LESSON XLVIII.

THE SENTENCE.

B.C. 1490.-NUMBERS xiv. 10-25.

And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel.

And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them?

I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.

And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them ;)

And they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou LORD art among this people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.

Now if thou shalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying,

Because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore hath he slain them in the wilderness.

And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my LORD be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,

The LORD is long suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon their children unto the third and fourth generation.

Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

And the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word:

But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.

Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoke me see it :

But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

(Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley.) Tomorrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.

LESSON XLIX.

THE FORTY YEARS.

B.C. 1490.—NUMBERS xiv. 26–45.

And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me.

Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:

Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, which have murmured against me.

Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised.

But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.

After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

I the LORD have said, I will surely do it unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,

Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord.

But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.

And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.

And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned.

And Moses said, Wherefore do ye now transgress the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper.

Go not up, for the LORD is not among you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies.

For the Amalekites and Canaanites are there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.

But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.

Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.*

LESSON L.

THE PSALM OF MOSES.†

PSALM XC.

B.C. 1490.-The title of this Psalm in the Bible, as well as universal belief, declares that it was composed by Moses when bewailing the sin at Kadesh and the sentence.

LORD, thou hast been our refuge

From one generation to another.

Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth or the world were made,

Thou art God from everlasting, and world without end.

Thou turnest man to destruction:

Again thou sayest, Come again, ye children of men.

For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday,
Seeing that is past as a watch ‡ in the night.

As soon as thou scatterest them, they are even as a sleep :
And fade away suddenly like the grass.

In the morning it is green, and groweth up:

But in the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered.
For we consume away in thy displeasure,

And are afraid at thy wrathful indignation.

Thou hast set our misdeeds before thee,

And our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

For when thou art angry all our days are gone :

We bring our years to an end, as it were a tale that is told.§

The days of our age are threescore years and ten;

And though men be so strong that they come to fourscore years,

Yet is their strength but labour and sorrow;

So soon passeth it away, and we are gone.

But who regardeth the power of thy wrath?

+ For the older ones.

* Utter destruction.

A division of time three hours long. § Something counted out.

For even thereafter as a man feareth, so is thy displeasure.
So teach us to number our days,

That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Turn thee again, O LORD, at the last,

And be gracious unto thy servants.

O satisfy us with thy mercy, and that soon:

So shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.

Comfort us again now after the time that thou hast plagued us,
And for the years wherein we have suffered adversity.

Shew thy servants thy work,

And their children thy glory.

And the glorious Majesty of the LORD our God be upon us:
Prosper thou the work of our hands upon us, O prosper thou our
handy-work.

LESSON LI

THE GAINSAYING OF KORAH.

NUMBERS xvi. 1-15.

ABOUT B.C. 1471.—Very little is recorded of the next forty years until the last had begun, though there is a list of the places where the Israelites rested. They were living like the other wandering tribes, halting where there was pasture, and then moving on again, only The exact time ever guided by the cloud, ever fed by the manna.

of the event next recorded is not known.

Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men :

And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown:

And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?

And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face :

And he spoke unto Korah and unto all his company, saying, Even to morrow the LORD will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him.

This do; Take you censers, Korah, and all his company;

And put fire therein, and put incense in them before the LORD to morrow:

and it shall be that the man whom the LORD doth choose, he shall be holy: ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi.

And Moses said unto Korah, Hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi:

Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the LORD, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them?

And he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee: and seek ye the priesthood also?

For which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the LORD: and what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him?

And Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab : which said, We will not come up:

Is it a small thing that thou hast brought us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us?

Moreover thou hast not brought us into a land that floweth with milk and honey, or given us inheritance of fields and vineyards: wilt thou put out the eyes of these men ?* we will not come up.

And Moses was very wroth, and said unto the LORD, Respect not thou their offering: I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them.

LESSON LII.

THE FATE OF DATHAN AND ABIRAM.

B.C. 1471.-NUMBERS xvi. 16—34.

And Moses said unto Korah, Be thou and all thy company before the LORD, thou, and they, and Aaron, to morrow:

And take every man his censer, and put incense in them, and bring ye before the LORD every man his censer, two hundred and fifty censers; thou also, and Aaron, each of you his censer.

And they took every man his censer, and put fire in them, and laid incense thereon, and stood in the door of the tabernacle of the congregation with Moses and Aaron.

And Korah gathered all the congregation against them unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; and the glory of the LORD appeared unto all the congregation.

And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.

And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits

Wilt thou blind us to our condition?

*