Numbers milk and honey. Be not rebellious against the Lord: and fear ye not the people of this land, for we are able to eat them up as bread. All aid is gone from them: the Lord is with us, fear ye not. And when all the multitude cried out, and would have stoned them, the glory of the Lord appeared over the tabernacle of the covenant to all the children of Israel. And the Lord said to Moses: How long will this people provoke Me? how long will they not believe Me for all the signs that I have wrought before them? I will strike them therefore with pestilence, and will consume them: but thee I will make a ruler over a great nation, and a mightier than this is. And Moses said to the Lord: The Egyptians, from the midst of whom Thou hast brought forth this people, and the inhabitants of this land, who have heard that Thou, O Lord, art among this people, and art seen face to face, and Thy cloud protecteth them, and Thou goest before them in a pillar of a cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night, may hear that Thou hast killed so great a multitude as it were one man, and may say: He could not bring the people into the land for which He had sworn, therefore did He kill them in the wilderness. Let then the power of the Lord be magnified, as Thou hast sworn, saying: The Lord is patient and full of mercy, taking away iniquity and wickedness, and leaving no man clear, visiting the sins of the father upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Forgive, I beseech Thee, the sins of this people, according to the greatness of Thy mercy, as Thou hast been merciful to them from their going out of Egypt unto this place. And the Lord said: I have forgiven according to thy word. As I live, the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. But yet all the men that have seen My majesty, and the signs that I have done in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me now ten times, and have not obeyed My voice, shall not see the land for which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any one of them that hath detracted Me behold it. My servant Caleb, who being full of another spirit hath followed Me, I will bring into this land which he hath gone round: and his seed shall possess it. For the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valleys. To-morrow remove the camp and return into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. The Punishment of the Israelites.-And the Lord spoke to xiv. 26-45. Moses and Aaron, saying: How long doth this wicked multitude murmur against Me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Say therefore to them: As I live, saith the : Lord According as you have spoken in My hearing, so will I do to you. In the wilderness shall your carcasses lie. All you that were numbered from twenty years old and upward, and have murmured against Me, shall not enter into the land, over which I lifted up My hand to make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephone, and Josue the son of Nun. But your children, of whom you said, that they should be a prey to the enemies, will I bring in: that they may see the land which you have despised. Your carcasses shall lie in the wilderness. Your children shall wander in the desert forty years, and shall bear your sin, until the carcasses of their fathers be consumed in the desert, according to the number of the forty days, wherein you viewed the land: a year shall be counted for a day. And forty years you shall bear your iniquities, and shall know My revenge for as I have spoken, so will I do to all this wicked multitude, that hath risen up together against Me: in this wilderness shall it faint away and die. Therefore all the men, whom Moses had sent to view the land, and who at their return had made the whole multitude to murmur against him, speaking ill of the land that it was naught, died and were struck in the sight of the Lord. But Josue the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephone lived, of all them that had gone to view the land. And Moses spoke all these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned exceedingly. And behold rising up very 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 hath spoken: for we have sinned. And Moses said to them: Why transgress you the word of the Lord, which shall not succeed prosperously with you? Go not up, for the Lord is not with you: lest you fall before your enemies. The Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and by their sword you shall fall, because you would not consent to the Lord, neither will the Lord be with you. But they being blinded went up to the top of the mountain. But the ark of the testament of the Lord and Moses departed not from the camp. And the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite that dwelt in the mountain and smiting and slaying them pursued them as far as Horma. Numbers SECT. XXXVIII. THE PUNISHMENT ON THE SABBATH-BREAKER. The Sabbath-breaker.-And it came to pass, when the xv. 32-36. children of Israel were in the wilderness, and had found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day, that they brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole multitude. And they put him into prison, not knowing what they should do with him. Numbers And the Lord said to Moses: Let that man die, let all the multitude stone him without the camp. And when they had brought him out, they stoned him, and he died as the Lord had commanded. Core, Dathan, and Abiron.-And behold Core the son of XVI. 1-30. Isaar, the son of Caath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiron the sons of Eliab, and Hon the son of Pheleth of the children of Ruben, rose up against Moses, and with them two hundred and fifty others of the children of Israel, leading men of the congregation, and who in the time of assembly were called by name.* And when they had stood up against Moses and Aaron, they said: Let it be enough for you, that all the multitude consisteth of holy ones, and the Lord is among them: why lift you up yourselves above the people of the Lord? When Moses heard this, he fell flat on his face and speaking to Core and all the multitude, he said: In the morning the Lord will make known who belong to Him, and the holy He will join to Himself: and whom He shall choose, they shall approach to Him. Do this therefore: Take every man of you your censers, thou Core, and all thy company. And putting fire in them to-morrow, put incense upon it before the Lord: and whomsoever He shall choose, the same shall be holy: you take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi. And he said again to Core: Hear, ye sons of Levi : Is it a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath spared you from all the people, and joined you to Himself, that you should serve Him in the service of the tabernacle, and should stand before the congregation of the people, and should minister to Him? Did He therefore make thee and all thy brethren the sons of Levi to approach unto Him, that you should challenge to yourselves the priesthood also, and that all thy company should stand against the Lord? for what is Aaron that you murmur against him? * The crime of these men, which was punished in so remarkable a manner, was that of schism, and of rebellion against the authority established by God in the Church; and their pretending to the priesthood without being lawfully called and sent. DOUAY BIBLE. Then Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiron the sons of Eliab. But they answered: We will not come. Is it a small matter to thee, that thou hast brought us out of a land that flowed with milk and honey, to kill us in the desert, except thou rule also like a lord over us? Thou hast brought us indeed into a land that floweth with rivers of milk and honey,* and hast given us possessions of fields and vineyards; wilt thou also pull out our eyes? We will not come. Moses therefore being very angry, said to the Lord: Respect not their sacrifices: Thou knowest that I have not taken of them so much as a young ass at any time, nor have injured any of them. And he said to Core: Do thou and thy congregation stand apart before the Lord to-morrow, and Aaron apart. Take every one of you censers, and put incense upon them, offering to the Lord two hundred and fifty censers: let Aaron also hold his censer. When they had done this, Moses and Aaron standing by, and had drawn up all the multitude against them to the door of the tabernacle, the glory of the Lord appeared to them all. And the Lord speaking to Moses and Aaron, said: Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may presently destroy them. They fell flat on their face, and said: O most mighty, the God of the spirits of all flesh, for one man's sin shall Thy wrath rage against all? And the Lord said to Moses: Command the whole people to separate themselves from the tents of Core and Dathan and Abiron. And Moses arose, and went to Dathan and Abiron: and the ancients of Israel following him, he said to the multitude: Depart from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be involved in their sins. And when they were departed from their tents round about, Dathan and Abiron coming out stood in the entry of their pavilions with their wives and children, and all the people. And Moses said: By this you shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all things that you see, and that I have not forged them of my own head: if these men die the common death of men, and if they be visited with a plague, wherewith others also are wont to be visited, the Lord did not send me but if the Lord do a new thing, and the earth opening her mouth swallow them down, and all things that belong to them, and they go down alive into hell, you shall know that they have blasphemed the Lord. *This is spoken ironically. Numbers Their Punishment.-And immediately as he had made an XVI. 31-50. end of speaking, the earth broke asunder under their feet and opening her mouth, devoured them with their tents and all their substance. And they went down alive into hell, the ground closing upon them, and they perished from among the people. But all Israel, that was standing round about, fled at the of them that were perishing: saying: Lest perhaps the earth swallow us up also. cry And a fire coming out from the Lord, destroyed the two hundred and fifty men that offered the incense. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Command Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest to take up the censers that lie in the burning, and to scatter the fire of one side and the other: because they are sanctified in the deaths of the sinners: and let him beat them into plates, and fasten them to the altar, because incense hath been offered in them to the Lord, and they are sanctified,* that the children of Israel may see them for a sign and a memorial. Then Eleazar the priest took the brazen censers, wherein they had offered, whom the burning fire had devoured, and beat them into plates, fastening them to the altar : that the children of Israel might have for the time to come wherewith they should be admonished, that no stranger or any one that is not of the seed of Aaron should come near to offer incense to the Lord, lest he should suffer as Core suffered, and all his congregation, according as the Lord spoke to Moses. The following day all the multitude of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying: You have killed the people of the Lord. And when there arose a sedition, and the tumult increased, Moses and Aaron fled to the tabernacle of the covenant. And when they were gone into it, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared. And the Lord said to Moses: Get you out from the midst of this multitude, this moment will I destroy them. And as they were lying on the ground, Moses said to Aaron: Take the censer, and putting fire in it from the altar, put incense upon it, and go quickly to the people to pray for them: for already wrath is gone out from the Lord, and the plague rageth. When Aaron had done this, and had run to the midst of the multitude which the burning fire was now destroying, he offered the incense: and standing between the dead and the living, he prayed for the people, and the plague ceased. And the number of them that were slain was fourteen thou *So God taught men that any thing that belonged to His service was to be treated with reverence. |