Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Numbers 27:18 - 27:18

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com

Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Numbers 27:18 - 27:18


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

The Lord then appointed Joshua to this office as a man “who had spirit.” רוּהַ (spirit) does not mean “insight and wisdom” (Knobel), but the higher power inspired by God into the soul, which quickens the moral and religious life, and determines its development; in this case, therefore, it was the spiritual endowment requisite for the office he was called to fill. Moses was to consecrate him for entering upon this office by the laying on of hands, or, as is more fully explained in Num 27:19 and Num 27:20, he was to set him before Eleazar the high priest and the congregation, to command (צִוָּה) him, i.e., instruct him with regard to his office before their eyes, and to lay of his eminence (הֹוד) upon him, i.e., to transfer a portion of his own dignity and majesty to him by the imposition of hands, that the whole congregation might hearken to him, or trust to his guidance. The object to יִשְׁמְעוּ (hearken) must be supplied from the context, viz., אֵלָיו (to him), as Deu 34:9 clearly shows. The מִן (of) in Num 27:20 is partitive, as in Gen 4:4, etc. The eminence and authority of Moses were not to be entirely transferred to Joshua, for they were bound up with his own person alone (cf. Num 12:6-8), but only so much of it as he needed for the discharge of the duties of his office. Joshua was to be neither the lawgiver nor the absolute governor of Israel, but to be placed under the judgment of the Urim, with which Eleazar was entrusted, so far as the supreme decision of the affairs of Israel was concerned. This is the meaning of Num 27:21 : “Eleazar shall ask to him (for him) the judgment of the Urim before Jehovah.” Urim is an abbreviation for Urim and Thummim (Exo 28:30), and denotes the means with which the high priest was entrusted of ascertaining the divine will and counsel in all the important business of the congregation. “After his mouth” (i.e., according to the decision of the high priest, by virtue of the right of Urim and Thummim entrusted to him), Joshua and the whole congregation were to go out and in, i.e., to regulate their conduct and decide upon their undertakings. “All the congregation,” in distinction from 'all the children of Israel,” denotes the whole body of heads of the people, or the college of elders, which represented the congregation and administered its affairs.