came to a place where they were offered a honeycomb as large as the
frying-pan of the village Heiro; they ate a portion, they gave their
asses a portion, and they distributed a portion to any one who would
take it.
“Rabbi Joshua, son of Levi, once came to Gabla, and saw grape-bunches
in a vineyard, as big as calves, hanging between the vines, and he
said, ‘The calves are in the vineyard.’ But the inhabitants told him
they were grapes. Then said he, ‘O land, land! withdraw thy fruits. Do
not offer to these heathen those fruits which have been taken from us
on account of our sins.’
“A year after, Rabbi Chija passed that way, and he saw the bunches like
goats. So he said, ‘The goats are in the vineyard.’ But the inhabitants
said, ‘They are grape-bunches; depart from us and do not unto us as did
your fellow last year.’”[554]
11. OF KORAH AND HIS COMPANY. (Numb. xvi.)
And the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the sons of Israel, and bid them
make fringes not of threads, nor of yarn, nor of fibre, but after a
peculiar fashion shall they make them. They shall cut off the heads
of the filaments, and suspend by five ligatures, four in the midst of
three, upon the four corners of their garments, and they shall put
upon the edge of their garments a border of blue (or embroidery of
hyacinth).”[555]
But Korah, son of Ezhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, with Dathan and
Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben,
refused to wear the blue border.
Moses had said, “The fringes are to be of white, with one line of
blue;” but Korah said, “I will make mine altogether of blue;” and the
two hundred and fifty men of the sons of Israel, who had been leaders
of the congregation at the time when the journeys and encampments were
appointed, supported Korah.[556]
Korah was a goldsmith, and Moses greatly honored him, for he was his
cousin, and the handsomest man of all Israel. When Moses returned from
the mount, he bade Korah destroy the calf; but the fire would not
consume it. Then Moses prayed and God showed him the philosopher’s
stone, which is a plant that grows in great abundance by the shores
of the Red Sea, but none knew of its virtues before. Now, this plant
turns metals into gold, and also if a twig of it be cast into gold, it
dissolves it away. Moses instructed Korah in the virtues of this herb.
Then Korah dissolved the calf by means of it, but he also used it to
convert base metals into gold, and thus he became very rich.
Korah had great quantities of this herb, and he made vast stores of
gold. He accumulated treasures. What he desired he bought, and he
surrounded himself with servants clad in cloth of gold. He built brick
houses with brass doors, and filled them to the roof with gold, and he
made his servants walk before him with the keys of his treasure-houses
hung round their necks. He had twenty men carrying these keys; and
still he increased in wealth, so he placed the keys on camels; and when
he still built more treasuries and turned more substance into gold, he
increased the number of keys to such an extent that he had sixty camel
loads of them. Moses knew whence Korah derived his wealth, but the rest
of the congregation of Israel knew not.
After that, Korah did that which was wrong, and he broke the
commandment of Moses, and would have no blue border on his servants’
tunics, but habited them in scarlet, and mounted them on red horses.
Neither did he confine himself to the meats which Moses permitted as
clean.
Then God ordered Moses to ask Korah to give one piece of money for
every thousand that he possessed. But Korah refused. This state of
affairs continued ten years. When his destiny was accomplished, he was
lifted up with pride, and he resolved to humble Moses before all the
people.
Now, there was among the children of Israel a woman of bad character.
Korah gave her large bribes, and said to her, “I will assemble all the
congregation, and bring Moses before them, and do thou bring a false
accusation against him.”
The woman consented.
Then Korah did as he had said; and when all the assembly of Israel was
gathered together, he spake against Moses all that the lying witness
had invented. Then he brought forth the woman. But when she saw all the
elders of the congregation before her, she feared, and she said, “Korah
hath suborned me with gold to speak false witness against Moses, to
cause him to be put to death.”
And when Korah was thus convicted, Moses cried, “Get yourselves up and
separate from him.” Then all the people fled away from him on either
side. And the earth opened her lips and closed them on Korah’s feet to
the ankles.
But Korah laughed, and said, “What magic is this?”
Moses cried, “Earth, seize him!”
Then the earth seized him to his knees.
Korah said, “O Moses! ask the earth to release me, and I will do all
thou desirest of me.”
But Moses was very wroth, and he would not hearken, but cried, “Earth
seize him!”
Then the earth seized him to the waist.
Korah pleaded for his life. He said, “I will do all thou desirest of
me, only release me!”
But Moses cried again, “Earth, seize him!”
And the earth gulped him down as far as his breast, and his hands were
under the earth.
Once more he cried, “Moses! spare me and release me, because of our
relationship!”
Moses was filled with bitterness, and he bade the earth swallow him;
and he went down quick into the pit, and was seen no more.
Then, when Moses was returning thanks to God, the Lord turned His face
away from him and said, “Thy servant asked of thee forgiveness so many
times, and thou didst not forgive him.”
Moses answered, “O Lord, I desired that he should ask pardon of Thee
and not of me.”
The Lord said, “If he had cried but once to Me, I would have forgiven
him.”[557]
The earth swallowed Korah and seventy men, and they are retained in the
earth along with all his treasures till the Resurrection Day.
Every Thursday, Korah, Dathan and Abiram go before the Messiah, and
they ask, “When wilt Thou come and release us from our prison? When
will the end of these wonders be?”
But the Messiah answers them, “Go and ask the Patriarchs;” but this
they are ashamed to do.[558]
They sit in the third mansion of Sheol, not in any lowest one; nor are
they there tormented, because Korah promised to hear and obey Moses, as
he was being engulfed.[559]
The Arabic name for Korah is Karoun, and under this name he has
returned to Rabbinic legends, and the identity of Korah and Karoun has
not been observed.
The Rabbis relate of Karoun that he is an evil angel, and that Moses
dug a deep pit for him in the land of Gad, and cast him into it. But
whenever the Israelites sinned, Karoun crept out of his subterranean
dwelling and plagued them.[560]
This is a curious instance of allegorizing upon a false interpretation
of a name. The Karoun of the Mussulmans is clearly identical with
Korah, but Karoun in Hebrew means Anger, and Karoun was supposed to be
the Angel of the Anger of the Lord, and the story of his emerging from
his pit to punish the sinful Israelites is simply a figurative mode of
saying that the anger of the Lord came upon them.
12. THE WARS OF THE ISRAELITES.
The children of Israel had many foes to contend with. Amongst these
were the Amorites. They hid in caves to form an ambuscade against the
people of God, intending, when the Israelites had penetrated into a
defile between two mountains, to sally forth upon them and to overthrow
them. But they did not know that the ark went before Israel, smoothing
the rough places and levelling the mountains.[561] Now, when the ark
drew near the place where the ambush was, the mountains fell in upon
the Amorites, and the Israelites passed on, and knew not that they had
been delivered from a great danger. But there were two lepers named
Eth and Hav, who followed the camp and they saw the blood bubbling out
from under the mountain; and thus the fate of the Amorites was made
known.[562]
The Israelites found a redoubtable enemy in Og, king of Bashan, who was
one of the giants who had been saved from the old world by clambering
on the roof of the ark; but his weight had so depressed the vessel,
that Noah was obliged to turn out the hippopotamus and rhinoceros to
preserve the ark from foundering.
Og determined to destroy Moses. Moses was ten cubits in height, and
when Og came against him, he took a hatchet of ten cubits’ length, and
he made a jump into the air, and hit Og on the ankle. Og tore up a
mountain, and put it on his head to throw it upon Moses; but the ants
ate out the inside of the mountain, and it sank over Og’s head to his
neck, and he could not draw his head out, for his teeth grew into tusks
and thrust through the mountain, and he was blinded and caught as in a
trap. Thus Moses was able to slay him.[563]
Some further details on Og, furnished by the Rabbis, will assist the
reader in estimating the powers of Moses.
At one meal, Og ate a thousand oxen and as many wild roes, and his
drink was a thousand firkins; one drop of the sweat from his brow
weighed thirty-six pounds.[564] Of his size the following authentic
details are given. The Rabbi Johanan said, “I was once a grave-digger,
and I ran after a deer, and went in at one end of a shin-bone of a dead
man, and I ran for three miles and could not catch the deer or reach
the end of the bone. When I went back, I inquired, and was told that
this was the shin-bone of Og, king of Bashan.”[565] The sole of his
foot was forty miles long. Once, when he was quarrelling with Abraham,
one of his teeth fell out, and Abraham made a bed out of the tooth, and
slept in it; but some say he made a chair out of it.[566]
When the Israelites came to Edrei and fought against it, in the night
Og came and sat down on the wall, and his feet reached the ground. Next
morning Moses looked out and said, “I do not understand how the men of
Edrei can have built a second wall so high during the night.”
Then it was revealed to him that what he had taken for a wall was
Og.[567] Og had built sixty cities, and the smallest was sixty miles
high. These cities were in Argob.[568]
The Moabites also resisted Israel, and they were encouraged by Balaam
the son of Beor.
Balak, king of Moab, sent to Balaam to curse Israel. Then Balaam rose
in the morning and made ready his ass, and went with the princes of
Moab. The Mussulman account is that Balaam, having been told by God
not to go, resolved to obey, but the princes of Moab bribed his wife,
and she gave him no peace till he consented to go to Balak with his
messengers.[569] But the anger of the Lord was kindled, because he
would go to curse them, and the angel of the Lord stood in the way to
be an adversary to him. But he sat upon his ass, and his two sons,
Jannes and Jambres, were with him.
And the ass discerned the angel of the Lord standing in the way with a
drawn sword in his hand, and the ass turned aside out of the road to
go into the field; and Balaam smote the ass. And the angel of the Lord
stood in a narrow path that was in the midst between the vineyards,
in the place where Jacob and Laban raised the mound, the pillars on
this side and the observatory on that side,[570] that neither should
pass the limit to do evil to the other. And as the ass discerned the
angel of the Lord, and thrust herself against the hedge, and bruised
Balaam’s foot by the hedge, he smote her again. Ten things were created
after the world had been founded at the coming in of the Sabbath
between sunset and sunrise,--the manna, the well, the rod of Moses, the
diamond, the rainbow, the cloud of glory, the mouth of the earth, the
writing on the tables of the covenant, the demons, and the speaking ass.
Then the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said to Balaam,
“What have I done to thee, that thou hast smitten me twice?”
And Balaam said to the ass, “Because thou hast been false to me; if
there were now a sword in my hand, I would kill thee.”
And the ass said to Balaam, “Woe to thee, wanting in understanding!
Behold thou hast not power with all thy skill to curse me, an unclean
beast, which am to die in this world and not to enter the world to
come; how much less canst thou curse the children of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, on whose account the world was created.”[571]
Balaam finding that he could not curse the people, and that they were
under the protection of the Most High, saw that the only way to ruin
them was by leading them into sin. Therefore he advised Balak, and the
king appointed the daughter of the Midianites for the tavern-booths
at Beth Jeshimoth, by the snow mountain, where they sold sweetmeats
cheaper than their price. And Israel trafficked with them for their
sweet cakes; and when the maidens brought out the image of Peor from
their bundles, the Israelites did not notice it to take it away, and
becoming accustomed to it they went on to sacrifice to it.[572]
And Moses saw one of the sons of Israel come by, holding a Midianitess
by the hand, and Moses rebuked him. Then said the man, “What is it that
is wrong in this? Didst not thou thyself take to wife a Midianitess,
the daughter of Jethro?”
When Moses heard this, he trembled and swooned away. But Phinehas
cried, “Where are the lions of the tribe of Judah?” and he took a lance
in his hand, and slew the man and the woman.
Twelve miracles were wrought for Phinehas, but they need not be
repeated here.[573]
Then all the Israelites went forth against the Midianites and defeated
them; and when they numbered the slain, Balaam and his sons were
discovered among the dead.
13. THE DEATH OF AARON. (Numb. xx. 22-29.)
Moses was full of grief when the word of the Lord came to him that
Aaron, his brother, was to die. That night he had no rest, and when it
began to dawn towards morning, he rose and went to the tent of Aaron.
Aaron was much surprised to see his brother come in so early, and he
said, “Wherefore art thou come?”
Moses answered, “All night long have I been troubled, and have had no
sleep, for certain things in the Law came upon me, and they seemed to
me to be heavy and unendurable; I have come to thee that thou shouldst
relieve my mind.” So they opened the book together and read from the
first word; and at every sentence they said, “That is holy, and great,
and righteous.”
Soon they came to the history of Adam; and Moses stayed from reading
when he arrived at the Fall, and he cried bitterly, “O Adam, thou hast
brought death into the world!”
Aaron said, “Why art thou so troubled thereat, my brother? Is not death
the way to Eden?”
“It is however very painful. Think also that both thou and I must some
day die. How many years thinkest thou we shall live?”
_Aaron._--“Perhaps twenty.”
_Moses._--“Oh no! not so many.”
_Aaron._--“Then fifteen.”
_Moses._--“No, my brother, not so many.”
_Aaron._--“Then ten years.”
_Moses._--“No, not so many.”
_Aaron._--“Then surely it must be five.”
_Moses._--“I say again, not so many.”
Then said Aaron, hesitating, “Is it then one?”
And Moses said, “Not so much.”
Full of anxiety and alarm, Aaron kept silence. Then said Moses gently,
“O my beloved! would it not be good to say of thee as it was said of
Abraham, that he was gathered to his fathers in peace?” Aaron was
silent.
Then said Moses, “If God were to say that thou shouldst die in a
hundred years, what wouldst thou say?”
Aaron said, “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all his
works.”
_Moses._--“And if God were to say to thee that thou shouldst die this
year, what wouldst thou answer?”
_Aaron._--“The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all his
works.”
_Moses._--“And if He were to call thee to-day, what wouldst thou say?”
_Aaron._--“The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His
works.”
“Then,” said Moses, “arise and follow me.”
At that same hour went forth Moses, Aaron, and Eleazer, his son; they
ascended into Mount Hor, and the people looked on, nothing doubting,
for they knew not what was to take place.
Then said the Most High to His angels, “Behold the new Isaac; he
follows his younger brother, who leads him to death.”
When they had reached the summit of the mountain, there opened before
them a cavern. They went in and found a death-bed prepared by the hands
of the angels. Aaron laid himself down upon it and made ready for
death.
Then Moses cried out in grief, “Woe is me! we were two, when we
comforted our sister in her death; in this, thy last hour, I am with
thee to solace thee; when I die, who will comfort me?”
Then a voice was heard from heaven, “Fear not; God himself will be with
thee.”
On one side stood Moses, on the other Eleazer, and they kissed the
dying man on the brow, and took from off him his sacerdotal vestments
to clothe Eleazer his son with them. They took off one portion of the
sacred apparel, and they laid that on Eleazer; and then they removed
another portion, and laid that on Eleazer; and as they stripped Aaron,
a silvery veil of clouds sank over him like a pall and covered him.
Aaron seemed to be asleep.
Then Moses said, “My brother, what dost thou feel?”
“I feel nothing but the cloud that envelopes me,” answered he.
After a little pause, Moses said again, “My brother, what dost thou
feel?”
He answered feebly, “The cloud surrounds me and bereaves me of all joy.”
And the soul of Aaron was parted from his body. And as it went up Moses
cried once more, “Alas, my brother! what dost thou feel?”
And the soul replied, “I feel such joy, that I would it had come to me
sooner.”
Then cried Moses, “Oh thou blessed, peaceful death! Oh, may such a
death be my lot!”
Moses and Eleazer came down alone from the mountain, and the people
wailed because Aaron was no more. But the coffin of Aaron rose, borne
by angels, in the sight of the whole congregation, and was carried into
heaven, whilst the angels sang: “The priest’s lips have kept knowledge,
have spoken truth!”[574]
The Mussulman story is not quite the same.
One version is that both Moses and Aaron ascended Hor, knowing that one
of them was to die, but uncertain which, and they found a cave, and a
sarcophagus therein with the inscription on it, “I am for him whom I
fit.”
Moses tried to lie down in it, but his feet hung out; Aaron next
entered it, lay down, and it fitted him exactly.
Then Gabriel led Moses and the sons of Aaron out of the cave, and when
they were again admitted Aaron was dead.[575]
Another version is this: God announced to Moses that he would call
Aaron to Himself. Then Moses took his brother from the camp, and they
went into the desert, till they came to a tree. When Aaron saw the
shadow, he said, “O my brother, whose tree is this?”
Moses said, “God alone knows.”
Then spake Aaron, “I am weary, and the shadow is cool; suffer me to
repose a little while under the tree.”
Moses said, “Lie down my brother; and may thy rest be sweet.”
Aaron lay down, and Moses sat by him till he died.
Then suddenly the tree, the shadow, and Aaron vanished; and Moses
returned alone to the Israelites. They were angry with him, that he
had not brought back Aaron, and they took up stones against him. But
Moses cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed them Aaron on a bed, and
he was dead; and the people looked, and wondered, and wept: then said a
voice from heaven, “God hath taken him.” The people bewailed him many
days.[576]
14. THE DEATH OF MOSES.
When the time came for Moses to die, the Lord called Gabriel to Him,
and said, “Go and bring the soul of My servant Moses to Paradise.”
The angel Gabriel answered in astonishment, “Lord, Lord, how can I
venture to give death to that man, the like of whom all generations of
men have not seen?”
Then the Most High called to Him Michael, and said, “Go and bring the
soul of My servant Moses to Paradise.”
The angel Michael answered in fear, “Lord, Lord, I was his instructor
in heavenly lore! How can I bear death to my pupil?”
Then the Most High called to Him Sammael, and said, “Go and bring the
soul of My servant Moses to Paradise.”
The angel Sammael flushed red with joy. He clothed himself in anger,
and grasped his sword, and rushed down upon the holy one. But he found
him writing the incommunicable name of God, and he saw his face shine
with divine light. Then he stood irresolute, and his sword sank with
the point to earth.
“What seekest thou?” asked Moses.
“I am sent to give thee death,” answered the trembling angel. “All
mortals must submit to that.”
“But not I,” said Moses, “at least from thee; I, consecrated from my
mother’s womb, the discloser of divine mysteries, the mouthpiece of
God, I will not surrender my soul into thy hand.”
Then Sammael flew away.
But a voice fell from heaven, “Moses, Moses, thine hour is come!”
“My Lord,” answered Moses, “give not my soul into the hands of the
Angel of Death.”
Then the Bath-kol, the heavenly voice, fell again, “Be comforted. I
myself will take thy soul, and I myself will bury thee.”[577]
Then Moses went home, and knocked at the door. His wife Zipporah
opened; and when she saw him pale and trembling, she inquired the
reason.
Moses answered, “Give God the praise. My hour of death is come.”
“What! must a man who has spoken with God die like ordinary mortals?”
“He must. Even the angels Gabriel, Michael, and Israfiel must die; God
alone is eternal, and dies not.”
Zipporah wept and swooned away.
When she recovered her senses, Moses asked, “Where are my children?”
“They are put to bed, and are asleep.”
“Wake them up; I must bid them farewell.”
Zipporah went to the children’s bed and cried, “Arise, poor orphans!
arise and bid your father farewell; for this is his last day in this
world, and the first in the world beyond.”
The children awoke in terror, and cried, “Alas! who will pity us when
we are fatherless? who will stand protector on our threshold?”
Moses was so moved that he wept. Then God said to him, “What mean these
tears? Fearest thou death, or dost thou part reluctantly with this
world?”
“I fear not death, nor do I part reluctantly with this world; but I
lament these children, who have lost their grandfather Jethro and their
uncle Aaron, and who now must lose their father.”
“In whom then did thy mother confide, when she cast thee in the bulrush
ark into the water?”
“In Thee, O Lord.”
“Who gave thee power before Pharaoh? who strengthened thee with thy
staff to divide the sea?”
“Thou, O Lord.”
“Who led thee through the wilderness, and gave thee bread from heaven,
and opened to thee the rock of flint?”
“Thou, O Lord.”
“Then canst thou not trust thy orphans to Me, who am a father to the
fatherless? But go, take thy staff, and extend it once more over the
sea, and thou shalt have a sign to strengthen thy wavering faith.”
Moses obeyed. He took the rod of God in his hand, and he went down
to the sea-beach, and he lifted the rod over the water. Then the sea
divided, and he saw in the midst a black rock. And he went forward into
the sea till he reached the rock, and then a voice said to him, “Smite
with thy staff!” And he smote, and the rock clave asunder, and he saw
at its foundations a little cavity, and in the cavity was a worm with a
green leaf in its mouth. The worm lifted up its voice and cried thrice,
“Praise be God, who doth not forget me, though I, a little worm, lie in
loneliness here! Praised be God, who hath nourished and cherished even
me!”
When the worm was silent, God said to Moses: “Thou seest that I do
not fail to consider and provide for a little worm in a rock of which
men know not, far in the depths of the sea; and shall I forget thy
children, who know Me?”
Moses returned with shame to his home, comforted his wife and children,
and went alone to the mountain where he was to die.[578]
And when he had gone up the mountain, he met three men who were digging
a grave; and he asked them, “For whom do you dig this grave?”
They answered, “For a man whom God will call to be with Him in
Paradise.”
Moses asked permission to lend a hand to dig the grave of such a holy
man. When it was completed, Moses asked, “Have you taken the measure of
the deceased?”
“No; we have quite forgotten to do so. But he was of thy size; lie down
in it, and God will reward thee, when we see if it be likely to suit.”
Moses did so.[579]
The three men were the three angels Michael, Gabriel, and Sagsagel. The
angel Michael, had begun the grave, the angel Gabriel had spread the
white napkin for the head, the angel Sagsagel that for the feet.
Then the angel Michael stood on one side of Moses, the angel Gabriel on
the other side, the angel Sagsagel at the feet, and the Majesty of God
appeared above his head.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Close thine eyelids.” He obeyed.
Then the Lord said, “Press thy hand upon thy heart.” And he did so.
Then God said, “Place thy feet in order.” He did so.