117 
jeered at the prophet Elisha, urged to it no doubt by idol- 
worshipping parents, the honour of God^s minister was vin- 
dicated by the punishment of the offenders. Two she-bears 
(the ferocity of the Syrian bear, especially the female, is well 
known) tare forty and two children of them. Can we accept 
this reading? Can we suppose that forty-two children were 
then and there destroyed by two animals? A very slight 
modification of the Hebrew would enable us to render “ two 
out of those forty children,” a rendering which seems very 
likely to give us the real number both of offenders and sufferers. 
26. This is by no means an exhaustive treatise on the 
numbers recorded in our present text of the Old Testament ; 
but they are sufficient, I think, to raise a discussion on the 
whole numerical system, as we at present have it, of the 
Hebrew Scriptures. I have, as I confessed at the outset, 
been treading in the steps of Dr. Colenso and his school. I 
rejoice to find, however, that I am not singular in so doing. 
Dr. Payne Smith, the Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, 
in his Bampton Lectures, distinctly avows it as his opinion 
that the Israelites at the Exodus did not exceed 80,000 in 
number, and that the actual descendants of Jacob were con- 
siderably fewer. Less than a hundredth part, I should say, as 
I have already said. 
27. But though I agree with one of Colenso’s premises, I 
do not with his conclusions. He argues, (i These numbers are 
incredible, therefore the whole Scripture is untrustworthy.” I 
argue, Scripture is true, but these numbers are incredible, 
therefore they are not part of Scripture.” I am not an 
opponent of the Book, but of a part of the received text. I 
am on the side of patriarchs, priests, and prophets, but against 
the upholders of Masoretic tradition. The numbers recorded 
in our Scriptures stand on a very different footing from the 
facts ; and while I cling most stoutly to the facts as recorded, 
I give up the numbers. The Red Sea and the Jordan were 
divinely and miraculously divided, and the Israelites did pass 
through, led by the pillar of cloud and fire : but there were 
not two millions of them. The sacrilegious men of Beth-she- 
mesh were smitten, but there were not 50,070 of them. The 
Ephraimites were massacred, but not 42,000 of them. Samson 
did slay a number of his enemies with that rude weapon which 
Divine might made in his hands as effective as the sharpest 
and weightiest falchion ; but he did not kill a thousand in one 
day. Solomon was gifted with wisdoui and riches by the Most 
High, and built a sumptuous temple to His honour; but he 
had not so much as 673 tons of gold, or £71,500,000, and 
the Temple was more than 200 feet long. 
