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Numbers, we find that some spies were sent over
into the promised land, and that they brought back
grapes and figs and pomegranates, and reported that
the whole land was flowing with milk and honey, but
that the people were strong, that the cities were
walled, and that the nations in the promised land
were mightier than the Hebrews. They reported that
all the people they met were men of a great stature,
that they had seen "the giants, the sons of Anak
"which come of giants," compared with whom the
Israelites were "in their own sight as grasshoppers,
"and so were we in their sight." Entirely discour-
aged by these reports, "all the congregation lifted up
"their voice and cried, and the people wept that
"night * * * and murmured against Moses and
"against Aaron, and said unto them: Would God
"that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would
"God we had died in this wilderness!" Some of
them thought that it would be better to go back,--
that they might as well be slaves in Egypt as to be
food for giants in the promised land. They did not
want their bones crunched between the teeth of the
sons of Anak.
Jehovah got angry again, and said to Moses:
"How long will these people provoke me? * * *
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"I will smite them with pestilence, and disinherit
"them." But Moses said: Lord, if you do this,
the Egyptians will hear of it, and they will say that
you were not able to bring your people into the
promised land. Then he proceeded to flatter him by
telling him how merciful and long-suffering he had
been. Finally, Jehovah concluded to pardon the
people this time, but his pardon depended upon the
violation of his promise, for he said: "They shall
"not see the land which I sware unto their fathers,
"neither shall any of them that provoked me see it;
"but my servant Caleb, * * * him will I bring
"into the land." And Jehovah said to the people:
"Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, and all
"that were numbered of you according to your
"whole number, from twenty years old and upward,
"which have murmured against me, ye shall not
"come into the land concerning which I sware to
"make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of
"Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. But your
"little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them
"will I bring in, and they shall know the land
"which ye have despised. But as for you, your
"carcasses shall fall in this wilderness. And your
"children shall wander in the wilderness forty
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"years * * * until your carcasses be wasted in
"the wilderness."
And all this because the people were afraid of
giants, compared with whom they were but as grass-
hoppers.
So we find that at one time the people became
exceedingly hungry. They had no flesh to eat.
There were six hundred thousand men of war, and
they had nothing to feed on but manna. They
naturally murmured and complained, and thereupon a
wind from the Lord went forth and brought quails
from the sea, (quails are generally found in the sea,)
"and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's
"journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey
"on the other side, round about the camp, and as it
"were two cubits high upon the face of the earth.
"And the people stood up all that day, and all that
"night, and all the next day, and they gathered the
"quails. * * * And while the flesh was yet be-
"tween their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of
"the Lord was kindled against the people, and the
"Lord smote the people with a very great plague."
Yet he is slow to anger, long-suffering, merciful
and just.