2_Make thee two trumpets of silver. _This passage respecting the silver trumpets, which gave the gathering-signal, so that the people should always be attentive to the voice and will of God, is properly annexed to the First Commandment. For God would have the Israelites set in motion by their sound,... [ Continue Reading ]
10._Also in the day of your gladness. _This was as if God should make it manifest that He approved of no festivals, and that no sacrifices pleased Him, except His command should go before them; for it was not lawful for the people to choose this or that day, but the authority for prescribing them wa... [ Continue Reading ]
11._And it came to pass on the twentieth day _Moses records that after leaving Mount Sinai, the camp was first pitched in the wilderness of Paran; and although the distance was not great, — being, as we shall soon see, a three days’ journey, — still the fatigue was sufficient to harass and weary the... [ Continue Reading ]
14._In the first place went the standard of the camp _The actual order of march is here described. The whole people, with the exception of the Levites, is divided into four hosts, or parts, since four of the tribes were set over the others, so as to have two under the command of each. And this was t... [ Continue Reading ]
29._And Moses said unto Hobab the son of Raguel. _Very grossly are those mistaken who have supposed Hobab (7) to be Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, whom we have already seen to have returned a few days after he had come to see him. Now, old age almost in a state of decrepitude would have been bu... [ Continue Reading ]
31._And he said, Leave us not, I pray thee. _Moses perseveres and urges what he had just said, that Hobab should be a sharer in the prosperity which God had given his people reason to expect. _“To this end” _(he says) “thou hast known all our stations in the desert,” which words commentators do not... [ Continue Reading ]
33._And they departed from the mount of the Lord. _He calls Sinai “the mount of the Lord,” because in no other place had God’s glory been so conspicuously manifested. This, I admit, it had been called by anticipation ( κατὰ πρόληψιν) before the promulgation of the law; but this name was imposed upon... [ Continue Reading ]
35._And it came to pass, when the ark set forward. _Since their journey was by no means a peaceful one, but the attack of enemies was constantly to be dreaded, it was needful to beseech God that He would go forth as if prepared for battle. Thus, too, did Moses support their courage, lest any more im... [ Continue Reading ]
36._And when it rested, he said, Return, O Lord. _By thus praying he also exhorts the people to be patient, lest the weariness which arose from the delay should beget indignation. Otherwise it would have been annoying that the time of their journeying should be protracted, so that they would arrive... [ Continue Reading ]