Arrangement of the Camp of Israel; Order of March. -We have eNewhere called attention to the military character of the organisation which Moses gave his people, resembling in this respect the :--ervian constitution of the Romans, as described by Livy, Hirt. i. 43 [CONGREGATION]. Full par ticulars of this organisation occur in the first part of the book of Numbers (chaps. i.-iv.), which also describes, in still ampler terms, the relation to the rest of the nation of the priestly tribe of Levi, and its office, wherein it was a substitute for all the first-born of the children of Israel' (iii. 41). The census and the marshalling of the host were effected by Moses, according to the express directions of Jehovah. In these directions Bertheau finds a de calogue, which he arranges thus :-Num. 48;' ii. I ; iii. 5, II, 14, 44 ; iv. 1, 17, 21-49.
Sundry the law, as a whole, ends with the book of Leviticus, certain enact ments, in larger or smaller groups, occur in the book of Numbers, which seem to have been occa sioned by the Circumstances through which the nation passed after leaving Sinai. Thus, in chaps, v. and vi. we meet with three decades of subsi diary laws, concerning-O.) The removal of all unclean persons out of the camp, which had been just before duly arranged, and trespass-restitution ; (2.) The remarkable process called the trial of jealousy ;' and (3.) The law of the Nazarite vow. These are the decades :-v. 2, 2, 2, 7, 7, 7, 8, 9, to, to.-v. 15, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22 [end], 23, 25, 26.-vi. 2, 5, 6, S, II, 13, 16, IS, 19, 20.
The Priests' Blessing.-Aaron is described (Lev. ix. 22) as blessing the people, when the fire first descended from heaven and consumed the sacri 'ices ; but, as it would seem, without an expressly commanded formula. So important a duty, how ever, was not to be left to the priest's option ; so we have, in Num. vi. 22-27, a specific ordinance given, in which, for the first time, the divine idea of Three occurs in connection with God's name. Into the profound meaning of this trine benediction, on which the doctrine of the N. T. respecting the Divine Being sheds much light, this is not the place to inquire ; on this question, we therefore are con tent to refer the reader to J. Conrade Hottinger's treatise, De one sacerdotali, ad loc., Num.
vi. 24-26, reprinted in Thes. Novus Theologico thilol., i. 393-400, appended to Critic! Sacri, etc. Chapter vii. is narrative, but out of a circumstance recorded at its conclusion arise the regulations about the golden candlestick, and the consecration of the Levites, with their official duties, which are contained in chap. viii.
A Second original rules about keeping the Passover (Exod. xii.) were in many respects purely of a temporary kind, suitable to the moment only : the festival, however, was meant to be perpetual, as an important means of the per petuity of the covenant ; no wonder, then, if on the emergence of circumstances of a nominal kind, fresh regulations should be found necessary ; and such, in fact, occur in Num. ix., where a second passover is allowed, exactly a month later than the first and great celebration, in the case of disqualified or absent persons. In this supplementary rite the same liberality to the stranger was shown as in the principal ordinance. A long section of history, including that of the unfaithful spies, and the mur murs of the disaffected people, and the fatal anger of the Lord, stretches to the end of Num. xiv., being interrupted (at the beginning of chap. x.) by a decade of regulations respecting the silver trumpets of call and summons. These ten rules
occur in verses 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 9, to.
The Decade of the assistance of Bertheau's acute and ingenious investigations, we have had abundant application of the decimal number of potation to the structural form of the Law of Moses, and we have found this symmetry pervading even God's denunciations and promises in a surprising manner. It is quite in keeping with this remarkable feature that, on the commission of • the crowning sin of the people in accepting the 4 evil report of the spies, God, in the preamble of his stern sentence, adduces ten provocations, as constituting the full measure of their sins against him. All those men have tempted me now ' these ten times' (Num. xiv. 22). Nor is this simply a number emblematic in this instance of completion, for in fact the temptations' men tioned in the previous history are, as Rosenmialler (Scholia, in loc.) and others have observed, exactly ten : (1) At the Red Sea ; (2) at Marah ; (3) in the Desert of Sin ; (4) about the mania; (5) about the manna a second time (Exod. xvi. 27, 28) ; (6) in Rephidim ; (7) at Horeb, in the matter of the golden calf-their seventh and greatest sin ; (8) at Taberah ; (9) at Kibroth-Hattaavah ; (to) here at Kadesh, their tenth and exhaustive sin ! The ultimate Decalogue of chap. xv. and the last chapter of the Book of Numbers lies the seventh and last of Bertheau's groups of Mosaic Laws, embedded in sections of historical narrative. With the history we have here nothing further to do than to suggest its relation to the legislation which grew out of it. The people had fallen from God in their rebellious acceptance of the spies' evil report ; but the faithful Moses, firm and undaunted as ever in his mediatorial office, pre vailed on the Lord to forgive their sin, and to re ceive them back into his covenant favour. They, however, had forfeited Canaan ; only their children now were to inherit it. This reversionary pro vision for the next generation occasions some new laws-the command respecting the sanctification of all fruits of the ground by meat and drink-offering (Lev. xxiii. to) is here renewed with a more pre cise command about the sin-offering. The law was thus a pledge of the continuance of the cove nant. The annexation of a peculiar law about a sin-offering of the congregation (Num. xv. 22-26) may perhaps have had its origin in the many chances of such sinnings in the wilderness, by which it might become doubtful how far the whole congregation was to be regarded as tainted with this guilt' (Von Gerlach on the .Pentateuch, p. 477)• The sections of the last group of laws are arranged by Bertheau, as follows :- Section I. Num. xv. 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, so, II, 12, 13, 14-16; ten more specific laws about burnt offerings, meat, and drink-offerings. [The rest of the chapter contains single and incoherent laws about sins of ignorance and their sacrifices, sins of presumption and their punishment, and regula tions about fringes for the borders of garments. Bertheau leaves these by themselves as super numerary.] Section II. Num. xix. 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, To, TO, 12, 12, 13 ; ten laws about the sin-offering of the red heifer, and the purification of the unclean from the touch of a dead body. [The preceding chapter contains Aaronic precepts respecting the rights and incomes of the priests and Levites, as if in protest against the rebellion of Korah, who had com plained of such special privileges.] Section HI. Num. xix. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 22; ten laws about unclean persons and vessels, and the purification of the former.