offered up the second; and seven more were slain during the period which elapsed from the time of Ezra to the destruction of the (second) temple; the tenth, King Messiah himself shall sacrifice: by his speedy manifestation he shall cause great joy. Amen; may he come quickly!' This tradition is very remarkable, when considered in connection with the very general opinion among Christians, that the red heifer was a peculiar and eminent type of Christ.

Upon which never came yoke.'-Among most of the pagan nations of antiquity also, an animal which had been employed in any labour or for any common purpose, was not considered a proper sacrifice for the gods. This, as Dr. Adam Clarke remarks, is one of many usages in matters of sacrifice in which the identity of the heathen practice with that of the Hebrews seems to indicate the common patriarchal origin of both. We cannot too frequently repeat that, in this as in many other things, the Hebrew legislator is not to be considered as originating usages and institutions, but as modifying and improving, so as to render fit for adoption, those already in existence. Homer has several passages in allusion to the practice in question; and the following from Virgil (Georg. iv. 550) may be quoted:

From his herd he culls,

For slaughter, four the fairest of his bulls; Four heifers from his female stock he took,

All fair, and all unknowing of the yoke.'-DRYDEN. 9. Water of separation.'-Commonly called water of purification; but literally water of impurity,' perhaps because it was considered to contract the impurity from which it relieved those who were ceremonially unclean. In other words, this was the water which was to be used in the purification of those who had been separated from the congregation on account of legal impurities. There is reason to believe that the populace did, in subsequent times, attribute much larger powers to this water, deeming it in some sense a purification from sin itself: but we need not say that the text gives no countenance to this error, and St. Paul is careful to insist that the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of the heifer, were efficient only to the purifying of the flesh.' (Heb. ix. 13.) The religious system-if system it may be called-of classical paganism, abounded in lustrations,' or purifications by water, some of which had considerable resemblance in principle to that which is now under our notice. Ovid mentions a kind of lustration made with the blood of a horse, mingled with the ashes of a calf that had been offered in sacrifice: and the same poet describes a somewhat similar ceremony of purification which took place at the feast of the pastoral goddess Pales. Some of the lustrations of the ancient Greeks were performed with water in which a burning torch had been extinguished. Instances of this kind might be almost indefinitely multiplied.

11. He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days,' etc.-The idea of the pollution occasioned by the presence of, or by contact with, a dead body, is carried very far in this chapter-a person being defiled even by touching a bone or a grave (v. 18). It is not difficult to discover reasons for these very minute and careful regulations, although it would be perhaps rather hazardous to say which or how many of these reasons actually operated. In the first place, they would tend to lessen the spread of any infectious disease of which the person may have died. There are infectious fevers, and particularly those of a putrid nature, which, owing to the effluvia from a corpse, are more dangerous to the public health after than before the death of the person, particularly in a warm climate. To prevent such danger, few things could be more effectual, than to make the person who touched a dead body,

or who even entered the tent or apartment in which it lay, subject to the inconvenience of being declared unclean, and consequently to be secluded from society for a week. It is true that, in ordinary circumstances, few persons die of disorders which render such precautions necessary; but, as Michaelis well remarks, that legislator is surest of attaining his object whose prohibitions are extended rather beyond what necessity absolutely requires, and who avoids making too many exceptions.' If he confined the prohibition merely to infectious disorders, the law would be inoperative, as people would then dispute the infectious character of the disease. The laws on this point would also necessarily have the effect of obliging the people to inter their dead, and that too more speedily than they might perhaps have been otherwise disposed to do. If this was one object contemplated by the law, it was probably not without the intention of establishing a practice contrary to that of the Egyptians, who sometimes kept the bodies of their forefathers embalmed in their houses for several generations; and even pawned them, and borrowed money upon them. As the Hebrews were evidently partial to Egyptian practices, they were probably inclined to this really revolting usage, which they would perhaps think to be sanctioned by the instance of the patriarch Joseph, whose embalmed corpse they actually had then in their camp. The present law rendered this practice impossible, unless a person were so mad or so infatuated as to keep in constant seclusion from society, on account of uncleanness, himself and all the inmates of the tent or house in which the dead body was preserved. Another important result was, that this law secured the interment even of those dead bodies, of strangers and others, with which no one had any particular concern. To preserve the living from continual defilement, the public, or at least the police, would be obliged to bury them. The effect of such a regulation must be most apparent after a battle within the limits of Palestine, when the Israelites must necessarily have felt obliged to inter the slain of both parties, thus preventing the calamities which sometimes arise from the slaughtered multitudes being left unburied, to taint the air. It is, and was, by no means a general custom in the East to inter those slain in battle; their carcases were left to be devoured by birds of prey, wolves, dogs, jackals, and byenas; sometimes so tainting the atmosphere as to occasion the deaths of more persons than were killed in battle. In the prophet Ezekiel (ch. xxxix. 14, 15) there is an account which enables us to perceive the practice which resulted from this law. It seems that, after a great battle, two sets of men were appointed, one to find out the carcases and bones of the dead, near which they set up a mark which guided to the spot another set of men, whose business it was to inter the remains. Another effect of the same law, but also provided for by a distinct law, was, that malefactors were not gibbeted longer than during the day of execution. And the regulation in v. 18, as to the defilement contracted by touching a grave, must have operated, and in fact did operate, in obliging the Israelites to have their places of interment outside and apart from their towns. The injurious practice, in civilized Europe, of having cemeteries in towns and even in churches, would be impossible under such a law. We thus see that the Hebrew law, by the simple principle of assigning a defiling quality to a dead body, effected, without detailed legislation, many important objects, at some of which modern civilization is only beginning to arrive. This legislation, obtaining extensive results by the operation of general and comprehensive principles, is common in the laws of Moses, and is entitled to much higher admiration and respect, than that which encumbers and perplexes its subject with numerous details, specifications, and exceptions.

CHAPTER XX.

1 The children of Israel come to Zin, where Miriam dieth. 2 They murmur for want of water. 7 Moses, smiting the rock, bringeth forth water at Meribah. 14 Moses at Kadesh desireth passage through Edom, which is denied him. 22 At mount Hor Aaron resigneth his place to Eleazar, and dieth.

THEN came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.

2 ¶ And there was no water for the congregation and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.

3 And the people 'chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!

4 And why have ye brought up the congregation of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?

5 And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.

6 And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto them.

7 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.

:

9 And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him.

10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?

11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.

12 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this con

gregation into the land which I have given them.

13 "This is the water of 'Meribah; because the children of Israel strove with the LORD, and he was sanctified in them.

14 ¶ And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travel that hath 'befallen us:

15 How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers:

16 And when we cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border:

17 Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king's high way, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy borders.

18 And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword.

19 And the children of Israel said unto him, We will go by the high way: and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it: I will only, without doing any thing else, go through on my feet.

20 And he said, Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand.

21 Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him.

22 ¶ And the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, journeyed from 'Kadesh, and came unto mount Hor.

23 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in mount Hor, by the coast of the land of Edom, saying,

24 Aaron shall be gathered unto his people: for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my 'word at the water of Meribah.

25 "Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up unto mount Hor:

26 And strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die there.

27 And Moses did as the LORD com-
That is, strife.
5 Heb. found us.
Chap. 33. 37.
8 Chap. 33. 38. Deut. 32. 50.

manded and they went up into mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.

28 And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son; and 'Aaron died there in the top of the mount:

and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount.

29 And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they mourned for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.

Verse 1. Then came the children of Israel.....into the desert of Zin.'-The chronology adopted in our Bibles very properly places a period of thirty-seven years between the transactions recorded in the 15th chapter, and those on which we now enter. But in assigning all the intermediate chapters to the year 1471 B.C., that is, the middle year of that period, no other consideration could have operated than the necessity of fixing some date or other to each chapter. We are by no means to suppose that all the events of these four chapters occurred, and that all the laws were delivered, in any one year of this period. They more probably constitute a brief notice of the principal circumstances which took place, perhaps at distant intervals, in the whole period during which the Israelites were doomed to wander in the deserts, till the Egyptian-minded generation had died away in punishment for its rebellions. Most of this time was doubtless consumed in rest at different stations, from which they removed from time to time, as their Divine Guide indicated. And as they had no determinate object in view, beyond that, perhaps, of obtaining pasture for their flocks, it is of little consequence to ascertain their routes, nor have we materials to enable us to do so, unless in the list of names of some stations which is given in ch. xxxiii. (see the notes there). The fact would seem to be, that they wandered to and fro, again and again, through the length and breadth of the desert region between Egypt, Palestine, and Mount Sinai, and which region, in its present name of the Desert of Wandering (et-Tyh), continues to this day to bear evidence to their long sojourn therein. This name is applied to all the country; both to the desert plains and to the mountains which lie between them and Mount Sinai. Now the period of wandering has nearly expired, and the march of the armies of Israel once more assumes a definite purpose the purpose of entering Canaan.

In the first month.'-That is the first month of the fortieth year; for between the last verse of the preceding chapter and the first of this there is a large chasm in the history of the Israelites, of not less than thirty-seven years, during which they wandered in the wilderness; until the whole generation of grown men who came out of Egypt died, with the exceptions stated in the note to ch. xiv. 30.

'Kadesh.-We see from ch. xiii. 26 that it was at Kadesh the people were encamped thirty-eight years before, and were preparing to enter the Promised Land, when they were sent back to wander in the wilderness for their contumacious conduct. The new generation now comes to the same place with the same object, of entering Palestine, not as before, on the south, but by crossing at this point through the territory of Edom, to enter Canaan on the east over the Jordan: but being again hindered by the refusal of the king of Edom to permit their passage through his vallies, they are again obliged to retrace their steps, in order to realize their object of entering Canaan on the east, by going round the mountains they were not able to pass through. From v. 14 we learn that Kadesh was on the border-and of course the western border, of Edom; and from v. 29 we see that it was not far from Mount Hor. Again, the name of Kadesh occurs in Josh. xv. 1-3, where the southern boundary of Judah is described as extending from the shore of the Salt Sea, from the bay that looketh southward; and it went out to the south side of Akrabbim, and it passed along to Zin, and ascended up on the south side to KadeshBarnea.'

Until within these few years it had been usual to consider that the last-cited text required Kadesh to be placed about mid-way between the Mediterranean and the Dead

Sea. But subsequently it was felt that this position would not agree with the intimations in the present chapter, which indicate a site on the border of Edom and in the vicinity of Mount Hor, and hence it had become somewhat customary among map-makers and others to introduce a second Kadesh, nearer to the Dead Sea and Wady Arabah. In the first edition of this work the question was investigated with considerable attention, and we endeavoured to shew that one Kadesh would suffice for all the passages of Scripture in which the name occurs; and that this Kadesh was further down the wady Arabah, and therefore nearer to Mount Hor than any one had hitherto ventured to place it. The following portion of our former note sufficiently embodies the gist of the argument by which we were led to this conclusion:- We conclude that there is but one Kadesh mentioned in Scripture; and that the difficulties which have seemed to require that there should be a second, or even a third, place of this name, may be easily and effectually obviated by altering the position commonly assigned to Kadesh-Barnea- that is, the Kadesh from which the spies were sent in the fifteenth chapter, and from which the desert wanderings commenced. We are at perfect liberty to make this alteration, because nothing whatever is distinctly known of such a place, and its position has been entirely fixed upon conjectural probabilities. But being once fixed, it has generally been received and reasoned upon as a truth; and it has been thought better to create another Kadesh, to meet the difficulties which this location occasioned, than to disturb old maps and old topographical doctrines. Kadesh is usually placed within or close upon the southern frontier of Palestine, about midway between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. This location would seem in itself improbable, without any stronger counter reasons; for we do not find that a hostile people, when not prepared for immediate action, confront themselves directly with their enemies, but encamp at some considerable distance, and send scouts and spies to reconnoitre the country; nor is it by any means likely that they would have remained so long at Kadesh, as they seem to have done at their first visit, if they had been in the very face of their enemies, as they must have been in the assigned position. We should therefore, on this ground alone, be inclined to place Kadesh more to the south or south-east than this. Besides, if this were Kadesh, how could it be described as on the border of Edom, since the Edomites did not, till some centuries later, occupy the country immediately south of Canaan, and were at this time confined to the region of Seir? Moreover, from a Kadesh so far north, they were not likely to send to the king without moving down towards the place where they hoped to obtain permission to cross Mount Seir; particularly as, by so moving, they would, at the same time, be making progress towards the point which the refusal of the Edomites would oblige them to pass, and which they actually did pass. Therefore, the stay of the host at Kadesh, waiting for the king's answer, seems to imply that Kadesh was so near as not to make it worth their while to move till they knew the result of their application to him. Further, we read in ch. xxxiii. 36, after an enumeration of distances of evidently no very great length, that in the present instance the move to Kadesh was from Ezion-gaber at the head of the Gulf of Akabah, the distance between which and the Kadesh of the map is about 120 miles; and this is the consideration which has chiefly influenced those who determined that there must have been two places of this name; and we must confess that, while thinking over the other reasons we have stated, we were inclined to consider them as leading to that conclusion, and

that the second Kadesh must have been very near Mount Hor. And this impression was confirmed when, happening to find that Eusebius describes the tomb of Miriam as being still in his time shewn at Kadesh, near Petra, the capital of Arabia Petræa, we perceived that it would be important to ascertain where this author fixed Petra, since one account places this city far more to the north than another. We found, accordingly, that he fixes Petra near Mount Hor, on which Aaron died and was buried; and, consequently, the Kadesh of this chapter-that is, the Kadesh where Miriam died-must, in the view of Eusebius, be at no very great distance from Mount Hor.'

Other arguments were adduced to shew that if there were two Kadeshes, the one of the second journey (that is, of the present chapter) must have been in or near the position we had chosen; and that one Kadesh in this position would meet all the requirements of Scripture. According to these views the place of Kadesh was fixed in the map (in Knight's Illuminated Atlas of Scripture Geography), prepared under the writer's direction, to accompany the first edition of this work-in the same line and not far from the very place which has since been assigned to it by the actual observations of Dr. Robinson. This concurrence of different kinds of research in the same result, is curious and valuable, and the position of Kadesh can scarcely now be regarded as open to question. It is clear from Gen. xiv. 7 that there was at Kadesh a fountain (En-Mishpat), which may be supposed to have supplied the Israelites with sufficient drink at their first visit, when they experienced no scarcity of water, but which would seem to have been dried up at the time of their second visit. It was clear that the discovery of a fountain near the position to which these considerations point, and in a country where fountains are so scarce, would go far to fix the exact site of Kadesh. Robinson accordingly discovered a fountain called Ain el Weibeh, which is even at this day the most frequented watering-place in the Arabah, and he was struck with the entire adaptedness of the site to the Scriptural account of the proceedings of the Israelites on their second arrival at Kadesh. Over against us lay the land of Edom; we were in its uttermost border; and the great Wady-elGhumeir afforded a direct and easy passage through the mountains to the table-land above, which was directly before us; while further in the south Mount Hor formed a prominent and striking object, at a distance of two good days' journey for such a host' (Biblical Researches, ii. 538). Further on (p. 610) Dr. Robinson adds:-There the Israelites would have Mount Hor in the S.S.E. towering directly before them....in the N.W. rises the mountain by which they attempted to ascend to Palestine (Num. xiv. 44, 45), with the pass still called Sufah (Zephath); while further north we find also Tell Arad, marking the site of the ancient Arad. To all this comes, then, the vicinity of the southern bay of the Dead Sea, the line of cliffs or offset separating the Ghor from the Arabah, answering to the ascent of Akrabbim; and the desert of Zin with the place of the same name between Akrabbim and Kadesh, not improbably at the water of Hash in the Arabah. In this way all becomes easy and natural, and the Scriptural account is entirely accordant with the character of the country.'

6

12. Because ye believed me not,' etc.-It is evident that the offence for which Moses and Aaron, and particularly Moses, were prohibited from entering the Promised Land, lay in some part of their conduct in the transaction which the preceding verses record. Some commentators, unable to discover any offensive matter in the narrative, conceive that the offence consisted in something which the text does not intimate. Others, however, find in the passage before us ample reason for the punishment, but still differ as to the part of their conduct on which criminal unbelief should be fixed. The Psalmist says (Ps. cvi. 33), that Moses 'spake unadvisedly with his lips,' whence some conclude that the offence lay in the certainly very unusual manner in which Moses addressed the murmuring people: 'Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?' But others conceive that the act of smiting the rock twice,

as if once were not sufficient, or indeed his smiting the rock at all, since he was only commanded to speak to it, argues a mind impatient of delay, provoked, and apparently doubtful whether God would answer the first sign or not. This opinion is favoured by the distinct mention of his smiting the rock 'twice,' which seems to imply that there was some significancy in the repetition of the act.

13. This is the water of Meribah.-It may assist the reader to some idea of the difficulties which beset one who attempts to elucidate Scripture geography, to understand that this Meribah is, by Scripture illustrators of no mean name, confounded with the rock, for a similar reason called Meribah, in Rephidim, from which a supply of water had been miraculously obtained about thirty-nine years before. The time, the place, the circumstances, are so perfectly distinct in the sacred narrative, and the reason for the similarity of name is so obvious, that it seems scarcely necessary to do more than notice the existence of so egregious an error, which is, however, a fair specimen of hundreds, with which ingenious makers of difficulties have contrived to obscure some of the most clear and distinct passages of the sacred volume.

27. Mount Hor.'-This name seems to have been anciently borne by the whole range of Mount Seir, and, when superseded by the latter denomination, continued to be preserved in the name of the particular summit on which Aaron died. Topographical probabilities concur with local traditions in identifying this Mount Hor with the high mountain which rises conspicuously above the surrounding rocks in the vicinity of Petra, the ancient capital of the Edomites, or Nabathæans, which is in a valley (Wady Musa) that cuts the range of Seir about half way between the Gulf of Akabah and the Dead Sea, but rather nearer to the former than to the latter, in N. lat. 30° 18', E. long. 35° 33. This mountain, whose rugged pinnacle forms a very striking feature in one of the most interesting scenes in the world, is of very difficult and steep ascent, which is partly artificial, rude steps or niches being in some places formed in the rock. Dr. Macmichael, who visited the spot in 1818, in company with Mr. Bankes and Captains Irby and Mangles, says that it took his party one hour and a half to ascend its almost perpendicular sides. If this were really Mount Hor, as there seems little reason to doubt, the highpriest, before he lay down and died on that mountain, must have been able to mark out with his eye much of that wild region in which the Israelites had, for so many long years, wandered to and fro. From its summit, Mount Sinai might clearly be distinguished in the south; whilst the boundless desert, marked by so many wonderful transactions, in which he had borne a conspicuous part, spread its wide expanse before him on the west. The supposed tomb of Aaron is enclosed by a small modern building, crowned with a cupola, such as usually covers the remains of Moslem saints. At the time of the above visit, this spot formed the residence of an old Arab hermit, eighty years of age, the one half of which he had lived upon the mountain, from which he seldom descended, and where he chiefly subsisted through the charity of the native shepherds. He conducted the travellers into the building, and shewed them the tomb, which lay at the further end, behind two folding leaves of an iron grating. This monument, which is about three feet high, is patched together with fragments of stone and marble, and covered with a ragged pall. On the walls near the tomb are suspended beads, bits of cloth, leather and yarn, with paras and similar articles, left as votive offerings by the Arabs. The old Arab lighted a lamp of butter, and conducted the travellers to a grotto or vault underneath, which is excavated in the rock, but contains nothing remarkable. The Arabs are in the habit of offering sacrifices to Haroun (Aaron), generally of a goat. When, however, they make a vow to slaughter a victim to him, they do not go to the top of the mountain, but think it sufficient to complete their sacrifice at a spot from which the cupola of the tomb is visible in the distance; where, after killing the animal, they throw a heap of stones over the blood that flows to the ground, and then feast on the carcase. The services thus rendered to the tomb of Aaron

1 Israel with some loss destroy the Canaanites at Hormah. 4 The people murmuring are plagued with fiery serpents. 7 They repenting are healed by a brasen serpent. 10 Sundry journeys of the Israelites. 21 Sihon is overcome, 33 and Og. AND when 'king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of them pri

soners.

2 And Israel vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.

3 And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place *Hormah. 4 And they journeyed from mount Hor

1 Chap. 33. 40.

That is, utter destruction. 3 Or, grieved.

by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.

3

5 And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water, and 'our soul loatheth this light bread.

6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: