. The next day, fearing that God would exterminate the
nation, agreeably to his threatening, Moses gathered the tribes, set
their sin before them, and told them that he would return to the
divine presence and plead for them, though he knew not that God would
hear him. "Ye have sinned a great sin; and now I will go up unto the
Lord; _peradventure_ I shall make an atonement for your sin. _And
Moses returned unto the Lord and said, Oh! this people have sinned a
great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet, now, if thou wilt,
forgive their sin; and if not blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book
which thou hast written_."

Moses meaning, while praying for Israel, is obvious; but the petition
offered up for himself is not equally so--_blot me, I pray thee, out
of thy book_.

Four different constructions have been put on the is prayer--Some
consider Moses as imprecating damnation on himself, for the good of
his people--Some as praying for annihilation, that they might find
mercy--Some as asking God that he might die with them, if they should
die in the wilderness--Others, that his name might be blotted out of
the page of history, and his memory perish, should Israel be destroyed
and not reach the promised land.

"Blot me" (saith Mr. Cruden) "out of thy book of life--out of the
catalogue, or number of those that shall be saved--wherein Moses does
not express what he thought might be done, but rather wisheth, if it
were possible, that God would accept of him as a sacrifice in their
stead, and by his destruction and annihilation, prevent so great a
mischief to them." *

* Vid. Concordance, under BLOT.

Docr. S. Clark expresseth his sense of the passage to nearly the same
effect.

Did Moses then ask to be made an expiatory sacrifice for the sin of
Israel! Or did he solemnly ask of God what he knew to be so
unreasonable that it could not be granted!

There is no hint in the account given of this affair, that Moses
entertained a thought of being accepted in Israel's stead. He did not
ask to suffer _that they might escape_--he prayed _to be blotted out
of God's book_, if his people could not be forgiven--_If thou wilt,
forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book
which thou hast written_.

Mr. Pool considers Moses as praying to be annihilated that Israel
might be pardoned! "Blot me out of the book of life--out of the
catalogue, or number of those that shall be saved. I suppose Moses
doth not wish