Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
At the report of the explorers the Hebrews murmur, while Caleb and Josue resist in vain: hence God wishes to destroy them; but at the prayer of Moses He spares them, yet with this punishment, that none of the murmurers shall enter the promised land. Finally, in verse 40, the Hebrews, ascending the mountain against the Lord's command, are slaughtered by the Canaanites.
Vulgate Text: Numbers 14:1-45
1. Therefore the whole multitude crying out wept that night, 2. and all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying: 3. Would that we had died in Egypt, and in this vast wilderness would that we might perish, and that the Lord would not bring us into that land, lest we fall by the sword, and our wives and children be led away captive! Is it not better to return to Egypt? 4. And they said to one another: Let us appoint ourselves a leader, and return to Egypt. 5. When Moses and Aaron heard this, they fell prostrate on the ground before the whole multitude of the children of Israel. 6. But Josue the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephone, who themselves also had surveyed the land, tore their garments, 7. and spoke to the whole multitude of the children of Israel: The land which we traversed is very good; 8. if the Lord is favorable to us, He will bring us into it, and will give us a land flowing with milk and honey. 9. Do not be rebellious against the Lord: neither fear the people of this land, for we can devour them like bread; all their protection has withdrawn from them: the Lord is with us, do not be afraid. 10. And when the whole multitude cried out, and wished to crush them with stones, the glory of the Lord appeared over the tabernacle of the covenant to all the children of Israel. 11. And the Lord said to Moses: How long will this people provoke Me? How long will they not believe Me, in spite of all the signs which I have performed before them? 12. I will therefore strike them with pestilence, and consume them: but I will make you a prince over a great nation, and a mightier one than this. 13. And Moses said to the Lord: That the Egyptians may hear, from whose midst You brought forth this people, 14. and the inhabitants of this land, who have heard that You, O Lord, are among this people, and are seen face to face, and that Your cloud protects them, and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night; 15. that You have killed so great a multitude as one man, and they may say: 16. He could not bring the people into the land for which He swore; therefore He killed them in the wilderness. 17. Let the strength of the Lord therefore be magnified, as You swore, saying: 18. The Lord is patient and of great mercy, taking away iniquity and wickedness, and leaving no one innocent unpunished, who visits the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation. 19. Forgive, I beseech You, the sin of this people according to the greatness of Your mercy, as You have been gracious to those going out of Egypt unto this place. 20. And the Lord said: I have forgiven according to your word. 21. As I live, and the glory of the Lord shall fill the whole earth. 22. But nevertheless all men who have seen My majesty, and the signs which I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me now ten times, and have not obeyed My voice, 23. shall not see the land for which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who detracted from Me behold it. 24. My servant Caleb, who, full of another spirit, has followed Me, I will bring into this land which he surveyed: and his seed shall possess it. 25. Since the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valleys. Tomorrow move your camp, and return into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. 26. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: 27. How long does this most wicked multitude murmur against Me? I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. 28. Say therefore to them: As I live, says the Lord, as you have spoken in My hearing, so will I do to you. 29. In this wilderness shall your corpses lie. All you who were numbered from twenty years old and upward, and have murmured against Me, 30. shall not enter the land, over which I raised My hand to make you dwell there, except Caleb the son of Jephone, and Josue the son of Nun. 31. But your little ones, of whom you said they would become a prey to the enemy, these I will bring in: that they may see the land which has displeased you. 32. Your corpses shall lie in the wilderness. 33. Your children shall wander in the desert for forty years, and shall bear your fornication, until the corpses of their fathers are consumed in the desert, 34. according to the number of the forty days in which you surveyed the land: a year shall be reckoned for each day. And for forty years you shall bear your iniquities, and shall know My vengeance: 35. for as I have spoken, so will I do to this whole most wicked multitude, which has risen up against Me: in this wilderness it shall fail, and there it shall die. 36. Therefore all the men whom Moses had sent to survey the land, and who upon returning had caused the whole multitude to murmur against him, disparaging the land as being bad, 37. died and were struck down in the sight of the Lord. 38. But Josue the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephone, lived of all those who had gone to survey the land. 39. And Moses spoke all these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned exceedingly. 40. And behold, rising early in the morning, they went up to the top of the mountain, and said: We are ready to go up to the place of which the Lord has spoken; for we have sinned. 41. Moses said to them: Why do you transgress the word of the Lord, which shall not succeed well for you? 42. Do not go up: for the Lord is not with you, lest you fall before your enemies. 43. The Amalekites and the Canaanites are before you, by whose sword you shall fall, because you would not consent to the Lord, nor will the Lord be with you. 44. But they, blinded, went up to the top of the mountain. But the Ark of the covenant of the Lord and Moses did not leave the camp. 45. And the Amalekite and the Canaanite, who dwelt on the mountain, came down, and striking them and cutting them down, pursued them as far as Horma.
Verse 2: They murmured
2. THEY MURMURED, -- that is, they murmured. Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 27, adds that they said: "The Lord hates us, and therefore He brought us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorite, and to destroy us."
Verse 3: Would that we might perish in this wilderness
3. IN THIS VAST WILDERNESS WOULD THAT WE MIGHT PERISH! -- Thus the Hebrew, Chaldean, Septuagint, and Roman Latin read and connect these words. Therefore the negation not, and the distinction which the Plantin Bibles have, must be removed. For the Hebrews here wished to die in the desert: whence the Lord too, heeding their wish, inflicted upon them the very punishment they had requested, in verse 28, and in fact destroyed and buried them all in the desert. And He so disposed things because all these mortal Hebrews had been reared in Egypt, where they had served as slaves, and therefore they were timid and faint-hearted, not having the courage to wage wars against the Canaanites: hence He reserved this for their children, whom He trained and raised courageously in the desert. So Abulensis.
Verse 4: Let us return to Egypt
4. LET US RETURN TO EGYPT. -- Note the stupidity of the murmuring Hebrews. For to return to Egypt was impossible for them, both because of the lack of provisions in the desert: for God would have withdrawn His manna from the rebels; and because they would have had to cross the Red Sea again, or certainly to go around it through hostile nations, which would not have allowed the Hebrews to pass through their territories. So Abulensis.
Wherefore that elder, in Sophronius in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter CCVIII, wisely replied to a brother who was being assailed by sadness, saying: What shall I do? for my thoughts rise up against me and say: You have renounced the world uselessly and foolishly, you cannot be saved: "You know, brother, that even if we cannot enter the promised land, it is better for us to fall in the desert than to return to Egypt." For, as Cassian says, book X, chapter XXV, "it has been proved by experience that the attack of sloth is not to be overcome by fleeing and avoiding it (for if you flee, it will follow you and attack you more severely), but by resisting it."
Verse 5: Moses and Aaron fell prostrate
5. WHEN THIS (murmuring of the people wishing to return to Egypt) WAS HEARD, MOSES AND AARON FELL PROSTRATE ON THE GROUND, BEFORE THE WHOLE MULTITUDE, -- namely to beseech the Lord not to send punishment upon the murmurers, as He had done at the Graves of Craving, chapter XI, 33.
Verse 8: If the Lord is favorable
8. IF THE LORD IS FAVORABLE, HE WILL BRING US INTO IT. -- The particle if is not that of one who doubts, but of one asserting the reason and manner of victory, namely that God would give it to the Hebrews, if they themselves would follow God and rely upon Him: for God had certainly promised them this victory, indeed the possession of Chanaan. Moreover, they could easily see that God was favorable to the Hebrews through the manna which He continually gave, and through the pillar which led them; for if God freely provided these things for them, He surely would have provided entrance into Chanaan as well, which He had promised.
Verse 9: All their protection has withdrawn
9. ALL THEIR PROTECTION HAS WITHDRAWN FROM THEM. -- In Hebrew, their shadow has withdrawn from them; shadow, that is, protection, and, as the Chaldean translates, strength: because just as a shadow protects us from the sun in the heat, so protection shields us from dangers and enemies. God therefore, who had until then preserved the Canaanites, was now, at the coming of the Hebrews, withdrawing His protection from them, so that they would fall before the Hebrews. The Septuagint translates, their time has withdrawn from them, namely the time that had been given to the impious Canaanites to reign and flourish, says St. Augustine. So the time of Baltasar and of the Chaldean monarchy was numbered and taken away, Daniel V, 26. St. Augustine notes here that Josue does not say: "Their time has withdrawn from them," and ours has succeeded; but "the Lord is with us:" the Lord, namely, who is the creator, orderer, and dispenser of all times.
The death of St. Job and the protection of Chanaan
The Hebrews relate that at this time St. Job died in Chanaan, at whose prayers, while he lived, God, being appeased, spared the Canaanites; but now that he was dead, the shadow protecting them had departed, namely the merits and prayers of St. Job, and all protection: whence St. Jerome in Hebrew Places says it is related that the house of St. Job was in Carnea across the Jordan; and Abulensis says: "The sepulchre of St. Job, built high in the plain of the Jordan, remains in great honor among the Greek peoples to this day." Likewise Bredenbachius, Saligniacus, Borchardus, Adrichomius, and from them Pineda on Job chapter 1, verse 1, no. 27, relate that the land of Hus, or Ausitis, in which Job dwelt, was on the borders of Arabia and Idumaea in the region of Trachonitis, near the Jordan, in the lot which was later assigned to the tribe of Manasse, and there a pyramid at the sepulchre of St. Job, erected in the manner of the ancients, is still shown near the city of Sueta.
Furthermore, I showed in Genesis chapter XXXVI, 33, that St. Job died shortly before the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt; indeed others hold that he died in this very year, as I said in chapter X, 11.
Verse 10: The glory of the Lord appeared
10. AND (the multitude) WISHED TO CRUSH THEM (namely Caleb and Josue, who were resisting the murmurers) WITH STONES, THE GLORY OF THE LORD APPEARED, -- namely a bright and glorious cloud, signifying the presence and majesty of God: so the Septuagint and Josephus.
OVER THE TABERNACLE OF THE COVENANT, -- over the tabernacle of the covenant: it is a synecdoche.
Verse 11: How long will this people provoke Me?
11. HOW LONG WILL THIS PEOPLE PROVOKE ME (provoke, that is, irritate Me; for this is the meaning of the Hebrew niets)? HOW LONG WILL THEY NOT BELIEVE ME IN ALL THE SIGNS? -- In, that is, through, or on account of all the signs and wonders which I displayed for them: for in Hebrew beth, that is in, often means through.
Verse 12: I will make you a prince over a great nation
12. BUT I WILL MAKE YOU A PRINCE OVER A GREAT NATION. -- In Hebrew it is merely: I will make you into a great nation, so that a great nation may be born from you; for thus Abraham is said to have been made into a great nation. Second, and more genuinely: "I will make you into a great nation," that is, I will appoint you leader over a great multitude of Gentiles, who are better and stronger than these Hebrews of yours; for so our Translator renders it.
Verse 13: That the Egyptians may hear
13. THAT THE EGYPTIANS MAY HEAR, -- that is, if, as You threaten, O Lord, You destroy the Hebrews, the consequence will be that the Egyptians hearing of it will blaspheme Your name; hence the Septuagint and the Chaldean translate for ut (that), et (and): it is an aposiopesis for pathos, to signify both the wrath of God and of Moses softening God's anger with this brief and gentle suggestion. For those who burn with anger pour out torrents of words and threats, to which a wise man will not directly oppose himself; but here and there he will gently insert a little word which may mitigate it.
Verse 14: You are seen face to face
14. THAT YOU, O LORD, ARE AMONG THIS PEOPLE, AND ARE SEEN FACE TO FACE (in Hebrew it is, eye to eye), -- that is, that the Hebrews clearly enjoy You and Your presence, while they continually behold the pillar of cloud which represents You, by which You both show them the way and overshadow their camp when they set out, and protect it from the heat, as I showed in Exodus XIII, 21.
Verse 17: Let the strength of the Lord be magnified
17. LET THE STRENGTH OF THE LORD THEREFORE BE MAGNIFIED. -- To be magnified means two things: first, to become great; second, to appear great. The strength of God cannot become greater: for it has in itself all possible and imaginable strength, indeed beyond what anyone can imagine, because it is in itself immense and infinite: therefore the strength of God is magnified only when it appears great, or greater, to us; as if to say: Show, O Lord, to us and to the whole world Your great strength, by bringing Your people into the land of Chanaan, having driven out the Canaanites; second, strength here can be taken for clemency, says Abulensis. For he who conquers his anger, and who forgives an offense to an enemy whom he can punish and whom he has in his power, this man is of a great, strong, and lion-like spirit; for the words that follow seem to require this meaning: "As You swore, saying, the Lord is patient and of great mercy," etc. But better still, these same words, according to the prior and proper sense, may be explained through aposiopesis thus, so that these words are understood: "And therefore show Yourself to us as clement and gracious;" as if to say: Show, O Lord, Your strength by bringing us into Chanaan, and therefore do not be angry and destroy us; but show Yourself to be such as You once declared Yourself to be, indeed swore, saying in Exodus XXXIV, 6: "The Lord is patient and of great mercy," etc. For in passionate prayers, many things are said concisely out of emotion, and many things are left unsaid and retained in the heart while emotion hurries elsewhere, which the listener must supply.
Princes and prelates should learn from Moses
Let princes and prelates learn here from Moses how often the common people subject to them are ungrateful, fickle, and reckless, and how much they ought to tolerate and excuse their vices. Scipio Africanus, who defeated Hannibal, when finally driven into exile by his own Romans because of false accusations, was asked "how one should conduct oneself toward an ungrateful fatherland," and replied: "As a son conducts himself toward a sick mother."
Themistocles, expelled by his own Athenians, fled to Artaxerxes whom he had previously fought against, and said to him: "Use my misfortune rather to prove your virtue than to satisfy your wrath: for you will preserve your suppliant, and destroy an enemy of Greece." And when Artaxerxes was about to send him against the Greeks, rather than fight against his fatherland, he preferred to seek death by drinking bull's blood, at the age of 65.
Epaminondas, who raised Thebes to supremacy, when he had kept the army and command beyond the time decreed for him, as the state required, was accused and condemned to death by his own people: "Kill me," he said, "but inscribe on my tomb what I have done for my fatherland both on other occasions and in this very case;" Plutarch testifies to this in their Lives.
More illustrious still were the faithful. The Emperor Theodosius never took vengeance on any of those by whom he had been injured; to someone who marveled at this, he said: "Would that I could call back to life those who have long since died!" To another person saying nearly the same thing, he said: "It is nothing new if someone, being a man, departs from life; but it belongs to God alone to call back to eternal life, through repentance, one who has once died." So Nicephorus, book XIV, chapter III.
St. Bernard, when struck with a fist by someone, and when others wanted to attack the assailant, restrained them, saying: "He who is so often forgiven by God ought to forgive others." The author of his Life testifies to this, book III, chapter VI.
As You swore
AS YOU SWORE, -- as You testified, as You certainly and firmly declared: for God is not properly read to have sworn this, but only to have said it, in Exodus chapter XXXIV, 6. For God's saying is virtually and implicitly swearing: because to swear is nothing other than to call God, who is the infallible and first truth, as witness. But this first truth speaks when God speaks: therefore when God speaks, He Himself actually bears testimony to His own words, and thus calls Himself, as it were, as witness, and consequently implicitly swears, because He is the witness of His own words, indeed the author and confirmer. Thus to swear is taken for to assert constantly and to promise, Psalm LXXXVIII, 4: "I swore to David My servant, I will prepare your seed forever:" for God is not read to have sworn this in the books of Kings or Paralipomenon, but only to have promised it to David; and Psalm CXVIII, 106: "I swore, and (that is) I resolved, to keep the judgments of Your justice."
Verse 18: Leaving no one innocent unpunished
18. AND LEAVING NO ONE INNOCENT UNPUNISHED, -- that is, all men are guilty sinners and are so judged by You: all therefore need Your mercy. Alternatively, innocent here, as also in Exodus XX, 7, could mean unpunished, so that the Hebrew text here, as elsewhere, would have a double literal sense, and the Translator expressed the former in Exodus chapter XXXIV, verse 6, and the latter here. See what was said on Exodus XXXIV, 6.
WHO VISITS THE SINS OF THE FATHERS UPON THE CHILDREN. -- Not that Moses desires this, since he is asking for the contrary; but because God in Exodus XXXIV, 6, gave Himself these attributes, and wished to be named by them when invoked, and this for the purpose of pressing, humbling, and striking with fear of God the stubborn Jewish people.
Verse 21: The glory of the Lord shall fill the whole earth
21. AS I LIVE (that is, I swear by My life): AND (that) THE GLORY OF THE LORD SHALL FILL THE WHOLE EARTH, -- namely that the glory of God, which appeared in the wonderful and powerful leading of you out of Egypt, and in His continual governance and protection in the desert, by giving everlasting manna and a perpetual pillar as guide of the journey; this glory of God, I say, shall henceforth not be diminished, but shall persevere with you, until the entry into the promised land: and so the whole earth hearing this shall glorify My name, namely My goodness, faithfulness, strength, etc. in fulfilling My promises, when indeed this glory, namely this glorious guidance of Mine, shall be spread throughout the whole earth.
Verse 22: They have tempted Me ten times
22. BUT NEVERTHELESS; -- In Hebrew it is ki; that is, that, because, since. Hence Vatablus joins these words to the preceding, in this sense, that is: The glory of the Lord shall fill the whole earth, which is, or rather will be, that all these who saw My signs and yet murmured against Me shall die in the desert. But this is not glory, that is, the glorious clemency and benevolence of God toward the Hebrews, as is clear from verse 20, but rather terror and the terrible vengeance of God. Our Translator therefore renders it better as nevertheless. For the Hebrew ki is sometimes taken adversatively, and is a mark of exception, as Forster proves in the Hebrew Lexicon.
WHO HAVE SEEN MY MAJESTY, -- not in itself, but through the signs and wonders which are the indicators and mirrors of My majesty.
AND THEY HAVE TEMPTED ME NOW TEN TIMES. -- The Rabbis enumerate these ten temptations of God by the Hebrews as follows: the first was at the Red Sea, when Pharaoh was pressing upon them, Exodus XIV, 11; the second was at Marah, because of the lack of water, Exodus XV, 24; the third, in Sin, when food was lacking, Exodus XVI, 3; the fourth, when they kept manna until the next day against God's command, ibid. verse 20; the fifth, when they sought manna on the sabbath, against the Lord's command, ibid. verse 27; the sixth, when in thirst they demanded water at Raphidim, Exodus XVII, 2; the seventh, at Horeb, when they made the golden calf, Exodus XXXII, 4; the eighth, when they murmured because of the labor of the journey, Numbers XI, 1; the ninth, when they demanded meat and the luxuries of Egypt at the Graves of Craving, ibid. verse 4; the tenth, here, when they murmured because of the report of the explorers. But it may be said more easily and plainly that this is a familiar manner of speaking in Scripture, to use a definite number for an indefinite one, that is: ten times, meaning, frequently, this people has already murmured.
Verse 24: My servant Caleb, full of another spirit
24. MY SERVANT CALEB, WHO WAS FULL OF ANOTHER SPIRIT, -- namely the good spirit of obedience, magnanimity, faith, and hope, to hope for the promised land, and to trust in the goodness and power of God who promised it; whereas the others were full of the evil spirit of disobedience, faintheartedness, unbelief, and despair.
HAS FOLLOWED ME. -- In Hebrew, he filled after me, that is, he fully followed Me, inasmuch as he believed and trusted in My promises in all things, and asserted and defended the greatness of My power to destroy the Canaanites and to bring the Hebrews into Chanaan, against all the others. For by these acts of faith, hope, and charity we worship and follow God, as St. Augustine attests.
Verse 25: The Amalekites and Canaanites dwell in the valleys
25. SINCE THE AMALEKITES AND THE CANAANITES DWELL IN THE VALLEYS, TOMORROW MOVE YOUR CAMP AND RETURN. -- Already before, in Exodus XVII, the Hebrews had encountered the Amalekites: but because the land of Amalek extends in length from the land of Chanaan toward the Red Sea, hence the Hebrews departing from Egypt toward Chanaan more often encountered the Amalekites, or rather the Amalekites encountered the Hebrews; but the Canaanite people mentioned here were not from the nations dwelling in Chanaan, but were different from them, dwelling for the most part in the valleys, near the desert in which the Hebrews were encamped, whose king was Arad, against whom the Hebrews fought in the desert, as will be clear in chapter XXI, 1. But here God commands the Hebrews to withdraw because of the Amalekites and Canaanites, since they would attack the Hebrews and overcome them, as being unworthy of God's help, and therefore destined to fall before their enemies: that this happened is clear from verse 45.
AND RETURN INTO THE WILDERNESS BY THE WAY OF THE RED SEA. -- The Hebrews had already arrived at Rethma and Cades, and were near the promised land, and only the mountains of Idumaea lay between it and them. But because the Lord, punishing them for their murmuring, wished them to wander for forty years and to die in the desert, He therefore commands them to return to the wilderness, by a road which would lead them by another route back again to the Red Sea: whence at the thirty-second camp they finally came to Asiongaber, on the Red Sea. Adrichomius graphically describes this in his maps and sets it before the eyes.
This wilderness, as I said above, was vast, trackless, waterless, barren, uncultivable, rugged, precipitous, scorching, and covered with deep, clinging, and shifting sand: in this wilderness, for their penance, inflicted by God on account of the murmuring, the Hebrews wandered for 38 years.
See here what murmuring and rebellion deserve, and how greatly they displease God; and fear lest, just as so many hundreds of thousands of Hebrews, on account of a single murmuring, were excluded from the promised land, and perished and were buried in this desert: so likewise you also, if you murmur and are disobedient to God and His vicars, may be excluded from heaven and buried in hell.
Verses 29-30: All who were numbered from twenty years old
29 and 30. ALL WHO WERE NUMBERED (chapter 1, verse 2) FROM TWENTY YEARS OLD AND UPWARD, AND HAVE MURMURED AGAINST ME, SHALL NOT ENTER THE LAND. -- Hence it is clear that all those numbered, namely those who were 20 years old and upward, murmured, and therefore all are here punished with death in the desert. So Abulensis. This sentence does not include the Levites, and women, and likewise boys who were not yet twenty years old. For these were not numbered, as is clear from chapter 1, verse 2, and chapter II, verse 33; therefore they are not punished by this sentence and penalty, and could enter the promised land. Some also gather that the Levites did not murmur with the rest, from the fact that no one from that tribe was sent as an explorer: so Andreas Masius, Josue last chapter, verse 4. Note however: besides these numbered men, all others, whether women or males under twenty years of age, who murmured, died in the desert just as much as these numbered men: for this is what is said in verse 23: "Nor shall any of those who detracted from Me behold it." So Abulensis. Yet this law is directed only at males who were 20 years old and upward: because only these could the general sentence designate and determine.
Moreover this sentence is understood of those who were twenty years old, not when this sentence was pronounced, but when the numbering was made in chapter 1, verse 2: for this is what numbered means; so Abulensis.
Finally, all these were condemned to temporal death, not to eternal death; indeed they redeemed eternal death by the present punishment, as many as died penitent and in grace in the desert, as is clear from Moses and Aaron, who were excluded from Chanaan, but for another reason, about which see chapter XX.
30. OVER WHICH I RAISED MY HAND, -- that is, for which, as if raising My hand on high, I swore that I would give it to you, Genesis XV, 18.
Caleb and Josue alone entered Chanaan
EXCEPT CALEB THE SON OF JEPHONE, AND JOSUE THE SON OF NUN. -- These two therefore, alone out of so many hundreds of thousands of armed men, entered Chanaan, because they followed God.
Tropologically, St. Gregory on the seventh Penitential Psalm, in the exposition of the fifth verse, at the end, says: No one will come to heaven "unless he has first learned to walk in newness of life through the love of the spirit. The two men, namely Caleb and Josue, designate the head and the body, that is, Christ and the Church, who alone enter that land of the living." For Caleb in Hebrew means whole heart, says Procopius. Jephone means conversion, Jesus means Savior; for those who have a whole heart toward God are sons of conversion, through Jesus dwelling within them.
Allegorical interpretation: few are saved
Allegorically, just as out of so many hundreds of thousands only Josue and Caleb entered the promised land, so out of so many hundreds of thousands of men, few are saved and go to heaven.
When the blessed Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, departed this life, which happened in the year of our Lord 1153, indiction 1, the 12th of the Kalends of September, in the 64th year of his age, a terrifying vision was seen by the Bishop of Langres. For there appeared to him a certain hermit who had died, whom he had once known while alive, who, moved by divine fear, some years earlier, when he was a wealthy and renowned Dean, despising all things, had entered a hermitage for the love of Christ. When he had asked him about his state and the strictness of divine judgment, the hermit replied: "At the hour in which I departed from the body, thirty thousand men passed from this light. Of these, Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, who died at the same hour, flew with me to heaven, three others were sent to Purgatory, all the rest, condemned by the sentence of the just Judge, descended to hell to be tormented forever." St. Simeon, and from him St. Nilus the Abbot, in Baronius, volume X, year of Christ 976, assert that out of ten thousand scarcely one soul is saved.
From the annals of the Franciscans our Platus reports, book I On the Good of the Religious State, chapter V, that a certain Franciscan named Bertoldus, a distinguished preacher, by the force and spirit of his speaking drove a sinful woman to such contrition that she fell dead during the sermon; she, afterward raised from the dead by his prayers, said: "When I appeared before the tribunal of God, sixty thousand souls were brought there, who had departed this life from all over the world, and of these only three were assigned to Purgatory, all the rest were condemned to eternal fire;" but she asserted that one of the Franciscan Brothers who had died at that same moment had indeed passed through the place of Purgatory, but had not lingered there at all, and had even taken with him to heaven a pair of souls who had been joined to him by particular friendship. As thickly therefore as snowflakes fall from the air in winter, so thick a throng of men daily descends to hell. O wondrous thing! O the stupor of men! Who, reading this, would not be terrified? Who would not tremble in his whole body? Who would not resolve to live holy and piously, and to look after his own salvation, and to secure for himself, as far as he can, the entrance to heaven? Especially when he hears those words of Christ: "Enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there are who enter through it. How narrow the gate, and strait the way, that leads to life, and few there are who find it!" Matthew VII, 13; and again: "Many are called, but few are chosen;" think on this, think again on this, meditate on this continually.
Verse 33: Your children shall wander forty years
33. YOUR CHILDREN SHALL WANDER IN THE DESERT FOR FORTY YEARS. -- The innocent children of guilty parents are here punished for the sin and guilt of their parents with, as it were, an exile of forty years. But for the little ones this was not so much a punishment as a benefit: for it served, first, so that in the meantime they might grow to a proper age and strength, whereby they could contend with the Canaanites; second, so that in the meantime they might grow in number, whereby they could succeed their parents who were going to die, and fill up Chanaan. So Abulensis.
FORTY YEARS. -- Note first: From the departure of the Hebrews out of Egypt to the entry into Chanaan, not 42 years elapsed, as the Septuagint has, Josue V, 6, and from them St. Augustine, but only 40, as is clear from Josue III, 6, in the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Latin text. And this is again conclusively proved from Exodus VII, 7, compared with Numbers XXXIII, 38, and Deuteronomy last chapter, 7; indeed these 40 years were not entirely complete. For the Hebrews departed from Egypt on the 15th day of the first month, as is clear from Numbers XXXIII, 3. But they crossed the Jordan and entered Chanaan on the tenth day of the first month of the forty-first year from the departure, as is clear from Josue IV, 19: therefore 5 days are lacking to complete 40 years.
Whence note second: From this murmuring the Hebrews wandered through the desert only thirty-eight and a half years, or thereabouts. For this exploration, on account of which they murmured, took place in the second year after the departure, in June, as I said in chapter XIII, verse 21. You will say: How then are not 38, nor 39, but 40 years counted here? Some respond that these years should be reckoned from the departure out of Egypt. But I say they should be reckoned from the sending of the explorers and this murmuring, as is sufficiently clear from this passage, and from Psalm XCIV, 10: for from that point there were 38 complete years and the 39th was begun, which in the manner of Scripture are called 40, because Scripture is accustomed to express a round number, even if the actual number is slightly greater or less. So the disciples of Christ are called 70, though there were 72. See Ribera on Amos V, no. 64.
Add that there were precisely 40 years, at least begun, if you take the year not as sacred but as civil, which began from Tishri, that is, from September. For there were 38 complete years, with seven or eight months. Now these months are broken up: for the first two preceded the Tishri of the first year; for this murmuring happened in July, namely on the fortieth day after the explorers were sent: and they were sent in June; whence the first two months up to Tishri belong to the first year, and constitute it in this reckoning: thence from one Tishri to another, 38 complete years flowed continuously. Again after these 38 years, six months elapsed from the last Tishri to March, when they entered Chanaan, and these belong to the new year, namely the fortieth: thus therefore there were 40 years, but broken at both the beginning and the end, according to the reckoning of the common or civil year.
Rabbi Solomon thinks these 40 years were appointed to complete the age of those who were to die in the desert. For he believes that none of them died before the sixtieth year of their age, so that whoever completed his sixtieth year sooner would die sooner: and therefore 40 years are fixed here, so that those who had left Egypt at the age of twenty would die in the fortieth year from the departure from Egypt (and this would be their sixtieth year), namely shortly before the younger ones would enter Chanaan. But these are his usual fabrications, which rest on no foundation: whence Abulensis refutes them at length.
AND THEY SHALL BEAR YOUR FORNICATION, -- that is, your children shall bear the punishment of your fornication, that is, of your transgression, and turning away from God and the law of God. For just as a woman who turns from her husband to an adulterer is said to commit fornication: so also the soul commits fornication if it turns away from God and the law of God, to which it is bound by a right more than marital, especially if this is done through idolatry. For an idol is, as it were, another husband, and therefore, as it were, an adulterer of the soul. A similar expression is found in the next chapter, verse 39.
Verse 34: A year for each day
34. INIQUITIES, -- that is, the punishment of iniquities.
A YEAR SHALL BE RECKONED FOR EACH DAY, -- shall be counted, that is: Just as the explorers stayed in Chanaan 40 days surveying it, so proportionally you, Hebrews, shall remain 40 years in the desert, because they caused you to murmur: even though they did not murmur or sin on all those 40 days. For this proportion in the number 40 is not of days of guilt to years of punishment, but is a certain fitness between the number that gave the occasion for the guilt and the number that inflicts the punishment; so Abulensis.
Morally, the Gloss from Origen says: "I fear," he says, "to examine this mystery; for I see that in it is contained the reckoning of sins and punishments: if indeed a year of punishment is ascribed to each sinner for a single day's sin, I fear that for us, who sin daily, perhaps not even the ages of ages may suffice to pay our punishments."
Verses 36-37: The explorers struck down
36 and 37. THEREFORE ALL THE MEN, etc., WHO UPON RETURNING HAD CAUSED THE MULTITUDE TO MURMUR, etc., DIED AND WERE STRUCK DOWN IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD. -- All the explorers, except Josue and Caleb, were punished with sudden death, in the sight of the Lord, that is, by a sentence pronounced by God against them and a plague sent by Him upon them, so that all might see the judgment and vengeance of God upon them. Some assert that a pestilence was sent upon them. Rabbi Solomon says that their tongues, with which they had disparaged the promised land, swelled up and dripped venom, and they died suddenly. Whether this happened in this way, or whether they were struck by another plague, God knows. This account corresponds to the threat, and for that reason is inserted here by way of anticipation, before Moses had reported God's threats to the people.
Verse 39: Moses spoke all these words
39. AND MOSES SPOKE ALL THESE WORDS TO ALL THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. -- "Words," namely the sentence of death pronounced by God against all the murmurers from age 20 and above, verse 29.
AND THE PEOPLE MOURNED EXCEEDINGLY, -- greatly, wondrously, both on account of this sentence of death pronounced upon them, and on account of the miserable death of the explorers, which they had witnessed with their own eyes.
Verse 40: They went up to the top of the mountain
40. AND BEHOLD, RISING EARLY IN THE MORNING, THEY WENT UP TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN -- of Idumaea, so as thus immediately to penetrate into Chanaan. Behold these fools, while fleeing vices they rush to the opposite extreme: the Hebrews, previously averse to Chanaan, now rush headlong into it without counsel, without the will and help of God, and therefore disobedient on both counts, they are punished and slaughtered on both counts.
Cleobulus tells a fitting fable in Plutarch's Banquet of the Seven Sages: The Moon, he says, asked her mother to weave her a fitting tunic. Her mother replied: How can I do that, when I see you now full, now half-full, now crescent? So for a foolish and vicious man there is no measure: for a fool changes like the moon: now he is most courageous, now most timid; now he obeys, now he rebels.
Valerius Maximus truly said, book I: "The valor of soldiers resides in the counsel of the commander." And Archidamus, seeing his son fighting too recklessly against the Athenians, said: "Either you must increase your strength, or lessen your boldness." And Phocion, about to fight against the Macedonians, when many young men came running up and urged him to place his camp on a hill, said: "O Hercules, how many commanders, but how very few soldiers!" noting the youthful rashness that tried to get ahead of the commander, since it is the soldier's part not to give counsel, but to carry it out; Plutarch testifies in the Apophthegms.
Among the Macedonians, to take up arms without the commander's order, to form ranks, or to attack the enemy, was severely prohibited by military law, says Alexander ab Alexandro, book III, chapter XX. King Philip punished Archidamus with death, because when he had ordered him to stand fast with his arms, the latter had laid them down; Aelian testifies to this, book XIV. Under Lysander, commander of the Spartan fleet, Dercyllides, accused of not maintaining his ranks, was ordered as a punishment of disgrace to stand holding his shield before him. For this is the punishment for not keeping ranks, says Xenophon.
WE ARE READY TO GO UP TO THE PLACE OF WHICH THE LORD HAS SPOKEN, FOR WE HAVE SINNED. -- As if to say: We were disobedient to the Lord, now we repent, we desire to obey God, and not to think of returning to Egypt, but to pass immediately through the mountains into the promised land. But again they sin by disobedience: for the Lord had commanded them to return by the way of the Red Sea.
Verse 44: They, blinded, went up
44. BUT THEY, BLINDED (blinded by disobedience and the desire to penetrate into Chanaan, refusing to submit to the judgment of Moses) WENT UP TO THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN, -- on which the Canaanites and Amalekites dwelt, who attacked and defeated the Hebrews. For it was easy for them, holding the high ground, to cast down and dislodge the Hebrews who were struggling to ascend. Hence wise military commanders seize and preoccupy elevated positions, and likewise take advantage of the wind, sun, and dust. This is what C. Marius, the illustrious Roman commander who defeated the Cimbri, used to do: whence when Popidius Silo, the enemy commander, signaled to Marius: "If you are, O Marius, a great commander, come and decide the battle;" Marius replied: "Rather, if you are a great commander, compel me to fight against my will." So Plutarch in his Life of Marius.
Verse 45: He pursued them as far as Horma
45. HE PURSUED THEM AS FAR AS HORMA. -- This is a prolepsis: for Horma, that is, anathema, is here the name given to the land which was afterward called Horma from the slaughter inflicted there by the Hebrews, Numbers chapter XXI, 3; Horma therefore signifies here the boundary and limits of the land later struck by the Hebrews. So Abulensis. Others think this Horma is a different place, which, just like that of chapter XXI, verse 3, was called Horma, from this defeat and the anathema of the Hebrews.