the three tribes that camped on the south of the Tabernacle, Reuben, Simeon, Gad, under the standard of Reuben. Next marched the Kohathites, bearing, by staves resting on their shoulders, entirely without waggons, and under the command of the priest Eleazar, the furniture of the sanctuary, to find, on reaching their brother Levites in front of them, the Tabernacle erected for its reception. Then set forward the three western tribes, Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin, under the standard of Ephraim; and the rear was brought up by the northern tribes, Dan, Asher, Naphtali, under the standard of Dan.

XVIII. HOBAB INVITED (Num. x. 29–32).—For the relation of Moses to Hobab, see Exod. ii. 15 and supra, p. 88.

XIX. THE ARK GOING BEFORE (Num. x. 33-36).— During the march, as we gather from this passage, the ark, instead of accompanying the rest of the furniture of the sanctuary, was carried in front of the host, leading the way, as when afterwards it crossed the Jordan. Moses, Aaron, and a company of priests would be with it. A cloud-like appearance, hovering over, indicated by its movement the direction it was to take. At night there would have been simply a bivouac, and at the end of the stage, where there was to be a pause of any length, the Tabernacle was re-erected. The first proper halt occurred at the end of a three days' march.

XX. TABERAH, Kibroth-hatTAAVAH, HAZEROTH (Num. xi. 1-35). In the first halt the people gave way to unreasonable complaints, but the particular grievance is not stated. A consuming fire sent among them indicated the divine displeasure, but at the intercession of Moses it was quenched, and he called the place Taberah, i.e., “burning" (vers. 1-3). Its situation is not now known, but from the sequel it was certainly eastward or north-eastward of Sinai, in the direction of the eastern arm of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Akaba. At the next halt a discontented spirit again showed itself, at first among the mixed multitude, from whom

it spread to the Israelites. They pined for the fish and the vegetables so abundant in Egypt, despising the manna sent them miraculously. This food resembled a cereal grain, and falling nightly upon the ground along with the dew was gathered in the morning, pounded, and made into flat cakes, which were baked in pans (vers. 4-9). Vexed at the people's murmurs and feeling his burden as leader beyond his strength, Moses himself gave way to complaints, and God directed him to bring to the Tabernacle seventy of the elders of Israel, who should share the toil with him. As to flesh, which the people demanded, they should have it for all the next month until they were as weary of that as of the manna (vers. 10-23). The seventy elders, all but two, were brought to the Tabernacle; and God took of the Spirit that was upon Moses and gave it unto the seventy, and they prophesied. In short, the inspiration of Moses was imparted to them, and of this they gave proof by an elevated strain of utterance which was beyond the reach of others. It indicated to all who heard that the seventy were divinely appointed as coadjutors of Moses (vers. 24, 25). For some reason not stated, two of the selected seventy, Eldad and Medad, did not appear among their brethren at the Tabernacle, but remained in the camp, where nevertheless they were endued with the same prophesying gift. Whatever was the reason of their nonappearance at the Tabernacle, they were not rejected by God; and the incident, whether so intended or not, had this good result, that whereas the sixty-eight prophesied before Moses, the priests, and other heads, the two prophesied before the people, who were thus convinced of their divine call. A deep impression was instantly created in the camp, and a young man ran to the Tabernacle to report the prophesying to Moses. Joshua the son of Nun heard the announcement with indignation, and imagining that the two absent brethren were presuming to act independently and so were encroaching on the supreme authority of his master, exclaimed, "My lord Moses, forbid them!" Moses replied, "Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His

Spirit upon them." The Hebrew words, which we render prophet, prophecy, denote generally a speaker and a speaking by divine inspiration, and not only a foreteller and a foretelling of future events. Then went Moses and the inspired elders into the camp, and the divine word as to flesh for food was fulfilled. By a wind from the sea flights of quails (as our versions call these wild-fowl) were borne towards the camp and descending within two cubits of the ground were easily taken, as the sense of the passage seems to be (see R.V.). Greedily the people went out to possess themselves of the prey; but no sooner did the meal begin than the Lord in His anger smote the people with a very great plague, and Moses called the place Kibroth-hattaavah, "the graves of lust," because there they buried the people that lusted. The spot was believed by Professor Palmer to be identical with that now called Erweis el Ebeirig, twenty-eight miles north-east from Sinai and twenty from the eastern gulf of the Red Sea, having the remains of a large encampment, proved to be of great antiquity by its differing essentially from any others to be seen in Sinai and Arabia. Travellers, as noticed by Dean Stanley, have observed vast flocks of birds (but they were cranes) coming from the sea and alighting there. That Kibroth-hattaavah was in the direction of the sea is plainly hinted in the narrative by the expression, "a wind from the sea." The halt here appears to have lasted about a month (vers. 30-34). The next station which the Israelites made their abode was Hazeroth. It is identified by Professor Palmer and others with a place bearing the Arabic name of Huderah, and meaning, like the Hebrew Hazeroth, “ enclosures." Its situation is twelve miles north-east from Erweis el Ebeirig, about forty from Sinai, and twelve or thirteen from the sea, at the foot of the mountainous fringe of the elevated desert of Et Tih. According to every means we possess of discovering, the Israelites are marching towards that corner we have indicated, where Eziongeber stands at the head of the gulf of Akaba, and where the pilgrim road from Mecca begins to ascend to the limestone plateau. Their possessing waggons is a fact not

lost sight of by explorers seeking to determine the actual roads.

XXI. MIRIAM AND AARON ASSERT THEMSELVES AGAINST MOSES (Num. xii. 1-15).—This occurred at Hazeroth, where Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on account of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married. They demanded, "Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath He not spoken also by us?" The voice of God summoned them to the Tabernacle, and said, “Hear now My words. If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make Myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream;" as much as to say they misunderstood the position of Moses entirely; he was no ordinary prophet instructed in nightly visions; he was one whose place was very near to God, far beyond the reach of any equal; one audibly addressed by God, their mediator and the head of that dispensation: "My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all Mine house. With him I will speak mouth to mouth, even apparently and not in dark speeches, and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?" The departure of the cloud from off the Tabernacle, and Miriam becoming leprous, indicated the divine displeasure. Aaron humbly apologised to Moses for his and his sister's folly, and on the intercession of Moses the offence was forgiven, Miriam's leprosy and exclusion from the camp lasting only seven days. The lesson of the incident was that Miriam and Aaron might be employed in prophetic utterances, as when Aaron was appointed to speak before Pharaoh jointly with Moses, "I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth" (Ex. iv. 15), and "Miriam the prophetess" took the timbrel at the head of the women and sang to the Lord after the passage of the Red Sea (Ex. xv. 20); but the authority of Moses was unique and could be shared with no other. Moses being allowed to behold the similitude of God must refer to such visions as Ex. xxxiii. 18-33; not God Himself, but visible tokens of His presence.

The leprosy of Miriam indicates that the halt at Hazeroth lasted seven days at least.

XXII. ARRIVAL AT KADESH-BARNEA (Num. xii. 16).— "And afterwards the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of Paran." It was said further back, on their breaking up from Sinai (Num. x. 12), that "the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran ;" which we understand to mean, that the journey was to be directed towards that elevated region already spoken of, known in modern geography as Et Tih. This they have now reached from Hazeroth, by a north-eastward march towards the head of the Gulf of Akaba, and there ascending by what is now the pilgrim road between Mecca and Cairo. The plateau gained, their next object was to reach the southern border of Canaan, by a route more or less northward; and the particular part of the wilderness of Paran in which they established themselves, was that limited portion of it called the wilderness of Zin; within which again was the still smaller wilderness of Kadesh, so named from a spot in it called Kadesh-barnea. Here and all about the Israelite host sojourned a long time, covering a large tract, and the sacred narrative calls the locality by the various names we have mentioned without very much discrimination.

The grand difficulty of geographers has been to settle the position of Kadesh-barnea, the key to very much of the Bible narrative, and it has been reserved for recent years to identify the spot with a certainty that seems scarcely open to doubt. A place bearing almost the very name (Ain Gadis, "spring of Gadis "), was first discovered by an Englishman, the Rev. John Rowlands, in 1842, and after a long oblivion following upon his death, rediscovered by an American, Dr. Trumbull, whose volume, entitled "Kadeshbarnea," published in 1884, giving full particulars, is one of striking interest. Why the spot should have been so long unknown, and when lost so difficult to reach a second time, is that, being a luxuriant oasis of the desert, it was most jealously guarded and concealed, by the fiercest of all the

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