Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
On account of the daughters of Zelophehad, God gives a law that, when male offspring is lacking, daughters shall succeed their parents in the inheritance. Secondly, verse 12, Moses is commanded to contemplate Canaan from Mount Abarim, and to appoint Joshua as his successor in the leadership of the people.
Vulgate Text: Numbers 27:1-23
1. And the daughters of Zelophehad the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, who was the son of Joseph, came: the names of whom are Maala, and Noa, and Hegla, and Melcha, and Thersa. 2. And they stood before Moses and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the people, at the door of the tabernacle of the covenant, and said: 3. Our father died in the desert, and was not in the sedition that was raised against the Lord under Core, but he died in his own sin: and he had no male children. Why is his name taken away from his family, because he had no son? Give us a possession among the kinsmen of our father. 4. And Moses referred their cause to the judgment of the Lord. 5. And the Lord said to him: 6. The daughters of Zelophehad demand a just thing: give them a possession among their father's kindred, and let them succeed him in his inheritance. 7. And to the children of Israel you shall speak these things: 8. When a man dies without a son, his inheritance shall pass to his daughter. 9. If he have no daughter, his brothers shall succeed him. 10. And if he have no brothers, you shall give the inheritance to his father's brothers. 11. But if he have no uncles by the father, the inheritance shall be given to them that are the next akin. And this shall be to the children of Israel a sacred thing by a perpetual law, as the Lord has commanded Moses. 12. The Lord also said to Moses: Go up into this mountain Abarim, and view from thence the land which I will give to the children of Israel. 13. And when you shall have seen it, you also shall go to your people, as your brother Aaron went. 14. Because you offended Me in the desert of Sin in the contradiction of the multitude, neither would you sanctify Me before them at the waters. These are the waters of contradiction in Kadesh of the desert of Sin. 15. And Moses answered Him: 16. May the Lord the God of the spirits of all flesh provide a man, that may be over this multitude, 17. and may go out and in before them, and may lead them out, or bring them in: lest the people of the Lord be as sheep without a shepherd. 18. And the Lord said to him: Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and put your hand upon him. 19. And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, and all the multitude: 20. and you shall give him precepts in the sight of all, and a part of your glory, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may hear him. 21. If anything is to be done, Eleazar the priest shall consult the Lord for him. At his word shall he go out, and at his word shall he come in, both he and all the children of Israel with him, and the rest of the multitude. 22. Moses did as the Lord had commanded. And when he had taken Joshua, he set him before Eleazar the priest, and all the assembly of the people. 23. And laying his hands on his head, he repeated all things that the Lord had commanded.
Verses 1-2: The Daughters of Zelophehad
1 and 2. And the daughters of Zelophehad came, etc., and they stood before Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the people, at the entrance of the tabernacle. -- Because near the entrance of the tabernacle was the tent of Moses, and to it, or certainly to the neighboring courtyard of the tabernacle, the elders of the people assembled, summoned by Moses to the council.
Verse 3: Give Us a Possession
2 and 3. And they said: Our father, etc., died in his own sin -- namely, on account of the sin of murmuring at the time of the spies, which sin was common to the whole people. For all from the twentieth year and above died in the desert on account of this sin.
3. He had no male children; why should the name of our father be taken away from his family because he had no son? Give us a possession among the kinsmen of our father -- meaning: Give us daughters an inheritance in Canaan in place of our father who died without male offspring, so that through this inheritance of ours the name and family of our father may remain in Israel: for thus our sons, at least some of them, will be called descendants or the family of Zelophehad from this inheritance of Zelophehad; for some of our sons will follow the name and inheritance of their father, while others will follow the name and inheritance of their mother, that is, of the maternal grandfather, namely ours and our father's (for among the Hebrews the inheritance was immovable and perpetual, and consequently the family whose inheritance it was, and from which it took its name, was also perpetual). Otherwise, if no inheritance is given to us, our sons will receive not our father's name, but the name and inheritance of the husband to whom we marry; and so the name and family of our father will perish. So Abulensis.
On Hebrew Inheritance Law
From this passage it is gathered that among the Hebrews, if any offspring was male, he was the heir of all, so that daughters could receive no part of the inheritance: the reason was that through males, not through females, families are named, distinguished, and preserved. And by God's providence in the Old Testament there was such great care for the preservation and distinction of families, both on account of the rights of the firstborn, and for the certainty of all families according to the succession of inheritances: so that it might be certain, when one family died out, which was closest to it by blood, to succeed to its inheritance; and also so that it might be clearly established that Christ was born from the Jews and from Judah, as God had promised to Jacob, Genesis xlix, 10. And this was one among other reasons why God willed the Blessed Virgin to marry Joseph, so that for the Jews, who thought she had entirely conceived and borne Christ from Joseph, it could be proved that Christ descended from David and Judah. For all the Jews knew that Joseph descended from them.
Verse 4: Moses Referred Their Case to the Lord
4. And Moses referred their case to the judgment of the Lord -- meaning, Moses consulted the Lord about this question, at the entrance of the tabernacle (for there God spoke through the pillar of cloud), or at the propitiatory in the Holy of Holies.
Verses 5-6: The Daughters Ask a Just Thing
5 and 6. And He (the Lord) said to him (Moses): The daughters of Zelophehad ask a just thing; give them (command that they be given in Canaan. For Moses did not enter Canaan, and consequently could not actually and in reality give anyone an inheritance in it) a possession among the kinsmen of their father. -- Therefore these daughters entered upon the possession, not by their own right, but by their father's: whence they are said to succeed their father in the inheritance, namely that which the father would have had in Canaan, if he had lived and entered it; because Hebrew women had no right to inheritances, except in this one case, namely if their father had died without male offspring, and therefore his name would perish: for then the daughters succeeded their father, and were preferred to all other male relatives (as God decrees in the following verse), but so that they would have only one lot of their father's, which was divided equally among all the daughters of the father, whereas individual male sons, from 20 years and above, by their own right each entered upon and divided individual possessions in Canaan.
Verse 11: The Inheritance Shall Be Given to the Nearest
11. The inheritance shall be given to those who are nearest to him -- namely males. For the law speaks of succession which takes place on the father's side. For if someone had succeeded to the inheritance of his mother and maternal grandfather and died without children, his mother's relatives, not his father's, would succeed him, because these goods belonged to the family of the mother, or of the maternal grandfather (not of the father); whence they had to remain in that family, and could not be transferred to another, namely the father's, family, as Abulensis teaches, Question xxxiii, and this lest there be a mixing and confusion of families and tribes. For to this end God commanded that inheritances not be transferred from one family or tribe to another, so that from the inheritance it might be certain to which family or tribe each person belonged.
Verse 12: Go Up to Mount Abarim
12. The Lord also said to Moses: Go up to this mountain Abarim -- both so that from it you may see the promised land, and so that you may die on it: this is clear from what follows. This mountain Abarim, at least according to its various parts and ridges, has various names. For it is called Pisgah, Peor, the heights of Baal, Nebo; for on Nebo Moses is said to have died, Deuteronomy, last chapter, verse 4. God willed Moses to die on the mountain, not in the camp, lest the Hebrews, prone to idolatry, worship his body as a deity.
Contemplate from there the land which I will give to the children of Israel -- so that you may at least enjoy some pleasure in the sight of the land, which you so greatly asked and wished to enter, as is clear from Deut. iii, 24 and 25. For from that passage it is clear that Moses most ardently prayed to God for entrance into the promised land; but when God refused this and commanded him to be silent, he asked that a successor be designated for him, as is clear from this chapter, verse 16.
Verse 13: You Shall Go to Your People
13. You also shall go to your people -- you shall die, O Moses, in Moab, and shall go to the limbo of the fathers, or to the bosom of Abraham.
Verses 16-17: Let the Lord Provide a Man
16 and 17. Let the Lord, the God of spirits (meaning: You who are the God of spirits, that is, who alone create spirits and souls -- for hence the Apostle, Hebrews ch. xii, 9, calls God the Father of spirits, while parents are called fathers of the flesh -- and who know the spirits and hearts of all men, and consequently best know who is most fit for so great a burden, namely to succeed me in governing such a great people, provide and designate) a man who may be over this multitude, and who may go out and come in before them -- that is, who may be their leader and guide in every work, both military and civil. For this is what this metaphor means in Hebrew, taken from shepherds leading out their flock; for they go out and come in before them, and so feed and govern them.
Verse 18: Take Joshua the Son of Nun
18. Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit of God. -- "Spirit of God," that is, prudence, piety, fortitude, and the other virtues necessary for such a prince.
And lay your hand upon him -- so that by this ceremony Joshua may be established as your successor and leader of the people, and consequently be endowed by Me with a greater spirit and grace suitable for that office, as is said in Deuteronomy, last chapter, verse 9. Concerning this ceremony I spoke at 1 Timothy iv, 14.
Verse 20: Give Him Precepts
20. You shall give him precepts -- about the manner of governing the people, especially so that he may preserve and advance them in the true religion and law of the one God.
A Part of Your Glory
And a part of your glory -- meaning: Communicate, O Moses, to Joshua the horns, that is, the splendor and rays of your face, as the sun does to the moon, says Rabbi Moses. Whence the Chaldean translates: And he shall give of his splendor upon him. Hence also the Hebrews generally compare Moses to the sun, Joshua to the moon, which receives light from the sun; but nowhere does Scripture or the ancient writers give these rays to Joshua; nor could Moses breathe them upon Joshua. So Abulensis, who refutes this at length.
Others by "glory" understand the meekness and humility of Moses, which had made him wonderfully lovable and praiseworthy to the people; for from the fact that he used to speak with God as a friend with a friend, he became no prouder at all, and showed himself pious and gentle toward all. But neither could Moses breathe this meekness of his upon Joshua.
I say therefore: Give Joshua a part of your glory, that is, of your honor and authority among the people, so that you may address him reverently as the future leader of the people, and propose and commend him as such to the whole people, so that the people may accept him in your place as leader and revere him, as one whom they have seen honored by you and endowed with authority; whence it follows: "That all the congregation of the children of Israel may hear him." Cajetan adds that Moses is here commanded to share the insignia of his office and leadership with Joshua, for example, to hand over to him his staff, which was like a scepter and therefore an emblem of leadership; to assign to him a portion of his servants, to give him the signet ring, the military cloak, etc. For with these insignia a new magistrate and prince is customarily adorned and as it were inaugurated. Oleaster translates differently, namely: "Give Joshua a part of your abasement, or humility;" for the root hoda signifies to cast down, to humble, meaning: Teach Joshua your humility and meekness, so that it may render him acceptable to the people, just as it rendered you.
This sense is not incongruous; the former, however, is more genuine, and is that of the Septuagint, the Chaldean, and others generally.
Why the Sons of Moses Did Not Succeed Him
Why the sons of Moses did not succeed him in the leadership of the people -- this reason is given by the Author of the Wonders of Sacred Scripture, book I, ch. xxv, in St. Augustine, tome III: because "they," he says, "were begotten of a Gentile mother (from Zipporah the Midianite) during the sojourn (exile of Moses) abroad." Therefore Joshua succeeded him, who was a Hebrew both on his mother's and his father's side. Add: this leadership of the people out of Egypt was unique and extraordinary, not hereditary; by God's choice, therefore, it was conferred upon Moses and his servant Joshua. Finally, the descendants of Moses were degenerate, Judges xviii, 30.
Verse 21: Eleazar Shall Consult the Lord
21. For this man (for Joshua), if anything is to be done, Eleazar the priest shall consult the Lord. -- In Hebrew: Eleazar shall inquire for him, in the judgment of the Urim before the Lord, meaning: Eleazar the high priest, vested in the ephod and the breastplate, on which the Urim is inscribed, and thus standing in his pontifical vestments and performing as it were the pontifical function, shall inquire of the Lord about doubtful matters that arise for Joshua, and thus shall be instructed and informed by Him about all things. Concerning this oracle of the Urim, see what was said at Exodus xxviii, 30.
At his word he shall go out, and come in, both he and all the children of Israel. -- "His," namely Joshua's, says Abulensis. "For here," he says, "Joshua is placed above, because he was the secular prince, directly above the high priest, so that Eleazar was bound to obey Joshua in all things that he commanded, just as the rest of the people; and so it was in the time of Moses, because he was not a priest: Aaron however, because he was the high priest, obeyed him, because he was the prince of the people, and so it was in the Old Testament, that the high priests were under the kings: but now it is the contrary, because all secular power obeys the Supreme Pontiff, who is among all ecclesiastical men, as the high priest was among all the priests and Levites of the Hebrews;" thus far Abulensis.
But that "his" does not refer to Joshua, but to Eleazar, is clearly apparent from the Hebrew. The sense therefore is: "at his word," that is, according to his oracle, namely of Eleazar, who was mentioned before, "he shall go in and go out," that is, he shall do whatever is to be done, both "he himself," namely Joshua, and "all the children of Israel." For although God had by a special privilege chosen Moses as Prophet, lawgiver, and consecrator of priests, so that in Moses both powers resided, namely the civil and the sacred or priestly, and that by eminence and superintendence -- for Moses was the supreme priest and pontiff, but an extraordinary one; for he was more worthy than Aaron, and indeed was obliged to direct Aaron: whence it is said in Psalm 98: "Moses and Aaron among His priests" -- yet afterwards God divided these powers, so that Eleazar succeeded Moses in the priesthood, Joshua in the leadership; and then He directed Joshua and the civil leaders through the pontiffs, and commanded them to abide by the oracle and decision of the pontiffs, to signify the ecclesiastical power of the new law, which surpasses the civil power and must not infrequently direct it: and for this reason King Saul, because he was disobedient to Samuel the Levite and Prophet, lost both his kingdom and his life.
On Conferring Offices by Merit, Not by Kinship
Let princes and prelates learn here to confer offices and benefices not upon sons and relatives, but upon the more worthy. Behold, Moses resigned the leadership by God's command to Joshua, who came from another tribe, namely Ephraim; but the pontificate he resigned not to his sons, of whom he had two, but to Aaron: and this "so that we might learn," says St. Jerome commenting on ch. 1 of Titus, "that these dignities are not to be conferred on the basis of blood, but of life. But now," he says, "we see many people making this a matter of patronage, so that they do not seek to raise up as pillars in the Church those whom they know will benefit the Church the most, but those whom they themselves love, or by whose services they have been won over, or for whom some important person has asked; and -- to pass over worse things in silence -- those who obtained clerical status by gifts." Origen also weighed this point, homily 22 on Numbers: "No acclamation of the people," he says, "no consideration of kinship was taken here. And certainly, what else is directing the pontificate toward enriching a family, than to utterly profane a thing so sacred and so divine, and to apply it to secular use, as that Belshazzar did at his banquet? Which sacrilege indeed he paid for dearly, being immediately stripped of both kingdom and life."
Celestine V, as Alvarus narrates, when he heard that his brother's son had come to the curia, immediately ordered him to be expelled, and when many Cardinals interposed as intercessors, they with great effort and prayers obtained at most this: that a simple and modest benefice be granted to him; having received which, he was immediately sent home. So Alvarus, book II On the Lamentation of the Church, ch. xv, and Hieronymus Platus, On the Dignity of Cardinals, ch. xxv.
Nothing is more illustrious in this regard than Clement IV, Supreme Pontiff, who, elected Pastor of the Church in the year 1265, wonderfully maintained this same constancy. For it is recorded that he had two daughters from a legitimate marriage, and for one of them, to be placed in a monastery, he ordered 30 Turonensian pounds to be counted out; for the other, to marry, three hundred, on the condition that she marry a man of equal rank. Moreover, when he had a nephew to whom he himself had never given anything, but a prelate of France, in the Pontiff's favor, had conferred three canonries upon him; when many then asked that he honor the nephew with some dignity, not only could he never be brought to do so, but he voluntarily compelled the nephew to retain from those three benefices one, whichever he preferred, and resign the rest. So Platus in the same place.
Platina adds in his Life of Clement IV that to friends interceding for the aforementioned nephew, he replied in these words: "I will comply with God, not with flesh and blood; God wills that what is His be bestowed on pious causes. He is not a worthy successor of Peter who gives more to kinship than to piety and Christ." Furthermore, Onuphrius and Ciacconus, in their account of Clement IV, record a letter of Clement himself on this matter to one of his relatives; which, because it is rare and most worthy of eternal remembrance and imitation, it seemed fitting to weave in here; it reads thus: "While many rejoice at our promotion, we alone are those who more certainly experience the immensity of the burden, and therefore what gives others joy provides us with fear and distress. So that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself upon hearing this, we wish you to know that you should be humbler than usual. For what so greatly humbles us should not exalt our relatives, especially since the honor of this age is momentary and passes like the morning dew: nor do we wish you or your brother, or anyone else of ours, to come to us without our special command, because, frustrated in his hope, if he should presume to come otherwise, he would have to return in confusion. Nor should you seek a higher station for your sister's marriage on our account, for you would not find us favorable, nor helpers in any way. If however you betroth her to the son of a simple knight, we propose to assist you with three hundred Turonensian pounds. And if you seek higher things, do not hope for a penny from us; and we wish this to be most secret, and known only to you and your mother. Know also that we wish no man or woman of our blood to be puffed up under the pretext of our elevation; but we wish both Mobilia and Cecilia to have those husbands they would have if we were in the simple clergy. Visit Sibylla, and tell her not to change her residence, but to remain at Susa, and to observe all maturity and modesty of deportment, and not to presume to bring petitions to us on anyone's behalf. For they would be useless to him for whom they were made, and harmful to those who ask. And if perchance gifts should be offered by anyone on this account, let her refuse them, if she wishes to keep our favor. Greet our mother and brothers. Given at Perugia, on the feast of Ss. Perpetua and Felicity."
Well done, Clement! By this deed more than by any marble you have made your name eternal; the grateful and holy memory of you will live forever; no age will obliterate this your decree; future ages will speak of this your glory, your renown; posterity will praise your wisdom; the heavenly inhabitants will celebrate your integrity before God and the whole world, on that last and decisive day of the great judgment, and thenceforth through all eternity; whereas if you had consigned goods not your own but Christ's to forgetful, soon-to-perish, and often ungrateful heirs, you would long since lie inglorious and unknown, buried with your family in perpetual oblivion (not to mention the offense of God and men)! For God does not permit families raised up and exalted by ecclesiastical goods to endure for long, as frequent experience teaches. Say therefore what you said when living and hoping, but now possessing and enjoying, you say: "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; it is You who will restore my inheritance to me."
Pope Marcellus, although he held the pontificate for very few days, nevertheless in this brief time gave proof of the virtue which he had without doubt resolved to maintain thereafter. For this Pontiff, once elected, allowed none of his family to come to Rome, not even his brother Alexander, whose two sons also, whom he was educating in Rome, he permitted to be greeted by no one, rarely to appear in public, and scarcely except to attend Mass. Onuphrius also relates, who was very close to him and knew his most intimate counsels, that it was his deliberate and fixed intention to give to his brother and his children only as much as would befit a nobleman born in that place; but not so that they would elevate themselves beyond a private condition, nor be advanced to any dignity. Indeed, he had resolved not to give even a penny from the fruits of the Church, except by the judgment of all the Cardinals. So Platus, On the Dignity of Cardinals, ch. xxv.
There also existed in nearly our own times the memorable deed of Adrian VI, who is said to have been so moderate toward all his relatives that to some he even seemed too harsh. For when his cousin's son, a student of letters at the University of Siena, came to Rome uninvited, he immediately had him placed on a rented horse and sent back; and others closely connected by kinship, who had hurried to him from Germany, after giving each a woolen cloak and modest travel money, he likewise ordered to return on foot, just as they had come. The same author, in the same place.
St. Richard, Bishop of Chichester, would not admit his relatives to ecclesiastical benefices on any grounds, even though they were mature and qualified, knowing that the Prince of Shepherds, our Lord Jesus Christ, had handed over the keys of the kingdom of heaven not to Blessed John the Evangelist, His kinsman, but to Blessed Peter, who was in no way connected to Him by blood. So his Life records, in Surius, April 3.
Oh, for how many today are benefices actually curses! How many swallow offices as if they were lethal morsels! For those who confer them upon ignorant, impure, vicious, and unworthy relatives or friends bestow not benefices but poisons upon them, by which they kill their own souls and those of their family, and send them to hell. These men play with the patrimony of Christ and of the republic, as if it were their own ancestral inheritance, and they do not consider that they are only its dispensers, not its masters: they do not consider how strictly Christ will demand from them an account of this dispensation entrusted to them; they do not consider that they, as pastors, ought to feed the whole Church of God, not this or that relative at such great expense to the many and to the common good. Woe to Prelates, woe to Princes!
Verse 23: He Commanded
23. He repeated -- he related, he recounted: the Hebrew has, he commanded.