Commentaria in Exodum
34. THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WENT FORWARD BY THEIR TROOPS.—In Hebrew, by their journeys, in which, namely, they set out in troops, or by troops.
36. IF AT ANY TIME THE CLOUD REMOVED FROM THE TABERNACLE, THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL WENT FORWARD.—The Hebrew is, if at any time the cloud ascended, and was lifted up above the tabernacle: for then the cloud itself, namely the pillar of cloud, entered on the way first, and went before the Hebrews that they themselves might follow the same, of which more in Numbers chap. 9.
This explanation, however, is by no means approved by Hartmann. The true reason of this discrepancy, he says, is this: In the former case, Exodus 24:18, God was thought to dwell invisibly in the cloud with which he was surrounded, and therefore to be present not face to face and in sight, but only from afar; whereas in the latter case the glory of the Lord, enclosed in a certain place, so filled the tabernacle that all mortals were rightly kept away from it as from a most holy seat.
Mystically, this pillar, the guide of our way, not into Chanaan but into heaven, is faith, grace and the illumination of the Holy Spirit: let us fix our eyes on it, let us follow it diligently by night and by day, that it may enlighten us and lead us into the heavenly and eternal kingdom of God. Zeuxis, the famous painter, being asked why he painted his pictures so slowly and exactly on every side, answered: I paint for eternity. And let us too paint our life diligently and exactly in all things. Paint, nay live, for God, live for heaven, LIVE FOR ETERNITY.
O stupor, O madness, O folly of the sons of Adam! You were made for the possession of eternal and infinite goods: why do you cast yourselves with so great desire upon fleeting and most vain trifles? God has written you down heirs of heaven, possessors of eternity: why do you so greedily seek the earth, things temporal and perishable? Be wise, be wise, LIVE FOR ETERNITY.
You, O preachers of the word of God, sowers, I say, of eternity, cry out, lift up your voice like a trumpet, call all men to eternity, sound forth with Christ: Do penance, eternity is at hand, and life everlasting: why do you love vanity? LIVE FOR ETERNITY.
OF GOD THE SAVIOUR FROM THE DEEDS AND AN EPITOME OF EXODUS.
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem: praise thy God, O Sion.
Who shall declare the powers of the Lord: who shall make all his praises to be heard?
When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a barbarous people.
Judea was made his sanctuary: Israel his dominion.
And Israel went into Egypt: and Jacob was a sojourner in the land of Cham.
And God increased his people exceedingly: and strengthened them over their enemies.
He turned their heart, so that they hated his people: and dealt deceitfully with his servants.
He sent Moses his servant: Aaron the man whom he had chosen.
He gave them power to shew his signs, and his wonders in the land of Cham.
He turned their waters into blood: and destroyed their fish.
Their land brought forth frogs, even in the privy chambers of their kings.
…in all their coasts.
He gave them hail for rain: a burning fire in their land.
And he smote their vineyards and their fig trees: and he broke in pieces the trees of their coasts.
He spoke, and the locust came: and the bruchus, of which there was no number.
And it devoured all the grass in their land: and consumed all the fruit of their ground.
He sent darkness, and made it obscure: he struck them with fire and with spectres in the dreadful night.
He smote all the firstborn in their land: the firstfruits of all their labour.
And he brought forth the Hebrews with silver and gold: with which they spoiled Egypt.
The people of God went out with joy: and his chosen with gladness.
Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them lay upon them.
The Lord spread a cloud for their protection: and a fire to give them light by night.
Pharao heard that they were shut in by the Red Sea, and said: I will pursue, and my hand shall kill them.
He went in after them into the sea with his chariots and horsemen: and the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them.
But the children of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst thereof, as in a desert.
Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified: the horse and the rider he hath thrown into the sea.
Blessed art thou, Israel, who is like to thee? O people, saved by the Lord.
The rider of the heaven is thy helper: he is the shield of thy help and the sword of thy glory.
The Lord is as a man of war: Almighty is his name.
Pharao’s chariots and his army he hath cast into the sea: his chosen captains are drowned in the Red Sea.
The depths have covered them: they are sunk to the bottom like a stone.
At the blast of thy anger, O Lord, the waters were gathered together; the flowing water stood on both sides like walls: till thy people passed, whom thou hast possessed.
Thy wind blew, and the sea covered the Egyptians: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.
Who is like to thee among the strong, O Lord? who is like to thee? magnificent in holiness, terrible and praiseworthy, doing wonders.
Mary the prophetess led the choir of women, and with a timbrel sang before them: Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified.
She was a prelude of the Blessed Mary, the Mother of God, the mother of Jesus, who delivered us from hell: whom therefore all generations shall call blessed.
The Hebrews asked for flesh, and the quail came: God gave them manna, and filled them with the bread of heaven.
Man ate the bread of angels: he sent them provisions in abundance.
In Raphidim he brought forth water out of the rock: and gave them drink as out of the great deep.
Amalec came, fighting against Israel: while Moses prayed, On Sinai God descended in fire, smoke, storms and trumpet: with the voice of a trumpet he promulgated the Decalogue.
He gave Moses precepts, judgments and ceremonies: by which he ratified a covenant with the Hebrews.
He commanded the ark of the covenant to be made, the cherubim and the propitiatory: the table of the loaves of proposition and the golden candlestick.
The tabernacle, the curtains, the bars, the court: and in it the altar of holocausts, with the laver of brass.
The altar also of incense, with the incense: to Aaron he gave the priesthood of the nation.
He girded him with a girdle: and clothed him with a robe of glory.
With breeches, tunic, ephod and rational he clothed him: he set in it twelve precious stones, as the emblems and great deeds of the twelve tribes of Israel.
He engraved on him Urim and Thummim: that the truth of doctrine and the perfection of life might be laid up in the breast of the priest.
On the robe of the ephod was the whole world: he girded him with many golden bells round about.
To give a sound as he walked, and to make the noise heard in the temple: for a remembrance to the children of his people.
He set a crown of gold upon his mitre: expressed with the sign of holiness and the glory of honour: Holy to the Lord.
All these things were wrought by Beseleel and Ooliab, whom the Lord filled with the spirit of wisdom, to make them.
While Moses tarried on Sinai, the Hebrews made a golden calf: and adored the graven thing.
And they changed their glory into the likeness of a calf that eateth grass.
They forgot God, who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt: wondrous works in the land of Cham, terrible things in the Red Sea.
And he said that he would destroy them: had not Moses his chosen stood in the breach in his sight.
Saying: Forgive them this offence: or strike me out of the book that thou hast written.
Moses stood upon the rock: he saw the back parts and the glory of the Lord.
The Lord breathed on him horns of light: and gave him two tables inscribed with the Decalogue.
Moses made the tabernacle with its vessels: and set it up as a temple for the Lord.
Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise ye him in the high places.
Praise him with timbrel and choir: praise him with strings and organs.
Praise him on high-sounding cymbals: let every spirit praise the Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost: as it was, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.