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date or palm-trees, tamarisks, and acacias of different species. But the springs are not at present immediately in the common route, though a small rivulet of brackish water runs through the valley, rendering it one of the principal stations on the route to Sinai. Burckhardt says of it, 'If we admit Bir Howara to be the Marah of Exodus, then Wady Gharendel is probably Elim, with its wells and its date-trees; an opinion entertained by Niebuhr. The non-existence at present of twelve wells at Gharendel, must not be considered as evidence against this conjecture; for Niebuhr says that his companions obtained water here by digging to a very small depth; and there was a great plenty of it when I passed. Water, in fact, is readily found by digging, in every fertile valley in Arabia, and wells are thus easily formed, which are quickly filled up by the sands.'- - Three score and ten palm-trees. Or 'date-trees,' as the fruit of the palm is called date. The presence of the palm in the arid regions of the East is an unerring sign of water. It is a tree which rises to a great height; the stalk is very strait, but knotty, and the centre, instead of being solid like the trunk of other trees, is filled with pith. The leaves are six or eight feet long, and when spread out, broad in proportion. It is crowned at the top with a large tuft of leaves which never fall off, but always continue in the same flourishing verdure. This tree attains its greatest vigor about thirty years after being planted, and continues in full vigor seventy years longer, bearing all this while every year about three or four hundred pounds weight of dates. This fruit grows below the leaves

I came unto the wilderness of b Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

b Ezek. 30. 15.

in clusters, and is of a sweet and agreeable taste. The palm is put to an immense variety of uses in the East, and is to the inhabitants of that region incomparably the most important and valuable production of all the vegetable world. It forms therefore a suitable emblem of the righteous in their flourishing condition, Ps. 92. 12-14, and the bearing of its branches is a badge of victory; Rev. 7. 9, 'After this, I beheld, and lo! a great number which no man could number... stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms (palm branches) in their hands,' &c.

CHAPTER XVI.

1. And they took their journey from Elim, &c. Upon comparing this account with that given Num. 10. 11, we find that previous to their reaching the wilderness of Sin, they came again upon the shore of the Red Sea, where, or at Elim, they must have abode for some time; for as it was thirty days after leaving Egypt before they arrived at the wilderness of Sin, and we have not more than ten days accounted for at the previous stage, twenty days remain to be distributed between the two or three last stations. But it is obvious from other parts of the history, that the writer does not specify every place where they encamped, but only the most important, or those in which some remarkable incident occurred.- - Came to the wilderness of Sin. Heb.

el midbar Sin. No part of the history of the Israelites is more perplexing and obscure than that which relates to the topography of the places and stations mentioned on their route from

2 And the whole congregation of against Moses and Aaron in the the children of Israel c murmured wilderness:

ch. 15. 24. Ps. 106. 25. 1 Cor. 10. 10.

Egypt to Canaan. We cannot, at best, assure ourselves of any thing more than an approximation to the truth in most instances, and in many cases not even to that. As to the present passage, it is to be remarked that the Scriptures distingnish two deserts of Sin, one being written sin, the other tzin. The former is the one spoken of here, the latter in Deut. 32. 51. Num. 13. 21. -27. 14.-34. 3. Josh. 15. 3. Of the present we know little more than what is here said of it, that it lay between Elim and Sinai. What is implied in this may perhaps as probably be learned from the ensuing extract as from any other source. 'A chain of mountains called El Tyh stretches across the peninsula of Sinai, from the Gulf of Akaba, to near the coast of the Gulf of Suez. The common road, which we suppose the Israelites to have taken and which they most obviously would take wherever they might have crossed between Suez and Birket Faroun-turns off from the shores of the gulf, southeast towards Sinai, after the extremity of these mountains towards the west has been rounded. We understand the desert of Sin to comprehend most of the space to be traversed between the point where the road turns off to within a few miles of Mount Serbal, which is the first of the larger mountains of the Sinai group. This is of course, from its situation, not a flat and uniform desert; but it is still a desolate wilderness, but more or less hilly and rocky, with valleys of various dimensions, but generally sandy or stony, strewed with the bones of camels, generally without plants or herbage, and also without water, except in the rainy season, when the valleys are traversed by the tor rents that descend from the mountains. Burckhardt, who however says nothing

3 And the children of Israel said

about the identity of this region with the desert of Sin, relates that while traversing it from Sinai, his party met several Arabs, who had started in the morning from the well of Morkha, and had ventured on the journey without water, or the hope of finding any till the following day, when they would reach Wady Feiran. Now Morkha is near the gulf at one extremity of this desert region, and Wady Feiran near Mount Serbal at the other, the distance between the two points being about thirty miles; and we suppose this to have been nearly the route of the Israelites. We do not mean to say that the desert of Sin was limited to the district we mention; we only attempt to define its limits in the direction of the journey, at the same time not denying that the term might be applicable to all the country between the shore of the gulf on the west, and the Sinai group on the east.' Pict. Bib.

2. And the whole congregation mur. mured, &c. Individual exceptions it may be presumed there were, but the great body of the host are to be considered as having been justly liable to the charge. They had now subsisted thirty days upon the provisions brought out of Egypt, and it may well be supposed that their stock was nearly, if not altogether exhausted. Two millions of people, encamped in a barren desert, and beginning to find themselves short of food, would be very easily pervaded by a general alarm lest the horrors of famine should soon be upon them. To exercise faith in these circumstances in opposition to the dictates of sense, was doubtless no easy matter. Accordingly finding themselves reduced to straits, their impatient spirits again utter the language of murmuring against Moses and Aaron, whom they invidiously ac. cuse, if not of an express design to

starve them in the wilderness, yet with | wretched, degraded life and die a miser. bringing them into circumstances where they had every reason to fear that this would be the actual result. It is scarcely possible to conceive any thing more ungrateful or perverse. Indeed their conduct was marked by the double brand of impious and absurd. It was very culpable towards God. This was neither the first nor greatest extremity to which they had been reduced, and out of which they had been delivered. That which they had experienced at the Red Sea was much greater. There they had become acquainted with God as one who never suffers those that hope in him to be confounded. Why therefore do they not trust in him now? why not resignedly commit themselves to him? He had promised to conduct them to Canaan, and he will keep his word. If they do not know where to obtain food, neither did they know how to pass the Red Sea; and yet they did pass it. So they were bound to believe that on this occasion he would not fail to supply their wants-that 'bread should be given and water should sure.' Again, a moment's thought will show us that their deportment was now less absurd than wicked. What ground had they for ascribing such base intentions to Moses and Aaron? Had they any more to eat than the rest? and were not they as much in danger of perishing as themselves? One would think that reason, as well as gratitude, must have become extinct in men who could in these circumstances have preferred such a charge. Yet this is not all. The very people who had seen all the first-born of Egypt slain in one night on their account, now virtually wish that they had themselves perished in like manner. The very people that had sighed and cried by reason of their bondage in that country, now magnify its plenty, because they had sat by the flesh-pots and ate bread to the full! How strange to hear them speak as if it had been better to drag out a

able death in Egypt, provided they could have plenty of food, than to live under the guidance of the heavenly pillar in the wilderness, with God himself for their almoner, simply because they find themselves pinched a little with hunger, as they had before been with thirst! After all we cannot well doubt that in their present distress they paint their former comforts in altogether too glowing colors. What they call plenty now, they probably did not call so then; but it is easy to over-estimate the past when men are disposed to aggravate to themselves or others the hardships of their present lot. It heightens, moreover, our sense of their unreasonable and guilty conduct, when we consider that they were really in no danger of dying for want in the wilderness so long as they had their flocks and herds with them. But, alas! we recognise in this, as in other instances of their per verseness, but too faithful a picture of our fallen nature. How prone are we to fret and murmur under any present inconvenience! That which troubles

us for the moment is the greatest of all troubles. Past dangers and deliverances, past supports and comforts, are all forgotten. Our minds dwell upon present evil, and our tempers are irrita-` ble, fretful, and impatient. We quar. rel it may be, with our best friends, and murmur in spirit, though not perhaps with our lips, against God. Even those who profess to be the only the spiritual seed of Abraham, may adopt the language of his literal seed, Ps. 106. 6, 7, 13, 14, 'We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. They soon forgat his works, they waited not for his counsel : But lusted exceedingly in the wilder ness, and tempted God in the desert.'

unto them, & Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, e when we sat by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full: for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

d Lam. 4. 9. e Numb. 11. 4, 5.

-¶ This whole assembly. Heb.

peth kol hakkahol hazzeh, this whole church, as the term is usually rendered in the Greek. Comp. Acts, 7, 'This is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel that spake to him, &c.'

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But the people of Israel, typifying the church of the first-born that are written in heaven, and born from above, and being themselves under the conduct and government of heaven, receiving their charters, laws, and commissions from heaven, from heaven also received their food: their law being given by the disposition of angels, they did eat angels' food.'. I will rain bread. Heb. mamtir lehem, I am raining bread, or food; i. e. about to rain; the same phraseology that occurs in announcing the rain of the deluge, Gen. 6. 13, 17.— -TA certain rate every day. Heb. 77777777 debar yom beyo

4. Then said the Lord unto Moses, &c. Although the murmuring was not directly but only indirectly against God, yet he at once takes up the cause as his own. Instead, however, of expressing the resentment of an insulted sovereign and benefactor, he utters the gracious purpose of overcoming their evil with good, and of pouring down blessings instead of wrath upon the murmuring host.mo, the matter of a day in his day; i. e. Complaining is to be silenced by complying, and men, unworthy of the meanest earthly fare have the promise of a daily supply of bread from heaven! But this, though not the manner of men, is the manner of God. He has gifts even for the rebellious, and the unspeakable gift of salvation through his Son was imparted in manifest contrariety to our deserts. He hath commended his love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Though we have rendered to him only disobedience, guilt, and unthankfulness, yet how have they been repaid? Not by a visitation of vengeance, not by an award of judgment, but by raining upon us the bread of life from heaven! As to the grand design of this miraculous provision the remarks of Henry are strikingly appropriate. 'Man being made out of the earth his maker has wisely ordered him food out of the earth, Ps. 104. 14.

they were to collect on each day the portion necessary for that day, but no more. They were not to collect to day what would not be required till to-mor row. It was but another form of enjoining upon them the Savior's rule, 'Take no thought for to-morrow what ye shall eat or drink.' God would school them to simple-hearted dependence on his daily providence.¶ That I may prove them whether, &c. That is, that I may afford them an occasion of testifying whether they will trust me and walk by faith in the absence of all human means of supply, or not. This lesson, or 'law,' though hard to learn, is one that God would have deeply engraven upon the hearts of his children in all ages. A state of constant conscious dependence upon him is the state to which he aims to bring all his people. And this, could we realize it aright, is a far happier state than any

5 And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and hit shall be twice as much as they gather daily.

6 And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, i At even, then ye shall know that the LORD

h See ver. 22. Lev. 25. 21. i See ver. 12, 13. & ch. 6. 7. Numb. 16. 28, 29, 30.

hath brought you out from the land of Egypt:

7 And in the morning, then ye shall seek the glory of the LORD: for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: And what are we, that ye murmur against us?

* See ver. 10. Isai. 35. 2. & 40. 5. John 11. 4, 40. 1 Numb. 16. 11.

that both their hands and their minds might be unencumbered with domestic cares during the season of worship. Whether the same or a similar preparation of the manna was necessary on the other days of the week, it is not possi ble to determine. The probability, we think, is that it was not.

6. At even, then shall ye know, &c. The Israelites had charged Moses and Aaron with bringing them out of Egypt as if from their own motion. Moses, therefore, here assures them, on the other hand, that they should soon have evidence that it was Jehovah, and not his servants, who had brought them out of the land of bondage.

other. How unspeakably kind and condescending in the great Father of all to assume upon himself the care of our interests, and relieve our minds from the oppressive load of anxiety which we so often suffer to weigh upon them! Not that we are to deem ourselves exempted from the necessity of diligent exertion; not that we are to fold our hands in listless torpor, and call this an humble reliance on heaven; but having done what we can, we are not to be solicit ous; we are not to give way to unbelieving fears lest we should not be provided for. Our heavenly Father knoweth that we have need of these things. He will take care of his children, and let them not be surprised or stumbled if they should themselves painfully 'proved' on this score at more than one station of their wanderings in this wilderness world. The original term nasah, to tempt or try, is the same as that applied elsewhere in similar connexions, and which is fully explained in the Note on Gen. 22. 1. The pronominal' suffix, however, is not 'them,' as in our translation, but 'him,' repre-pearance of the pillar of cloud, betokensenting the whole people as spoken of

as one man.

7. In the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord. That is, shall behold the cloudy pillar, the Shekinah, resplendent with a peculiar brightness and glory, as a signal of the Lord's special presence, both to hear your murmurings and to supply your wants. It appears that on several occasions the tumults of the people were assauged by some visible change in the ordinary ap

ing, perhaps, by a fierce and vehement glow the kindling of the divine dis5. On the sixth day they shall prepare pleasure. See Num. 12. 5-14, 10—16, that which they bring in. From this it 42. Or the phrase 'glory of the Lord' appears that the manna gathered on the may be but another expression for the sixth day was not eaten in the form in miraculous work, the sending of the which it was brought in. It was first manna, which so strikingly manifested bruised in a mortar, or ground in a mill, his glory. Thus, in like manner, in reand then baked into bread. This pro- ference to the miraculous work of Christ cess, whatever it was, was to be per- in raising Lazarus from the dead it is formed on the day before the sabbath, | said, John, 11. 40, 'Said I not unto thee

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