39. B.C. 1452

B.C. 1452

Chapter VI

1. The Israelites passed, without molestation, along the eastern border of Mount Seir, and through the country of Moab, and encamped by the river Arnon. Of the country immediately to the north of that river, the descendants of Lot had before this time been dispossessed, by a colony of the Amorites from the other side of the Jordan. As it was an early law of nations, of which we have had a previous instance, that a body of armed men could not pass through a country without permission from the sovereign, Moses sent ambassadors to Heshbon to ask that permission. This was not only refused by King Sihon, but he went forth with an army to fight against the Israelites, and to drive them back. Hearing this, the Hebrews did not await his attack, but advanced to meet him half way; and having routed him at Jahaz, they acquired possession of a very fine country, rich in pastures, and full of towns and cities. This acquisition brought them into the neighborhood of Bashan, whose king, Og, was descended from the old gigantic race by whom the country was originally inhabited. To give an idea of his bulk and stature, the sacred historian informs us that his bedstead was of iron, and that its length was thirteen feet and a half, and its width six. This monarch prepared to resent the defeat and slaughter of his friend and neighbor; and the Israelites were somewhat dismayed when he appeared against them; but being encouraged by Moses with assurances of success, they fought bravely, and slew the monarch and dispersed his host. Thus the Israelites became possessed of the countries of Gilead and Bashan, east of the Jordan, although their views had in the first instance been confined to the region West of that rival.

2. The Israelites now moved their encampment from the banks of the Arnon to the district of country near the northern extremity of the Dead Sea, called the Plains of Moab, as having once been in the territory of the Moabites. That nation was not at all pleased with these transactions. On entering the land of Moab, the Israelites had been cautioned to respect their descent from Lot, and offer them no molestation; and the Moabites on their part, although they regarded the new-comers with no good will, were afraid to oppose them. Now, however, that the Hebrews had acquired such important possessions on that side of the river, a considerable portion of which had once belonged to the descendants of Lot, the wish to wound or crush this new power became very strong, and was only kept inoperative by a salutary dread of the consequences. At length Balak the king of Moab recollected a famous prophet who lived beyond the Euphrates, and fancied that if he could get him to come and lay a curse upon the Israelites, they might afterwards be attacked and destroyed with ease. He therefore sent an honorable embassy, with the promise of high distinctions and costly gifts, to tempt Balaam from his distant home. The covetous prophet was willing enough to earn the wages of iniquity; but being forbidden in a vision to go, he sent back the messengers with that intimation. Balak, however, believing that the objection was only urged with the view of extorting a higher bribe, again sent a more dignified embassy, with the offer of still greater rewards. Knowing already the Divine will, Balaam ought at once to have rejected these offers, and sent the messengers home; but, overcome by his avarice, he invited them to stay, and promised to make another effort to get leave to go with them. Displeased at this conduct, God left him to take his own course, and in the morning he joyfully mounted his ass to accompany the messengers of Balak.

3. On the way, however, he met with an unexpected check. In a narrow road, he was stopped by an angel with a drawn sword. The angel was at first only visible to the ass; and the obstinate refusal of the animal to proceed, so provoked Balaam, that he beat him most severely. On this the beast was gifted for the moment with a human voice, in which he remonstrated against this treatment, and intimated that there was a cause for his obstinacy. That cause became instantly visible to the confounded prophet, who humbled himself before the angel, and offered to return home; but was allowed to proceed, with the strict caution that on his arrival he should speak and act only as directed (Numbers 22). He was received with great honor by the king of Moab, who, intent upon his design, lost no time in taking Balaam, first, to the high places of Baal, then to the top of Pisgah, and the third time to the top of Mount Peor; from which, severally, he could view, first the whole, and then different parts of the Hebrew camp. At all these places altars were set up by Balaam’s direction, and sacrifices offered. On each occasion the king wished the prophet to lay his curse upon the people before him; and Balaam was more than willing to gratify him; but he was constrained not only to abstain from cursing the Israelites, but to bless them altogether, and to utter the regretful but vain wish that his own portion were with them in life and in death. The king was displeased that he had brought a blessing upon those he intended to curse; and to pacify him, as well as to evince that he had acted contrary to his own will, Balaam proceeded to point out what be considered the most likely way to inflict a real injury upon the Israelites. He taught the king that none could injure that people while they remained faithful to their God, and had him for their defender; and that, therefore, the true way to weaken them was to endeavour to seduce them from their allegiance to him—in which seduction he intimated that the women of Moab and of Midian might be employed.

4. This atrocious counsel was eagerly followed by the princes of Moab and Midian. The latter nation were neighbors of the former, and took an active part with them in their underhand plots against the Israelites. A seemingly friendly intercourse was encouraged; and the women of Moab and Midian, the latter especially, succeeded in drawing very many of the Israelites into the worship of their own idols. But this could not last. Idolatry was now a capital crime by the law, having been made an act of treason against the Divine head of the theocratical government. Moses, therefore, directed the judges to enforce the law, in consequence of which the chief of those who had followed Baal-Peor (the great idol of these parts) were “hanged up before the Lord.” A mortal plague was also sent forth among the people to punish them for their idolatry and lust. Twenty-four thousand were destroyed by this pestilence, before its ravages were stayed through the Divine complacency at the zealous act of Phinehas, the son of the high-priest, in slaying with his own hand Zimri, a prince of Simeon, and one of the fair idolatresses of Midian, an, whom he brought to his tent at the very time that the people stood lamenting their sin and its punishment (Numbers 25).

5. Moses was also commissioned to punish the Midianites by warring against them. A thousand men from each tribe were entrusted with this service, which they discharged with exemplary severity; for, being conquerors in battle, they made tremendous havoc among the Midianites, and took a large number of female captives, with an immense spoil in cattle and rich goods and ornaments. The Moabites were less severely punished; but for their conduct on this and other occasions, it was decreed that, for ten generations to come, they, notwithstanding their near relationship, should be counted as strangers to Israel.

6. The tribes of Reuben and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, having large possessions in flocks and herds, and observing that the conquered country on the east of the Jordan was rich in pasturage, applied to Moses that it should be given to them for their portion of the promised inheritance. As they explained that they sought not this for the sake or an earlier provision, or with a view to abandon the general cause, but were willing that their own men should go and assist the other tribes in the conquest of Canaan, their request was granted.

7. Now that the host of Israel was composed of almost entirely new men, and that they were about to enter upon unwonted military actions, it was important that a fresh enumeration of the population should be taken. The comparison between it and the census taken thirty-nine years before in Sinai affords some interesting information. The details are shown in the table.

8. From this comparison it appears that the population which had increased so rapidly in Egypt, had rather decreased in the wilderness. This is clearly a result of the Divine determination to remove by death in forty years the whole of those who were past twenty on quitting Egypt, in consequence of which there could at this time be no old men in the congregation; and as the total population was nearly the same as when the Israelites commenced their journey, there must have been a great increase of the young, seeing there were none above sixty years old except Moses himself, who was soon to die, and Joshua and Caleb, who alone of the past generation were to enter the land of promise. The absence of aged and superannuated members exhibits a strange and singular social condition; and while their removal by death was intended in the first instance as a judgment, it at the same time gave a character of remarkably unencumbered physical efficiency to the generation on which the conquest of Canaan devolved. But although the full number is so nearly the same, it is surprising to notice the very great changes of proportion in the several tribes—such as the increase of 20,500 in Manasseh, 11,900 in Asher, and 10,200 in Benjamin; and the decrease of 37,100 in Simeon, and of 8000 in Ephraim and in Naphtali. On both occasions the number of Judah was the highest; but on the first occasion the lowest (omitting Levi) was Manasseh, and on the second, Simeon. At the first enumeration, the number of Judah more than doubled that of Manasseh, Benjamin, and Levi, and nearly doubled those of Reuben, Gad. Ephraim, and Asher. At the second, Judah more than doubled Simeon, Ephraim, and Levi, and nearly doubled Reuben, Benjamin, and Naphtali. Levi was the lowest in both accounts; much lower, indeed, than appears; for in that tribe all the males above a month old were counted, but in the other tribes only those fit to bear arms, or above twenty years of age. The enumeration being, as before, made only with reference to the adult male population, we must quadruple the amount to find the actual population, including women and children, and this, as before, we must necessarily estimate at about 2,500,000.

9. All this being accomplished, it only remained for Moses to die, and leave to other hands the task of conducting the children of Abraham into their promised inheritance. He therefore prepared for death by giving to the people who had so long been the objects of his solicitude, such directions and counsel as their circumstances appeared to require. After describing the boundaries of the Promised Land, he appointed the mode in which it should be divided among the several tribes, and directed that cities should be appropriated by each of them for the residence of the Levites who had no territorial inheritance, and that six of these cities should be regarded as places in which those who undesignedly or in self-defence slew others, might hold their lives safe from the avenger of blood (Numbers 35, 36).

10. After this Moses repeated the law which had been given on Mount Sinai to the people, a great proportion of whom had been born since it was delivered, or were too young to hold it in remembrance. He also recapitulated the acts of Divine mercy towards them, and judgment upon them, since the departure from Egypt; and enjoined upon them the duty of destroying all the idols of Canaan, and of rooting out the doomed inhabitants. Then he renewed with the people, in the name of Jehovah, the covenant which had been made in Sinai; and delivered the book of the law to the care of the Levites, with directions to lay it up in the side of the ark. These particulars form the contents of the book of Deuteronomy.

11. The official duties of this great and good man being now terminated, he delivered to the assembled people an address, in which he described, in the most vivid language, the perverseness and disobedience of the nation, their punishment, repentance, and pardon. Lastly, he took leave of all the tribes, together and severally, in an eloquent and pathetic blessing, such as that which Jacob delivered to his sons before he died. Then, as he had been commanded, Moses ascended to the top of Pisgah, and took from thence a wide survey of “ the pleasant land,” to whose borders he had led a nation. And there he died unseen; and he was buried secretly, and not by mortal hands; for it was feared that if the Israelites knew the place of his sepulture, they might in the end be tempted to pay divine honors to his remains. At the time of his death Moses was 120 years of age, and we are told that he was exempt from the usual infirmities of age—that “his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.”