Chapter xiii., vv. 2 to 17. Why were these people sent to spy out the land? God could have told his people all the particulars without this. In ordering them to be sent, he must have foreknown and foreordained that they should report falsely, and that the Israelites should believe their report, in which case it is difficult to justify the forty years wandering in the wilderness.
Verse 22. 'Hebron' has been noticed on page 5.
Verses 23 and 24. Bishop Patrick's note on this verse is highly sensible and becoming:—'The place was called the Brook Eschol. That is, when the Israelites got possession of the land, they called this brook or valley "Eschol" in memory of this bunch of grapes, for so Eschol signifies.' But the book, which relates that the place was called Eschol, cannot have been written until the act of naming had taken place.
Verse 33 is meant figuratively, otherwise the sons of Anak would be of tremendous height and size.
Chapter xiv., w. 1 to 4. This murmuring displeases God, but grave consideration is required to understand why God was so displeased, Twelve men, all equally trustworthy (as far as we can glean their characters from the Book), are sent to view the promised land; ten report unfavourably, and two, on the contrary, give a favourable account. The balance of evidence is therefore very strong, and yet God is displeased, because the Israelites put faith in the unfavourable report. The case is even stronger than this. One of the two favourable witnesses (Joshua) was a servant and partisan of Moses, and might well be suspected of giving a highly coloured account of the country, according to the wishes of his leader. Later historians have even rendered more unfavourable the account given by the ten, rather than corroborate that of Joshua and Caleb. Voltaire quotes a letter from St. Jerome, in which he speaks of the land of promise as being about 160 miles long, and about fifty broad, all beyond being desert, that from Jerusalem to Bethlehem there is nothing but pebbles, and scarce any water to drink during the summer season. Verses 11 to 37. There is here a repetition of the mode in which Moses reasoned and expostulated with God, pointed out on page sixty-two, the same fear lest the Egyptians should hear of God's wrath against the Israelites, and ultimately the same change is effected. In verse 20, the Lord says: 'I have pardoned according to thy word,' and immediately notified that instead of pardoning the people, he intended them all to die on their journey to the promised land.
Verses 43 to 45. In Exodus, chap. 17, vv. 14 and 16, God swore to utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven, and to have war with them from generation to generation. In this chapter he aids and assists them to destroy the Israelites.
Verse 45. 'Hormah.' This verse could not have been written by Moses, as the city of Zephath was not called Hormah until after the death of Joshua (vide Judges, chap, i., v. 17): in chap, xxi., vv. 1 to 3, we find an account of the destruction of a city, and the naming it Hormah 'This' (says Dr. Shuckford, as quoted in the Family Bible) 'was effected in the days of Joshua (Joshua, chap, xii., v. 14), or a little after his death' (Judges, chap, i., v. 17). Yet Dr. Shuckford did not perceive that the relation of an event, which happened in the days of Joshua, could not have come from the pen of Moses. The second of the above-mentioned texts—namely, the first three verses of Numbers xxi., describe the fulfilment of Israel's vow—not in a mere word or short sentence, such as others—which the commentators explain by saying that they are interpolations. The present text is too full for us to suppose so: it is evidently an integral part of the main narrative, and cannot be separated from it. The whole of this part of the history, therefore, is liable to the same observation which has been so often made, that it was written by some one who lived long after the time of Moses (vide Dr. Giles's 'Hebrew Records').
Chapter xv., vv. 32 to 36. These verses are the species upon which fanatics ground their opposition to a free Sunday. The organ blower may work in the organ loft of his parish church till the perspiration streams from his brow—no serious voice checks his labour, but should he dare take his accordion into the green fields, and there, with lighter labour, beguile away his Sunday morning or afternoon, immediately the reverend pastor, the pious churchwarden, the devout and stately beadle, the meek and humble pew opener, with a thunder-like chorus-voice shout after him, 'Sabbath-breaker, thy doom is hell.' This sentence is printed in small capitals on a little tract—this tract does great good. John Phillips, of Hare Street, Spitalfields, weaver, having been at work at his loom from early on the previous Monday morning until late on the Saturday evening, and feeling tired thereby, determines to take Mrs. Phillips and his three children into Victoria Park; and, preparatory to this, John Phillips hammers at a small piece of leather in the endeavour to fix it to the sole of his boot, which is out of repair, suddenly his room door opens, and a Scripture-reader enters, who solemnly hands John the above-mentioned tract, and the following dialogue takes place:— S. R.—You are now breaking the Sabbath-day.
John P.—This is a work of necessity; the boot must be mended before I can go out.
S. R.—If you read Numbers, you will find that a man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath-day was put to death; and although you will not probably die to-day, you will go to hell by-and-by. You should go to church.