335 
figures here ? And the only two reasons given for this doubt 
are not any of the five , but first, that the weight of these 
metals, together with that of boards, hangings, and fittings 
was too great to be easily transported from place to place • 
and secondly, that the gold of itself was too considerable a 
sum for the Israelites to have become possessed of by borrow- 
ing of the Egyptians. 
19. Now, by a brief consideration of these two reasons further 
light may be thrown upon the truth, the reasonableness, and 
the consistency of the history and of the numbers contained 
m lt# , , * ir ®^ “ ^ proportion to the reduced number of 600 
men the able-bodied Levites had been only 20 or 30, the re- 
moval of ten or twelve tons from place to place by these 
would certainly have been difficult. But what if, according 
to the census they were 7,000 ?* What if that number was 
divided into three bodies, with special portions of this burden 
allotted to each ?f What if, according to their respective 
burdens, the princes of the congregation provided for one 
two waggons and four oxen; for another, who had to carry 
0n their slloulde rs, no waggons ; and for the third, 
who had to carry the silver, the brass, and the boards, four 
waggons and eight oxen ? could not 7,000 men, with six 
waggons and twelve oxen, transport with perfect ease twelve 
ons weight . But, is there not here a marked adaptation 
ot the power employed to the burden to be borne, which 
ser ™ s con firm the statement respecting the latter ? 
<■ ;; A t *° t '^ e seoond reason, “ a considerable sum (£259,840) 
lor the Israelites to have become possessed of by borrowinq 
ot the Egyptians,” | I would observe that it must be well 
known to any Hebrew scholar that the first and principal 
signification of htmi ( shd-al ) is to ash, demand, or require with- 
out any idea of return being involved; that in the Hebrew 
pcriptures this is the prevailing meaning of the word ; that 
m its three occurrences in the Book of Exodus the Septuagint 
substitutes ahuv, and the Yulgate peto or postulo ; and that 
i these and the following circumstances be duly weighed, it 
mns e a mitted that either ash, demand, or require would 
Zrml tteSe ° aSeS be a fitt6r renderiB g than th e word, to 
21 . The circumstances to which I refer are these : this trans- 
fusion o the Israelites was the subject of a divine command, 
Wlce repeated; and in each repetition of this command an 
expression is used, which, to my mind, serves to clear up the 
* Numb. iy. 22 41 . f Numb. vii. 1 - 9 . 
+ Exod. in. 22 ; xi. 2 ; xii. 35, 36. 
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