Commentaria in Numeros
52. BREAK THEIR PILLARS.—In Hebrew, break their carvings, or pictures (of the Chanaanites), whereby, namely, they paint their gods and worship them: for here he forbids idolatry; see what was said on Leviticus xxvi, 1.
AND WASTE ALL THEIR HIGH PLACES (namely the altars and chapels on high places, consecrated to idols).
55. BUT IF YOU WILL NOT KILL THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND, etc., THEY SHALL BE AS NAILS IN YOUR EYES,—namely, if you spare them, they will prick you like nails and spears, and will harass and tear you with wars. This was one cause why God commanded that all the Chanaanites be utterly destroyed; a second was the impiety of those nations; and a third, lest they should be a scandal to the Hebrews, and pollute them with their idols and vices. The Hebrews sinned, therefore, when in course of time, prevailing over the Chanaanites, they did not wholly destroy them, but either from sloth, or compassion, or hope of tribute, or some like cause, spared them, whence afterwards they could not be exterminated by them: but God turned this to good, namely that these nations should be as a scourge to the Jews when they turned to idols, and that they should have with them continual exercise of arms, nor dissolve in idleness, as is plain from Judges iii, 4.
For which reason Scipio judged that Carthage, the rival of Rome, was not to be destroyed, that it might be a whetstone of the Roman youth.
Mystically St. Jerome says: These 42 mansions by which the Hebrews tended into Chanaan signify the 42 ways by which the faithful tend to heaven. The first is Ramesses, that is, a thunder of joy, namely that at the thundering, that is the preaching, of the Apostles and others, unbelievers and the impious were converted to Christ, and therefore rejoiced; the second is Soccoth, that is tabernacles: because in this life as pilgrims we celebrate a continual feast of tabernacles, and tend to heaven as to our country; the third is Etham, that is strength: because in this arduous way all adverse things must be overcome with fortitude; the fourth is Phihahiroth, that is the mouth of the noble, that as noble and generous we may with our mouth praise God in adversities; the fifth is Mara, that is bitterness, namely of penance; the sixth is Elim, that is rams, namely the Apostles and the like: for these we ought to follow as leaders;
the seventh is the Red Sea, because through the waves and changes of this world, nay through martyrdoms, one must go to heaven;
the eighth is Sin, that is hatred, because the faithful must undergo great hatred and persecutions, both of the devil and of the world; the ninth is Daphca, that is knocking, namely prayer, of which Christ says: “Knock, and it shall be opened to you;” the tenth is Alus, that is leaven, namely of the Gospel, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened;
the eleventh is Raphidim, that is the dissolution of the strong: for there, Moses praying, Josue overthrew Amalec; the twelfth is Sinai, that is a bush, that is the roughness of life, in which God appears, and communicates His law and will to the soul;
the thirteenth is the Graves of lust, in which gluttony and the gluttonous are buried; the fourteenth is Haseroth, that is a court, namely the vestibule of virtues, to show that those who have fallen through gluttony can rise again, and that those who stand can fall: for in Haseroth Mary, murmuring against Moses, was struck with leprosy, and was healed;
the fifteenth is Rethma, that is sound, or juniper, which long preserves fire, so that if coals are covered with its ashes they last to the year: that is, that we may be fervent in spirit, and with clear sound and exalted voice preach the Gospel of the Lord;
the sixteenth is Remmonphares, that is the division of a pomegranate: because of the multitude of believers there is one heart and one soul: for in it there is a variety and consonance of virtues;
the seventeenth is Lebna, that is bricks, which the people made in Egypt, groaning: because in this life we now grow, now decline, and after the ecclesiastical order we pass again to the works of bricks;
the eighteenth is Ressa, that is a bridle: for if after progress we descend again to the works of clay, we must be bridled, and our wandering and headlong courses must be directed by the reins of Scripture;
the nineteenth is Ceelatha, that is the Church: because the wandering steps of those who run are by bridles drawn back to the Church, that they may hasten to enter again the doors which they had before left;
the twentieth is Sepher, that is beauty. See what bridles profit: they draw us back from vices, they bring us in to the choirs of virtues, that they may make us dwell in Christ, the most beautiful mountain.
Hence, the twenty-first, we come to Arada, that is astonishment and wonder: because we are astonished and wonder at the grace and virtues of Christ, so that our speech is overcome in His praises;
the twenty-second is Maceloth, that is assemblies, of which it is said: “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”
the twenty-third is Thahath, that is fear, of which the Apostle: “Be not high-minded, but fear: for God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble;” the twenty-fourth is Thare, by which name Abraham’s father was called, who in the apocryphal book of Genesis, having driven away the ravens that wasted men’s corn, received the name of driver-away or expeller:
so let us also imitate Thare, and carefully keep off the birds of the air, which by the way hasten to devour the sown wheat; the twenty-fifth is Methca, that is sweetness, that, namely, of which the Psalmist: “How sweet are thy words to my palate! more than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth!”
that we may know that we dwell among scorpions, and yet must overcome their venoms;
is Jeabarim, that is heaps of stones of passers-by, of which Zacharias says, chapter ix: “Holy stones shall be rolled over the land.” These are they who go from virtue to virtue. There are other stones also, which Jeremias, chapter l, commands to be taken out of the way, lest they offend the feet of those who walk through this world and hasten to pass to other mansions; the thirty-ninth is Dibongad, that is strongly understood temptation, whereby, namely, we understand that we ought not to lift ourselves up in pride: for before destruction the heart is exalted, and before glory it is humbled;
the fortieth is Helmon Deblathaim, that is, in contempt of stripes or reproaches: whereby we learn that all sweet things and allurements of pleasures in this world are to be despised, and that we ought not to give ourselves to wine, in which are the reproaches of luxury; the forty-first are the mountains of Abarim, over against Nebo. Abarim, that is, passers-by: because the saints, though they be on the mountains of virtues, ought nevertheless always to ascend further, to heaven.
Morally, of progress in virtues.
Nebo is the same as conclusion: there Moses dies, that is the law ends, and his memory is not found, that the grace of the Gospel may succeed, which extends without any end: “Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world;” the forty-second and last is Abelsatim, that is the mourning of thorns, that we may learn at the end of life with St. Augustine to weep for old and recent sins, and not to go out of this life without penance, that we may say with the Psalmist, Psalm xxxi: “I am turned in my anguish, whilst the thorn is fastened.” For in Abelsatim the Hebrews were slain for the worship of Beelphegor; so were the Madianites and Balaam. Again, here were done and said all the things which Moses wrote from this chapter to the end of Deuteronomy. So St. Jerome explains these 42 mansions. In almost the same way B. P. Damian mystically expounds these 42 mansions, book II, epistle 7 to Hildebrand.
Learn here that the faithful ought to advance in virtue all their life, and so set out for the land promised in heaven. For, as St. Bernard says: “To advance is a kind of setting out.” And, as the Psalmist says, Psalm lxxxiii: