Numbers 10:36

_AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN THE ARK SET FORWARD, THAT MOSES SAID, RISE UP, LORD, AND LET THINE ENEMIES BE SCATTERED; AND LET THEM THAT HATE THEE FLEE BEFORE THEE._ When the ark set forward, that Moses said. Moses, as the organ of the people, uttered an appropriate prayer both at the commencement and the end of each journey. Thus, all the journeys were sanctified by devotion; but it is in a poetical form, and was probably the initial words of a hymn or sacred song chorussed by the people on these occasions. It was imitated by David. Psalms 68:1. Modern criticism asserts that the psalm was the original whence the words in this passage of Numbers was borrowed, 'Lord' being changed into 'God' (Ewald, also Hupfeld, quoted by Arnold, 'English Biblical Criticism and the Pentateuch,' p. 53). But for this assertion there is no reason, except what arises from the theory of the late comp

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 the later at their rest. And we see, indeed, how their minds were exasperated, as if a slower progress was a kind of disappointment. In order, therefore, to correct this impatience, Moses reminds them that their halts were advantageous to them, so that God, dwelling at home like the father of a family, might manifest His care of them; for the allusion is to men who Lake advantage of a time of repose and release from other business, to occupy themselves more un-restrainedly in paying attention to their own family....

33-36 Their going out and coming in, gives an example to us to begin and end every day's journey and every day's work with prayer. Here is Moses's prayer when the ark set forward, "Rise up, and let thine enemies be scattered." There are those in the world who are enemies to God and haters of him; secret and open enemies; enemies to his truths, his laws, his ordinances, his people. But for the scattering and defeating of God's enemies, there needs no more than God's arising. Observe also the prayer of Moses when the ark rested, that God would cause his people to rest. The welfare and happiness of the Israel of God, consist in the continual presence of God among them. Their safety is not in their numbers, but in the favour of God, and his gracious return to them, and resting with them. Upon this account, Happy art thou, O Israel! who is like unto thee, O people! God will go before them, t...

Verse Numbers 10:36. _RETURN, O LORD, UNTO THE MANY THOUSANDS OF ISRAEL._] These were the words spoken by Moses, at the moment the divisions halted in order to pitch their tents. In reference to this subject, and the history with which it is connected, the Psalms 68 seems to have been composed, though applied by David to the bringing the ark from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem. See the notes on Psalms 68 _Many thousands_, literally _the ten thousand_ _thousands_. Unless the ark _went_ with _them_, and the cloud of the Divine glory with it, they could have neither _direction_ nor _safety_; unless the ark _rested_ with them, and the cloud of glory with _it_, they could have neither rest...

Each forward movement and each rest of the ark was made to bear a sacramental character. The one betokened the going forth of God against His enemies; the other, His gathering of His own people to Himself: the one was the pledge of victory, the other the earnest of repose. Numbers 10:36 may be translated: “Restore” (i. e. to the land which their fathers sojourned in), “O Lord, the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel.” (Compare Psalms 85:4, where the verb in the Hebrew is the same.)...

EXPOSITION THE ACTUAL DEPARTURE FROM SINAI (Numbers 10:33-4). NUMBERS 10:33 AND THEY DEPARTED. These words mark the moment of actual departure, which has been anticipated in the general statement of Numbers 10:12. It was one of the supreme moments in the life of Israel—one of those beginnings or "departures" which lead to untold gain or loss; it was, in fact, although they knew it not, the commencement of a march which for almost all of them should know no end except within a hasty grave. No doubt, during the months spent at Sinai, _every _preparat

AND WHEN IT PASSED,.... The ark, and the cloud over it: HE SAID; Moses stood and prayed, as before, according to the above Targums, in the following manner: RETURN, O LORD, UNTO THE MANY THOUSANDS OF ISRAEL; who were six hundred thousand footmen, besides women and children, Numbers 11:21; the import of this petition is, that upon the resting of the ark God would take up his abode with them, grant them his presence, and manifest his love, grace, mercy, and goodness unto them; or, as it may be rendered, that he would "return the many thousands of Israel"; that is, to the land which he had sworn to their fathers, as Ben Gersom interprets it; and who observes that the word "return" is used, because of the holy fathers who dwelt in the land of Israel; or else, as the same writer further observes, the sense of the petition is, that it might be the will of G

NUMBERS 10:33 (JE). THE MOVEMENTS OF THE ARK. Here the Ark is not regarded as carried in the middle of the column (as in Numbers 10:21), but as preceding it (_cf._ Psalms 68:7). The address to it assumes that it was the seat or symbol of Yahweh, and the particular expressions used are more appropriate to a time after the settlement in Canaan, when the Ark accompanied the Israelite armies to war (1 Samuel 4:3; 2 Samuel 11:11), than to the period spent in the wilderness....

These two verses are marked Hebrew Manuscripts by "inverted _Nuns",_ i.e. the Hebrew letter (n) inverted and used as brackets, to show that Numbers 10:35 and Numbers 10:36 are thus enclosed to show that Numbers 10:34 should follow Numbers 10:36. This is shown by the Structure: 33. The setting forth of the ark. 35. "Rise up,. Jehovah" Words 36. "Return,. Jehovah" Spoken. 34. The setting forth of the cloud. There are eight of these inverted _nuns._ See notes on Psalms 107:23. RETURN. Either, Return,. Jehovah; or, Cause

DISCOURSE: 149 MOSES’ PRAYER AT THE REMOVAL AND RESTING OF THE ARK Numbers 10:35. _And it came to past, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee. And when it rested, he said, Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel._ PATRIOTISM, according to the general acceptation of the term, consists in such a partial regard for our native land, as would advance the interests of one’s own country at the expense of all others, and trample upon the most sacred rights of justice for the attainment of its ends. In this view, it is no better than a specious cloak for cruelty and oppression: but, when freed from selfishness and injustice, it is a good principle, and nearly allied to religion itself. Such was the patriotism of Moses: he wished well to his own country, and sought to