Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

on the Whole Bible

Back to Biblesnet.com Home Page

---

[Table of Contents] [Previous] [Next]

Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)

---

Numbers

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9

Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18

Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27

Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36

---

AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE FOURTH BOOK OF MOSES, CALLED

N U M B E R S.

---

     

THE titles of the five books of Moses, which we use in our Bibles, are

all borrowed from the Greek translation of the Seventy, the most

ancient version of the Old Testament that we know of. But the title of

this book only we turn into English; in all the rest we retain the

Greek word itself, for which difference I know no reason but that the

Latin translators have generally done the same. Otherwise this book

might as well have been called Arithmoi, the Greek title, as the

first Genesis, and the second Exodus; or these might as

well have been translated, and called, the first the Generation,

or Original, the second the Out-let, or Escape, as

this Numbers.–This book was thus entitled because of the numbers

of the children of Israel, so often mentioned in this book, and so well

worthy to give a title to it, because it was the remarkable

accomplishment of God’s promise to Abraham that his seed should be as

the stars of heaven for multitude. It also relates to two numberings of

them, one at mount Sinai

(ch. i.),

the other in the plains of Moab, thirty-nine years after,

ch. xxvi.

And not three men the same in the last account that were in the first.

The book is almost equally divided between histories and laws,

intermixed.

     

We have here,

I. The histories of the numbering and marshalling of the tribes

(ch. i.-iv.),

the dedication of the altar and Levites

(ch. vii. viii.),

their march

(ch. ix. x.),

their murmuring and unbelief, for which they were sentenced to wander

forty years in the wilderness

(ch. xi.-xiv.),

the rebellion of Korah

(ch. xvi. xvii.),

the history of the last year of the forty

(ch. xx.-xxvi.),

the conquest of Midian, and the settlement of the two tribes

(ch. xxxi. xxxii.),

with an account of their journeys,

ch. xxxiii.

II. Divers laws about the Nazarites, &c.

(ch. v. vi.);

and again about the priests’ charge, &c.

(ch. xviii. xix.),

feasts

(ch. xxviii. xxix.),

and vows

(ch. xxx.),

and relating to their settlement in Canaan,

ch. xxvii. xxxiv. xxxv. xxxvi..

An abstract of much of this book we have in a few words in

Ps. xcv. 10,

Forty years long was I grieved with this generation; and an

application of it to ourselves in

Heb. iv. 1,

Let us fear lest we seem to come short. Many considerable

nations there were now in being, that dwelt in cities and fortified

towns, of which no notice is taken, no account kept, by the sacred

history: but very exact records are kept of the affairs of a handful of

people, that dwelt in tents, and wandered strangely in a wilderness,

because they were the children of the covenant. For the Lord’s

portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

---

[Table of Contents] [Previous] [Next]

Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)

---

Back to Bibles Net . Com – Online Christian Library Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary – Free Download Contact Us

---