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Featured Book: The Comprehensive New Testament More Books: Online References: Apostolic and Early Church Fathers
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*ON
THE LIFE OF MOSES, I* {**Yonge's
full title, A Treatise on the Life of Moses, that is to say, On the Theology and
Prophetic Office of Moses, Book I.} I.
(1) I have conceived the idea of writing the life of Moses, who, according to
the account of some persons, was the lawgiver of the Jews, but according to
others only an interpreter of the sacred laws, the greatest and most perfect man
that ever lived, having a desire to make his character fully known to those who
ought not to remain in ignorance respecting him, (2) for the glory of the laws
which he left behind him has reached over the whole world, and has penetrated to
the very furthest limits of the universe; and those who do really and truly
understand him are not many, perhaps partly out of envy, or else from the
disposition so common to many persons of resisting the commands which are
delivered by lawgivers in different states, since the historians who have
flourished among the Greeks have not chosen to think him worthy of mention, (3)
the greater part of whom have both in their poems and also in their prose
writings, disparaged or defaced the powers which they have received through
education, composing comedies and works full of Sybaritish profligacy and
licentiousness to their everlasting shame, while they ought rather to have
employed their natural endowments and abilities in preserving a record of
virtuous men and praiseworthy lives, so that honorable actions, whether ancient
or modern, might not be buried in silence, and thus have all recollection of
them lost, while they might shine gloriously if duly celebrated; and that they
might not themselves have seemed to pass by more appropriate subjects, and to
prefer such as were unworthy of being mentioned at all, while they were eager to
give a specious appearance to infamous actions, so as to secure notoriety for
disgraceful deeds. (4) But I disregard the envious disposition of these men, and
shall proceed to narrate the events which befell him, having learnt them both
from those sacred scriptures which he has left as marvelous memorials of his
wisdom, and having also heard many things from the elders of my nation, for I
have continually connected together what I have heard with what I have read, and
in this way I look upon it that I am acquainted with the history of his life
more accurately than other people. II.
(5) And I will begin first with that with which it is necessary to begin. Moses
was by birth a Hebrew, but he was born, and brought up, and educated in Egypt,
his ancestors having migrated into Egypt with all their families on account of
the long famine which oppressed Babylon and all the adjacent countries; for they
were in search of food, and Egypt was a champaign country blessed with a rich
soil, and very productive of every thing which the nature of man requires, and
especially of corn and wheat, (6) for the river of that country at the height of
summer, when they say that all other rivers which are derived from winter
torrents and from springs in the ground are smaller, rises and increases, and
overflows so as to irrigate all the lands, and make them one vast lake. And so
the land, without having any need of rain, supplies every year an unlimited
abundance of every kind of good food, unless sometimes the anger of God
interrupts this abundance by reason of the excessive impiety of the inhabitants.
(7) And his father and mother were among the most excellent persons of their
time, and though they were of the same time, still they were induced to unite
themselves together more from an unanimity of feeling than because they were
related in blood; and Moses is the seventh generation in succession from the
original settler in the country who was the founder of the whole race of the
Jews. III.
(8) And he was thought worthy of being bred up in the royal palace, the cause of
which circumstance was as follows. The king of the country, inasmuch as the
nation of the Hebrews kept continually increasing in numbers, fearing lest
gradually the settlers should become more numerous than the original
inhabitants, and being more powerful should set upon them and subdue them by
force, and make themselves their masters, conceived the idea of destroying their
strength by impious devices, and ordered that of all the children that were born
the females only should be brought up (since a woman, by reason of the weakness
of her nature, is disinclined to and unfitted for war), and that all the male
children should be destroyed, that the population of their cities might not be
increased, since a power which consists of a number of men is a fortress
difficult to take and difficult to Destroy.{1}{the similitude of this passage to
Sir William Jones' Ode is very remarkable: "What constitutes a
state."} (9) Accordingly as the child Moses, as soon as he was born,
displayed a more beautiful and noble form than usual, his parents resolved, as
far as was in their power, to disregard the proclamations of the tyrant.
Accordingly they say that for three months continuously they kept him at home,
feeding him on milk, without its coming to the knowledge of the multitude; (10)
but when, as is commonly the case in monarchies, some persons discovered what
was kept secret and in darkness, of those persons who are always eager to bring
any new report to the king, his parents being afraid lest while seeking to
secure the safety of one individual, they who were many might become involved in
his destruction, with many tears exposed their child on the banks of the river,
and departed groaning and lamenting, pitying themselves for the necessity which
had fallen upon them, and calling themselves the slayers and murderers of their
child, and commiserating the infant too for his destruction, which they had
hoped to avert. (11) Then, as was natural for people involved in a miserable
misfortune, they accused themselves as having brought a heavier affliction on
themselves than they need have done. "For why," said they, "did
we not expose him at the first moment of his birth?" For people in general
do not look upon one who has not lived long enough to partake of salutary food
as a human being at all. "But we, in our superfluous affection, have
nourished him these three entire months, causing ourselves by such conduct more
abundant grief, and inflicting upon him a heavier punishment, in order that he,
having at last attained to a great capacity for feeling pleasures and pains,
should at last perish in the perception of the most grievous evils." IV.
(12) And so they departed in ignorance of the future, being wholly overwhelmed
with sad misery; but the sister of the infant who was thus exposed, being still
a maiden, out of the vehemence of her fraternal affection, stood a little way
off watching to see what would happen, and all the events which concerned him
appear to me to have taken place in accordance with the providence of God, who
watched over the infant. (13) Now the king of the country had an only daughter,
whom he tenderly loved, and they say that she, although she had been married a
long time, had never had any children, and therefore, as was natural, was very
desirous of children, and especially of male offspring, which should succeed to
the noble inheritance of her father's prosperity and imperial authority, which
was otherwise in danger of being lost, since the king had no other grandsons.
(14) And as she was always desponding and lamenting, so especially on that
particular day was she overcome by the weight of her anxiety, that, though it
was her ordinary custom to stay in doors and never to pass over the threshold of
her house, yet now she went forth with her handmaidens down to the river, where
the infant was lying. And there, as she was about to indulge in a bath and
purification in the thickest part of the marsh, she beheld the child, and
commanded her handmaidens to bring him to her. (15) Then, after she had surveyed
him from head to foot, and admired his elegant form and healthy vigorous
appearance, and saw that he was crying, she had compassion on him, her soul
being already moved within her by maternal feelings of affection as if he had
been her own child. And when she knew that the infant belonged to one of the
Hebrews who was afraid because of the commandment of the king, she herself
conceived the idea of rearing him up, and took counsel with herself on the
subject, thinking that it was not safe to bring him at once into the palace;
(16) and while she was still hesitating, the sister of the infant, who was still
looking out, conjecturing her hesitation from what she beheld, ran up and asked
her whether she would like that the child should be brought up at the breast by
some one of the Hebrew women who had been lately delivered; (17) and as she said
that she wished that she would do so, the maiden went and fetched her own mother
and that of the infant, as if she had been a stranger, who with great readiness
and willingness cheerfully promised to take the child and bring him up,
pretending to be tempted by the reward to be paid, the providence of God thus
making the original bringing up of the child to accord with the genuine course
of nature. Then she gave him a name, calling him Moses with great propriety,
because she had received him out of the water, for the Egyptians call water
"mos." V.
(18) But when the child began to grow and increase, he was weaned, not in
accordance with the time of his age, but earlier than usual; and then his
mother, who was also his nurse, came to bring him back to the princess who had
given him to her, inasmuch as he no longer required to be fed on milk, and as he
was now a fine and noble child to look upon. (19) And when the king's daughter
saw that he was more perfect than could have been expected at his age, and when
from his appearance she conceived greater good will than ever towards him, she
adopted him as her son, having first put in practice all sorts of contrivances
to increase the apparent bulk of her belly, so that he might be looked upon as
her own genuine child, and not as a supposititious one; but God easily brings to
pass whatever he is inclined to effect, however difficult it may be to bring to
a successful issue. (20) Therefore the child being now thought worthy of a royal
education and a royal attendance, was not, like a mere child, long delighted
with toys and objects of laughter and amusement, even though those who had
undertaken the care of him allowed him holidays and times for relaxation, and
never behaved in any stern or morose way to him; but he himself exhibited a
modest and dignified deportment in all his words and gestures, attending
diligently to every lesson of every kind which could tend to the improvement of
his mind. (21) And immediately he had all kinds of masters, one after another,
some coming of their own accord from the neighboring countries and the different
districts of VI.
(25) And when he had passed the boundaries of the age of infancy he began to
exercise his intellect; not, as some people do, letting his youthful passions
roam at large without restraint, although in him they had ten thousand
incentives by reason of the abundant means for the gratification of them which
royal places supply; but he behaved with temperance and fortitude, as though he
had bound them with reins, and thus he restrained their onward impetuosity by
force. (26) And he tamed, and appeased, and brought under due command every one
of the other passions which are naturally and as far as they are themselves
concerned frantic, and violent, and unmanageable. And if any one of them at all
excited itself and endeavored to get free from restraint he administered severe
punishment to it, reproving it with severity of language; and, in short, he
repressed all the principal impulses and most violent affections of the soul,
and kept guard over them as over a restive horse, fearing lest they might break
all bounds and get beyond the power of reason which ought to be their guide to
restrain them, and so throw everything everywhere into confusion. For these
passions are the causes of all good and of all evil; of good when they submit to
the authority of dominant reason, and of evil when they break out of bounds and
scorn all government and restraint. (27) Very naturally, therefore, those who
associated with him and every one who was acquainted with him marveled at him,
being astonished as at a novel spectacle, and inquiring what kind of mind it was
that had its abode in his body, and that was set up in it like an image in a
shrine; whether it was a human mind or a divine intellect, or something combined
of the two; because he had nothing in him resembling the many, but had gone
beyond them all and was elevated to a more sublime height. (28) For he never
provided his stomach with any luxuries beyond those necessary tributes which
nature has appointed to be paid to it, and as to the pleasures of the organs
below the stomach he paid no attention to them at all, except as far as the
object of having legitimate children was concerned. (29) And being in a most
eminent degree a practicer of abstinence and self-denial, and being above all
men inclined to ridicule a life of effeminacy and luxury (for he desired to live
for his soul alone, and not for his body), he exhibited the doctrines of
philosophy in all his daily actions, saying precisely what he thought, and
performing such actions only as were consistent with his words, so as to exhibit
a perfect harmony between his language and his life, so that as his words were
such also was his life, and as his life was such likewise was his language, like
people who are playing together in tune on a musical instrument. (30) Therefore
men in general, even if the slightest breeze of prosperity does only blow their
way for a moment, become puffed up and give themselves great airs, becoming
insolent to all those who are in a lower condition than themselves, and calling
them dregs of the earth, and annoyances, and sources of trouble, and burdens of
the earth, and all sorts of names of that kind, as if they had been thoroughly
able to establish the undeviating character of their prosperity on a solid
foundation, though, very likely, they will not remain in the same condition even
till tomorrow, (31) for there is nothing more inconstant than fortune, which
tosses human affairs up and down like dice. Often has a single day thrown down
the man who was previously placed on an eminence, and raised the lowly man on
high. And while men see these events continually taking place, and though they
are well assured of the fact, still they overlook their relations and friends,
and transgress the laws according to which they were born and brought up; and
they overturn their national hereditary customs to which no just blame whatever
is attached, dwelling in a foreign land, and by reason of their cordial
reception of the customs among which they are living, no longer remembering a
single one of their ancient usages. VII.
(32) But Moses, having now reached the very highest point of human good fortune,
and being looked upon as the grandson of this mighty king, and being almost
considered in the expectations of all men as the future inheritor of his
grandfather's kingdom, and being always addressed as the young prince, still
felt a desire for and admiration of the education of his kinsmen and ancestors,
considering all the things which were thought good among those who had adopted
him as spurious, even though they might, in consequence of the present state of
affairs, have a brilliant appearance; and those things which were thought good
by his natural parents, even though they might be for a short time somewhat
obscure, at all events akin to himself and genuine good things. (33)
Accordingly, like an uncorrupt judge both of his real parents and of those who
had adopted him, he cherished towards the one a good will and an ardent
affection, and he displayed gratitude towards the others in requital of the
kindness which he had received at their hands, and he would have displayed the
same throughout his whole life if he had not beheld a great and novel iniquity
wrought in the country by the king; (34) for, as I have said before, the Jews
were strangers in Egypt, the founders of their race having migrated from Babylon
and the upper satrapies in the time of the famine, by reason of their want of
food, and come and settled in Egypt, and having in a manner taken refuge like
suppliants in the country as in a sacred asylum, fleeing for protection to the
good faith of the king and the compassion of the inhabitants; (35) for
strangers, in my opinion, should be looked upon as refugees, and as the
suppliants of those who receive them in their country; and, besides, being
suppliants, these men were likewise sojourners in the land, and friends desiring
to be admitted to equal honors with the citizens, and neighbors differing but
little in their character from original natives. (36) The men, therefore, who
had left their homes and come into Egypt, as if they were to dwell in that land
as in a second country in perfect security, the king of the country reduced to
slavery, and, as if he had taken them prisoners by the laws of war, or had
bought them from masters in whose house they had been bred, he oppressed them
and treated them as slaves, though they were not only free men, but also
strangers, and suppliants, and sojourners, having no respect for nor any awe of
God, who presides over the rights of free men, and of strangers, and of
suppliants, and of hospitality, and who beholds all such actions as his. (37)
Then he laid commands on them beyond their power to fulfil, imposing on them
labor after labor; and, when they fainted from weakness, the sword came upon
them. He appointed overseers over their works, the most pitiless and inhuman of
men, who pardoned and made allowance for no one, and whom they from the
circumstances and from their behaviour called persecutors of work. (38) And they
wrought with clay, some of them fashioning it into bricks, and others collecting
straw from all quarters, for straw is the bond which binds bricks together;
while others, again, had the task allotted to them of building up houses, and
walls, and gates, and cutting trenches, bearing wood themselves day and night
without interruption, having no rest or respite, and not even being allowed time
so much as to sleep, but being compelled to perform all the works not only of
workmen but also of journeymen, so that in a short time their bodies failed
them, their souls having already fainted beneath their afflictions. (39) And so
they died, one after another, as if smitten by a pestilential destruction, and
then their taskmasters threw their bodies away unburied beyond the borders of
the land, not suffering their kinsmen or their friends to sprinkle even a little
dust on their corpses, nor to weep over those who had thus miserably perished;
but, like impious men as they were, they threatened to extend their despotism
over the passions of the soul (that cannot be enslaved, and which are nearly the
only things which nature has made completely free), oppressing them with the
intolerable weight of a necessity beyond their powers. VIII.
(40) At all these events Moses was greatly grieved and indignant, not being able
either to chastise the unjust oppressors of his people nor to assist those who
were oppressed, but he gave them all the assistance that was in his power, by
words, recommending their overseers to treat them with moderation, and to relax
and abate somewhat of the oppressive nature of their commands, and exhorting the
oppressed who were laboring thus to bear their present distresses with a noble
spirit and to be men in their minds, and not to let their souls faint as well as
their bodies, but to hope for good fortune after their present adversity; (41)
for that all things in this world have a tendency to change to the opposite,
cloudy weather to fine, violent gales to calm and absence of wind, storms and
heavy billows at sea to fair weather and an unruffled surface of the water; and
much more are human affairs likely to change, inasmuch as they are more unstable
than anything. (42) By using these charms, as it were, like a good physician, he
thought he should be able to alleviate their afflictions, although they were
most grievous. But whenever their distress abated, then again their taskmasters
returned and oppressed them with increased severity, always after the respite
adding some new evil which should be even more intolerable than their previous
sufferings; (43) for some of their overseers were very savage and furious men,
being, as to their cruelty, not at all different from poisonous serpents or
carnivorous beasts--wild beasts in human form--being clothed with the form of a
human body so as to give an appearance of gentleness in order to deceive and
catch their victim, but in reality being harder than iron or adamant. (44) One
of these men, then, the most violent of them, when, in addition to yielding
nothing of his purpose, he was even exasperated at the exhortations of Moses and
rendered more savage by them, beating those who did not labor with energy and
unremittingly at the work which was imposed upon them, and insulting them and
subjecting them to every kind of ill-treatment, so as even to be the death of
many, Moses slew, thinking the deed a pious action; and, indeed, it was a pious
action to destroy one who only lived for the destruction of others. (45) When
the king heard of this action he was very indignant, thinking it an intolerable
thing, not for one man to be dead, or for another to have killed him, whether
justly or unjustly, but for his grandson not to agree with him, and not to look
upon his friends or his enemies as his own, but to hate persons whom the king
loved, and to love persons whom the king looked upon as outcasts, and to pity
those whom he regarded with unchangeable and implacable aversion. IX.
(46) But when the Egyptian authorities had once got an opportunity of attacking
the young man, having already reason for looking upon him with suspicion (for
they well knew that he would hereafter bear them ill-will for their evil
practices, and would revenge himself on them when he had an opportunity) they
poured in, at all times and from all quarters, thousands and thousands of
calumnies into the willing ears of his grandfather, so that they even implanted
in his mind an apprehension that Moses was plotting to deprive him of his
kingdom, saying to him: "He will strip you of your crown. He has no humble
designs or notions. He is continually seeking to busy himself in what does not
concern him, and to acquire some additional power. He is eager for the kingdom
before his time. He caresses some people; he threatens others; he kills others
without a trial; he hates all those who are the best affected towards you. Why
do you delay? Why do you not cut short all his designs and machinations? Delay
on the part of those against whom they are plotting is of the greatest advantage
to those who wish to attack them." (47) As they urged these arguments to
the king he retreated to the contiguous country of Arabia, where it was safe to
abide, entreating God that he would deliver his countrymen from inextricable
calamities, and would worthily chastise their oppressors who omitted no
circumstance of insolence and tyranny, and would double his joy by allowing him
to behold the accomplishment of both these prayers. And God heard his prayers,
looking favorably on his disposition, so devoted to what is good, and so hostile
to what is evil, and not long after he pronounced his decision upon the affairs
of that land as became a God. (48) But while he was preparing to display the
decision which he was about to pronounce, Moses was devoting himself to all the
labors of virtue, having a teacher within himself, virtuous reason, by whom he
had been trained to the most virtuous pursuits of life, and had learnt to apply
himself to the contemplation and practice of virtue and to the continual study
of the doctrines of philosophy, which he easily and thoroughly comprehended in
his soul, and committed to memory in such a manner as never to forget them; and,
moreover, he made all his own actions, which were intrinsically praiseworthy, to
harmonise with them, desiring not to seem wise and good, but in truth and
reality to be so, because he made the right reason of nature his only aim; which
is, in fact, the only first principle and fountain of all the virtues. (49) Any
one else, perhaps, fleeing from the implacable fury of the king, and coming now
for the first time into a foreign land, when he had not as yet associated with
or learnt the customs of the natives, and not knowing with any accuracy the
objects in which they delighted or which they regarded with aversion, would have
been desirous to enjoy tranquility and to live in obscurity, escaping the notice
of men in general; or else, if he had wished to come forward in public, he would
have endeavored by all means to propitiate the powerful men and those in the
highest authority in the country by persevering attentions, as men from whom
some advantage or assistance might be expected, if any pursuers should come
after him and endeavor to drag him away by force. (50) But this man proceeded by
the path which was the exact opposite of that which was the probable one for him
to take, following the healthy impulses of his soul, and not allowing any one of
them to be impeded in its progress. On which account, at times, with the fervour
of youth, he attempted things beyond his existing strength; looking upon justice
as an irresistible power, by which he was encouraged so as to go spontaneously
to the assistance of the weaker side. X.
(51) I will also mention one action which was done by him at that time, even
although it may be but a trifling one in appearance, but still it proceeded from
a lofty spirit. The Arabs are great breeders of cattle, and they all feed their
flocks together, not merely men, but also women, and youths, and maidens with
them, and this, too, not merely in the obscurer classes and lower ranks of life,
but also among the most eminent persons of the nation. (52) Now there were seven
damsels, whose father was the priest, and they all came to a certain fountain
leading their flocks, and having loosened their vessels and let them down by
thongs they succeeded one another in drawing up the water, so as for them all to
have an equal share in the work; and in this way they cheerfully and rapidly
filled the troughs which were at hand. (53) And when other shepherds came up
they disregarded the weakness of the damsels and endeavored to drive them away
with their flocks, and then brought their own herds to the drink that was
prepared, desiring to reap the fruits of the labor of others. (54) But Moses,
seeing what was done, for he was at no great distance, hastened and ran up; and,
when he had come near to them, he said: "Will not you desist from behaving
thus unjustly, thinking this solitary place a fitting field for the exercise of
your covetousness? Are you not ashamed to have such cowardly arms and hands? You
are long-haired people, female flesh, and not men. The damsels behave like
vigorous youths, hesitating about nothing that they ought to do; but you, young
men, are now behaving lazily, like girls. (55) Will you not depart? Will you not
be off and give place to those who arrived first, to whom the water belongs, and
who are entitled to it; when you ought rather to have drawn water for them, that
so they might have had it in greater abundance? And are you, on the contrary,
endeavoring to take away from them what they themselves have got ready?
"But I swear, by the celestial eye of justice, which sees what is done even
in the most solitary places, that you shall not take it from them. (56) And at
all events, now justice has sent me and appointed me to bring them assistance
who never expected such an officer; for I am an ally to these damsels who are
thus injured by violence, and I come with a might which you evil-doers and
covetous people cannot face, but you shall feel it wounding you in an invisible
manner, if you do not change your ways." (57) He said this; and they, being
alarmed at his words, since while he was speaking he appeared inspired, and his
appearance became changed, so that he looked like a prophet, and fearing lest he
might be uttering divine oracles and predictions, they obeyed and became
submissive, and brought back the flock of the maidens to the troughs, first of
all removing their own cattle. XI.
(58) So the damsels went home exceedingly delighted, and they related all that
had happened to them beyond their hopes, so that they wished their father with
an earnest desire to see the stranger. At all events he blamed them for their
ingratitude, speaking as follows: "What were ye about, that ye let him go,
when you ought at once to have brought him hither, and to have entreated him to
come if he declined? Or when did you see any inhospitality in me? Or do you
expect never again to fall into difficulties? Those who are forgetful of
services must needs lack defenders, but nevertheless hasten after him, for as
yet the error which you have committed may be repaired; and go with haste and
invite him first of all to a hospitable reception, and then endeavor to requite
his service, for great thanks are due to him." (59) So they made haste, and
went after him, and overtook him at no great distance from the fountain; and
when they had delivered their father's message to him, they persuaded him to
return home with them. And their father was at once greatly struck by his
appearance, and soon afterwards he learnt to admire his wisdom, for great
natures are very easily discovered, and do not require a length of time to be
appreciated, and so he gave him the most beautiful of his daughters to be his
wife, conjecturing by that one action of his how completely good and excellent
he was, and testifying that what is good is the only thing which deserves to be
loved, and that it does not require any external recommendation, but bears in
itself proofs by which it may be known and understood. (60) And after his
marriage, Moses took his father-in-law's herds and tended them, being thus
instructed in the lessons proper to qualify him for becoming the leader of a
people, for the business of a shepherd is a preparation for the office of a king
to any one who is destined to preside over that most manageable of all flocks,
mankind, just as hunting is a good training-school for men of warlike
dispositions; for they who are practising with a view to learning the management
of an army, previously study the science of hunting, brute animals being as some
raw material exposed to their attacks in order for them to
practice the art of commanding on each occasion of war or of peace, (61)
for the pursuit of wild beasts is a training-school of strategy to be developed
against enemies, and the care and management of tame animals is a royal training
for the government of subjects; for which reason kings are called shepherds of
their people, not by way of reproach, but as a most especial and pre-eminent
honor. (62) And it appears to me, who have examined the matter not with any
reference to the opinions of the many, but solely with regard to truth (and he
may laugh who pleases), that that man alone can be a perfect king who is well
skilled in the art of the shepherd, being thus instructed as to more important
matters by experience of the inferior animals; for it is impossible for great
things to be brought to perfection before small ones. XII.
(63) Therefore Moses, having become the most skilful herdsman of his time, and
the most prudent provider of all the necessary things for his flock, and of all
things which tended to their advantage, because he never delayed or hesitated,
but exerted a voluntary and spontaneous cheerfulness in all things necessary for
the animals under his charge, (64) saw his flocks increase with great joy and
guileless good faith, so that he soon incurred the envy of the other herdsmen,
who saw nothing in their own flocks resembling the condition of his; but they
thought themselves well off if they continued as before, while the flock of
Moses would have been thought to be falling off if it had not improved, every
day, by reason of the vast augmentations that it was in the habit of receiving
in beauty from its high condition and fatness, and in number from the prolific
character of the females, and the wholesome way in which it was fed and managed.
(65) And when Moses was leading his flock into a situation full of good water
and good grass, where there was also a great deal of herbage especially suitable
for sheep, he came upon a certain grove in a valley, where he saw a most
marvelous sight. There was a bush or briar, a very thorny plant, and very weak
and supple. This bush was on a sudden set in a blaze without any one applying
any fire to it, and being entirely enveloped from the root to the topmost branch
by the abundant flame, as though it had proceeded from some fountain showering
fire over it, it nevertheless remained whole without being consumed, like some
impassible essence, and not as if it were itself the natural fuel for fire, but
rather as if it were taking the fire for its own fuel. (66) And in the middle of
the flame there was seen a certain very beautiful form, not resembling any
visible thing, a most Godlike image, emitting a light more brilliant than fire,
which any one might have imagined to be the image of the living God. But let it
be called an angel, because it merely related (dieľngelleto) the events which
were about to happen in a silence more distinct than any voice by reason of the
marvelous sight which was thus exhibited. (67) For the burning bush was a symbol
of the oppressed people, and the burning fire was a symbol of the oppressors;
and the circumstance of the burning bush not being consumed was an emblem of the
fact that the people thus oppressed would not be destroyed by those who were
attacking them, but that their hostility would be unsuccessful and fruitless to
the one party, and the fact of their being plotted against would fail to be
injurious to the others. The angel, again, was the emblem of the providence of
God, who mitigates circumstances which appear very formidable, so as to produce
from them great tranquility beyond the hopes or expectation of any one. XIII.
(68) But we must now accurately investigate the comparison here made. The briar,
as has been already said, is a most weak and supple plant, yet it is not without
thorns, so that it wounds one if one only touches it. Nor was it consumed by
fire, which is naturally destructive, but on the contrary it was preserved by
it, and in addition to not being consumed, it continued just as it was before,
and without undergoing any change whatever itself, acquired additional
brilliancy. (69) All these circumstances are an allegory to intimate the
suggestions given by the other notions which at that time prevailed, almost
crying out in plain words to persons in affliction, "Do not faint; your
weakness if your strength, which shall pierce and wound innumerable hosts. You
shall be saved rather than destroyed, by those who are desirous to destroy your
whole race against their will, so that you shall not be overwhelmed by the evils
with which they will afflict you, but when your enemies think most surely that
they are destroying you, then you shall most brilliantly shine out in
glory." (70) Again, the fire, which is a destructive essence, convicting
the men of cruel dispositions, says, Be not elated so as to rely on your own
strength; be admonished rather when you see irresistible powers destroyed. The
consuming power of flame is itself consumed like firewood, and the wood, which
is by its intrinsic nature capable of being burnt, burns other things visibly
like fire. XIV.
(71) God, having shown this prodigious and miraculous sight to Moses, gave him,
in this way, a most visible lesson as to the events which are about to be
accomplished; and he begins to exhort him, by divine admonitions and
predictions, to apply himself to the government of his nation, as one who was to
be not only the author of its freedom, but also its leader in its migration from
Egypt, which should take place at no distant period; promising to be present
with him as his coadjutor in every thing. (72) For says God, "I myself have
had compassion for a long time on them while ill-treated and subjected to
insolence hard to be borne, while there was no man to lighten their sufferings,
nor to pity their calamities; for I have seen them all, each individual
privately and the whole nation, with one accord turning to address supplications
and prayer to me, and hoping for assistance from me. And I am by nature
merciful, and propitious to all sincere suppliants. (73) But go thou to the king
of the country, without fearing any thing whatever; for the former king is dead
from whom you fled for fear of his plotting against thee. And another king now
governs the land, who has no ill-will against thee on account of any thing, and
who has taken the elders of the nation into his council; tell him that the whole
nation is called forth by me, by my divine oracle, that in accordance with the
customs of their ancestors they may depart three days' journey out of the
country, and there may sacrifice unto me." (74) But Moses, not being
ignorant that even his own countrymen would distrust his word, and also that
every one else would do so, said, "If then they ask what is the name of him
who sent thee, and if I know not what to reply to them, shall I not seem to be
deceiving them?" (75) And God said, "At first say unto them, I am that
I am, that when they have learnt that there is a difference between him that is
and him that is not, they may be further taught that there is no name whatever
that can properly be assigned to me, who am the only being to whom existence
belongs. (76) And if, inasmuch as they are weak in their natural abilities, they
shall inquire further about my appellation, tell them not only this one fact
that I am God, but also that I am the God of those men who have derived their
names from virtue, that I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob, one of whom is the rule of that wisdom which is derived from
teaching, another of natural wisdom, and the third of that which is derived from
practice. And if they are still distrustful they shall be taught by these
tokens, and then they shall change their dispositions, seeing such signs as no
man has hitherto either seen or heard." (77) Now the tokens were as
follows. The rod which Moses held in his hand God ordered him to throw down on
the ground; and immediately it received life, and crawled along, and speedily
became the most powerful of all the animals which want feet, namely an immense
serpent, complete in all its parts. And when Moses retreated from the beast, and
out of fear was on the point of taking to flight, he was called back again; and
when God laid his commands upon him, and inspired him with courage, he laid hold
of it by the tail; (78) and the serpent, though still crawling onwards, stopped
at his touch, and being stretched out at its full length again returned to its
original elements and because the same rod as before, so that Moses marveled at
both the changes, not knowing which was the most wonderful; as he was unable to
decide between them, his soul being overwhelmed with these appearances of equal
strangeness. (79) This now was the first sign. The second miraculous token was
afforded to him at no great distance of time. God commanded him to put one of
his hands in his bosom and hide it there, and a moment afterwards to draw it out
again. And when he had done what he was commanded, his hand in a moment appeared
whiter than snow. Again, when he had put his hand a second time into his bosom,
and had a second time drawn it forth, it returned to its original complexion,
and resumed its proper appearance. (80) These two lessons he was taught in
solitude, when he was alone with God, like a pupil alone with his master, and
having about him the instruments with which these wonders were worked, namely,
his hand and his rod, with which indeed he walked along the road. (81) But the
third he could not carry about with him, nor could he be instructed as to that
beforehand; but it was destined to astonish him not less than the others,
deriving the origin of its existence from Egypt. And this was its character. God
said, "The water of the river, as much as you can take up in your hand and
pour upon the ground shall be dark blood, being both in color and in power
transformed with a complete transformation." (82) And, as was natural, this
also appeared credible to Moses, not merely by reason of the truth-telling
nature of the speaker but also because of the marvels that had already been
shown to him, with respect to his hand and to his rod. (83) But though he
believed the words of God, nevertheless he tried to avoid the office to which
God was appointing him, urging that he was a man of a weak voice, and slow of
speech, and not eloquent, and especially so ever since he had heard God himself
speaking. For judging the greatest human eloquence to be mere speechlessness in
comparison with the truth, and being also prudent and cautious by nature, he
shrunk from the undertaking, thinking such great matters proper for proud and
bold men and not for him. And he entreated God to choose some one else who would
be able easily to accomplish all the commands which he thus laid upon him. (84)
But he approved of his modesty, and said, "Art thou ignorant who it is that
giveth to man a mouth, and who has formed his windpipe and his tongue, and all
the apparatus of the articulate voice? I am he. Therefore, fear thou nothing.
For when I approve, every thing will become articulate and clear, and will
change for the better, and improve; so that no one shall hinder thee, but the
stream of thy words shall flow forth in a rapid and smooth current as if from a
pure fountain. And if there is any need of an interpreter, thou shall have thy
brother, who will be a subordinate mouthpiece for thee, that he may utter to the
multitude the words which he receives from thee, while thou utterest to him the
words that thou receivest from God." XV.
(85) Having heard these things (for it as not at all safe or free from danger to
oppose the commands of God), he departed and proceeded with his wife and
children by the road leading to Egypt, on which he met with his brother and
persuaded him to accompany him, announcing to him the oracular commands which he
had received from God. And his brother's soul was already wrought up to
obedience by divine providence, so that he, without hesitation, agreed to his
proposal and readily followed him. (86) And when they thus arrived in Egypt with
one mind and soul, they first of all collected together the elders of the nation
in a secret place, and there they laid the commands of God before them, and told
them how God had conceived pity and compassion for them, promised them freedom
and a departure from thence to a better country, promising also that he himself
would be their guide on their road. (87) And after these events, they take
courage now to converse with the king with respect to sending forth their people
from his territories that they might sacrifice to God; for they said, "That
it was necessary that their national sacrifices should be accomplished in the
wilderness, inasmuch as they were not performed in the same manner as the sacred
rites of other nations, but according to a system and law removed from the
ordinary course, on account of the special peculiarities of their habits."
(88) But the monarch, who from his cradle had had his soul filled with all the
arrogance of his ancestors, and who had no notion in the world of any God
appreciable only by the intellect apart from those objects which are visible to
the sight, answered them with insolence, saying, "Who is it whom I am to
obey? I know not this new Lord of whom you are speaking. I will not let the
nation go to be disobedient and headstrong under pretence of fasts and
sacrifices." (89) And then, like a man of cruel and passionate disposition
and implacable in his anger, he commanded the overseers of the works to oppress
them still more, because they had previously given them some relaxation and
leisure, saying that, it was from this relaxation and leisure, that their
forming designs of feasting and sacrifice had arisen; for that men who were in
great straits did not think of these things, but only those whose life had been
spent in much east and luxury. (90) Therefore the Jews had now to endure more
terrible afflictions than before, and were indignant at Moses and his brother as
deceivers, and accused them, sometimes secretly and sometimes openly, and
charged them with impiety in appearing to have spoken falsely against God; and
accordingly Moses began to exhibit the marvelous wonders which he had been
previously taught, thinking that thus he should be able to bring over those who
saw them from their former incredulity to believe all that he said. (91) And
this exhibition of prodigies was carefully displayed before the king and
magistrates of the Egyptians. XVI.
Therefore, when all the powerful men of the state were assembled round the king,
the brother of Moses taking his rod, and shaking it in a very remarkable and
demonstrative manner, threw it on the ground, and it immediately became a
serpent. And all those who were standing around saw it, and marveled and, in
alarm and terror, withdrew, and fled. (92) But all the sophists and magicians
who were present said, "Why are you thus alarmed? we also are not
unpractised in such tricks as these, and we are skilled in an art which can
produce similar effects." And then each of them threw down the rod which he
held in his hand, and so there was a multitude of serpents which went crawling
about that rod which had first been changed. (93) And that serpent, with the
excess of his power, raised himself up on high, and dilated his chest, and
opened his mouth, and with the violent impulse of an attractive drawing in of
his breath, drew them all towards him as if he had surrounded a large cast of
fishes in a net cast around them, and then, when he had swallowed them all, he
returned to his original nature of a stick. (94) So now the marvelous sight thus
exhibited to them wrought a fear in the soul of every one of these wicked and
malicious men, so that they no longer fancied that what was done was the trick
or artifice of men, devised merely for deceit; but they saw that it was a more
divine power which was the cause of these things, to which all things are easy.
(95) But when by the evident might of what was done they were compelled to
confess this, they still were not the less audacious, clinging to their original
inhumanity and impiety as to some inalienable virtue, and not pitying those who
were unjustly enslaved, nor doing any such things as they were commanded by the
word of God. And though God himself had declared his will to them by
demonstrations clearer than any verbal commands, namely, by signs and wonders,
still they required a yet more severe impression to be made upon them, and it
was necessary for him to rise up against them with still greater power; and
accordingly, those foolish men, whom reason and command could not influence, are
corrected by a series of afflictions: and ten punishments were inflicted on the
land; (96) so that the number of the chastisements might be complete which was
inflicted upon those who had completed their sins; and the punishment far
transcended all ordinary visitations. XVII.
For the elements of the universe, earth, water, air, and fire, of which the
world was made, were all by the command of God, brought into a state of
hostility against them, so that the country of those impious men was destroyed,
in order to exhibit the height of the authority which God wielded, who had also
fashioned those same elements at the creation of the universe, so as to secure
its safety, and who could change them all whenever he pleased, to effect the
destruction of impious men. (97) And he divided his punishments, entrusting
three, those which proceeded from those elements which are composed of more
solid parts, namely, earth and water, from which all the corporeal distinctive
realities are perfected, to the brother of Moses. An equal number, those which
proceeded from the elements which are the most prolific of life, namely, air and
fire, he committed to Moses himself alone. One, the seventh, he entrusted to
both in common; the other three, to make up the whole number of ten, he reserved
for himself. (98) And first of all he began to bring on the plagues derived from
water; for as the Egyptians used to honor the water in an especial degree,
thinking that it was the first principle of the creation of the universe, he
thought it fitting to summon that first to the affliction and correction of
those who thus honored it. (99) What then happened no long time after the events
I have already mentioned? The brother of Moses, by the divine command, smote
with his rod upon the river, and immediately, throughout its whole course, from
Ethiopia down to the sea, it is changed into blood and simultaneously with its
change, all the lakes, and ditches, and fountains, and wells, and spring, and
every particle of water in all Egypt, was changed into blood, so that, for want
of drink, they digged round about the banks of the river, but the streams that
came up were like veins of the body in a hoemorrhage, and spirted up channels of
blood like springs, no transparent water being seen anywhere. (100) And all the
different kinds of fish died, inasmuch as all the vivifying power of the river
was changed to a destructive power, so that everything was everywhere filled
with foetid odors, from such vast number of bodies putrifying all together.
Moreover, a great number of men perished from thirst, and their bodies lay in
heaps in the roads, since their relations had not strength to convey those who
had died to the tombs; (101) for this evil lasted seven days, until the
Egyptians entreated Moses, and Moses entreated God, to show pity on those who
were thus perishing. And God, being merciful in his nature, changed the blood
back again to wholesome water, restoring to the river its pristine clear and
vivifying streams. XVIII.
(102) But again, after a brief respite, the Egyptians returned to the same
cruelty and carelessness as before, as if either justice had been utterly
banished from among men, or as if those who had endured one punishment were not
wont to be chastised a second time; but when they suffered they were taught like
young children, not to despise those who corrected them; for the punishment
which followed, on the track of the last, was slow indeed to come, while they
were also slow, but when they hastened to do wrong, it ran after them and
overtook them. (103) For again, the brother of Moses, being ordered to do so,
stretched out his hand and held his rod over all the canals, and lakes, and
marches; and at the holding forth of his rod, so immense a multitude of frogs
came up, that not only the market-place, and all the spots open to the air, were
filled with them, but likewise all the stables for cattle, the houses, and all
the temples, and every building, public or private, as if nature had designed to
send forth one race of aquatic animals into the opposite region of earth, to
form a colony there, for the opposite region to water is earth. (104) Inasmuch
then as they could not go out of doors, because all the passages were blocked
up, and could not remain in-doors, for the frogs had already occupied all the
recesses, and had crawled up to the very highest parts of the houses, they were
now in the very greatest distress, and in complete despair of safety. (105)
Again, therefore, they have recourse to the same means of escape by entreating
Moses, and the king now promised to permit the Hebrews to depart, and they
propitiated God with prayers. And when God consented, some of the frogs at once
returned into the river, and there were also heaps of those which died in the
roads, and the people also brought loads of them out of their houses, on account
of the intolerable stench which proceeded from them, and the smell from their
dead carcases, in such numbers, went up to heaven, especially as frogs, even
while alive, cause great annoyance to the outward senses. XIX.
(106) And when they had a little recovered from this punishment, then, like
wrestlers at the games, who have recovered fresh strength after a struggle, that
so they may contend again with renewed vigor, they again returned to their
original wickedness, forgetting the evils which they had already experienced.
(107) And when God had put an end to the punishments which were to proceed out
of the water, he brought up others out of the land, still employing the same
minister of punishment; and he now, in obedience to the command which he
received, smote the ground with his rod, and an abundance of lice was poured out
everywhere, and it extended like a cloud, and covered the whole of Egypt. (108)
And that little animal, even though it is very small, is exceedingly annoying;
for not only does it spoil the appearance, creating unseemly and injurious
itchings, but it also penetrates into the inmost parts, entering in at the
nostrils and ears? And it flies into the eyes and injures the pupils, unless one
takes great care; and what care could be taken against so extensive a plague,
especially when it was God who was inflicting the punishment? (109) And perhaps
some one may here ask why God punished the land with such insignificant and
generally despised animals, omitting bears, and lions, and leopards, and the
other races of wild beasts who devour human flesh; and if he did not send these,
at least, he might have sent Egyptian asps, the bites of which have naturally
the power to cause death instantly. (110) But if such a man really does not
know, let him learn, first of all, that God was desirous rather to admonish the
Egyptians than to destroy them: for if he had designed to destroy them utterly
once for all, he would not have employed animals to be, as it were, his
coadjutors in the work of destruction, but rather such heaven-sent afflictions
as famine and pestilence; (111) and in the second place, let him also learn a
lesson which is necessary to be learnt, and applicable to every condition and
age of life; and what is the lesson? This; that men, when they make war, seek
out the most mighty powers to gain them over to their alliance, such as shall
make amends for their own want of power: but God, who is the supreme and
mightiest of all powers, having need of no assistant, if ever he desires to use
any instruments as it were for the punishments which he desires to inflict, does
not choose the most mighty or the greatest things as his ministers, since he
takes but little heed of their capacity, but he uses insignificant and small
agents, which he renders irresistible and invincible powers, and by their means
he chastises those who do wrong, as he does in this instance, (112) for what can
be more insignificant than a louse? And yet it was so powerful that all Egypt
fainted under the host of them, and was compelled to cry out, that "this is
the anger of God." For all the earth put together, from one end to the
other, could not withstand the hand of God, no nor all the universe. XX.
(113) Such then were the chastisements which were inflicted by the agency of the
brother of Moses. But those in which Moses himself was the minister, and from
what parts of nature they were derived, must be next considered. Now next after
the earth and the water, the air and the heaven, which are the purest portions
of the essences of the universe, succeeded them as the medium of the correction
of the Egyptians: and of this correction Moses was the minister; (114) and first
of all he began to operate upon the air. For Egypt almost alone, if you except
those countries which lie to the south of the equator, never is subject to that
one of the seasons of the year which is called winter, perhaps, as some say,
from the fact of its not being at any great distance from the torrid zone, since
the essence of fire flows from that quarter in an invisible manner, and scorches
everything all around, or perhaps it is because the river overflows at the time
of the summer solstice, and so consumes all the clouds before they can collect
for winter; (115) for the river begins to rise at the beginning of the summer,
and to fall towards the end of summer; during which period the etesian gales
increase in violence blowing from a direction opposite to the mouths of the
Nile, and by which it is prevented from flowing freely into the sea, and by the
violence of which winds, the sea itself is also raised to a considerable height,
and erects vast waves like a long wall, and so the river is agitated within the
country. And then when the two streams meet together, the river descending from
its sources above, and the waters which ought to escape abroad being turned back
by the beating of the sea, and not being able to extend their breadth, for the
banks on each side of the river confine its streams, the river, as is natural,
rises to a height, and breaks its bounds; (116) perhaps also it does so because
it was superfluous for winter to occur in Egypt; for the object for which
showers of rain are usually serviceable, is in this instance provided for by the
river which overflows the fields, and turns them into one vast lake, to make
them productive of the annual crops; (117) but nature does not expend her powers
to no purpose when they are not wanted, so as to provide rain for a land which
does not require it, but it rejoices in the variety and diversity of scientific
operations, and arranges the harmony of the universe from a number of opposite
qualities. And for this reason it supplies the benefits which are derivable from
water, to some countries, by bestowing it on them from above, namely from
heaven, and to others it gives it from below by means of springs and rivers;
(118) though then the land was thus arranged, and enjoyed spring during the
winter solstice, and since it is only the parts along the seacoasts that are
ever moistened with a few drops of rain, and since the country beyond Memphis,
where the palace of the king of Egypt is, does never even see snow at all; now,
on the contrary, the air suddenly assumed a new appearance, so that all the
things which are seen in the most stormy and wintry countries, come upon it all
together; abundance of rain, and torrents of dense and ceaseless hail, and heavy
winds met together and beat against one another with violence; and the clouds
burst, and there were incessant lightnings, and thunders, and continued roarings,
and flashes which made a most wonderful and fearful appearance. For though the
lightning and the thunderbolts penetrated and descended through the hail, being
quite a contrary substance, still they did not melt it, nor were the flashes
extinguished by it, but they remained as they were before, and ran up and down
in long lines, and even preserved the hail. (119) And not only did the excessive
violence of the storm drive all the inhabitants to excessive despair, but the
unprecedented character of the visitation tended likewise to the same point. For
they believed, as was indeed the case, that all these novel and fearful
calamities were caused by the divine anger, the air having assumed a novel
appearance, such as it had never worn before, to the destruction and overthrow
of all trees and fruits, by which also great numbers of animals were destroyed,
some in consequence of the exceeding cold, others though the weight of the hail
which fell upon them, as if they had been stoned, while some again were
destroyed by the fire of the lightning. And some remained half consumed, bearing
the marks of the wounds caused by the thunderbolts, for the admonition and
warning of all who saw them. XXI.
(120) And when this evil had abated, and when the king and his court had again
resumed their confidence, Moses stretched forth his rod into the air, at the
command of God. And then a south wind of an uncommon violence set in, which
increased in intensity and vehemence the whole of that day and night, being of
itself a very great affliction; for it is a drying wind, causing headaches, and
terrible to bear, calculated to cause grief, and terror, and perplexity in Egypt
above all countries, inasmuch as it lies to the south, in which part of the
heaven the revolutions of the light-giving stars take place, so that whenever
that wind is set in motion, the light of the sun and its fire is driven in that
direction and scorches up every thing. (121) And with this wind a countless
number of animals was brought over the land, animals destroying all plants,
locusts, which devoured every thing incessantly like a stream, consuming all
that the thunderstorms and the hail had left, so that there was not a green
shoot seen any longer in all that vast country. (122) And then at length the men
in authority came, though late, to an accurate perception of the evils that had
come upon them, and came and said to the king, "How long wilt thou refuse
to permit the men to depart? Dost thou not understand, from what has already
taken place, that Egypt is destroyed?" And he agreed to all they said,
yielding as far as appearances went at least; but again, when the evil was
abated at the prayer of Moses, the wind came from the sea side, and took up the
locusts and scattered them. (123) And when they had been completely dispersed,
and when the king was again obstinate respecting the allowing the nation to
depart, a greater evil than the former ones was descended upon him. For while it
was bright daylight, on a sudden, a thick darkness overspread the land, as if an
eclipse of the sun more complete than any common one had taken place. And it
continued with a long series of clouds and impenetrable density, all the course
of the sun's rays being cut off by the massive thickness of the veil which was
interposed, so that day did not at all differ from night. For what indeed did it
resemble, but one very long night equal in length to three days and an equal
number of nights? (124) And at this time they say that some persons threw
themselves on their beds, and did not venture to rise up, and that some, when
any of the necessities of nature overtook them, could only move with difficulty
by feeling their way along the walls or whatever else they could lay hold of,
like so many blind men; for even the light of the fire lit for necessary uses
was either extinguished by the violence of the storm, or else it was made
invisible and overwhelmed by the density of the darkness, so that that most
indispensable of all the external senses, namely, sight, though unimpaired, was
deprived of its office, not being able to discern any thing, and all the other
senses were overthrown like subjects, the leader having fallen down. (125) For
neither was any one able to speak or to hear, nor could any one venture to take
food, but they lay themselves down in quiet and hunger, not exercising any of
the outward senses, but being wholly overwhelmed by the affliction, till Moses
again had compassion on them, and besought God in their behalf. And he restored
fine weather, and produced light instead of darkness, and day instead of night. XXII.
(126) Such, they say, were the punishments inflicted by the agency of Moses
alone, the plague, namely, of hail and thunderstorms, the plague of locusts, and
the plague of darkness, which rejected every imaginable description of light.
Then he himself and his brother brought on one together, which I shall proceed
to relate. (127) At the command of God they both took up ashes from the furnace
in their hands, which Moses on his part sprinkled in the air. Then a dust arose
on a sudden, and produced a terrible, and most painful, and incurable ulceration
over the whole skin both of man and of the brute beasts; and immediately their
bodies became swollen with the pustules, having blisters all over them full of
matter which any one might have supposed were burning underneath and ready to
burst; (128) and the men were, as was natural, oppressed with pain and excessive
agony from the ulceration and inflammation, and they suffered in their souls
even more than in their bodies, being wholly exhausted with anguish. For there
was one vast uninterrupted sore to be seen from head to foot, those which
covered any particular part of any separate limb spreading so as to become
confused into one huge ulcer; until again, at the supplication of the lawgiver,
which he made on behalf of the sufferers, the disease became more tolerable.
(129) Therefore, in this instance the two brothers afforded the Egyptians this
warning in unison, and very properly; the brother of Moses acting by means of
the dust which rose up, since to him had been committed the superintendence of
the things which proceeded from the earth; and Moses, by means of the air which
was thus changed for the affliction of the inhabitants, and his ministrations
were assigned to the afflictions to be cause by the air and by the heaven. XXIII.
(130) The remaining punishments are three in number, and they were inflicted by
God himself without any agency or ministration of man, each of which I will now
proceed to relate as well I can. The first is that which was inflicted by means
of that animal which is the boldest in all nature, namely, the dog-fly (kynomuia)
which those person who invent names have named with great propriety (for they
were wise men); combining the name of the appellation of the most impudent of
all animals, a fly and a dog, the one being the boldest of all terrestrial, and
the other the boldest of all flying, animals. For they approach and run up
fearlessly, and if any one drives them away, they still resist and renew their
attack, so as never to yield until they are sated with blood and flesh. (131)
And so the dog-fly, having derived boldness from both these animals, is a biting
and treacherous creature; for it shoots in from a distance with a whizzing sound
like an arrow; and when it has reached its mark it sticks very closely with
great force. (132) But at this time its attack was prompted by God, so that its
treachery and hostility were redoubled, since it not only displayed all its own
natural covetousness, but also all that eagerness which it derived from the
divine providence which went it forth, and armed it and excited it to acts of
valour against the natives. (133) And after the dog-fly there followed another
punishment unconnected with any human agency, namely, the mortality among the
cattle; for all the herds of oxen, and flocks of goats, and vast flocks of
sheep, and all the beasts of burden, and all other domestic animals of every
kind died in one day in a body, as if by some agreement or at some given signal;
foreshowing the destruction of human beings which was about to take place a
short time afterwards as in a pestilential disease; for the sudden destruction
of irrational animals is said to be an ordinary prelude to pestilential
diseases. XXIV.
(134) After which the tenth and last punishment came, exceeding in terror all
that had gone before, namely, the death of the Egyptians themselves. Not of them
all, for God had not decreed to make the whole country desolate, but only to
correct it. Nor even of the greatest number of the men and women of every age
all together, but he permitted the rest to live, and only passed sentence of
death on all the first-born, beginning with the eldest of the king's sons, and
ceasing with the first-born son of the most obscure grinder at the mill; (135)
for, about midnight, all those children who had been the first to address their
fathers and their mothers, and who had also been the first to be addressed by
them as their sons, though they were in good health and in full vigor of body,
all, without any apparent cause, were suddenly slain in the flower of their
youth; and they say that there was not a single house in the whole land which
was exempt from the visitation. (136) But at dawn of day, as was natural, when
every one beheld his nearest and dearest relatives unexpectedly dead, with whom
up to the evening before they had lived in one home and at one table, being
overwhelmed with the most bitter grief, filled every place with lamentation. So
that it came to pass, on account of the universality of the calamity, as all men
were weeping altogether with one accord, that there was but one universal sound
of wailing heard over the whole land from one end to the other. (137) And, for a
while, they remained in their houses, no one being aware of the misfortune which
had befallen his neighbor, but lamenting only for his individual loss. But when
any one went out of doors and learnt the misfortunes of others also, he at once
felt a double sorrow, grieving for the common calamity, in addition to his own
private misfortune, a greater and more grievous sorrow being thus added to the
lesser and lighter one, so that every one felt deprived of all hope of
consolation. For who was likely to comfort another when he himself stood in need
of the same consolation? (138) But, as is usual in such circumstances, men
thinking that the present evils were the beginning of greater ones, and being
filled with fear lest those who were still living should also be destroyed, ran
weeping to the king's palace, and rent their clothes, and cried out against the
sovereign, as the cause of all the terrible evils that had befallen them. (139)
"For if," said they, "immediately when Moses at the beginning
first came to him he had allowed his nation to depart, we should never have
experienced any one of the miseries that have befallen us at all. But he yielded
to his natural obstinacy and haughtiness, and so we have reaped the ready reward
of his unreasonable contentiousness." Then one man encouraged another to
drive the Jewish people with all speed out of the whole country, and not to
allow them to remain one day, or rather one single hour, looking upon every
moment that they abode among them as an irremediable calamity. XXV.
(140) So they, being now driven out of the land and pursued, coming at last to a
proper notion of their own nobility and worth, ventured upon a deed of daring
such as became the free to dare, as men who were not forgetful of the iniquitous
plots that had been laid against them; (141) for they carried off abundant
booty, which they themselves collected, by means of the hatred in which they
were held, and some of it they carried themselves, submitting to heavy burdens,
and some they placed upon their beasts of burden, not in order to gratify any
love of money, or, as any usurer might say, because they coveted their neighbors'
goods. (How should they do so?) But, first of all, because they were thus
receiving the necessary wages from those whom they had served for so long a
time; and, secondly, because they had a right to afflict those at whose hands
they had suffered wrong with afflictions slighter than, and by no means equal
to, what they had endured. For how can the deprivation of money and treasures be
equivalent to the loss of liberty? on behalf of which those who are in
possession of their senses dare not only to cast away all their property, but
even to venture their lives? (142) So they now prospered in both particulars:
whether in that they received wages as it in price, which they now exacted from
unwilling paymasters, who for a long period had not paid them at all; and, also,
as if they were at war, they looked upon it as fitting to carry off the
treasures of the enemy, according to the laws of conquerors; for it was the
Egyptians who had set the example of acts of injustice, having, as I said
before, enslaved foreigners and suppliants, as if they had been prisoners taken
in war. And so they now, when an opportunity offered, avenged themselves without
any preparation of arms, justice itself holding a shield over them, and
stretching forth its hand to help them. XXVI.
(143) Such, then, were the afflictions and punishments by which Egypt was
corrected; not one of which ever touched the Hebrews, although they were
dwelling in the same cities and villages, and even houses, as the Egyptians, and
touching the same earth and water, and air and fire, which are all component
parts of nature, and which it is impossible to escape from. And this is the most
extraordinary and almost incredible thing, that, by the very same events
happening in the same place and at the same time, one people was destroyed and
the other people was preserved. (144) The river was changed into blood, but not
to the Hebrews; for when these latter went to draw water from it, it underwent
another change and became drinkable. Frogs went up from the water upon the land,
and filled all the market-places, and stables, and dwelling-houses; but they
retreated from before the Hebrews alone, as if they had been able to distinguish
between the two nations, and to know which people it was proper should be
punished and which should be treated in the opposite manner. (145) No lice, no
dog-flies, no locusts, which greatly injured the plants, and the fruits, and the
animals, and the human beings, ever descended upon the Hebrews. Those unceasing
storms of rain and hail, and thunder and lightning, which continued so
uninterruptedly, never reached them; they never felt, no not even in their
dreams, that most terrible ulceration which caused the Egyptians so much
suffering; when that most dense darkness descended upon the others, they were
living in bright daylight, a brilliancy as of noon-day shining all around them;
when, among the Egyptians, all the first-born were slain, not one of the Hebrews
died; for it was not likely, since even that destruction of such countless
flocks and herds of cattle never carried off or injured a single flock or a
single beats belonging to the Hebrews. (146) And it seems to me that if any one
had been present to see all that happened at that time, he would not have
conceived any other idea than that the Hebrews were there as spectators of the
miseries which the other nation was enduring; and, not only that, but that they
were also there for the purpose of being taught that most beautiful and
beneficial of all lessons, namely, piety. For a distinction could otherwise have
never been made so decidedly between the good and the bad, giving destruction to
the one and salvation to the other. XXVII.
(147) And of those who now went forth out of Egypt and left their abodes in that
country, the men of age to bear arms were more than six hundred thousand men,
and the other multitude of elders, and children, and women were so great that it
was not easy to calculate it. Moreover, there also went forth with them a mixed
multitude of promiscuous persons collected from all quarters, and servants, like
an illegitimate crowd with a body of genuine citizens. Among these were those
who had been born to Hebrew fathers by Egyptian women, and who were enrolled as
members of their father's race. And, also, all those who had admired the decent
piety of the men, and therefore joined them; and some, also, who had come over
to them, having learnt the right way, by reason of the magnitude and multitude
of the incessant punishments which had been inflicted on their own countrymen.
(148) Of all these men, Moses was elected the leader; receiving the authority
and sovereignty over them, not having gained it like some men who have forced
their way to power and supremacy by force of arms and intrigue, and by armies of
cavalry and infantry, and by powerful fleets, but having been appointed for the
sake of his virtue and excellence and that benevolence towards all men which he
was always feeling and exhibiting; and, also, because God, who loves virtue, and
piety, and excellence, gave him his authority as a well-deserved reward. (149)
For, as he had abandoned the chief authority in Egypt, which he might have had
as the grandson of the reigning king, on account of the iniquities which were
being perpetrated in that country, and by reason of his nobleness of soul and of
the greatness of his spirit, and the natural detestation of wickedness, scorning
and rejecting all the hopes which he might have conceived from those who had
adopted him, it seemed good to the Ruler and Governor of the universe to
recompense him with the sovereign authority over a more populous and more
powerful nation, which he was about to take to himself out of all other nations
and to consecrate to the priesthood, that it might for ever offer up prayers for
the whole universal race of mankind, for the sake of averting evil from them and
procuring them a participation in blessings. (150) And when he had received this
authority, he did not show anxiety, as some persons do, to increase the power of
his own family, and promote his sons (for he had two) to any great dignity, so
as to make them at the present time partakers in, and subsequently successors
to, his sovereignty; for as he always cherished a pure and guileless disposition
in all things both small and great, he now subdued his natural love and
affection for his children, like an honest judge, making these feelings
subordinate to his own incorruptible reason; (151) for he kept one most
invariable object always steadily before him, namely, that of benefiting those
who were subjected to his authority, and of doing everything both in word and
deed, with a view to their advantage, never omitting any opportunity of doing
anything that might tend to their prosperity. (152) Therefore he alone of all
the persons who have ever enjoyed supreme authority, neither accumulated
treasures of silver and gold, nor levied taxes, nor acquired possession of
houses, or property, or cattle, or servants of his household, or revenues, or
anything else which has reference to magnificence and superfluity, although he
might have acquired an unlimited abundance of them all. (153) But as he thought
it a token of poverty of soul to be anxious about material wealth, he despised
it as a blind thing, but he honored the far-sighted wealth of nature, and was as
great an admirer as any one in the world of that kind of riches, as he showed
himself to be in his clothes, and in his food, and in his whole system and
manner of life, not indulging in any theatrical affectation of pomp and
magnificence, but cultivating the simplicity and unpretending affable plainness
of a private individual, but a sumptuousness which was truly royal, in those
things which it is becoming for a ruler to desire and to abound in; (154) and
these things are, temperance, and fortitude, and continence, and presence of
mind, and acuteness, and knowledge, and industry, and patience under evil, and
contempt of pleasure, and justice, and exhortations to virtue and blame, and
lawful punishment of offenders, and, on the contrary, praise and honor to those
who did well in accordance with law. XXVIII.
(155) Therefore, as he had utterly discarded all desire of gain and of those
riches which are held in the highest repute among men, God honored him, and gave
him instead the greatest and most perfect wealth; and this is the Wealth{2}{the
text here is very corrupt.} of all the earth and sea, and of all the rivers, and
of all the other elements, and all combinations whatever; for having judged him
deserving of being made a partaker with himself in the portion which he had
reserved for himself, he gave him the whole world as a possession suitable for
his heir: (156) therefore, every one of the elements obeyed him as its master,
changing the power which it had by nature and submitting to his commands. And
perhaps there was nothing wonderful in this; for if it be true according to the
proverb, -- "That
all the property of friends is common;" and
if the prophet was truly called the friend of God, then it follows that he would
naturally partake of God himself and of all his possessions as far as he had
need; (157) for God possesses everything and is in need of nothing; but the good
man has nothing which is properly his own, no, not even himself, but he has a
share granted to him of the treasures of God as far as he is able to partake of
them. And this is natural enough; for he is a citizen of the world; on which
account he is not spoken of as to be enrolled as a citizen of any particular
city in the habitable world, since he very appropriately has for his inheritance
not a portion of a district, but the whole world. (158) What more shall I say?
Has he not also enjoyed an even greater communion with the Father and Creator of
the universe, being thought unworthy of being called by the same appellation?
For he also was called the god and king of the whole nation, and he is said to
have entered into the darkness where God was; that is to say, into the
invisible, and shapeless, and incorporeal world, the essence, which is the model
of all existing things, where he beheld things invisible to mortal nature; for,
having brought himself and his own life into the middle, as an excellently
wrought picture, he established himself as a most beautiful and Godlike work, to
be a model for all those who were inclined to imitate him. (159) And happy are
they who have been able to take, or have even diligently labored to take, a
faithful copy of this excellence in their own souls; for let the mind, above all
other parts, take the perfect appearance of virtue, and if that cannot be, at
all events let it feel an unhesitating and unvarying desire to acquire that
appearance; (160) for, indeed, there is no one who does not know that men in a
lowly condition are imitators of men of high reputation, and that what they see,
these last chiefly desire, towards that do they also direct their own
inclinations and endeavors. Therefore, when the chief of a nation begins to
indulge in luxury and to turn aside to a delicate and effeminate life, then the
whole of his subjects, or very nearly the whole, carry their desire for
indulging the appetites of the belly and the parts below the belly beyond all
reasonable bounds, except that there may be some persons who, through the
natural goodness of their disposition, have a soul far removed from treachery,
being rather merciful and kind. (161) If, on the other hand, the chief of a
people adopts a more austere and dignified course of life, then even those of
his subjects, who are inclined to be very incontinent, change and become
temperate, hastening, either out of fear or out of shame, to give him an idea
that they are devoted to the same pursuits and inclinations that he is; and, in
fact, the lower orders will never, no, nor will mad men even, reject the customs
and habits of their superiors: (162) but, perhaps, since Moses was also destined
to be the lawgiver of his nation, he was himself long previously, through the
providence of God, a living and reasonable law, since that providence appointed
him to the lawgiver, when as yet he knew nothing of his appointment. XXIX.
(163) When then he received the supreme authority, with the good will of all his
subjects, God himself being the regulator and approver of all his actions, he
conducted his people as a colony into Phoenicia, and into the hollow Syria (Coele-syria),
and Palestine, which was at that time called the land of the Canaanites, the
borders of which country were three days' journey distant from Egypt. (164) Then
he led them forward, not by the shortest road, partly because he was afraid lest
the inhabitants should come out to meet and to resist him in his march, from
fear of being overthrown and enslaved by such a multitude, and so, if a war
arose, they might be again driven back into Egypt, falling from one enemy to
another, and being driven by their new foes upon their ancient tyrants, and so
become a sport and a laughingstock to the Egyptians, and have to endure greater
and more grievous hardships than before. He was also desirous, by leading them
through a desolate and extensive country, to prove them, and see how obedient
they would be when they were not surrounded by any abundance of necessaries, but
were but scantily provided and nearly in actual want. (165) Therefore, turning
aside from the direct road he found an oblique path, and thinking that it must
extend as far as the Red Sea, he began to march by that road, and, they say,
that a most portentous miracle happened at that time, a prodigy of nature, which
no one anywhere recollects to have ever happened before; (166) for a cloud,
fashioned into the form of a vast pillar, went before the multitude by day,
giving forth a light like that of the sun, but by night it displayed a fiery
blaze, in order that the Hebrews might not wander on their journey, but might
follow the guidance of their leader along the road, without any deviation.
Perhaps, indeed, this was one of the ministers of the mighty King, an unseen
messenger, a guide of the way enveloped in this cloud, whom it was not lawful
for men to behold with the eyes of the body. XXX.
(167) But when the king of Egypt saw them proceeding along a pathless track, as
he fancied, and marching through a rough and untrodden wilderness, he was
delighted with the blunder they were making respecting their line of march,
thinking that now they were hemmed in, having no way of escape whatever. And, as
he repented of having let them go, he determined to pursue them, thinking that
he should either subdue the multitude by fear, and so reduce them a second time
to slavery, or else that if they resisted he should slay them all from the
children upwards. (168) Accordingly, he took all his force of cavalry, and his
darters, and his slingers, and his equestrian archers, and all the rest of his
light-armed troops, and he gave his commanders six hundred of the finest of his
scythe-bearing chariots, that with all becoming dignity and display they might
pursue these men, and join in the expedition and so suing all possible speed, he
sallied forth after them and hastened and pressed on the march, wishing to come
upon them suddenly before they had any expectation of him. For an unexpected
evil is at all times more grievous than one which has been looked for, in
proportion as that which has been despised finds it easier to make a formidable
attack than that which has been regarded with care. (169) The king, therefore,
with these ideas, pursued after the Hebrews, thinking that he should subdue them
by the mere shout of battle. And, when he overtook them, they were already
encamped along the shore of the Red Sea. And they were just about to go to
breakfast, when, at first, a mighty sound reached them, as was natural from such
a host of men and beasts of burden all proceeding on with great haste, so that
they all ran out of their tents to look round, and stood on tip-toes to see and
hear what was the matter. Then, a short time afterwards, the army of the enemy
came in sight as it rose over a hill, all in arms, and ready arranged in line of
battle. XXXI.
(170) And the Hebrews, being terrified at this extraordinary and unexpected
danger, and not being well prepared for defense, because of a scarcity of
defensive armor and of weapons (for they had not marched out for war, but to
found a colony), and not being able to escape, for behind was the sea, and in
front was the enemy, and on each side a vast and pathless wilderness, reviled
against Moses, and, being dismayed at the magnitude of the evils that threatened
them, began, as is very common in such calamities, to blame their governors, and
said: (171) "Because there were no graves in Egypt in which we could be
buried after we were dead, have you brought us out hither to kill and bury us
here? Or, is not even slavery a lighter evil than death? Having allured the
multitude with the hope of liberty, you have caused them to incur a still more
grievous danger than slavery, namely, the risk of the loss of life. (172) Did
you not know our simplicity, and the bitterness and cruel anger of the
Egyptians? Do you not see the magnitude of the evils which surround us, and from
which we cannot escape? What are we to do? Are we, unarmed, to fight against men
in complete armor? or shall we flee now that we are hemmed in as by nets cast
all around us by our pitiless enemies--hemmed in by pathless deserts and
impassable seas? Or, even, if the sea was navigable, how are we to get any
vessels to cross over it?" (173) Moses, when he heard these complaints,
pardoned his people, but remembered the oracles of God. And, at the same time,
he so divided and distributed his mind and his speech, that with the one he
associated invisibly with God, in order that God might deliver him from
otherwise inextricable calamities; and, with the other, he encouraged and
comforted those who cried out to him, saying: "Do not faint and despair.
God does not deliver in the same way that man does. (174) Why do you only trust
such means of deliverance as seem probable and likely? God, when he comes as an
assistant, stands in need of no adventitious preparations. It is his peculiar
attribute to find a path amid inextricable perplexities. What is impossible to
every created being is possible and easy to him above." (175) Thus he spoke
to them while yet standing still. But after a short time he became inspired by
God, and being full of the divine spirit and under the influence of that spirit
which was accustomed to enter into him, he prophesied and animated them thus:
"This army which you behold so splendidly equipped with arms, you shall no
more see arrayed against you; for it shall fall, utterly and completely
overthrown, so that not a relic shall be seen any more upon the earth, and that
not at any distance of time, but this very next night." XXXII.
(176) He then spoke thus. But when the sun had set, immediately a most violent
south wind set in and began to blow, under the influence of which the sea
retreated; for, as it was accustomed to ebb and flow, on this occasion it was
driven back much further towards the shore, and drawn up in a heap as if into a
ravine or a whirlpool. And no stars were visible, but a dense and black cloud
covered the whole of the heaven, so that the night became totally dark, to the
consternation of the pursuers. (177) And Moses, at the command of God, smote the
sea with his staff. And it was broken and divided into two parts, and one of the
divisions at the part where it was broken off, was raised to a height and
mounted up, and being thus consolidated like a strong wall, stood quiet and
unshaken; and the portion behind the Hebrews was also contracted and raised in,
and prevented from proceeding forwards, as if it were held back by invisible
reins. And the intermediate space, where the fracture had taken place, was dried
up and became a broad, and level, and easy road. When Moses beheld this he
marveled and rejoiced; and, being filled with joy, he encouraged his followers
and exhorted them to march forward with all possible speed. (178) And when they
were about to pass over, a most extraordinary prodigy was seen; for the cloud,
which had been their guide, and which during all the rest of the period of their
march had gone in front of them, now turned back and placed itself at the back
of the multitude to guard their rear; and, being situated between the pursuers
and the pursued, it guided the one party so as to keep them with safety and
perfect freedom from danger, and it checked and embarrassed the others, who were
hastening on to pursue them. And, when the Egyptians saw this, they were
entirely filled with disorder and confusion, and through their consternation
they threw all their ranks into disorder, falling upon one another and
endeavoring to flee, when there was no advantage to be derived from flight.
(179) For, at the first appearance of morning, the Hebrews passed over by a dry
path, with their wives, and families, and infant children. But the portions of
the sea which were rolled up and consolidated on each side overwhelmed the
Egyptians with their horses and chariots, the tide being brought back by a
strong north wind and poured over them, and coming upon them with vast waves and
overpowering billows, so that there was not even a torchbearer left to carry the
news of this sudden disaster back to Egypt. (180) Then the Hebrews, being amazed
at this great and wonderful event, gained a victory which they had never hoped
for without bloodshed or loss; and, seeing the instantaneous and complete
destruction of the enemy, formed two choruses, one of men and the other of
women, on the sea shore, and sang hymns of gratitude to God, Moses leading the
song of the men, and his sister that of the women; for these two persons were
the leaders of the choruses. XXXIII.
(181) And when they had departed from the sea they went on for some time
travelling, and no longer feeling any apprehension of their enemies. But when
water failed them, so that for three days they had nothing to drink, they were
again reduced to despondency by thirst, and again began to blame their fate as
if they had not enjoyed any good fortune previously; for it always happens that
the presence of an existing and present evil takes away the recollection of the
pleasure which was caused by former good. (182) At last, when they beheld some
fountains, they ran up full of joy with the idea that they were going to drink,
being deceived by ignorance of the truth; for the springs were bitter. Then when
they had tasted them they were bowed down by the unexpected disappointment, and
fainted, and yielded both in body and soul, lamenting not so much for themselves
as for their helpless children, whom they could not endure without tears to
behold imploring drink; (183) and some of those who were of more careless
dispositions, and of no settled notions of piety, blamed all that had gone
before, as if it had turned out not so as to do them any good, but rather so as
to lead them to a suffering of more grievous calamities than ever; saying that
it was better for them to die, not only once but three times over, by the hands
of their enemies, than to perish with thirst; for they affirmed that a quick and
painless departure from life did in no respect differ from freedom from death in
the opinion of wise men, but that that was real death which was slow and
accompanied by pain; that what was fearful was not to be dead but only to be
dying. (184) When they were lamenting and bewailing themselves in this manner,
Moses again besought God, who knew the weakness of all creatures, and especially
of men, and the necessary wants of the body which depends for its existence on
food, and which is enslaved by those severe task-mistresses, eating and
drinking, to pardon his desponding people, and to relieve their want of
everything, and that too not after a long interval of time, but by a prompt and
undeferred liberality, since by reason of the natural impotency of their mortal
nature, they required a very speedy measure of assistance and deliverance. (185)
But he, by his bountiful and merciful power, anticipated their wishes, sending
forth and opening the watchful, anxious eye of the soul of his suppliant, and
showed him a piece of wood which he bade him take up and throw into the water,
which indeed had been made by nature with such a power for that purpose, and
which perhaps had a quality which was previously unknown, or perhaps was then
first endowed with it, for the purpose of effecting the service which it was
then about to perform: (186) and when he had done that which he was commanded to
do, the fountains became changed and sweet and drinkable, so that no one was
able to recognize the fact of their having been bitter previously, because there
was not the slightest trace or spark of their ancient bitterness left to excite
the recollection. XXXIV.
(187) And so having appeased their thirst with double pleasure, since the
blessing of enjoyment when it comes beyond one's hopes delights one still more,
and having also replenished their ewers, they departed as from a feast, as if
they had been entertained at a luxurious banquet, and as if they were
intoxicated not with the drunkenness which proceeds from wine, but with a sober
joy which they had imbibed purely, while pledging and being pledged by the piety
of the ruler who was leading them; (188) and so they arrive at a second halting
place, well supplied with water, and well shaded with trees, called Aileem,
irrigated with twelve fountains, near which were young and vigorous trunks of
palm trees to the number of seventy, a visible indication and token of good to
the whole nation, to all who were gifted with a clear-sighted intellect. (189)
For the nation itself was divided into twelve tribes, each of which, if pious
and religious, would be looked upon in the light of a fountain, since piety is
continually pouring forth everlasting and unceasing springs of virtuous actions.
And the elders and chiefs of the whole nation were seventy in number, being
therefore very naturally likened to palm trees which are the most excellent of
all trees, being both most beautiful to behold, and bearing the most exquisite
fruit, which has also its vitality and power of existence, not buried in the
roots like other trees, but situated high up like the heart of a man, and lodged
in the centre of its highest branches, by which it is attended and guarded like
a queen as it really is, they being spread all round it. (190) And the intellect
too of those persons who have tasted of holiness has a similar nature; for it
has learned to look upwards and to soar on high, and is continually keeping its
eye fixed on sublime objects, and investigating divine things, and ridiculing,
and scorning all earthly beauty, thinking the last only toys, and divine things
the only real and proper objects worthy of its attention. XXXV.
(191) But after these events only a short time elapsed, when they became
oppressed by famine through the scarcity of provisions, as if one necessary
thing after another was to foil them in succession: for thirst and hunger are
very cruel and terrible mistresses, and having portioned out the afflictions
between them, attacked them by turns; and it so fell out that when the first
calamity was relaxed the second came on, which was most intolerable to those who
had to bear it, inasmuch as having only just fancied that they were delivered
from thirst, they now found another evil, namely famine, lying in ambush to
attack them; (192) and not only was their present scarcity terrible, but they
were also in despair as to the supply of necessary food for the future; for when
they saw the vast and extensive desert around them, so utterly unproductive of
any kind of crop, their hearts sank within them. For all around were rugged and
precipitous rocks, or else a salt and brackish plain, and stony mountains, or
deep sands reaching up and forming mountains of inaccessible height; and
moreover there was no river, neither winter torrent nor ever-flowing stream;
there were no springs, no plant growing from seed, no tree whether for fruit or
timber, no animal whether flying or terrestrial, except some few poisonous
reptiles born for the destruction of mankind, and serpents, and scorpions. (193)
So then the Hebrews, remembering the plenty and luxury which they had enjoyed in
Egypt, and the abundance of all things which was bestowed upon them there, and
contrasting it with the universal want of all things which they were now
experiencing, were grieved and indignant, and talked the matter over with one
another, saying:-- "We left our former abodes and emigrated, from a hope of
freedom, happy only in the promises of our leader; as far as his actions go, we
are of all men the most miserable. (194) What will be the end of this long and
interminable journey? Everyone else, whether sailing over the sea or marching on
foot, has some limit before him at which he will eventually arrive; some being
bound for marts and harbors, others for some city or country; but we alone have
nothing to look forward to but a pathless desert, and a difficult journey, and
terrible hopelessness, and despair; for as we advance, the desert lies before us
like an ever open, vast, and pathless sea which widens and increases every day.
(195) But Moses having raised our expectations, and puffed us up with fine
speeches, and filled our ears with vain hopes, racks our bodies with hunger and
does not give us even necessary food. He has deceived this vast multitude with
the name of a settlement in a colony; having first of all led us out of an
inhabited country into an uninhabitable district, and now sending us down to the
shades below, which is the last journey of life." XXXVI.
(196) Moses, being reviled in this way, was nevertheless not so much grieved at
their accusations which they brought against himself, as at the inconstancy of
their own resolutions and minds. For though they had already experienced an
infinite number of blessings which had befallen them unexpectedly and out of the
ordinary course of affairs, they ought, in his opinion, not to have allowed
themselves to be led away by any specious or plausible complaints, but to have
trusted in him, as they had already received the clearest possible proofs that
he spoke truly about everything. (197) But again, when he came to take into
consideration the want of food, than which there is no more terrible evil which
can afflict mankind, he pardoned them, knowing that the multitude is by nature
inconstant and always moved by present circumstances, which cause it to forget
what has gone before, and despair of the future. (198) Therefore, as they were
all in the extremity of suffering, and expecting the most fearful misery which
they fancied was lying in ambush for them and close at hand, God, partly by
reason of his natural love and compassion for man, and partly because he desired
to honor the commander whom he had appointed to govern them, and still more to
show his great piety and holiness in all matters whether visible or invisible,
pitied them and relieved their distress. (199) Therefore he now devised an
entirely new kind of benefit, that they, being taught by manifest signs and
displays of his power, might feel reverence for him, and learn for the future
not to be impatient if anything turned out contrary to their wishes, but to
endure present evils with fortitude, in the expectation of future blessings.
(200) What then happened? The very next day, about sun-rise, a dense and
abundant dew fell in a circle all round about the camp, which rained down upon
it gently and quietly in an unusual and unprecedented shower; not water, nor
hail, nor snow, nor ice, for these are the things which the changes of the
clouds produce in the winter season; but what was now rained down upon them was
a very small and light grain, like millet, which, by reason of its incessant
fall, rested in heaps before the camp, a most extraordinary sight. And the
Hebrews marveled at it, and inquired of the commander what this rain was, which
no man had ever seen before, and for what it was sent. (201) And he was
inspired, and full of the spirit of prophecy, and spoke to them as follows:
"A fertile plain has been granted to mortal men, which they cut up into
furrows, and plough, and sow, and do everything else which relates to
agriculture, providing the yearly fruits so as to enjoy abundance of necessary
food. But it is not one portion only of the universe, but the whole world that
belongs to God, and all its parts obey their master, supplying everything which
he desires that they should supply. (202) Now therefore, it has seemed good to
him that the air should produce food instead of water, since the earth has often
brought forth rain; for when the river in Egypt every year overflows with
inundations and irrigates all the fields, what else is that but a rain which is
showered up from below?" (203) That other would have been indeed a most
surprising fact if it had stopped there; but now he wrought wonders with still
more surprising circumstances; for all the population bringing vessels one after
another, collected what fell, some putting them upon beasts of burden, others
loading themselves and taking them on their shoulders, being prudently eager to
provide themselves with necessary food for a longer time. (204) But it was
something that would bear to be stored up and dispensed gradually, since God is
accustomed always to give his gifts fresh. Accordingly, they now prepared enough
for their immediate necessities and present use, and ate it with pleasure. But
of what was left till the next day they found not a morsel unhurt, but it was
all changed and fetid, and full of little animals of the kind which usually
cause putrefaction. So this they naturally threw away, but they found fresh
quantities of it ready for food, so that it fell out that this food was carried
down every day with the dew. (205) But the holy seventh day had an especial
honor; for, as it is not permitted to do anything whatever on that day (and it
is expressly commanded that men are then to abstain from every work, great or
little), so that they were not able to collect food that day, instead of food
for one day, God rained upon them a double quantity, and ordered them to collect
what shall be food enough for two days. And what was then collected remained
sound, no portion of it becoming spoiled as it had before. XXXVII.
(206) I will also relate a circumstance which is more marvelous than even this
one; for, though they were travelling for forty years, yet during all this long
period of time they had an abundant supply of all necessary things in their
appointed order, as is the case in clubs and messes which are regularly measured
out with a view to the distribution of what is required by each individual. And,
at the same time, they learnt the value of that long-wished for day; (207) for,
having inquired for a long time what the day of the creation of the world as,
the day on which the universe was completely finished, and, having received this
question from their fathers and their ancestors undecided, they at last, though
with great difficulty, did ascertain it, not being taught only by the sacred
scriptures, but also by a certain proof which was very distinct; for, as that
portion of the manna (as has been already said) which was more than was wanted
on the other days of the week was spoiled, still that portion which was rained
down on the day before the seventh not only did not change its nature, but was
dispensed in a twofold quantity. (208) And the use was as follows. At dawn they
collected what had been showered down, and then they ground or pounded it; and
then they roasted it and made every sweet food of it, like honey cheesecake, and
so they ate it, without requiring any exceeding skill on the part of the
preparers of the food. (209) But they also had no scarcity of, nor any great
distance to go for, the means of making life even luxurious, as if they had been
in a populous and productive land, since God had determined out of his great
abundance to supply them with plenty of all things which they required even in
the wilderness; for, in the evenings, there was an uninterrupted cloud of quails
borne to them from the sea, which overshadowed the whole camp, flying very near
the ground so as to be easily caught. Therefore, the Hebrews, taking them and
preparing them as each individual liked, enjoyed the most exquisite meat,
pleasing themselves and varying their food with this necessary and delicious
addition. XXXVIII.
(210) Accordingly, they had a great abundance of these birds, as they never
failed. But, a second time, a terrible scarcity of water came upon them and
afflicted them; and, as they again speedily began to despair of their safety,
Moses, taking his sacred rod with which he had wrought the signs in Egypt, being
inspired by God, smote the precipitous rock. (211) And the rock being struck
this seasonable blow, whether it was that there was a spring previously
concealed beneath it, or whether water was then for the first time conveyed into
it by invisible channels pouring in all together and being forced out with
violence, at all events the rock, I say, was cleft open by the force of the blow
and poured forth water in a stream, so that it not only then furnished a relief
from thirst, but also supplied for a long time an abundance of drink for so many
myriads of people. For they filled all their water vessels, as they had done
before, from the fountains which were bitter by nature, but which, by divine
providence, were changed to sweet water. (212) And, if any one disbelieves these
facts, he neither knows God nor has he ever sought to know him; for, if he had,
he would have instantly known, he would have known and surely comprehended, that
all these unexpected and extraordinary things are the amusement of God; looking
at the things which are really great and deserving of serious attention, namely,
the creation of the heaven, and the revolutions of the planets and fixed stars,
and the shining of light--of the light of the sun by day and that of the moon by
night--and the position of the earth in the most centre spot of the universe,
and the vast dominions of the different continents and islands, and the
innumerable varieties of animals and plants, and the effusion of the sea, and
the rapid courses of the ever-flowing rivers and winter mountain torrents, and
the streams of everlasting springs, some of which pour forth cold and others hot
water, and the various changes and alterations of the air and climate, and the
different seasons of the year, and an infinite number of other beautiful
objects. (213) And the whole of a man's life would be too short if he wished to
enumerate all the separate instances of such things, or even to detail fully all
that is to be seen in one complete portion of the world; aye, if he were to be
the most longlived man that has ever been seen. But all these things, though
they are in truth really wonderful, are despised by us by reason of our
familiarity with them. But the things to which we are not accustomed, even
though they may be unimportant, still make an impression upon us from our love
of novelty, while we yield to strange ideas concerning them. XXXIX.
(214) And now, as they had gone over a vast tract of land previously untravelled,
there appeared some boundaries of habitable country and some suburbs, as it
were, of the land to which they were proceeding, and the Phoenicians inhabited
it. But they, hoping that a tranquil and peaceable life would now be permitted
to them, were deceived in their expectation; (215) for the king of the country,
being afraid lest he might be destroyed, roused up all the youth of his cities,
and collected an army, and went forth to meet them to keep them from his
borders. And if they attempted to force their way, he showed that he would
proceed to repel them with all his forces, his army being fresh, and now for the
first time levied and marshalled for battle, while the Hebrews were wearied and
worn out with their long travelling and with the scarcity of meat and drink
which had in turns oppressed them. (216) But when Moses had learnt from his
scouts that the army of the enemy was marshalled at no great distance, he chose
out those men who were in the flower of their youth, and appointed one of his
subordinate officers, named Joshua, to be their general, while he himself went
to procure a more powerful alliance; for, having purified himself with the
customary purification, he rode up with speed to a neighboring hill, and there
he besought God to hold his shield over the Hebrews and to give them the victory
and the mastery, as he had delivered them before from more formidable dangers
and from other evils, not only dissipating the calamities with which they were
threatened at the hands of men, but also all those which the transformation of
the elements so wonderfully caused in the land of Egypt, and from those which
the long scarcity inflicted upon them in their travels. (217) And just as the
two armies were about to engage in battle, a most marvelous miracle took place
with respect to his hands; for they became by turns lighter and heavier. Then,
whenever they were lighter, so that he could hold them up on high, the alliance
between God and his people was strengthened, and waxed mighty, and became more
glorious. But whenever his hands sank down the enemy prevailed, God showing thus
by a figure that the earth and all the extremities of it were the appropriate
inheritance of the one party, and the most sacred air the inheritance of the
other. And as the heaven is in every respect supreme to and superior over the
earth, so also shall the nation which has heaven for its inheritance be superior
to their enemies. (218) For some time, then, his hands, like the balances in a
scale, were by turns light, and by turns descended as being heavy; and, during
this period, the battle was undecided. But, on a sudden, they became quite
devoid of weight, using their fingers as if they were wings, and so they were
raised to a lofty height, like winged birds who traverse the heaven, and they
continued at this height until the Hebrews had gained an unquestionable victory,
their enemies being slain to a man from the youth upward, and suffering with
justice what they had endeavored to inflict on others, contrary to what was
befitting. (219) Then Moses erected an altar, which from the circumstances that
had taken place he named the refuge of God, on which he offered sacrifices in
honor of his victory, and poured forth prayers of gratitude to God. XL.
(220) After this battle he considered that it was proper to reconnoitre the
country into which the nation was being led as a colony (and it was now the
second year that they had been travelling), not wishing that his followers
should (as is often the case) change their designs out of ignorance, but that
they should learn by accurate report, what the nature of the country really was,
availing themselves of the positive knowledge of the inhabitants, and should
then consider what was best to be done; (221) and accordingly he chose out
twelve men, to correspond in number to the twelve tribes, one out of each tribe
to be the leader of it, selecting the most approved men, with reference to their
excellence, in order that no quarrels might arise from any one party being
better or worse off than another, but that they might all, by the agency of
those to whom the matter was entrusted, be equally instructed as to the state of
affairs among the inhabitants, if only the spies who were sent out brought a
true report. (222) And when he had selected the men he spoke to them as follows:
"The inheritance which is before us is the prize of those labors and
dangers which we have endured hitherto, and are still enduring, and let us not
lose the hope of these things, we who are thus conducting a most populous nation
to a new settlement. But the knowledge of the places, and of the men, and of the
circumstances, is most useful, just as ignorance of these particulars is most
injurious. (223) We have therefore appointed you as spies, that we, by your eyes
and by your intellects, may see the state of things there; ye, therefore, must
be the ears and eyes of all these myriads of people, that thus they may arrive
at an accurate comprehension of what is indispensable to be known. (224)
"Now what we wish to know consists of three points; the number of the
inhabitants, and the strength of their cities, whether they are planted in
favorable situations, whether they are strongly built and fortified, or the
contrary. As to the country, we wish to know whether it has a deep and rich
soil, whether it is good to bear all kinds of fruits, both of such plants as are
raised from seed and of fruit-trees; or whether, on the contrary, it has a
shallow soil; that so we may be prepared against the power and numbers of the
inhabitants with equal forces, and against the fortified state of buildings and
cities by means of engines and machines, for the destruction of cities.
"And it is indispensable to understand the nature of the country, and
whether it is a good land or not; for to encounter voluntary dangers for a poor
and bad land is an act of folly; (225) and our weapons, and our engines, and all
our power, consist solely in our trust and confidence in God. Having this
preparation we will yield to no danger or fear, for this is sufficient with
great superfluity of power to subdue otherwise invincible strength, which relies
only on bodily vigor and on armies, and on courage, and skill, and numbers;
since to that too we owe it, that even in a vast wilderness we have full
supplies of everything, as if we were in well-stocked cities; (226) and the time
in which it is most easy to come to a proper understanding of the good qualities
of the land is the spring, the season which is now present; for in the season of
spring what has been sown is coming to perfection, and the natures of the trees
are beginning to propagate themselves further. It will be better, therefore, for
you to enter the land now, and to remain till the middle of the summer, and to
bring back with you fruits, as samples of what is to be procured from a
prosperous and fertile country." XLI.
(227) When they had received these orders, they went forth to spy out the land,
being conducted on their way by the whole multitude who feared lest they might
be taken prisoners and so be put to death, and lest in that way two great evils
might happen to them, namely, the slaughter of the men who were the eye of each
tribe, and also ignorance of what was being done by their enemies who were
plotting against them, the knowledge of which was most desirable. (228) So,
taking with them scouts to examine the road and guides to show them the way,
they accompanied them at their first setting out. And when they approached the
borders of the country they ran up to the highest mountain of all those in that
district, and from thence they surveyed the land, part of which was an extensive
champaign district, fertile in barley, and wheat, and herbage; and the mountain
region was not less productive of vines, and all kinds of other trees, and rich
in every kind of timber, full of dense thickets, and girdled by rivers and
fountains so as to be abundantly well watered, so that even from the foot of the
mountain district to the highest summit of the hills themselves, the whole
region was covered closely with a net-work of shady trees, and more especially
the lower ridges, and the deep valleys and glens. (229) They also surveyed all
the strongest cities, looking upon them in two points of view; first, with
reference to their advantages of situation, and also to the strength of their
fortification; also, when they inquired respecting the inhabitants, they saw
that they were very numerous indeed, and giants of exceeding tallness with
absolutely gigantic bodies, both as to their magnitude and their strength. (230)
When they had seen thus much they waited to get a more accurate knowledge of
everything: for first impressions are not trustworthy, but require the slow
confirmation of time. They also took great care to gather specimens of the
productions of the land, though they were not as yet ripe and solid, but only
just beginning to be properly colored, that they might show them to all the
multitude, for which reason they selected such as would not be easily spoiled;
(231) but what above all things astonished them was the fruit of the vines, for
the branches were of unrivalled sizes, stretching along all the young shoots and
branches in a way that seemed almost incredible. Therefore, having cut off one
branch, and having suspended it on a stick by the middle, the ends of which they
gave to two young men, placing one on one side and one on the other, and others
succeeding them as bearers of it as the former bearers got tired, for the weight
was very great, they carried it so, the whole body of the spies not at all
agreeing with respect to some points of necessary importance. XLII.
(232) Accordingly, there were a great many contest between them even before they
returned to the camp, but not very serious ones, in order that there might not
be seditions between them from any of them adhering very contentiously to his
own opinion, or from different persons giving different accounts, but they
became more violent after their return; (233) for some of them brought back
formidable stories of the strength of the different cities, and the great
populousness and opulence of each of them, exaggerating and making the most of
everything in their description so as to cause excessive consternation among
their hearers; while others, on the contrary, disparaged and made light of all
that they saw, and exhorted their fellow countrymen not to faint but to
persevere in their design of colonising that country, as they would subdue the
natives with a mere shout; for that no city whatever would be able to resist the
onset of so mighty a power attacking it with its united force, but would be
overwhelmed with its might and submit at once. Moreover, each of the spies
infused into the souls of his hearers some portion of his own spirit, the
cowardly spreading cowardice, and the indomitable and bold diffusing confidence
united with sanguine hope. (234) But these last made but a fifth part of those
who were frightened out of their senses, while they, on the other hand, were
five times as numerous as the high-spirited; and the small number of those who
displayed any courage, is often beaten down by the vast number of those who
behaved in a cowardly manner, as they say was the case at this time also; for
they who maintained the better side of the question were only two, while those
who made the contrary report were ten; and these last so entirely prevailed over
the two former, that they led away the whole multitude after them, alienating
them from the two, and binding them wholly to themselves. (235) But about the
country itself they all brought back the same report with perfect unanimity,
praising the beauty both of the champaign and of the mountainous district. But
then they further cried out, "But what is the advantage to us of those good
things which belong to others, when they are guarded by a mighty force, so that
they can never be taken from their owners?" And so, attacking the two who
brought the opposite report, they were very near stoning them, preferring to
hear pleasant rather than useful things, and also preferring deceit to truth.
(236) At which their leader was indignant, and he was also at the same time
afraid lest some heaven-inflicted evil might descend upon them, since they so
obstinately persisted in despairing and in disbelieving the word of God, which
indeed took place. For of the spies, the ten who brought back cowardly tiding
all perished by a pestilential disease, with those of the multitude who united
in their feelings of despondency, and only the two who had agreed and counselled
the people not to fear but to persevere in the plan of the colony were saved,
because they were obedient to the word of God, on which account they received
the especial honor of not being involved in the destruction of the others. XLIII.
(237) This was the reason why they did not arrive sooner in the land which they
went forth to colonize; for though they might, in the second year after their
departure from Egypt, have conquered all the cities in Syria, and divided the
inheritance amongst themselves, still they turned aside from the direct and
short road, and wandered about, using one long, and difficult, and pathless line
of march after another, so as to be incessantly toiling both in soul and body,
and enduring the necessary and deserved punishment of their excessive impiety:
(238) accordingly, for eight and thirty years more, after the two years which I
have already mentioned as having elapsed, the life of a complete generation of
mankind did they wander up and down, traversing the pathless wilderness; and at
last in the fortieth year, they with difficulty came to the borders of the
country which they had reached so many years before. (239) And at the entrance
to this country there dwelt other tribes akin to themselves, who they thought
would cheerfully join them in the war against their neighbors, and would
co-operate in everything necessary for the establishment of the colony; and if
they hesitated to do that, they thought that at all events they would range
themselves on neither side, but would preserve a strict neutrality, holding up
their hands; (240) for in fact the ancestors of both nations, both of the
Hebrews and of those who dwelt on the skirts of the country, were brethren
descended from the same father and the same mother, and moreover were twins; for
it was from two brothers, who had thus increased with numerous descendants, and
had enjoyed a great productiveness of offspring, that each of their families had
grown into a vast and numerous Nation.{3}{the brothers are Jacob and Esau, Jacob
being the father of the Israelites and Esau of the Edomites.} But one of these
nations had clung to its original abodes; but the other, as has been already
mentioned, having migrated to Egypt by reason of the famine, at this subsequent
period was now returning, (241) and one of the two preserved its respect for its
kindred though it had been for such a length of time separated from it, still
having a regard for those who no longer preserved any one of their ancestral
customs, but who had in every respect departed from their ancient habits and
constitutions, thinking that it became those who claimed to be of civilised
natures, to give and yield something to the name of relationship. (242) But the
other utterly overturned all notions of friendship and affection, giving in to
fierce, and unfriendly, and irreconcilable dispositions, and language, and
counsels, and actions; and thus keeping alive the ill-will of their original
ancestor to his brother; for the first founder of their race, though he had
himself given up his birthright to his brother, yet a short time afterwards
endeavored to assert his claim to what he had abandoned voluntarily, violating
his agreement, and he sought to slay his brother, threatening him with death if
he did not surrender what he had purchased. And now the whole nation after the
interval of so many generations, renewed the ancient enmity between one
individual and another. (243) Therefore Moses, the leader of the Hebrews,
although he might with one single effort, aye with the mere shout of his army,
have subdued the whole nation, still, by reason of the aforesaid relationship
did not think fit to do so; but desired only to use the road through their
country, promising that he would in every respect observe the treaties between
them, and not despoil them of territory, or cattle, or of any booty, that he
would even pay a price for water if there should be a scarcity of drink, and for
anything else that they might require to buy, as not being supplied with it; but
they violently rejected their peaceful invitations, threatening them with war,
if they heard of their crossing over their borders or even of their setting foot
upon them. XLIV.
(244) But as the Hebrews received their answer with great indignation, and
prepared at once to oppose them, Moses stood in a place from whence he would be
well heard, and said, "O men, your indignation is reasonable and just; for
though we, in a peaceable disposition, have made them good and friendly offers,
they have made us an evil reply out of their evil and perverse disposition.
(245) But it does not follow that because they deserve to pay the penalty for
their cruelty, therefore it is desirable for us to proceed to take vengeance
upon them, by reason of the honor due to our own nation, that we may show that
in this particular we are good and different from wicked men, inasmuch as we
consider not only whether such and such persons deserve to be punished, but
whether also it is proper that they should receive their punishment from
us." (246) On this he turned aside and led his army by another road, since
he knew that all the roads in that district were surrounded with garrisons, by
those who were not in danger of receiving any injury, but who were out of envy
and jealousy would not allow them to proceed by the shortest road; (247) and
this was the most manifest proof of their sorrow, which they felt in consequence
of the nation having obtained their liberty, namely when they rejoiced when they
were enduring that bitter slavery of theirs in Egypt; for it follows of
necessity that those men to whom the good fortune of their neighbors causes
grief, do also rejoice at their evil fortune, even if they do not admit that
they do so; (248) for they had already related to their neighbors, as to persons
in accordance with themselves, and cherishing the same thoughts, all the
misfortunes and also all the agreeable pieces of good fortune which had happened
to them, not knowing that they had proceeded to a great degree of iniquity, and
that they were full of unfriendly, and hostile, and malicious thoughts towards
them, so that they were like to grieve at their good fortune, but to rejoice at
any thing of a contrary tendency. (249) But when their malevolence was fully
revealed, the Hebrews were nevertheless restrained from coming to open war with
them by their ruler, who thus displayed two most excellent qualities at the same
time; namely prudence and a compassionate disposition; for to take care that no
evil should happen to any one is the part of wisdom, and not to be willing even
to repel one's own kinsmen is a proof of a humane disposition. XLV.
(250) Therefore he passed by the cities of these nations; but a certain king of
the neighboring country, Canaan by name, when his spies reported to him that the
army of the Hebrews, which was making in his direction was at no great distance,
thinking that it was in a state of confusion and disorder, and that he should be
able easily to conquer it if he were to attack it at once, proceeded forth with
the youth of his nation well armed and equipped, and marched with all speed, and
put the van of their host to flight as soon as he encountered them, inasmuch as
they were not arrayed or prepared for battle; and having taken many prisoners,
and being elated at the prosperity beyond his hopes which he had met with, he
marched on thinking that he should defeat all the others also. (251) But the
Hebrews, for they were not dismayed at the defeat of their advanced guard, but
had rather derived even more confidence than they had felt before, being eager
also to make amends by their eagerness for battle for the loss of those of their
number who had been taken prisoners, exhorted one another not to faint nor to
yield. "Let us rise up," said they; "let us at once invade their
land. Let us show that we are in no wise alarmed or depressed, by our vigor in
action and our confidence. The end is very often judged of by the beginning. Let
us seize the keys of the country and strike terror into the inhabitants as
deriving prosperity from cities, and inflicting upon them in return the want of
necessary things which we bring with us out of the wilderness." (252) And
they, at the same time, exhorted one another often with these words, and
likewise began to dedicate to God, as the first fruits of the land, the cities
of the king and all the citizens of each city. And he accepted their views and
inspired the Hebrews with courage, and prepared the army of the enemy to be
defeated. (253) Accordingly, the Hebrews defeated them with mighty power, and
fulfilled the agreement of gratitude which they had made, not appropriating to
themselves the slightest portion of the booty. And they dedicated to God the
cities with all the men and treasures that were in them, and, from what had thus
taken place, they called the whole country an offering to God; (254) for, as
every pious man offers unto God the first fruits of the fruits of the year,
which he collects from his own possessions, so in the same manner did the
Hebrews dedicate the whole nation of this mighty country into which they had
come as settlers, and that great spoil, the kingdom which they had so speedily
subdued, as a sort of first-fruit of their colony; for they did not think it
consistent with piety to distribute the land among themselves, or to inherit the
cities, before they had offered up to God the first fruits of that country and
of those cities. XLVI.
(255) A short time afterwards, having found a copious spring of water which
supplied drink to all the multitude, and the spring was in a well and on the
borders of the country, drawing it up and drinking it as though it had been not
water but pure wine, they were refreshed in their souls, and those among the
people who loved God established choruses and dances in a circle around the
well, out of their cheerfulness and joy, and sang a new song to God, the
possessor and giver of their inheritance and the real leader of their colony,
because now at the first moment of their coming forth from the direction in
which they had so long been dwelling in to the inhabited land which they were
ordained to possess, they had found abundant drink, and therefore they thought
it right not to pass this spring by without due honor. (256) For this well had
been originally cut not by the hands of private individuals, but of kings, who
had labored in rivalry of one another, as the tale went, not only in the
discovery of the water, but likewise in the digging of the well, in order that
by its magnificence it might be seen to be a royal work, and that the power and
magnanimity of those who built it might appear from the beginning. (257) And
Moses, rejoicing at the unexpected blessings which from time to time were
presenting themselves to him, advanced further, dividing the youth of his people
into the vanguard and the rearguard, and placing the old men, and the women, and
the children
in the centre, that they might be protected by those who were thus at each
extremity, in the case of their having to encounter any force of the enemy
either in front or behind. XLVII.
(258) A few days afterwards he entered the country of the Amorites, and sent
ambassadors to the king, whose name was Sihon, exhorting him to the same
measures to which he had previously invited his kinsman. But he not only replied
to these ambassadors when they came with great insolence, but he very nearly put
them to death, and would have done so if the law with respect to ambassadors had
not hindered him; but he did collect an army and made against them, thinking
that he should immediately be able to subdue them in war. (259) But when he
encountered them he then found that he had to fight not men who had no
experience or practice in the art of war, but men skilful in all warfare and
truly invincible, who only a short time before had done many and important
valiant achievements, displaying great personal valor, and great wisdom, and
excellence of sense and virtue. Owing to which qualities they subdued these
their enemies with great ease and defeated them with great loss, but they took
no part of the spoil, desiring to dedicate to God the first booty which they
gained; (260) and, on this occasion, they guarded their own camp vigorously, and
then, with one accord and with equally concerted preparation, rushed forward in
opposition to the enemy as he advanced and charged them, availing themselves of
the invincible alliance of the just God, in consequence of which they had the
greatest boldness, and became cheerful and sanguine combatants. (261) And the
proof of this was clear; there was no need of any second battle, but the first
was also the only one, and in it the whole power of the enemy was frustrated for
ever. And it was utterly overthrown, and immediately it disappeared for ever.
(262) And about the same time the cities were both empty and full; empty of
their ancient inhabitants, and full of those who now succeeded to their
dominions over them. In the same manner, also, the stables of cattle in the
fields, being made desolate, received instead men who were in all respects
better than their former masters. XLVIII.
(263) This war struck all the Asiatic nations with terrible consternation, and
especially all those who were near the borders of the Amorites, inasmuch as they
looked upon the dangers as being nearer to themselves. Accordingly, one of the neighboring
kings, by name Balak, who ruled over a large and thickly inhabited country of
the east, before he met them in battle, feeling great distrust of his own power,
did not think fit to meet them in close combat, being desirous to avoid carrying
on a war of extermination by open arms; but he had recourse to inquiries and
divination, thinking that by some kind of ruse or other he might be able to
overthrow the irresistible power of the Hebrews. (264) Now there was a man at
that time very celebrated for his skill in divination, dwelling in Mesopotamia,
who was initiated in every branch of the soothsayers' art. And he was celebrated
and renowned above all men for his experience as a diviner and prophet, as he
had in many instances foretold to many people incredible and most important
events; (265) for, on one occasion, he had predicted heavy rain to one nation at
the height of summer; to another he had foretold a drought and burning heat in
the middle of winter. Others he had forewarned of a dearth which should follow a
season of abundance; and, on the other hand, plenty after famine. In some
instances he had predicted the inundations of rivers; or, on the contrary, their
falling greatly and becoming dried up; and the departure of pestilential
diseases, and ten thousand other things. From all which he had obtained a name
of wide celebrity, as he was believed to have foreseen them all, and so he had
attained to great renown and his glory had spread everywhere and was continually
increasing. (266) So this man, Balak, now sent some of his companions,
entreating him to come to him, and he gave him some presents at once, and he
promised to give him others also, explaining to him the necessity which he was
in, on account of which he had sent for him. But he did not treat the messengers
with any noble or consistent disposition, but with great courtesy and civility
evaded their request, as if he were one of the most celebrated prophets, and as
such was accustomed to do nothing whatever without first consulting the oracle,
and so he declined, saying that the Deity would not permit him to go with them.
(267) So the messengers returned back to the king, without having succeeded in
their errand. And immediately other messengers of the highest rank in the whole
land were sent on the same business, bringing with them more abundant presents
of money, and promising still more ample rewards than the former ambassadors had
promised. (268) And Balaam, being allured by the gifts which were already
proffered to him, and also by the hopes for the future which they held out to
him, and being influenced also by the rank of those who invited him, began to
yield, again alleging the commands of the Deity as his excuse, but no longer
with sincerity. Accordingly, on the next day he prepared for his departure,
relating some dreams by which he said he had been influenced, affirming that he
had been compelled by their manifest visions not to remain, but to follow the
ambassadors. XLVI.
(269) But when he was on his road a very manifest sign met him in the way,
showing him plainly that the purpose for which he was travelling was displeasing
to God, and ill-omened; for the beast on which he was riding, while proceeding
onwards in the straight road, at first stopped suddenly, (270) then, as if some
one was forcibly resisting it, or standing in front and driving it back by
force, it retreated, moving first to the right and then to the left, and could
not stand still, but kept moving, first to one side and then to the other, as if
it had been under the influence of wine and intoxication; and though it was
repeatedly beaten, it disregarded the blows, so that it very nearly threw its
rider, and though he stuck on did still hurt him considerably; (271) for close
on each side of the path there were walls and strong fences; therefore, when the
beast in its violent motions struck heavily against the walls, the owner had his
knee, and leg, and foot pressed and crushed, and was a good deal lacerated.
(272) The truth is, that there was, as it seems, a divine vision, which, as the
beast, on which the diviner was seeking, saw at a great distance as it was
coming towards him, and it was frightened at it; but the man did not see it,
which was a proof of his insensibility, for he was thus shown to be inferior to
a brute beast in the power of sight, at a time when he was boasting that he
could see, not only the whole world, but also the Creator of the world. (273)
Accordingly, having after some time seen the angel opposing him, not because he
was desiring to see so astonishing a spectacle, but that he might become
acquainted with his own insignificance and nothingness, he betook himself to
supplications and prayers, entreating to be pardoned, on the ground that he had
acted as he had done out of ignorance, and had not sinned of deliberate purpose.
(274) Then, as he said that he ought to return back again, he asked of the
vision which appeared to him, whether he should go back again to his own house;
but the angel beholding his insincerity, and being indignant at it (for what
need was there for him to ask questions in a matter which was so evident, which
had its answer plain in itself, and which did not require any more positive
information by means of words, unless a person's ears are more to be trusted
than his eyes, and words than things), said, "Go on in the journey in which
you have set out, for you shall do no good to those who have sent for you, and
you must say what I prompt you, without any thoughts of your own, finding
utterance, as I will guide the organs of your speech in the way that shall be
just and expedient, for I will direct your words, predicting all that shall
happen through the agency of your tongue, though you yourself understand nothing
of it. L.
(275) But when the king heard that he was now near at hand, he went forth with
his guards to meet him; and when they met at first there were, as was natural,
greetings and salutations, and then a brief reproof of his tardiness and of his
not having come more readily. After this there were feastings and costly
entertainments, and all those other things which are usually prepared on the
occasion of the reception of strangers, everything with royal magnificence being
prepared, so as to give an exaggerated idea of the power and glory of the king.
(276) The next day at the rising of the sun, Balak took the prophet and led him
up to a high hill, where it also happened that a pillar had been erected to some
deity which the natives of the country had been accustomed to worship; and from
thence there was seen a portion of the camp of the Hebrews, which was shown to
the magician from this point, as if from a watch tower. (277) And he when he
beheld it said: "Do thou, O king, build here seven altars, and offer upon
every one of them a bullock and a ram. And I will turn aside and inquire of God
what I am to say." So, having gone forth, immediately he became inspired,
the prophetic spirit having entered into him, which drove all his artificial
system of divination and cunning out of his soul; for it was not possible that
holy inspiration should dwell in the same abode with magic. Then, returning back
to the king, and beholding the sacrifices and the altars flaming, he became like
the interpreter of some other being who was prompting his words, (278) and spoke
in prophetic strain as follows: "Balak has sent for me from Mesopotamia,
having caused me to take a long journey from the east, that he might chastise
the Hebrews by means of curses. But in what manner shall I be able to curse
those who have not been cursed by God? For I shall behold them with my eyes from
the loftiest mountains, and I shall see them with my mind; and I shall never be
able to injure the people which shall dwell alone, not being numbered among the
other nations, not in accordance with the inheritance of any particular places,
or any apportionment of lands, but by reason of the peculiar nature of their
remarkable customs, as they will never mingle with any other nation so as to
depart from their national and ancestral ways. (279) Who has ever discovered
with accuracy the first origin of the birth of these people? Their bodies,
indeed, may have been fashioned according to human means of propagation; but
their souls have been brought forth by divine agency, wherefore they are nearly
related to God. May my soul die as to the death of the body, that it may be
remembered among the souls of the righteous, such as the souls of these men
are." LI.
(280) When Balak heard these words he was grieved within himself; and after he
had stopped speaking, not being able to contain his sorrow, he said: "You
were invited hither to curse my enemies, and are you not ashamed to offer up
prayers for their good? I must, without knowing it, have been deceiving myself,
thinking you a friend; who were, on the contrary, without my being aware of it,
enrolled among the ranks of the enemy, as is now plain. Perhaps, too, you made
all the delay in coming to me by reason of the regard for them, which you were
secretly cherishing in your soul, and your secret dislike to me and to my
people; for, as the old proverb says, what is apparent affords the best means of
judging of what is not visible." (281) But Balaam, his moment of
inspiration being now past, replied: "I am exposed in this to a most unjust
charge, and am undeservedly accused; for I am saying nothing of my own, but
whatever the Deity prompts me to say. And this is not the first time that I have
said and that you have heard this, but I declared it on the former occasion when
you sent the ambassadors, to whom I made the same answer." (282) But as the
king thought either that the prophet was deceiving him, or that the Deity might
change his mind, and the consequence of a change of place might alter the
firmness of his decision, he led him off to another spot, where, from an
exceedingly long, and high, and distant hill, he might be able to show him a
part of the army of his enemies. Then, again, he built seven altars and
sacrificed the same number of victims that he had sacrificed at first, and sent
the prophet to look for favorable omens and predictions. (283) And he, as soon
as he was by himself, was again suddenly filled by divine inspiration, and,
without at all understanding the words which he uttered, spoke everything that
was put into his mouth, prophesying in the following manner:--"Rise up and
listen, O king! prick up thy ears and hear. God is not able to speak falsely as
if he were a man, nor does he change his purpose like the son of man. When he
has once spoken, does he not abide by his word? For he will say nothing at all
which shall not be completely brought to pass, since his word is also his deed.
I, indeed, have been brought hither to bless this nation, and not to curse it.
(284) There shall be no labor or distress among the Hebrews. God visibly holds
his shield over them, who also dissipated the violence of the Egyptian attacks,
leading forth all these myriads of people as one man. Therefore they disregarded
auguries and every other part of the prophetic art, trusting to the one sole
Governor of the world alone. And I see the people rising up like a young lion,
and exulting as a lion. He shall feast on the prey, and for drink he shall drink
the blood of the wounded; and, when he is satisfied, he shall not turn to sleep,
but he shall be awake and sing the song of victory." LII.
(285) But Balak, being very indignant at finding that all the assistance which
he expected to derive from divination was turning out contrary to his hopes,
said: "O man, neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all; for
silence, which is free from danger, is better than unpleasant speeches."
And when he had said this, as if he had forgotten what he had said, owing to the
inconstancy of his mind, he led the prophet to another place, from which he
could show him a part of the Hebrew army; and again he invited him to curse
them. (286) But the prophet, as being even more wicked than the king, although
he had always replied to the accusations which were brought against him with one
true excuse, namely, that he was saying nothing out of his own head, but was
only interpreting the words of another, being himself carried away and inspired,
when he ought no longer to have accompanied him but to have gone away home, ran
forward even more eagerly than his conductor, although in his secret thoughts he
was oppressed by a heavy feeling of evil, yet still desired in his mind to curse
this people, though he was forbidden to do so with his mouth. (287) So, coming
to a mountain greater than any of those on which he had stood before, and which
reached a very long way, he bade the king perform the same sacrifices as before,
again building seven altars, and again offering up fourteen victims, on each
altar two, a bullock and a ram. And he himself did no longer, according to his
usual custom, go to seek for divination and auguries, since he much loathed his
art, looking upon it as a picture which had become defaced through age, and had
been obscured, and lost its felicity of conjecture. But he now, though with
difficulty, understood the fact that the designs of the king, who had hired him,
did not correspond with the will of God. (288) Therefore, turning to the
wilderness, he saw the Hebrews encamped in their tribes, and he saw their
numbers and their array, and admired it as being like the order of a city rather
than of a camp, and, becoming inspired, he again spoke. (289) What, then, said
the man who saw truly, who in his sleep saw a clear vision of God with the ever
open and sleepless eyes of his soul? "How goodly are thy abodes, O army of
Hebrews; they tents are shady as groves, as a paradise on the bank of a river,
as a cedar by the waters. (290) A man shall hereafter come forth out of thee who
shall rule over many nations, and his kingdom shall increase every day and be
raised up to heaven. This people hath God for its guide all the way from Egypt,
who leads on their multitude in one line. (291) Therefore they shall devour many
nations of their enemies, and they shall take all their fat as far as their very
marrow, and shall destroy their enemies with their far-shooting arrows. He shall
lie down to rest like a lion, and like a lion's whelp, fearing no one, but
showing great contempt for every one, and causing fear to all other nations.
Miserable is he who shall stir up and rouse him to anger. Blessed are they that
bless thee, and cursed are they that curse thee." LIII.
(292) And the king, being very indignant at these words, said: "Having been
invited hither to curse my enemies, you have now prayed for and blessed them
these three times. Fly, therefore, quickly, passion is a hasty affection, lest I
be compelled to do something more violent than usual. (293) Of what a vast
amount of money, O most foolish of men, of how many presents, and of how much
renown, and celebrity, and glory, hast thou deprived thyself in thy madness! Now
you will return to thy home from a foreign land, bearing with thee no good
thing, but only reproaches and (as it seems likely) great disgrace, being
ridiculed and despised for that knowledge on which you formerly so greatly
prided yourself." (294) And Balaam replied: "All that I have hitherto
uttered have been oracles and words of God; but what I am going to say are
merely the suggestions of my own mind: and taking him by the right hand, he,
while they two were alone, gave him advice, by the adoption of which he might,
as far as possible, guard against the power of his enemies, accusing himself of
the most enormous crimes. For why, some one may perhaps say, do you thus retire
into solitude and give counsel suggesting things contrary to the oracles of God,
unless indeed that your counsels are more powerful than his decrees?" LIV.
(295) Come, then, let us examine into his fine recommendations, and see how
cunningly they were contrived with reference to the most certain defeat of those
who had hitherto always been able to conquer. As he knew that the only way by
which the Hebrews could be subdued was by leading them to violate the law, he
endeavored to seduce them by means of debauchery and intemperance, that mighty
evil, to the still greater crime of impiety, putting pleasure before them as a
bait; (296) for, said he, "O king! the women of the country surpass all
other women in beauty, and there are no means by which a man is more easily
subdued than by the beauty of a woman; therefore, if you enjoin the most
beautiful of them to grant their favors to them and to prostitute themselves to
them, they will allure and overcome the youth of your enemies. (297) But you
must warn them not to surrender their beauty to those who desire them with too
great facility and too speedily, for resistance and coyness will stimulate the
passions and excite them more, and will kindle a more impetuous desire; and so,
being wholly subdued by their appetites, they will endure to do and to suffer
anything. (298) "And let any damsel who is thus prepared for the sport
resist, and say, wantonly, to a lover who is thus influenced, "It is not
fitting for you to enjoy my society till you have first abandoned your native
habits, and have changed, and learnt to honor the same practices that I do. And
I must have a conspicuous proof of your real change, which I can only have by
your consenting to join me in the same sacrifices and libations which I use, and
which we may then offer together at the same images and statues, and other
erections in honor of my gods. (299) And the lover being, as it were, taken in
the net of her manifold and multiform snares, not being able to resist her
beauty and seductive conversation, will become wholly subdued in his reason,
and, like a miserable man, will obey all the commands which she lays upon him,
and will en enrolled as the salve of passion." LV.
(300) This, then, was the advice which Balaam gave to Balak. And he, thinking
that what he said to him did not want sense, repealed the law against
adulteries, and having abrogated all the enactments which had been established
against seduction and harlotry, as if they had never been enacted at all,
exhorted the women to admit to their favors, without any restraint, every man
whom they chose. (301) Accordingly, when licence was thus given, they brought
over a multitude of young men, having already long before this seduced their
minds, and having by their tricks and allurements perverted them to impiety;
until Phinehas, the son of the chief priest, being exceedingly indignant at all
that was taking place (for it appeared to him to be a most scandalous thing for
his countrymen to give up at one time both their bodies and souls--their bodies
to pleasure, and their souls to transgression of the law, and to works of
wickedness), undertook a bold and impetuous action, such as was becoming to a
young, and grave, and virtuous man. (302) For when he saw a man of his nation
sacrificing with and then entering into the tent of a harlot, and that too
without casting his eyes down on the ground and seeking to avoid the notice of
the multitude, but making a display of his licentiousness with shameless
boldness, and giving himself airs as if he were about to engage in a creditable
action, and one deserving of smiles--Phinehas, I say, being very indignant and
being filled with a just anger, ran in, and while they were still lying on the
bed, slew both the lover and the harlot, cutting them in two pieces in the
middle, because they thus indulged in illicit connections. (303) When some
persons of those who admired temperance, and chastity, and piety, saw this
example, they, at the command of Moses, imitated it, and slew all their own
relations and friends, even to a man, who had sacrificed to idols made with
hands, and thus they effaced the stain which was defiling the nation by this
implacable revenge which they thus wreaked on those who had set the example of
wrong doing, and so saved the rest, who made a clear defense of themselves,
demonstrating their own piety, showing no compassion on any one of those who
were justly condemned to death, and not passing over their offences out of pity,
but looking upon those who slew them as pure from all sin. Therefore they did
not allow any escape whatever to those who sinned in this way, and such conduct
is the truest praise; (304) and they say that twenty-four thousand men were
slain in one day, the common pollution, which was defiling the whole army, being
thus at once got rid of. And when the works of purification were thus
accomplished, Moses began to seek how he might give an honor worthy of him who
had displayed such permanent excellence to the son of the chief priest, who was
the first who hastened to inflict chastisement on the offenders. But God was
beforehand with him, giving to Phinehas, by means of his holy word, the greatest
of all good things, namely, peace, which no man is able to bestow; and also, in
addition to this peace, he gave him the perpetual possession of the priesthood,
an inheritance to his family, which could not be taken from it. LVI.
(305) But when none of the civil and intestine evils remained any longer, but
when all the men who were suspected of having either forsaken the ways of their
ancestors or of treachery had perished, it appeared to be a most favorable
opportunity for making an expedition against Balak, a man who had both planned
to do, and had also executed an innumerable host of evil deeds, since he had
planned them through the agency of the prophet, who he hoped would be able, by
means of his curses, to destroy the power of the Hebrews, and who had executed
his purpose by the agency of the licentiousness and incontinence of the women,
who destroyed the bodies of those who associated with them by debauchery, and
their souls by impiety. (306) Therefore Moses did not think fit to carry on war
against him with his whole army, knowing that superfluous numbers are apt to
meet with disaster in consequence of those very numbers; and also, at the same
time, thinking it useful to have stations of reserve, to be assistants to those
of their allies who appeared likely to fail; but he selected a thousand picked
men of the youth of the nation, selected man by man, out of each tribe, twelve
thousand in all, for that was the number of the tribes, and he appointed
Phinehas to be the commander in the war, as he had already given proof of the
happy daring which becomes a general; and after he had offered up sacrifices of
good omen, he sent forth his warriors, and encouraged them in the following
words:--(307) "The present contest is not one for dominion or sovereignty,
nor is it waged for the sake of acquiring the property of others, though these
are the objects for which alone, or almost invariably, wars take place; but this
war is undertaken in the cause of piety and holiness, from which the enemy has
alienated our relations and friends, being the causes of bitter destruction to
those who have been brought under their yoke. (308) It is therefore absurd for
us to be the slayers of our own countrymen, for having offended against the law,
and to spare our enemies, who have violated it in a much worse degree, and to
slay, with every circumstance of violence, those who were only learning and
beginning to sin, but to leave those who taught them to do so unpunished, who
are, in reality, the guilty causes of all that has taken place, and of all the
evils which our countrymen have either done or suffered." LVII.
(309) Therefore being nerved by these exhortations, and being kindled and filled
with noble courage which was indeed in their souls already, they went forth to
that contest with invincible spirit as to a certain victory; and when they
engaged with the enemy, they displayed such incredible vigor and courage that
they slew all their enemies, and returned themselves unhurt, every one of them,
not one of their number having been slain or even wounded. (310) Any one who did
not know what had taken place, might have supposed, when he saw them returning,
that they were coming in, not from war and from a pitched battle, but rather
from a display and field-day of exercise under arms, such as often take place in
time of peace; and these fielddays are days of exercise and practice, while the
men train themselves among friends to attack their enemies. (311) Therefore they
destroyed all their cities, razing them to the ground or else burning them, so
that no one could tell that any cities had ever been inhabited in that land. And
they led away a perfectly incalculable number of prisoners, of whom they chose
to slay all the full-grown men and women, the men because they had set the
example of wicked counsels and actions, and the women because they had beguiled
the youth of the Hebrews, becoming the causes to them of incontinence and
impiety, and at the last of death; but they pardoned all the young male children
and all the virgins, their tender age procuring them forgiveness; (312) and as
they had taken a vast booty from the king's palace, and from private houses, and
also from the dwellings of all kinds in the open country (for there was not less
booty in the country places than in the cities), they came to the camp, laden
with all the wealth which they had taken from the enemy. (313) And Moses praised
Phinehas their general, and those who had served under him for their good
success, and also because they had not been covetous of their own advantage,
running after booty and thinking of nothing, but appropriating the spoil to
themselves, but because they had brought it all into the common stock, so that
they who had staid behind in the tents might share in the booty; and he ordered
those men to remain outside the camp for some days, and the high priest he
commanded to purify both the men themselves, and those of their allies who had
returned from fighting by their side, of bloodshed; (314) for even though the
slaughter of the enemies of one's country is according to law, still he who
kills a man, even though justly and in self-defence, and because he has been
attacked, still appears to be guilty of blood by reason of his supreme and
common relationship to a common father; on which account those who had slain
enemies were in need of rites of purification, to cleanse them from what was
looked upon as a pollution. LVIII.
(315) However, after no long lapse of time he divided the booty among those who
had taken a part in the expedition, and they were but a small number, giving one
half among those who had remained inactive at home, and the other half to those
who were still in the camp; for he looked upon it as just and equitable to give
the share of the advantages gained, to those who had shared in the contest, if
not with their souls, at all events with their bodies; for as the spectators
were not inferior to the actual combatants in their zeal, they were inferior
only in point of time and in respect of their being anticipated. (316) And as
the smaller body had received each a larger share of the booty, by reason of
their having been the foremost in encountering danger, and the larger body had
received each a smaller share, by reason of their having remained at home; it
appeared indispensable that they should consecrate the first fruits of the whole
of the booty; those therefore who had remained at home brought a fiftieth, and
those who had been actually engaged in the war, brought and contributed a five
hundredth part; and of ten first fruits Moses commanded that portion which came
from those who had borne a part in the expedition, to be given to the high
priest, and that portion which came from those who had remained in the camp, to
the keepers of the temple whose name were the Levites. (317) And the captains of
thousands, and centurions, and all the rest of the multitude of commanders of
battalions and companies willingly contributed special first fruits, as an
offering for their own safety, and that of those who had gone out to war, and
for the victory which had been gained in a manner beyond all hope, giving up all
the golden ornaments which had fallen to the lot of each individual, in the
apportionment of the booty, and the most costly vessels, of which the material
was gold. All which things Moses took, and, admiring the piety of those who
contributed them, dedicated them in the consecrated tabernacle as a memorial of
the gratitude of the men; and the division of the first fruits was very
beautiful; (318) those which had been given by the men who had borne their share
in the war, he distributed among the keepers of the temple as among men who had
only displayed one half of virtue, namely eagerness without action; but the
first fruits of those who had warred and fought, who had encountered danger with
their bodies and lives, and thus had displayed perfect and complete excellence,
he allotted to him who presided over the keepers of the temple, namely to the
high priest; and the first fruits of the captains, as being the offerings of
chiefs and rulers, he allotted to the great ruler of all, namely to God. LIX.
(319) All these wars were carried on and brought to an end before the Hebrews
had crossed Jordan, the river of the country, being wars against the inhabitants
of the country on the other side of Jordan, which was a rich and fertile land,
in which there was a large champaign fertile in corn, and also very productive
of herbage and fodder for cattle; (320) and when the two tribes who were
occupied in feeding cattle saw this country, the two tribes being a sixth part
of the whole Hebrew host, they besought Moses to permit them to take their
inheritance in that district, where in fact they were already settled; for they
said that the place was very suitable for cattle to be kept, and fed, and bred
in, inasmuch as it was well watered and full of good herbage, and as it produced
spontaneously abundant grass for the feeding of sheep. (321) But as he thought
that they claimed a sort of right, by some kind of pre-eminence, to receive
their share and the honors due to them before their time, or else that they
preferred this petition by reason of their being unwilling to encounter the wars
which were impending, as there were still many kings who were making ready to
attack them, and who were the possessors of all the country inside the river, he
was very indignant at their request, and answered them in anger, and said, (322)
"Shall you then sit here and enjoy leisure, and yield to indolence at so
improper a time? and shall the wars which still threaten us, afflict all your
countrymen, and your relations, and your friends, and shall the prizes be given
to you alone, as if you had all contributed to the success? And shall battles
and wars, and distresses, and the most extreme dangers await others? (323) But
it is not just that you should enjoy peace, and the blessings that flow from
peace, and that the rest should endure wars and all the other indescribable
evils which they bring with them, and that the whole should only be looked upon
as an adjunct of a part; while, on the contrary, it is for the sake of the whole
that the parts are thought worthy of any inheritance at all. (324) Ye are all
entitled to equal honor, ye are one race, ye have the same fathers, one house,
ye have the same customs, a community of laws, and an infinite number of other
things, every one of which binds your kindred closer together, and cements your
mutual good will; why then when you are thought worthy of equal shares of the
most important and most necessary things, do you show a covetous spirit in the
division of the lands, as if you were rulers despising your subjects as masters
looking disdainfully on your slaves?" (325) You ought to have derived
instruction from the afflictions of others; for it is the part of wise men not
to wait till misfortunes come upon themselves. But now, though you have domestic
examples in your own fathers, who went and spied out this land, and in the
calamities which befell them, and all who participated in their despondency (for
they all perished except two), and when, therefore, you ought to take care and
avoid resembling them in any respect whatever, still, foolish-minded men that ye
are, ye are imitating their cowardice, as if by such conduct you would be more
strongly fortified against capture; and you check and damp the eagerness of
those who are desirous to display their manhood and valor, relaxing and
depressing their spirits; (326) therefore, while you are hastening to do wrong,
you are also hastening to incur punishment. For justice is always a long time
before it can be put in motion, but when it is once put in motion it makes great
haste and speedily overtakes those who flee from it. (327) When, therefore, all
our enemies are destroyed, and when there is no other war which can be expected
or feared as impending, and when all those in our present alliance have been, on
examination, found to be without reproach nor liable to any charge of desertion
or treachery, or of any misconduct which could possibly tend to our defeat, but
shall be seen to have endured steadfastly from the beginning to the end, with
their bodily exertion and with all eagerness of mind, and when the whole country
is cleared of those who have previously inherited it, then rewards and prizes
for valor shall be given to all the tribes with perfect fairness. LX.
(328) So they, bearing this rebuke with moderation, as being genuine sons of a
very kindly disposed father (for they knew that Moses was not a man to behave
insolently because of his power and authority, but one who cared for all of
them, and honored justice and equality, and who hated wickedness, not so as to
reproach or insult the wicked, but so as to be constantly endeavoring by
admonition and correction to improve those who were susceptible of improvement),
said to him, "Very naturally you are indignant, if you imagine that we now
are anxious to desert the alliance and to obtain our allotments before the
proper time; (329) but you must know that we are not alarmed at any undertaking
that calls for valorous and virtuous exertion, even though it may be most
laborious. And we judge that the task of virtue is to obey you who are such a
brave and wise ruler, and not to fear to encounter dangers, and to be willing to
bear our share in all future expeditions until all our business is brought to a
fortunate conclusion. (330) "We, therefore, as we have agreed before, will
remain in our ranks and cross over Jordan in complete armor, giving no soldier
any excuse for lagging behind. But our infant children, and our daughters, and
wives, and mothers, and the bulk of our cattle, shall, if you have no objection,
be left behind, after we have made houses for our children and wives, and
stables for our cattle that they may not be exposed to any incursion of the
enemy, and so suffer injury from being taken in unwalled and unprotected
dwellings." (331) And Moses answered with a mild look and even still
gentler voice, "If you speak the truth and behave honestly, the allotments
which you have asked for shall remain assured to you. Leave behind you now, as
you desire, your wives and children, and flocks and herds, and go yourselves
across Jordan in your ranks with the rest of the soldiers in full armor, arrayed
for battle, as if you were prepared to fight at once, if it should be needful.
(332) And hereafter when all our enemies are destroyed, and when, peace being
established, we have made ourselves masters of the whole country, and have begun
to divide it among ourselves, then you also shall return to your families to
enjoy the good things which belong to you, and to possess the region which you
have selected." (333) When Moses had said this, and given them this
promise, they were filled with cheerfulness and joy, and established their
families in safety as well as their flocks and herds in well fortified and
impregnable strongholds, the greater part of which were artificial. And taking
their arms they marched forth more cheerfully than any of the rest of the allied
forces, as if they alone had been going to fight, or at all events to fight in
the first ranks as the champions of the whole army, for he who has received any
gift beforehand is more eager in the cause in which he is engaged, since he
thinks that he is repaying a necessary debt, and not giving a free gift. (334) I
have now, then, given an account of what was done by Moses while invested with
kingly power. I must now proceed to relate in order all the actions which he
performed in accordance with virtue, and also successfully as a chief priest,
and also in his character as a lawgiver; for he also exercised these two powers
as very closely connected with his kingly authority. |
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