23 If thou shalt do this thing, and | voice of his father-in-law, and did God command thee so, then thou all that he had said. shalt bei able to endure, and all this people shall also go to k their place in peace. 24 So Moses hearkened to the i ver. 18. k Gen. 18. 33. & 30. 25. ch. 16.29. 2 Sam. 19. 39. ousness, or in other words, influenced by a noble and generous contempt of worldly wealth, not only not seeking bribes, or aiming to enrich themselves, but cherishing a positive abhorrence of any such corruption. He only is fit to be a magistrate, who 'despiseth the gain of oppression, and shaketh his hands from the holding of bribes.' Is. 33. 15. Men of this character were to be selected, and placed over the people in regular subordination, so that each ruler of ten should be under the ruler of fifty, and so on, very much according to the order usually established in an army. These were to administer justice to the people in all smaller matters, while such as were of more importance were to be submitted to Moses as the ultimate appeal. 23. If thou shalt do this thing, and God shall command thee so. An entire freedom from the spirit of dictation, and a tone of the most exemplary and amiable self-distrust, is apparent in those words. Knowing that Moses had a better counsellor than he was, he gives his advice under correction, like a modest and pious man, who knows that all human counsel is to be given and received with an humble submission to the word and providence of God. He would have his suggestions followed only so far as they met with the approbation of him who is 'excellent in counsel and mighty in operation,' and infinite in both. Then shalt thou be able to stand. Heb. yakolta amod, thou shalt be able to stand; i. e. to continue, to hold out; a phraseology strongly confirmatory of the sense at 25 And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. 1 Deut. 1. 15. Acts 6. 5. tributed to the passage Ex. 9. 16, on which see Note. Go to their place in peace. That is, either to the land of promise whither they are travelling; or, shall return home in peace from the place of judicature, having obtained a speedy adjustment of their difficulties. Thus a man's house or home is called his place, Judg. 7. 7, 'And let all the other people go every man unto his place;' i. e. to his home, his place of residence. Judg. 9. 55, 'And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man unto his place.' 24, 25. So Moses hearkened, &c. The advice which was so discreetly and kindly given, was candidly and courteously received. A man of a different spirit would perhaps have rejected the counsel thus tendered by a stranger. But Moses was above all the selfish littleness which would have prompted such a treatment of Jethro's suggestions, and he hesitated not, on consider. ing its reasonableness, to adopt the plan proposed. The great Jehovah did not disdain to permit his prophet to be taught by the wisdom and intelligence of a good man, though he was not of the commonwealth of Israel. It is not a little remarkable that the very first rudiments of the Jewish polity were thus suggested by a stranger and a Midianite. The ruler of Israel accord. ingly proceeded to make choice of able men for this purpose. But we are not to understand by the language employ. ed, that he did this alone. 'Moses chose,' i. e. he oversaw or superintended the choosing; for the election was un 26 And they m judged the people at all seasons: the a hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves. 27 And Moses let his father-inlaw depart: and he went his way into his own land. m ver. 22. Job 29. 16. Numb. 10. 29, 30. doubtedly the act of the people. Deut. 1. 9, 13, 'And I spake unto you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you myself alone-take you wise men, and derstanding, and known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.' In like manner the deacons of the primitive church, Acts, 6. 3, were chosen by the people, and finally inducted into office by the apostles. So also Acts, 14. 23, 'And when they had ordained them elders in every church;' i. e. when they had, in conjunction with the people, and in the capacity of superintendents, seen to the appointment of elders; for the original word will not, without violence, admit of being construed as expressing the act of the apostles in contradistinction from that of the people. 26. Judged the people at all seasons. That is, at all times, except when they were forbidden by some paramount law requiring their attendance upon the serv. ices of public worship. 27. And Moses let his father-in-law depart. Heb. yeshallah, dismissed, sent away. That is, with the formal ities usual on taking leave of an honored guest; such as accompanying him to some distance with more or less of an escort, and invoking blessings on his head. Comp. Note on Gen. 12. 20. The visit must have formed an important era in Jethro's life, and though we know of no particular authority for the statement of the Chaldee version, that he returned to make proselytes of his children, and of the people of his land, yet nothing would be more natural than CHAPTER XIX. 1. In the third month. Heb. bahodesh hashshelishi, in the third new (moon); as the term proper. ly signifies, by which is to be understood, according to Jewish usage, the first day of the month, although for the sake of greater explicitness the phrase, 'the same day,' is added, meaning the first day of the month. This was just forty-five days after their departure from Egypt; for adding sixteen days of the first month to twenty-nine of the second, the result is forty-five. To these we must add the day on which Moses went up to God, v. 3, the next day after when he returned their answer to God, v. 7, 8, and the three days more mentioned, v. 10, 11, which form altogether just fifty days from the pass. over to the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. Hence the feast which was kept in aftertimes to celebrate this event was called Pentecost, or the fiftieth day. And it was at this very feast that the Holy Ghost was given to the Apostles, Acts, 2. 1-4, to enable them to communicate to all mankind the new covenant of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Such a striking coincidence of times and seasons is peculiarly worthy of note. 2 For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in b'ch. 17. 1, 8. the wilderness: and there Israel camped before the mount. c ch. 3. 1, 12. 2. They were come to the desert of Sinai, &c. Having now followed the children of Israel through their desertwanderings, to the spot, which was selected by God himself as the scene of the most signal transaction recorded in all their history, it becomes important to ascertain as accurately as possible the general features of a locality distinguished as no other region' of the earth has ever been. The peninsula of Sinai, lying between the two northern arms of the Red Sea, was chosen as the theatre of that scene of grandeur which the Israelites were now called to witness, and in our remarks on the ensuing chapter we have suggested some of the reasons which may be supposed to have dictated this choice. As might naturally be expected from the character of the events that have occurred there, the region of Sinai has been for many centu ries a favorite place of pilgrimage for curious and pious tourists. In modern times, in consequence of the advances of civilization and the comparative ease of access, the tide of travel has set still more strongly in that direction, and a large amount of new and important geographical information has been the result. Still we cannot say that much has been done to render this information applicable to the exact elucidation of the Scripture narrative. Several important points are, perhaps unavoidably, unsettled; and among these is the identity of the mountain itself upon which the law was delivered. This renders it somewhat difficult to determine the precise tract which is to be understood by the 'wilderness of Sinai,' although there can be no great error in supposing it to be suf-naked granite, composing, as far as the ficiently extensive to embrace the range or cluster of mountains familiarly known under the title of 'Sinai' or 'Horeb.' But that the reader may be able to judge for himself on this point, we shall so far avail ourselves of the results of modern researches in the peninsula of Sinai, as to embody a brief description of the region in which the events of the present and succeeding chapter occurred. The breadth of the peninsula of Sinai is intersected by a chain of mountains called 'El Tih,' which run from east to west, and cut off a triangular portion of the peninsula on the south, in the very centre of which occurs the elevated group of mountains where the Sinai of the Bible is to be sought. This moun tainous region, with its various valleys and ravines of different dimensions, may be described as being comprehended within a diameter of about forty miles. Its general aspect is singularly wild and dreary, being composed almost entirely of naked rocks and craggy precipices, interspersed with narrow sandy defiles, which from being seldom refreshed with rain are almost entirely destitute of vegetation. Fountains and springs of water are found only in the upper regions of the group, on which account they are the place of refuge of all the Bedouins, when the low country is parched up. From all accounts it is difficult to imagine a scene more deso. late and terrific than that which consti. tutes this range. A recent traveller (Sir F. Henniker) describes it as a sea of de. solation. 'It would seem,' says he, 'as if Arabia Petræa had once been an ocean of lava, and while its waves were running mountains high, it was commanded suddenly to stand still!' Nothing is to be seen but large peaks and crags of eye can reach, a wilderness of shaggy rocks and valleys bare of verdure. Mr. Stephens, an American traveller, in his 'Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia | row and rugged defile, bounded on each Petræa, and the Holy Land,' thus graph-side with precipitous granite rocks more ically describes his approach to the re- than a thousand feet high. We entered gion in question:-'Our road now lay at the very bottom of this defile, moving between wild and rugged mountains, for a time along the dry bed of a torrent, and the valley itself was stony, broken, now obstructed with sand and stones, and gullied by the washing of the winter the rocks on every side shivered and torrents; and a few straggling thorn- torn, and the whole scene wild to subbushes were all that grew in that region limity. Our camels stumbled among of desolation. I had remarked for some the rocky fragments to such a degree time, and every moment impressed it that we dismounted, and passed through more and more forcibly upon my mind, the wild defile on foot. At the other that every thing around me seemed old end we came suddenly upon a plain taand in decay: the valley was barren ble of ground, and before us towered in and devastated by torrents; the rocks awful grandeur, so huge and dark that were rent; the mountains cracked, brok- it seemed close to us, and barring all en, and crumbling into thousands of further progress, the end of my pil pieces; and we encamped at night be- grimage-the holy mountain of Sinai. tween rocks which seemed to have been Among all the stupe,dous works of torn asunder by some violent convul- nature, not a place can be selected more sion, where the stones had washed down fitted for the exhibition of Almighty into the valley, and the drifted sand al- power. I have stood upon the summit most choked the passage. At every of the giant Etna, and looked over the step the scene became more solemn and clouds floating beneath it; upon the bold impressive. The mountains became scenery of Sicily, and the distant mounmore and more striking, venerable, and tains of Calabria; upon the top of Ve interesting. Not a shrub or blade of suvius, and looked down upon the waves grass grew on their naked sides, de- of lava, and the ruined and half-recovformed with gaps and fissures; and they ered cities at its foot; but they are nolooked as if by a slight jar or shake they thing compared with the terrific soli. would crumble into millions of pieces. tudes and bleak majesty of Sinai. An It is impossible to describe correctly observing traveller has well called it a the singularly interesting appearance of perfect sea of desolation. Not a tree, these mountains. Age, hoary and ven. or shrub, or blade of grass is to be seen erable, is the predominant character. upon the bare and rugged sides of innuThey looked as if their great Creator merable mountains, heaving their naked had made them higher than they are, summits to the skies; while the crumband their summits, worn and weakened ling masses of granite all around, and by the action of the elements for thou- the distant view of the Syrian desert, sands of years, had cracked and fallen. with its boundless waste of sands, form The last was by far the most interest- the wildest and most dreary, the most' ing day of my journey to Mount Sinai. terrific and desolate picture that imaginWe were moving along a broad valley, ation can conceive.' Carne, an English bounded by ranges of lofty and crumb- traveller, speaking of this district, says, ling mountains, forming an immense 'From the summit of Sinai you see only rocky rampart on each side of us. The innumerable ranges of rocky mountains. whole day we were moving between pa- One generally places, in imagination, rallel ranges of mountains, receding in around Sinai, extensive plains or sandy some places, and then again contract- deserts, where the camp of the hosts ing, and about mid-day entered a nar- was placed; where the families of Is rael stood at the doors of their tents, No doubt a great portion of the diffi culty on this head has been occasioned by the manner in which the Scriptures employ these names, viz. as if they were wholly convertible with each other. On this point we cannot but agree with the arguments and the conclusions of the last mentioned writers, of whom the latter speaks thus ;-'In some passages of the Pentateuch the law is described as having been delivered from Mount Horeb, and in others from Mount Sinai, and this is one of the apparent contradictions, of which scepticism has availed itself to throw doubt on the verity of the narrative, or at least to question that the books in which these seeming discrepancies occur were written by the same person. The answer to this has been by a reference to Mounts Catherine and Moses, as distinct but adjoining peaks of the same range of mountains; and we have no doubt but that it was this view of the subject which occa sioned the summits which now pass for Sinai and Horeb to obtain the distinction they now bear. But it does not appear to us how this answers the objection we have stated, because if Sinai and Horeb are only distinct summits of the same range, how could the same transaction take place in both at once, any more than if they were perfectly distinct mountains? From a careful examination of the various passages in which the names of 'Horeb' and 'Sinai' The two most elevated and conspicuous summits of his peninsular group adjoin each other, and are respectively distinguished by the names of Djebel Katerin (Mount St. Catherine) and Djebel Mousa (Mount Moses); the former being for the most part locally identified with the Horeb of Scripture, and the latter with Sinai. Both terminate in a sharp peak, the planes of which do not exceed fifty or sixty paces in circumference. The former is the higher of the two, and its summit commands a very extensive prospect of the adjacent country, the two arms of the Red Sea, a part of Egypt, and, northward, to within a few days' journey of Jerusalem. There is, however, very great confusion arising from the application of the ancient names 'Sinai' and 'Ho-occur, we think it might be easy to reb' to these several summits. As both these appellations are practically unknown to the present inhabitants of the country, it has been left in great measure to the judgment or fancy of individual travellers to make the application. Professor Robinson, for instance, supposes a third still lower eminence in the same vicinity to be the true Horeb; while the Editors of the 'Modern Traveller,' and the 'Pictorial Bible,' contend for Mount Serbal, several miles distant, as the genuine Mount Sinai, show that these names are different de- |