Numbers 1:1
In the wilderness — Where now they had been a full year or near it, as may be gathered by comparing this place with Exodus 19:1, Exodus 40:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
In the wilderness — Where now they had been a full year or near it, as may be gathered by comparing this place with Exodus 19:1, Exodus 40:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
Take the sum — This is not the same muster with that Exodus 38:26, as plainly appears, because that was before the building of the tabernacle, which was built and set up on the first day of the first month, Exodus 40:2, but this was after it, on the first day of the second month. And they were for d... [ Continue Reading ]
Reuben — The tribes are here numbered according to the order or quality of their birth, first the children of Leah, then of Rachel, and then of the handmaids.... [ Continue Reading ]
Deuel — Called Reuel, Numbers 3:14, the Hebrew letters Daleth and Resh being often changed.... [ Continue Reading ]
He numbered them — For ought that appears in one day.... [ Continue Reading ]
By their generations — That is, the persons begotten of Reuben's immediate children, who are here subdivided into families, and they into houses, and they into particular persons.... [ Continue Reading ]
Threescore and fourteen thousand — Far more than any other tribe, in accomplishing Jacob's prophecy, Genesis 49:8.... [ Continue Reading ]
Ephraim — Above 8000 more than Manasseh, towards the accomplishment of that promise, Genesis 48:20, which the devil in vain attempted to defeat by stirring up the men of Gath against them, 1 Chronicles 7:21.... [ Continue Reading ]
Thirty five thousand — The smallest number, except one, though Benjamin had more immediate children than any of his brethren, Genesis 46:21, whereas Dan had but one immediate son, Genesis 46:23, yet now his number is the biggest but one of all the tribes, and is almost double to that of Benjamin. Su... [ Continue Reading ]
Levi — Because they were not generally to go out to war, which was the thing principally eyed in this muster, Numbers 1:3, Numbers 1:20, Numbers 1:45, but were to attend upon the service of the tabernacle. They that minister upon holy things, should not entangle themselves in secular affairs. The mi... [ Continue Reading ]
The tabernacle of testimony — So called here, and Exodus 38:21, because it was made chiefly for the sake of the ark of the testimony, which is often called the testimony.... [ Continue Reading ]
That cometh nigh — The stranger elsewhere is one of another nation, here one of another tribe. So as to do the offices mentioned, Numbers 1:50.... [ Continue Reading ]
No wrath — From God, who is very tender of his worship, and will not suffer the profaners of it go unpunished! whose wrath is called simply wrath by way of eminency, as the most terrible kind of wrath.... [ Continue Reading ]