them with stones. And the glory of Jehovah appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel. And Jehovah said unto Moses, "How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have wrought among them? I will smite them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and will make of thee a nation greater and mightier than they." And Moses said unto Jehovah, "Then the Egyptians will hear it; for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from among them; and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that thou, Jehovah, art in the midst of this people; for thou, Jehovah, art seen face to face, and thy cloud standeth over them, and thou goest before them, in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou shalt kill this people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak, saying, 'Because Jehovah was not able to bring this people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness.' And now, I pray thee, let the power of the Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, ‘Jehovah is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation.' Pardon, I pray thee, the iniquity of this people according unto the greatness of thy lovingkindness, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now." And Jehovah said, "I have pardoned according to thy word: but in very deed, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah; because all those men that have seen my glory, and my signs, which I wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have tempted me these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised me see it: but my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the valley: tomorrow turn ye, and get you into the wilderness by the way to the Red Sea." And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, "How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, that murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, 'As I live,' saith Jehovah, surely as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, that have murmured against me, surely ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, that ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be wanderers in the wilderness forty years, until your dead bodies be consumed in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye spied out the land, even forty days, for every day a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my alienation. I, Jehovah, have spoken, surely this will I do unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me in this wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die."" And the men, whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up an evil report against the land, even those men that did bring up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Jehovah. But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, remained alive of those men that went to spy out the land. And Moses told these words unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly. And they rose up early in the morning, and gat them up to the top of the mountain, saying, "Lo, we are here, and will go up unto the place which Jehovah hath promised: for we have sinned." And Moses said, "Wherefore now do ye transgress the commandment of Jehovah, seeing it shall not prosper? Go not up, for Jehovah is not among you; that ye be not smitten down before your enemies. For there the Amalekite and the Canaanite are before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned back from following Jehovah, therefore Jehovah will not be with you." But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. Then the Amalekite came down, and the Canaanite who dwelt in that mountain, and smote them and beat them down, even unto Hormah.1 [The greater part of the forty years' stay in the wilderness seems to have been spent by the Israelites in wandering back and forth in the region of Edom. In the last years they came into open conflict with the Amorites, the Moabites, and the Midianites. These tribes they 1. In the desert of Paran west of the Wilderness of Zin. (See map.) found it necessary to conquer before they could again XXXVI THE SMITING OF THE ROCK (Numbers xx: 1-13) And the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month:1 and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there. And there was no water for the congregation: and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And the people strove with Moses, and spake, saying, "Would that we had died when our brethren died before Jehovah! And why have ye brought the assembly of Jehovah into this wilderness, that we should die there, we and our beasts? And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink." And Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly unto the door of the tent of meeting, and fell upon their faces: and the glory of Jehovah appeared unto them. And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, "Take the rod, and assemble the congregation, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, that it give forth its water; and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock; 1. This was in the thirty-eighth year of the wandering. so thou shalt give the congregation and their cattle drink." And Moses took the rod from before Jehovah, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said unto them, "Hear now, ye rebels; shall we bring you forth water out of this rock?” And Moses lifted up his hand, and smote the rock with his rod twice and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their cattle. And Jehovah said unto Moses and Aaron, "Because ye believed not in me, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. These are the waters of Meribah;1 because the children of Israel strove with Jehovah, and he was sanctified in them." XXXVII THE DEATH OF MOSES (Numbers xxvii: 12-23; Deuteronomy xxxii: 48–52; xxxiv: 1–12) And Jehovah said unto Moses, "Get thee up into this mountain of Abarim, and behold the land which I have given unto the children of Israel. And when thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother was gathered;2 because ye rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify me at the waters before their eyes." (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.) And Moses spake unto Jehovah, saying, "Let Jehovah, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over 1. "Waters of strife." 2. Aaron died in the thirty-eighth year of the wandering. |