390 
men of Bethshemesh did not stand alone. The difference 
between men and people, which the Vulgate marks by the words 
viros and plebis, and which is asserted not to exist in the 
Hebrew, does exist there ; and the most literal rendering of 
the words so far is this — “ He smote of or among the men 
of Bethshemesh because they looked into the ark of the Lord, 
and he smote of or among the people” 
30. The other objection to this rendering of the words 
“ seventy out of fifty thousand” is, that it involves the insertion 
of the preposition out of. But no forced or unnatural insertion of 
that preposition is required in such a connection. Glassius in 
his “ Philologia Sacra,” states the omission of » of, or out of, 
to be an established idiom. And one of the examples given 
by him exactly meets and illustrates the case before us. It 
occurs in the intercession of Abraham on behalf of Sodom — * 
.ruston DpHttn o>t&»n p-orv 'biK 
Five the righteous fifty lack peradventure 
“ Peradventure there lack five of the fifty righteous.” On 
which Glassius remarks, “ pro de quinquaginta 
viris.” 
31. In preference to so reasonable a rendering, the paper on 
“ The Numerical System of the Old Testament ” suggests the fol- 
lowing : — “ Still I think I shall be pardoned if I suggest that in 
the old Hebrew character the symbols of f out of a thousand/ 
and f fifty thousand,'’ might be most easily mistaken for one 
another ; and that the seventy itself is but a mistake for the 
indefinite number seven. Those who understand Hebrew are 
aware that the tens are expressed by the plurals of the units. 
f Seventy 9 is in the Hebrew expressed by f sevens/ Here is 
an opportunity for error; to which we may add, that though 
the character expressing f seventy/ is not particularly like 
that denoting ( seven,'’ the names of the letters Ain and Zain 
are not unlike one another.” In short, the rendering to be 
obtained by this singular process is to be, “ out of a thousand 
people He smote several.” 
32. Now let the symbols for out of a thousand,” and for 
" fifty thousand,” in the old Hebrew character be produced, 
that their similarity and the facility with which one might be 
mistaken for the other, may be seen. I cannot myself regard 
the suggestion to be pardonable without this. 
33. The supposed casual substitution, however, of the symbol 
of “ seventy,” for the symbol of ff seven,” was an impossibility. 
* Gen. xviii. 28. 
