Introduction
THE PREPARATIONS ENDED THE MARCH BEGUN.
This chapter records the institution and use of the silver signal trumpets, (Numbers 10:1-10,) the last statute given before leaving Sinai, and details the beginning and order of the march from Sinai to Paran, (Numbers 10:11-28,) the episode of Hobab, (Numbers 10:29-32,) three days’ march, and the chant of Moses at the removal and resting of the ark, (Numbers 10:33-36.)
CONCLUDING NOTE.
The following are the condensed reflections of Dr. Ridgaway on leaving Mount Sinai: “But as we rode slowly off, the full importance of the transaction which had here taken place more than three thousand years before, when the world was yet in comparative infancy, began to open out and to bind me to the place with a strange spell. Israel sojourned here eleven months, and did any eleven months ever compress in them more influences? Hitherto Israel had been but as a child walking under the guidance of patriarchs, who, as fathers, led him in absolute though fitful simplicity; now grown to youth, he was put under distinct organic law, and was henceforth a nation, with his face toward a future the unfolding of which should be seen in all lands and in all times. The work accomplished by Moses and the people in this short year, regarded merely in its details, is remarkable for its extent and variety. All the while that he was reducing the crude mass to order, ruling them either personally or through elders, he received from Jehovah, and in some extent applied, the law which is distinguished by his name, comprising statutes moral, civil, criminal, judicial, constitutional, ecclesiastical, and ceremonial.”
CONCLUDING NOTE.
The distance of Sinai from the south of Palestine is, in a straight line, less than two hundred miles, but the configuration of the country made a direct advance to it impracticable. The site of the camp on the plain beneath the sacred mount had been nearly 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. The descent from the successive plateaus, through rugged gorges, without a trace of road, must have been hard for so great a multitude a nation on the march not yet accustomed to the difficulties of the way. The vast crowds of human beings of all ages and of both sexes; the trains of beasts and wagons, with the tents and baggage; the herds and flocks, in long drawn succession, would fill all the ravines, far and near, which pointed at all in the same direction, and the progress made must have been equally slow and painful. Advance to the north was almost impossible, from the trend of the hills across the peninsula, so that it only remained to skirt their base, and take the north-eastern direction toward the shore of the gulf of Akaba the branch of the Dead Sea on the east of the triangle of Sinai.” Geikie.
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