|
So Balsam received the
ambassadors, and treated them very kindly; and when he had supped, he inquired
what was God's will, and what this matter was for which the Midianites
entreated him to come to them. But when God opposed his going, he came to the
ambassadors, and told them that he was himself very willing and desirous to
comply with their request, but informed them that God was opposite to his
intentions, even that God who had raised him to great reputation on account of
the truth of his predictions; for that this army, which they entreated him to
come and curse, was in the favor of God; on which account he advised them to go
home again, and not to persist in their enmity against the Israelites; and when
he had given them that answer, he dismissed the ambassadors.
3. Now the Midianites,
at the earnest request and fervent entreaties of Balak, sent other ambassadors
to Balaam, who, desiring to gratify the men, inquired again of God; but he was
displeased at [second] trial (8) and bid
him by no means to contradict the ambassadors. Now Balsam did not imagine that
God gave this injunction in order to deceive him, so he went along with the
ambassadors; but when the divine angel met him in the way, when he was in a
narrow passage, and hedged in with a wall on both sides, the ass on which
Balaam rode understood that it was a divine spirit that met him, and thrust
Balaam to one of the walls, without regard to the stripes which Balaam, when he
was hurt by the wall, gave her; but when the ass, upon the angel's continuing
to distress her, and upon the stripes which were given her, fell down, by the
will of God, she made use of the voice of a man, and complained of Balaam as
acting unjustly to her; that whereas he had no fault find with her in her
former service to him, he now inflicted stripes upon her, as not understanding
that she was hindered from serving him in what he was now going about, by the
providence of God.
And when he was disturbed by
reason of the voice of the ass, which was that of a man, the angel plainly
appeared to him, and blamed him for the stripes he had given his ass; and
informed him that the brute creature was not in fault, but that he was himself
come to obstruct his journey, as being contrary to the will of God. Upon which
Balaam was afraid, and was preparing to return back again: yet did God excite
him to go on his intended journey, but added this injunction, that he should
declare nothing but what he himself should suggest to his mind.
4. When God had given
him this charge, he came to Balak; and when the king had entertained him in a
magnificent manner, he desired him to go to one of the mountains to take a view
of the state of the camp of the Hebrews. Balak himself also came to the
mountain, and brought the prophet along with him, with a royal attendance. This
mountain lay over their heads, and was distant sixty furlongs from the camp.
Now when he saw them, he desired the king to build him seven altars, and to
bring him as many bulls and rams; to which desire the king did presently
conform. He then slew the sacrifices, and offered them as burnt-offerings, that
he might observe some signal of the flight of the Hebrews. Then said he,
"Happy is this people, on
whom God bestows the possession of innumerable good things, and grants them his
own providence to be their assistant and their guide; so that there is not any
nation among mankind but you will be esteemed superior to them in virtue, and
in the earnest prosecution of the best rules of life, and of such as are pure
from wickedness, and will leave those rules to your excellent children; and
this out of the regard that God bears to you, and the provision of such things
for you as may render you happier than any other people under the sun. You
shall retain that land to which he hath sent you, and it shall ever be under
the command of your children; and both all the earth, as well as the seas,
shall be filled with your glory: and you shall be sufficiently numerous to
supply the world in general, and every region of it in particular, with
inhabitants out of your stock.
However, O blessed army!
wonder that you are become so many from one father: and truly, the land of
Canaan can now hold you, as being yet comparatively few; but know ye that the
whole world is proposed to be your place of habitation for ever. The multitude
of your posterity also shall live as well in the islands as on the continent,
and that more in number than are the stars of heaven. And when you are become
so many, God will not relinquish the care of you, but will afford you an
abundance of all good things in times of peace, with victory and dominion in
times of war. May the children of your enemies have an inclination to fight
against you; and may they be so hardy as to come to arms, and to assault you in
battle, for they will not return with victory, nor will their return be
agreeable to their children and wives. To so great a degree of valor will you
be raised by the providence of God, who is able to diminish the affluence of
some, and to supply the wants of others."
5. Thus did Balaam
speak by inspiration, as not being in his own power, but moved to say what he
did by the Divine Spirit. But then Balak was displeased, and said he had broken
the contract he had made, whereby he was to come, as he and his confederates
had invited him, by the promise of great presents: for whereas he came to curse
their enemies, he had made an encomium upon them, and had declared that they
were the happiest of men. To which Balaam replied,
"O Balak, if thou rightly
considerest this whole matter, canst thou suppose that it is in our power to be
silent, or to say any thing, when the Spirit of God seizes upon us? - for he
puts such words as he pleases in our mouths, and such discourses as we are not
ourselves conscious of. I well remember by what entreaties both you and the
Midianites so joyfully brought me hither, and on that account I took this
journey. It was my prayer, that I might not put any affront upon you, as to
what you desired of me; but God is more powerful than the purposes I had made
to serve you; for those that take upon them to foretell the affairs of mankind,
as from their own abilities, are entirely unable to do it, or to forbear to
utter what God suggests to them, or to offer violence to his will; for when he
prevents us and enters into us, nothing that we say is our own.
I then did not intend to
praise this army, nor to go over the several good things which God intended to
do to their race; but since he was so favorable to them, and so ready to bestow
upon them a happy life and eternal glory, he suggested the declaration of those
things to me: but now, because it is my desire to oblige thee thyself, as well
as the Midianites, whose entreaties it is not decent for me to reject, go to,
let us again rear other altars, and offer the like sacrifices that we did
before, that I may see whether I can persuade God to permit me to bind these
men with curses."
Which, when Balak had agreed
to, God would not, even upon second sacrifices, consent to his cursing the
Israelites. (9) Then fell Balaam upon
his face, and foretold what calamities would befall the several kings of the
nations, and the most eminent cities, some of which of old were not so much as
inhabited; which events have come to pass among the several people concerned,
both in the foregoing ages, and in this, till my own memory, both by sea and by
land. From which completion of all these predictions that he made, one may
easily guess that the rest will have their completion in time to come.
6. But Balak being
very angry that the Israelites were not cursed, sent away Balaam without
thinking him worthy of any honor. Whereupon, when he was just upon his journey,
in order to pass the Euphrates, he sent for Balak, and for the princes of the
Midianites, and spake thus to them: -
"O Balak, and you Midianites
that are here present, (for I am obliged even without the will of God to
gratify you,) it is true no entire destruction can seize upon the nation of the
Hebrews, neither by war, nor by plague, nor by scarcity of the fruits of the
earth, nor can any other unexpected accident be their entire ruin; for the
providence of God is concerned to preserve them from such a misfortune; nor
will it permit any such calamity to come upon them whereby they may all perish;
but some small misfortunes, and those for a short time, whereby they may appear
to be brought low, may still befall them; but after that they will flourish
again, to the terror of those that brought those mischiefs upon them. So that
if you have a mind to gain a victory over them for a short space of time, you
will obtain it by following my directions: -
Do you therefore set out the
handsomest of such of your daughters as are most eminent for beauty,
(10) and proper to force and conquer
the modesty of those that behold them, and these decked and trimmed to the
highest degree able. Then do you send them to be near camp, and give them in
charge, that the young men of the Hebrews desire their allow it them; and when
they see they are enamored of them, let them take leaves; and if they entreat
them to stay, let give their consent till they have persuaded leave off their
obedience to their own laws, the worship of that God who established them to
worship the gods of the Midianites and for by this means God will be angry at
them". (11)
Accordingly, when Balaam had
suggested counsel to them, he went his way.
7. So when the
Midianites had sent their daughters, as Balaam had exhorted them, the Hebrew
men were allured by their beauty, and came with them, and besought them not to
grudge them the enjoyment of their beauty, nor to deny them their conversation.
These daughters of Midianites received their words gladly, and consented to it,
and staid with them; but when they brought them to be enamored of them, and
their inclinations to them were grown to ripeness, they began to think of
departing from them: then it was that these men became greatly disconsolate at
the women's departure, and they were urgent with them not to leave them, but
begged they would continue there, and become their wives; and they promised
them they should be owned as mistresses all they had. This they said with an
oath, and called God for the arbitrator of what they promised; and this with
tears in their eyes, and all such marks of concern, as might shew how miserable
they thought themselves without them, and so might move their compassion for
them. So the women, as soon as they perceived they had made their slaves, and
had caught them with their conservation began to speak thus to them: -
8.The daughters of the
Midianites said:
"O you illustrious
young men! we have of our own at home, and great plenty of good things there,
together with the natural, affectionate parents and friends; nor is it out of
our want of any such things that we came to discourse with you; nor did we
admit of your invitation with design to prostitute the beauty of our bodies for
gain; but taking you for brave and worthy men, we agreed to your request, that
we might treat you with such honors as hospitality required: and now seeing you
say that you have a great affection for us, and are troubled when you think we
are departing, we are not averse to your entreaties; and if we may receive such
assurance of your good-will as we think can be alone sufficient, we will be
glad to lead our lives with you as your wives; but we are afraid that you will
in time be weary of our company, and will then abuse us, and send us back to
our parents, after an ignominious manner."
And they desired that they
would excuse them in their guarding against that danger. But the young men
professed they would give them any assurance they should desire; nor did they
at all contradict what they requested, so great was the passion they had for
them.
"If then," said they,
"this be your resolution, since you make use of such customs and conduct of
life as are entirely different from all other men, (12) insomuch that your kinds of food are peculiar to
yourselves, and your kinds of drink not common to others, it will be absolutely
necessary, if you would have us for your wives, that you do withal worship our
gods. Nor can there be any other demonstration of the kindness which you say
you already have, and promise to have hereafter to us,than this, that you
worship the same gods that we do. For has any one reason to complain, that now
you are come into this country, you should worship the proper gods of the same
country? especially while our gods are common to all men, and yours such as
belong to nobody else but yourselves."
So they said they must either
come into such methods of divine worship as all others came into, or else they
must look out for another world, wherein they may live by themselves, according
to their own laws.
9. Now the young men
were induced by the fondness they had for these women to think they spake very
well; so they gave themselves up to what they persuaded them, and transgressed
their own laws, and supposing there were many gods, and resolving that they
would sacrifice to them according to the laws of that country which ordained
them, they both were delighted with their strange food, and went on to do every
thing that the women would have them do, though in contradiction to their own
laws; so far indeed that this transgression was already gone through the whole
army of the young men, and they fell into a sedition that was much worse than
the former, and into danger of the entire abolition of their own institutions;
for when once the youth had tasted of these strange customs, they went with
insatiable inclinations into them; and even where some of the principal men
were illustrious on account of the virtues of their fathers, they also were
corrupted together with the rest.
10. Even Zimri, the
head of the tribe of Simeon accompanied with Cozbi, a Midianitish women, who
was the daughter of Sur, a man of authority in that country; and being desired
by his wife to disregard the laws of Moses, and to follow those she was used
to, he complied with her, and this both by sacrificing after a manner different
from his own, and by taking a stranger to wife. When things were thus, Moses
was afraid that matters should grow worse, and called the people to a
congregation, but then accused nobody by name, as unwilling to drive those into
despair who, by lying concealed, might come to repentance; but he said that
they did not do what was either worthy of themselves, or of their fathers, by
preferring pleasure to God, and to the living according to his will; that it
was fit they should change their courses while their affairs were still in a
good state, and think that to be true fortitude which offers not violence to
their laws, but that which resists their lusts. And besides that, he said it
was not a reasonable thing, when they had lived soberly in the wilderness, to
act madly now when they were in prosperity; and that they ought not to lose,
now they have abundance, what they had gained when they had little: - and so
did he endeavor, by saying this, to correct the young inert, and to bring them
to repentance for what they had done.
11. But Zimri arose up
after him, and said,
"Yes, indeed, Moses, thou
art at liberty to make use of such laws as thou art so fond of, and hast, by
accustoming thyself to them, made them firm; otherwise, if things had not been
thus, thou hadst often been punished before now, and hadst known that the
Hebrews are not easily put upon; but thou shalt not have me one of thy
followers in thy tyrannical commands, for thou dost nothing else hitherto, but,
under pretense of laws, and of God, wickedly impose on us slavery, and gain
dominion to thyself, while thou deprivest us of the sweetness of life, which
consists in acting according to our own wills, and is the right of free-men,
and of those that have no lord over them. Nay, indeed, this man is harder upon
the Hebrews then were the Egyptians themselves, as pretending to punish,
according to his laws, every one's acting what is most agreeable to himself;
but thou thyself better deservest to suffer punishment, who presumest to
abolish what every one acknowledges to be what is good for him, and aimest to
make thy single opinion to have more force than that of all the rest; and what
I now do, and think to be right, I shall not hereafter deny to be according to
my own sentiments.
I have married, as thou
sayest rightly, a strange woman, and thou hearest what I do from myself as from
one that is free, for truly I did not intend to conceal myself. I also own that
I sacrificed to those gods to whom you do not think it fit to sacrifice; and I
think it right to come at truth by inquiring of many people, and not like one
that lives under tyranny, to suffer the whole hope of my life to depend upon
one man; nor shall any one find cause to rejoice who declares himself to have
more authority over my actions than myself."
12. Now when Zimri had
said these things, about what he and some others had wickedly done, the people
held their peace, both out of fear of what might come upon them, and because
they saw that their legislator was not willing to bring his insolence before
the public any further, or openly to contend with him; for he avoided that,
lest many should imitate the impudence of his language, and thereby disturb the
multitude. Upon this the assembly was dissolved. However, the mischievous
attempt had proceeded further, if Zimri had not been first slain, which came to
pass on the following occasion: - Phineas, a man in other respects better than
the rest of the young men, and also one that surpassed his contemporaries in
the dignity of his father, (for he was the son of Eleazar the high priest, and
the grandson of [Aaron] Moses's brother,) who was greatly troubled at what was
done by Zimri, he resolved in earnest to inflict punishment on him, before his
unworthy behavior should grow stronger by impunity, and in order to prevent
this transgression from proceeding further, which would happen if the
ringleaders were not punished.
He was of so great
magnanimity, both in strength of mind and body, that when he undertook any very
dangerous attempt, he did not leave it off till he overcame it, and got an
entire victory. So he came into Zimri's tent, and slew him with his javelin,
and with it he slew Cozbi also, Upon which all those young men that had a
regard to virtue, and aimed to do a glorious action, imitated Phineas's
boldness, and slew those that were found to be guilty of the same crime with
Zimri. Accordingly many of those that had transgressed perished by the
magnanimous valor of these young men; and the rest all perished by a plague,
which distemper God himself inflicted upon them; so that all those their
kindred, who, instead of hindering them from such wicked actions, as they ought
to have done, had persuaded them to go on, were esteemed by God as partners in
their wickedness, and died. Accordingly there perished out of the army no fewer
than fourteen (13) [twenty-four]
thousand at this time.
13. This was the cause
why Moses was provoked to send an army to destroy the Midianites, concerning
which expedition we shall speak presently, when we have first related what we
have omitted; for it is but just not to pass over our legislator's due
encomium, on account of his conduct here, because, although this Balaam, who
was sent for by the Midianites to curse the Hebrews, and when he was hindered
from doing it by Divine Providence, did still suggest that advice to them, by
making use of which our enemies had well nigh corrupted the whole multitude of
the Hebrews with their wiles, till some of them were deeply infected with their
opinions; yet did he do him great honor, by setting down his prophecies in
writing. And while it was in his power to claim this glory to himself, and make
men believe they were his own predictions, there being no one that could be a
witness against him, and accuse him for so doing, he still gave his attestation
to him, and did him the honor to make mention of him on this account. But let
every one think of these matters as he pleases.
Footnotes
(7) What Josephus here remarks is well worth our remark in
this place also; viz. that the Israelites were never to meddle with the
Moabites, or Ammonites, or any other people, but those belonging to the land of
Canaan, and the countries of Sihon and Og beyond Jordan, as far as the desert
and Euphrates, and that therefore no other people had reason to fear the
conquests of the Israelites; but that those countries given them by God were
their proper and peculiar portion among the nations, and that all who
endeavored to dispossess them might ever be justly destroyed by them.
(8) Note that Josephus never supposes Balaam to be an
idolater, nor to seek idolatrous enchantments, or to prophesy falsely, but to
be no other than an ill-disposed prophet of the true God; and intimates that
God's answer the second time, permitting him to go, was ironical, and on design
that he deceived (which sort of deception, by way of punishment for former
crimes, Josephus never scruples to admit, as ever esteeming such wicked men
justly and providentially deceived). But perhaps we had better keep here close
to the text which says Numbers 23:20, 21, that God only permitted Balaam to go
along with the ambassadors, in case they came and called him, or positively
insisted on his going along with them, on any terms; whereas Balaam seems out
of impatience to have risen up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and rather
to have called them, than staid for their calling him, so zealous does he seem
to have been for his reward of divination, his wages of unrighteousness,
Numbers 23:7, 17, 18, 37; 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 5, 11; which reward or wages the
truly religious prophets of God never required nor accepted, as our Josephus
justly takes notice in the cases of Samuel, Antiq. B.
V. Ch. 4. Sect. 1, and Daniel, Antiq. B. X. Ch. 11.
Sect. 3. See also Genesis 14:22, 23; 2 Kings 5:15, 16, 26, 27; and Acts
8;17-24.
(9) Whether Josephus had in his copy but two attempts of
Balaam in all to curse Israel; or whether by this his twice offering sacrifice,
he meant twice besides that first time already mentioned, which yet is not very
probable; cannot now be certainly determined. In the mean time, all other
copies have three such attempts of Balaam to curse them in the present history.
(10) Such a large and distinct account of this perversion of
the Israelites by the Midianite women, of which our other copies give us but
short intimations, Numbers 31:16 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11; Revelation 2:14, is
preserved, as Reland informs us, in the Samaritan Chronicle, in Philo, and in
other writings of the Jews, as well as here by Josephus.
(11) This grand maxim, that God's people of Israel could
never be hurt nor destroyed, but by drawing them to sin against God, appears to
be true, by the entire history of that people, both in the Bible and in
Josephus; and is often taken notice of in them both. See in particular a most
remarkable Ammonite testimony to this purpose, Judith 5:5-21.
(12) What Josephus here puts into the mouths of these
Midianite women, who came to entice the Israelites to lewdness and idolatry,
viz. that their worship of the God of Israel, in opposition to their
idol gods, implied their living according to the holy laws which the true God
had given them by Moses, in opposition to those impure laws which were observed
under their false gods, well deserves our consideration; and gives us a
substantial reason for the great concern that was ever shown under the law of
Moses to preserve the Israelites from idolatry, and in the worship of the true
God; it being of no less consequence than, Whether God's people should be
governed by the holy laws of the true God, or by the impure laws derived from
demons, under the pagan idolatry.
(13) The mistake in all Josephus's copies, Greek and Latin
which have here fourteen thousand instead of twenty-four thousand, is so
flagrant, that our very learned editors, Bernard and Hudson, have put the
latter number directly into the text. I choose rather to put it in
brackets.
|
