384 
16. But the most remarkable occurrenceof this exact nnmber, 
especially as exhibiting the impossibility of any casual altera- 
tion, or the so-styled ‘ f high exaggeration through a smear or 
&blot” is that found in the statement of the amount of gold 
and silver and brass used in the work of the tabernacle. 
The silver is said to have amounted to 100 talents and 1,775 
shekels. Of the 100 talents were cast the sockets or bases 
of the sanctuary, and the sockets or bases of the vail — a 
talent for a socket.” Of the 1,775 shekels were made the 
hooks for the pillars ; and the chapiters were overlaid and 
filleted. It maybe remarked, by the way, that these sockets, 
weighing about 1 cwt. each, were the only foundation of the 
tabernacle, and five tons weight of metal is not too much to 
allow for such a purpose. What, however, is the source of 
this vast supply of silver ? Moses replies, “ A bekah for 
every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the 
sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from 
twenty years old and upward, six hundred and three thousand 
and jive hundred and fifty.”* Now a talent contained 6,000 
half- shekels ; 600,000 contributors then, of half a shekel each, 
would be required to make up 100 talents ; and 3,550 con- 
tributors of the odd 1,775 shekels added to these, exactly 
complete the thrice-repeated total of the first census, 603,550. 
Now, when two amounts exactly agree, and when, by him 
who gives them, they are evidently intended so to agree, it is 
incredible that casual error should occur with such coincidence 
in both. If accidental in one, it must have been designed 
in the other. 
17. Further, if the amount of metal in this passage be exag- 
gerated, there must be equal exaggeration in the description 
of the tabernacle and its furniture,! and equal error in the 
recorded instructions respecting it given to Moses by J ehovah. J 
For the amount of metal is not in excess of the work done 
and required to be done. By error, then, in this numerical 
statement, at least a cloud would be thrown over seven 
chapters of the Book of Exodus. 
18. Notwithstanding all this, the theory of a casual alteration 
of numbers is extended to this very passage. The last set 
of numbers from the Pentateuch,” with which readers of the 
paper on “ The Numerical System of the Old Testament are 
troubled,” is the sum total of the metals used in the work of 
the tabernacle. Discredit and doubt are cast upon the state- 
ment by the inquiry — “ Is there not some misapprehension of 
* Exod. xxxviii. 26. t Exod. xxxv.— xxxviii. 
J Exod. xxv.— xxvii. 
