118 
28. As I do not hold that the credibility of Scripture as 
regards matters of fact is in the least degree impaired by the 
false readings of numbers which have crept into the text, so 
neither do I admit the sceptical conclusion that there has been 
“ systematic exaggeration.” Anything more unsystematic 
than their errors it would be very difficult to find ; nor are they 
always exaggerated. Sometimes numbers appear enormously 
— if I were not speaking of a Sacred Book, I should say 
ludicrously — in excess j sometimes they come short of what 
seems most likely to be the truth ; sometimes they are palpably 
correct and authentic. There has been no failure, as the infidel 
would have us believe, either on the part of the Divine or the 
human author, nor any villany on the part of the keepers of 
Holy Writ ; only a few trivial mistakes on the part of the 
scribe, a few slight misapprehensions on the part of the 
rod/dor 
29. But some one may reply, — Why decline to accept 
these numbers as we have them ? Were not the Israelites 
living under a dispensation full of miracles ? Could not the 
Almighty have slain, if He so willed, 50,070 men, and then 
annihilated their corpses, so as to preserve the vicinity 
from pestilence ? Could He not have enabled Samson to slay 
his thousand in the twinkling of an eye, and to dispose of their 
bodies before nightfall? 33 I answer, that there is no doubt of 
the infinite power of the Most High: most surely H e could, 
but did He ? It is not said that there were any special miracles 
beyond the single marvellous fact itself. We are not told of 
any special exertion of Divine power to enable a million of 
worshippers to take part in the great Paschal sacrifice within 
a space so contracted as the Temple, even supposing* its outer 
courts included in the consecrated space. That is to my 
mind a low view of miracle, which tends to the acknowledging 
a number of miracles wrought pro re ncita, or, what I may call 
a waste of miraculous power. When once I read that the 
Almighty did a certain thing, it is enough for me; but I de- 
cline to accept numerical accompaniments which would render 
necessary a series of subsidiary miracles. 
30. There is little difficulty in assigning reasons for the 
alteration of numbers, while the history of facts remains 
incorrupt. 
31. (1.) The word for thousand in Hebrew ( eleph ) also 
means ox. This may have led to one or two mistakes, if not 
more. 
32. (2.) Marginal comments, and corrections, and the 
figures heading haplitoroth, or liturgical sections, may have 
become incorporated with the text. 
