37. B.C. 1490 to 1489

B.C. 1490 to 1489

Chapter IV

1. In the journey from Sinai to the frontiers of Canaan, several occurrences evinced the still intractable and unmanly character of the people, and their unfitness to receive the inheritance promised to their fathers. The renewed fatigues and privations of travel through the Desert soon raised their murmurs, which, at the third stage, became so outrageous, that their Divine King manifested his displeasure by causing a fire to rage in the outskirts of the camp, which was only stayed at the intercession of Moses, when the people recognized the hand of God. Hence the place was called Taberah (the burning).

2. The nest offence commenced among the “mixed multitude” which accompanied the Hebrew host, but involved many of the Israelites. Whatever fortitude they had, soon gave way before the privations of the Desert. There was, indeed, plenty of manna; but they had grown dainty, and “their souls loathed that light food.” They lamented that they had ever left Egypt, and remembered, with tender regret, the cooling melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic, and the other fruits and vegetables which they had enjoyed in abundance; as well as the fish and the meat, which in that rich land they had “eaten to the full.” All this greatly oppressed the spirit of Moses, and his address to God on that occasion marks his deep despondency. To comfort him, and to enable him the better to sustain his heavy charge, he was directed to choose seventy competent men from the elders of Israel, who should act as a council, and assist him in the government of the people. These being nominated by Moses, were to be brought to the door of the tabernacle, where the Divine King gave undoubted signs of their acceptance.

3. As to the murmuring people, it was promised—not in kindness, but in anger—that on the morrow, and for a month after, they should have “meat to the full.” Accordingly, the miracle of the quails was repeated; and so abundant was the supply of these birds, that not only were the people able to glut themselves for the time, but to preserve a great quantity for future use. In the midst of their over-feeding on this meat, their incensed God caused a terrible plague to break out among them, whereby great numbers were destroyed. Excessive indulgence in a kind of food to which people have not been lately accustomed, produces a mortal fever well known to travellers; and this was probably the instrument employed in punishing the gluttonous people, who found a grave at Kibroth Hattaavah (the graves of hungering).

4. At Hazeroth, the spirit of opposition to Moses broke out in his own family, in consequence of his having married the foreign woman Zipporah, who had lately been brought among them. Miriam, the sister of Moses, who had previously held the chief place among the women in Israel, and who was now probably jealous of the respect paid to the wife of Moses, was the leader in this affair, and was soon joined by Aaron, who probably feared the influence which the newly arrived family were likely to acquire in prejudice to his own sons, on whom the priesthood had been conferred. At all events, their feeling was had, and as the expression of it tended to undermine the authority of Moses, the Lord testified his displeasure by smiting Miriam with leprosy, and as a leper she was excluded from the camp. But in seven days she was restored at the intercession of Moses, after Aaron had humbled himself, and acknowledged their joint offence.

5. Nothing remarkable occurred in the march through the wilderness of Paran until the arrival at Kadesh Barnea, on the southern border of the Promised Land, when Moses encouraged the people to proceed boldly, and take possession of their heritage. But they betrayed some diffidence, and resolved first to send twelve spies, one from each tribe, to traverse the country, and to bring them an account of the land and its inhabitants. After an absence of forty days, the spies came back with a large cluster of grapes, and other fruits of the country—many of which were new to men from Egypt. Of the country itself, and of its productions, they gave a very glowing account; but the inhabitants they described as warlike and, in some places, gigantic, dwelling in high-walled and seemingly impregnable cities; and they declared it as their opinion, that however desirable the country, the Israelites were by no means equal to the conquest of it from the present inhabitants. This statement filled the timorous multitude with dismay; and they threatened to stone two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb who proclaimed their conviction that, with the Divine aid, which was promised to them, they were fully equal to the enterprise. Breaking out into open mutiny, they even talked of appointing a leader to conduct them back to their bondage in Egypt.

6. For this last melancholy display of their utter unfitness for the promised inheritance, of their insensibility to the great things which had been done for them, and of their gross incapacity of comprehending his great designs, the Lord’s anger was greatly kindled against them. The mysterious “glory” suddenly appeared in the cloud which rested upon the tabernacle; and that manifestation of the present God struck mute every clamorous tongue, and filled all hearts with fear. The Divine voice now threatened instant extinction to the revolters, and promised to make of Moses and his family a nation greater and mightier than they. This offer had been made on a former occasion, and was then, as now, reverently declined by the disinterested prophet; and he and his brother lay prostrate before the cloud, with their faces to the ground, interceding for the people. Their prayer had power with God, and the doom of instant death and disinheritance was averted. But it was pronounced that not one of the tainted generation—composed of those who were of full age on leaving Egypt—should enter the Promised Land; but that they should wander for forty years[*] to and fro in the wilderness, until they were all dead, and until their children had grown up into a generation fitter than they to receive the heritage of Abraham. From this doom only the two faithful spies, Joshua and Caleb, were exempted: the ten others were smitten with that instant death which their conduct deserved (Numbers 14).

[*] Forty years from the departure from Egypt, nearly 38 from this point of time.

7. This awful denunciation had the remarkable, but not unnatural, effect of driving the Israelites from their childish timidity to the very opposite extreme of unauthorized and presumptuous rashness. The Canaanites and Amalekites had already taken alarm, and possessed themselves of the passes in the mountains which lay before the Hebrew host. Notwithstanding this advantage on the side of the enemy, and in spite of the earnest remonstrances of Moses, a large body of the Israelites determined to march forward and take possession of the country. They were driven back with great slaughter; and immediately after, in obedience to the Divine mandate, the camp at Kadesh Barnea was broken up, and the people conducted back into the desert towards the Red Sea.

8. Here, in the deserts between Palestine and Sinai, they wandered their appointed time, the generation which received the law in Horeb becoming gradually extinct. During all this time they continued to lead the same pastoral or Bedouin life as they had done before, living on manna and the produce of their flocks and herds; and removing from one station to another, as directed by the pillared cloud which rested upon the tabernacle.