Num 16:46-49, 25:9, 1Sa 6:19, 1Ch 21:14, 27:4, Mat 24:7, Rev 6:8 | TSK | STEP | from off. and put. an atonement. there is wrath. the plague is begun.God now punished them by a secret blast, so as to put the matter beyond dispute; His hand, and His alone, was seen, not only in the plague, but in the manner in which the mortality was arrested. It was necessary that it should be done in this way, that the whole congregation might see that these men who had perished were not "the people of the Lord," and that God, not Moses and Aaron, had destroyed them.

Numbers 16:46-49

from off.

Le 9:24; 10:1; 16:12,13; Isa 6:6,7; Ro 5:9,10; Heb 7:25-27; 9:25,26

Re 8:3-5

and put.

Ps 141:2; Mal 1:11

an atonement.

Ex 30:7-10; Le 16:11-16; 1Jo 2:1,2

there is wrath.

1:53; 8:19; 11:33; 18:5; Le 10:6; 1Ch 27:24; Ps 106:29

the plague is begun.God now punished them by a secret blast, so as to put the matter beyond dispute; His hand, and His alone, was seen, not only in the plague, but in the manner in which the mortality was arrested. It was necessary that it should be done in this way, that the whole congregation might see that these men who had perished were not "the people of the Lord," and that God, not Moses and Aaron, had destroyed them.

and ran.

Mt 5:44; Ro 12:21

and behold.

Ps 106:29

and he put.

46; De 33:10,11; Isa 53:10-12 What the plague was we know not; but it seems from this to have begun at one part of the camp, and to have proceeded regularly onward.

18,35; 25:8-11; 2Sa 24:16,17,25; 1Ch 21:26,27; 1Th 1:10

1Ti 2:5,6; Heb 7:24,25; Jas 5:16; Joh 5:14

fourteen thousand.

32-35; 25:9; 1Ch 21:14; Heb 2:1-3; 10:28,29; 12:25

Numbers 25:9

St. Paul reckons only 23,000: Moses includes in the 24,000 he names, the 1,000 men who were slain in consequence of the judicial examination, (ver. 4,) as well as the 23,000 who died of the plague; while St. Paul only refers to the latter.

4,5; 16:49,50; De 4:3,4; 1Co 10:8

1 Samuel 6:19

he smote.

Ex 19:21; Le 10:1-3; Nu 4:4,5,15,20; De 29:29; 2Sa 6:7

1Ch 13:9,10; Col 2:18; 1Pe 4:17

fifty thousand.As it is very improbable that the village of Beth-shemesh should contain, or be capable of employing, 50,070 men in the fields at wheat harvest, much less that they could all peep into the ark, and from the uncommon manner in which it is expressed in the original, it is generally allowed that there is some corruption in the text, or that some explanatory word is omitted. The Hebrew is {shivim ish, chamishim aileph ish,} literally, "seventy men, fifty thousand men:" so LXX. [ .] Vulgate, {septuaginta viros, et quinquaginta millia plebis,} "70 (chief) men, and 50,000 common people." Targum, {besabey âmma,} "of the elders of the people 70 men, {ovekahala,} and in the congregation 50,000 men." But the Syriac, {chamsho alphin weshivin gavrin,} "5,000 and 70 men;" with which the Arabic agrees; while Josephus has only [ ,] seventy men; and three reputable MSS. of Dr. Kennicott's also omit "50,000 men." Some learned men, however, would render, by supplying [Mêm,] {mem,} "70 men; fifty out of a thousand;" which supposes about 1,400 present, and that a twentieth part were slain.