as Aben Ezra expounds it. And the ark; which, till it was laid upon it, the his interpretation may be justified from ver. Levites might not approach. And since the 19, 20, in the latter of which it is called the tabernacle was the image of things in the holy, and in the former the holy of holies; heavens (as not only the apostle, but the as it is here in the Hebrew for it was the Jews themselves say), the ark in particular "most holy of all other holy things" in the being a figure of the celestial throne of tabernacle; and gave the name to the place God; it is not an unreasonable conceit of where it stood, of holy of holies, or the most R. Bechai, that this blue-coloured cloth was holy place. And this made the service of spread over it as an emblem of the skies, the Kohathites the most honourable of all which are spread like a curtain between us other, and is the reason they are mentioned and the Majesty on high. first. Rosen., Res sanctissimas, scil. illi curabunt. Intelligitur Sanctuarium cum vasis ad id pertinentibus. Put in the staves thereof.] It is not said they shall put them in the rings; for they were never to be taken out of them (Exod. xxv. 15). Nor do the Hebrew words signify that they should put them in; but it should be translated, "put the staves therein of," that is, upon their shoulders. So Aben Ezra interprets it; which seems to me the most simple exposition: or, fit and dispose them, under the covering, that they might be laid on their shoulders: or, order them so in the rings (which is Chuskuni's explication), that they might fall into the two notches, which were in the staves, to keep the ark from sliding up and down. Bp. Horsley.—4, 5,-" about the most holy things the covering vail." A noun seems to be wanting after the participle the 5th verse; and the words ' seem to stand awkwardly at the end of the fourth. Suppose then that these words are misplaced, and that they ought to follow the participle as the objective noun, then the rendering of these two verses will be thus: 4 "This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of appointed meeting. 5"When the camp setteth forward, Aaron and his sons shall enter and take down the vail which covereth the Holy of Holies, and cover the ark of the testimony with it." Ver. 6. Ged." And they shall spread over it a cloth entirely blue; and above that [Sam., LXX, Targ., and two MSS.] they shall put an upper cover of seals' skins; and shall put to its poles." A flagrant instance of early transposition in the text occurs here. In all the copies and versions, the cover of blue cloth is put on after that of seals' skins: yet it is evident that this could not be the case, from the very nature of the thing, as well as בָגֶד כְּלִיל תְּכֵלֶת מִלְמָעְלָה וְשָׂמוּ nban καὶ ἐπιθήσουσιν ἐπ' αὐτὸ κατακάλυμμα δέρμα ὑακίνθινον, καὶ ἐπιβαλοῦσιν ἐπ ̓ αὐτὴν ἱμάτιον ὅλον ὑακίνθινον ἄνωθεν, καὶ διεμβαλοῦσι τοὺς ἀναφορεῖς. Au. Ver.-6 And shall put thereon the covering of badgers' skins, and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of blue, and shall put in the staves thereof. from the whole context. 6. Put to its poles; i.e., replace them in the staples. Compare Exod. xxv. 13-15. Booth. And they shall spread over it a cloth wholly blue; and above that Sam., LXX, and two MSS.] they shall put a covering of seals' skins, and shall put to it staves. Rosen.-Tegumentum totum hyacinthinum, solo hyacinthina lana contextum. Hoc tegumentum videtur significari Ex. xxxi. 10. 6, 8, 10, &c. Badgers' skins. See notes, Component ad æquilibrium, apta on Exod. xxv. 5. 6, 7, &c. Blue. XXV. 4. bunt rectes ad portandum; vectes enim See notes on Exod. numquam extrahebantur, vid. Ex. xxv. 15. Bp. Horsley.-"The covering of badgers' Ver. 7. skins." Rather, "a covering of badgers' Au. Ver.-7 And upon the table of shew |