And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee:
Thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon, х wªyaateed (H3489) tihªyeh (H1961) lªkaa (H3807a) `al (H5921) 'azeenekaa (H240)] - and a little spade shall be to thee (thou shalt have a little spade) among thy furniture [where many MSS. read 'al 'ªzineeykaa, among thy utensils, which is preferable (Gesenius). The Septuagint has: kai passalos estai soi epi tees xoonees-and a peg (stake) shall be on thy girdle.] Turkish soldiers are said to carry an implement similar to that with which every Israelite was enjoined to furnish himself; and the 'Punjaub Sanitary Report,' issued for 1862 by the English Commissioner, declares that the sanitary arrangement commanded by Moses is that which is still adopted in the East. 'In our jails,' says he,`all our refuse is buried in the garden, and being rapidly decomposed, no inconvenience is experienced.' He closes the 'Report' with a direct allusion, in elucidation of this habit, to the similar enactment in Israel ('The Pentateuch, and its Authority:' a Review, reprinted from the Record newspaper).
The directions here given, it will be observed, relate not to the Israelite encampment in the wilderness, or in the Arboth Moab, where, it may be presumed, though no details are given, that places convenient for relieving the necessities of nature would be accessible, adequate to the requirements of the population. These instructions point to a special occasion-to some future war after the Israelite settlement in Canaan, and to small detachments of soldiers composing the camp, as is evident from Deuteronomy 23:9-12 of the context.
Viewed in this light, how ridiculously misplaced are the witticisms thrown out by Colenso on this passage, as compelling every individual of the 2,000,000 of Israelites to go more than six miles daily for natural purposes! And how simple, as well as proper, do those instructions appear when it is considered that they were intended for military parties, who are apt during a campaign to become negligent or sordid in their personal habits. In the case of the Israelites, cleanliness was the more imperative, that their heavenly King was present in the camp (Deuteronomy 23:14); whence some think that the ark was carried with them in all their wars. Moreover, cleanliness was symbolical of the moral purity to which God was training them; and the promotion of piety, which undoubtedly was contemplated as an ulterior object in the stringent prohibition of all nuisances in the camp, is a sufficient answer to the contemptuous cavils of infidels, who sneer at this representation of the Divine Being as the grossest anthropomorphism, walking about in the camp, incurring the risk of 'seeing an unclean thing,' and, with the disgusted feelings of a sentient creature, 'turning away' from Israel.