Imatges de pàgina
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glut themselves with them; after which they began to think how to preferve the reft from being corrupted. A fresh But, in the midft of their feafting, GOD was pleafed to plague de-fmite a great number of them with a fore difeafe, which ftroys a carried them off with the meat, as it were, in their mouths: great in memory of this fevere punishment for their unreasonable number of luft, the place was called Kibroth-hatavah, or the fepulthe rebels.cres of concupifcence; from whence they removed to Miriam Cadefb-barneah, and thence to Hazaroth b. In this enftruck campment Miriam, Mofes's fifter, having been smitten with le with leprofy for fome reflections which fhe had caft upon profy. him and his wife, Mofes, at her's and Aaron's request, Twelve obtained a cure for her; yet fo, that fhe was to remain Spies fent without the camp, as a polluted perfon, feven days; to view after which they removed again towards Cadesh-barneah, the land. in the wilderness of Paran. Here Mofes was commanded to choose twelve proper men, one out of each tribe, and to fend them to fearch the land of Canaan; among which were Joshua and Caleb. Thefe twelve, having received Mofes's directions to view the whole land, to examine the ftrength of its cities and inhabitants, the nature and fertility of its foil, and the like, fet out upon their progrefs, which they performed in forty days.

AT their return from Rehob, which is at the foot of mount Libanus, they paffed through the valley of Eshcol, fo called from the great quantity of the largeft grapes with which it abounded, and is ftill to this day famed ford; where they gathered a branch of a vine with a bunch of grapes of a prodigious fize, which they threw over one of their ftaves, and brought between two upon their shoulders by turns, to prevent the grapes being bruifed.

BEING at length happily arrived at their camp, they made their report to Mofes and Aaron, in the prefence of the elders, and of all the people. They began indeed d Num.

Num. xi. per tot.

xii. per tot.

of Mofes as if the quails had
lain two cubits, that is, above a
yard, thick upon the ground,
whereas the original may pro-
perly enough be rendered, that
they flew no higher than tavo
cubits from it; and this quan-
tity was more than fufficient to

See vol. ii. p. 481.

ferve them a month; confider ing, that not only the camp, but all the ground for a day's journey round it, was covered with it, and that flesh, efpecially that of quails, could not be eaten in great quantity.

with extolling the richness of the land, and fhewed them a fpecimen of it in the bunch of grapes which they had brought with them, together with fome of their finest pomgranates, figs, and other fruits; but as foon as they obferved, that this account had infpired the reft with a defire of becoming the happy poffeffors of it by a speedy conqueft, ten of them immediately altered their note, Tenof them and began to reprefent it as a thing impoffible, by reafon bring an of the ftrength of their fortified towns, and the bravery ill report; and gigantic ftature of its inhabitants. Joshua and Caleb alone remained firm in their report; and the latter, who obferved a kind of defpair in the people's looks, endeavoured in vain to encourage them, by affuring them, that fuch a glorious enterprize was by no means impoffible: but the people gave fuch credit to the cowardly account of the other ten, that they wholly despaired of overcoming fuch powerful and gigantic nations, in comparison of whom, they looked upon themselves as mere grafhoppers and reptiles. Their murmurings grew to fuch a height before and caufe the next morning, that a return into Egypt was again an infurlooked upon as vaftly preferable to fuch an undertaking; rection and they were already confulting how to choose themselves a leader, to bring them back to the land of their former thraldom. The uproar, however, was, in fome measure, fuppreffed by the appearance of the glory of GoD in the cloud, which then covered the tabernacle, and from which God was heard to speak to Mofes in fuch threatening terms, as gave them caufe to fear fome terrible judgment would be the reward of their rebellion and ingratitude.

All above

HERE Mofes was forced again to become their interceffor; but the ingratitude and infidelity of thofe mifcreants, who had been eye-witneffes of thofe wonders which he wrought both in Egypt and in the defert, and of the punishments which he had inflicted upon other rebels, was of too crying a nature, not to exact some confpicuous mark of the divine difpleafure. Wherefore of age exGOD did then fwear, that none of thofe, that were above cluded twenty years of age, except Joshua and Caleb, fhould from enever enter into the promifed land; but that they fhould tering inta wander from place to place during the fpace of forty years, the promif

• Num. xiii. per tot.

20 years

ed land.

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till all their carcafes were rotted in the wilderness (K). As for the ten wretches, whofe falfe report occafioned this rebellion, they were all deftroyed by a fudden death, and became the first inftances of the punishment denounced against the whole nation.

Year of THIS fevere fentence did fo alarm and fhame the cowflood ardly multitude, that they prefented themselves early in 858. the morning before Mofes, ready armed; and told him, Bef. Chr. that they were now ready to retrieve their credit by fome 1490. noble exploit, either against the Amalekites, or againft fome of the Canaanitish nations. Mofes ftrove in vain to Their rafb divert them from fuch a rafh enterprize, by reprefenting and ill- to them, that they would certainly perifh in the attempt, timed ex- because they had now forfeited the divine affiftance and protection: his fpeech ferved only to whet their unfeasonable ardor, ever indocile and deaf to good counfel; they refolved to try their fortune, and to gain the paffes of the neighbouring hills; but they found them fo well kept to their coft, that the Amalekites and Canaanites, falling upon them, made a great flaughter of them there, and purfued them as far as Hormahf. All this while Mofes, 1 who forefaw the confequence of this rafh enterprize, did wifely keep himself, and the ark of the covenant, in the camp (L).

ploit against the Amalckites punifhed.

• Numb. xiv. 36, 37.

(K) Mofes here makes ufe of a round number, alluding to the forty days of the fpies fearching the land; though it is plain, that their children entered it thirty-nine years after this fentence was pronounced against their fathers (50). It is further to be obferved, that, though this exclufion excepts none but Caleb, and, in other places where it is repeated, it mentions only Joshua along with him; yet there were certainly fome others that were not included in it, fuch were Mofes and Aaron, who had no

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DURING

f Ibid. 40. to the end.

part in the mutiny, but were excluded afterwards upon another account; together with Eleazar, and a few more, efpecially of the tribe of Levi. In memory of this rebellion, the Jews have ever fince kept a ftrict faft on the 7th day of the Elul (51) or fixth month.

(L) In memory of this fad difafter, and of the dropping of the people, during the remainder of the forty years, he is fuppofed to have compofed the xcth pfalm, in which he gives us a most lively image of the fhortnefs and frailty of life.

(50) Compare Numb. xxxii. 13. with Deut. ii. 14. Vid. Ufher's an. f. (51) See Megbilath thaneth, part, ult. fe&. 14.

After

DURING this long interval of thirty-nine years, the Divine Providence difplayed itself in the moft confpicuous manner, in the forming and polishing this new generation, for whom the conqueft of Canaan was referved. The miraculous pillar continued ftill to direct them, and the manna to nourish them. Mofes continued ftill his intercourfes with GOD; and fuch was his paternal care God's of them, that their raiment, particularly their fhoes, canti-wonderful nued whole, and their feet unhurt, notwithstanding their long care of and frequent marches. If at any time the people relapsed into their ufual murmurs and rebellions, as they often generation. did, their punishment followed fo clofe, fo feverely, and fo univerfally, that their disobedience could neither be countenanced by the number of delinquents, nor flatter itself with hopes of impunity. And this may be, The fabperhaps, the main motive, which infpired them with bathfuch a laudable zeal against the fabbath-breaker, whom breaker they brought to Mofes, and on the next day, according accused, to his fentence, led out of the camp, and there ftoned and put to and buried him k.

death.

It was not long, however, before he difcovered a moft Year of dangerous confpiracy hatched against him, by one of the the flood chiefs of the tribe of Levi, and countenanced by fome 877. of the most confiderable men in the whole camp, efpe- Bef. Chr. cially of the tribe of Reuben1.

1471.

KORAH, the great grandfon of Levi by his father Jabar, as Aaron alfo was by his father Amram, and con- Korah's fequently one of the heads of that tribe, unable to be-rebellion hold Aaron and his family raised to the high-priesthood, and accomplices.

Numb. xv. 32, & feq.

After fome longer ftay in this camp, they continued moving from place to place, but ftill in the fame wilderness of Seir, during which time Mofes received many other laws; but we have given an account of the most remarkable ones in a former fection. However, it is to be obferved, that their encampments from this time were much longer than they had formerly been, feeing we

1 Ibid. xvi. paff.

read of but feventeen during the remaining thirty-feven years, whereas this removal from Cadefb-barneah was the fifteenth from their coming out of Egypt. We fhall not trouble our readers with a further detail of them at present: thofe, who are defirous to have a more particular account of them, may find it in the annals of the learned archbishop Usher (52).

(52) Ann, Usher, sub A. M. 2513. p. 22, & feq.

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had drawn a confiderable number of eminent perfons into his intereft; and, among them, Dathan, Abiram, and Hon, who were heads of the house of Reubens. Whether he thought, that he fhould never gain his point against his rival, whilft Mofes enjoyed the fupreme power, and confequently, that it was neceffary to infpire them with a defire of fupplanting him, or whether he had obferved already fome fuch defign in thofe three chiefs, he played his part fo well, that he drew them, and two hundred and fifty more, into his party; and, as foon as he found things ripe for an open rupture, he refolved to appear at their head, and to bear the brunt of the firft onfet against Mofes and Aaron. He began with upbraiding them with their unjust ambition, in ingroffing all the power into their hands, and excluding the reft of the congregation, whom he affirmed to be holy as they. Mofes, furprised at the boldness of this fpeech, rebuked them for their prefumption in the fevereft terms; but bid them put off all further debate till next morning, and then to appear at the door of the tabernacle, with each his cenfer in his hand; at which time he promised, that the LORD fhould declare himself openly in favour of those whom he defigned for that high office. After this, addreffing himself to Korah and his Levites, he upbraided them for their ingratitude and arrogance, in not being contented with the dignity and privileges which God had annexed to their tribe; but afpiring to the high-priesthood; which GOD had referved for Aaron and his pofterity.

Soon after this, he fent privately for Dathan and Abiram, whom he fuppofed to have been drawn by Korab into this confpiracy, with a defign to have argued the cafe more calmly with them; but they not only refused to come, but fent his meffenger back with an infolent anfwer; in which they upbraided him with having decoyed the whole nation out of the rich and fertile land of Egypt, under pretence of bringing them into a better; inftead of which, he only detained them in that barren wilderness to make them greater flaves to him; and that he had now nothing more to do, but to put their eyes out, fince they faw further into his ambitious and tyrannic defigns than he cared they should m.

As meek and gentle as Mofes naturally was, his patience was not proof against fuch a reproachful meffage; he appealed to the Divine Prefence against the injuftice of it, fince he

Num. xvi. 12, & feq.

had

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