|
2. But Moses was now
grown old, and appointed Joshua for his successor, both to receive directions
from God as a prophet, and for a commander of the army, if they should at any
time stand in need of such a one; and this was done by the command of God, that
to him the care of the public should be committed. Now Joshua had been
instructed in all those kinds of learning which concerned the laws and God
himself, and Moses had been his instructor.
3. At this time it was
that the two tribes of Gad and Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh, abounded
in a multitude of cattle, as well as in all other kinds of prosperity; whence
they had a meeting, and in a body came and besought Moses to give them, as
their peculiar portion, that land of the Amorites which they had taken by right
of war, because it was fruitful, and good for feeding of cattle; but Moses,
supposing that they were afraid of fighting with the Canaanites, and invented
this provision for their cattle as a handsome excuse for avoiding that war, he
called them arrant cowards, and said they had only contrived a decent
excuse for that cowardice; and that they had a mind to live in luxury and ease,
while all the rest were laboring with great pains to obtain the land they were
desirous to have; and that they were not willing to march along, and undergo
the remaining hard service, whereby they were, under the Divine promise, to
pass over Jordan, and overcome those our enemies which God had shown them, and
so obtain their land.
But these tribes, when they
saw that Moses was angry with them, and when they could not deny but he had a
just cause to be displeased at their petition, made an apology for themselves;
and said, that it was not on account of their fear of dangers, nor on account
of their laziness, that they made this request to him, but that they might
leave the prey they had gotten in places of safety, and thereby might be more
expedite, and ready to undergo difficulties, and to fight battles. They added
this also, that when they had built cities, wherein they might preserve their
children, and wives, and possessions, if he would bestow them upon them, they
would go along with the rest of the army. Hereupon Moses was pleased with what
they said; so he called for Eleazar the high priest, and Joshua, and the chief
of the tribes, and permitted these tribes to possess the land of the Amorites;
but upon this condition, that they should join with their kinsmen in the war
until all things were settled. Upon which condition they took possession of the
country, and built them strong cities, and put into them their children and
their wives, and whatsoever else they had that might be an impediment to the
labors of their future marches.
4. Moses also now built
those ten cities which were to be of the number of the forty-eight [for the
Levites;]; three of which he allotted to those that slew any person
involuntarily, and fled to them; and he assigned the same time for their
banishment with that of the life of that high priest under whom the slaughter
and flight happened; after which death of the high priest he permitted the
slayer to return home. During the time of his exile, the relations of him that
was slain may, by this law, kill the manslayer, if they caught him without the
bounds of the city to which he fled, though this permission was not granted to
any other person. Now the cities which were set apart for this flight were
these: Bezer, at the borders of Arabia; Ramoth, of the land of Gilead; and
Golan, in the land of Bashan. There were to be also, by Moses's command, three
other cities allotted for the habitation of these fugitives out of the cities
of the Levites, but not till after they should be in possession of the land of
Canaan.
5. At this time the
chief men of the tribe of Manasseh came to Moses, and informed him that there
was an eminent man of their tribe dead, whose name was Zelophehad, who left no
male children, but left daughters; and asked him whether these daughters might
inherit his land or not. He made this answer, That if they shall marry into
their own tribe, they shall carry their estate along with them; but if they
dispose of themselves in marriage to men of another tribe, they shall leave
their inheritance in their father's tribe. And then it was that Moses ordained,
that every one's inheritance should continue in his own tribe.
Footnotes
(14) The slaughter of all the Midianite women that had
prostituted themselves to the lewd Israelites, and the preservation of those
that had not been guilty therein; the last of which were no fewer than
thirty-two thousand, both here and Numbers 31:15-17, 35, 40, 46, and both by
the particular command of God; are highly remarkable, and show that, even in
nations otherwise for their wickedness doomed to destruction, the innocent were
sometimes particularly and providentially taken care of, and delivered from
that destruction; which directly implies, that it was the wickedness of the
nations of Canaan, and nothing else, that occasioned their excision. See
Genesis 15;16; 1 Samuel 15:18, 33; Apost. Constit. B. VIII. Ch. 12. p. 402. In
the first of which places, the reason of the delay of the punishment of the
Amorites is given, because "their iniquity was not yet full." In the secured,
Saul is ordered to go and "destroy the sinners, the Amalekites;" plainly
implying that they were therefore to be destroyed, because they were sinners,
and not otherwise.
In the third, the reason is
given why king Agag was not to be spared, viz. because of his former
cruelty:"As thy sword hath made the (Hebrew) women childless, so shall thy
mother be made childless among women by the Hebrews." In the last place, the
apostles, or their amanuensis Clement, gave this reason for the
necessity of the coming of Christ, that
"men had formerly
perverted both the positive law, and that of nature; and had cast out of their
mind the memory of the Flood, the burning of Sodom, the plagues of the
Egyptians, and the slaughter of the inhabitants of Palestine,"
as signs of the most amazing
impenitence and insensibility, under the punishments of horrid
wickedness.
|
