Commentaria in Numeros
Chapter the Thirty-second
The Rubenites and Gadites, abounding in cattle, ask that the land of Galaad be given them for their lot, as being good pasture; Moses rebukes them, but, their sincere mind being known, acquiesces, and gives them Galaad; but on this condition, that they themselves, armed, go before the other tribes and lead them into Chanaan.
1. And the children of Ruben and Gad had many cattle, and their substance in beasts of burden was infinite. And when they saw Jazer and Galaad fit for feeding cattle, 2. they came to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the princes of the multitude, and said: 3. Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nemra, Hesebon, and Eleale, and Saban, and Nebo, and Beon, 4. the land which the Lord hath struck before the children of Israel, is a very fertile country for pasture of cattle: and we thy servants have very much cattle; 5. and we beseech thee, if we have found favour in thy sight, that thou give it to us thy servants in possession, and make us not pass over the Jordan. 6. Moses answered them: What, shall your brethren go to fight, and shall you sit here? 7. Why do you subvert the minds of the children of Israel, that they dare not pass over into the place which the Lord will give them? 8. Did not your fathers do thus, when I sent from Cadesbarne to view the land? 9. And when they were come as far as the Valley of the Cluster, having viewed all the country, they subverted the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not enter into the borders which the Lord gave them. 10. And he being angry swore, saying: 11. If these men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I promised with an oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and they would not follow me, 12. except Caleb the son of Jephone the Cenezite, and Josue the son of Nun: these have fulfilled my will. 13. And the Lord being angry against Israel, made them go about through the desert forty years, till the whole generation was consumed which had done evil in his sight. 14. And behold, said he, you are risen up in the place of your fathers, the increase and offspring of sinful men, to increase the fury of the Lord against Israel. 15. And if you will not follow him, he will leave the people in the wilderness, and you will be the cause of the death of all. 16. But they coming near, said: We will make sheepfolds, and stables for our cattle, and cities for our children; 17. but we ourselves will go armed and girded to battle before the children of Israel, till we bring them in unto their places. Our little ones and all that we have shall be in walled cities, because of the ambushes of the inhabitants. 18. We will not return into our houses, till the children of Israel possess their inheritance: 19. nor will we seek any thing beyond the Jordan, because we have already our possession on the east side thereof. 20. And Moses said to them: If you do what you promise, go ready armed before the Lord to the fight; 21. and let every fighting man pass over the Jordan armed, till the Lord overthrow his enemies, 22. and the land be subdued before him: then shall you be blameless before the Lord and before Israel, and you shall obtain the countries which you desire before the Lord. 23. But if you do not what you say, there is no doubt but you sin against God: and know ye that your sin shall overtake you. 24. Build therefore cities for your children, and folds and stables for your sheep and beasts: and accomplish what you have promised. 25. And the children of Gad and Ruben said to Moses: We are thy servants, we will do what our lord commandeth. 26. We will leave our children and wives and flocks and cattle in the cities of Galaad; 27. and we thy servants will all go ready armed to the war, as thou, my lord, speakest. 28. Moses therefore commanded Eleazar the priest, and Josue the son of Nun, and the princes of the families through the tribes of Israel, and said to them: 29. If the children of Gad and the children of Ruben pass over the Jordan with you, all armed for war before the Lord, and the land be subdued to you, give them Galaad for a possession. 30. But if they will not pass armed with you into the land of Chanaan, let them receive places to dwell in among you. 31. And the children of Gad and the children of Ruben answered: As the Lord hath spoken to his servants, so will we do; 32. we will go armed before the Lord into the land of Chanaan, and we confess that we have already received our possession beyond the Jordan. 33. So Moses gave to the children of Gad and Ruben, and to the half tribe of Manasses the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sehon king of the Amorrhites, and the kingdom of Og king of Basan, and their land with the cities thereof round about. 34. The children of Gad therefore built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer, 35. and Etroth, Sophan, and Jazer, and Jegbaa, 36. and Bethnemra, and Betharan, fenced cities, and folds for their cattle. 37. And the children of Ruben built Hesebon, and Eleale, and Cariathaim, 38. and Nabo, and Baalmeon, their names being changed, and Sabama: giving names to the cities which they had built. 39. And the sons of Machir the son of Manasses went into Galaad, and wasted it, having slain the Amorrhite that dwelt in it. 40. Moses therefore gave the land of Galaad to Machir the son of Manasses, and he dwelt in it. 41. And Jair the son of Manasses went and took the villages thereof, which he called Havoth Jair, that is, the towns of Jair. 42. Nobe also went and took Chanath with the villages thereof; and called it by his own name Nobe.
1 and 2. AND THE CHILDREN OF RUBEN AND GAD HAD MANY CATTLE, etc., AND WHEN THEY SAW JAZER AND GALAAD, FIT FOR FEEDING CATTLE, THEY CAME TO MOSES,—to ask that these be given them for a lot and inheritance. These lands of Jazer and Galaad were on this side of the Jordan, in the land which the Hebrews had taken from Sehon and Og, kings of the Amorrhites, chapter xxi, verse 24. The Rubenites and Gadites, abounding in cattle, ask for their land, as being good pasture, and Moses gave it to them, with the half tribe of Manasses, to possess.
Tropologically, St. Gregory, Morals XXVII, chapter x: “Those whom many entanglements of the world occupy,” he says, “are unwilling to pass the Jordan: because they do not seek the dwelling of the heavenly country.” See in
4. WE HAVE VERY MUCH CATTLE (that is, flocks).
(that they, from fear of the Chanaanites and of the wars to be entered upon with them, were unwilling to go over the Jordan into Chanaan): WHY DO YOU SUBVERT THE MINDS OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, THAT THEY DARE NOT PASS OVER, etc.? DID NOT YOUR FATHERS DO THUS? etc. THEY SUBVERTED (that is, turned away, broke, dissolved (for the Hebrew heni signifies to break, to turn away, to dissolve, to make void)) THE HEART OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL,—who were ready to enter the promised land; but having heard the spies, were struck with fear, and, not daring to go forward, wished to go back into Egypt; as if to say: See that you do not the same.
9. THAT THEY SHOULD NOT ENTER INTO THE BORDERS WHICH THE LORD GAVE THEM.—“That” signifies, not the intention, but the consequence and issue of the matter: for from the persuasion of the spies arose the murmuring of the people, from
11. IF THESE MEN THAT CAME UP OUT OF EGYPT, FROM TWENTY YEARS OLD AND UPWARD, SHALL SEE THE LAND, etc.—“From twenty years” refers, not to those who came up out of Egypt, but to “these men.” For those who at the time of the going out of Egypt had not yet reached the twentieth year, but at the time of the murmuring had reached it, are included in this sentence and punished, as I said in chapter xiv, verse 29.
THEY WOULD NOT FOLLOW ME.—In Hebrew, they have not fulfilled after me, that is, have not fully followed me, so as to obey me continually and constantly, and go on with me as leader into Chanaan; but on the way they stopped, and turned away from me, wishing to turn back their journey into Egypt.
13. AND THE LORD BEING ANGRY AGAINST ISRAEL, MADE THEM GO ABOUT THROUGH THE DESERT FORTY YEARS,—This rolling and unsteadiness of the going about the Septuagint express most significantly when they render it, he rolled them about like a rhombus, through the desert forty years, where the Hebrews’ gyrations are aptly compared to a rhombus, as Eugubinus notes, whether you take the rhombus fish: for this wonderfully turns itself round and round; or the rhombus, a three-sided and transverse instrument, on which they unwind and spread out the balls of thread they have wound, that the threads may be easily unrolled and woven by weavers, which the Flemish call den haspel. For such winding turns and many circumvolutions the Hebrews made, continually for forty years, as is plain from the tables of Adrichomius.
14. AND BEHOLD, SAID HE, YOU ARE RISEN UP IN THE PLACE OF YOUR FATHERS, THE INCREASE AND OFFSPRING OF SINFUL MEN,—For “increase and offspring” the Hebrew is tarbuth, which literally signifies multitude or multiplication, but is metaphorically attributed to nurslings and disciples; for so here the Septuagint, the Chaldee and our version render it: whence also rab, or rabbi, derived from the same root, signifies a master, who is many, that is great, and scatters and multiplies his teaching through disciples. The sense, therefore, is, as if to say: You are the sons and disciples of impious men, to increase sins, and to fill up the measure of your fathers; you excellently propagate their impious stock and crimes, and make them grow.
17. OUR LITTLE ONES, etc., SHALL BE IN WALLED CITIES, BECAUSE OF THE AMBUSHES OF THE INHABITANTS (namely the neighbours).—For the Rubenites and Gadites were neighbours of the Moabites, Idumeans, Chanaanites and other enemies. And so there is no doubt that, with the little ones, men of war also remained for their protection, as will presently appear more clearly.
20. GO READY ARMED BEFORE THE LORD,—that is, in the presence of the Lord, namely before the ark and the pillar of cloud, which contains and represents the Lord.
Note: To be before the Lord signifies two things: first, to have the Lord as beholder and witness. So it is taken in 2 Kings iii, 28, Psalm xviii, 25, Ecclesiastes ii, 26, and elsewhere. Secondly, “to be before the Lord” is to have the Lord assenting and favouring: for so our version renders it in Judges xvii, 6, and elsewhere; so also here it may be taken.
21. LET EVERY FIGHTING MAN (of you) PASS OVER THE JORDAN ARMED.—“Every,” who can conveniently pass. For it was not safe to leave the little ones and the cattle and the rest of the household without a guard, in the neighbourhood of so many enemies. So elsewhere “all” is often taken for “many”; whence of the Rubenites, Gadites and Manassites only 40 thousand passed the Jordan to engage the Chanaanites in battle, as is plain from Josue iv, 13, though shortly before there had been numbered of them in all a hundred and ten thousand, chapter xxvi, verse 18, and following: the remaining 70 thousand remained in Galaad for the protection of the little ones, wives and cattle. And so Moses commands here that these tribes sit not at home, beyond the cast of a dart; but that the Gadites accompany the others to the battle, nay go before them, and this for two reasons: first, that they might remove from others the suspicion of sloth and fear, and give an example of boldness and courage. Secondly, lest that one people of the Hebrews, before victory in the war, and the commonwealth by the division of the inheritance, and finally religion by the placing of the ark and the beginnings of the sacred rites, had been established, should be divided, and the new Church rent asunder; which would plainly have been the case if those who (as was feared) remained on this side of the Jordan refused to come beyond the Jordan to the wars, and to the tabernacle and the sacred rites of the other tribes, and set up for themselves in Galaad their own tabernacle, altar and rites: whence the altar afterwards erected by them in the same place, though for another cause, cast great suspicion of this thing upon the rest, and almost gave occasion of civil war, as is plain from Josue chapter xxii,
23. BUT IF YOU DO NOT WHAT YOU SAY, THERE IS NO DOUBT BUT YOU SIN (you will sin: so the Septuagint. But the Chaldee and Hebrew have it in the past, you have sinned, namely after you shall have refused the fight), AND KNOW YE THAT YOUR SIN (that is, the punishment of your sin) SHALL OVERTAKE YOU,—for punishment follows the head, and the penalty accompanies the fault inseparably, as the lictor the culprit.
26. OUR LITTLE ONES, etc., WE WILL LEAVE IN THE CITIES OF GALAAD,—namely in the land of Og and Sehon, assigned to us. Galaad here, then, is not taken for the Galaadite, or the land which is properly called Galaad, but more broadly: for it embraces the whole lot of the Gadites, Rubenites and the half tribe of Manasses.
29 and 30. IF THE CHILDREN OF GAD PASS OVER THE JORDAN WITH YOU, etc. GIVE THEM GALAAD, etc. BUT IF, etc. LET THEM RECEIVE PLACES TO DWELL IN AMONG YOU,—as if to say: If they break the faith given, and will not go with you to the fight, compel them to pass over the Jordan, to fight and to dwell with you.
31. AS THE LORD HATH SPOKEN,—namely God by Moses: this is plain from the Hebrew.
34. THE CHILDREN OF GAD THEREFORE BUILT DIBON, etc. “Built,” that is, restored; for these cities had existed before, nor could the Gadites have built these cities from the foundations so quickly: for a little after the death of Moses, which followed straightway after this, they themselves with the other tribes set out beyond the Jordan into Chanaan; whence also in verse 38 they are said to have changed the old names of these cities and to have given them others: whence it is plain that these cities existed before, and were not built by them, but restored.
38. THEIR NAMES BEING CHANGED.—The Hebrews here, as religious conquerors, gave the names of their own people to the cities of the Amorrhites, the former heathen names being abolished, especially because some of them seem to have been taken from idols, namely from Baal, as Bamoth-Baal and Baalmeon; what these names were, Scripture here does not express, except two, namely Havoth-Jair and Nobe, verses 41 and 42. For most of the other names are found the same, both before these times, Numbers xxi, verse 30 and following, and afterwards, Josue xii, 17 and following.
40. MOSES THEREFORE GAVE THE LAND OF GALAAD TO MACHIR THE SON OF MANASSES.—“Machir,” that is, to the posterity of Machir, or the half tribe of Manasses, descended from Machir; for Machir the son of Manasses, and grandson of Joseph, had long been dead. For if he had lived until now he would have been at the least 240 years old; which age fell to no one in that age.
41. AND JAIR THE SON OF MANASSES,—not the nearest, but a remote one.
So often grandsons are called sons, Note first: Jair was descended on his father’s side not from the tribe of Manasses, but of Juda; for this is the genealogy: Juda begot Phares, he Hesron, he Segub, he Jair. But because Hesron married the daughter of Machir, the son of Manasses, and of her begot Segub, the father of Jair, as is plain from 1 Paralipomenon ii, 21, hence it came about that Jair followed the Manassites, because he was born of the daughter of Machir, the most renowned son of Manasses: and in this sense Scripture here calls him son of Manasses.
Note secondly: This Jair was a most valiant man; whence in Galaad he took Havoth-Jair, that is, villages, which he called Jair from his own name, and for this cause it came about that, whereas above, verse 1, the Rubenites and Gadites alone had asked a lot on this side of the Jordan, the half tribe of Manasses was nevertheless added to them, as having most valiantly laboured in storming those cities; so Andreas Masius on Josue xii, 31. Moreover, this Jair was another, and the towns of Jair other, than the Jair and his towns, not taken but subject, mentioned after 300 years, Judges chapter x, verse 4. See here Abulensis, Question XII.
42. NOBE ALSO WENT AND TOOK CHANATH.—This Nobe seems to have been of the tribe of Manasses, like Jair of whom we have spoken; whence the city was called Nobe from him, in which the tabernacle was afterwards placed. Hence it was to this Nobe that David, fleeing from Saul, came to the high priest Abimelech, 1 Kings Abulensis, at the end of the chapter, brings a rigid and fearful tropology. These three tribes, he says, signify three states of the Church, namely Ruben, bishops and prelates: for Ruben in Hebrew is the same as son of vision; whence it marks the rank of Prelates, who look to the lives of others. Gad, as most valiant, signifies princes. Manasses signifies fat monks, namely those who forget their state and vocation (for Manasses in Hebrew signifies this forgetfulness). These three remain on this side of the Jordan, because the greatest number of those three states remain, on this side of the land of the living promised in heaven, in this land of the dying: while they seek the folds of the cattle, that is glorious palaces, that they may call their names upon their lands, and the delights of the flocks, namely delights from the brutes and shared with the brutes. These, if they sometimes lead any beyond the Jordan, into the promised land, that is, into heaven, by teaching and admonishing, themselves nevertheless return on this side of the Jordan to their fleeting things, and never go to heaven to dwell there: thus far Abulensis. Which are fittingly to be taken of those who gape after earth and earthly things, with the Gadites and Rubenites. Of such also spoke that preacher of the Emperor Albert I, who, seeing the nobles receiving his words listlessly, said with raised voice: “The question is whether princes can be saved.” And when the matter had been agitated on both sides, and the sleep of the hearers shaken off: “Why not?” he said, “if only, having received baptism, they die wailing in the cradle,” as Aeneas Sylvius relates, book III On the Deeds of Alphonsus. For it is certain that there are not wanting Bishops, Religious and eminent Princes who aspire to heavenly things, and excel and shine in virtue and religion. Moreover, St. Gregory, Morals XXVII, x, adapts this to the faithful who defend the faith but love and follow their own concupiscences; for these feed brute animals outside the promised land.