Numbers

NUMBERS is the fourth book of the Pentateuch, as the five books of the Law, or of Moses, have come to be called. The three previous books carried on the story of Israel's history from the creation, through the captivity in Egypt and the escape therefrom, down to the sojourn at Sinai. Numbers traces out the march from Sinai, the wanderings in the wilderness and the final arrival on the steppes of Moab within sight of the Promised Land. Like the other books of the Pentateuch, it consists of earlier (JE) and later (P) sources ; see BIBLE: Old Testament. But, although the sources come from different ages and from writers of different schools of thought, yet if its significance is properly to be appre hended, it is necessary to remember that for more than 2,000 years it has been a complete whole.

The book falls naturally into three sections which follow a chronological sequence; (I) Chaps. i.-x. 10 (P) Israel's sojourn at Sinai, the census and the promulgation of various laws by Moses. (2) Chaps. x. ii-xxii. 1 (JE and P), incidents which oc curred during the wanderings between Sinai and the arrival at the steppes of Moab. These incidents seem to have been chosen 'mainly for the purpose of casting light on the religious history and character of the people and also to explain the meaning of various place-names (cf. Taberah and Kibroth hattaavah, xi. 3, 34). They also attempt to give an account of the origin of some religious objects of worship (e.g., the brazen serpent, xxi. (3) Chaps. xxii. 2-xxxvi. (mainly P) the sojourn on the steppes of Moab, the incident of Balaam, the second census and the giving of additional laws, together with various other incidents.

The middle section contains important passages from

J and E: the twelve spies, the rebellion of Korah, and Balaam's mission to Balak (no signs of P). J, E, and P can be readily separated in chaps xi. and xii. To E belongs the passage describing the out pouring of the Spirit on Eldad and Medad and the remarkable prayer of Moses in xi. 29, "Would God that all Yahweh's people were prophets that Yahweh would put his Spirit upon them," cf. the idea that Christians are "priests unto God" (Rev. i. 6). As usual the J and E elements possess such a vivid character as to render them familiar to ordinary readers ; contrast P's legisla tive and statistical style, and his diffuseness (which reaches a climax in ch. vii.). The most illuminating example of the differ ence between JE and P is found in the passage that occurs after the first long section of P describing the order of march of the several tribes and the position of the ark in the very centre of the host, both when encamped and on the march. In x. 3o Moses entreats Hobab, the son of Reuel his father-in-law, to come with the Israelites to be "eyes" unto them ; and in x. 33 it is

stated that the ark went before them to seek out a resting-place for them. It is clear that these statements directly contradict P's elaborate scheme, according to which the people march mechan ically, tribe by tribe, with the ark in the very centre of the square, and guided by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Moses, instead of simply following the pillar of cloud, re quests Hobab to determine the line of march and select the sites for encampment. No clearer proof could be desired of the nature of early methods of compilation than that the detailed account in ch. i.-x. 28 should be immediately followed by two short para graphs in palpable contradiction of the whole plan of camp and march so elaborately worked out in the preceding narrative.

Of very great interest

is the account of Korah's revolt in ch.

xvi. which is composed of J, E, and P in a most intricate manner. Literary analysis has unravelled three stages of development : (a) two Reubenites, Dothan and Abiram, rebel against the civil au thority of Moses; (b) Korah the Levite, with 250 Israelites, rebels against the religious authority of Moses and Aaron, and (c)Korah at the head of 25o Levites protests against the priestly privileges of Aaron (for details see the commentaries). The analysis (which is generally accepted) is of extreme value for the difficult study of the history of the Levites (q.v.).

Another very important narrative is that of Balaam (q.v.). It includes a number of poetical quotations which help to determine its date and also indicate the value of poetry in its bearing on history. Also in xxi. 14 we have a poetical quotation from a lost volume of early poetry entitled "The Book of the Wars of Yah weh." Deborah's song was probably originally in this book; and when we compare its statement as to Israel's full fighting strength, viz., 40,000 men, with the statements in the prose of Numbers as to 600,000 men and more, we at once realize how much closer to actual facts we are brought by early poetry than by the later prose of writers like P. Perhaps it is in chap. xxxi. that we have the clearest proof of P's non-historical character. There we are told that 12,000 Israelites, without losing a single man, slew every male Midianite, children included, and every Midianite woman that had known a man, and took so much booty that there had to be special legislation as to how it should be divided. But if this were actual fact, how could the Midianites have ever reappeared in history? And yet in Gideon's time they were strong enough to oppress Israel.

See Commentaries of G. B. Gray, Internat. Crit. Com., L. E. Binns Westm. Comm., McNeile Camb. Bible, A. R. S. Kennedy Century Bible. (J. A. P. ; L. E. B.) •