454

CHAPTER VI.

DEUT.X.1-XI.32.

625. D.x.1-5.

It

Great contradiction exists between the narrative here and that in the book of Exodus: in the words of KNOBEL, 'the writer here treats the older records with great freedom.' will be observed that in E.xxxiv.29 the two stone-tables with the Ten Commandments are in the hands of Moses, before any receptacle has been made in which to place them. Here, however, the Ark is commanded to be made, v.1, and is actually made, v.3, at the same time with the second set of tables, before Moses goes up into the mount to receive them. But the account in Exodus makes this impossible. Not only is there nothing said about the Ark in E.xxxiv.1, where he is commanded to make the tables; but it is only after coming down with the second set of tables that Moses, E.xxxv.10-12, summons the wisehearted' to come and make all that Jehovah hath commanded, the Tabernacle, and his tent, and his covering, &c., the Ark and the staves thereof with the Mercy-seat, &c.,' and afterwards, in E.xxxvii.1-9, we have the full account of Bezaleel making it. And yet the Ark of the Deuteronomist was not, as might be suggested, a mere temporary Ark; for he makes Moses say, v.5:'I turned myself, and came down from the Mount, and put the tables into the Ark which I had made, and there they be, as Jehovah commanded me.'

626. Upon this point Scort observes:—

6

'Probably, before Moses ascended the Mount the second time, he gave express orders to Bezaleel to get the Ark ready against he came down; and, having directed

and ordered the making of it, he speaks as if he had made it; as Solomon is said to have builded the Temple, which he caused to be builded by the hands of others.'

Ans. Of course, there is no difficulty in supposing that, what Moses ordered to be made, he may be said to have made himself. The difficulty is that, according to the story in Exodus, the orders were plainly given, xxxv.10, and executed, xxxvii.1-9, after Moses came down from the mount with the second set of tables, which involves a direct contradiction to the account in Deuteronomy.

Some, however, think that Moses prepared the Ark himself, as made of shittimwood, and carried it up with the tables into the mount, and that Bezaleel afterwards covered it with gold.'

Ans. But the text of E.xxxvii.1,2, will not allow of this-Bezaleel made the Ark of shittim-wood: two cubits and a half was the length of it, and a cubit and a half the breadth of it, and a cubit and a half the height of it. And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, &c.'

627. But may we not have here also a sign of time? We have already noticed the fact (548.xiii) that the Tabernacle, which is so constantly mentioned in the middle three books of the Pentateuch, is never once named by the Deuteronomist under either of its designations, yp, mishkan, Tyin bņš, ohel mohed. May not this, perhaps, have arisen from the fact that he was living in a later age, when David's Tabernacle had long passed away out of the sight and memory of men, and the writer, consequently, did not recognise its existence to himself so vividly, as he did that of the Ark, which he mentions in x.1,2,3,5,8, xxxi.9,25,26, and which was actually present, in his own days, in the Holy Place of the Temple? On the other hand, the earlier writer, living, as we suppose, in the later days of David, or the beginning of Solomon's reign, would have had the Tabernacle on Mount Zion before him, as his help in realising the idea of the Tent in the wilderness.

628. D.x.6,7.

'And the children of Israel took their journey from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan to Mosera; there Aaron died, and there he was buried; and Eleazar his son ministered in the Priest's office in his stead. From thence they journeyed unto Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbath, a land of rivers of waters.'

This passage is evidently quite out of its place, and, as here introduced, it involves a complete contradiction. For the death of Aaron is here described as happening before the separation of the Levites, v.8,9,- at that time Jehovah separated the tribe of Levi, &c.,' which took place, according to the older story, in his life-time, N.iii.5,6,9,

'And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the Priest, that they may minister unto him.... And thou shalt give the Levites unto Aaron and to all his sons; they are wholly given unto him out of the children of Israel . . . . And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of the firstborn that openeth the matrix among the children of Israel; therefore the Levites shall be mine.'

Nor can the difficulty be relieved by understanding the expression at that time' in a general sense, as equivalent to ' about that time;' for the death of Aaron took place in the fortieth year of the wanderings, N.xxxiii.38, and the separation of the Levites in the second, N.i.1.

629. It is possible that D.x.6,7, may be a fragment of the older record. But, even then, it is at variance with N.xxxiii. 31-33, where the order of march is given from Moseroth to Bene-jaakan; whereas here we have just the opposite, from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan (Bene-jaakan) to Mosera (Moseroth). Again, we are here told that, Aaron died at Mosera; whereas in N.xxxiii.31-38 we read that they marched from Moseroth to Bene-jaakan, thence to Hor-hagidgad (Gudgodah), thence to Jotbathah (Jotbath), and three stations afterwards they reach Kadesh, and thence proceed to Mount Hor, where Aaron died.

SCHULTZ, Deut.p.362, explains the matter as follows:

Mosera was the station whence Moses, Aaron, and Eleazar ascended Mount Hor, N.xx.27, and Bene-Jaakan was a place in the district of Kadesh; so that 'Moseroth to Bene-Jaakan,' N.xxxiii. 31,='Mount Hor to Kadesh'; and we have these same names in reverse order on the return march in N.xxxiii.37, D.x.6, 'Kadesh to Mount Hor.

Ans. But we have 'Gudgodah to Jotbath,' D.x.7, in direct order, as in N.xxxiii.33, whereas these names also ought to have been in reverse order.

SCOTT observes on this passage, D.x.6,7:

These verses so break in upon the connexion of Moses's discourse, that they perplex commentators. It is evident that Moses did not much regard exactness of method in his discourse. Yet, perhaps, by some means a transposition has taken place; for these verses would come in more regularly after v.11. . . . Several of the places mentioned seem to have had more names than one; and some particulars, which for want of further information we cannot reconcile with other accounts, might be perfectly intelligible to the Israelites.

630. D.x.8,9.

...

'At that time Jehovah separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah, to stand before Jehovah to minister unto Him, and to bless in His Name, unto this day. Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren; Jehovah is his inheritance, according as Jehovah thy God promised him.'

It was the duty of the 'sons of Kohath,'—not of the Levites generally, to bear the Ark, N.iv.15.

But the duty of 'blessing in the name of Jehovah' is expressly assigned to the Priests, Aaron and his sons,' in N.vi.22-27, and is, accordingly, performed by Aaron, in L.ix.22. So, too, 'the Priests, the sons of Aaron,' were to stand before Jehovah to minister unto Him, whereas the Levites were to be presented (Heb. 'made to stand') before Aaron the Priest, that they may minister unto him, N.iii.6, or to stand before the congregation, to minister unto them, N.xvi.9, xviii.2.

And so, too, we read, xviii. 6-8,

'And, if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel where he sojourned, and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which Jehovah shall choose, then he shall minister in the Name of Jehovah his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there before Jehovah. They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony.'

This agrees with what we have already observed of the Deuteronomist, that he knows nothing whatever of that very sharp distinction between Priests and Levites, which the books of Leviticus and Numbers exhibit throughout, and which Jehovah himself is supposed to have made only a few months previously in N.xviii; but he calls the former always sons of

Levi' and never, as the other writers do, sons of Aaron.'

Hence he says:-
:--

'For Jehovah thy God hath chosen him (Levi) out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of Jehovaḥ, him and his sons for ever,' xviii.5 ;

'And the Priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near; for them Jehovah thy God hath chosen, to minister unto Him and to bless in the Name of Jehovah,' xxi.5.

631. So in N.xviii.20 the declaration, 'I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel,' is made only with reference to Aaron and his sons; and so in N.xxxi.28,29, 'Jehovah's tribute' of the spoil of the Midianites was given to Eleazar the Priest; while the Levites received their share from the children of Israel,' v.30. But here it is said, 'Jehovah is the inheritance' of Levi, generally; see also xviii.2.

Here also, and in xxxi.25, the Levites are to carry the Ark, which agrees, as we have said, in some sense, with the command in N.iv.15, and the practice in N.x.21; but in xxxi.9 we read of the Priests, the sons of Levi, the bearers of the Ark.' So in 1K.viii.3 'the Priests took up the Ark;' and, if it be said that this was a grand occasion at the dedication of the Temple, on which they might be expected to depart from the ordinary custom, and discharge themselves the duty of the inferior order, yet in 1K.ii.26 Solomon says to the Priest Abiathar, 'I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou barest the Ark of Jehovah Elohim before David my father.'

And so the Levites are to utter the curses, xxvii.14, and to put the Book of the Law 'beside (73, mitsad, E.V. 'in the side of') the Ark,' xxxi.25; whereas, according to N.iv.15, the Levites were not even to come near to carry the Ark, till the Priests had covered it; and Aaron was expressly ordered to keep them from touching the holy vessels, N.xviii.3:—

'Only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the Sanctuary and the Altar, that neither they, nor ye also, die.'

* 632. D.x.9.

"Wherefore Levi had no ("?

No5, lo hayah leLevi, lit. 'there was not to

Levi') part nor inheritance with his brethren.'