twelve cubits in length, and were made, say some, of cedar wood, but
others say of ruby, others of carbuncle; but the general opinion is
that they were of sapphire or emerald;[521] and the letters were
graven within them, not on the surface, so that the words could be
read on either side. When the golden calf had been pounded to dust,
Moses made the Israelites drink water in which was the dust, and those
who had kissed the idol were marked with gilt lips. Thus the Levites
were able to distinguish them; and they slew of them twenty and three
thousand.[522]
It is a common tradition among the Jews that the red hair which is by
no means infrequently met with in the Hebrew race is derived from this
period; all those who had sinned and drank of the water lost their
black hair and it became red, and they transmitted the color to their
posterity.
Another version of the story is as follows. Samiri (Micah), who had
fashioned the golden calf, was of the tribe of Levi. When Moses came
down from the Mount, he would have beaten Aaron, but his brother said,
“It is not I, it is Samiri who made the calf.” Then Moses would have
slain Samiri, but God forbade him, and ordered him instead to place him
under ban.
From that time till now, the man wanders, like a wild beast, from one
end of the earth to the other; every man avoids him, and cleanses the
earth on which his feet have rested; and when he comes near any man, he
cries out, “Touch me not!”
But before Moses drave Samiri out of the camp, he ground the calf to
powder, and made Samiri pollute it; then he mixed it with the water,
and gave it to the Israelites to drink. After Samiri had departed,
Moses interceded with God for the people. But God answered, “I cannot
pardon them, for their sin is yet in them, and it will only be purged
out by the draught they have drunk.”
When Moses returned to the camp, he heard a piteous cry. Many
Israelites with yellow faces and livid bodies cast themselves before
him, and cried, “Help! Moses, help! the golden calf consumes our
intestines; we will repent and die, if the Lord will pardon us.”
Some, really contrite, were healed. Then a black cloud came down on the
camp, and all those who were in it fought with one another and slew one
another; but upon the innocent the swords had no power. Seven thousand
idolaters had been slain, when Moses, hearing the cry of the women
and children, came and prayed; and the cloud vanished, and the sword
rested.[523]
According to some, the complaint caused by swallowing the dust of the
calf was jaundice, a complaint which has never ceased from among men
since that day. Thus the calf brought two novelties into the world, red
hair and jaundice.
And Moses went up again into the Mount, and took with him seventy
of the elders. And he besought the Lord, “Suffer me, O Lord, to see
Thee!”[524] But the Lord answered him, “Thinkest thou that thou canst
behold Me and live?” And He said, “Look at this mountain; I will
display Myself to this mountain.”
Then the mountain saw God, and it dissolved into fine dust. So Moses
knew that it was not for him to see God, and he repented that he had
asked this thing.[525] After that he went with the seventy elders to
Sinai, and a cloud, white and glistening, came down and rested on the
head of Moses, and then descended and wholly enveloped him, so that the
seventy saw him not; and when he was in the cloud, he received again
the Tables of the Commandments, and he came forth out of the cloud. But
they murmured that they had not also received the revelation. Then the
cloud enveloped them also, and they heard all the words that had been
spoken to Moses; and after that they said, “Now we believe, because we
have heard with our own ears.”
Then the wrath of God blazed forth, and a thundering was heard so great
and terrible that they fainted and died. But Moses feared, and he
prayed to God, and God restored the seventy men to life again, and they
came down the Mount with him.[526]
And it was at this time that the face of Moses shone with the splendor
which had come upon him from the brightness of the glory of the
Lord’s Shekinah in the time of His speaking with him. And Aaron and
all the sons of Israel saw Moses, and, behold, the glory of his face
was dazzling, so that they were afraid to come near to him. And Moses
called to them, and Aaron, and all the princes of the congregation;
and he taught them all that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai.
And when Moses spoke with them, he had a veil upon his face; and
when he went up to speak with the Lord, he removed the veil from his
countenance until he came forth.[527]
This was the reason why the face of Moses shone. He saw the light which
God had created, whereby Adam was enabled to see from one end of the
earth to the other. God showed this light now to Moses, and thereby he
was able to see to Dan.[528]
When Moses went up into the Mount, a cloud received him, and bore him
into heaven. On his way, he met the doorkeeper Kemuel, chief of twelve
thousands of angels of destruction; they were angels of fire; and he
would have prevented Moses from advancing: then Moses pronounced the
Name in twelve letters, revealed to him by God from the Burning Bush,
and the angel and his host recoiled before that word twelve thousand
leagues. But some say that Moses smote the angel, and wounded him.
A little further, Moses met another angel; this was Hadarniel, who had
a terrible voice, and every word he uttered split into twelve thousand
lightnings; he reigned six hundred thousand leagues higher than Kemuel.
Moses, in fear, wept at his voice, and would have fallen out of the
cloud, had not God restrained him. Then the prophet pronounced the Name
of seventy-two letters, and the angel fled.
Next he came to the fiery angel Sandalfon, and he would have fallen
out of the cloud, but God held him up. Then he reached the river of
flame, called Rigjon, which flows from the beasts which are beneath the
Throne, and is filled with their sweat; across this God led him.[529]
It is asserted by the Rabbis that Moses learnt the whole law in the
forty days that he was in the Mount, but as he descended from the
immediate presence of God, he entered the region where stood the angels
guarding the Mount, and when he saw the Angel of Fear, the Angel of
Sweat, the Angel of Trembling, and the Angel of Cold Shuddering, he
was so filled with consternation, that he forgot all that he had
learnt. Then God sent the Angel Jephipha, who brought back all to his
remembrance; and, armed with the law, Moses passed the ranks of all the
angels, and each gave him some secret or mystery; one the art of mixing
simples, one that of reading in the stars, another that of compounding
antidotes, a fourth the secret of name, or the Kabalistic mystery.[530]
It is said by the Mussulmans, that when the law was declared to the
children of Israel by Moses, they refused to receive it; then Mount
Sinai rose into the air, and moved above them, and they fled from it;
but it followed them, and hung over their heads ready to crush them.
And Moses said, “Accept the law, or the mountain will fall on you and
destroy you.”
Then they fell on their faces and placed the right side of the brow and
right cheek against the ground and looked up with the left eye at the
mountain that hung above them, and said, “We will accept the law.” This
is the manner in which the Jews to this day perform their worship, says
Tabari; they place the brow and right cheek and eye upon the ground,
and turn the left cheek and eye to heaven, and in this position they
pray.[531]
7. THE MANNA. (Exod. xvi.)
All the time that Israel wandered in the wilderness they were given
manna, or angels’ food. This food is ground by the angels in heaven, as
Moses saw when he was there. For when Moses was in heaven, he knew not
when it was night and when it was day, till he listened to the song of
the angels; and when they sang “Holy God,” then he knew it was morning
below on earth; and when they sang “Blessed be thou,” he knew it was
evening below. Also he observed the angels grinding the manna and
casting it down; and then he knew it was night, and they were strewing
it for the Israelites to gather in the morning.[532] It is in the third
firmament, called Schechakim (clouds), that the mills are in which
manna is ground.[533] Along with the manna fell pearls and diamonds,
and on the mountain it was heaped so high that it could be seen from
afar.[534]
And the manna, this bread from heaven, contained in itself all
sweetness; and whatsoever any man desired to eat, the manna tasted to
him as if it were that food.[535] Thus, if any one said, “I wish I had
a fat bird,” the manna tasted like a fat bird. But usually it had the
taste of cakes made of oil, honey, and fine flour, according to the
words of the Lord, “_My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and
oil, and honey wherewith I fed thee_” (Ezek. xvi. 10).[536] The Targum
of Palestine thus describes the fall of the manna:--In the morning
there was a fall of holy dew, prepared as a table,[537] round about
the camp; and the clouds ascended and caused manna to descend upon the
dew; and there was upon the face of the desert a minute substance in
lines, minute as the hoar frost upon the ground. And the sons of Israel
beheld, and wondered, and said to one another, “Man hu?” (What is it?)
for they knew not what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread
which hath been laid up for you from the beginning in the heavens on
high, and now the Lord will give it you to eat. This is the word which
the Lord hath dictated: You are to gather of it; every man according to
the number of the persons of his tabernacle.”
And the children of Israel did so, and gathered manna more or less. And
Moses said to them, “Let no man reserve of it till the morning.”
But some of them, Dathan and Abiram, men of wickedness, did reserve of
it till the morning; but it produced worms, and putrefied. And they
gathered from the time of the dawn until the fourth hour of the day;
when the sun had waxed hot upon it, it liquefied and made streams of
water, which flowed away into the great sea; and wild animals that were
clean, and cattle, came to drink of it; and the sons of Israel hunted,
and ate them.[538]
Some of the Gentiles, the Edomites and Midianites, came up, and, seeing
the chosen people eating, they also gathered of the manna and tasted,
but it was to them as wormwood.[539]
8. THE SMITTEN ROCK. (Exod. xvii. 1-7.)
And all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed from the
desert of Sin and encamped in Rephidim, a place where their hands were
idle in the commandments of the law, and the fountains were dry, and
there was no water for the people to drink.
And the wicked of the people contended with Moses, and said “Give us
water that we may drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why contend ye with
me? Why tempt ye the Lord?”
But the people were athirst for water, and the people murmured against
Moses and said, “Why hast thou made us come up out of Egypt to kill us,
and our children, and our cattle, with thirst?”
And Moses prayed before the Lord, saying, “What shall I do for this
people? Yet a little while, and they will stone me.”
And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass over before the people, and take the
rod, with which thou didst smite the river, in thine hand, and go from
the face of their murmuring. Behold, I will stand before thee there,
on the spot where thou sawest the impression of the foot on Horeb; and
thou shalt smite the rock with thy rod, and therefrom shall come forth
waters for drinking, and the people shall drink.”
And Moses did so before the Elders of Israel. And he called the name of
that place Temptation and Strife; because the people strove with him
there, and tempted God.[540]
Tabari gives these particulars concerning the smitten rock. In the
desert there was no water. Moses prayed to God, and He commanded him to
strike a rock with his staff.
Some say that this was an ordinary stone in the desert, others that
it was a stone from Sinai which Moses carried about with him that he
might stand on it whenever he prayed. Moses struck the rock, and twelve
streams spouted from it.
Then Moses said, “You have manna and quails in abundance, gather only
sufficient for the day, and you shall have fresh on the morrow.” But
they would not obey his word; therefore the Lord withdrew the birds,
and the people were famished. Then Moses besought the Lord, and the
quails were restored to them. And this is how the quails fell in the
camp.[541] A wind smote them as they flew over the camp, and broke
their wings.
Then the people murmured again, and said to Moses, “The heat is
intolerable, we cannot endure it.”
So he prayed, and God sent a cloud to overshadow Israel; and it gave
them cool shade all the day.[542]
After that they complained, “We want clothes.” Then God wrought a
marvel, and their clothes waxed not old and ragged, nor did their shoes
wear out, nor did dirt and dust settle on their garments.[543]
It is also commonly related that the rock followed the Israelites,
like the pillar of fire and the manna, all the time they went through
the wilderness; to this tradition S. Paul alludes when he says, “_They
drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was
Christ._”[544]
9. MOSES VISITS EL KHOUDR.
One day, say the Mussulmans, Moses boasted before Joshua of his wisdom.
Then said God to him, “Go to the place where the sea of the Greeks
joins the Persian Gulf, and there you will find one who surpasses you
in wisdom.”
Moses therefore announced to the Hebrews, who continued their murmurs,
that, in punishment for their stiffneckedness and rebellion, they were
condemned by God to wander for forty years in the desert.
Then having asked God how he should recognize the wise man of whom God
had spoken to him, he was bidden take a fish in a basket; “and,” said
God, “the fish will lead thee to my faithful servant.”
Moses went on his way with Joshua, having the fish in a basket. In the
evening he arrived on the shore of the sea and fell asleep.
When he awoke in the morning, Joshua forgot to take the fish, and
Moses not regarding it, they had advanced far on their journey before
they remembered that they had neglected the basket and fish. Then they
returned and sought where they had slept, but they found the basket
empty. As they were greatly troubled at this loss, they saw the fish
before them, standing upright like a man, in the sea; and it led them,
and they followed along the coast; and they did not stay till their
guide suddenly vanished.
Supposing that they had reached their destination, they explored the
neighborhood, and found a cave, at the entrance to which were inscribed
these words, “In the Name of the all-powerful and all-merciful God.”
Joshua and Moses, entering this cavern, found a man seated there,
fresh and blooming, but with white hair and a long white beard which
descended to his feet. This was the prophet El Khoudr.
Some say he was the same as Elias, some that he was Jeremiah, some that
he was Lot, and some that he was Jonah. The greatest uncertainty reigns
as to who El Khoudr really is. All that is known of him is that he went
with Alexander the Two-horned, to the West, and drank of the fountain
of immortality, and thenceforth he lives an undying life, ever fresh,
but also marked with the signs of a beautiful old age.
El Khoudr derives his name from the circumstance of his having sat on
a bare stone, and when he rose from it the stone was green and covered
with grass.[545]
In later times he was put to death for the true faith with various
horrible tortures, by an idolatrous king, but he revived after each
execution.
The explanation of the mystery of El Khoudr is this. He is the old
Sun-god Thammuz of the Sabæans, and when he was dethroned by Mohammed,
he sank in popular tradition to the level of a prophet, and all the old
myths of the Sun-god were related of the prophet.
His wandering to the West is the sun setting there; his drinking there
of the well of immortality is the sun plunging into the sea. His
clothing the dry rock with grass is significant of the power of the sun
over vegetation. His torments are figures of the sun setting, in storm,
in flames of crimson, or swallowed by the black thunder-cloud: but from
all his perils he rises again in glory in the eastern sky.[546]
Moses said to El Khoudr, “Take me for thy disciple, permit me to
accompany thee, and to admire the wisdom God hath given thee.”
“Thou canst not understand it,” answered the venerable man. “Moreover,
thy stay with me is short.”
“I will be patient and submissive,” said Moses; “for God’s sake, reject
me not.”
“Thou mayest follow me,” said the sage. “But ask me no questions, and
wait till I give thee, at my pleasure, the sense of that which thou
comprehendest not.”
Moses accepted the condition, and El Khoudr led him to the sea, where
was a ship at anchor. The prophet took a hatchet, and cut two timbers
out of her side, so that she foundered.
“What art thou doing?” asked Moses; “the people on board the ship will
be drowned.”
“Did I not say to thee that thou wouldst not remain patient for long?”
said the sage.
“Pardon me,” said Moses; “I forgot what I had promised.”
El Khoudr continued his course. Soon they met a beautiful child who was
playing with shells on the sea-shore. The prophet took a knife which
hung at his girdle, and cut the throat of the child.
“Wherefore hast thou killed the innocent?” asked Moses, in horror.
“Did I not say to thee,” repeated El Khoudr, “that thy journey with me
would be short?”
“Pardon me once more,” said Moses; “if I raise my voice again, drive me
from thee.”
After having continued their journey for some way, they arrived at a
large town, hungry and tired. But no one would take them in, or give
them food, except for money.
El Khoudr, seeing that the wall of a large house, from which he had
been driven away, menaced ruin, set it up firmly, and then retired.
Moses was astonished, and said, “Thou hast done the work of several
masons for many days. Ask for a wage which will pay for our lodging.”
Then answered the old man, “We must separate. But before we part, I
will explain what I have done. The ship which I injured belongs to a
poor family. If it had sailed, it would have fallen into the hands of
pirates. The injury I did can be easily repaired, and the delay will
save the vessel for those worthy people who own her. The child I killed
had a bad disposition, and it would have corrupted its parents. In its
place God will give them pious children. The house which I repaired
belongs to orphans, whose father was a man of substance. It has been
let to unworthy people. Under the wall is hidden a treasure. Had the
tenants mended the wall, they would have found and kept the treasure.
Now the wall will stand till its legitimate owners come into the house,
when they will find the treasure. Thou seest I have not acted blindly
and foolishly.”
Moses asked pardon of the prophet, and he returned to his people in the
wilderness.[547]
The same story, with some variation in the incidents, is related in the
Talmud.
God, seeing Moses uneasy, called him to the summit of a mountain,
and deigned to explain to him how He governed the world. He bade the
prophet look upon the earth. He saw a fountain flowing at the foot of
the mountain. A soldier went to it to drink. A young man came next to
the fountain, and finding a purse of gold, which the soldier had left
there by accident, he kept it and went his way.
The soldier, having lost his purse, returned to search for it, and
demanded it of an old man whom he found seated by the spring. The old
man protested that he had not found it, and called God to witness the
truth of his assertion. But the soldier disbelieving him, drew his
sword upon him and killed him.
Moses was filled with horror. But God said to him: “Be not surprised at
this event; this old man had murdered the father of the soldier; the
soldier would have wasted the money in riotous living; in the hands of
the youth it will serve to nourish his aged parents, who are dying of
poverty.”[548]
10. THE MISSION OF THE SPIES. (Numb. xiii. xiv.)
And the Lord spake with Moses, saying, “Send thou keen-sighted men men
who may explore the land of Canaan, which I will give to the children
of Israel; one man for each tribe of their fathers shalt thou send from
the presence of all their leaders.”
And Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran; all of them acute
men, who had been appointed heads over the sons of Israel. And Moses
said to them, “Go up on this side by the south, and ascend the
mountain, and survey the country, what it is, and the people who dwell
in it; whether they be strong or weak, few or many; what the land is in
which they dwell, whether good or bad; what the cities they inhabit,
whether they live in towns that are open or walled; and the reputation
of the land, whether its productions are rich or poor, and the trees
of it be fruitful or not; and do valiantly, and bring back some of the
fruit of the land.”
And the day on which they went was the nineteenth of the month Sivan,
about the days of the first grapes. They came to the stream of the
grapes in Eshkol, and cut from thence a branch, with one cluster of
grapes, and carried it on a rod between two men; and also of the
pomegranates, and of the figs; and the wine dropped from them like a
stream.[549]
And when they returned, they related, “We have seen the land which
we are to conquer with the sword, and it is good and fruitful. The
strongest camel is scarcely able to carry one bunch of grapes; one ear
of corn yields enough to feed a whole family; and one pomegranate shell
could contain five armed men. But the inhabitants of the land and their
cities are in keeping with the productions of the soil. We saw men,
the smallest of whom was six hundred cubits high. They were astonished
at us on account of our diminutive stature, and laughed at us. Their
houses are also in proportion, walled up to heaven, so that an eagle
could hardly soar above them.”[550]
When the spies had given this report, the Israelites murmured, and
said, “We are not able to go up to the people, for they are stronger
than we.”
And the spies said, “The country is a land that killeth its inhabitants
with diseases; and all the people who are in it are giants, masters of
evil ways. And we appeared as locusts before them.”
And all the congregation lifted up their voices and wept; and it was
confirmed that that day, the ninth of the month Ab, should be one of
weeping for ever to that people; and it has ever after been one of a
succession of calamities in the history of the Jews.
“Would that we had died in the land of Egypt,” said the people; “would
that we had died in the wilderness. Why has the Lord brought us into
this land, to fall by the sword of the Canaanites, and our wives and
little ones to become a prey?”[551]
Then the Lord was wroth with the spies, and the earth opened her mouth
and swallowed them up, saving only Joshua and Caleb, who had not given
an evil report of the land.[552]
The account of the Targum of Palestine is different. The Targum says
that the men who had brought an evil report of the land died on the
seventh day of the month Elul, with worms coming from their navels, and
with worms devouring their tongues.[553]
The Rabbis relate that though for the wickedness of men the
fruitfulness of the Holy Land diminished, yet in places it remained as
great as of old. “The Raf Chiji, son of Ada, was the teacher of the
children of the Resch Lakisch; and once he was absent three days, and
the children were without instruction. When he returned, the Resch
Lakisch asked him why he had been so long absent. He answered, ‘My
father sent me to his vine, which is bound to a tree, and I gathered
from it, the first day, three hundred bunches of grapes, which gave as
much juice as would fill two hundred and eighty and eight egg-shells
(three gerabhs). Next day I cut three hundred bunches, of which two
gave one gerabh. The third day I cut three hundred bunches, which
yielded one gerabh of juice; and I left more than half the bunches
uncut.’ Then said the Resch Lakisch to him, ‘If thou hadst been more
diligent in the education of my children, the vine would have yielded
yet more.’
“Rami, son of Ezechiel, once went to the inhabitants of Berak, and
saw goats feeding under the fig-trees, and the milk flowed from their
udders, and the honey dropped from the figs, and the two mingled in one
stream. Then he said, ‘This is the land promised to our forefathers,
flowing with milk and honey.’
“The Rabbi Jacob, son of Dosethai, said that from Lud to Ono is three
miles, and in the morning twilight I started on my way, and I was over
ankles in honey out of the figs.
“The Resch Lakisch said that he had himself seen a stream of milk and
honey in the neighborhood of Zippori, sixteen miles long and the same
breadth.