or misplaced. In the 18th verse of the same chapter of Numbers, it is said, that after the first division was gone, and the Tabernacle, "the standard of the camp of Reuben set forward according to their armies."-The camp of Reuben, therefore, was that which moved second on this occasion. Does this accord with the position it was elsewhere said to have occupied? It is obvious that a mistake might here most readily have crept in; and that if the writer had not been guided by a real knowledge of the facts which he was pretending to describe, it is more than probable he would have betrayed himself. Turn we then to the 2d chapter, (v. 10,) where the order of the tribes in their tents is given, and we there find that " on the south side was to be the standard of the camp of Reuben, according to their armies." Again, let us turn to the 10th chapter, (v. 6,) where the directions for the signals are given, and we are there told," When ye blow the alarm the second time, then the camps on the south side shall take their journey ;"-but the passage last quoted, (which is far removed from this,) informs us that Reuben was on the south side of the Tabernacle; the camp of Reuben therefore it was, which was appointed to move when the alarm was blown the second time. Accordingly we see in the description of the actual breaking-up from Sinai, with which I set out, that the camp of Reuben was in fact the second to move. The same argument may be followed up, and the same satisfactory conclusions obtained in the other two camps of Ephraim and Dan; though here recourse must be had to the Septuagint, of which the text is more full in these two latter instances than the Hebrew text of our own version, and more full precisely upon those points which are wanted in evidence. On such a trifle does the practicability of establishing an argument of coincidence turn; and so perpetually, no doubt, (were we but aware of it,) are we prevented from doing justice to the veracity of the writings of Moses, by the lack of more abundant details. - In all this, it appears to me, that without any care or circumspection of the historian, as to how he should make the several parts of his tale agree together without any display on the one hand, or mock concealment on the other, of a harmony to be found in those several parts-and in the mean time, with ample scope for the admission of unguarded mistakes, by which a mere impostor would soon stand convicted, * Septuagint, Numbers, x. 6. the whole is at unity with itself, and the internal evidence resulting from it, clear, precise, and above suspicion. XIX. 1. THE arrangements of the camp provide us with another coincidence, no less satisfactory than the last-for it may be here remarked, that in proportion as the history of Moses descends to particulars, (which it does in the camp,) in that proportion is it fertile in the arguments of which I am at present in search. It is in general the extreme brevity of the history, and nothing else, that baffles us in our inquiries; often affording (as it does) a hint which we cannot pursue for want of details, and exhibiting a glimpse of some corroborative fact which it is vexatious to be so near grasping, and still to be compelled to relinquish it. In the 16th chapter of the Book of Numbers we read, " 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 congregation 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."* Such is the history of the conspiracy got up against the authority of the leaders of Israel. The principal parties engaged in *Numb. xvi. 1. |