Commentaria in Exodum
19. AND MOSES TOOK THE BONES OF JOSEPH WITH HIM.—The Scholastic History relates that the Nile, overflowing in that year in which the Hebrews went out, covered the coffin of Joseph; since Moses therefore could not find it, he wrote the tetragrammaton name of God on a plate of gold; this floated at once to Joseph’s coffin and revealed it. Others relate that this coffin was shown by a sheep, a sheep, I say, which accompanied this coffin also through the desert, and they think this is signified in Psalm 79, 2: “Thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep.” But these are fables of the Talmudists.
Note: It is likely that Moses carried out with him the bones of the other Patriarchs also, namely of the brothers of Joseph. For from Acts 7, 16, it is plain that they were all translated into Palestine and buried in Sichem; and it does not appear at what other time than this they could have been translated. Here, however, mention is made only of the bones of Joseph; because Joseph had adjured the Hebrews to do so, and had himself foretold to them this going out. He wished the Hebrews to carry out his bones, because the care of a pious sepulchre among his own people touched him, and that posterity, at the sight of these bones, mindful of the prophecy, might undertake the journey into the promised land with sure faith and hope. See what was said on Genesis 47,
20. AND THEY SET FORWARD FROM SOCOTH, AND ENCAMPED IN ETHAM.—The Hebrews pitched their second camp in Etham, as they had pitched the first in Socoth. Etham was situated in the farthest wilderness; near the Red Sea, and steep with mountains: whence perhaps it took its name. For Etham in Hebrew signifies strong, and thence rugged and precipitous.
Note here four miracles given to the Hebrews and continued through 40 years. The first was that in so great a crowd of them no one was sick or weak, so as to wish or need to remain in Egypt, but all were sound and strong to accomplish the journey briskly and steadily; for God supplied to all of them strength and alacrity, that they might not bear the labour of the journey heavily and with vexation, and this is what is said in Psalm 104: “And there was not among their tribes one that was feeble,” in Hebrew chosel, that is, tottering, staggering, as if to say: Among them there was no one sick, nay not even weak or feeble, but all were brisk and unencumbered. The second, that their shoes and garments grew with their children, and for forty years were not worn out nor consumed, as is said in Deuteronomy 8, 4, and chap. 29, verse 5. The third was the manna. The fourth was the pillar of fire and cloud, of which now follows.
21. AND THE LORD WENT BEFORE THEM TO SHEW THE WAY, BY DAY IN A PILLAR OF A CLOUD.—“He went before them,” not in the very pitching of the camp: for there He stood still; but in the setting out: for He led them out of Egypt, and thereafter always, as they set out, led and preceded them. Whence it follows that this pillar, guide of the journey, appeared first not in Etham, but in Ramesses; for from thence the Hebrews first went out. St. Jerome seems to say the contrary, namely that this pillar was first seen in Etham; but he means that Holy Scripture first makes mention of this pillar in Etham: so also in Etham alone it makes mention of the bones of Joseph being carried off, although it is plain that they were carried out from Ramesses.
Again, this pillar preceded the camp of the Hebrews, not by the circular motion of the heavens: for so it would have been whirled in a circle: nor by the blowing of the winds; but being led by an angel, who was as it were the mover and charioteer of the pillar, as is plain from chap. 14, verse 19. The angel, then, impelled it, that it might go before the first battle line of the tribe of Juda setting out, when the camp was to be changed and moved; but when it was to be pitched and fixed, the angel held it as if fixed over the camp, namely over the first line of the tribe of Juda, as some hold, or rather over the middle of the camp, as others hold; but after the tabernacle was made, he made it rest upon that, as is plain from the last chapter.
Note nine properties of this pillar. First, this pillar went before the Hebrews for 40 years, and led them out of Egypt into Chanaan. Secondly, this pillar showed the way, that they might know which way they must go through pathless and trackless deserts. Thirdly, this pillar was now moving, now at rest: when it moved, the camp of the Hebrews moved; when it rested and brooded over the tabernacle, the camp also rested. Fourthly, this pillar was huge, long, broad and thick like a great tower, that it might be seen from so great a camp from any place, namely by three million men, who easily occupied the space of ten Italian miles, says Pererius. Fifthly, the mover and stayer of the pillar was an angel. Sixthly, by day it appeared as a pillar of cloud, by night as a pillar of fire to illuminate the camp; and that alternately and continually every day and night. Seventhly, in this pillar God often appeared and spoke to Moses and the Hebrews, and showed His glory and magnificence. Eighthly, this pillar of cloud protected the whole camp from the heat of the sun, as I shall say below. Ninthly, this cloud separated the Hebrews from the Egyptians, darkening the latter, illuminating the former, and the Lord looking through it slew the army of the Egyptians, chap. 14, verse 24.
Hence Wisdom 10, verse 17, it is said of this pillar, guide of the way: “And she conducted them through a wonderful way, and was to them for a covert by day, and for the light of stars by night.”
Allegorically, all these things are easily adapted to Christ and the Holy Spirit; for Christ is a pillar on account of rectitude and stability, and because He Himself upholds the Church and our infirmities, and makes the Church itself to be the pillar and ground of the truth, and the Saints themselves to be pillars. Hence Apocalypse 3, 12, it is said: “He that shall overcome, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.” Again, Christ is a pillar on account of the cross. “For the cross of Christ,” says St. Jerome on Psalm 95, “is the pillar of the human race.”
Secondly, Christ is a cloud as man; He is fire as God: for, as St. Ambrose says on Psalm 118, the cloud is the mist of our body, but in Christ light, that is, holy by the heavenly operation of the Holy Spirit, and burdened with no filth, Isaias 19, 1. The Sun therefore, that it might be endured, came in a cloud, that is, God, to dwell among men, came in the flesh, in which He veiled and clothed His Godhead. Thirdly, Christ after the manner of this pillar overshadows His faithful, protects them, and leads them to the land of the living which He promised to His elect; for He Himself is our guide, who says of Himself: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”
But why is this pillar fire by night and cloud by day? St. Gregory answers, homily 21 on the Gospels, that it might be signified that Christ in the day, that is, in the life of the just, is a cloud, that is, gentle; but in the night, that is, the life of the sinner, appears as fiery, that is, terrible. Again, Christ in the day, that is, in this life, shows Himself mild as a cloud; but in the night, that is, in death, and the other life, namely in judgment and hell, will show Himself like a fearful fire. “In lightning,” says St. Gregory, “is the terror of fear, but in snow the gentleness of whiteness: hence at the resurrection of Christ the angel appeared such that by his appearance he both terrified the reprobate and soothed the pious. Whence the pillar of fire by night, and the pillar of cloud by day, went before the Hebrews as they walked through the deserts; for in fire is terror, in cloud the mild gentleness of the sight; and the day is taken as the life of the just, and the night as the life of the sinner: in the day, therefore, the pillar of cloud was shown, and in the night the pillar of fire, because God, coming in judgment, will by the meekness of gentleness softly soothe the just, but by the strictness of justice terrify sinners.”