Commentaria in Numeros
Allegorically, these vessels and the Cherubim are the holy angels, who with pious and upright men strive against the demons and sins, and animate and help them. The trumpets are the discourses and exhortations of divine preachers. Phinees is Christ, who is the leader and director of this war. So Cyril, book IV On Adoration.
Again, the ark containing the manna, that is Christ, is the Blessed Virgin, who bestows victory over men and demons. Theophanes, Anastasius and Cedrenus relate, and from them Baronius, in the year of Christ 623, that the Emperor Heraclius overcame Chosroes king of the Persians by the help of the Blessed Virgin, whereby it came about that hail of wonderful size crushed the Persians.
In the year of the Lord 886, the Emperor Basil, invoking the Blessed Virgin, conquered in war the Prince of the Saracens, who had mocked Christ and His mother, as Curopalates relates, and from him Baronius.
John Zemisca, Emperor of the Greeks, overcame the Bulgarians, Russians, etc., by the help of the Blessed Virgin, who sent the martyr St. Theodore, who was seen sitting on a white horse in the first line fighting for the Romans, and breaking the forces of the enemy; whence Zemisca built a church in his honour.
Pelagius, prince of the Asturians, by the help of the Blessed Virgin overcame the Goths with a few men; for the enemy’s weapons were turned back upon themselves by divine power, so that Alebama, their leader, was slain with twenty thousand. Thence the Spaniards began to recover the kingdom occupied by the Goths. There still exists the cave in which Pelagius lay hid with his men, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and called St. Mary of Covadonga: so Tudensis, Roderic, and from them Baronius, in the year of Christ 718.
Narses the Great, a client and worshipper of the Blessed Virgin, under the Emperor Justinian, by the help of the Virgin obtained wonderful and frequent victories over Totila and the Goths; for the Blessed Virgin was wont to appear to him and to command when the battle was to be joined: wherefore he did not go down into the line unless he had learned from her the opportune time, as Procopius, Evagrius relate, and from them Baronius, in the year of Christ 568.
Stephen, king of the Hungarians, about to go against the enemy, suppliantly implored the help of the Blessed Virgin, saying: “If it please thee, O Lady of the world, that part of thy inheritance be laid waste by the enemy, and the new plantation of Christianity be scattered, suffer it not, I beseech thee, to be imputed to my diffidence, but rather to the disposition of thy will. If the fault of the shepherd has committed anything, let him himself pay for it: the innocent sheep, I beseech thee, suffer not to be afflicted.” As Antonius Bonfinius relates, book I On Hungarian Affairs, decade 9.
Famous is the victory of John of Austria, which he won over the Turks by the help of the Blessed Virgin: whence the faithful every year recall its memory, and call it the feast of St. Mary of Victory, which they celebrate at the beginning of October. It happened in the year of the Lord 1571, in the Corinthian Gulf.
7. AND WHEN THEY HAD FOUGHT AGAINST THE MADIANITES, AND CONQUERED, THEY SLEW ALL THE MALES,—those, namely, who were in Madian: for that some, hearing the rumour of the war at hand, fled from Madian to neighbouring places is plain from this, that they restored the nation of Madian, which was afterwards hostile to the Jews, especially in the time of Gedeon. So Abulensis.
8. AND THEIR KINGS, EVI, AND RECEM, AND SUR, AND HUR, AND REBE,—these are the five kings, that is, princes of Madian, of whom Sur was the father of the Madianitess whom Phinees slew, chapter xxv, verse 15.
BALAAM ALSO THE SON OF BEOR THEY KILLED WITH THE SWORD.—Hence it is plain that Balaam passed from Balac, king of Moab, to Madian, and there contrived similar things against the Hebrews as he had done in Moab: and therefore he was justly slain by the Hebrews in Madian with the others.
13. AND MOSES AND ELEAZAR WENT OUT,—to congratulate the victors, returning from Madian.
16. AND MADE YOU TRANSGRESS AGAINST THE LORD, BY THE SIN OF PHOGOR.—“Phogor” is Beelphegor, as I said in chapter xxv, verse 3.
17. THEREFORE KILL ALL THAT ARE OF THE MALE SEX, EVEN AMONG THE CHILDREN,—This was peculiar to that war, that the children by the command of God (who is lord of the death and life of all) and of Moses were slain. This was done, first, on account of the enormity and detestableness of the crime committed by the Madianites against the Hebrews; secondly, lest the children, when they had grown up, should avenge the slaughter of their parents.
Note: By a human judge and power innocent children cannot be killed for the sin of their parents; yet they can be killed by the right and power of God, both because He, transcending all things, has consequently dominion over the life of all; and because children, and all men, on account of original sin, are guilty of death: God can therefore inflict it on them, either soon or later, in this way or in another, at pleasure. So Abulensis on Deuteronomy xxi, Question V.
17 and 18. AND PUT TO DEATH THE WOMEN THAT HAVE KNOWN MEN BY LYING WITH THEM; BUT THE GIRLS AND ALL THE WOMEN THAT ARE VIRGINS KEEP FOR YOURSELVES.—Note: The Madianite women who had known men are commanded to be slain, because by such the Hebrews had been deceived into fornicating with them, and again could be deceived by them. So Theodore, Question XLIX. But the virgins were free from this crime: whence the Hebrews spared them, either to sell them, or to use them as handmaids.
Now the virgins could be distinguished from the corrupted: first, by the inspection of matrons, especially midwives; which inspection is received also in the new law, as is plain from the chapter Fraternitatis, in the Extravagantes De frigidis. Secondly, by the revelation of God, indicating and designating to Moses the corrupted. Abulensis adds three other ways: namely, by the jet stone: for he who drinks it, if she be not a virgin, is compelled to pass water. Secondly, from inspection of the urine: for this in virgins is clear and bright, in the corrupted turbid. Thirdly, by inspection of the horoscope and constellations of heaven. But this third way, though Abulensis in this place does not reject it, yet elsewhere he refutes it; for it is superstitious: the first two ways are obscure and uncertain. Concerning jet, however, Anselmus Boetius, physician and lapidary of the Emperor Rudolph II, affirms the same, book II On Gems, chapter clxv: “It betrays virginity,” he says, “not only by fumigation, but by drinking. For if a virgin drink the powder, she will not pass water: if she be corrupted, she will not be able to retain her water, by the testimony of many.” The same is asserted by Camillus Leonardus of Pesaro, physician, in his treatise On Stones, under Jet.
19. HE THAT HATH KILLED A MAN, OR TOUCHED ONE THAT IS SLAIN, SHALL BE PURIFIED THE THIRD AND THE SEVENTH DAY:—according to the law concerning him who touches a corpse, laid down in Numbers
20. AND OF ALL THE SPOIL, WHETHER IT BE GARMENT, OR VESSEL, etc., YOU SHALL BE PURIFIED,—namely by fire, if that can be done, that is, if the vessel or garment can bear fire: but if not, it shall be purified by the waters of lustration, made of the ashes of the red heifer, of which chapter xix, 2 and 12, and this on the third and seventh day, as is explained in the following verses.
Note: This furniture of the Madianites had to be purified, because it was legally unclean from the touch of the dead, according to the law of Numbers xix, 14, and Leviticus xi, 32, namely because some of these vessels and things were in the tents of the dying; many of them also had touched the dying themselves, as the garments of the dead: but if in so great a bulk of spoil there were anything to which neither of these applied, which therefore would not be unclean, yet this, on account of doubt, had to be purified; for of all it was presumed that they were unclean, because of the corpses of so many slain scattered everywhere. So Abulensis.
21. THIS IS THE ORDINANCE OF THE LAW, WHICH THE LORD COMMANDED MOSES.—This precept we have not seen written hitherto. God therefore delivered it to Moses by word of mouth, here or elsewhere. For God was wont to declare and commend to Moses all His commands, that he might carry them. So Abulensis.
23. AND EVERY THING THAT MAY ABIDE THE FIRE, SHALL BE PURIFIED BY FIRE.—The Hebrew, Chaldee and Septuagint add, and it shall be purified with the water of lustration, as though besides fire this vessel had to be sprinkled and purified with the water made of the ashes of the red heifer.