Numbers 10:35-36

THE CHANT OF MOSES, Numbers 10:35-36.

The chant which was the signal for the ark to move was as follows:

“Arise, O Jehovah! let thine enemies be scattered;

Let them also that hate thee flee before thee.”

The chant which was the signal for the ark to rest, that the people might encamp, was:

“Return, O Jehovah,

To the ten thousand thousands of Israel.”

In the thought of Moses Jehovah is identified with the ark, his throne, and the visible pledge of his gracious presence. These chants are the language of believing confidence and wonderful intimacy with Jehovah. Their constant use had a tendency to inspire similar courage and joyous assurance in the hearts of the people of God in the presence of the whole hostile world. The first chant was the inspiration of Psalms 68:0, which, according to Hengstenberg, begins thus: “God arises, his enemies are scattered, and those that hate him flee before him.” “One single look,” says the same writer, “at the ark of the covenant, (whose place under the New Testament Christ occupies,) and all enemies sank down into nothing.” How remarkable the prediction in Jeremiah 3:16, that the time will come when this ark, the centre of Israel’s hopes and the seat of omnipotence, will no more come to mind, “neither shall they remember it, neither shall they visit it.” Its Antitype, Jesus risen from the dead, glorified in his saints, and taking vengeance on his enemies, will then take exclusive possession of all minds, either as an object of love or of dread.

36. Return, O Lord From marching in front, Jehovah is now invited to his customary abode amid the many thousands of Israel, literally, ten thousand thousands.