The Mystery of Esau and Ephraim

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Numbers 11

¹ And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord; and the Lord heard it, and His anger was kindled. And the fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed those who were in the uttermost parts of the camp.

— unaccustomed to the fatigues of travel and wandering into the depths of a desert; the people complained and it displeased the Lord; a fire sent from God in an extraordinary manner, possibly from the pillar of cloud and fire, or from heaven;

— in the uttermost parts of the camp; either because the sin began there among the mixt multitude, who probably had their place there; or amongst those who were feeble and weary with their last journey, and therefore hindmost in the march;

— the Targum Jonathan says “But there were wicked men of the people, who, being discontent, devised and imagined evil before the Lord. . . and a flaming fire was kindled among them from the Lord, which destroyed some of the wicked in the outskirts of the house of Dan, with whom was a graven image.”

² And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the Lord, the fire was quenched. — the fire was quenched; it stopped and proceeded no further;

³ And he called the name of the place Taberah [that is, A burning], because the fire of the Lord burned among them. — because the fire of the Lord burnt among them; to perpetuate the, memory of this kind of punishment for their sins,

— that it might be a terror and warning to others; and this history is indeed recorded for our caution in these last days, that we murmur not as these Israelites did, and were destroyed of the destroyer;

⁴ And the mixed multitude that was among them fell to lusting. And the children of Israel also wept again and said, “Who shall give us flesh to eat? — the mixt multitude among them; the word in the original resembles our “riff-raff,” and denotes a mob of people scraped together. It refers here to the multitude of strangers (Exodus 12:38) who had followed the Israelites from Egypt;

— possibly caused by “the mixed multitude” at Exodus 12:38; but not solely “the mixed multitude that was among them fell to lusting” and the children of Israel also wept again; they lusted after flesh likewise; and said, who shall give us flesh to eat?

⁵ We remember the fish which we ate in Egypt freely, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic; — they felt and expressed a longing for the better food which they had enjoyed in Egypt, and which was they had in the desert, and urged the Israelites to cry out for flesh again, especially for the flesh and the savoury vegetables in which Egypt abounded;

⁶ but our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes.” — is dried away; is withered, and pines away; which possibly might be true through envy and discontent, and inordinate appetite;

⁷ And the manna was as coriander seed, and the color thereof as the color of bdellium. — bdellium is either, a) the gum of a tree, of a white and bright colour; or rather, b) a gem or precious stone;

⁸ And the people went about and gathered it, and ground it in mills or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans and made cakes of it; and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil. — and the people went about and gathered this manna; this they did every morning, and this was all the trouble they were at; they had it for gathering, without any expense to them;

— and the taste of it was as the taste of fresh oil; which is very grateful and pleasant, as well as very fattening and nourishing; so that the Israelites had no reason to complain of their being dried away by continual eating of it;

⁹ And when the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell upon it. — the manna fell upon it; as constantly, and had thereby a clean place to fall on; and then another dew fell upon that, which kept it the cleaner still, and from any vermin creeping upon it;

¹⁰ Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent. And the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased. — the weeping was general; every family wept, and in a manner public and unconcealed;

— and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly; because of their ingratitude to him, their contempt of the manna he had provided for them, and their hankering after their poor fare in Egypt, and for which they had endured so much hardship and ill usage, and for the noise and clamour they now made;

¹¹ And Moses said unto the Lord, “Why hast Thou afflicted Thy servant? And why have I not found favor in Thy sight, that Thou layest the burden of all this people upon me? — why hast thou afflicted thy servant? or “done evil” to him, that which was distressing to him, and gave him trouble; namely, setting him at the head of the people of Israel, and laying the government of them on his shoulders;

¹² Have I conceived all this people? Have I begotten them, that Thou shouldest say unto me, ‘Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child, unto the land which Thou swearest unto their fathers’? — have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them? Conceived them as a mother, or begotten them as a father? am I a parent of either sort to them?

¹³ From whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people? For they weep unto me, saying, ‘Give us flesh, that we may eat.’ — give us flesh, that we may eat; Moses seems to pity them, whereas he ought to have reproved them for their murmurings and ingratitude, and put them in mind of the manna which was provided for them every day, and with which they ought to have been content.

¹⁴ I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. — I am not able to bear all this people alone; the burden of government of them, to take care of them and provide sustenance for them;

¹⁵ And if Thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray Thee, out of hand, if I have found favor in Thy sight; and let me not see my wretchedness!” — kill me, I pray thee, out of hand; take me out of the world at once, or “kill me now, in killing”- dispatch me immediately, and make a thorough end of me directly;

— and let me not see my wretchedness; or live to be the unhappy man I shall be; pressed with such a weight of government, affected and afflicted with the wants of a people I cannot relieve;

— or seeing them bore down with judgements and punishments inflicted on them for their sins and transgressions I am not able to prevail upon them to abstain from; as the Targum of Jerusalem says, “that I may not see their evil, who are thy people;”

¹⁶ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Gather unto Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee.

— to be elders; whom thou by experience discernest to be elders, not only in years and name, but also in wisdom and authority with the people. These “elders and officers of the people” being traced to the origin of the Sanhedrim; with a prince or president at the head of them, who later regulate the working of the calendar.

¹⁷ And I will come down and talk with thee there. And 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 thyself alone.

— and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee; “the spirit” means the gifts and influences of the Spirit; and by “taking the spirit of Moses, and putting it upon them,” is to be understood that the qualities of the the elders would be endowed with a portion of the same gifts, especially of knowledge and wisdom; that is, an extraordinary penetration in discovering hidden and settling difficult things of government.

¹⁸ And say thou unto the people: ‘Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow, and ye shall eat flesh. For ye have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, “Who shall give us flesh to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you flesh, and ye shall eat. — and ye shall eat flesh; which they lusted after, wept for, and could not be easy without: for ye have wept in the ears of the Lord; complaining of him, and which he has taken notice of;

¹⁹ Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days, — God would give them flesh, so that they should eat it not one day, or two, or five, or ten, or twenty, but a whole month long of “days,” “till it come out of your nostrils, and become loathsome unto you,” as a punishment in their contempt of the manna given by God, and for having shown their regret at leaving the land of Egypt in their longing for the provisions of that land.

²⁰ but even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils and it be loathsome unto you, because ye have despised the Lord who is among you, and have wept before Him, saying, “Why came we forth out of Egypt?”’” — until it come out at your nostrils; so many, or so much being vomited up, through a nausea of it, the stomach being overfilled and glutted with it; in which case, it will make its way through the nostrils, as well as out of the mouth;

²¹ And Moses said, “The people among whom I am are six hundred thousand footmen; and Thou hast said, ‘I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.’ — Moses said, the people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand … Shall the flocks and herds be slain for them, to suffice them?

²² Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them to suffice them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to suffice them?” — shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? suggesting that if all their cattle, their sheep, and oxen were killed, with the mixed multitude brought out of Egypt, they would not be sufficient for them to live upon a whole month;

²³ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Has the Lord’S hand waxed short? Thou shalt see now whether My word shall come to pass unto thee or not.” — is the Lord’s hand waxed short? or his power diminished since the creation, when he formed all things out of nothing, and what is it then he is not able to do?

— or since he wrought the wonders in Egypt, divided the Red sea, rained down manna from heaven, and smote the rock at Horeb, from whence waters flowed sufficient for all this people, and their flocks and herds; and he that did all this could give them flesh that would suffice them a whole month;

²⁴ And Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and set them round about the tabernacle. — and told the people of the words of the Lord; what he had ordered him to do for his ease in the government of them, and how he had promised to give them flesh on the morrow;

²⁵ And the Lord came down in a cloud and spoke unto him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him and gave it unto the seventy elders; and it came to pass that, when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease. — and did not cease; from prophesying; the spirit of prophecy continued with them, which, in some cases, might be necessary: or, they ceased not to prophesy all that day, though they afterwards did;

²⁶ But there remained two of the men in the camp: the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them; and they were of those who were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle; and they prophesied in the camp. — but there remained two of the men in the camp; of the seventy who were summoned, that came not out of the camp of Israel to the tabernacle when the rest did;

— the Targum Jonathan says

And the Spirit of prophecy resting upon them,

Eldad prophe­sied, and said: Behold, Mosheh shall be gathered from the world; and Jehoshua bar Nun [Joshua], the minister of the camps, will be established after him, and will lead the people of the house of Israel into the land of Kenaan, and make it their inheritance.

Medad prophesied, and said: Behold, quails come up from the sea, and cover all the camp of Israel; but they will be to the people (a cause of) an offence.

And both of them prophesied together, and said: Behold, a king will arise from the land of Magog, at the end of the days, and will assemble kings crowned with crowns, and captains wearing armour, and him will all nations obey.

And they will set battle in array in the land of Israel against the children of the captivity; but already is it provided that in the hour of distresses all of them shall perish by the burning blast of the flame that cometh forth from beneath the Throne of Glory; and their carcases shall fall upon the mountains of the land of Israel, and the wild beasts of the field and the fowls of the sky shall come and consume their dead bodies.

And afterward will all the dead of Israel live (again), and be feasted from the ox which hath been set apart for them from the beginning, and they shall receive the reward of their works. And they were of the elders who stood in the registers among them; but they had not gone forth to the tabernacle, but had hidden to escape from the dignity; yet they prophesied in the camp.

— from this Targum translation, it could be established that Gog is a King, or title of a King, like Caesar, Czar or Agag (as in Numbers 24:7 in the Septuagint), a dynastic name for the kings of the Amalekites.

— And afterward will all the dead of Israel live (again); this sstablish the the death of “Gog and Magog” is not before, but after, and then again, it may not be at once but “each in his own order” 1 Corinthians 15:23, indicating there are many orders, first at Christ’s coming, then throughout the Millennium.

²⁷ And there ran a young man and told Moses, and said, “Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.” — there ran a young man and told Moses; fearing lest Moses’ authority should be diminished by their prophesying, and thereby taking power to themselves without his consent.

— that is, this young man thought Eldad and Medad were not right, being done without the knowledge and approbation of Moses, and in a private tent in the tabernacle, not among the elders, but among the common people;

²⁸ And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, “My lord Moses, forbid them!” — answered and said, my lord Moses, forbid them; prophesying, restrain them from it, suffer them not to go on in it; he would have him exert his authority as the chief magistrate;

— Eldad and Medad prophesying in the camp seemed to Joshua to be acting independently, and so establishing a separate center of authority.

²⁹ And Moses said unto him, “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!” — Moses said unto him, enviest thou for my sake? Lest his authority should be weakened, and his honour lessened, because they began not to prophesy in his presence, and at the tabernacle, and among the rest of the elders, and so seemed not to have received of the Spirit that was upon him, and to be independent of him;

³⁰ And Moses got him into the camp, he and the elders of Israel. — Moses returned with the elders into the camp, that is, from the tabernacle, which stood upon an open space in the midst of the camp, at some distance from the tents of the Levites and the rest of the tribes of Israel, which were pitched around it, so that whoever wished to go to it, had first of all to go out of his tent.

³¹ And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. — quails commonly fly low, and when wearied with a long flight might fly only about breast-high;

— on the other hand, the more obvious interpretation of the words is that the quails were spread over the ground, and covered it in some places to the height of two cubits.

³² And the people stood up all that day and all that night and all the next day, and they gathered the quails. He that gathered least gathered ten homers, and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp. — gathered least gathered ten homers; or so many ass loads, that the people did not gather for their present use only, but for a good while to come; which lasted probably a month;

³³ And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. — a very great plague; whether it was leanness sent into them, whereby the food was deprived of its nourishing power, which it hath only from God’s blessing;

— or surfeit, a punishment most suitable to their sin, and most likely to follow their intemperate desire and use of this food; and besides, they were before pressed with famine, now they had a plenty of manna every day; or the pestilence; it is not much material: but a great and sore plague unquestionably it was.

³⁴ And he called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah [that is, The graves of lust], because there they buried the people who lusted. — because there they buried the people that lusted; not all that lusted, for the lusting was pretty general; but all that died through their gluttony and intemperance, and the judgement of God on them;

³⁵ And the people journeyed from Kibrothhattaavah unto Hazeroth, and abode at Hazeroth.

Numbers 12

¹ And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman. — and Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses; Miriam appears to have been the leader as her name occurs before that of Aaron in this insurrection against Moses;

— because of the Ethiopian woman, whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman; perhaps a daughter of a king of Ethiopia before he fled from Pharaoh, as the Targum of Jonathan indicates; Moses was forty when he fled so he could have married a princess of Ethiopia by then;

² And they said, “Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Hath He not spoken also by us?” And the Lord heard it. — Aaron also received the revelation of God by Urim and Thummim and Miriam was expressly called a prophetess, Exodus 4:14 Exodus 15:20; she seems to have a legitimate claim that Moses had no monopoly of Divine communications;

³ (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men who were upon the face of the earth.) — now the man Moses was very meek; so that they might say anything against him, and he not be affronted, nor resent any injury;

⁴ And the Lord spoke suddenly unto Moses and unto Aaron and unto Miriam: “Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation.” And the three came out. — and the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam; as one greatly provoked, and highly displeased, and which was shown at once; and in order to prevent the complaint getting among the people, and spreading, which might have been of bad consequence;

⁵ And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forth. — in the door of the tabernacle, where they stood outside, not being admitted into the tabernacle, as Aaron used to be; which is noted as a sign of God’s displeasure.

⁶ And He 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 he speak unto him in a dream; as he had done to Jacob, Genesis 31:11, and as he did afterwards to Daniel, Daniel 7:1, and many others.

⁷ My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all Mine house. — My servant Moses is not so; because God speak to him mouth to mouth, even plainly, that is, he is a prophet of a higher rank as he faithfully delivered to them all the laws, statutes, and ordinances, which he appointed to be observed by them;

⁸ With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even plainly, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold. Why then were ye not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?” — Mouth to mouth; that is, in a most familiar manner, distinctly, and by an articulate voice, as one friend discourses with another,

— or as two friends in conversation hear and answer each other by turns. Moses enjoyed this singular privilege, which was to no other of the prophets, that God spoke to him constantly, and not by an interpreter, nor by visions and dreams, but by a distinct audible voice;

⁹ And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and He departed. — He departed; from the door of the tabernacle, in token of his great displeasure; not waiting for their answer.

¹⁰ And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle. And behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow; and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. — leprous, white as snow; that is, was leprous as snow when the disease covered the whole body, and the whole of the flesh had turned white;

¹¹ And Aaron said unto Moses, “Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly and wherein we have sinned. — lay not the sin; let not the guilt and punishment of this sin rest upon us, upon her in this kind, upon me in any other kind, but pray to God for the pardon and removal.

¹² Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed when he cometh out of his mother’s womb.” — as one dead; either naturally, because part of her flesh was putrefied and dead, and not to be restored but by the mighty power of God; or morally, because she was cut off from all converse with others;

¹³ And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, “Heal her now, O God, I beseech Thee.” — saying, heal her now, O God, I beseech thee; this prayer is a proof of his being of a meek, humble, and forgiving spirit.

¹⁴ And the Lord said unto Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again.” — spit in her face, that is, expressed some eminent token of indignation and contempt, which this was;

— seven days, the time appointed for cleansing the unclean, Numbers 6:9 31:19. But the Targum Jonathan says fourteen days, or a two series of seven days; (1) disgraced and secluded seven days, (2) tarry until the time that she is healed, and then re-admitted;

¹⁵ And Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days, and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again. — journeyed not; which was a testimony of respect to her both from God and from the people; God so ordering it, partly lest she should be overwhelmed by such a public rebuke from God, and partly lest, she being a prophetess, the gift of prophecy should come into contempt.

¹⁶ And afterward the people removed from Hazeroth and pitched camp in the Wilderness of Paran. — the people did not proceed any farther till the restoration of Miriam. After this they departed from Hazeroth, and encamped in the desert of Paran, namely at Kadesh, on the southern boundary of Canaan.

~ by Japheth on February 25, 2024.

Posted in Books of Moses