A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

“And now, behold, I go unto my people. Come therefore, and I will warn thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days,” Numbers 24:14;

— these Words, prophecised by Balaam, especially in regards to the house of Jacob, “in the latter days,” are prophecies for our times!

Numbers 5

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying:

² “Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper and every one who hath an issue and whosoever is defiled by the dead. — and everyone that hath an issue; leperous or having a gonorrhoea, man or woman, such an one might be in the camp of Israel, but was to be put out of the camps;

— and whosoever is defiled by the dead; by attending the funerals of the dead, or touching them, see Leviticus 21:1; such an one might go into the camp of the Levites,

³ Both male and female shall ye put out. Outside the camp shall ye put them, that they defile not their camps in the midst whereof I dwell.” — in the midst whereof I dwell; for the tabernacle, which was the dwelling place of the Lord, was in the midst of the camps of Israel;

⁴ And the children of Israel did so, and put them out outside the camp; as the Lord spoke unto Moses, so did the children of Israel.

⁵ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

⁶ “Speak unto the children of Israel: ‘When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit to do a trespass against the Lord, and that person be guilty, — the wrongs current amongst men; wrongs done to the property of another;

— such wrongs, perhaps because they were considered legitimate as long as they were not found out, were taken up by the Lord himself as involving a trespass against his own righteousness.

⁷ then they shall confess their sin which they have done. And he shall recompense his trespass with the principal thereof, and add unto it a fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed. — the principal; that is, the thing he took away, or what is equivalent to it;

— and add; both as a compensation to the injured person for want of his goods so long, and as a penalty upon the injurious dealer, to discourage others from such attempts.

⁸ But if the man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass unto, let the trespass be recompensed unto the Lord, even to the priest, besides the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him.

— but if a man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass to; this supposes that if a man should die, against whom the trespass is, before the restitution is made, then it shall be made to his heirs; and if he has none, then it was to be given to the priest;

⁹ And every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his. — which they bring unto the priest, shall be his; what they bring to him to offer for them shall be his who performs the service;

¹⁰ And every man’s hallowed things shall be his; whatsoever any man giveth the priest, it shall be his.’” — shall be his; which he, by a vow or freewill offering, separates to holy uses; these are at his own dispose, to give to what priest he will, or they are the priest’s;

¹¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

¹² “Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: ‘If any man’s wife go astray and commit a trespass against him, — this law was given partly to deter wives from adulterous practices, and partly to secure wives against the rage of their hard-hearted husbands, who otherwise might upon mere suspicions destroy them, or at least put them away.

¹³ and a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband and be kept secret, and she be defiled and there be no witness against her, neither be she taken in the act, — and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close; so that it is not known by her husband, nor by any other; “she hath hid herself” being in a private place with another man;

¹⁴ and the spirit of jealousy come upon him and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled — or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled—

— and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled; that his wife is defiled by a man; and which is the real case, as it afterwards appears, though at present he is not certain, only has a suspicion of it;

¹⁵ then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest. And he shall bring her offering for her, a tenth part of an ephah of barley meal. He shall pour no oil upon it nor put frankincense thereon, for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance.

— for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance; if guilty of it, and therefore oil and frankincense were forbidden in this kind of offering as in a sin offering, Leviticus 5:11;

¹⁶ “‘And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord. — the priest was to bring her near to the altar at which he stood, and place her before the Lord;

¹⁷ And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take and put it into the water. — the water of purification appointed for such kind of uses;

¹⁸ And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering; and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse.

— no woman, if she were guilty, could say Amen to the adjuration, and drink the water after it, unless she disbelieved the truth of God, or defied his justice.

¹⁹ And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, “If no man have lain with thee and if thou hast not gone astray to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse.

— and thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband; which is but another phrase expressive of the same thing, the sin of adultery;

²⁰ But if thou hast gone astray to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled and some man have lain with thee besides thine husband” — but if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, gone aside from the paths of modesty and chastity, and betook herself to another man’s bed instead of her husband’s;

²¹ then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman — “the Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot and thy belly to swell. — when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; upon drinking the bitter waters;

²² And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels to make thy belly to swell and thy thigh to rot.” And the woman shall say, “Amen, amen.” — amen, amen; doubled here; the woman was to accept (if she dared) the awful ordeal and appeal to God by this response; if she dared not, she pronounced herself guilty.

²³ “‘And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water; — bot them out with the bitter water; in order to transfer the curses to the water. The action was symbolic;

²⁴ and he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse, and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her and become bitter. — after the woman’s amen, the priest was to write “these curses,” those contained in the oath, in a book-roll,

— and wash them in the bitter water, that is, wash the writing in the vessel with water, so that the words of the curse should pass into the water, and be imparted to it;

²⁵ Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the offering before the Lord and offer it upon the altar. — and shall wave the offering before the Lord: backwards and forwards, upwards and downwards;

²⁶ And the priest shall take a handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water.

— and afterwards shall cause the woman to drink the water; oblige her to it; having proceeded thus far, and no confession made, namely, an oath taken, the curses of it written in a scroll and scraped into the waters, and the jealousy offering waved and offered.

²⁷ And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, if she be defiled and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her and become bitter, and her belly shall swell and her thigh shall rot; and the woman shall be a curse among her people.

²⁸ And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive seed. — then she shall be free; from the effects of the bitter water; they shall have no such influence upon her, but she shall be as soured and healthful as ever;

²⁹ “‘This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband and is defiled, — this is the law of jealousies; which was appointed by God to deter wives from adultery, and preserve the people of Israel, and the true worshippers of him;

³⁰ or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him and he is jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law.

— and the priest shall execute upon her all this law; he shall proceed according to the law, and perform every rite and ceremony required; nor could any stop be put to it, unless the woman owned she was defiled.

³¹ Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.’” — and the woman shall bear her iniquity; the punishment of it, through the effects of the bitter waters upon her, if guilty; nor was her husband chargeable with her death, she justly brought it on herself.

Numbers 6

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

² “Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: ‘When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazirite, to separate themselves unto the Lord,

— the vow of a Nazirite; the verb which is here used denotes the doing something wonderful or extraordinary, and the spiritual lesson seems to be that God’s servants are expected and required to do something more than others;

— they must not cut their hair, neither poll their heads, nor shave their beards; this was the mark of Samson being a Nazarite;

³ he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes or dried. — nor eat grapes; which he was forbidden to do for greater caution, to keep him at the farther distance from wine.

⁴ All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk. — the Nazarites were to eat nothing that came of the vine; this may teach the utmost care to avoid sin, and all that borders upon it, and leads to it, or may be a temptation;

⁵ “‘All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head. Until the days be fulfilled in which he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. — nor scissors, or other instrument, to cut off any part of his hair.

⁶ All the days that he separateth himself unto the Lord he shall come near no dead body. — the word Nazarite signifies separation; some were appointed of God, before their birth, to be Nazarites all their days, as Samson and John the Baptist.

⁷ He shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister when they die, because the consecration of his God is upon his head.

— he shall not make himself unclean; the law of the Nazirite in this respect was equally stringent with that of the high priest (Leviticus 21:11), and more stringent than that which was imposed upon the priests generally (Leviticus 21:2-3).

⁸ All the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord. — all the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord. Set apart for his service, separate from all others, especially the dead;

⁹ And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration, then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day shall he shave it.

— if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration; cases of sudden death might occur to make him contract pollution; and in such circumstances he was required, after shaving his head, to make the prescribed offerings necessary for the removal of such defilement;

¹⁰ And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation;

— and on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles or two young pigeons to the priest; not a turtledove and a young pigeon, but two of one of the sorts, which was the offering of the poorer sort of childbearing women at their purification;

¹¹ and the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make an atonement for him, because he sinned by the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day. — and shall hallow his head the same day; consecrate himself to God afresh, particularly the hair of his head, let that grow again;

¹² And he shall consecrate unto the Lord the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year for a trespass offering; but the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled.

— and this Nazirite shall consecrate unto the Lord the days of his separation; he was to begin his account again, from the time of his shaving his head, and devote as many days to the service of the Lord as what he had vowed before;

¹³ “‘And this is the law of the Nazirite when the days of his separation are fulfilled: He shall be brought unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,

¹⁴ and he shall offer his offering unto the Lord: one helamb of the first year without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish for peace offerings,

¹⁵ and a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and wafers of unleavened bread anointed with oil, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings.

¹⁶ And the priest shall bring them before the Lord, and shall offer his sin offering and his burnt offering.

¹⁷ And he shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord, with the basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall offer also his meat offering and his drink offering.

¹⁸ And the Nazirite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation and put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings.

— and shall take the hair of the head of his separation; being cut off and shaved: and put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings;

¹⁹ And the priest shall take the boiled shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazirite after the hair of his separation is shaved. — and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazarite; the boiled shoulder, and the cake and wafer upon it;

²⁰ And the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. This is holy for the priest, with the wave breast and heave shoulder. And after that the Nazirite may drink wine.’

— and after that the Nazarite may drink wine; and cut his hair, and shave his head, and be defiled for the dead as other persons, the vow of his Nazariteship being fulfilled.

²¹ “This is the law of the Nazirite who hath vowed, and of his offering unto the Lord for his separation, besides that which his hand shall get: according to the vow which he vowed, so he must do according to the law of his separation.”

²² And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²³ “Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, ‘In this way ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them: — the priests were solemnly to bless the people in the name of the Lord; to be under the almighty protection of God; to enjoy his favour as the smile of a loving Father;

²⁴ The Lord bless thee and keep thee; — and keep thee; from the evil of the world, from the evil one Satan, from the evil of sin, and the power, prevalence, and dominion of it, and from falling totally and finally by it, and keep in a state of grace unto everlasting salvation;

²⁵ the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; — and be gracious unto thee; by granting larger measures of grace out of his fulness, by leading more abundantly into it, and making fresh and frequent applications of it; grace is often wished for from Christ as well as from the Father;

²⁶ the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.’ — and give thee peace; all outward needful prosperity, internal peace of mind, through the blood and righteousness of Christ, the peacemaker, and peace giver, and eternal peace in the world to come;

²⁷ “And they shall put My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.” — and they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; call them by his name, the people of the Lord; call upon the name of the Lord to bless them, and pronounce the blessing on them in the name of the Lord, in or by the name Yehovah.

~ by Joel on February 10, 2024.

Posted in Books of Moses