Commentaria in Numeros
It seems, then, that when Jethro returned from Sinai to neighbouring Madian, Hobab his son with his sister Sephora remained with Moses, and went with him to Canaan: there he received as his lot the fertile land and fields of Jericho; and thence afterwards, with the Hebrews’ connivance, he migrated into the best lot of the tribe of Juda, as is plain from Judges 1:16, where it is said: “And the children of the Cinite (that is of Jethro), the kinsman (that is father-in-law) of Moses, went up from the city of Palms (that is Jericho) with the children of Juda into the desert of his lot, and dwelt with him”; that some of them also migrated to the lot of Nephthali is plain from Judges 4:10 and 11, where Haber the Cinite (whose wife Jahel slew Sisara the prince) is said to have dwelt near Cedes, which was in the lot of Nephthali, as is plain from Josue 19:36. Mention is also made of these Cinites in 1 Kings 15:6, who at last in the common captivity were laid waste and taken by the Assyrians, namely by Salmanasar. For Balaam foretold this, Numbers 24:22: “Assur,” he said, “shall take thee,” O Cinite.
Finally from this Jethro and Hobab was born Rechab, whose son was the pious Jonadab, who with Jehu overthrew Baal and the Baalites, 4 Kings 10:23. From this Jonadab sprang the Rechabites, whom Jeremias, chapter 35, so greatly praises for abstinence, obedience and holiness; that the Rechabites are Cinites is plain from 1 Paralipomenon 2:55. The Rechabites therefore were not Jews but Madianites, namely descendants of Jethro. Again, the descendants of the Rechabites were the Essenes, whom Philo, Eusebius and others commend for temperance and continence, says Suidas. See here a holy progeny, and holy sons of holy parents: this is what the pious education of parents and converse with the good brings about and effects.
Verse 30. I WILL RETURN TO MY OWN COUNTRY—to Madian.
Verse 31. DO NOT LEAVE US: FOR THOU KNOWEST IN WHAT PLACES IN THE WILDERNESS WE SHOULD PITCH OUR CAMP.—For Madian was near Mount Sinai and this desert; hence Moses, dwelling with Jethro, in Madian, fed his sheep in this desert. Moses said this to Hobab, however, not as if he needed his help and guidance, who was taught outwardly by the pillar of cloud and inwardly by God, or an angel speaking, and learned in what place the camp was to be pitched, and who, feeding sheep in that region, namely this desert, for 40 years, was as well versed in it, or more, than Hobab.
Moses wished, therefore, to detain Hobab with himself, that he might instruct him, being his brother-in-law and a Gentile, in the religion and worship of the true God, and bring him over from paganism to Judaism.
Moral. Where note the charity and prudence of Moses in persuading Hobab: for, as Rabanus and Rupert say: “The provident man (Moses), speaking with a proud hearer (Hobab), asked to give him comfort; he sought a guide on the way that he might himself become a guide to him for life; for we can very often persuade the proud of useful things better if we say that their advancement will profit us rather than them, and if we ask that what we seek be bestowed on us rather than on them.” For when Hobab had refused to yield to Moses saying: “Come with us, that we may do thee good,” Moses presses him to stay, as if he needed him, saying: “Do not leave us.”
AND THOU SHALT BE OUR GUIDE—in Hebrew, “thou shalt be to us for eyes,” that is thou shalt be our leader, to show where are the fountains, where pastures for our flocks, where wood, etc. Hobab is silent: whence it is likely that he acquiesced and stayed with Moses, as I said
Verse 33. SO THEY DEPARTED FROM THE MOUNT OF THE LORD (from Sinai) THREE DAYS’ JOURNEY, AND THE ARK OF THE COVENANT OF THE LORD WENT BEFORE THEM—as if to say: They journeyed for three days and did not pitch camp before; on which days the ark, in which were the tables of the covenant, namely the tables of the decalogue, went before them, and the pillar of cloud rested upon the ark, which was the leader of the journey, and that to commend to the people the religion of the ark and the observance of the decalogue contained in the ark. Whether the ark afterwards always went before the camp is not wholly clear. Abulensis affirms it from Josephus: for if it went before here, why not also afterwards? The ark was carried, however, by four Levites of the Caathites, as is plain from chapters 3 and 4, and 1 Paralipomenon 15:15. For although now and then, for a grave cause, the ark was carried by priests, as in the passage of the Jordan, yet ordinarily it was carried by the Levites: for the priests could not carry it continually and always, being then only two, namely Eleazar and Ithamar, with their father Aaron the pontiff, who had to superintend the ark and all the Levites and sacred vessels.
PROVIDING A PLACE FOR THE CAMP—in Hebrew, “to search out, or seek out for them a resting-place,” that is a place in which they might comfortably rest and pitch camp, where there was grass and fodder for sheep, oxen and beasts of burden, where there were fountains and waters, wholesome air, etc. The pillar of cloud did this, as the guide of the journey, and consequently the ark, on which the cloud rested. Secondly, the ark provided a place for the camp, because by going before it removed serpents, wild beasts and the other inconveniences of the roads, says Abulensis. But the former sense is the genuine one, and the Hebrew word tur requires it, which properly signifies to explore, not to remove.
Verse 35. AND WHEN THE ARK WAS LIFTED UP—to be carried in the moving of the camp. The Rabbis wrote at this verse 35, and in the following chapter, verse 1, two inverted letters nun in the Hebrew text, namely one in the word bin-so’a, that is “when it set forward,” the other in the word kemith’onenim, that is “when they murmured.” By the former inverted nun they signify God’s benevolent turning to the people, on account of the prayers of Moses; by the latter, the impiety and ingratitude of the people, wishing to return into Egypt. This is rabbinic and cabalistic.
MOSES SAID: ARISE, O LORD, AND LET THY ENEMIES BE SCATTERED.—Note: God of old represented himself chiefly by the ark: Moses here prays that, as the ark arises, God also may arise, as if he who had hitherto rested with the Hebrews in the ark would now arise, and his enemies, seized with fear, might flee away. Hence the Israelites had in the ark of the Lord a confidence, to bring it out to the camp in time of war, and that with great terror of the enemies, and then they believed God present to them and helping them, as is plain from the deeds both of Josue, chapter 6, and of Heli, 1 Kings 4:3.
From these words and prayer of Moses, says Abulensis, the custom grew up in the Church that at the beginning of the Canonical Hours it is said: “O God, come to my assistance,” namely to help and direct us in psalmody.
Again Abbot Marcellus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 153, says that nothing is so useful, nothing so saddens the demons, as psalmody. For “when we sing psalms,” he says, “partly we pray to ourselves by praising God, partly we assail the demon with imprecations, as when we say: Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered.” More wonderful, and more to be reduced to practice, is what St. Athanasius writes to Antiochus, Question 14: “There is not,” he says, “in the whole Old or New Testament a word more terrible, and more destroying our power” (that is the devil’s), “than the beginning of Psalm 67 (which is taken from these words and prayers of Moses): for as soon as the word is spoken: Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered; presently the devil, howling, vanishes and disappears, showing the power and operation of this prayer.”
Hence an Angel appearing, and singing psalms with interposed prayers, taught the monks the manner of psalmody; and thence twelve Psalms are sung at the night and day Hours throughout all Egypt, says Cassian, book 2 of the Institutes, chapter 5. As the angels seen by St. Ignatius singing alternately taught the choir to sing alternately, which the Greeks call antiphonein; whence the name and origin of Antiphons, as I have shown elsewhere from the old historians. So night and day without intermission sang psalms Isidore the Priest in the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, title 11.
Verse 36. AND WHEN IT WAS SET DOWN (the ark), HE SAID: RETURN, O LORD—to the camp, namely, which followed the ark and the Lord. For when the pillar of cloud stood still, and the ark was set down, there at the same time the camp was pitched all round: for the ark was in the midst of the pitched camp. Moses therefore prays that the Lord return to the midst of the camp, to protect the whole camp.
TO THE MULTITUDE OF THE HOST OF ISRAEL.—The Hebrew is, “to the myriads of thousands of Israel.” For the Hebrews relate that three millions of men went out of Egypt with Moses, and journeyed through the desert toward Canaan.