Numbers 33:52 - Exposition

Ye shall drive out. The Hebrew word (from יָרַשׁ ) is the same which is translated "dispossess" in the next verse. The Septuagint has in both eases ἀπολεῖτε , supplying (like the A.V.) the word "inhabitants" in Numbers 33:53 . The Hebrew word, however, seems to have much the same sense as the English phrase "clear out," and is, therefore, equally applied to the land and the occupants of it. No doubt it implies extermination as a necessary condition of the clearance. Their pictures. מַשְׂכִּיֹּתָם . Septuagint, τὰς σκοπιὰς αὐτῶν , (their outlooks, or high places). The Targums of Onkelos and Palestine have "the houses of their worship;" the Targum of Jerusalem has "their idols." The same word occurs in Le Numbers 26:1 , in the phrase אֵבֶן מַשְׂכִּית , which is usually rendered "a stone image," i.e; a stone shaped into some likeness of man. If so, מַשְׂכִּית by itself has probably the same meaning; at any rate it can hardly be "a picture," nor is there the least evidence that the art of painting was at all practiced among the rude tribes of' Canaan. The same word, maskith, is indeed found in Ezekiel 8:12 in connection with "gravings" (from חָקַק ; cf. Isaiah 22:16 ; Isaiah 49:18 with Ezekiel 4:1 ; Ezekiel 23:14 ) on a wall; but even this belonged to a very different age. Their molten images, צַלְמֵי מַסֵּכֹתָם , "images cast of brass." Septuagint, τὰ εἰδωλα τὰ χονευτά . The word tselem is only elsewhere used in the Pentateuch for that "likeness'' which is reproduced in Divine creation ( Genesis 1:26 , Genesis 1:27 ; Genesis 9:6 ) or in human generation ( Genesis 5:3 ); in the later books, however (especially in Daniel), it is freely used for idols. On "massakah," see on Exodus 32:4 ; Isaiah 30:22 . Their high places. בָמוֹתָם . See on Le 26:30. The Septuagint translates Bamoth in both places by στῆλαι , and of course it was not the high places themselves, which were simply certain prominent elevations, but the monuments (of whatever kind) which superstition had erected upon them, which were to be plucked down. As a fact, it would seem that the Jews, instead of obeying this command, appropriated the Bamoth to their own religious uses (cf. 1 Samuel 9:12 ; 1 Kings 3:2 ; Psalms 78:58 , &c.;). The natural result was, as in all similar cases, that not only the Bamoth, but very many of the superstitions and idolatries connected with them, were taken over into the service of the Lord.