Ver. 1. A place for cattle.] Fat, and fit for the purpose; like those pastures in Ireland, so fertile and abounding with sweet grass, that the people are forced to drive their cattle to some other more barren grounds, at some time of the day, lest they should over eat. See Micah 7:14 Jer 50:19.
Ver. 5. Let this land be given unto thy servants.] An unsavoury and unseasonable motion this might seem at first, and did, even to Moses himself, as appears in the next verse. And surely it is probable that they were too much set upon that portion of earth, as Lot was upon the plain of Sodom, (Genesis 13:10) and was therefore soon after carried captive by the four kings, as these in the text are noted to be the first that were carried captives out of their land. (1 Chronicles 5:25,26) Strong affections cause strong afflictions; when God seeth people set upon it to have this or that, have it they may, but with an after-clap that shall dissweeten it. How was David crossed in his Absalom, Absalom in his kingdom, Amnon in his Tamar, Elkanah in his Hannah! (1 Samuel 1:5) He loved her, and the Lord made her barren.
Ver. 11. They have not.] [See Trapp on “Nu 14:24”]
Ver. 14. An increase of sinful men.] A race of rebels; neither good egg nor bird; sin runs in a blood many times; ye seed of serpents, “ye generation of vipers, ye fill up the measure of your fathers’ sins” (Matthew 23:32) Domitius, the father of Nero, foretold the wickedness of his son; for it cannot be, said he, that of me and my wife, Agrippina, any good man should be born. When one complained that never father had so undutiful a child, Yes, said his son, with less grace than truth, my grandfather had. Dio, in Vita Neron.
Ver. 16. We will build sheep folds.] This was their intent at first, though Moses mistook them. There may be gross mistakes, and thereupon grievous unkindnesses, betwixt dearest friends. Cyril, and John, bishop of Antioch, objected heresy one to another, and proceeded as far as excommunication; postea comperti idem sentire: so did Cyril and Theodoret.
Ver. 23. Be sure your sin will find you out.] The guilt will haunt you at heels, as a bloodhound, and the punishment will overtake you, as it did that Popish priest in Lancashire, who being followed by one that found his glove, with a desire to restore it him, but pursued inwardly with a guilty conscience, leapt over a hedge, plunged into a mirey pit behind it, unseen and unthought of, wherein he was drowned. Or as it did that other priest, who, having escaped the fall of Blackfriars, A.D. 1623, where two of his fellow shavelings, with about a hundred more, perished, and taking water, with purpose to sail into Flanders, was cast away, with some others, under London Bridge, the boat being overturned. A contemptuous epithet for a tonsured ecclesiastic. Jac. Rev., De Vit. Pontific., 312.
Ver. 38. Their names being changed.] Out of detestation of those idols, Baal, Nebo, &c. [see Exodus 23:13 Psalms 16:4 Isaiah 46:1] Absit ut de ore Christiano sonet Iupiter omnipotens, et Mehercule, et Mecastor, et caetera, magis portenta quam nuraina, saith Jerome. Heathenish gods should not be so far honoured as to be heard of out of Christian mouths, nor Popish idols neither. I myself, saith Latimer, have used in mine earnest matters, to say, Yea, by the rood, by the mass, by St Mary, which indeed is naught. Some simple folk say, they may swear by the mass, because there is no such thing; and by our lady, because she is gone out of the country. Sermon in Third Sunday in Advent.