Spoke ill, &c. These men, who, by their misrepresentations of the land of promise, discouraged the Israelites from attempting the conquest of it, were a figure of worldlings, who, by decrying or misrepresenting true devotion, discourage Christians from seeking in earnest and acquiring so great a good, and thereby securing to themselves a happy eternity. (Challoner) --- Devoureth, by being exposed to continual wars from the Arabs, Idumeans, and from its own inhabitants, the monsters of the race of Enac. With this God had threatened the Hebrews, if they proved rebellious, Leviticus xxvi. 38. See Ezechiel xxxvi. 13. (Calmet) Monsters. Hebrew, "giants." --- Locusts, or grasshoppers. So much inferior in size were we to them. Hebrew insinuates that the spies entertained these sentiments when they beheld the giants, and the latter seemed to look down upon them with contempt; "and so we were in their sight." These wicked men scrupled not to exaggerate in order to fill the people with dismay. (Haydock) --- Their suggestions tended to make them distrust the goodness or the power of God; and therefore he would not suffer them to enjoy the sweets of the land, chap. xiv. 23, 29. (Worthington) See Deuteronomy i. 28., and Isaias xl. 21. We may. The Latin manuscripts and Bibles before Sixtus V read, "in Egypt, and not in this," &c. But the present translation agrees with the Hebrew, Septuagint, and Chaldean. (Calmet) --- They obtained what they said they wished for, ver. 28; chap. xiv. 29; xxvi. 64. (Worthington) --- And that. Hebrew, &c., "and wherefore hath God brought us into this land, that we may fall," &c. In a rage they attribute a malicious design to God. (Calmet) --- Better. And who would have given them food in the wilderness? (Menochius) Captain, instead of Moses, whom they could not bring over to their criminal design, no more than Aaron, Josue, Caleb, &c. (Haydock) --- Some imagine the rebels wanted to choose themselves a king, (Calmet) or even another god. (Drusius) --- Every community acknowledges the necessity of having one at the head. (Worthington) Israel; begging that God would not destroy them, as he had done their brethren, chap. xi. (Menochius) Garments, in testimony of their disapprobation and zeal; to make these insolent people reflect upon the evils into which they are throwing themselves. (Calmet) To eat, or consume them, as easily as we devour a piece of bread. The expression is proverbial, Psalm xiii. 4. --- All aid. Hebrew, "their shadow," which is taken in the same sense. Septuagint, "their time or opportunity is gone." The Rabbins refer this to holy Job, who, they say, died at this time. (Cornelius a Lapide) --- He dwelt near the Jordan. (Pineda in Job.) (Chap. i. 1, and 27. Cried out, &c. Hebrew, "said stone them." Detract. Hebrew, "despise, irritate, or blaspheme." God is incapable of anger, says Origen; he only foretells what will come to pass. That the. The sentence is left imperfect, to signify the agitation and distress with which Moses was oppressed, as if he had said, Thou wilt thus afford a pretext, that the Egyptians and Chanaanites may say to one another, that thou couldst not perform what thou hadst promised; and therefore, that in vexation thou hadst destroyed thy people. (Haydock) --- Hebrew, "Then the Egyptians shall hear it....and will tell it to the inhabitants of this land....because the Lord could not," &c., ver. 16. (Calmet) --- Thus they will blaspheme thy holy name. (Menochius) One man. All at once, (Calmet) entirely, without sparing so much as one. (Vatable) Sworn. God swore to give this land to the Hebrews, but not to this particular generation. His oath would be equally fulfilled by raising posterity to Moses, ver. 13. But, at his entreaty, he spared the descendants of this people, and gave the land to their children under Josue. (Haydock) Lord, in overcoming all difficulties, raised either by the enemy, or by thy rebellious people. Mercy. Septuagint, "merciful and true," as Exodus xxxiv. 6, 7. On that occasion, it is not written that God swore. (Haydock) --- But equal credit is to be given to his word, as to an oath. (Menochius) --- Clear, or, as St. Jerome expresses it in Exodus, and no man of himself is innocent before thee. (Calmet) --- By these titles God will be addressed; and therefore Moses mentions them all, though some of them might seem to obstruct his petition of pardon. (Menochius) --- He knew that none of God's perfections were contrary to one another, or to his nature of consummate goodness; and he sued for the pardon of his people, with all due submission to the dictates of his justice. (Haydock) Forgiven the sins to those who repent; but the punishment due to them must be undergone, though not so soon as I had threatened, ver. 12, 19. How happy is that nation, which has one like Moses to intercede for them! (Haydock) Lord. I will surely punish the guilty; and all the earth shall know that their own crimes, and not my imbecility, prevented their taking possession of Chanaan. My glory shall shine both in my long-suffering, and in the effects of my justice. Let me pass for a dead god, like the idols, if I do not perform what I say. The men, above twenty years of age, ver. 29. --- Majesty, manifested by the signs, &c. (Haydock) --- Ten times; very often. It is not necessary to specify the number of the rebellions, as some have done, placing the first on the other side of the Red Sea, (Exodus xiv. 11,) and the tenth here. The expression is often used to express a great but indefinite number. (Ecclesiastes vii. 20.) (Calmet) It. None of those who murmured ever entered the land of promise. Origen (hom. 27,) believes that the Levites behaved with fidelity, and were not comprised in the punishment. In effect, Eleazar certainly entered Chanaan, Josue xiv. 1. Salmon also, who espoused Rahab, had seen the wonders of God, but had not joined with the rest; so that, when it is said (ver. 2,) that all murmured, we must explain it by St. Jerome's rule, of the greatest part; as, no doubt, many would abhor the conduct of the seditious. (Calmet) --- Omnia non ad totum referenda esse sed ad partem maximam. (St. Jerome, ep. 146. ad Dam.) Spirit. The spirit of obedience and of courage. (Menochius) --- Followed me, as a guide, and hath fulfilled all my desires. (Vatable) --- This he was enabled to do by God's free grace. But his co-operation merited a reward. See St. Augustine, de Grat. &. Lib. iv.) (Worthington) For. Hebrew, "Now," &c. The enemy is ready to attack you in the defiles, and I will not expose you at present to their fury, as you shall not enter the land for many years. Wherefore to-morrow, &c. (Haydock) --- It seems they complied reluctantly, for they probably encamped in that neighbourhood about a year. (Calmet) Hand, the posture of one taking an oath, Genesis xv. 18. Years. Within five days from the departure out of Egypt, (Menochius) and above 38 from this time. Hebrew, "they shall be shepherds," without any fixed dwelling, like the shepherds of that country. --- Consumed. They had complained that Chanaan consumed and devoured its inhabitants. (Calmet) --- Their children underwent a temporal, but salutary, punishment for their sin. (St. Augustine, ep. 75.) (Worthington) CHAPTER XIV. Revenge. Hebrew, "my breach of promise, or if my threats be vain," &c. Septuagint, "you shall know the fury of my anger." (Calmet) --- I will convince you by the severity with which I shall execute this sentence, that you had no reason to distrust my former promises. St. Jerome (in Ezec. xx.) entertains hopes of the eternal salvation of many of these Hebrews, who had time to do penance for their sins. Lord, by pestilence, (ver. 12; Philo,) or by the exterminating angel, 1 Corinthians x. 10. They were burnt to death before the tabernacle, or at least died suddenly. (Jansenius) The Jews have appointed a fast on the 7th of the 6th month, to bewail this event, ver. 39. (Calmet) Which conduct shall not, &c. They had been ordered to return: now they will advance, and, though admonished that the Lord will not assist them, they depend upon their own efforts, being ever full of themselves, and distrustful of God, the two sources of all spiritual misfortunes. (Haydock) Blinded, with presumption, as the Hebrew yahpilu, insinuates. "Their heart was puffed up with pride, and they ascended," Deuteronomy i. 43. (Calmet) --- The enemy was ready to receive them, and easily routed this rabble, abandoned by God, and by Moses, Aaron and his sons, Josue, and other men of virtue and sense. They who before lay lurking in the valleys, (ver. 25,) assume fresh courage, when they become the executioners of God's vengeance, and come pouring down from their mountains, with irresistible fury; nor do they stop till they had made a dreadful carnage of the Hebrews. The same place was again deluged with blood, (chap. xxi. 3,) and was called Horma, or "the Curse." The Samaritan and Septuagint add, and they returned into the camp, Thus, by their own woeful experience, they began to feel that God would keep his word in punishing the common people, as well as the leaders, ver. 37. (Haydock) Speak. This law was probably given towards the end of the 40 years, ver. 23. Victim "of peace," as some Latin copies read, including all the different sorts, ver. 28. (Calmet) Ephi. Hebrew, "a tenth of flour," or one gomer. (Du Hamel) Oil. Greater libations are required for a ram, as it is larger than the former victim, which was accompanied with only half the quantity of fine flour. (Haydock) --- Part of the wine and oil was poured on the flour, and burnt on the altar; the rest was given to the priests. Thus, &c. --- Land. In this last verse, the Samaritan copy observes a more correct manner of punctuation than the Hebrew which is commonly rendered "O congregation." (Houbigant) --- The author of the Vulgate has preserved the sense, but not all the words of the original. The strangers here spoken of are the proselytes of justice, who kept all the law. Those of the gate, who lived in the land, uncircumcised, could only present holocausts, without libations, Leviticus xxii. 25. (Calmet) --- "The many sacrifices (of the old law) prefigured this one sacrifice" of the new. (St. Augustine, City of God x. 20.) Christ, represented by the oil, offers himself the victim, under the forms of bread and wine. (Du Hamel) Eat. Hebrew and Septuagint, "of your dough." They elevated a part towards heaven, and gave it to the priest or Levite, who lived nearest them; and, in case none could be found, as at the present day, they were to burn it in honour of God. Tradition determines the quantity to be between a 40th and a 60th part. (St. Jerome in Ezec. xlv.) This they do every time they bake, according to Philo, and Leo of Modena, (2. 9,) though the law be not clear, and some might think it sufficient to give a part, the first time they baked with new flour. Ignorance. Other victims are prescribed; (Leviticus iv. 13,) so that the ignorance here mentioned must be of a different nature. The former was perhaps a sin of commission, and this a sin of omission; such as if the whole people should neglect to eat the paschal lamb. The Rabbins think that the law alludes here to idolatry, committed for want of knowledge. But that is next to impossible in a whole nation. Outram believes, that the Book of Leviticus speaks of those who transgress the negative precepts, without abandoning the true religion; but the present law alludes to those who forget the laws of their fathers, and embrace a false worship. Thus Ezechias offered the victims here prescribed, though more in number, to expiate the idolatry of the people under Achaz, 1 Paralipomenon xxix. 21. See also 1 Esdras viii. 35. Some think Moses has supplied in this place what was left deficient before. But it is more probable, that he supposes here only some of the tribes have sinned ignorantly, while in Leviticus he speaks of the whole nation. (Calmet) --- No one sins for the sake of the offence, but for some advantage which we falsely persuade ourselves we shall derive from doing so. (St. Augustine, q. 24.) And for. Hebrew, "and their sin (offering) in the presence of the Lord, for their ignorance." (Calmet) Pride. Hebrew and Septuagint, "with hand, or with head (Chaldean) uplifted," without shame or control. The Rabbins say, he must deny that God is the author of the law, and sin deliberately, after being admonished, &c., before he will incur this penalty. But why all these restrictions? --- Rebellious. Hebrew, "he hath blasphemed, or irritated the Lord." Such crimes imply a contempt of the law. --- Cut off by God, if the judges neglect to do it. The Hebrews maintain, that each individual has a right to kill such scandalous offenders, as Phinees did Zambri, chap. xxv. 7. (1 Machabees ii. 23.) It is not clear whether all strangers, living in the country, were subjected to this law. (Selden, Jur. ii. 11.) Though such crimes were not pardoned by the law, true repentance will free us from them. (St. Augustine, q. 25.) (Worthington) Wilderness of Pharan, if this crime were committed soon after the murmuring of the people, or in some other part of the desert. This example tends to show the severity and extent of the former precept. The law had condemned the breaker of the sabbath to be put to death. But Moses consulted the Lord, to know in what manner; or perhaps there were some circumstances attending the offender, which extenuated or enhanced his crime. Some of the Rabbins have unjustly aspersed the character of Salphaad, as if he were the person, because it is said that he died in the desert in his own sin, chap. xxii. 3. (Calmet) --- Those who transgress with full knowledge, deserve to be severely chastised; (Luke xii. 47,) and this is the more necessary, when the law has been lately promulgated, to restrain the insolent. (Haydock) --- God generally makes an example of those who first transgress his laws, as he did our first parents, Cain, the Sodomites, the worshippers of the golden calf, &c. He punished thus the sacrilege of Nadab, the disobedience of Saul, the lie of Ananias and Saphira. (Cajetan) (Du Hamel) Fringes. The Pharisees enlarged these fringes through hypocrisy, (Matthew xxiii. 5,) to appear more zealous than other men for the law of God. (Challoner) --- Our Saviour conformed to this law, Luke viii. 44. Moses shews that these fringes were to be made for the cloak, which was square, and not for the tunic, Deuteronomy xxii. 12. The colour, in St. Justin Martyr's time, was purple. (Dialogue with Trypho) It seems that the Ph\'9cnicians were accustomed to wear such fringes. Sidoniam picto chlamidem circumdata limbo. (Virgil, \'c6neid iv.) (Calmet) --- God ordained that his people should be thus distinguished from other nations. (Tirinus) Astray, . The eyes being left without restraint, easily fix upon dangerous objects, which captivate the heart, and lead to idolatry and the contempt of God's law. (Calmet) --- We are also admonished to meditate on the law, and not follow our own thoughts or interpretations, so as to render it of no effect, in the regulation of our morals. (Haydock)