Commentaria in Numeros
Verse 11. THE INHERITANCE SHALL BE GIVEN TO THEM THAT ARE NEXT AKIN TO HIM,—males, namely. For the law speaks of the succession which is made on the father’s side. For if anyone had succeeded his mother and maternal grandfather in the inheritance, and died without children, the kinsmen of the mother succeeded him, not of the father, because these goods belonged to the mother’s family, or the maternal grandfather’s (and not the father’s); whence they were to remain in it, nor could they be transferred to another family, namely the father’s, as Abulensis teaches, Question XXXIII, and this lest there should be a mixing and confusion of families and tribes. For to this end God commanded that inheritances should not be transferred from one family or tribe to another, that from the inheritance it might be certainly established to what family or tribe each one belonged.
Verse 12. THE LORD SAID ALSO TO MOSES: GO UP INTO THIS MOUNTAIN ABARIM,—both that from it thou mayest see the promised land, and that thou mayest die on it: this is plain from what follows. This mountain Abarim, at least according to its different parts and ridges, has various names. For it is called Phasga, Phogor, the high places of Baal, Nebo; for on Nebo Moses is said to have died, Deuteronomy last chapter, verse 1. God willed that Moses should die on a mountain, not in the camp, lest the Hebrews, prone to idols, should worship his body as a divinity.
AND VIEW FROM THENCE THE LAND WHICH I WILL GIVE TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL,—that thou mayest at least enjoy some pleasure in the sight of the land which thou didst so greatly beg and desire to enter, as is plain from Deuteronomy iii, 24 and 25. For from that place it is plain that Moses prayed most ardently to God for entrance into the promised land; but God refusing it, and imposing silence on him, he asked that a successor be designated for him, as is plain from this chapter, verse 16.
Verses 16 and 17. MAY THE LORD, THE GOD OF THE SPIRITS, (as if to say: Thou who art the God of spirits, that is, who alone createst spirits and souls (hence the Apostle, Hebrews xii, 9, calls God the Father of spirits, but parents fathers of the flesh), and who knowest the spirits and hearts of all men, and consequently knowest best who is most fit for so great a charge, so as to succeed me in the government of such and so great a people, provide and designate) A MAN THAT MAY BE OVER THIS MULTITUDE, AND MAY GO OUT AND IN BEFORE THEM,—that is, may be their leader and guide in every work, both of war and of peace. For this is what this metaphor means in Hebrew, taken from shepherds leading out the flock; for these go out and in before it, and so feed and rule it.
18. TAKE JOSUE THE SON OF NUN, A MAN IN WHOM IS THE SPIRIT OF GOD.—“The spirit of God,” that is, prudence, piety, fortitude and the other virtues necessary to such a prince.
AND PUT THY HAND UPON HIM,—that by this ceremony Josue may be appointed thy successor and leader of the people, and consequently be endowed by me with greater spirit and grace suited to that office, as is said in Deuteronomy last chapter, verse 9. Of this ceremony I have spoken on 1 Timothy.
20. AND PART OF THY GLORY,—as if to say: Communicate, O Moses, to Josue thy horns, that is the splendour and rays of thy countenance, as the sun does to the moon, says Rabbi Solomon. Whence the Chaldee renders: And he shall give of thy splendour upon him.
Hence the Hebrews also commonly compare Moses to the sun, Josue to the moon, which receives light from the sun; but nowhere do Scripture or the ancients give these rays to Josue, nor could Moses breathe them upon Josue. So Abulensis, who refutes the same at greater length. Oleaster translates otherwise, namely: “Give to Josue a part of thy abasement, or humility;” for the root tada, whence hoda, signifies to cast down, to abase, as if to say: Teach Josue thy humility and meekness, that it may render him acceptable to the people, as it rendered thee.
This sense is not incongruous; yet the former is the more genuine, and is that of the Septuagint, the Chaldee and others generally.
Why the sons of Moses did not succeed him in the leadership of the people, the author of On the Wonders of Holy Scripture, book I, chapter xxv, among the works of St. Augustine, tome III, gives this reason, that “they,” he says, “were begotten of a Gentile mother (Sephora the Madianitess) on account of the pilgrimage (the exile of Moses).” Josue therefore succeeded him, who was a Hebrew on both his mother’s and his father’s side. Add: this leadership of the people out of Egypt was unique and extraordinary, not hereditary; by the election of God, therefore, it was conferred on Moses and his minister Josue. Finally, the posterity of Moses were degenerate, Judges xviii, 30.
21. FOR THIS (for Josue) IF ANYTHING BE TO BE DONE, ELEAZAR THE PRIEST SHALL CONSULT THE LORD.—In the Hebrew: Eleazar shall inquire for him, in the judgment of Urim before the Lord; as if to say: Eleazar the high priest, clad in the ephod and the rational, on which Urim is inscribed, and so being in pontificals and discharging as it were the pontifical office, shall inquire of the Lord concerning the doubtful matters that occur to Josue, and so be taught and instructed by Him in all things. Of this oracle of Urim see what was said on Exodus xxviii, 30. AT HIS WORD HE SHALL GO OUT, AND GO IN, HE HIMSELF,
Others by glory understand the meekness and humility of Moses, which rendered him wonderfully lovable and praiseworthy to the people; for he, though accustomed to speak with God as a friend with a friend, was made nothing the prouder, but showed himself devout and gentle toward all. But neither could Moses breathe this his meekness upon Josue.
I say then: Give to Josue a part of glory, that is, of thy honour and authority with the people, that thou mayest reverently address him, as the future prince of the people, AND ALL THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL.—“His,” namely Josue’s, says Abulensis. “For here,” he says, “Josue is preferred, because he was the secular prince, directly to the high priest, so that Eleazar was bound to obey Josue in all that he commanded, as the rest of the people; and so it was in the time of Moses, because he was not a priest: Aaron, however, because he was high priest, obeyed him, because he was prince of the people, and so it was in the Old Testament, that the high priests were under the kings: but now it is the contrary, because all secular power obeys the Supreme Pontiff, who is among all ecclesiastics as the high priest among all the priests and Levites of the Hebrews;” thus far Abulensis.
Verse 20.
…you call him, and set him before the whole people and commend him as such, that the people may accept him in your stead as leader, and revere him, as one whom they shall have seen honoured by you and endowed with authority; whence
But that “his” does not refer to Josue but to Eleazar is clear from the Hebrew. The sense, therefore, is: “at his word,” that is, according to the oracle of him, namely of Eleazar, who went before and directed with the Urim, “he shall go out and in,” that is, shall do whatever is to be done, both “he,” namely Josue, and “all the children of Israel.” There follows: “That all the congregation of the children of Israel may hear him.” Cajetan adds that Moses is here commanded to share the insignia of his magistracy and principate with Josue, for example to give him his rod, which was as it were a sceptre, and therefore an insignia of principate; to assign to him part of his servants; to give him his signet ring, his cloak, etc. For with these insignia one is wont to be adorned, and as it were
Although God had chosen Moses by special privilege as Prophet, lawgiver and consecrator of priests, so that in Moses were both powers, the civil and the sacred or priestly, the latter by eminence and superintendence: for Moses was high priest and pontiff, but extraordinary; for he was more worthy than Aaron, nay he was to direct Aaron: whence it is said in Psalm xcviii: “Moses and Aaron among his priests;” yet afterwards God divided these powers; so that Eleazar succeeded Moses in the priesthood, Josue in the principate, and then He directed Josue and the civil princes through the pontiffs, and commanded them to stand by the oracle and definition of the pontiffs, that the ecclesiastical power of the new law might be signified, which presides over the civil, and not seldom ought to direct it: and for this cause King Saul, because he was disobedient to Samuel the Levite and Prophet, fell alike from kingdom and life.