Commentaria in Numeros
For this cause that Seraphim appearing to St. Francis in the form of a crucified man impressed on his hands, feet and side the five wounds of Christ, as sacred stigmata, and transformed him wholly into the love of Christ crucified, and made him a seraph, indeed one nailed with Christ to the cross, so that thenceforth, with a new ardour of mind and a new martyrdom of body, he scarcely felt, thought, loved or said anything else than: Grant, O Lord, that I may die by the love of thy love, who didst vouchsafe to die for the love of my love. See St. Bonaventure in his Life.
This brazen serpent the Hebrews carried with them through the desert, in memory of so great a benefit, into Chanaan, and there it remained until the time of Ezechias, king of Juda, who, because it began to be held and worshipped by the people in the place of a deity (Philastrius narrates the rite and manner of worshipping it, Heresies: On the Brazen Serpent, tome V, page 10), ordered it to be broken, and called it, by diminution and contempt, Nehushtan, or Nestan, that is, a bit of brass, as if to say: Do you think, O wretched Jews, that divinity is a small matter, that this little brass serpent is God?
11. AND DEPARTING THENCE THEY PITCHED THEIR TENTS IN JEABARIM.—In Hebrew it is iyye ha-abarim, which the Chaldee takes not as a proper name but as a common noun, and translates, by the ford of those passing over, namely in the desert.
14. WHEREFORE IT IS SAID IN THE BOOK OF THE WARS OF THE LORD.
This was an ancient book written before the Pentateuch, but it has perished, as have also the books of Henoch, Gad, Nathan; and I add, of many others of which Scripture makes mention. So St. Augustine, Question 42, and Rabanus. Whence it is plain that this book was prophetic; for it prophesies the future victory under Moses over the Amorrhites, as will be plain from verse 24. Yet someone might say, and perhaps more truly, that this book was written later, so that “so will he do,” verse 14, is the same as “so he did”: for these words seem to have been woven in by someone else, who arranged these diaries of Moses, as I said in the preface to Genesis. For so the Proverbs of Solomon, written by him here and there, were collected by another and arranged into one book of Proverbs, as is plain enough from Proverbs 25:1. Wrongly, therefore, Eugubinus translates: therefore it shall be said in the commemoration of the wars of the Lord.
Allegorically, Rupert takes this book as the heavenly one, namely the knowledge of God, in which the Evangelical faith is written; and by the torrents of Arnon opposed to it he understands the eloquence of heretics. For Arnon signifies their malediction.
AS HE DID IN THE RED SEA, SO WILL HE DO IN THE STREAMS OF ARNON.—Vatablus translates: the city Vaheb (namely God destroyed or stormed it) in a whirlwind, and the torrents that lie about Arnon. The Septuagint favour him; for they translate: therefore it is said in the book: The war of the Lord burned up Zoob, and the torrents of Arnon.
Where note: for Vaheb the Septuagint read Zoob, namely for vau they read the like letter zain, and that with other points. But our version translates better, and the Chaldee agrees with it: for Vaheb is put for yaheb, that is, he gave. So, then, word for word the Hebrew has: what he gave, or did, in the Red Sea, so (for the conjunctive vau, when it connects like things, signifies so, as) the same in the torrents of Arnon, supply, he will do. The variety of opinions being now passed over, the first and genuine sense of this is: As the Lord fought for Israel against the Egyptians in the Red Sea, so also will he do, that is, he did, in Arnon, fighting for the Hebrews and conquering Sehon king of the Amorrhites; as if to say: I rightly said in verse 13 that Arnon projects in the borders of the Amorrhite, because there Sehon the Amorrhite was slain, and you, O Hebrews, occupied his dominion as far as the confines of Moab, as is plain from verse 24. For
15. THE ROCKS OF THE TORRENTS OF ARNON ARE BOWED DOWN (are inclined
(for so it is to be read with the Hebrew, Chaldee, Septuagint, not Arnon, as the Royal and Plantin Bibles read: which is a city of the Moabites, as is plain from Deuteronomy 3:29; and therefore they lie down) IN THE BORDERS OF THE MOABITES—as if to say: The rocks of Arnon are contiguous, and project into Ar, a city of Moab: whence it is plain that Arnon and the Amorrhites are bordering on the Moabites; and consequently that you, O Hebrews, by occupying Arnon and the dominion of Sehon the Amorrhite, reach as far as the confines of Moab: for all these things depend on that sentence of verse 13: “For Arnon is the border of Moab, dividing the Moabites and the Amorrhites,” and explain it.
Secondly, the Hebrews, whom Lyranus, Abulensis, Hugh, Adrichomius and others follow, relate that the Amorrhites lay in ambush in these rocks of Arnon while the Hebrews were passing that way; but that these rocks were miraculously bowed by God and fell upon the Amorrhites themselves, and so, they being crushed, the Hebrews escaped free, and that this is signified by these words, the rocks of the torrents are bowed down, etc. But I could wish to have an older author of this tradition: for it seems strange that Moses should here pass over in silence so great a miracle, especially when he himself narrates the battle and the victory over the Amorrhites, verse 23.
Thirdly, Vatablus translates the Hebrew eshed as outpourings, as if to say: God stormed the outpourings of the torrents, that is, the region of the Amorrhites, through which rivers pour and flow, from Arnon to Ar, and flow down into the region of Moab. But St. Jerome and the Hebrews are rather to be believed, who translate eshed rocks. The first sense, therefore, seems plain and genuine.
THE WELL APPEARED, CONCERNING WHICH THE LORD SAID TO MOSES: GATHER TOGETHER THE PEOPLE, AND I WILL GIVE THEM WATER.—Hence it seems that the people were suffering from thirst and scarcity of water; whence Moses asked the Lord to relieve it, who, being entreated, showed him a well, saying: Gather the people to this well, and from it I will give them water. Like aposiopeses are frequent in the Hebrew Scripture.
17. THEN ISRAEL SUNG THIS SONG: LET THE WELL SPRING UP.—“Well,” that is, the water of the well, as if to say: Let the water at once bubble up and rise from the bottom of the well, that we may all drink of it, and our cattle also. This is a song of thanksgiving, of those rejoicing at so great a benefit and miracle, such as there are many in Scripture.
THEY SUNG.—Take this by way of parenthesis: for it interrupts the song itself; for what immediately follows are the words of the song already begun, and completes it. The Chaldee, however, the Septuagint and the more recent translators read, for anu lah, that is, they sung concerning it, with other points in the Congratulate this well, and applaud, and sing to it a hymn; and so these words belong to the song.
18. THE WELL WHICH THE PRINCES DUG, AND THE LEADERS OF THE MULTITUDE PREPARED, IN (that is, with) THE LAWGIVER (that is, Moses) AND IN (that is, with) THEIR STAVES.—Hence it seems that God showed Moses a fountain, or vein of waters, which Moses and the princes of the people, digging around the ground with their staves, that is, mattocks, enlarged and made deeper, that it might be like a well.
the Hebrews proceeded to Matthana, as the Royal and Plantin Bibles add, and is plain from what follows.
NAHALIEL; FROM NAHALIEL TO BAMOTH. FROM BAMOTH IS A VALLEY IN THE COUNTRY OF MOAB, IN THE TOP OF PHASGA (that is, from Bamoth begins the valley of Moab, which is in, that is, near, the top of mount Phasga), WHICH (Phasga) LOOKETH TOWARDS THE DESERT—as if to say: The Hebrews had now come to the borders of the desert, namely to the valley of the country of Moab, which is near Phasga.
Tropologically, says Rupert, there are signified here those who advance in merits and grace. For Matthana is the same as a gift descending, namely from the Father of lights: from which first they ascend to Nahaliel, that is, to the inheritance, or possession of God, by the virtue of the active life; then to Bamoth, that is, to the high places, namely of the contemplative life. From Bamoth is this valley, namely of humility: for this is born from the consideration of both God and oneself; and it is near the top of Phasga, that is, near high wisdom and eloquence: for humility teaches this (for Phasga in Hebrew is the same as much mouth), and that against the desert, that is, against the empty lies of the devil, the deserter.
Hence also there is a proverb among the Hebrews, from Nahaliel to Bamoth, that is, from virtue and piety comes loftiness and glory. For virtue is as it were the inheritance and possession of God, which Nahaliel signifies. Moreover, the Chaldee takes these not as proper names but as common nouns, and refers them to the well of which verse 16. For Matthana in Hebrew is the same as given, or gift. Nahaliel is a torrent. Bamoth are hills; so, then, he translates: “From the time that the well was given to them, it went down with them to the torrents, and from the torrents went up with them to the hill, and from the hill to the valley, which is in the fields of Moab,” as if this well had miraculously followed the Hebrews in every direction. The Chaldee is followed, and defended by it, by many others who say that the rock giving waters like a fountain or well really accompanied the Hebrews, and that the Apostle signifies this, 1 Corinthians 10, when he says: “They drank of the spiritual rock that followed them,” on which matter I spoke there. Certainly to the most learned Bellarmine and others this seems a Jewish fable.