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Moses smites the rock,

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selves together against Moses | gregation together before the rock,

An. Exod. Isr. and against Aaron.

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3 And the people chode with Moses, and spake, saying, Would God that we had died when our brethren died before the LORD!

4 And why have ye brought up the congregation of the LORD into this wilderness, that we and our cattle should die there?

5 And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.

6 And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they fell upon their faces: and the glory of the LORD appeared unto them.

7 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and 1 thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.

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now, ye rebels; must we fetch
you water out of this rock?

11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.

12 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because Pye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.

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9 And Moses took the rod from before the thy border: LORD, as he commanded him."

10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the con

e Exod. xvii. 2; chapter xiv. 2.- Chap. xi. 1, 33; xiv. 37; xvi. 32, 35, 49.-- Exod. xvii. 3. Ch. xiv. 5; xvi. 4, 22, 45. Li Ch. xiv. 10.—k Exod. xvii. 5. Neh. ix. 15; Psa. lxxviii. 15, 16; cv. 41; cxiv. 8; Isaiah xliii. 20; xlviii. 21. Chap. xvii. 10. Psa. cvi. 33. o Exodus xvii. 6; Deut. viii. 15; 1 Cor. x. 4.-P Chap. xxvii. 14; Deut. i. 37; iii. 26; xxxii. 51. - Lev. x. 3; Ezek. xx. 41 ; xxxvi. 23; xxxviii. 16;

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17 Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, 1 Peter iii. 15. That is, strife; "Deut. ii. 4, &c.; Exod. xviii. 8.

Deut. xxxiii. 8; Psa. xcv. 8; cvi. 32, &c. see Exodus xvii. 7. Judg. xi. 16, 17. xxiii. 7; Obad. x. 12. Heb. found us; Gen. xlvi. 6; Acts vii. 15.x Exod. xii. 40.- -y Exod. i. 11, &c.; Deut. xxvi. 6; Acts vii. 19.- Exod.. ii. 23; iii, 7.- Exod. iii. 2; xiv. 19; xxiii. 20; xxxiii. 2. See chap. xxí. 22; Deut. ii. 27.

tion] The same occurrence took place to the children wrought, but took the honour to himself and Aaron : of Israel at Kadesh, as did formerly to their fathers" Must we fetch you water out of this rock?" Thus at Rephidim, see Exod. xvii. 1; and as the fathers murmured, so also did the children.

it plainly appears that they did not properly believe in God, and did not honour him in the sight of the people; for in their presence they seem to express a doubt whether the thing could be possibly done. As Aaron appears to have been consenting in the above particulars, therefore he is also excluded from the promised land.

Verse 14. Sent messengers-unto the king of Edom] Archbishop Usher supposes that the king now reigning in Edom was Hadar, mentioned Gen, xxxvi. 39.

Verse 12. Because ye believed me not] What was the offence for which Moses was excluded from the promised land? It appears to have consisted in some or all of the following particulars: 1. God had commanded him (ver. 8) to take the rod in his hand, and go and SPEAK TO THE ROCK, and it should give forth water. It seems Moses did not think speaking would be sufficient, therefore he smote the rock without any command so to do. 2. He did this twice, which certainly in this case indicated a great perturbation of spirit, and want of attention to the presence of God. 3. He permitted his spirit to be carried away by a sense of the people's disobedience, and thus, being pro- Verse 17. We will go by the king's high-way] This voked, he was led to speak unadvisedly with his lips: is the first time this phrase occurs; it appears to have Hear now, ye REBELS, ver. 10. 4. He did not acknow-been a public road made by the king's authority at the ledge GOD in the miracle which was about to be expense of the state.

Thus saith thy brother Israel] The Edomites were the descendants of Edom or Esau, the brother of Jacob or Israel, from whom the Israelites were descended.

Eleazar to succeed Aaron, who

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or through the vineyards, neither | Aaron in Mount Hor, by the coast will we drink of the water of the of the land of Edom, saying, wells we will go by the king's 24 Aaron shall be gathered high-way, we will not turn to the right hand unto his people: for he shall not enter into nor to the left, until we have passed thy the land which I-have given unto the children borders. of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah.

18 And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword,

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19 And the children of Israel said unto him, We will go by the high-way: and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it I will only, without doing any thing else, go through on my feet.

20 And he said, a Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand.

21 Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border; wherefore Israel turned away from him,

22 And the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, journeyed from Kadesh, hand came unto Mount Hor,

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25 m Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up unto Mount Hor:

26 And strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die thefe.

27 And Moses did as the LORD commanded: and they went up into Mount Hor, in the sight of all the congregation.

28 And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son ; and Aaron died there in the top of the mount: and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mount.

29 And when all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they mourned for Aaron

23 And the LORD spake unto Moses and thirty days, even all the house of Israel.

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felicity at which God's promises to the Israelites aimed, since the best men among them were excluded from it."

Verse 21. Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border] Though every king has a right to refuse passage through his territories to any strangers; yet in a case like this, and in a time also THE remark of some of the fathers here is worthy in which emigrations were frequent and universally of attention: "Neither Moses the representative of the allowed, it was both cruelty and oppression in Edom law, nor Miriam the representative of the prophets, to refuse a passage to a comparatively unarmed and nor Aaron the representative of the priesthood and its inoffensive multitude, who were all their own near sacrificial rites, could bring the Israelites into poskinsmen. It appears however that it was only the session of the promised land. This was reserved for Edomites of Kadesh that were thus unfriendly and Joshua, who was in name and conduct the lively type cruel; for from Deut. ii. 29 we learn that the Edom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." He alone iles who dwelt in Mount Seir treated them in a hos-can bring those who believe in his name into that rest pitable manner. This cruelty in the Edomites of which remains for the people of God. Kadesh is strongly reprehended, and threatened by the Prophet Obadiah, ver. 10, &c.

Verse 26. Strip Aaron of his garments] This was, in effect, depriving him of his office; and putting the

There are some observations made by Dr. Lightfoot on this and some of the preceding chapters which should be more generally known.

"The place where the people murmured upon the

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office to him. A transfer of office, from this circum- xxxii. 8; Deut. i. 19. This place was called Rithmah stance of putting the clothes of the late possessor on before, (chap. xxxiii. 18, compared with chap. xii. 16, the person intended to succeed him, was called invest- and xiii. 26,) and was so called probably from the ing or investment, (clothing;) as removing a person juniper trees that grew there; but is now named Kafrom an office was termed divesting or unclothing.desh, because the Lord was there sanctified upon the Among the Catholics, and in the Church of England, people, as chap. xx. 13; and Barnea, or the wanderthis same method is used in degrading ecclesiastics.ing son, because here was the decree made of their Hence such a degradation is termed by the common long wandering in the wilderness. They continued people stripping a man of his gown.

Verse 28. And Aaron died there] Hence, as Dr. Lightfoot has justly observed, we have an "indisputable proof that the earthly Canaan was not the utmost

a good space at Kadesh before they removed; for so said Moses, Ye abode in Kadesh many days; or as the Hebrew, According to the days that ye had made abode, namely, at Sinai, ver. 6. And so they spent ·

Arad fights against Israel,

CHAP. XXI.

but is devoted to destruction.

one whole year there, for so they had done at Sinai, | cah, to Hashmonah, to Moseroth, to Benejaakan, to And whereas God commands them at their murmuring Horhagidgad, to Jotbathah, to Ebronah, to Ezionto turn back to the Red Sea, (Deut. i. 40,) his mean- Gaber, to Kadesh again, in the fortieth year. And ing was, that at their next march, whensoever it was, though it was only eleven days' journey from Horeb, by they should not go forward unto Canaan, but back the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-Barnea, (Deut. i. 2,) again towards the Red Sea, whence they came; (but they made it above thrice eleven years' journey!" Had see on Deut. i. 1.) And they did so, for they wan- they trusted in God, and obeyed him, their enemies dered by many stations and marches from Kadesh-long ere this would have been discomfited, and themBarnea till they came to Kadesh-Barnea again, seven or eight and thirty years after they had first left it. These marches, mentioned in chap. xxxiii., were these: From Kadesh or Rithmah to Rimmon Parez, to Libnah, to Rissah, to Kehelathah, to Mount Shapher, to Haradah, to Makheloth, to Tahath, to Tarah, to Mith

selves quietly established in possession of the promised inheritance. But they grieved the Spirit of God, and did not believe his promise; and it would have been inconsistent with the whole economy of grace to have introduced unbelievers into that rest which was a type of the kingdom of God.

CHAPTER XXI.

Arad, a king of the Canaanites, attacks Israel, and makes some prisoners, 1. They devote him and his people to destruction, 2; which they afterwards accomplished, 3. They journey from Hor, and are greatly discouraged, 4. They murmur against God and Moses, and loathe the manna, 5. The Lord sends fiery serpents among them, 6. They repent, and beg Moses to intercede for them, 7. The Lord directs him to make a brazen serpent, and set it on a pole, that the people might look on it and be healed, 8. Moses does so, and the people who beheld the brazen serpent lived, 9. They journey to Oboth, Ije-abarim, Zared, and Arnon, 10-13. A quotation from the book of the wars of the Lord, 14, 15. From Arnon they come to Beer, 16. Their song of triumph, 17–20. Moses sends messengers to the Amorites for permission to pass through their land, 21, 22. Sihon their king refuses, attacks Israel, is defeated, and all his cities destroyed, 23-26. The poetic proverbs made on the occasion, 27-30. Israel possesses the land of the Amorites, 31, 32. They are attacked by Og king of Bashan, 33. They defeat him, destroy his troops and family, and possess his land, 34, 35.

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AND when King Arad the they utterly destroyed them and Canaanite, which dwelt in their cities: and he called the the south, heard tell that Israel name of the place Hormah. came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners.

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2 And Israel vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.

3 And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites: and

a Chap. xxxiii. 40; see Judg. i, 16.- b Chap. xiii. 21. Gen. xxviii. 20; Judg. xi. 30.-d Lev. xxvii. 28.- - That is, utter destruction.

atharim.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXI. Verse 1. The way of the spies] Some think that this signifies the way that the spies took when they went to search the land. But this is impossible, as Dr. Kennicott justly remarks, because Israel had now marched from Meribah-Kadesh to Mount Hor, beyond Ezion-Gaber, and were turning round Edom to the south-east; and therefore the word is to be understood here as the name of a place.

Verse 3. The Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel] The whole of this verse appears to me to have been added after the days of Joshua. It is certain the Canaanites were not utterly destroyed at the time here

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4 And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged i because of the way.

5 And the people * spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any wa ter, and m our soul loatheth this light bread.

Chap. xx. 22; xxxiii. 41.- - Judg. xi. 18.- h Or, grieved Heb. shortened; Exod. vi. 9.- Psa. lxxviii. 19.- Exod xvi. 3; xvii. 3,- m Chap. xi. 6. spoken of, for this did not take place till after the death of Moses. If, instead of utterly destroyed them,

" vaiyacharem, we translate they devoted them to utter destruction, it will make a good sense, and not repugnant to the Hebrew; though some think it more probable that the verse was added afterwards by Joshua or Ezra, in testimony of the fulfilment of God's promise; for Arad, who is mentioned as being destroyed here, is mentioned among those destroyed by Joshua long after, (see Josh. xii. 14 :) but this is quite consistent with their being devoted to destruction, as this might be fulfilled any time after. See the note on Lev. xxvii.

Verse 5. This light bread.] php hakkelokel, a

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6 And the LORD sent fiery | us. An. Exod. Isr. serpents among the people, and people. they bit the people; and much

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7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for a we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee: pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from n Wisd. xvi. 1, 5; 1 Cor. x. 9.- o Deut. viii. 15.- -P Psa. - Ver. 5.

lxxviii. 34. word of excessive scorn; as if they had said, This innutritive, unsubstantial, cheat-stomach stuff.

Verse 6. Fiery serpents] D'D D`n hannechashim hasseraphim. I have observed before, on Gen. iii., that it is difficult to assign a name to the creature termed' in Hebrew nachash; it has different significations, but its meaning here and in Gen. iii. is most difficult to be ascertained. Seraphim is one of the orders of angelic beings, Isa. vi. 2, 6; but as it comes from the root saraph, which signifies to burn, it has been translated fiery in the text. It is likely that St. Paul alludes to the seraphim, Heb. i. 7: Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a FLAME of FIRE. The animals mentioned here by Moses may have been called fiery because of the heat, violent inflammation, and thirst, occasioned by their bite; and consequently, if serpents, they were of the prester or dipsas species, whose bite, especially that of the former, occasioned a violent inflammation through the whole body, and a fiery appearance of the countenance. The poet Lucan has well expressed this terrible effect of the bite of the prester, and also of the dipsas, in the ninth book of his Pharsalia, which, for the sake of those who may not have the work at hand, I shall here insert.

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8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.

9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and

Exod. viii. 8, 28; 1 Sam. xii. 19; 1 Kings xiii. 6; Acts viii. 24. - 2 Kings xviii. 4; John iii. 14, 15.

No kindly floods of moisture bathe his tongue,
But cleaving to the parched roof it hung;
No trickling drops distil, no dewy sweat,
To ease his weary limbs, and cool the raging heat.
Rowe.

The effects of the bite of the prester are not less terrible :

"Nasidium Marsi cultorem torridus agri
Percussit prester: illi rubor igneus ora
Succendit, tenditque cutem, pereunte figura,
Miscens cuncta tumor toto jam corpore major:
Humanumque egressa modum super omnia membra
Efflatur sanies, late tollente veneno."

A fate of different kind Nasidius found,
A burning prester gave the deadly wound;
And straight, a sudden flume began to spread,
And paint his visage with a glowing red.
With swift expansion swells the bloated skin,
Naught but an undistinguished mass is seen;
While the fair human form lies lost within.
The puffy poison spreads, and heaves around,
Till all the man is in the monster drowned.

Rowe.

Of the mortal effects of the bite of the dipsas in the -Bochart supposes that the hydrus or chersydrus is deserts of Libya he gives the following description:-meant; a serpent that lives in marshy places, the bite "Signiferum juvenem Tyrrheni sanguinis Aulum

Torta caput retro dipsas calcata momordit. ·
Vix dolor aut sensus dentis fuit: ipsaque læti
Frons caret invidia: nec quidquam plaga minatur.
Ecce subit virus tacitum, carpitque medullas.
Ignis edax, calidaque incendit viscera tabe.
Ebibit humorem circum vitalia fusum
Pestis, et in sicco linguam torrere palato
Capit: defessos iret qui sudor in artus

Non fuit, atque oculos lacrymarum vena refugit."

Aulus, a noble youth of Tyrrhene blood,
Who bore the standard, on a dipsas trod;
Backward the wrathful serpent bent her head,
And, fell with rage, the unheeded wrong repaid,
Scarce did some little mark of hurt remain,
And scarce he found some little sense of pain,
Nor could he yet the danger doubt, nor fear
That death with all its terrors threatened there.
When lo! unseen, the secret venom spreads,
And every nobler part at once invades ;
Swift flames consume the marrow and the brain,
And the scorched entrails rage with burning pain;
Upon his heart the thirsty poisons prey,
And drain the sacred juice of life away.

of which produces the most terrible inflammations, burning heat, fetid vomitings, and a putrid solution of the whole body. See his works, vol. iii., col. 421. It is more likely to have been a serpent of the prester or dipsas kind, as the wilderness through which the Israelites passed did neither afford rivers nor marshes, though Bochart endeavours to prove that there might have been marshes in that part; but his arguments have very little weight. Nor is there need of a water serpent as long as the prester or dipsas, which abound in the deserts of Libya, might have abounded in the deserts of Arabia also. But very probably the serpents themselves were immediately sent by God for the chastisement of this rebellious people. The cure was certainly preternatural; this no person doubts ; and why might not the agent be so, that inflicted the disease?

Verse 8. Make thee a fiery serpent] Literally, make thee a seraph.

And put it upon a pole] Dɔ hy al nes, upon a standard or ensign.

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Verse 9. And Moses made a serpent of brass]

nechash nechosheth. Hence we find that the word for brass or copper comes from the same root with nachash, which here signifies a serpent, probably on ac

The people pursue their journey,

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-put
it upon a pole, and it came to
An. Exod. Isr. pass, that if a serpent had bitten
any man, when he beheld the
serpent of brass, he lived.
10 And the children of Israel set forward, Moab and the Amorites.
and pitched in Oboth.

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out of the coasts of the Amorites:
for Arnon is the border of Moab, between

11 And they journeyed from Oboth, and u pitched, at Ije-abarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrising.

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12 From thence they removed, and pitched in the valley of Zared.

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14 Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the LORD, What he did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon,

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15. And at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab."

13 From thence they removed, and pitched 16 And from thence they went to Beer: that Chap. xxxiii. 43.

Chap. xxxiii. 43. Or, heaps of Abarim. y Or, Vaheb in Suphah.
Chap. xxii. 36; Judg. xi. 18.

Deut. ii. 13
count of the colour; as most serpents, especially those
of the bright spotted kind, have a very glistening ap-
pearance, and those who have brown or yellow spots
appear something like burnished brass: but the true
meaning of the root cannot be easily ascertained.

-z Deut. ii. 18, 29. Heb. leaneth. b Judg. ix. 21.

runs from east to west, and discharges itself into the Dead Sea.

Verse 13. Arnon] Another river which takes its rise in the mountains of Moab, and, after having separated the ancient territories of the Moabites and Ammonites, falls into the Dead Sea, near the mouth of Jordan.

Verse 14. The book of the wars of the Lord] There are endless conjectures about this book, both among ancients and moderns. Dr. Lightfoot's opinion is the most simple, and to me bears the greatest appearance · of being the true one... "This book seems to have been some book of remembrances and directions, written by Moses for Joshua's private instruction for the management of the wars after him. See Exod. xvii. 14–16. It may be that this was the same book which is called the book of Jasher, i. è., the book of the upright, or a directory for Joshua, from Moses, what to do and what to expect in his wars; and in this book it seems as if Moses directed the setting up of archery, see 2 Sam. i.. 18, and warrants Joshua to command the sun, and expect its obedience, Josh. x. 13,"

On the subject of the cure of the serpent-bitten Is raelites, by looking at the brazen serpent, there is a good comment in the book of Wisdom, chap. xvi. 4-12, in which are these remarkable words :-"They were admonished, having a sign of salvation, (i. e., the brazen serpent,) to put them in remembrance of the commandments of thy law. For he that turned himself towards it was not saved by the THING that he saw, but by THEE, that art the Saviour of all." To the circumstance of looking at the brazen serpent in order to be healed, our Lord refers, John iii. 14, 15: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." The brazen serpent was certainly no type of Jesus Christ; but from our Lord's words we may learn, 1. That as the serpent was lifted up on the pole or ensign, so Jesus Christ was lifted up on the cross. 2. That as What he did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of the Israelites were to look at the brazen serpent, so Arnon] This clause. is impenetrably obscure. All sinners must look to Christ for salvation. 3. That as the versións, all the translators, and all the commenGod provided no other remedy than this looking for tátors, have been puzzled with it. Scarcely any two the wounded Israelites, so he has provided no other agree. The original is neth vaheb besuway of salvation than faith in the blood of his Son. phah, which our translators render, what he did in the 4. That as he who looked at the brazen serpent was Red Sea, following here the Chaldee Targum; but cured and did live, so he that believeth on the Lord not satisfied with this version, they have put the most Jesus Christ shall not perish, but have eternal life. difficult words in English letters in the margin, Vaheb 5. That as neither the serpent, nor looking at it, but in Suphah. Calmet's conjecture here is ingenious, the invisible power of GoD healed the people, so nei- and is adopted by Houbigant; instead of 2 vaheb, ther the cross of Christ, nor his merely being crucified, he reads zared. Now a 1 zain may be easily misbut the pardon he has bought by his blood, communi- taken for a 1 vau, and vice versa; and a he for a cated by the powerful energy of his Spirit, saves the resh, if the left limb happened to be a little obliterated, souls of men. May not all these things be plainly which frequently occurs, not only in MSS., but in seen in the circumstances of this transaction, without printed books; the beth also might be mistaken for making the serpent a type of Jesus Christ, (the most adaleth, if the ruled line on which it stood hapexceptionable that could possibly be chosen,) and run-pened in that place to be a little thicker or blacker ning the parallel, as some have done, through ten or than usual. Thus then 1 vaheb might be easily a dozen particulars?

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formed out of 1 zared, mentioned ver. 12; the whole might then be read, They encamped at the brook Zared, and they came to Suphah, and thence to the brook Arnon. Take the passage as we may, it is evidently defective. As I judge the whole clause to have been

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