Numbers 36:13 - Exposition

The commandments, הַמִּצוֹת . This is one of the words which recur so continually in Deuteronomy and in Psalms 119:1-176 . It is found four times in Psalms 15:1-5 , and in a few other passages of the earlier books, including Le 27:34. The judgments. הַמִּשְׁפָטִים . A similar formula is found at the conclusion of Leviticus (Le Leviticus 26:46 ), where, however, "the commandments" represents a different word ( הַחֻקִּים ), and a third term, "the laws" ( הַתּוֹרֹת ), is added. It is difficult to say confidently what is included under the "these" of this verse. Comparing it with Numbers 33:50 , it would seem that it only referred to the final regulations and enactments of the last four chapters; but as we have no reason to believe that the later sections of the Book are arranged in any methodical order, we cannot limit its scope to those, or deny that it may include the laws of chapters 28-30. For a similar reason we cannot say that the use of this concluding formula excludes the possibility of further large additions having been subsequently made to the Divine legislation in the same place and by the same person, as recorded in the Book of Deuteronomy. All we can say is, that the Book of Numbers knows nothing about any such additions, and concludes in such sort as to make it a matter of surprise that such additions are afterwards met with. The continuity, which so clearly binds together the main bulk of the four books of Moses, ends with this verse. This fact does not of course decide any question which arises concerning the fifth book; it merely leaves all such questions to be determined on their own merits.