A

"Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened.”—Ex., 8, 19.

FTER the third and fourth plagues there

could no longer be any doubt as to the

power of Moses, and very little doubt as to his divine authority. When the plague of lice came, Pharaoh's magicians tried to imitate it and failed, and they confessed to him that they believed that Moses had the power of a god. In the plague of flies, Moses for the first time drew a dividing line: the flies did not come into the houses of the Israelites; they pestered only the Egyptians.

Strangely indeed must Pharaoh have felt his position. He, the absolute monarch who had always had his way in everything and been all powerful, who was called a god by his people, he was now told by his own learned men that there was another more powerful than he, that there was a real God acting against him, and that he must yield. Small wonder if he sulked like a spoiled child! He shut himself up in his palaces; he "hardened his heart"; the pleasure of life was gone from him. Secretly he began to scheme as to how he could grant and yet deny, let the Israelites worship, yet continue their misery, so as to revenge himself upon them.

NUMBERS III—THE REDEEMING OF THE LEVITES

241

of all the firstborn among the children of Israel; and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstlings among the cattle of the children of Israel.

42 And Moses numbered, as the LORD commanded him, all the firstborn among the children of Israel.

43 And all the firstborn males by the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those that were numbered of them, were twenty and two thousand two hundred and threescore and thirteen,

44 | And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

45 Take the Levites, instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; and the Levites shall be mine: I am the LORD.

46 And for those that are to be redeemed of the two hundred and threescore and thirteen of the firstborn of the children of Israel, which are more than the Levites;

47 Thou shalt even take five shekels apiece by the poll, after the shekel of the sanctuary shalt thou take them: (the shekel is twenty gerahs:)

48 And thou shalt give the money, wherewith the odd number of them is to be redeemed, unto Aaron and to his sons.

49 And Moses took the redemption-money of them that were over and above them that were redeemed by the Levites:

50 Of the firstborn of the children of Israel took he the money; a thousand three hundred and threescore and five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary.

51 And Moses gave the money of them that were redeemed unto Aaron and to his sons, according to the word of the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses.

Chapter 4 1 The age and time of the Levites' service, 4 The carriage of the Kohathites, when the priests have taken down The tabernacle. 16 The charge of Eleazar. 17. The office of the priests. 21 The carriage of the Gershonites. 29 The carriage of the Merarites. 34 The number of the Kohathites, 38 of the Gershonites, 42 and of the Merarites,

ND the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

2 Take the sum of the sons of Kohath from among the

sons of Levi, after their families, by the house of their fathers, 3 From thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all that enter into the host, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation.

4 This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation, about the most holy things:

5 | And when the camp setteth forward, Aaron shall come, and his sons, and they shall take down the covering vail, and cover the ark of testimony with it:

6 And shall put thereon the covering of badgers' skins, and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of blue, and shall put in the staves thereof.