Numbers 10:36

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

²⁹Then Moses said to Hobab, the son of Moses' father-in-law Reuel the Midianite, "We are setting out for the place of which the LORD said: 'I will give it to you.' Come with us, and we will treat you well, for the LORD has promised good things to Israel." ³⁰"I will not go," Hobab replied. "Instead, I am going back to my own land and my own people." ³¹"Please do not leave us," Moses said, "since you know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you can serve as our eyes. ³²If you come with us, we will share with you whatever good things the LORD gives us." ³³So they set out on a three-day journey from the mountain of the LORD, with the ark of the covenant of the LORD traveling ahead of them for those three days to seek a resting place for them. ³⁴And the cloud of the LORD was over them by day when they set out from the camp. ³⁵Whenever the ark set out, Moses would say, "Rise up, O LORD! May Your enemies be scattered; may those who hate You flee before You." ³⁶And when it came to rest, he would say: "Return, O LORD, to the countless thousands of Israel."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

O Lord: Psalms 90:13-17

many thousands of Israel: Heb. ten thousand thousands, Genesis 24:60, Deuteronomy 1:10

Reciprocal: Exodus 3:12 - ye shall Numbers 10:28 - according 1 Samuel 23:23 - the thousands 2 Chronicles 5:2 - the ark Psalms 20:5 - and in Psalms 24:7 - shall Psalms 132:8 - Arise Isaiah 63:17 - Return

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And when it passed,.... The ark, and the cloud over it:

he said; Moses stood and prayed, as before, according to the above Targums, in the following manner:

return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel; who were six hundred thousand footmen, besides women and children, Numbers 11:21; the import of this petition is, that upon the resting of the ark God would take up his abode with them, grant them his presence, and manifest his love, grace, mercy, and goodness unto them; or, as it may be rendered, that he would "return the many thousands of Israel"; that is, to the land which he had sworn to their fathers, as Ben Gersom interprets it; and who observes that the word "return" is used, because of the holy fathers who dwelt in the land of Israel; or else, as the same writer further observes, the sense of the petition is, that it might be the will of God to turn the thousands of Israel into myriads, or increase and multiply them ten times more than they were; and so the Targum of Jerusalem is,

"bless the myriads, and multiply the thousands of the children of Israel.''

Perhaps Moses, under a spirit of prophecy, might have a further view, even to the conversion of the Jews in the latter day, when they shall return and seek the true Messiah, and be turned to him, and when all Israel shall be saved.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Each forward movement and each rest of the ark was made to bear a sacramental character. The one betokened the going forth of God against His enemies; the other, His gathering of His own people to Himself: the one was the pledge of victory, the other the earnest of repose.

Numbers 10:36 may be translated: “Restore” (i. e. to the land which their fathers sojourned in), “O Lord, the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel.” (Compare Psalms 85:4, where the verb in the Hebrew is the same.)

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Numbers 10:36. Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel. — These were the words spoken by Moses, at the moment the divisions halted in order to pitch their tents. In reference to this subject, and the history with which it is connected, the Psalms 68:0 seems to have been composed, though applied by David to the bringing the ark from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem. See the notes on Psalms 68:0 Many thousands, literally the ten thousand thousands. Unless the ark went with them, and the cloud of the Divine glory with it, they could have neither direction nor safety; unless the ark rested with them, and the cloud of glory with it, they could have neither rest nor comfort. How necessary are the word of God and the Spirit of God for the direction, comfort, and defence of every genuine follower of Christ! Reader, pray to God that thou mayest have both with thee through all the wilderness, through all the changes and chances of this mortal life: if thou be guided by his counsel, thou shalt be at last received into his glory.