But do not all the ancient paraphrasts sanction the translation of the authorised version? What of that, if they happen to be wrong! Such a consideration will never interfere with my own judgment, founded on a thorough knowledge of the meaning of the Hebrew word. I have long since learned that opinions are not necessarily true, because they are old ones, nor doctrines undeniably infallible, because we may have believed in them from our cradles. I am positive, however, that had the LXX, the authors of the Vulgate, Rashi, and the translators of the authorised version, known the locality of Wady Mokatteb, they would have hesitated before they put so unnatural a construction on the word. Aye, and DR. TODD too, if he were in the valley, and traced, with his generally correct mind, the wanderings of the people of Israel, would have exclaimed, "Surely this is none other than the Kibroth Hattavah of Scripture, and rightly named "[Hebrew: kthvbym]."
Onkelos, however, in his _Chaldee Paraphrase_--DR. TODD evidently overlooked that, for he grouped the _Chaldee Paraphrase_ amongst the mistranslators--renders the words [Hebrew: vhmh bkthvbym] literally and grammatically by the Chaldee words [Hebrew: vnvn bkthyby], "And they were amongst the inscriptions."
But do not the words "but they went not out into the tabernacle, and they prophesied in the camp," "completely overturn my hypothesis?" They may according to DR. TODD'S criticisms, but not according to the correct sense of that interesting portion of Scripture. The people in the camp were evidently under the impression that it was not right for any one but the seventy to prophesy, nor was it lawful to prophesy any where else but at the tabernacle, as they were accustomed to hear Moses do; the fact, therefore, that two men, who were _not_ of the seventy, and far away from the tabernacle, probably in the very centre of the camp of Israel, which I conceive Wady Mokatteb to have been, being gifted with a spirit of prophecy, seemed so astounding and unprecedented in the history of Israel's wanderings, that the inspired writer is induced to make a particular note of the few circumstances connected with that extraordinary event.
The above is a _fair_, _sound_, and _well-digested_ view of the passage in question. Adding to it the stubborn fact--which _Dr. Todd_ ignores--that where the ancient maps have Kibroth Hattavah, the modern maps have Wady Mokatteb, the conclusion is inevitable that _Wady Mokatteb is mentioned in Num. xi. 26_.