And the Lord spake unto Moses, &c.— To make the foundation of the Hebrew government solid and lasting, the wisdom of their lawgiver declared, as an essential branch of their constitution, that the territory should be equally divided; so that the whole six hundred thousand should each have a full property in an equal part of it; and that every man should hold his estate as a freehold in chief, immediately from God himself, without any tenure of service to any great man whatsoever; and that this tenure should be unalienable from the family in which it was originally settled, and should descend by an indefeasible entail in perpetual succession. Lowman, p. 41. Though this division of the land was to be made by lot, Numbers 34:13 yet it was fit that there should be some persons to oversee the business; the management of it, therefore, is ordered, with great propriety, to be in the hands of the high-priest, the governor or chief general, and a principal officer chosen out of each tribe as its representative in the affair; and it was under the immediate eye of God, and at the door of his sanctuary, that the business was transacted, as will be seen upon Joshua, chap. 18: and 19: At present we only observe, that Moses names not the tribes in such order as they were at their first and second numbering, chap. 1: and 26: but according to the situation which they afterwards had in the land of Canaan: a proof that Moses, animated by the spirit of God, did nothing but by the direction of that spirit.
REFLECTIONS.—Though they had not yet possessed one foot of Canaan, God will have them look upon the conquest as certain, and the land accordingly is divided among the remaining nine tribes and half. Eleazar and Joshua are the chief commissioners, and types of Jesus, the priest and king of his people, who will divide among them his eternal inheritance. A prince of each tribe is joined with them, to take care of the interests of his people, and to avoid all suspicion of partiality in the distribution. It is not enough to do right; we should take care to have our just dealing evident to all men.