Gik jøderne i samme tøj og sandaler i fyrre år?

John Gill(1) skriver:

Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, &c. They wanted not clothes all the forty years they were in the wilderness; which some account for by the rising generation being supplied with the clothes of those that died in the wilderness, and with the spoils they took from Amalek, Exo_17:1 and others, as Aben Ezra observes, remark that they brought much clothes with them out of Egypt, which no doubt they did; see Exo_12:35 and he adds, as worthy of notice, that the manna they lived upon did not produce sweat, which is prejudicial to clothes; but be it so, that they were sufficiently provided with clothes, it must be miraculous that these clothes they wore should not wax old.
[…]
(John Gill, kommentar til 5 Mosebog 8,4).

For at opsummere:

1. Den nye generation af jøder arvede de afdødes tøj;
2. Jøderne supplerede tøjet med, hvad de kunne plyndre blandt egyptere, amalekitter osv. undervejs;
3. Den manna, jøderne levede af i fyrre år, havde den egenskab, at jøderne ikke svedte;
4. Det var et mirakel, at tøjet ikke blev gammelt.

Man undrer sig over, at en så intelligent mand kan skrive sådan noget vrøvl.

Adam Clarke gav ikke meget for Gill's bortforklaring med, at den nye generation havde arvet de gamles tøj, efterhånden som de døde.

Det ville kræve en konstant strøm af mirakler: Først skulle tøjet krympe, hvergang en af de 600.000 mænd (foruden kvinder, gamle og slaver) døde, så tøjet passede til et lille barn, og bagefter skulle tøjet på magisk vis vokse igen, efterhånden som barnet voksede op:

It is generally supposed that God, by a miracle, preserved their clothes from wearing out: but if this sense be admitted, it will require, not one miracle, but a chain of the most successive and astonishing miracles ever wrought, to account for the thing; for as there were not less than 600,000 males born in the wilderness, it would imply, that the clothes of the infant grew up with the increase of his body to manhood, which would require a miracle to be continually wrought on every thread, and on every particle of matter of which that thread was composed. And this is not all; it would imply that the clothes of the parent became miraculously lessened to fit the body of the child, with whose growth they were again to stretch and grow, etc. No such miraculous interference was necessary.
(Adam Clarke, kommentar til 5 Mosebog 8,4).

Clarke's egen forklaring var, at Gud sørgede for, at jøderne havde så meget ejendom og så meget kvæg, at deres vævere, skræddere og skomagere løbende kunne fremstille nye beklædningsgenstande.

Thy raiment waxed not old, etc. - The plain meaning of this much-tortured text appears to me to be this: “God so amply provided for them all the necessaries of life, that they never were obliged to wear tattered garments, nor were their feet injured for lack of shoes or sandals." If they had carvers, engravers, silversmiths, and jewelers among them, as plainly appears from the account we have of the tabernacle and its utensils, is it to be wondered at if they also had habit and sandal makers, etc., etc., as we are certain they had weavers, embroiderers, and such like? And the traffic which we may suppose they carried on with the Moabites, or with travelling hordes of Arabians, doubtless supplied them with the materials; though, as they had abundance of sheep and neat cattle, they must have had much of the materials within themselves.

Der var altså slet ikke noget mirakel — udover at det gik godt for jøderne i ørkenen. Men man kan undre sig over, at Gud var så omhyggelig med at sørge for, at de havde materialer til tøj og sko, mens han samtidig havde travlt med at slå dem alle ihjel.

Med hensyn til at Gud siger, de har gået 40 år i ørkenen, og at de har set Guds mirakler i Egypten, fortolker Gill det som, at mange af dem havde set det — nemlig dem, der dengang var unge nok til ikke at blive dræbt af Gud (dvs. under 20 år gamle for 40 år siden), men stadig gamle nok til at forstå, hvad de så.

[…] or all the wonderful things there done in Egypt were done by the essential Word of God, Christ, the Son of God; who appeared to Moses in the bush, and sent him to Egypt, and by him and Aaron wrought the miracles there; which many now present had seen, and were then old enough to take notice of, and could remember, though their fathers then in being were now dead:
(John Gill, kommentar til 5 Mosebog 29,2. Min fremhævelse)

Desværre for Gill siger teksten rent ud, at Moses taler til »hele Israel«:

5 Mosebog 29,1 Moses kaldte hele Israel til sig og sagde til dem: I har selv set alt, hvad Herren gjorde for øjnene af jer i Egypten mod Farao, mod alle hans hoffolk og hele hans land,

Det skulle være tydeligt, at Gud taler til hver eneste jøde i forsamlingen og ikke kun dem mellem 45 og 60 år. Han havde testet hver eneste af dem, så han kunne få at vide, om de ville holde hans love:

5 Mosebog 8,2 Husk, hvordan Herren din Gud nu i fyrre år har ladet dig vandre i ørkenen, for at ydmyge dig og sætte dig på prøve, så han kunne få at vide, om du har i sinde at holde hans befalinger eller ej.
5 Mosebog 8,3 Han ydmygede dig og lod dig sulte og gav dig manna at spise, som hverken du eller dine fædre kendte, for at lade dig vide, at mennesket ikke lever af brød alene, men af alt, hvad der udgår af Herrens mund.
5 Mosebog 8,4 Dit tøj blev ikke slidt i laser og faldt ikke af dig, og dine fødder svulmede ikke op i disse fyrre år.