CHAPTER XI _The people complain, the Lord is displeased, and many of them_ _are consumed by fire_, 1. _Moses intercedes for them, and the fire is quenched_, 2. _The place is called_ Taberah, 3. _The_ mixed multitude _long for flesh, and murmur_, 4-6. _The manna described_, 7-9. _The people we... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Numbers 11:2. _THE FIRE WAS QUENCHED_] Was _sunk_, or swallowed up, as in the margin. The plague, of whatever sort, ceased to act, and the people had respite.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Numbers 11:4. _THE MIXED MULTITUDE_] האספסף _hasaphsuph_, the _collected_ or _gathered people_. Such as came out of Egypt with the Israelites; and are mentioned Exodus 12:38. This _mongrel_ people, who had comparatively little of the knowledge of God, feeling the difficulties and fatigues of t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Numbers 11:5. _WE REMEMBER, C._] The choice aliments which those murmurers complained of having lost by their leaving Egypt, were the following: _fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions_, and _garlic_. A European may smile at such _delicacies_ but _delicacies_ they were in that country. Their _... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Numbers 11:7. _THE MANNA_ WAS _AS CORIANDER SEED_] Probably this short description is added to show the iniquity of the people in murmuring, while they had so adequate a provision. But the baseness of their minds appears in every part of their conduct. About the _bdellium_ of the ancients the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Numbers 11:11-4. The complaint and remonstrance of Moses in these verses serve at once to show the deeply distressed state of his mind, and the degradation of the minds of the people. We have already seen that the slavery they had so long endured had served to debase their minds, and to render... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Numbers 11:17. _I WILL TAKE OF THE SPIRIT WHICH IS UPON THEE_] From this place Origen and Theodoret take occasion to compare Moses to a lamp, at which seventy others were lighted, without losing any of its brightness. To convince Moses that God had sufficiently qualified him for the work whic... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Numbers 11:22. _SHALL THE FLOCKS AND THE HERDS BE SLAIN_] There is certainly a considerable measure of _weakness_ and _unbelief_ manifested in the complaints and questions of Moses on this occasion; but his conduct appears at the same time so very _simple_, _honest_, and _affectionate_, that w... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Numbers 11:23. _IS THE LORD'S HAND WAXED SHORT?_] Hast thou forgotten the miracles which I have already performed? or thinkest thou that my power is decreased? The power that is _unlimited_ can never be _diminished_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Numbers 11:25. _WHEN THE SPIRIT RESTED UPON THEM, THEY PROPHESIED_] By _prophesying_ here we are to understand their performing those civil and sacred functions for which they were qualified; exhorting the people to quiet and peaceable submission, to trust and confidence in the goodness and pr... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Numbers 11:27. _ELDAD AND MEDAD DO PROPHESY, C._] ELDAD, they said, and MEDAD there, Irregularly bold, By _Moses_ uncommission'd, dare A separate meeting hold! And still whom none but heaven will own. Men whom the world decry, Men _authorized_ by GOD _alone_, Presume to prophesy!... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Numbers 11:28. _MY LORD MOSES, FORBID THEM._] How often have I blindly done What zealous _Joshua_ did, Impatient to the rulers run, And cried, "My _lords_, forbid! Silence the schismatics, constrain Their _thoughts_ with ours t' agree, And sacrifice the souls of men To _idol_ UNITY!... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Numbers 11:29. _ENVIEST THOU FOR MY SAKE?_] Moses, the minister of God, Rebukes our partial love, Who envy at the gifts bestow'd On those _we_ disapprove. We do not our own spirit know, Who wish to see suppress'd The men that _Jesu's_ spirit show, The men whom God hath bless'd. _WOULD... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Numbers 11:31. _A WIND FROM THE LORD_] An extraordinary one, not the effect of a natural cause. _And brought quails_, a bird which in great companies visits Egypt about the time of the year, March or April, at which the circumstance marked here took place. Mr. _Hasselquist_, the friend and pup... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Numbers 11:32. _THE PEOPLE STOOD UP, C._] While these immense flocks were flying at this short distance from the ground, fatigued with the strong wind and the distance they had come, they were easily taken by the people and as various flocks continued to succeed each other for two days and a n... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Numbers 11:33. _THE WRATH OF THE LORD WAS KINDLED_] In what way, and with what effects, we cannot precisely determine. Some heavy judgment fell upon those murmurers and complainers, but of what kind the sacred writer says nothing.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Numbers 11:34. _KIBROTH-HATTAAVAH_] _The graves of lust_; and thus their scandalous crime was perpetuated by the name of the place. 1. St. JUDE speaks of persons who were murmurers and complainers, walking after their own lusts, Jude 1:16, and seems to have this people particularly in view,... [ Continue Reading ]