Numbers 36:13 Komentář

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 36 This chapter gives an account of an application made by the heads of the tribe of Manasseh, concerning the inheritances of the daughters of Zelophehad, which, should they marry into other tribes, would be removed thither, and so be a loss to theirs, Num 36:1, which case was judged worthy of regard; and to remedy this inconvenience, they were ordered to marry into the family of their father's tribe, and this was to be a law to all heiresses for the future in other tribes, Num 36:5 and accordingly the daughters of Zelophehad married their father's brothers' sons, Num 36:10.

The inconveniences which might be produced by daughters, inheritances, marrying out of their own tribe, remedied on the recommendation of certain chiefs of the tribe of Joseph, who stated the case of the daughters of Zelophehad, Num 36:1-4. The daughters of Zelophehad are commanded to marry in their own tribe, Num 36:5, Num 36:6; which is to be an ordinance in all similar circumstances, Num 36:7-9. The daughters of Zelophehad marry their father's brother's sons, and thus their inheritance is preserved in their own tribe, Num 36:10-12. The conclusion of the commandments given by the Lord to the Israelites in the plains of Moab, Num 36:13.

These are the commandments, etc. - See these different terms analyzed and explained, Lev 26:15 (note). Thus ends the book of Numbers, containing a series of astonishing providences and events. Scarcely any piece of history in the sacred writings is better calculated to impress the mind of a serious reader with a sense of the goodness and severity of God. In every transaction his holiness and justice appear in closest union with his benevolence and mercy. From such a Being what have the wicked not to fear! From such a Father and Friend what have the upright not to hope! His justice requires him to punish iniquity, but his mercy inclines him to pardon all who truly repent and believe in the Son of his love. The journeyings of this people, from the time they left Egypt, exhibit a series of providential wonders. Every where, and in every circumstance, God appears: and yet there is no circumstance or occasion that does not justify those signal displays of his Grace and his Justice. The genuine history of God's providence must be sought for in this book alone; and as every occurrence happened as an example, we have authority to conclude that in every case where his own glory and the salvation of man are interested, he will interfere and give the fullest proofs that he is the same to-day that he was yesterday, and will continue unchangeable for ever and ever. Reader, are these matters ensamples to thee? Art thou, like the Israelites, come into the plains of Moab, on the very verge of the promised land? Jordan alone separates thee from the promised inheritance. O, watch and pray, that thou come not short of the glory of God. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death; see then that the sting of death, which is sin, be extracted from thy soul, that, being justified by Christ's blood, thou mayest be made an heir according to the hope of an eternal life. Amen, amen. "I will bring you into the Wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face, like as I pleaded with your fathers in the Wilderness of the land of Egypt. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and bring you into the bond of the covenant," Eze 20:35-37. "He (Christ) is the Mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance," Heb 9:15. Sections In the Book of Numbers, carried on from Leviticus, which ends with the Thirty-Third. The Thirty-Fourth, called במדבר bemidbar, begins Num 1:1, and ends Num 4:20. The Thirty-Fifth, called נשא nasa, begins Num 4:21, and ends Num 7:89. The Thirty-Sixth, called בהעלתך behaalothecha, begins Num 8:1, and ends Num 12:16. The Thirty-Seventh, called שלח shelach, begins Num 13:1, and ends Num 15:41. The Thirty-Eighth, called קרח korach, begins Num 16:1, and ends Num 18:32. The Thirty-Ninth, called חקת chukkath, begins Num 19:1, and ends Num 22:1. The Fortieth, called בלק balak, begins Num 22:2, and ends Num 25:9. The Forty-First, called פינחס pinechas, begins Num 25:10, and ends Num 30:1. The Forty-Second, called מטות mattoth, begins Num 30:2, and ends Num 32:42. The Forty-Third, called מסעי masey, begins Num 33:1, and ends Num 36:13.

THE INCONVENIENCE OF THE INHERITANCE. (Num 36:1-13) the chief fathers of the families of the children of Gilead--Being the tribal governors in Manasseh, they consulted Moses on a case that affected the public honor and interests of their tribe. It related once more to the daughters of Zelophehad. Formerly they had applied, at their own instance, to be recognized, for want of male heirs in their family, as entitled to inherit their father's property [Num 27:1-11]; now the application was made on behalf of the tribe to which they belonged--that steps might be taken to prevent the alienation of their patrimony by their alliance with husbands of another tribe. The unrestricted marriages of daughters in such circumstances threatened seriously to affect the tenure of land in Israel, as their inheritance would go to their children, who, by the father's side, would belong to another tribe, and thus lead, through a complication of interests and the confusion of families, to an evil for which even the Jubilee could not afford a remedy. [See on Lev 25:13].

These are the commandments and the judgments, which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab--The Israelitish encampment was on an extensive plateau north of the Arnon, which, though wrested from the Moabites by Sihon and Og, still retained the name of its original possessors. The particular site, as indicated by the words "Jordan near Jericho," is now called El-Koura--a large plain lying not far from Nebo, between the Arnon and a small tributary stream, the Wael [BURCKHARDT]. It was a desert plain on the eastern bank, and marked only by groves of the wild, thorny acacia tree. Next: Deuteronomy Introduction

The occasion for this law was a representation made to Moses and the princes of the congregation by the heads of the fathers' houses (האבות for בּית־האבות, as in Exo 6:25, etc.) of the family of Gilead the Manassite, to which Zelophehad (Num 26:33) belonged, to the effect that, by allotting an hereditary possession to the daughters of Zelophehad, the tribe-territory assigned to the Manassites would be diminished if they should marry into another tribe. They founded their appeal upon the command of Jehovah, that the land was to be distributed by lot among the Israelites for an inheritance (Num 36:2 compared with Num 26:55-56, and Num 33:54); and although it is not expressly stated, yet on the ground of the promise of the everlasting possession of Canaan (Gen 17:8), and the provision made by the law, that an inheritance was not to be alienated (Lev 25:10, Lev 25:13, Lev 25:23.), they understood it as signifying that the portion assigned to each tribe was to continue unchanged to all generations. (The singular pronoun, my Lord, in Num 36:2, refers to the speaker, as in Num 32:27.) Now, as the inheritance of their brother, i.e., their tribe-mate Zelophehad, had been given to his daughters (Num 27:1), if they should be chosen as wives by any of the children of the (other) tribes of Israel, i.e., should marry into another tribe, their inheritance would be taken away from the tribe-territory of Manasseh, and would be added to that of the tribe into which they were received. The suffix להם (Num 36:3) refers ad sensum to מטּה, the tribe regarded according to its members.

The conclusion refers not merely to the laws and rights contained in Num 33:50-36:13, but includes the rest of the laws given in the steppes of Moab (ch. 25-30), and forms the conclusion tot he whole book, which places the lawgiving in the steppes of Moab by the side of the lawgiving at Mount Sinai (Lev 26:46; Lev 27:34) and bring sit to a close, though without in any way implying that the explanation (בּאר, Deu 1:5), further development, and hortatory enforcement of the law and its testimonies, statutes, and judgments (Deu 1:5; Deu 4:44., Num 12:1.), which follow in Deuteronomy, are not of Mosaic origin.