H. B. C.
U. U. Club.
WADY MOKATTEB NOT MENTIONED IN NUM. XI. 26.
(Vol. iv., p. 481.)
MR. MARGOLIOUTH, in his communication on this subject, has not dealt fairly with the text which he quotes. It is as follows:
"But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other was Medad; and the Spirit rested upon them, and they were of them that were written, but they went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp."
The concluding clause, which I have printed in italics, has been omitted by MR. MARGOLIOUTH, although it is plainly an essential part of the passage, and necessary to the complete statement of the facts narrated.
MR. MARGOLIOUTH would translate the passage thus: "And the Spirit rested upon them, and they were in The Cethubrin (i.e. in Wady Mokatteb), but they went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp."
He does not, however, explain how Eldad and Medad were in Wady Mokatteb, more than Moses and the rest of the seventy. The camp itself was in Wady Mokatteb, according to MR. MARGOLIOUTH'S hypothesis, and therefore there is no opposition between Eldad and Medad being there, and yet remaining in the camp. But assuredly some opposition is evidently intended between Eldad and Medad being בכתובים amongst them that were written, and the clause (omitted by MR. MARGOLIOUTH) "but they went not out unto the tabernacle."
The authorized English version is in accordance with all the ancient versions, the Chaldee paraphrase, and the commentators, Jewish as well as Christian. And I think it gives also the common sense view of the passage.
Moses had complained of the great burden which rested upon him. "I am not able (he says) to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me." He was directed, therefore, to choose seventy men of the elders of Israel; and God promised him "I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not alone."