being accompanied with an anathema or execration, by the devotee, either on himself or others, if that was not done which he declared. We are most familiar with the operation of this bann in the case of cities and persons being, in time of war, devoted to utter destruction; and it is thought by many, that the 29th verse alludes to such persons devoted solemnly to death. Others, however, understand that remarkable passage to mean no more than that persons devoted by the cherem to the service of the sanctuary were to remain till death in that condition, without being redeemed. It is certain that nothing could, as in the former class of vows, be redeemed that was placed under the operation of the cherem, but it is difficult to ascertain how persons were in all cases affected by it. We are inclined to combine both alternatives, and to say, that persons were either put to death, or else inalienably consecrated to the service of the sanctuary, according to the specific object of the vow. Perhaps the obscurity of this law arises from its allusions to consuetudinary practices, which were well known at the time, but of which we are ignorant. It is to be observed that Moses does not enjoin the vow to which this chapter relates, but only regulates the consequences of the act, or rather, perhaps, assigns certain consequences to it.

32. "Whatsoever passeth under the rod."-This is understood to be an allusion to the process which, according to the Jewish writers, was followed in taking the tithe. The cattle were placed in an enclosure, with a narrow entrance, through which one only could pass at a time. At this entrance, on the outside, stood a man with a rod marked with ochre, or other colouring matter; and as the animals passed out one by one, he counted them, and let his 10d fall on every tenth without distinction; and whatever animal bore the mark thus impressed was taken for the tithe, whether it were male or female, sound or unsound.

THE FOURTH BOOK OF MOSES,

CALLED

NUMBERS.

11 Of Benjamin; Abidan the son of Gi- forth to war; deoni.

25 Those that were numbered of them, Exod, 30. 12.

even of the tribe of Gad, were forty and five and upward, all that were able to go forth thousand six hundred and fifty.

every man by his own standard, throughout their hosts.

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.

53 But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the NUMBERS.-The Jews generally call this book 17", va-yedabbér, "and he spake;" from the first word of the original; but there are some who rather call it, be-midbar, “in the desert," which is the fifth word of the first verse, and which appears to have been selected as descriptive of the contents of the book, which relates parts of the history of the sojourning of the Israelites in the wilderness. The Septuagint calls it APIOMOI, after which the Vulgate calls it NUMERI, and our own version, NUMBERS, being the first instance in which the title of a book is translated. It derives this name from the accounts of a census being found at the commencement and towards the conclusion (ch. xxvi). The period embraced in this book extends from the early part of the second year after the exodus to the beginning of the eleventh month of the fortieth year after that event; it therefore comprehends a period of thirty-eight years and nine or ten months. The events recorded, however, seem chiefly to have taken place towards the beginning and the end of this period. The Israelites still remain at Sinai till ch. x. I1, where it is mentioned that on the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, they were directed to remove and advance towards the Promised Land. They proceed as far as Kadesh on its borders, where we find them in ch. xiii. 26, and where, on account of gross rebellion, the nation was sentenced to wander in the desert for forty years, till the existing generation should have died away (ch. xiv). It is impossible to determine at what part of this period the laws were given and the transactions occurred which are recorded in the ensuing chapters, till ch. xx., when, towards the end of the period, we find the Israelites again at Kadesh, taking measures to enter Canaan. The rest of the book relates the transactions in their retrogressive march from Kadesh to the Promised Land, on the borders of which, "in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho," the book leaves them at its close.

Verse 2. "Take ye the sum of all the congregation."-This is the earliest census on record; but we have no reason to conclude that it was the first. We have no distinct information concerning the Egyptian usage in this respect; but it appears manifest that the Israelites while in Egypt had been accustomed to enumerations of the population, and that they had themselves been previously enumerated, but whether by themselves or by their Egyptian tyrants, it is impossible to say. Thus we find that, at the time of the exodus, the number of the males above twenty years of age was well known (Exod. xii. 37). We would not indeed rest the point on this alone, as the statement may be thought to have been derived from subsequent enumeration; but it is of importance, when considered in connection with the circumstance that the first time when a census is distinctly mentioned (Exod. xxx. 12), it is not enjoined as a new thing; but it is pre-supposed, as a matter of course, that Moses would number the people. But if the Israelites were then acquainted with the practice of periodical or occasional enumeration, they must have learnt it in Egypt; for a census is certainly not a practice of wandering shepherds, or one of which, untaught, they would have been even likely to think. It is however interesting to find this important measure of national policy in use at this early time, particularly when we recollect that it is of comparatively recent adoption in modern Europe. It was only in the course of the last century that the attention of governments began to be turned to the subject; and then attempts to obtain an accurate census were attended with great difficulty, and were in many instances perfectly fruitless. It is difficult to determine at what intervals the Hebrew census were made. Four or five are mentioned in the Old Testament, but they are all at very unequal periods; and judging from this we might suppose they were occasional only. But the later Jews thought the enumeration was intended to be annual, a construction inculcated for the purpose of making annual the poll tax of half a shekel mentioned in Exod. xxx. 12. This tax is not, in Scripture, mentioned in connection with any other census; and we are of opinion that it was only a temporary measure to raise funds for the making of the tabernacle. The later Jews however exacted the tax, without making the enumeration on which it should have been founded. There was the poll-tax, but not the census; even those who contended for the annual census, allowed they had no such census, or indeed any census at all, except so far as that the amount of the tax formed a datum on which a calculation might have been founded as to the number of the people. An annual census would indeed have been quite unnecessary and scarcely practicable. On this ground we may doubt whether the enumeration in Exod. xxxviii. 26, is the result of a different census from that now before us. A census must always occupy some time in making, and yet we find an interval of only a few months between the two periods; and if we suppose them different, it is impossible to conceive why a second enumeration should so immediately follow the first. Besides the amount stated in both instances is the same, namely 603,550-an identity of numbers scarcely possible even in the interval of a few months, had the enumerations been different. We therefore think that the census is the same: it was completed doubtless in time to make the poll-tax available for the works of the tabernacle, and the result is stated incidentally in Exod. xxxviii., in connection with the amount; while here we have a more particular account of the same enumeration in order to show the relative strength of the different tribes. The second census took place, apparently, about thirtyeight years subsequent, on the borders of Canaan, in the next generation; from which, if we are at liberty to infer any thing, we may suppose it was the intention of Moses that there should be a census in every generation. It is, however, doubtful whether the enumeration of the people ever was, or was intended to be, periodical. It is easy to discover a distinct object in every enumeration which the Scripture mentions. It will of course be observed that the enumeration only extends to males above twenty years of age, and could not therefore be useful for all the purposes to which national enumerations, in conjunction with tables of births and burials, are now applied. Still such an enumeration of adult males was highly important, as affording a safe criterion by which the increase or decrease of the national strength and population might be estimated. It would be interesting to know in what manner the census was taken. The modern usages of the East afford no analogy; as, except in China and Japan, no enumerations of population are ever made or even thought of. The population of towns is not known even to those to whom that knowledge would seem of importance. The want of at least an occasional census causes the most loose ideas on every subject relating to population. We have heard old men, of average intelligence, declare, in all sincerity, their belief that towns, in which they have lived for years, contained a million inhabitants, when they could not really have contained more than from fifty to eighty thousand. When a person in authority really wishes to form some idea of the population of a town, it is formed either by a rough calculation as to the number of houses multiplied by the supposed average number of inhabitants to each house, or else by an account deduced from the consumption of a particular article of food. Thus,

when Mr. Morier wished to ascertain the population of the city of Ispahan in Persia, the following process was adopted: A small duty is paid to the local government on every sheep killed by the butchers, and the daily amount of this duty being ascertained, the number of sheep slaughtered became known. It then remained to be guessed how many inhabitants one sheep would serve. The proportion assumed was 300 to one sheep, and this being multiplied by the total number of sheep consumed (175), afforded the amount of population. The defects of such a process we need not point out; and yet we find the Jews having recourse to a very similar method at a time when they had for many centuries ceased to have regular enumerations, such as that now before us. Josephus relates that the prefect Cestius, being desirous of impressing Nero with a more proper idea of the importance of the Jewish nation than he was known to entertain, applied to the priests to know whether they possessed any means by which the number might be ascertained. As the Passover was approaching, when all the adult males were to appear at Jerusalem, they proposed to number the lambs sacrificed on that occasion, and to make the number slain a datum for a calculation of the population; for that sacrifice might not be eaten alone, and it was known that not less than ten persons partook of each lamb. It was accordingly found that the lambs sacrificed amounted to 256,500, which they multiplied by ten to obtain the required answer, which therefore must have been 2,565,000, although Josephus, whose numbers are perhaps corrupted, says 2,700,200. The defects of this calculation as an estimate of the adult male population are palpable. Only persons ceremonially clean could eat of the passover; many individuals were probably absent; and Josephus himself allows that the number who partook together of one lamb, was often not less than twenty; and indeed we know that thirteen were present at the passover which Jesus ate with his disciples.

16. "Princes of the tribes of their fathers."-There are several expressions in this chapter which afford us considerable insight into the early national constitution of the Hebrews. Its forms were precisely those which we find to prevail, with slight modifications, in all nomade nations, and which all the tribes descending from Abraham followed, and which subsist among some of them (the Arabians, for instance) to this day. They were, as is well known, divided into twelve great tribes, all having one common ancestor, and yet each having a distinct ancestor of its own-after whom it took its name, its members being called Beni-Reuben, Beni-Levi, &c. “sons of Reuben, sons of Levi ;" or the nation, collectively, from the common ancestor, Beni-Israel," sons of Israel,”- -a principle of denomination which the Arabs exhibit to this day, calling their tribes Beni-Lam, Beni-Shammar, &c. Each tribe had its emir, sheikh, or chief, called here "prince of his tribe ;" and the names of the whole twelve are here given to us. They were not appointed by Moses, but their existence and authority are here recognized as already established in their respective tribes, and probably represented the authority which the patriarch of the tribe transmitted in the eldest branch of his family. This organization appears to have been carried down into Egypt, and to have subsisted there; and we probably shall not err in identifying these chiefs of tribes with the "elders" to whom Moses in the first instance communicated his mission when he arrived in Egypt (Exod. iv. 29). The great tribes were again subdivided into certain large divisions called UD (mishpachoth), and into smaller called (balti aboth), all having their heads or chiefs, who are probably the same persons called "elders" in Deut. xix. 12, and xxi. 1-9; Josh. xxiii. and xxiv; and elsewhere. On what principle these inferior heads were nominated we do not know; but as there is much apparent resemblance between this constitution and that which we find to prevail among the nomade tribes (Eelauts) of Persia, perhaps their usages on this point may throw light on those of the Hebrews. Each tribe has its hereditary chief or khan, whose influence in it is very great; and inviolable attachment to whom, under all circumstances, is regarded equally as a duty and a virtue. The people regard him as their only lawful leader, and can seldom be brought to obey any other person, although they are nominally subject to the king of the country. As it would be inconvenient, if not impossible, for a whole tribe to keep together while pasturing its flocks, it is divided into several branches, each of which encamps and wanders by itself. These branches have at their head inferior chiefs, called, as among the Hebrews, "elders." Their dignity is hereditary, like that of the chief, to whom they are more or less nearly related; and they form the officers of the tribe in time of war, and its magistrates in time of peace. In the latter capacity it is their general endeavour to preserve the harmony of the tribe by effecting an accommodation of the differences which arise within it. Small matters are settled by the head of the branch in which the case arises; but affairs of somewhat more consequence, or which the elder cannot settle, are referred to the chief, or, in his absence, to his deputy, who is always one of the elders. When, however, a matter of some importance is in question, a council of the elders is called, and the result is determined by a majority of voices. The parallel may not perhaps be thought to hold good in the case of magisterial functions; but it seems to us very probable that the chief of the magistrates whom Moses appointed, at the suggestion of Jethro, were those heads of tribes and subdivisions to whom the people were accustomed to look up with respect and confidence. The tribes still continued to have their own chiefs even under the kings-at least in the early periods of the monarchy. A list of such chiefs, referring to the time of David, is given in 1 Chron. xxvii. 16-22; and they probably subsisted, at least in name, until the captivity. Their authority and influence in their respective tribes, while still possessed in any considerable degree, must have proved a strong restraint upon the power of the monarchs.

CHAPTER II.

The order of the tribes in their tents.

AND the LORD spake unto Moses and unto
Aaron, saying,

2 Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of their father's house: 'far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch.

3 And on the east side toward the rising of the sun shall they of the standard of the

camp of Judah pitch throughout their armies and Nahshon the son of Amminadab shall be captain of the children of Judah.

4 And his host, and those that were numbered of them, were threescore and fourteen thousand and six hundred.

5 And those that do pitch next unto him shall be the tribe of Issachar: and Nethaneel the son of Zuar shall be captain of the children of Issachar.

6 And his host, and those that were num

1 Heb. over against.