12. THE WARS OF THE ISRAELITES.
The children of Israel had many foes to contend with. Amongst these were the Amorites. They hid in caves to form an ambuscade against the people of God, intending, when the Israelites had penetrated into a defile between two mountains, to sally forth upon them and to overthrow them. But they did not know that the ark went before Israel, smoothing the rough places and levelling the mountains.[[561]] Now, when the ark drew near the place where the ambush was, the mountains fell in upon the Amorites, and the Israelites passed on, and knew not that they had been delivered from a great danger. But there were two lepers named Eth and Hav, who followed the camp, and they saw the blood bubbling out from under the mountain; and thus the fate of the Amorites was made known.[[562]]
The Israelites found a redoubtable enemy in Og, king of Bashan, who was one of the giants who had been saved from the old world by clambering on the roof of the ark; but his weight had so depressed the vessel, that Noah was obliged to turn out the hippopotamus and rhinoceros to preserve the ark from foundering.
Og determined to destroy Moses. Moses was ten cubits in height, and when Og came against him, he took a hatchet of ten cubits’ length, and he made a jump into the air, and hit Og on the ankle. Og tore up a mountain, and put it on his head to throw it upon Moses; but the ants ate out the inside of the mountain, and it sank over Og’s head to his neck, and he could not draw his head out, for his teeth grew into tusks and thrust through the mountain, and he was blinded and caught as in a trap. Thus Moses was able to slay him.[[563]]
Some further details on Og, furnished by the Rabbis, will assist the reader in estimating the powers of Moses.
At one meal, Og ate a thousand oxen and as many wild roes, and his drink was a thousand firkins; one drop of the sweat from his brow weighed thirty-six pounds.[[564]] Of his size the following authentic details are given. The Rabbi Johanan said, “I was once a grave-digger, and I ran after a deer, and went in at one end of a shin-bone of a dead man, and I ran for three miles and could not catch the deer or reach the end of the bone. When I went back, I inquired, and was told that this was the shin-bone of Og, king of Bashan.”[[565]] The sole of his foot was forty miles long. Once, when he was quarrelling with Abraham, one of his teeth fell out, and Abraham made a bed out of the tooth, and slept in it; but some say he made a chair out of it.[[566]]
When the Israelites came to Edrei and fought against it, in the night Og came and sat down on the wall, and his feet reached the ground. Next morning Moses looked out and said, “I do not understand how the men of Edrei can have built a second wall so high during the night.”
Then it was revealed to him that what he had taken for a wall was Og.[[567]] Og had built sixty cities, and the smallest was sixty miles high. These cities were in Argob.[[568]]
The Moabites also resisted Israel, and they were encouraged by Balaam the son of Beor.
Balak, king of Moab, sent to Balaam to curse Israel. Then Balaam rose in the morning and made ready his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. The Mussulman account is that Balaam, having been told by God not to go, resolved to obey, but the princes of Moab bribed his wife, and she gave him no peace till he consented to go to Balak with his messengers.[[569]] But the anger of the Lord was kindled, because he would go to curse them, and the angel of the Lord stood in the way to be an adversary to him. But he sat upon his ass, and his two sons, Jannes and Jambres, were with him.
And the ass discerned the angel of the Lord standing in the way with a drawn sword in his hand, and the ass turned aside out of the road to go into the field; and Balaam smote the ass. And the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path that was in the midst between the vineyards, in the place where Jacob and Laban raised the mound, the pillars on this side and the observatory on that side,[[570]] that neither should pass the limit to do evil to the other. And as the ass discerned the angel of the Lord, and thrust herself against the hedge, and bruised Balaam’s foot by the hedge, he smote her again. Ten things were created after the world had been founded at the coming in of the Sabbath between sunset and sunrise,—the manna, the well, the rod of Moses, the diamond, the rainbow, the cloud of glory, the mouth of the earth, the writing on the tables of the covenant, the demons, and the speaking ass.
Then the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to thee, that thou hast smitten me twice?”
And Balaam said to the ass, “Because thou hast been false to me; if there were now a sword in my hand, I would kill thee.”
And the ass said to Balaam, “Woe to thee, wanting in understanding! Behold, thou hast not power with all thy skill to curse me, an unclean beast, which am to die in this world and not to enter the world to come; how much less canst thou curse the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, on whose account the world was created?”[[571]]
Balaam finding that he could not curse the people, and that they were under the protection of the Most High, saw that the only way to ruin them was by leading them into sin. Therefore he advised Balak, and the king appointed the daughters of the Midianites for the tavern-booths at Beth Jeshimoth, by the snow mountain, where they sold sweetmeats cheaper than their price. And Israel trafficked with them for their sweet cakes; and when the maidens brought out the image of Peor from their bundles, the Israelites did not notice it to take it away, and becoming accustomed to it they went on to sacrifice to it.[[572]]
And Moses saw one of the sons of Israel come by, holding a Midianitess by the hand, and Moses rebuked him. Then said the man, “What is it that is wrong in this? Didst not thou thyself take to wife a Midianitess, the daughter of Jethro?”
When Moses heard this, he trembled and swooned away. But Phinehas cried, “Where are the lions of the tribe of Judah?” and he took a lance in his hand and slew the man and the woman.
Twelve miracles were wrought for Phinehas; but they need not be repeated here.[[573]]
Then all the Israelites went forth against the Midianites and defeated them; and when they numbered the slain, Balaam and his sons were discovered among the dead.
13. THE DEATH OF AARON. (Numb. xx. 22-29.)
Moses was full of grief when the word of the Lord came to him that Aaron, his brother, was to die. That night he had no rest, and when it began to dawn towards morning, he rose and went to the tent of Aaron.
Aaron was much surprised to see his brother come in so early, and he said, “Wherefore art thou come?”
Moses answered, “All night long have I been troubled, and have had no sleep, for certain things in the Law came upon me, and they seemed to me to be heavy and unendurable; I have come to thee that thou shouldest relieve my mind.” So they opened the book together and read from the first word; and at every sentence they said, “That is holy, and great, and righteous.”
Soon they came to the history of Adam; and Moses stayed from reading when he arrived at the Fall, and he cried bitterly. “O Adam, thou hast brought death into the world!”
Aaron said, “Why art thou so troubled thereat, my brother? Is not death the way to Eden?”
“It is however very painful. Think also, that both thou and I must some day die. How many years thinkest thou we shall live?”
Aaron.—“Perhaps twenty.”
Moses.—“Oh no! not so many.”
Aaron.—“Then fifteen.”
Moses.—“No, my brother, not so many.”
Aaron.—“Then ten years.”
Moses.—“No, not so many.”
Aaron.—“Then surely it must be five.”
Moses.—“I say again, not so many.”
Then said Aaron, hesitating, “Is it then one?”
And Moses said, “Not so much.”
Full of anxiety and alarm, Aaron kept silence. Then said Moses gently, “O my beloved! would it not be good to say of thee as it was said of Abraham, that he was gathered to his fathers in peace?” Aaron was silent.
Then said Moses, “If God were to say that thou shouldst die in a hundred years, what wouldst thou say?”
Aaron said, “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.”
Moses.—“And if God were to say to thee that thou shouldst die this year, what wouldst thou answer?”
Aaron.—“The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.”
Moses.—“And if He were to call thee to-day, what wouldst thou say?”
Aaron.—“The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.”
“Then,” said Moses, “arise and follow me.”
At that same hour went forth Moses, Aaron, and Eleazer, his son; they ascended into Mount Hor, and the people looked on, nothing doubting, for they knew not what was to take place.
Then said the Most High to His angels, “Behold the new Isaac; he follows his younger brother, who leads him to death.”
When they had reached the summit of the mountain, there opened before them a cavern. They went in, and found a death-bed prepared by the hands of the angels. Aaron laid himself down upon it and made ready for death.
Then Moses cried out in grief, “Woe is me! we were two, when we comforted our sister in her death; in this, thy last hour, I am with thee to solace thee; when I die, who will comfort me?”
Then a voice was heard from heaven, “Fear not; God himself will be with thee.”
On one side stood Moses, on the other Eleazer, and they kissed the dying man on the brow, and took from off him his sacerdotal vestments to clothe Eleazer his son with them. They took off one portion of the sacred apparel, and they laid that on Eleazer; and then they removed another portion, and laid that on Eleazer; and as they stripped Aaron, a silvery veil of cloud sank over him like a pall and covered him.
Aaron seemed to be asleep.
Then Moses said, “My brother, what dost thou feel?”
“I feel nothing but the cloud that envelopes me,” answered he.
After a little pause, Moses said again, “My brother, what dost thou feel?”
He answered feebly, “The cloud surrounds me and bereaves me of all joy.”
And the soul of Aaron was parted from his body. And as it went up Moses cried once more, “Alas, my brother! what dost thou feel?”
And the soul replied, “I feel such joy, that I would it had come to me sooner.”
Then cried Moses, “Oh thou blessed, peaceful death! Oh, may such a death be my lot!”
Moses and Eleazer came down alone from the mountain, and the people wailed because Aaron was no more. But the coffin of Aaron rose, borne by angels, in the sight of the whole congregation, and was carried into heaven, whilst the angels sang: “The priest’s lips have kept knowledge, have spoken truth!”[[574]]
The Mussulman story is not quite the same.
One version is that both Moses and Aaron ascended Hor, knowing that one of them was to die, but uncertain which, and they found a cave, and a sarcophagus therein with the inscription on it, “I am for him whom I fit.”
Moses tried to lie down in it, but his feet hung out; Aaron next entered it, lay down, and it fitted him exactly.
Then Gabriel led Moses and the sons of Aaron out of the cave, and when they were again admitted Aaron was dead.[[575]]
Another version is this: God announced to Moses that he would call Aaron to Himself. Then Moses took his brother from the camp, and they went into the desert, till they came to a tree. When Aaron saw the shadow, he said, “O my brother, whose tree is this?”
Moses said, “God alone knows.”
Then spake Aaron, “I am weary, and the shadow is cool; suffer me to repose a little while under the tree.”
Moses said, “Lie down, my brother; and may thy rest be sweet.”
Aaron lay down, and Moses sat beside him till he died.
Then suddenly the tree, the shadow, and Aaron vanished; and Moses returned alone to the Israelites. They were angry with him, that he had not brought back Aaron, and they took up stones against him. But Moses cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed them Aaron on a bed, and he was dead; and the people looked, and wondered, and wept: then said a voice from heaven, “God hath taken him.” The people bewailed him many days.[[576]]