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2. But he came near,
and lifted up his hands to heaven, and cried out with a loud voice, in order to
be heard by the whole multitude, and said,
"O Lord of the creatures
that are in the heaven, in the earth, and in the sea; for thou art the most
authentic witness to what I have done, that it has all been done by thy
appointment, and that it was thou that affordedst us assistance when we
attempted any thing, and showedst mercy on the Hebrews in all their distresses;
do thou come now, and hear all that I say, for no action or thought escapes thy
knowledge; so that thou wilt not disdain to speak what is true, for my
vindication, without any regard to the ungrateful imputations of these men. As
for what was done before I was born, thou knowest best, as not learning them by
report, but seeing them, and being present with them when they were done; but
for what has been done of late, and which these men, although they know them
well enough, unjustly pretend to suspect, be thou my witness.
When I lived a private quiet
life, I left those good things which, by my own diligence, and by thy counsel,
I enjoyed with Raguel my father-in-law; and I gave myself up to this people,
and underwent many miseries on their account. I also bore great labors at
first, in order to obtain liberty for them, and now in order to their
preservation; and have always showed myself ready to assist them in every
distress of theirs.
Now, therefore, since I am
suspected by those very men whose being is owing to my labors, come thou, as it
is reasonable to hope thou wilt; thou, I say, who showedst me that fire at
mount Sinai, and madest me to hear its voice, and to see the several wonders
which that place afforded thou who commandedst me to go to Egypt, and declare
thy will to this people; thou who disturbest the happy estate of the Egyptians,
and gavest us the opportunity of flying away from our under them, and madest
the dominion of Pharaoh inferior to my dominion; thou who didst make the sea
dry land for us, when we knew not whither to go, and didst overwhelm the
Egyptians with those destructive waves which had been divided for us; thou who
didst bestow upon us the security of weapons when we were naked; thou who didst
make the fountains that were corrupted to flow, so as to be fit for drinking,
and didst furnish us with water that came out of the rocks, when we were in
want of it; thou who didst preserve our lives with [quails, which was] food
from the sea, when the fruits of the ground failed us;
thou didst send us such food
from heaven as had never been seen before; thou who didst suggest to us the
knowledge of thy laws, and appoint to us a of government, - come thou, I say, O
Lord of the whole world, and that as such a Judge and a Witness to me as cannot
be bribed, and show how I never admitted of any gift against justice from any
of the Hebrews; and have never condemned a man that ought to have been
acquitted, on account of one that was rich; and have never attempted to hurt
this commonwealth.
I am now and am suspected of
a thing the remotest from my intentions, as if I had given the priesthood to
Aaron, not at thy command, but out own favor to him; do thou at this time
demonstrate that all things are administered by thy providence and that nothing
happens by chance, but is governed by thy will, and thereby attains its end: as
also demonstrate that thou takest care that have done good to the Hebrews;
demonstrate this, I say, by the punishment of Abiram and Dathan, who condemn
thee as an insensible Being, and one overcome by my contrivances. This thou do
by inflicting such an open punishment on these men who so madly fly in the face
of thy glory, as will take them out of the world, not in an manner, but so that
it may appear they do die after the manner of other men: let that ground which
they tread upon open about them and consume them, with their families and
goods. This will be a demonstration of thy power to all and this method of
their sufferings will be an instruction of wisdom for those that entertain
profane sentiments of thee.
By this means I shall be a
good servant, in the precepts thou hast given by me. But if the calumnies they
have raised against me be true, mayst thou preserve these men from every evil
accident, and bring all that destruction on me which I have imprecated upon
them. And when thou hast inflicted punishment on those that have endeavored to
deal unjustly with this people, bestow upon them concord and peace. Save this
multitude that follow thy commandments, and preserve them free from harm, and
let them not partake of the punishment of those that have sinned; for thou
knowest thyself it is not just, that for the wickedness of those men the whole
body of the Israelites should suffer punishment."
3. When Moses had said
this, with tears in his eyes, the ground was moved on a sudden; and the
agitation that set it in motion was like that which the wind produces in waves
of the sea. The people were all affrighted; and the ground that was about their
tents sunk down at the great noise, with a terrible sound, and carried
whatsoever was dear to the seditious into itself, who so entirely perished,
that there was not the least appearance that any man had ever been seen there,
the earth that had opened itself about them, closing again, and becoming entire
as it was before, insomuch that such as saw it afterward did not perceive that
any such accident had happened to it. Thus did these men perish, and become a
demonstration of the power of God. And truly, any one would lament them, not
only on account of this calamity that befell them, which yet deserves our
commiseration, but also because their kindred were pleased with their
sufferings; for they forgot the relation they bare to them, and at the sight of
this sad accident approved of the judgment given against them; and because they
looked upon the people about Dathan as pestilent men, they thought they
perished as such, and did not grieve for them.
4. And now Moses called
for those that contended about the priesthood, that trial might be made who
should be priest, and that he whose sacrifice God was best pleased with might
be ordained to that function. There attended two hundred and fifty men, who
indeed were honored by the people, not only on account of the power of their
ancestors, but also on account of their own, in which they excelled the others:
Aaron also and Corah came forth, and they all offered incense, in those censers
of theirs which they brought with them, before the tabernacle. Hereupon so
great a fire shone out as no one ever saw in any that is made by the hand of
man, neither in those eruptions out of the earth that are caused by
subterraneous burn-rags, nor in such fires as arise of their own accord in the
woods, when the agitation is caused by the trees rubbing one against another:
but this fire was very bright, and had a terrible flame, such as is kindled at
the command of God; by whose irruption on them, all the company, and Corah
himself, were destroyed, (2) and this so
entirely, that their very bodies left no remains behind them.
Aaron alone was preserved, and
not at all hurt by the fire, because it was God that sent the fire to burn
those only who ought to be burned. Hereupon Moses, after these men were
destroyed, was desirous that the memory of this judgment might be delivered
down to posterity, and that future ages might be acquainted with it; and so he
commanded Eleazar, the son of Aaron, to put their censers near the brazen
altar, that they might be a memorial to posterity of what these men suffered,
for supposing that the power of God might be eluded. And thus Aaron was now no
longer esteemed to have the priesthood by the favor of Moses, but by the public
judgment of God; and thus he and his children peaceably enjoyed that honor
afterward.
Footnotes
(2) It appears here, and from the Samaritan Pentateuch, and,
in effect, from the psalmist, as also from the Apostolical Constitutions, from
Clement's First Epistle to the Corinthians, from Ignatius's Epistle to the
Magnesians, and from Eusebius, that Corah was not swallowed up with the
Reubenites, but burned with the Levites of his own tribe. See Essay on the Old
Testament, p. 64, 65.
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