BIBLES NET. COM
Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible
Back to Biblesnet.com Home Page
|
[Previous] [Next] |
Matthew Henry |
N U M B E R S
CHAP. I.
Israel was now to be formed into a commonwealth, or rather a kingdom;
for “the Lord was their King”
their government a theocracy, and Moses under him was king in Jeshurun,
Now, for the right settlement of this holy state, next to the
institution of good laws was necessary the institution of good order;
and account therefore must be taken of the subjects of this kingdom,
which is done in this chapter, where we have,
I. Orders given to Moses to number the people,
II. Persons nominated to assist him herein,
III. The particular number of each tribe, as it was given in to Moses,
IV. The sum total of all together,
V. An exception of the Levites,
&c.
| The Numbering of the Israelites. | B. C. 1490. |
|
|
|
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in
the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the
second month, in the second year after they were come out of the
land of Egypt, saying,
2 Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of
Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with
the number of their names, every male by their polls;
3 From twenty years old and upward, all that are able to go
forth to war in Israel: thou and Aaron shall number them by their
armies.
4 And with you there shall be a man of every tribe; every one
head of the house of his fathers.
5 And these are the names of the men that shall stand with
you: of the tribe of Reuben; Elizur the son of Shedeur.
6 Of Simeon; Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai.
7 Of Judah; Nahshon the son of Amminadab.
8 Of Issachar; Nethaneel the son of Zuar.
9 Of Zebulun; Eliab the son of Helon.
10 Of the children of Joseph: of Ephraim; Elishama the son of
Ammihud: of Manasseh; Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur.
11 Of Benjamin; Abidan the son of Gideoni.
12 Of Dan; Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.
13 Of Asher; Pagiel the son of Ocran.
14 Of Gad; Eliasaph the son of Deuel.
15 Of Naphtali; Ahira the son of Enan.
16 These were the renowned of the congregation, princes of
the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel.
I. We have here a commission issued out for the numbering of the people
of Israel; and David, long after, paid dearly for doing it without a
commission. Here is,
1. The date of this commission,
v. 1.
(1.) The place: it is given at God’s court in the wilderness of
Sinai, from his royal palace, the tabernacle of the
congregation.
(2.) The time: In the second year after they came up out of
Egypt; we may call it the second year of that reign. The laws in
Leviticus were given in the first month of that year; these orders were
given in the beginning of the second month.
2. The directions given for the execution of it,
(1.) None were to be numbered but the males, and those only such as
were fit for war. None under twenty years old; for, though some
such might have bulk and strength enough for military service, yet, in
compassion to their tender years, God would not have them put upon it
to bear arms.
(2.) Nor were any to be numbered who through age, or bodily infirmity,
blindness, lameness, or chronical diseases, were unfit for war. The
church being militant, those only are reputed the true members of it
that have enlisted themselves soldiers of Jesus Christ; for our life,
our Christian life, is a warfare.
(3.) The account was to be taken according to their families,
that it might not only be known how many they were, and what were their
names, but of what tribe and family, or clan, nay, of what particular
house every person was; or, reckoning it the muster of an army, to what
regiment every man belonged, that he might know his place himself and
the government might know where to find him. They were numbered a
little before this, when their poll-money was paid for the service of
the tabernacle,
But it should seem they were not then registered by the house of
their fathers, as now they were. Their number was the same then
that it was now: 603,550 men; for as many as had died since then, and
were lost in the account, so many had arrived to be twenty years old,
and were added to the account. Note, As one generation passeth a way
another generation cometh. As vacancies are daily made, so recruits
are daily raised to fill up the vacancies, and Providence takes care
that, one time or other, in one place or other, the births shall
balance the burials, that the race of mankind and the holy seed may not
be cut off and become extinct.
3. Commissioners are named for the doing of this work. Moses and Aaron
were to preside
(v. 3),
and one man of every tribe, that was renowned in his tribe, and was
presumed to know it well, was to assist in it–the princes of the
tribes,
v. 16.
Note, Those that are honourable should study to be serviceable; he that
is great, let him be your minister, and show, by his knowing the
public, that he deserves to be publicly known. The charge of this
muster was committed to him who was the lord-lieutenant of that tribe.
Now,
II. Why was this account ordered to be taken and kept? For several
reasons.
1. To prove the accomplishment of the promise made to Abraham, that God
would multiply his seed exceedingly, which promise was renewed
to Jacob
that his seed should be as the dust of the earth. Now it appears
that there did not fail one tittle of that good promise, which was an
encouragement to them to hope that the other promise of the land of
Canaan for an inheritance should also be fulfilled in its season. When
the number of a body of men is only guessed at, upon the view, it is
easy for one that is disposed to cavil to surmise that the conjecture
is mistaken, and that, if they were to be counted, they would not be
found half so many; therefore God would have Israel numbered, that it
might be upon record how vastly they were increased in a little time,
that the power of God’s providence and the truth of his promise may be
seen and acknowledged by all. It could not have been expected, in any
ordinary course of nature, that seventy-five souls (which was the
number of Jacob’s family when he went down into Egypt) should in 215
years (and it was no longer) multiply into so many hundred thousands.
It is therefore to be attributed to an extraordinary virtue in the
divine promise and blessing.
2. It was to intimate the particular care which God himself would take
of his Israel, and which Moses and the inferior rulers were expected to
take of them. God is called the Shepherd of Israel,
Ps. lxxx. 1.
Now the shepherds always kept count of their flocks, and delivered them
by number to their under-shepherds, that they might know if any were
missing; in like manner God numbers his flock, that of all which he
took into his fold he might lose none but upon a valuable
consideration, even those that were sacrificed to his justice.
3. It was to put a difference between the true born Israelites and the
mixed multitude that were among them; none were numbered but
Israelites: all the world is but lumber in comparison with those
jewels. Little account is made of others, but the saints God has a
particular property in and concern for. The Lord knows those that
are his
knows them by name,
Phil. iv. 3.
The hairs of their head are numbered; but he will say to others, “I
never knew you, never made any account of you.”
4. It was in order to their being marshalled into several districts,
for the more easy administration of justice, and their more regular
march through the wilderness. It is a rout and a rabble, not an army,
that is not mustered and put in order.
17 And Moses and Aaron took these men which are expressed by
their names:
18 And they assembled all the congregation together on the
first day of the second month, and they declared their
pedigrees after their families, by the house of their fathers,
according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and
upward, by their polls.
19 As the LORD commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the
wilderness of Sinai.
20 And the children of Reuben, Israel’s eldest son, by their
generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers,
according to the number of the names, by their polls, every male
from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth
to war;
21 Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of
Reuben, were forty and six thousand and five hundred.
22 Of the children of Simeon, by their generations, after their
families, by the house of their fathers, those that were numbered
of them, according to the number of the names, by their polls,
every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able
to go forth to war;
23 Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of
Simeon, were fifty and nine thousand and three hundred.
24 Of the children of Gad, by their generations, after their
families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number
of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were
able to go forth to war;
25 Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of
Gad, were forty and five thousand six hundred and fifty.
26 Of the children of Judah, by their generations, after their
families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number
of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were
able to go forth to war;
27 Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of
Judah, were threescore and fourteen thousand and six hundred.
28 Of the children of Issachar, by their generations, after
their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the
number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that
were able to go forth to war;
29 Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of
Issachar, were fifty and four thousand and four hundred.
30 Of the children of Zebulun, by their generations, after
their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the
number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that
were able to go forth to war;
31 Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of
Zebulun, were fifty and seven thousand and four hundred.
32 Of the children of Joseph, namely, of the children of
Ephraim, by their generations, after their families, by the house
of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from
twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to
war;
33 Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of
Ephraim, were forty thousand and five hundred.
34 Of the children of Manasseh, by their generations, after
their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the
number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that
were able to go forth to war;
35 Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of
Manasseh, were thirty and two thousand and two hundred.
36 Of the children of Benjamin, by their generations, after
their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the
number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that
were able to go forth to war;
37 Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of
Benjamin, were thirty and five thousand and four hundred.
38 Of the children of Dan, by their generations, after their
families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number
of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were
able to go forth to war;
39 Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of
Dan, were threescore and two thousand and seven hundred.
40 Of the children of Asher, by their generations, after their
families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number
of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all that were
able to go forth to war;
41 Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of
Asher, were forty and one thousand and five hundred.
42 Of the children of Naphtali, throughout their generations,
after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to
the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all
that were able to go forth to war;
43 Those that were numbered of them, even of the tribe of
Naphtali, were fifty and three thousand and four hundred.
We have here the speedy execution of the orders given for the numbering
of the people. It was begun the same day that the orders were given,
The first day of the second month; compare
Note, When any work is to be done for God it is good to set about it
quickly, while the sense of duty is strong and pressing. And, for aught
that appears, it was but one day’s work, for many other things were
done between this and the twentieth day of this month, when they
removed their camp,
Joab was almost ten months numbering the people in David’s time
but then they were dispersed, now they lived closely together; then
Satan proposed the doing of it, now God commanded it. It was the sooner
and more easily done now because it had been done but a little while
ago, and they needed but review the old books, with the alterations
since made, which probably they had kept an account of as they
occurred.
In the particulars here left upon record, we may observe,
1. That the numbers are registered in words at length (as I may say),
and not in figures; to every one of the twelve tribes it is repeated,
for the greater ceremony and solemnity of the account, that they were
numbered by their generations, after their families, by the house of
their fathers, according to the number of the names, to show that
every tribe took and gave in the account by the same rule and in the
same method, though so many hands were employed in it, setting down the
genealogy first, to show that their family descended from Israel, then
the families themselves in their order, then dividing each family into
the houses, or subordinate families, that branched from it, and under
these the names of the particular persons, according to the rules of
heraldry. Thus every man might know who were his relations or next of
kin, on which some laws we have already met with did depend: besides
that the nearer any are to us in relation the more ready we should be
to do them good.
2. That they all end with hundreds, only Gad with fifty
(v. 25),
but none of the numbers descend to units or tens. Some think it was a
special providence that ordered all the tribes just at this time to be
even numbers, and no odd or broken numbers among them, to show them
that there was something more than ordinary designed in their increase,
there being this uncommon in the circumstance of it. It is rather
probable that Moses having some time before appointed rulers of
hundreds, and rulers of fifties
they numbered the people by their respective rulers, which would bring
the numbers to even hundreds or fifties.
3. That Judah is the must numerous of them all, more than double to
Benjamin and Manasseh, and almost 12,000 more than any other tribe,
It was Judah whom his brethren must praise because from him
Messiah the Prince was to descend; but, because that was a thing at a
distance, God did in many ways honour that tribe in the mean time,
particularly by the great increase of it, for his sake who was to
spring out of Judah
in the fulness of time. Judah was to lead the van through the
wilderness, and therefore was furnished accordingly with greater
strength than any other tribe.
4. Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, are numbered as distinct
tribes, and both together made up almost as many as Judah; this was in
pursuance of Jacob’s adoption of them, by which they were equalled with
their uncles Reuben and Simeon,
It was also the effect of the blessing of Joseph, who was to be a
fruitful bough,
Gen. xlix. 22.
And Ephraim the younger is put first, and is more numerous than
Manasseh, for Jacob had crossed hands, and foreseen ten thousands of
Ephraim and thousands of Manasseh. The fulfilling of this confirms our
faith in the spirit of prophecy with which the patriarchs were endued.
5. When they came down into Egypt Dan had but one son
and so his tribe was but one family,
Benjamin had then ten sons
yet now the tribe of Dan is almost double in number to that of
Benjamin. Note, The increasing and diminishing of families do not
always go by probabilities. Some are multiplied greatly, and again are
diminished, while others that were poor have families made them like a
flock,
and see
6. It is said of each of the tribes that those were numbered who were
able to go forth to war, to remind them that they had wars before them,
though now they were in peace and met with no opposition. Let not
him that girdeth on the harness boast as though he had put it
off.
44 These are those that were numbered, which Moses and Aaron
numbered, and the princes of Israel, being twelve men: each one
was for the house of his fathers.
45 So were all those that were numbered of the children of
Israel, by the house of their fathers, from twenty years old and
upward, all that were able to go forth to war in Israel;
46 Even all they that were numbered were six hundred thousand
and three thousand and five hundred and fifty.
We have here the sum total at the foot of the account; they were in all
600,000 fighting men, and 3550 over. Some think that when this was
their number some months before
the Levites were reckoned with them, but now that tribe was separated
for the service of God, yet so many more had by this time attained to
the age of twenty years as that still they were the same number, to
show that whatever we part with for the honour and service of God it
shall certainly be made up to us one way of other. Now we see what a
vast body of men they were. Let us consider,
1. How much went to maintain all these (besides twice as many more, no
question, of women and children, sick and aged, and the mixed
multitude) for forty years together in the wilderness; and they were
all at God’s finding every day, having their food from the dew of
heaven, and not from the fatness of the earth. O what a great and good
housekeeper is our God, that has such numbers depending on him and
receiving from him every day!
2. What work sin makes with a people; within forty years most of them
would indeed have died of course for the common sin of mankind; for,
when sin entered into the world, death came with it, and how great are
the desolations which it makes in the earth! But, for the particular
sin of unbelief and murmuring, all those that were now numbered, except
two, laid their bones under their iniquity, and perished in the
wilderness.
3. What a great multitude God’s spiritual Israel will amount to at
last; though at one time, and in one place, they seem to be but a
little flock, yet when they come all together they shall be a great
multitude, innumerable,
And, though the church’s beginning be small, its latter end shall
greatly increase. A little one shall become a thousand.
47 But the Levites after the tribe of their fathers were not
numbered among them.
48 For the LORD had spoken unto Moses, saying,
49 Only thou shalt not number the tribe of Levi, neither take
the sum of them among the children of Israel:
50 But thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of
testimony, and over all the vessels thereof, and over all things
that belong to it: they shall bear the tabernacle, and all the
vessels thereof; and they shall minister unto it, and shall
encamp round about the tabernacle.
51 And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall
take it down: and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the
Levites shall set it up: and the stranger that cometh nigh shall
be put to death.
52 And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every
man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard,
throughout their hosts.
53 But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of
testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the
children of Israel: and the Levites shall keep the charge of the
tabernacle of testimony.
54 And the children of Israel did according to all that the
LORD commanded Moses, so did they.
Care is here taken to distinguish from the rest of the tribes the tribe
of Levi, which, in the matter of the golden calf, had distinguished
itself,
Note, Singular services shall be recompensed with singular honours.
Now,
I. It was the honour of the Levites that they were made guardians of
the spiritualities; to them was committed the care of the tabernacle
and the treasures thereof, both in their camps and in their marches.
1. When they moved the Levites were to take down the tabernacle, to
carry it and all that belonged to it, and then to set it up again in
the place appointed,
It was for the honour of the holy things that none should be permitted
to see them, or touch them, but those only who were called of God to
the service. Thus we all are unfit and unworthy to have fellowship with
God until we are first called by his grace into the fellowship of
his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and so, being the spiritual seed of
that great high priest, are made priests to our God; and it is
promised that God would take Levites to himself, even from the
Gentiles,
2. When they rested the Levites were to encamp round about the
tabernacle
(v. 50, 53),
that they might be near their work, and resident upon their charge,
always ready to attend, and that they might be a guard upon the
tabernacle, to preserve it from being either plundered or profaned.
They must pitch round about the tabernacle, that there be no wrath
upon the congregation, as there would be if the tabernacle and the
charge of it were neglected, or those crowded upon it that were not
allowed to come near. Note, Great care must be taken to prevent sin,
because the preventing of sin is the preventing of wrath.
II. It was their further honour that as Israel, being a holy people,
was not reckoned among the nations, so they, being a holy tribe,
were not reckoned among other Israelites, but numbered afterwards by
themselves,
The service which the Levites were to do about the sanctuary is called
(as we render it in the margin) a warfare,
ch. iv. 23.
And, being engaged in that warfare, they were discharged from military
services, and therefore not numbered with those that were to go out
to war. Note, Those that minister about holy things should neither
entangle themselves, nor be entangled, in secular affairs. The ministry
is itself work enough for a whole man, and all little enough to be
employed in it. It is an admonition to ministers to distinguish
themselves by their exemplary conversation from common Israelites, not
affecting to seem greater, but aiming to be really better, every way
better than others.
|
[Previous] [Next] |
Matthew Henry |
|
Back to Bibles Net . Com – Online Christian Library Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary – Free Download |
Copyright 2008. Bibles Net. Com. All Rights Reserved.