|
1. Now Moses, when he had brought his army to Jordan; pitched his
camp in the great plain over against Jericho. This city is a very
happy situation, and very fit for producing palm-trees and
balsam. And now the Israelites began to be very proud of
themselves, and were very eager for fighting. Moses then, after
he had offered for a few days sacrifices of thanksgiving to God,
and feasted the people, sent a party of armed men to lay waste
the country of the Midianites, and to take their cities. Now the
occasion which he took for making war upon them was this that
follows :--
2. When Balak, the king of the Moabites, who had from his
ancestors a friendship and league with the Midianites, saw how
great the Israelites were grown, he was much affrighted on
account of his own and his kingdom's danger; for he was not
acquainted with this, that the Hebrews would not meddle with any
other country, but were to be contented with the possession of
the land of Canaan, God having forbidden them to go any farther
So he, with more haste than wisdom, resolved to make an
attempt upon them by words; but he did not judge it prudent to
fight against them, after they had such prosperous successes, and
even became out of ill successes more happy than before, but he
thought to hinder them, if he could, from growing greater, and so
he resolved to send ambassadors to the Midianites about them. Now
these Midianites knowing there was one Balaam, who lived by
Euphrates, and was the greatest of the prophets at that time, and
one that was in friendship with them, sent some of their
honorable princes along with the ambassadors of Balak, to entreat
the prophet to come to them, that he might imprecate curses to
the destruction of the Israelites. So Balsam received the
ambassadors, and treated them very kindly; and when he had
supped, he inquired what was God's will, and what this matter was
for which the Midianites entreated him to come to them. But when
God opposed his going, he came to the ambassadors, and told them
that he was himself very willing and desirous to comply with
their request, but informed them that God was opposite to his
intentions, even that God who had raised him to great reputation
on account of the truth of his predictions; for that this army,
which they entreated him to come and curse, was in the favor of
God; on which account he advised them to go home again, and not
to persist in their enmity against the Israelites; and when he
had given them that answer, he dismissed the ambassadors.
3. Now the Midianites, at the earnest request and fervent
entreaties of Balak, sent other ambassadors to Balaam, who,
desiring to gratify the men, inquired again of God; but he was
displeased at [second] trial and bid him by no means to
contradict the ambassadors. Now Balsam did not imagine that God
gave this injunction in order to deceive him, so he went along
with the ambassadors; but when the divine angel met him in the
way, when he was in a narrow passage, and hedged in with a wall
on both sides, the ass on which Balaam rode understood that it
was a divine spirit that met him, and thrust Balaam to one of the
walls, without regard to the stripes which Balaam, when he was
hurt by the wall, gave her; but when the ass, upon the angel's
continuing to distress her, and upon the stripes which were given
her, fell down, by the will of God, she made use of the voice of
a man, and complained of Balaam as acting unjustly to her; that
whereas he had no fault find with her in her former service to
him, he now inflicted stripes upon her, as not understanding that
she was hindered from serving him in what he was now going about,
by the providence of God. And when he was disturbed by reason of
the voice of the ass, which was that of a man, the angel plainly
appeared to him, and blamed him for the stripes he had given his
ass; and informed him that the brute creature was not in fault,
but that he was himself come to obstruct his journey, as being
contrary to the will of God. Upon which Balaam was afraid, and
was preparing to return back again: yet did God excite him to go
on his intended journey, but added this injunction, that he
should declare nothing but what he himself should suggest to his
mind.
4. When God had given him this charge, he came to Balak; and when
the king had entertained him in a magnificent manner, he desired
him to go to one of the mountains to take a view of the state of
the camp of the Hebrews. Balak himself also came to the mountain,
and brought the prophet along with him, with a royal attendance.
This mountain lay over their heads, and was distant sixty
furlongs from the camp. Now when he saw them, he desired the king
to build him seven altars, and to bring him as many bulls and
rams; to which desire the king did presently conform. He then
slew the sacrifices, and offered them as burnt-offerings, that he
might observe some signal of the flight of the Hebrews. Then said
he, "Happy is this people, on whom God bestows the possession of
innumerable good things, and grants them his own providence to be
their assistant and their guide; so that there is not any nation
among mankind but you will be esteemed superior to them in
virtue, and in the earnest prosecution of the best rules of life,
and of such as are pure from wickedness, and will leave those
rules to your excellent children; and this out of the regard that
God bears to you, and the provision of such things for you as may
render you happier than any other people under the sun. You shall
retain that land to which he hath sent you, and it shall ever be
under the command of your children; and both all the earth, as
well as the seas, shall be filled with your glory: and you shall
be sufficiently numerous to supply the world in general, and
every region of it in particular, with inhabitants out of your
stock. However, O blessed army! wonder that you are become so
many from one father: and truly, the land of Canaan can now hold
you, as being yet comparatively few; but know ye that the whole
world is proposed to be your place of habitation for ever. The
multitude of your posterity also shall live as well in the
islands as on the continent, and that more in number than are the
stars of heaven. And when you are become so many, God will not
relinquish the care of you, but will afford you an abundance of
all good things in times of peace, with victory and dominion in
times of war. May the children of your enemies have an
inclination to fight against you; and may they be so hardy as to
come to arms, and to assault you in battle, for they will not
return with victory, nor will their return be agreeable to their
children and wives. To so great a degree of valor will you be
raised by the providence of God, who is able to diminish the
affluence of some, and to supply the wants of others."
5. Thus did Balaam speak by inspiration, as not being in his own
power, but moved to say what he did by the Divine Spirit. But
then Balak was displeased, and said he had broken the contract he
had made, whereby he was to come, as he and his confederates had
invited him, by the promise of great presents: for whereas he
came to curse their enemies, he had made an encomium upon them,
and had declared that they were the happiest of men. To which
Balaam replied, "O Balak, if thou rightly considerest this whole
matter, canst thou suppose that it is in our power to be silent,
or to say any thing, when the Spirit of God seizes upon us? - for
he puts such words as he pleases in our mouths, and such
discourses as we are not ourselves conscious of. I well remember
by what entreaties both you and the Midianites so joyfully
brought me hither, and on that account I took this journey. It
was my prayer, that I might not put any affront upon you, as to
what you desired of me; but God is more powerful than the
purposes I had made to serve you; for those that take upon them
to foretell the affairs of mankind, as from their own abilities,
are entirely unable to do it, or to forbear to utter what God
suggests to them, or to offer violence to his will; for when he
prevents us and enters into us, nothing that we say is our own. I
then did not intend to praise this army, nor to go over the
several good things which God intended to do to their race; but
since he was so favorable to them, and so ready to bestow upon
them a happy life and eternal glory, he suggested the declaration
of those things to me: but now, because it is my desire to oblige
thee thyself, as well as the Midianites, whose entreaties it is
not decent for me to reject, go to, let us again rear other
altars, and offer the like sacrifices that we did before, that I
may see whether I can persuade God to permit me to bind these men
with curses." Which, when Balak had agreed to, God would not,
even upon second sacrifices, consent to his cursing the
Israelites. Then fell Balaam upon his face, and foretold what
calamities would befall the several kings of the nations, and the
most eminent cities, some of which of old were not so much as
inhabited; which events have come to pass among the several
people concerned, both in the foregoing ages, and in this, till
my own memory, both by sea and by land. From which completion of
all these predictions that he made, one may easily guess that the
rest will have their completion in time to come.
6. But Balak being very angry that the Israelites were not
cursed, sent away Balaam without thinking him worthy of any
honor. Whereupon, when he was just upon his journey, in order to
pass the Euphrates, he sent for Balak, and for the princes of the
Midianites, and spake thus to them: - "O Balak, and you
Midianites that are here present, (for I am obliged even without
the will of God to gratify you,) it is true no entire destruction
can seize upon the nation of the Hebrews, neither by war, nor by
plague, nor by scarcity of the fruits of the earth, nor can any
other unexpected accident be their entire ruin; for the
providence of God is concerned to preserve them from such a
misfortune; nor will it permit any such calamity to come upon
them whereby they may all perish; but some small misfortunes, and
those for a short time, whereby they may appear to be brought
low, may still befall them; but after that they will flourish
again, to the terror of those that brought those mischiefs upon
them. So that if you have a mind to gain a victory over them for
a short space of time, you will obtain it by following my
directions: - Do you therefore set out the handsomest of such of
your daughters as are most eminent for beauty, and proper to
force and conquer the modesty of those that behold them, and
these decked and trimmed to the highest degree able. Then do you
send them to be near camp, and give them in charge, that the
young men of the Hebrews desire their allow it them; and when
they see they are enamored of them, let them take leaves; and if
they entreat them to stay, let give their consent till they have
persuaded leave off their obedience to their own laws, the
worship of that God who established them to worship the gods of
the Midianites and for by this means God will be angry at them
. Accordingly, when Balaam had suggested counsel to them, he
went his way.
7. So when the Midianites had sent their daughters,as Balaam had
exhorted them, the Hebrew men were allured by their beauty, and
came with them, and besought them not to grudge them the
enjoyment of their beauty, nor to deny them their conversation.
These daughters of Midianites received their words gladly, and
consented to it, and staid with them; but when they brought them
to be enamored of them, and their inclinations to them were grown
to ripeness, they began to think of departing from them: then it
was that these men became greatly disconsolate at the women's
departure, and they were urgent with them not to leave them, but
begged they would continue there, and become their wives; and
they promised them they should be owned as mistresses all they
had. This they said with an oath, and called God for the
arbitrator of what they promised; and this with tears in their
eyes, and all such marks of concern, as might shew how miserable
they thought themselves without them, and so might move their
compassion for them. So the women, as soon as they perceived they
had made their slaves, and had caught them with their
conservation began to speak thus to them: -
8. "O you illustrious young men! we have of our own at home, and
great plenty of good things there, together with the natural,
affectionate parents and friends; nor is it out of our want of
any such things that we came to discourse with you; nor did we
admit of your invitation with design to prostitute the beauty of
our bodies for gain; but taking you for brave and worthy men, we
agreed to your request, that we might treat you with such honors
as hospitality required: and now seeing you say that you have a
great affection for us, and are troubled when you think we are
departing, we are not averse to your entreaties; and if we may
receive such assurance of your good-will as we think can be alone
sufficient, we will be glad to lead our lives with you as your
wives; but we are afraid that you will in time be weary of our
company, and will then abuse us, and send us back to our parents,
after an ignominious manner." And they desired that they would
excuse them in their guarding against that danger. But the young
men professed they would give them any assurance they should
desire; nor did they at all contradict what they requested, so
great was the passion they had for them. "If then," said they,
"this be your resolution, since you make use of such customs and
conduct of life as are entirely different from all other men,
insomuch that your kinds of food are peculiar to yourselves,
and your kinds of drink not common to others, it will be
absolutely necessary, if you would have us for your wives, that
you do withal worship our gods. Nor can there be any other
demonstration of the kindness which you say you already have, and
promise to have hereafter to us, than this, that you worship the
same gods that we do. For has any one reason to complain, that
now you are come into this country, you should worship the proper
gods of the same country? especially while our gods are common to
all men, and yours such as belong to nobody else but yourselves."
So they said they must either come into such methods of divine
worship as all others came into, or else they must look out for
another world, wherein they may live by themselves, according to
their own laws.
9. Now the young men were induced by the fondness they had for
these women to think they spake very well; so they gave
themselves up to what they persuaded them, and transgressed their
own laws, and supposing there were many gods, and resolving that
they would sacrifice to them according to the laws of that
country which ordained them, they both were delighted with their
strange food, and went on to do every thing that the women would
have them do, though in contradiction to their own laws; so far
indeed that this transgression was already gone through the whole
army of the young men, and they fell into a sedition that was
much worse than the former, and into danger of the entire
abolition of their own institutions; for when once the youth had
tasted of these strange customs, they went with insatiable
inclinations into them; and even where some of the principal men
were illustrious on account of the virtues of their fathers, they
also were corrupted together with the rest.
10. Even Zimri, the head of the tribe of Simeon accompanied with
Cozbi, a Midianitish women, who was the daughter of Sur, a man of
authority in that country; and being desired by his wife to
disregard the laws of Moses, and to follow those she was used to,
he complied with her, and this both by sacrificing after a manner
different from his own, and by taking a stranger to wife. When
things were thus, Moses was afraid that matters should grow
worse, and called the people to a congregation, but then accused
nobody by name, as unwilling to drive those into despair who, by
lying concealed, might come to repentance; but he said that they
did not do what was either worthy of themselves, or of their
fathers, by preferring pleasure to God, and to the living
according to his will; that it was fit they should change their
courses while their affairs were still in a good state, and think
that to be true fortitude which offers not violence to their
laws, but that which resists their lusts. And besides that, he
said it was not a reasonable thing, when they had lived soberly
in the wilderness, to act madly now when they were in prosperity;
and that they ought not to lose, now they have abundance, what
they had gained when they had little: - and so did he endeavor,
by saying this, to correct the young inert, and to bring them to
repentance for what they had done.
11. But Zimri arose up after him, and said, "Yes, indeed, Moses,
thou art at liberty to make use of such laws as thou art so fond
of, and hast, by accustoming thyself to them, made them firm;
otherwise, if things had not been thus, thou hadst often been
punished before now, and hadst known that the Hebrews are not
easily put upon; but thou shalt not have me one of thy followers
in thy tyrannical commands, for thou dost nothing else hitherto,
but, under pretense of laws, and of God, wickedly impose on us
slavery, and gain dominion to thyself, while thou deprivest us of
the sweetness of life, which consists in acting according to our
own wills, and is the right of free-men, and of those that have
no lord over them. Nay, indeed, this man is harder upon the
Hebrews then were the Egyptians themselves, as pretending to
punish, according to his laws, every one's acting what is most
agreeable to himself; but thou thyself better deservest to suffer
punishment, who presumest to abolish what every one acknowledges
to be what is good for him, and aimest to make thy single opinion
to have more force than that of all the rest; and what I now do,
and think to be right, I shall not hereafter deny to be according
to my own sentiments. I have married, as thou sayest rightly, a
strange woman, and thou hearest what I do from myself as from one
that is free, for truly I did not intend to conceal myself. I
also own that I sacrificed to those gods to whom you do not think
it fit to sacrifice; and I think it right to come at truth by
inquiring of many people, and not like one that lives under
tyranny, to suffer the whole hope of my life to depend upon one
man; nor shall any one find cause to rejoice who declares himself
to have more authority over my actions than myself."
12. Now when Zimri had said these things, about what he and some
others had wickedly done, the people held their peace, both out
of fear of what might come upon them, and because they saw that
their legislator was not willing to bring his insolence before
the public any further, or openly to contend with him; for he
avoided that, lest many should imitate the impudence of his
language, and thereby disturb the multitude. Upon this the
assembly was dissolved. However, the mischievous attempt had
proceeded further, if Zimri had not been first slain, which came
to pass on the following occasion: - Phineas, a man in other
respects better than the rest of the young men, and also one that
surpassed his contemporaries in the dignity of his father, (for
he was the son of Eleazar the high priest, and the grandson of
[Aaron] Moses's brother,) who was greatly troubled at what was
done by Zimri, he resolved in earnest to inflict punishment on
him, before his unworthy behavior should grow stronger by
impunity, and in order to prevent this transgression from
proceeding further, which would happen if the ringleaders were
not punished. He was of so great magnanimity, both in strength of
mind and body, that when he undertook any very dangerous attempt,
he did not leave it off till he overcame it, and got an entire
victory. So he came into Zimri's tent, and slew him with his
javelin, and with it he slew Cozbi also, Upon which all those
young men that had a regard to virtue, and aimed to do a glorious
action, imitated Phineas's boldness, and slew those that were
found to be guilty of the same crime with Zimri. Accordingly many
of those that had transgressed perished by the magnanimous valor
of these young men; and the rest all perished by a plague, which
distemper God himself inflicted upon them; so that all those
their kindred, who, instead of hindering them from such wicked
actions, as they ought to have done, had persuaded them to go on,
were esteemed by God as partners in their wickedness, and died.
Accordingly there perished out of the army no fewer than fourteen
[twenty-four] thousand at this time.
13. This was the cause why Moses was provoked to send an army to
destroy the Midianites, concerning which expedition we shall
speak presently, when we have first related what we have omitted;
for it is but just not to pass over our legislator's due
encomium, on account of his conduct here, because, although this
Balaam, who was sent for by the Midianites to curse the Hebrews,
and when he was hindered from doing it by Divine Providence, did
still suggest that advice to them, by making use of which our
enemies had well nigh corrupted the whole multitude of the
Hebrews with their wiles, till some of them were deeply infected
with their opinions; yet did he do him great honor, by setting
down his prophecies in writing. And while it was in his power to
claim this glory to himself, and make men believe they were his
own predictions, there being no one that could be a witness
against him, and accuse him for so doing, he still gave his
attestation to him, and did him the honor to make mention of him
on this account. But let every one think of these matters as he
pleases.
|
|