25 καὶ κατέβη κύριος ἐν νεφέλῃ, καὶ ἐλά- them governors and judges. And therefore λησε πρὸς αὐτόν. καὶ παρείλατο ἀπὸ τοῦ the gift of prophecy, which God gave them πνεύματος τοῦ ἐπ ̓ αὐτῷ, καὶ ἐπέθηκεν ἐπὶ τοὺς for the present, was only to procure them ἑβδομήκοντα ἄνδρας τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους, ὡς reverence from the people, as an evident δὲ ἐπανεπαύσατο πνεῦμα ἐπ ̓ αὐτοὺς, καὶ ἐπρο- sign that they were chosen by God to be φήτευσαν, καὶ οὐκ ἔτι προσέθεντο. 26 Kai coadjutors to Moses, in the exercise of his κατελείφθησαν δύο ἄνδρες ἐν τῇ παρεμβολῇ, supreme authority over them. And thus I ὄνομα τῷ ἑνὶ Ελδάδ, καὶ ὄνομα τῷ δευτέρῳ Μωδάδ. καὶ ἐπανεπαύσατο ἐπ ̓ αὐτοὺς πνεῦμα. καὶ οὗτοι ἦσαν τῶν καταγεγραμμένων, καὶ οὐκ ἦλθον πρὸς τὴν σκηνήν. καὶ ἐπροφήτευσαν ἐν τῇ παρεμβολῇ.

Au. Ver.-25 And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.

26 But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp.

find Theodoret understood it (Quaest. xx. in Num.). "The seventy did not prophesy beyond this day, ὅτι οὐ προφητείας χάριν ἀλλ ̓ οἰκονομίας, &c., because God promoted them not to prophesy, but to govern: which St. Paul also reckons among other gifts bestowed upon Christians" (1 Cor. xii. 26). Now, that it might appear God had conferred this Divine gift of government upon them, they also prophesied the first day they received it. And I do not see why our translation [did not cease] may not be interpreted to this sense; that is, "they did not cease all that day while they stood about the tabernacle.”

Ged.-25 And the Lord descended in the cloud and talked with him, and communicated a share of the spirit, that directed him, to And did not cease. the seventy elders; who as soon as they rePool.-Did not cease, either for that day; ceived it began to prophesy. 26 Now, they continued in that exercise all that day; there were two men, who though enrolled, or afterwards also, to note that this was a had not gone together with the rest to the continued gift conferred upon them, to convention-tent; but had remained in the enable them the better to discharge their camp: the one named Eldad, the other magistracy. Others translate the words, Medad. Yet to these also was the spirit and they added not; so the sense is, They communicated: and they began to prophesy prophesied only this day for an assurance of in the camp. vocation to and due qualification for their 26 The reading of Sam. is sh. By work, but afterwards they prophesied no adopting this reading, with Houbigant, more; the gift of prophecy ceased in them, Dathe, and Rosenmüller, and placing s and only the spirit of government rested at the head of ver. 26, the text will be upon them. rectified, and the sense clear: At non conBp. Patrick.—Did not cease.] In which gregati sunt, sed remanserant in castris viri translation we follow the Chaldee para-duo, quorum nomen unius Eldad et nomen phrasts, as several others do: but the LXX alterius Medad, tamen requievit super evs translate it, and they added no further spiritus ille (nam ipsi ex conscriptis, etsi non (which the Hebrew word will well bear), egressi erant ad tentorium) et prophetabant taking the meaning to be, that they pro- in castris. The words in parenthesis I have phesied that day, but not after. And this is in my version removed from their place; to the sense of the Talmudists, particularly of make the phrasing still clearer; and the Jarchi, who, in his gloss upon this place, phrasing more agreeable to the English saith: All these elders prophesied only | idiom.--Geddes.

this first time that the Spirit rested on them, Booth.-25 And Jehovah came down in as they stood about the tabernacle; but the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of they did not prophesy after that." The the same spirit that was upon him, and gave like say several others mentioned by Mr. it to the seventy elders; and as soon as the Selden (lib. ii. De Synedr., cap. 1, sect 2). spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. And indeed the Spirit was not sent upon 26 Yet two of the men were not assembled, them to make them prophets, but to make but remained in the camp; the name of the

one was Eldad, and the name of the other Quails. So Pool, Ged., Booth., Rosen.' Medad; and the spirit rested upon them, Gesen., Lee, Clarke. See notes on Exod. (for although they were enrolled, yet had xvi. 13. they not gone to the tabernacle,) and they prophesied in the camp.

Bp. Patrick.-Locusts.

31 And as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.

Pool. Two cubits high; not as if the quails did cover all the ground two cubits high for a day's journey on each side of the camp, for then there had been no place left where they could spread them all abroad round about the camp, as it is said they did, ver. 32; but the meaning is, that the quails came and fell down round about the camp for a whole day's journey on each side of it, and that in all that space they lay here and there in great heaps, which were ofttimes two cubits high. So Rosen.

Bp. Horsley. And at intervals of about two cubits.

Dr. A. Clarke.-We may consider the quails as flying within two cubits of the ground; so that the Israelites could easily

their clubs. The common notion is, that the quails were brought round about the camp, and fell there in such multitudes as

השליו קרי 32 .v

the Hebrew will not bear this version. The

Vulgate has expressed the sense, l'olabantque in aere duobus cubitis altitudine super terram. "And they flew in the air, two cubits high above the ground.” So Ged., Booth. : And at about two cubits above the face of the earth.”

31 καὶ πνεῦμα ἐξῆλθε παρὰ κυρίου, καὶ ἐξεπέρασεν ὀρτυγομήτραν ἀπὸ τῆς θαλάσσης, καὶ ἐπέβαλεν ἐπὶ τὴν παρεμβολὴν ὁδὸν ἡμέρας ἐντεῦθεν, καὶ ὁδὸν ἡμέρας ἐντεῦθεν, κύκλῳ τῆς παρεμβολῆς, ὡσεὶ δίπηχυ ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς. 32 Rosen.- esse coturnices, ostendimus καὶ ἀναστὰς ὁ λαὸς ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν, καὶ ὅλην ad Ex. xvi. 13. της autem non est verτὴν νύκτα, καὶ ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν τὴν ἐπαύριον, tendum e mare, sed trans mare. 237 καὶ συνήγαγον τὴν ὀρτυγομήτραν. ὁ τὸ ὀλίγον, προτος, Basque sparsit super, per castra. συνήγαγε δέκα κόρους. Kaì ësvέav éavтois-72, Secundum iter dici hinc et seψυγμούς κύκλῳ τῆς παρεμβολῆς.

cundum iter diei illine in circuitibus cas

Au. Ter.-31 And there went forth a trorum, i. e., cirea castra tanto spatio, wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey [Heb., as it were the way of a day] on this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.

quantum uno die confici potest; ab utraque castrorum parte unius diei itineris spatio. Neminem offendat, coturnices tanta copia delapsas circa castra jacuisse, exspectantes quasi, usque Israelitæ egrederentur, ipsas collecturi. Monebat enim Forskalius Michaclem in literis Constantinopoli ad eum 32 And the people stood up all that day, datis, notum ibi et quotidianum esse, coand all that night, and all the next day, and turnices mare volando superantes ita fatigari, they gathered the quails: he that gathered quia residere nusquam atque quiescendo releast gathered ten homers; and they spread creari possunt, ut littus nacta statim conthem all abroad for themselves round about cidant. 87 cres, Duorum cubitorum altitudine in superficie terræ. Hoc

the camp.

alii intelligunt ita, coturnices in toto illo their weight, as Varro and Solinus affirm. spatio ita fuisse coacervatas, ut ubique ad And Athenæus relates, that in Egypt, a duos cubitos eminuerint; quod vix creditu country prodigiously populous, as all agree, videtur. Alii putant, verbis illis significari, they were in such plenty, that all those vast coturnices ita se demisisse, ut a terra non numbers of people could not consume them, abfuerint plus quam duobus cubitis; quasi but were forced to salt and keep them for captantium manibus ultro offerent. Ita their future use. So that there is no need Vulgatus volabantque in aëre duobus cubitis at all that God should create innumerable altitudine super terram. Hanc sententiam quails for this purpose; which yet if it were autem verbi significatio non videtur affirmed he did, atheists and anti-scripturists admittere. Puto potius verbis Hebraicis have no occasion of triumph, since they indicari, bicubitales acervos hinc illinc fuisse must either own the creation of the world, dispersos, ut vacua subinde spatia reman- which is a far greater miracle, or ascribe serint, per quæ populus, coturnices col- the production of the world to a casual lecturus, ire potuerit. jumble of atoms, which is more senseless and ridiculous than all the fables of the poets. Spread them all abroad, that so they may dry them, and salt them, and preserve them for their future use, according to what they had seen and learned in Egypt. Rosen.-Nomine h. 1. Chomeri, mensuræ genus, decem Ephas æquans, plane intelligi nequeunt. Coturnices enim quis modio metiatur? Sed non dubium est significare acervos, coll. Ex. viii. 10. Vertunt ita et h. 1. Onkelos, Saadias et Arabs Erpenii., Expanderunt Israelitæ coturnices, ut siccarentur, quemadmodum Ægyptii hodienum pisces et carnes solis æstu siccare solent.

32 Stood up.

Pool.-Stood up, or rather rose up, which word is oft used for attempting or beginning to do any business. All night; some at one time, and some at the other, and some, through their greediness or diffidence, at both times.

Ten homers.

Pool.-Ten homers, i.e., ten ass loads; which if it seem incredible, you must consider, 1. That the gatherers here were not all the people, which could not be without great confusion and other inconveniences; but some on the behalf of all, possibly one for each family, or the like, while the rest were exercised about other necessary things. So Bp. Patrick.—31 Brought quails.] Nothe meaning is not that every Israelite had body, that I have met withal, hath laboured so much for his share, but that every col- so much to give a clear explication of this lector gathered so much for the family or whole following discourse as Job Ludolphus, others by whom he was intrusted. 2. That in his most learned commentary upon his the people did not gather for their present Ethiopic History, lib. i., cap. 13, n. 96, use only, but for a good while to come, as where he hath a long discourse (to which I we shall see; and being greedy and dis-refer the reader), to show that the Hebrews trustful of God's goodness, it is not strange do not take the word selau (here used) to if they gathered much more than they signify quails: but we take that translation needed. 3. That the word rendered homers ¦ of it only from Josephus (see what I have may signify heaps [so Rosen.], as it doth noted on Exod. xvi. 13). Exod. viii. 14; Judg. xv. 16; Hab. iii. 15, The no less learned Bocar, indeed, hath and ten is oft put for many; and so the said a great deal to justify Josephus: and sense is, that every one gathered several hath shown that Egypt and the neighbourheaps. If yet the number seems incredible, ing regions abound still with quails: from it must be further known, 4. That heathen whence this wind blew fair to bring them to and other authors affirm, that in those the Hebrews. And every one knows that eastern and southern countries quails are there are certain winds called Ornithias, innumerable, so that in one part of Italy, from their bringing great flights of birds within the compass of five miles, there were along with them. Quails, also, he observes, taken about a hundred thousand of them are wont to fly from the southern countries every day for a month together; and that to the northern, in the spring-time (as it sometimes they fly so thick over the sea, that being weary they fall into ships, sometimes in such numbers that they sink them with

now was), and to fall sometimes in such vast quantities as to sink a ship. Notwithstanding all which, and a great deal more

which he alleges, with great learning, there See the place before named, Hierozoic, are several things said in the following par. ii., lib. i., cap. 15, p. 105; or, as relations, which by no means can be brought Ludolphus makes the computation, sixteen to agree to quails; and therefore Ludolphus miles, in his Dissertation De Locustis, rather takes selan to signify locusts; by par. ii., cap. 44, &c. Take it either way, which it is easy to give a plain explication it shows there was a vast number of them :. of all that is said of them. It is certain for he adds, they were not only used for food in those Round about the camp.] So that which parts of the world, but that some of them way soever they went for sixteen or twenty were very delicious meat in several coun- miles together, there lay heaps of them upon tries; for they that have eaten them (see the ground; which, if we understand this Lev. xi. 22) compare them to young of quails, cannot be conceived without a pigeons, or to a fresh herring, or to a crab, heap of miracles. And if we resort to that, or lobster (like to which they are in shape what need was there of a wind to bring and figure), and they are several ways them, when God must be supposed miracuprepared, and accounted very wholesome lously to have created them as he did food, when they have thrown away the manna. And yet such a quantity of quails heads, and wings, and legs. Pliny saith was not to be found anywhere, without a that some parts of Ethiopia lived upon miracle, as would cover the heavens forty them; and that they were preserved fumo miles (according to Bochartus) on all sides. et sale, "by being dried in the smoke and But that which would have been on many salted," for their nourishment, throughout accounts miraculous, if we understand it the whole year. Now all that is said in of quails, will be found less wonderful, or this, and in the following verses, will have a rather natural, if it be understood of locusts: plain and easy meaning (as I said), if we who come in very great and thick clouds, follow this interpretation; but not, if we which darken the sky; as all authors tell us take them for quails, or pheasants, or sea- (see Ludolphus, Comment. in Histor. Ethiop., fowl. As, for example, what was said before, p. 188). concerning God's sending a mighty wind, is not hard to understand, if we suppose him to speak of locusts; which all authors say are brought with a wind: but it was never heard to bring quails, which cannot fly high, nor far; much less so far as from the sea to the middle of Arabia Petræa. Nor would the locusts have come this way had not this wind brought them from their ordinary

course.

Two cubits high.] This interpreters look upon as impossible: for then the quails would have been choked and stifled, if they had been heaped so deep one upon another. And therefore they have devised the addition of a new word; and refer this, not to their falling upon the ground, but to their flying in the air, two cubits high above the earth; that so they might the more easily be taken by their hands. So the Jews and so Val. Schindler in his Lexicon upon the word selau. But, besides that there is nothing of this in the text, and it is contrary to what the Psalmist says, that they fell in the midst of their camp (ver. 28), and that they came down like rain, which always falls upon the ground, there are many other difficulties in this interpretation Let them fali by the camp.] Or, poured (as he shows, p. 189, and defends what he them down upon the camp, as dust or rain there asserts in his Dissertation De Locustis, falls thick upon the ground. For both par. ii., cap. 19, 50); and therefore it is these comparisons the Psalmist uses in the better to expound it of locusts; who, though place before named (Ps. Ixxviii. 27). And they fall one upon another to a great depth, this is expressed in Exod. xvi. 13, by cover- are not thereby suffocated, by reason of the ing their camp. length of their feet, and the thinness of their wings.

From the sea.] viz., From the Red Sea, yet not excluding the Persian Gulf; which must not be understood as if they came out of the sea, but from the sea-coast; and it is very probable out of Africa, where they abound. So the aforesaid Ludolphus expounds it, in his late Dissertatio De Locustis, par. ii., cap. 39, &c.

A day's journey on this side, and--on the other.] A day's journey, as Bochartus makes account, is at least twenty miles.

32 The people stood up (or rather, rose up) all that day.] They were intent

upon the gathering of them for thirty-six

hours.

They gathered the quails.] By this it is evident that they gathered something lying upon the ground, and not flying in the air; for we do not gather things there but take or catch them.

He that gathered least.] viz., The master of every family for himself, and for those belonging to him. For we are not to suppose that every man in Israel gathered so many as follows.

This woman is generally supposed to be Ziphora: but Ziphora was not a Chushite; she was a Midianite. Bochart has laboured to prove that the Chushites and Midianites were the same people: and consequently that Ziphora may here be designated. But his arguments are certainly not conclusive, and his hypothesis is barely probable: not to say, with Rosenmüller, manifestly false. Indeed, it is highly improbable that Ziphora could here be the cause of reproach, after being married to Moses above forty years. Gathered ten homers.] A vast quantity I am inclined, then, to think, with Michaelis, if they were quails; which would have that the Chushite woman here mentioned served them, not for a month, but for a year was a second wife, whom Moses, about this or two, as Ludolphus observes (p. 190 of his time, took to his bed, perhaps after the Commentary on his Ethiopic Hist.); be- death of Ziphora: but this second wife was sides, we do not use to measure fowls, but not an African Chushite, but an Arabian to number them. And therefore Bochart, Chushite [so Rosen.]: and therefore the being sensible of this impropriety, takes the word ought not to be rendered Ethiopian; word homer here to signify a heap: which although that be the rendering of Sept., is confuted by Ludolphus in his Dissertatio | Vulg., and Gr. Ven. The Oriental versions De Locustis (par. ii., cap. 54, 55, &c.). retain the Hebrew term Chushite.-Geddes. They spread them all abroad.] This is another plain indication that they were

Ver. 3.

וְהָאִישׁ מֹשֶׁה עָנָו מְאֹד מִכֹּל הָאָדָם locusts; which they spread to be dried in

Au. Ver.--3 (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)

the sun but if they had been quails would have been very preposterous; for it would have made them the sooner stink. Inter- καὶ ὁ ἄνθρωπος Μωυσῆς πραὺς σφόδρα preters therefore commonly pass by this, παρὰ πάντας τοὺς ἀνθρώπους τοὺς ὄντας ἐπὶ and give no account why they spread them 7s vūs. abroad; and the Vulgar Latin omits this word spread; whereas all authors tell us, this is the principal way of preparing locusts, and preserving them for a month or more which they boiled, or otherwise made fit to eat, when they had occasion (see Ludolphus, in his forementioned Commentary, and in his defence of it lately in his Dissertatio De Locustis, par. ii., cap. 97, 98, &c.).

Eichorn, Rosenmüller, and Boothroyd consider this verse to be an interpolation. Meck. So Gesen., Lee.

Pool. This is added as the reason why Moses took no notice of their reproach, but was one that heard it not, and why God did so speedily and severely plead Moses's cause, because he did not avenge himself. Quest. 1. Did it become Moses thus to

commend himself? Answ. 1. The holy penmen of Scripture are not to be measured or censured by other profane writers, because they are guided by special instinct in every thing they write; and as they ofttimes publish their own and their near relations'

καὶ ἐλάλησε Μαριὰμ καὶ Ααρών κατὰ Μωυσῆ ἕνεκεν τῆς γυναικὸς τῆς Αιθιοπίσσης ἣν ἔλαβε Μωυσῆς, ὅτι γυναῖκα Αιθιόπισσαν ἔλαβε. Au. Ver.-1 And Miriam and Aaron greatest faults, where it may be useful to spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian [or, Cushite] woman whom he had married: for he had married [Heb., taken] an Ethiopian woman.

the honour of God, and the edification of the church in after-ages; so it is not strange if for the same reasons sometimes they commend themselves, especially when they are forced to it by the insolence and contempt Ged., Booth., Rosen.- -" Cushite woman." of their adversaries, which was Moses's case

An Ethiopian woman.