(35-36) And it came to pass . . . --It appears from these words that the marches of the Israelites began and ended with prayer, a significant lesson to the Church of all after ages. It is deserving of observation that the prayers were offered by Moses, not by Aaron. The inverted nuns, or parenthetical marks, which are found in a large number of Hebrew manuscripts at the beginning and end of these verses, are thought by some to denote their insertion as a break in the narrative whilst others have ascribed to them a mystical meaning. The words, "Return, O Lord," Bishop "Wordsworth observes," pre-announced the blessed time of rest and peace, when God would abide with His Church on earth, by the gift of the Holy Ghost, and will tabernacle for ever with His people in heavenly rest and joy." (Revelation 7:15; Revelation 21:3.)

Verse 35. - When the ark set forward. These words, taken in connection with the words "when it rested," in the following verse, confirm the belief that at this time (at any rate) the ark went before the host; for if it had remained in the midst, it would not have stirred until half the tribes had moved off, nor would it have halted until half the camp was pitched, whereas it is evident that its setting forward and standing still were the decisive moments of the day. They had, as it were, a sacramental character; they were visible signs, corresponding to invisible realities, as the movements of the hands on the dial correspond to the action of the machinery within. When the ark and the cloud set forward, it was the Almighty God going on before to victory; when the ark and the cloud rested, it was the all-merciful God returning to protect and cherish his own. This is clearly recognized in the morning and evening prayer of Moses. The typical and spiritual character of that setting forward and that resting could not well have been lost upon any religious mind - that God going before us is the certain and abiding pledge of final victory, that God returning to us is the only hope of present safety. Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered. The sixty-eighth Psalm, which we have learnt to associate with the wonders of Pentecost and the triumphs of the Church on earth, seems to be an expansion of Moses' morning prayer.

10:33-36 Their going out and coming in, gives an example to us to begin and end every day's journey and every day's work with prayer. Here is Moses's prayer when the ark set forward, Rise up, and let thine enemies be scattered. There are those in the world who are enemies to God and haters of him; secret and open enemies; enemies to his truths, his laws, his ordinances, his people. But for the scattering and defeating of God's enemies, there needs no more than God's arising. Observe also the prayer of Moses when the ark rested, that God would cause his people to rest. The welfare and happiness of the Israel of God, consist in the continual presence of God among them. Their safety is not in their numbers, but in the favour of God, and his gracious return to them, and resting with them. Upon this account, Happy art thou, O Israel! who is like unto thee, O people! God will go before them, to find them resting-places by the way. His promise is, and their prayers are, that he will never leave them nor forsake them.And it came to pass, when the ark set forward,.... Carried by the Kohathites, Numbers 10:21,

that Moses said; in prayer, as both the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem express it; and it was a prayer of faith, and prophetic of what would be done, and might serve greatly to encourage and animate the children of Israel in their journeys; for the following prayer was put up not only at this time, but at all times when the ark set forward; and so Ben Gersom says, it was the custom of Moses, at whatsoever time the ark was moved, to pray as follows:

rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; the Jerusalem Targum is,"rise up now, O Word of the Lord;''and the Targum of Jonathan,"be revealed now, O Word of the Lord;''the essential Word of God, the Messiah, to whom these words may be applied; either to his incarnation and manifestation in the flesh, his end in, which was to destroy all his and his people's enemies, particularly the devil and his works, Hebrews 2:14; or to his resurrection from the dead, these words standing at the head of a prophecy of his ascension to heaven, which supposes his resurrection from the dead, Psalm 68:1; at the death of Christ all the spiritual enemies of his people were defeated, scattered, confounded, and conquered; Satan and his principalities were spoiled, sin was made an end of, death was abolished, and the world overcome; at his resurrection the keepers of the sepulchre fled; and after his ascension wrath came upon the Jewish nation, those enemies of his, that would not have him to rule over them, and they were scattered about on the face of the whole earth, as they are to this day:

and let them that hate thee flee before thee; the same petition expressed in different words, but to the same sense; enemies, and those that hate the Lord, are the same, as their defeat, conclusion, and destruction, are signified by their flight and dispersion; and it may be observed, that those who were the enemies and haters of Israel were reckoned the enemies and haters of God himself; as the enemies of Christ's people, and those that hate them, are accounted Christ's enemies, and such that hate him. Perhaps Moses may have a special respect to the Canaanites, whose land was promised unto Israel, and they were going to dispossess them of it, in order to inherit it, and Moses might expect it would be quickly done, at the end of these three days; which brought them to the wilderness of Paran, so near the good land that they sent from thence spies into it, and in all probability they would have then entered the possession of it, had it not been for their complaints and murmurs, and the ill report brought on the good land, on which account they were stopped thirty eight years in the wilderness.