Verse 18
About the time of forty years - The space of time between their coming out of Egypt, and going into the promised land.
Suffered he their manners - Ετροποφορησεν αυτους ; He dealt indulgently with them: howsoever they behaved towards him, he mercifully bore with, and kindly treated them. But instead of ετροποφορησεν , ACE, some others, with the Syriac, Arabic, Coptic, Ethiopic, and some of the fathers, read ετροφοφορησεν , which signifies, he nourished and fed them, or bore them about in his arms as a tender nurse does her child. This reading confirms the marginal conjecture, and agrees excellently with the scope of the place, and is a reading at least of equal value with that in the commonly received text. Griesbach has admitted it, and excluded the other. Both, when rightly understood, speak nearly the same sense; but the latter is the most expressive, and agrees best with Paul's discourse, and the history to which he alludes. See the same form of expression, Numbers 11:12 ; Exodus 19:4 ; Isaiah 46:3 , Isaiah 46:4 ; Isaiah 63:9 .
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