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Moses called into the mount

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48b And the LORD spake unto and was gathered unto his An. Ex. Isr. 40. Moses that selfsame day, saying, ple:

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49 Get thee up into this. "mountain Abarim, unto Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession: 50 And die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as d Aaron thy brother died in Mount Hor,

Num. xxvii. 12, 13.

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Num. xxxiii. 47, 48; chap. xxxiv. 1. 4 Num. xx. 25, 28; xxxiii. 38.

Verse 49. Get thee up into this mountain Abarim] The mount of the passages, i. e., of the Israelites when they entered into the promised land. See the notes on Num. xxvii. 12.

Verse 50. And die in the mount-as Aaron] Some have supposed that Moses was translated; but if so, then Aaron was translated, for what is said of the death of the one is said of the death of the other. Verse 51. Ye trespassed against me-at the waters of Meribah] See the note on Num. xx. 8. Verse 52. Thou shalt see the land before thee] See Num. xxvii. 12, &c. How glorious to depart out of this life with God in his heart and heaven in his eye! his work, his great, unparalleled usefulness, ending only with his life. The serious reader will surely join in the following pious ejaculation of the late Rev. Charles Wesley, one of the best Christian poets of the last century:

"O that without a lingering groan

I may the welcome word receive;
My body with my charge lay down,

And cease at once to work and live!"

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51 Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the waters off Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because yes sanctified me not in the midst of the children of Israel. 52 h Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither unto the land which I give the children of Israel.

e Num. xx. 11, 12, 13; xxvii. 14. Or, strife at Kadesh. See Lev. x. 3.-h Num. xxvii. 12; chap. xxxiv. 4. 3. To warn them against irreligion and apostasy; to show the possibility of departing from God, and the miseries that would overwhelm them and their posterity should they be found walking in opposition to the laws of their Creator.

4. To give a proper and impressive view of the providence of God, by referring to the history of his gracious dealings with them and their ancestors; the minute attention he paid to all their wants, the wonderful manner in which he led, fed, clothed, protected, and saved them, in all their travels and in all perils.

5. To leave on record an everlasting testimony against them, should they ever cast off his fear and pollute his worship, which should serve at once as a warning to the world, and a vindication of his justice, when the judgments he had threatened were found to be poured out upon them; for he who loved them so long and so intensely could not become their enemy but in consequence of the greatest and most unprincipled provocations.

6. To show the shocking and unprecedented ingratitude which induced a people so highly favoured, and so wondrously protected and loved, to sin against their God; and how reasonable and just it was, for the vindication of his holiness, that God should pour out upon them such judgments as he had never inflicted on any other people, and so mark their disobedience and

lr would require a dissertation expressly formed for the purpose to point out the general merit and extraordinary beauties of this very sublime ode. To enter into such particulars can scarcely comport with the nature of the present work. Drs. Lowth, Kenni-ingratitude with fresh marks of his displeasure, that cott, and Durell, have done much in this way; and to their respective works the critical reader is referred. A very considerable extract from what they have written on this chapter may be found in Dr. Dodd's notes. In writing this ode the design of Moses was,

the punishment should bear some proportion to the guilt, and that their preservation as a distinct people might afford a feeling proof both of the providence and justice of God.

7. To show the glory of the latter days in the reelection of the long reprobated Jewish nation, and the final diffusion of his grace and goodness over the earth by means of the Gospel of Christ.

1. To set forth the Majesty of God; to give that generation and all successive ones a proper view of the glorious perfections of the object of their worship. And all this is done with such strength and eleHe therefore shows that from his holiness and purity gance of diction, with such appropriate, energetic, and he must be displeased with sin; from his justice and impressive figures and metaphors, and in such a powerrighteousness he must punish it; and from the good-ful torrent of that soul-penetrating, pure poetic spirit ness and infinite benevolence of his nature he is ever disposed to help the weak, instruct the ignorant, and show mercy to the wretched, sinful sons and daughters

of men.

2. To show the duty and interest of his people. To have such a Being for their friend is to have all possible happiness, both spiritual and temporal, secured; to have him for their enemy is to be exposed to inevitable destruction and ruin.

that comes glowing from the bosom of God, that the reader is alternately elated or depressed, filled with compunction or confidence, with despair or hope, according to the quick transitions of the inimitable writer to the different topics which form the subject of this incomparable and wondrously varied ode. May that Spirit by which it was dictated give it its fullest, most durable, and most effectual impression upon the mind of every reader!

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the twelve tribes

Moses delivers a prophetical blessing to the children of Israel, 1. The introduction, 2-5. Prophetic decla~rations concerning Reuben, 6; concerning Judah, 7; concerning Levi, 8-11; concerning Benjamin, 12; concerning Joseph, 13-17; concerning Zebulun, 18, 19; concerning Gad, 20, 21; concerning Dan, 22; concerning Naphtali, 23; concerning Asher, 24, 25. The glory of the God of Jeshurun, and the glorious privileges of his true followers, 26-29.

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NOTES ON CHAP. XXXIII.

Verse 1. And this is the blessing wherewith Moses blessed, &c.] The general nature of this solemn introduction, says Dr. Kennicott, is to show the foundation which Moses had for blessing his brethren, viz., because God had frequently manifested his glory in their behalf; and the several parts of this introduction are disposed in the following order :

1. The manifestation of the Divine glory on Sinai, it was prior in time and more magnificent in splendour, is mentioned first.

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2. That God manifested his glory at Seir is evident from Judg. v. 4: Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the fields of Edom, the earth trembled and the heavens dropped, &c.

3. The next place is Paran, where the glory of the Lord appeared before all the children of Israel, Num.

xiv., 10.

Instead of he came with ten thousand saints, by which our translators have rendered a meribeboth kodesh, Dr. Kennicott reads Meribah-Kadesh, the name of a place: for we find that, towards the end of forty years, the Israelites came to Kadesh, Num. xx. 1, which was also called Meribah, on account of their contentious opposition to the determinations of God in their favour, ver. 13; and there the glory of the Lord again appeared, as we are informed ver. 6. These four places, Sinai, Seir, Paran, and MeribahKadesh, mentioned by Moses in the text, are the identical places where God manifested his glory in a fiery appearance, the more illustriously to proclaim his special providence over and care of Israel.

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humblest adoration, sincerely promising the most af-
fectionate obedience; and that God had there com-
manded them a law which was to be the possession
and inheritance of the children of Jacob, ver. 4.
to crown the whole, he had not only blessed them as
their lawgiver, but had also vouchsafed to be their
king, ver. 5.

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Dr. Kennicott proposes to translate the whole five verses thus:

Verse 1. And this is the blessing wherewith Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death. And he said,

2. Jehovah came from SINAI,

And he arose upon them from SEIR;
He shone forth from Mount PARAN,
And he came from MERIBAH-KADESH:
From his right hand a fire shone forth upon them.

3. Truly, he loved the people,

And he blessed all his saints:
For they fell down at his feet,
And they received of his words.
4. He commanded us a law,

The inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. 5. And he became king in Jeshurun;

When the heads of the people were assembled,
Together with the tribes of Israel.

We have already seen that Dr. Kennicott reads

pn Meribah-Kadesh, the name of a place, instead of meribeboth kodesh, which, by a most unnatural and forced construction, our version renders ten thousands of saints, a translation which no circumstance of the history justifies.

Instead of a fiery law, ♫ ♥x esh dath, he reads, following the Samaritan version, Nesh ur, a fire shining out upon them. In vindication of this change

Verse 3. Yea, he loved the people] This is the inference which Moses makes from those glorious appearances, that God truly loved the people; and that all his saints, p kedoshaiv, the people whom he had consecrated to himself, were under his especial in the original, it may be observed, 1. That, though benediction; and that in order to make them a holyn dath signifies a law, yet it is a Chaldee term, and nation, God had displayed his glory on Mount Sinai, appears nowhere in any part of the sacred writings where they had fallen prostrate at his feet with the previously to the Babylonish captivity; min torah

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being the term constantly used to express the Law, at 17: I shall not die, but live; Gen. xliii. 8: That we all times prior to the corruption of the Hebrew, by the may live, and not die; Jer. xx. 14: Cursed be the Chaldee. 2. That the word itself is obscure in its day-let not that day be blessed; 1 John ii. 4: He present situation, as the Hebrew Bibles write it and is a liar, and the truth is not in him; ib. ver. 27: Is esh in one word, n eshdath, which has no mean- truth, and no lie; John i. 20: He confessed, and deing; and which, in order to give it one, the Massorah | nied not ;. 1 Sam. i. 11: Remember me, and not fordirects should be read separate, though written con- get thy handmaid; Deut. ix. 7: Remember, forget nected. 3. That the word is not acknowledged by the two most ancient versions, the Septuagint and Syriac. 4. That in the parallel place, Hab. iii. 3, 4, a word is used which expresses the rays of light, op karnayim, horns, that is, splendours, rays, or effulgence of light. 5. That on all these accounts, together with the almost impossibility of giving a rational meaning to the text as it now satnds, the translation contended for should be adopted.

Instead of All his saints are in his hand, Dr. Kennicott reads, He blessed all his saints-changing 17 beyadecha, into 12 barach, he blessed, which word, all who understand the Hebrew letters will see, might be easily mistaken for the other; the ▾ daleth and the resh being, not only in MSS., but also in printed books, often so much alike, that analogy alone can determine which is the true letter; and except in the insertion of the yod, which might have been easily mistaken for the apex at the top of the beth very frequent in MSS., both words have the nearest resemblance. To this may be added, that the Syriac authorizes this rendering.

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not; Deut. xxxii. 6: O foolish people, and umeise. In all these places it is evident that there is a peculiar emphasis in this form of expression, as if he had said, Let him not only not die, but let him live in great and increasing peace and prosperity. Do not only not forget me, but keep me continually in remembrance. He denied not, but confessed FULLY and PARTICULARLY. O foolish people-silly and ́stupid, and unwise-destitute of all true wisdom."

And let not his men be few.] It is possible that this clause belongs to Simeon. In the Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint the clause stands thus: Kat Evuewv eσTw поhνs ev apibμw, and let SIMEON be very numerous, but none of the other versions insert the word. As the negative particle is not in the Hebrew, but is supplied in our translation, and the word Simeon is found in one of the most ancient and most authentic copies of the Septuagint version; and as Simeon is nowhere else mentioned here, if not implied in this place, probably the clause anciently stood: Let Reuben live, and not die; but let the men of Simeon be few. That this tribe was small when compared with Instead of a leraglecha, and middabbe- the rest, and with what it once was, is evident enough rotheycha, THY feet, and THY words, Dr. Kennicott from the first census, taken after they came out of reads the pronouns in the third person singular, Egypt, and that in the plains of Moab nearly forty leraglaiv and 11 middabberothaiv, HIS feet, HIS years after. In the first, Simeon was 59,300; in the words, in which he is supported both by the Septua- last, 22,200, a decrease of 37,100 men! gint and Vulgate. He also changes Nyissa, HE shall receive, into IN` yisseu, THEY shall receive.

He contends also that Mosheh, Moses, in the fourth verse, was written by mistake for the following word morashah, inheritance; and when the scribe found he had inserted a wrong word, he added the proper one, and did not erase the first. The word Moses, he thinks, should therefore be left out of the text, as it is improbable that he should here introduce his own name; and that if the word be allowed to be legitimate, then the word king must apply to him, and not to GOD, which would be most absurd. See Kennicott's first Dissertation, p. 422, &c.`

Verse 7. And this is the blessing of Judah] Though the word blessing is not in the text, yet it may be implied from ver. 1; but probably the words, he spake, are those which should be supplied: And this he spake of Judah, Lord, hear the voice of Judah; that is, says the Targum, receive his prayer when he goes out to battle, and let him be brought back in safety to his own people. Let his hands be sufficient for him—let him have a sufficiency of warriors always to support the tribe, and vindicate its rights; and let his enemies never be able to prevail against him! Three things are expressed here: 1. That the tribe of Judah, conscions of its weakness, shall depend on the Most High, and Verse 6. Let Reuben lwe, and not die] Though make prayer and supplication to him; 2. That God his life and his blessings have been forfeited by his will hear such prayer; and, 3. That his hands shall be transgression with his father's concubine, Gen. xlix. 3, increased, and that he shall prevail over his enemies. 4; and in his rebellion with Korah, Num. xvi. 1, &c., This blessing has a striking affinity with that which let him not become extinct as a tribe in Israel. "It this tribe received from Jacob, Gen. xlix. 9; and both is very usual," says Mr. Ainsworth, "in the Scripture, may refer to our blessed Lord, who sprang from to set down things of importance and earnestness, by this tribe, as is noticed on the above passage, who affirmation of the one part, and denial of the other; has conquered our deadly foes by his death, and Isa. xxxviii. 1: Thou shalt die, and not live; Num. whose praying posterity ever prevail through his iv. 19: That they may live, and not die; Psa. cxviii. I might.

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Levi and Benjamin.

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8 And of Levi he said, Let 10 They shall teach Jacob An. Ex. Isr. 40. thy Thummim and thy Urim be thy judgments, and Israel thy An. Ex. Isr. 40. with thy holy one, whom thou law: they shall put incense didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah;

9 Who said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children for "they have observed thy word, and kept thy covenant.

Exod. xxviii. 30.

Exod. xvii. 7; Num. xx. 13; chap. viii. 2, 3, 16; Psa. lxxxi. 7.- - Gen. xxix. 32; 1 Chron. xvii. 17; Job xxxvii. 24.- Exod. xxxii. 26, 27, 28.- Lu See Jer. xviii. 18; Mal. ii. 5, 6. Or, Let them teach, &c.- Lev. x. 11; chap. xvii. 9, 10, 11; xxiv. 8; Ezek. xliv. 23, Mal. ii. 7.

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before thee, and whole burnt-sacrifice upon thine altar.

11 Bless, LORD, his substance, and accept the work of his hands: smite through the loins of them that rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not again. 12 And of Benjamin he said, The beloved

* Or, let them put incense. Exod. xxx. 7, 8; Num. xvi. 40;

1 Sam. ii. 28.- Heb. at thy nose. Lev. i. 9, 13, 17; Psa. li. 19; Ezek. xliii. 27.2 Sam. xxiv. 23; Psa. xx. 3; Ezek. xx. 40, 41; xliii. 27.

Verse 8. Of Levi he said] Concerning the Urim said: "Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? and Thummim see Exod. xxviii. 30.

Thy holy one] Aaron primarily, who was anointed the high priest of God, and whose office was the most holy that man could be invested with. Therefore Aaron was called God's holy one, and the more especially so as he was the type of the MOST HOLY and blessed Jesus, from whom the Urim—all light and wisdom, and Thummim—all excellence, completion, and perfection, are derived.

Whom thou didst prove, &c.] God contended with Aaron as well as with Moses at the waters of Meribah, and excluded him from the promised land because he did not sanctify the Lord before the people.

From the words of St. Paul, 1 Cor. x. 8-12, it is evident that these words, at least in a secondary sense, belong to Christ. He is the Holy One who was tempted by them at Massah, who suffered their manners in the wilderness, who slew 23,000 of the most incorrigible transgressors, and who brought them into the promised land by his deputy, Joshua, whose name and that of Jesus have the same signification.

Verse 9. Who said unto his father, &c.] There are several difficulties in this and the following verses. Some think they are spoken of the tribe of Levi; others, of all the tribes; others, of the Messiah, &c.; but several of the interpretations founded on these suppositions are too recondite, and should not be resorted to till a plain literal sense is made out. I suppose the whole to be primarily spoken of Aaron and the tribe of Levi. Let us examine the words in this way, Who said unto his father, &c. The law had strictly enjoined that if the father, mother, brother, or child of the high priest should die, he must not mourn for them, but act as if they were not his kindred; see Lev. xxi. 11, 12. Neither must Aaron mourn for his sons Nadab and Abihu, &c., though not only their death, but the circumstances of it, were the most afflicting that could possibly affect a parent's heart. Besides, the high priest was forbidden, on pain of death, to go out from the door of the tabernacle, Lev. x. 2-7, for God would have them more to regard their function (as good Mr. Ainsworth observes) and duty in his service, than any natural affection whatever. And herein Christ was figured, who, when he was told that his mother and brethren stood without, and wished to speak with him, VOL. I. ( 54 )

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whosoever shall do the will of my father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother;" Matt. xii. 46-50. It is likely also that Moses may refer here to the fact of the Levites, according to the command of Moses, killing every man his brother, friend, neighbour, and even son, who had sinned in worshipping the golden calf, Exod. xxxii. 26; and in this way the Chaldee paraphrast understands the words.

Verse 10. They shall teach Jacob, &c.] This was the office of the Levites, to teach, by their significant service and typical ceremonies, the way of righteousness and truth to the children of Israel. And of their faithfulness in this respect God bears testimony by the prophet, "My covenant was with him of life and peace," Mal. ii. 5; and, “The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity;" ver. 6. These words are a sufficient comment on the words of the text.

Verse 11. Bless, Lord, his substance] The blessing of God to the tribe of Levi was peculiarly necessary, because they had no inheritance among the children of Israel, and lived more immediately than others upon the providence of God. Yet, as they lived by the offerings of the people and the tithes, the increase of their substance necessarily implied the increase of the people at large: the more fruitful the land was, the more abundant would the tithes of the Levites be; and thus in the increased fertility of the land the substance of Levi would be blessed.

Verse 12. Of Benjamin―the beloved of the Lord] Alluding to his being particularly beloved of his father Jacob, Gen. xlix. 27, &c.

Shall dwell in safety by him] That is, by the Lord, whose temple, which is considered as his dwellingplace, was in the tribe of Benjamin, for a part of Jerusalem belonged to this tribe.

Shall cover him all the day] Be his continual protector; and he shall dwell between his shoulders— within his coasts, or in his chief city, viz., Jerusalem, where the temple of God was built, on his mountains Zion and Moriah, here poetically termed his shoulders, Some object to our translation of the Hebrew yedid by the term beloved, and think the original should be divided as it is in the Samaritan, ↑ ↑ yad yad, the 833

The blessing

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of Joseph.

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of the LORD shall dwell in safety mountains, and for the precious An. Ex. Isr. 40. by him; and the LORD shall things of the lasting hills, 16 And for the precious things of the earth and fulness thereof; and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.

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cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders. 13 And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath;

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14 And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the f moon,

17 His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of n unicorns with them he shall push the

15 And for the chief things of the ancient people together to the ends of the earth: and

c Gen. xlix. 25. Gen. xxvii. 28.-e Heb. thrust forth. Heb. moons. Gen. xlix. 26. Hab. iii. 6. Exod. iii. 2, 4; Acts vii. 30, 35.

hand, even the hand of the Lord shall dwell for safety or protection, hy alaiv, upon him. This makes a good sense, and the reader may choose.

* Genesis xlix. 26.

1 Chron. v. 1.——————— Num. xxii. 22; Psa. xcii. 10. Heb. a unicorn.- - 1 Kings xxii. 11; Psa. xliv. 5.

and who has preserved and will preserve, in tribulation and distress, all those who trust in him, so that they shall as surely escape unhurt, as the bush, though enveloped with fire, was unburnt.

The top of the head, &c.] The same words are used by Jacob in blessing this tribe, Gen. xlix. 26. The meaning appears to be that God should distinguish this tribe in a particular way, as Joseph himself was sepa

Verse 13. Blessed-be his land] The whole of this passage certainly relates to the peculiar fertility of the soil in the portion that fell to this tribe which, the Jews say, yielded a greater abundance of all good things than any other part of the promised land. The precious things of heaven] The peculiar mild-rated, v nazir, a Nazarite, a consecrated prince to ness and salubrity of its atmosphere.

God, from among and in preference to all his brethren.

For the dew] A plentiful supply of which was a See the notes on Gen. xlix. 25, &c. great blessing in the dry soil of a hot climate.

The deep that coucheth beneath] Probably referring to the plentiful supply of water which should be found in digging wells: hence the Septuagint have aSurowy anywv, fountains of the deeps. Some suppose there has been a slight change made in the word mittal, for the dew, which was probably at first by meal, FROM ABOVE, and then the passage would read thus: For the precious things of heaven FROM ABOVE, and for the deep that coucheth BENEATH. This reading is confirmed by several of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. The Syriac and Chaldee have both readings: The dew of heaven from above.

Verse 14. The precious fruits brought forth by the sun] All excellent and important productions of the earth, which come to perfection once in the year. So the precious things put forth by the moon may imply those vegetables which require but about a month to bring them to perfection, or vegetables of which several crops may be had in the course of a year.

Verse 17. His glory is like the firstling of his bullock] This similitude is very obscure. A bullock was the most excellent of animals among the Jews, not only because of its acceptableness in sacrifice to God, but because of its great usefulness in agriculture. There is something peculiarly noble and dignified in the appearance of the ox, and his greatest ornament are his fine horns; these the inspired penman has particularly in view, as the following clause proves; and it is well known that in Scriptural language horns are the emblem of strength, glory, and sovereignty; Psa. lxxv. 5, 10; lxxxix. 17, 24; cxii. 9; Dan. viii. 3, &c.; Luke i. 69; Rev. xvii. 3, &c.

His horns are like the horns of unicorns] DN reem, which we translate unicorn, from the povoxegws monokeros of the Septuagint, signifies, according to Bochart, the mountain goat; and according to others, the rhinoceros, a very large quadruped with one great horn on his nose, from which circumstance his name is derived. See the notes on Num. xxiii. 22; xxiv. 8. Verse 15. The chief things of the ancient moun- Reem is in the singular number, and because the tains] DP umerosh harerey kedem, and horns of a unicorn, a one-horned animal, would have from the head or top of the ancient or eastern moun- appeared absurd, our translators, with an unfaithfultains, the precious things or productions being stillness not common to them, put the word in the plural understood. And this probably refers to the large trees, &c., growing on the mountain tops, and the springs of water issuing from them. The mountains of Gilead may be here intended, as they fell to the half tribe of Manasseh. And the precious things of the lasting hills may signify the metals and minerals which might be digged out of them.

Verse 16. The good will of him that dwelt in the bush] The favour of him who appeared in the burning bush on Mount Sinai, who there, in his good will mere love and compassion, took Israel to be his people; 834

number.

To the ends of the earth] Of the land of Canaan, for Joshua with his armies conquered all this land, and drove the ancient inhabitants out before him.

They are the ten thousands of Ephraim, &c.] That is, The horns signify the ten thousands of Ephraim, and the thousands of Manasseh. Jacob prophesied, Gen. xlviii. 19, that the younger should be greater than the elder; so here TENS of thousands are given to Ephraim, and only thousands to Manasseh. See the census, Num. i. 33-35.

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