Commentaria in Numeros
AND THE FIRE OF THE LORD BEING KINDLED AGAINST THEM—that is, by the Lord. So the Septuagint and the Chaldee. Secondly, “fire of the Lord” means a huge, vehement and terrible fire; for so are called cedars of God, mountains of God, that is great cedars, lofty mountains. Here is a hysteron proteron. For this plague was inflicted after the murmuring about flesh, as I shall show on verse 4; wherefore this verse and the following, according to the order of the history, should have been placed after verse 33.
Note: The murmurers are here punished and burned with fire. So displeasing to God is murmuring and rebellion.
Verse 3. AND HE CALLED THE NAME OF THAT PLACE, THE BURNING.—This place was called from the fire, The Burning; but from the punishment of gluttony it was called the Graves of Lust, as is plain from verse 34. For this is one and the same place, as also the murmuring. Note: That this happened not on the march but in the camp, or the pitching of the camp, is signified in verse 1: for this is what the Hebrew hammachaneh signifies, that is, the encamping.
Verse 4. FOR THE MIXED MULTITUDE OF PEOPLE, etc., BURNED WITH DESIRE.—Note “for” (although in the Hebrew it is “and,” yet “and” in Hebrew is often causal, signifying because, for): this causal word signifies the cause of what precedes, why, namely, the Hebrews murmured, and why they were punished with fire, namely that, somewhat wearied with the labour of the journey, they began to sigh for the flesh and pots of Egypt: whence it follows that it is one and the same murmuring, which in verse 1 is touched, but here is narrated at length. For Moses wished first to touch briefly both the murmuring and its punishment; then in this verse to narrate at length and in order the whole history of the matter. That this is so is further confirmed by the fact that it is not likely that the Hebrews were punished with fire for mere murmuring, or complaint of fatigue, nor that after this penalty and calamity they immediately here murmured again out of desire for flesh. For they would have feared to be punished again with fire. Thirdly, the Psalmist indicates the same, Psalm 77:20, when he describes this murmuring of theirs thus: “Can he also give bread (that is food, for this in Hebrew is bread; whence Genebrard, from R. Kimchi, understands by bread flesh), or provide a table in the wilderness?” Then he subjoins the penalty: “Therefore the Lord heard, and was angry, and a fire was kindled in Jacob, and wrath came up upon Israel.” You see here that the penalty of fire was inflicted for the murmur not so much of those complaining of fatigue as of those desiring food and flesh.
Learn here the disposition of the crowd. What and of what sort is the crowd?
First, Philo, book On Joseph: “As cooks,” he says, “prepare all edibles for the sweetness of the mouth, and neglect what is useful: so the ignoble crowd, careless of its true interests, hunts only for present pleasure. And as the cook cares for nothing but the useless and superfluous pleasures of the belly: so also the crowd,” etc.
“The crowd of men is driven by desires, not by reason,” says Thucydides. “The crowd is desirous of pleasures, and glad if the prince draws that way,” says Tacitus, book 14.
Secondly: “The common people grow wanton with idleness,” says Livy, Decade 1, book 2.
Thirdly: “It is implanted by nature in every multitude to rejoice in novelty and change of things,” says Agathias, book 3.
Fourthly: “In every people there is something malignant and querulous toward their rulers,” says Plutarch in the Politics.
Fifthly: “The multitude of the crowd follows, by custom rather than by judgment, one after another as though wiser, as sheep follows sheep,” says Sallust to Caesar.
Sixthly: “The crowd is of a changeable temper, seditious and quarrelsome, desirous of new things, averse to quiet and ease,” says the same in the Jugurtha.
Seventhly, Antisthenes in Laertius, book 6: “The crowd of men,” he says, “approves only what it is used to (as the Hebrews here the pots of Egypt), and abhors foreign things (the manna), not because they are bad but because they are strange.”
Eighthly, Ovid, Tristia book 1, elegy 8, so sings of the crowd:
And as a shadow accompanies those who walk in the sun’s rays; when the sun, pressed by clouds, is hidden, it flees: so the fickle crowd follows the lights of fortune, and when these are covered by a cloud, it departs.
The crowd approves friendships by their utility.
Ninthly, Polybius, Histories book 11: “As the sea,” he says, “is by nature placable; but when the winds rush upon it, it is such as are the winds by which it is stirred: so the ignoble crowd is of itself placable, but is stirred and made such as are the leaders and counsellors it has.”
Tenthly, Plutarch in the Moralia: “He who catches birds,” he says, “imitates their voices to entice them into snares: so, to bring the multitude over to your opinion, you must humour and wait upon its disposition.”
Eleventhly, Themistocles, treated with contumely by the Athenians whom he had benefited with many kindnesses, said he was like the plane trees, under whose shade men, afflicted by tempest, run to hide, and pluck them up as soon as the tempest has passed. The most prudent man perceived that it is the way of the crowd in the perils of war to implore the help of brave men, but in peace to despise them, nay to harass and pluck at them. So Plutarch in the Apophthegms.
Twelfthly, when an oracle had been delivered to the Athenians that in that city there was one man who opposed the opinions of all, and the people clamoured and ordered that he be sought out and killed, Phocion, stepping into the midst, said: “I am he whom the oracle designated. For all that the crowd says and does displeases me.” By which saying he wished to show that the unruly multitude, since it is ruled by passions, neither does nor says anything sound. So Plutarch in the same place. Hence Antisthenes, having one day entered the theatre, was advancing against the crowd. Asked why he did so: “This,” he said, “I study to do in all my life.” Thinking it the part of a wise man to differ from the multitude in all things. So Laertius, book 6. For nothing is more excellent than that we should not follow, after the manner of cattle, the flock that goes before, going not where we ought to go, but where the way leads.
Thirteenthly, St. Basil in Anthony’s Melissa, part 1, sermon 48: “As clouds,” he says, “according to the changes of the winds are borne now hither, now thither: so the crowd bends itself by any wind now to this side, now to that.”
The uncertain crowd is split into contrary desires: for it is a beast of many heads.
Fourteenthly, John XXIII, Roman Pontiff, being once asked: “What would be farther from truth?” answered: “The opinion of the crowd. For whatever it praises is worthy of blame: whatever it thinks is vain: whatever it says is false: what it disapproves is good: what it approves is evil: and whatever it extols is infamous.”
BURNED WITH DESIRE—for the flesh and onions of Egypt, is plain from the following verse. For although the Egyptians did not eat sheep, as is plain from Genesis 46:34, nor onions, since they worshipped them as gods; whence Juvenal, laughing at them, Satire 15, sings thus:
It is a sin to violate the leek and onion, or break them with a bite. O holy nations, whose gods are born in their gardens! Every table abstains from woolly animals; it is a sin there to slay a kid: yet they ate other animals: nay some ate sheep and onions, as is plain from this place, others abstained from them out of religion. For this religion, or rather superstition, belonged to some only.
You will say: The Hebrews had their own cattle, which they could kill and eat; why then do they here ask flesh from Moses, and murmur?
I answer: Those cattle were few, nor would they have sufficed to feed so many thousands even for a short time. See verse 22. Again they wished to keep these cattle for breeding offspring in the promised land. Finally, not all had cattle, especially of that rabble from which the murmuring began. So Abulensis. St. Augustine adds that they desired quails: for these being given, God quieted their murmuring. But Scripture does not express this, but only flesh, leeks and onions: nor had this crowd been accustomed to quails in Egypt.
Morally St. Bernard, in the tract Behold, We Have Left All, teaches that the desire and care of temporal things is a proof of an uncultivated mind:
“As contempt of external things,” he says, “is an evident sign of spiritual exercise and care of the heart: so anxiety about the same is no less a sure sign of an uncultivated mind. For it is written: Every idle man is in desires.”
SITTING.—So also the Septuagint, reading with other points vayeshebu, that is, and they sat. Now the Masoretes and modern Hebrews with the Chaldee read vayashubu, that is, and they returned, or turned away.