Bible -- Commentaries; Bible -- Feminist criticism; Women in the Bible
Bishop Colenso, in his remarkable work on the Pentateuch, gives the
enormous number of lambs annually sacrificed by the Hebrews. A certain
portion of the flocks were assigned to the priests, who were
continually provided with the best mutton.
L. D. B.
THE BOOK OF NUMBERS
CHAPTER I.
Numbers i.
And the Lord spake unto Moses in tire wilderness of Sinai, saying,
2 Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel,
after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of
their names, every male by their polls:
3 These are those which were numbered of the children of Israel by
the house of their fathers: all those that were numbered of the camps
throughout their hosts were six hundred thousand and three thousand and
five hundred and fifty.
In this chapter Moses is commanded to number the people and the
princes of the tribe, males only, and by the houses of their fathers.
As the object was to see how many effective men there were able to go
to war, the priests, the women, the feeble old men and children were
not counted. Women have frequently been classified with priests in some
privileges and disabilities. At one time in the United States the
clergy were not allowed to vote nor hold office. Like women, they were
considered too good to mingle in political circles. For them to have
individual opinions on the vital questions of the hour might introduce
dissensions alike into the church and the home.
This census of able bodied men still runs on through chapter ii, and
all these potential soldiers are called children of their fathers.
Although at this period woman's chief duty and happiness was bearing
children, no mention is made of the mothers of this mighty host, though
some woman had gone to the gates of death to give each soldier life;
provided him with rations long before he could forage for himself, and
first taught his little feet to march to tune and time. But, perhaps,
if we could refer to the old Jewish census tables we might find that
the able bodied males of these tribes, favorites of Heaven,
had all sprung, Minerva-like, from the brains of their fathers, and
that only the priests, the feeble old men and the children had mothers
to care for them, in the absence of the princes and soldiers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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