(Book of Numbers 13:1 - 13:33)
Jehovah instructed Moses, "Send out scouts to reconnoiter the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. Let them all be leaders, one from each of the ancestral tribes."
Moses did as Jehovah commanded. He dispatched twelve men, all Israelite tribal leaders, from their camp in the desert of Paran. These were their names and respective tribes:
Shammua son of Zaccur -- Reuben
Shaphat son of Hori -- Simeon
Caleb son of Jephunneh -- Judah
Igal son of Joseph -- Issachar
Hoshea son of Nun -- Ephraim
Palti son of Raphu -- Benjamin
Gaddiel son of Sodi -- Zebulun
Gaddi son of Susi -- Manasseh (Joseph)
Ammiel son of Gemalli -- Dan
Sethur son of Michael -- Asher
Nahbi son of Vophsi -- Naphtali
Geuel son of Machi -- Gad
These are the names of the men Moses sent to scout out the land. (Moses changed the name of Hoshea son of Nun to Joshua.)
When Moses sent them out to explore Canaan, he charged them, "Journey there via the Negev into the hill country. Survey the land and determine whether the inhabitants are strong or weak, few or many, whether the land on which they live is good or bad, whether there are walled towns or unfortified camps, whether the soil is fertile or poor, and whether or not there are many trees. Make an effort to bring back samples of the crops and fruits you may see there." (It was the season for picking the first ripe grapes).
The scouts set out and explored the land from the desert of Zin as far as Rehob, toward Lebo Hamath. They traversed the Negev and arrived at Hebron, where the sons of Anak, Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, lived. (The city of Hebron was built 7 years before the Egyptian city of Zoan.) When they reached the valley of Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes that was so large it took two men to carry it on a pole. They also brought back pomegranates and figs. (This place was named the Eshcol Wadi, because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut down there.)
At the end of 40 days they returned from their scouting expedition. They reported to Moses and Aaron and to whole community of Israel camped at Kadesh in the desert of Paran and showed them the fruit from the land. This was the report they gave to Moses: "We entered the land you sent us reconnoiter. It is indeed a land flowing with milk and honey. Here are samples of its fruit. The inhabitants are strong and live in large, fortified towns. We even saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the Negev. The Hethites, Jebusites, and Amorites inhabit the hill country, while the Canaanites occupy the sea coast and the Jordan River Valley.”
Caleb, to quiet the people who were challenging Moses, enjoined them, "We should go up there right now and occupy the country, for we are well able to conquer it."
But the men who had accompanied him dissented. “We can't attack these people; they’re stronger than we are." They spread among the Israelites a false, unfavorable report about the country they had explored. They claimed, "The land we surveyed as scouts eats up its inhabitants. All the people we saw there were of gigantic stature. We even encountered extraterrestrial beings (for the Anakim are descended from extraterrestrials.) Beside them we felt as if we were mere locusts, and they must have felt the same about us.”
Notes
1. At Jehovah's behest, Moses sends out men to explore Canaan and scout out the land they intend to settle, but it is odd that they are tribal leaders. Selecting a man from each of the tribes of Israel makes sense politically, but chiefs would be older men. Wouldn't it be better to choose younger, fitter men more able to endure the rigors of the expedition and who, if lost, would be expendable? Of course, the tribal chiefs would possess better judgment and whatever they reported would have credibility.
2. There is no explanation given why Moses changed Hoshea son of Nun's name to Joshua. In Genesis Jehovah dubs Abram, Abraham, and an involved story is spun to justify Jacob's name change to Israel. Hoshea means "salvation," while Joshua means "he is salvation" and is a shortened form of Jehoshua, "Jehovah is salvation." There is perhaps some great significance in the name change, but it is hardly explicit. There is also the possibility that Hoshea and Joshua were actually two different people. Also, take note that Joshua was the Hebrew name of Jesus, the Messiah.
3. The incident of the large cluster of grapes is hard to explain except as an exaggeration, a Bunyanesque tall tale to emphasize the bounteous nature of the land proverbially flowing with milk and honey.
4. Anak was the son of Arba and the father of Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai of Hebron. The Anakim, a race of giants, were supposedly descended from the Nephilim who were mentioned as a hybrid race of antediluvian times. Nephilim is often translated as "fallen angels," however "fallen" should not be interpreted metaphorical, "fallen" in moral sense, but rather "fallen to earth," having come down to earth, not, I do believe, from Heaven, but from the heavens -- thus, human-like beings from space, extraterrestrials, (although there is another possibility, that the Nephilim descended not in space craft, but from airships emanating from another part of the earth). The Bible suggests -- and it is suggested in many other ancient records as well -- that the Nephilim, or other beings like them (the "gods"), mated with earth women and created a hybrid species of humans, who, not surprisingly, were in many respects superior -- eg., the heroes of Greek myth, the early Egyptian pharaohs. Anak's family apparently claimed extraterrestrial descent and were certainly not alone among the ancients in claiming to have a "god" on the family tree. The original antediluvian Nephilim would have been wiped out in the Flood, so members of the race mentioned here would have had to have been produced by subsequent contact by these beings with womankind. Genesis does, in fact, state that these beings would later appear on earth.
5. Anak and his sons are mentioned in Middle Kingdom Egyptian inscriptions of the Pharaoh's Canaanite enemies. However, this was probably hundreds of years before Moses and the Exodus. No one dates the Exodus as early as the Middle Kingdom, which ended around 1650 BC. (The Bible points to 1446 BC for the Exodus, although any date is problematic.) Weaving Anak into the Exodus narrative seems, then, to be quite a stretch.
6. Those who dissent from the viewpoint of Caleb, a let's-get'r-done kind of guy who urges the Israelites to invade and take over Canaan right now, color, if not contradict the scouting report they have given to Moses when they disseminate it among the people. They want to dissuade the Israelites from mounting an invasion of Canaan and are not above lying to them to lobby for their point of view. (The story of giants is meant to taken as an exaggeration, for the giants, the extraterrestrial hybrids, were seen in Hebron, only not throughout the entire land) Would the scouts have lied if they had been a group of ordinary soldiers rather than tribal leaders with their own political agenda? Not to second guess at this late date, but perhaps Jehovah made a mistake by having Moses send out tribal leaders as scouts.
7. The scouts are gone for 40 days, probably corresponding to the 40 years the Israelites will have to wander before being allowed to settle in the Promised Land. It seems to be a magic number, but, like all the numbers in the Bible, dates, ages, etc., it is suspicious symmetrical and highly suspect.
8. The Negev was, as it is, the wedge-shaped southern part of what is now Israel. The Desert of Zin was to the north of Negev. The Egyptian city of Zoan has not been positively identified. Its mention in later biblical books probably refers to the 11th-Century BC Delta city of Tanis. But here, Zoan is likely to be the Hyksos capital of Avaris in Goshen, founded in the early 18th-Century BC. The city of Hebron, now a large Palestinian, West Bank city, 19 miles south of Jerusalem, was a Canaanite royal city in the 18th-Century BC. It is near the burial cave of Abraham. The city of Kadesh, or Kadesh-Barnea, lies in the southern part of Zin. It marks the traditional southern border of ancient Israel. However, the Kadesh mentioned here clearly cannot be the same place, for the Israelites were then encamped in the Desert of Paran, not Zin. Neither are to be confused with the Syrian-Hittite city of Kadesh on the Orontes River, where a famous battle occurred between the Hittites and the Egyptians under Ramesses the Great in the year 1274 BC (by conventional Egyptian chronology -- which is probably wrong).
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Moses is Challenged by His Siblings
(Book of Numbers 12:1 - 12:15)
While they were staying at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on account of his Arabian wife, (for Moses had indeed married a woman from Arabia). They declared, "Has Jehovah spoken exclusively through Moses? Hasn't he spoken through us as well?"
Jehovah heard them. (Moses himself was a singularly humble man, more so than anyone in the world.) Immediately, Jehovah called to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam and told them, "Go out to the Tabernacle, the three of you!" And so they went to the Tabernacle. Jehovah descended in a pillar of cloud that settled before the entrance to the Sanctum. He summoned Aaron and Miriam, who stepped forward.
He said to them, "Now listen to what I have to say! When there are prophets among you, I, Jehovah, make myself known to them through visions; I speak to them in dreams. This is not true of my servant Moses, for he is the one in whom I have entrusted my people. With him, I speak face to face, clearly, not in allegories. And he has even glimpsed the true form of Jehovah. Why then did you dare speak against my servant Moses?"
As he departed, Jehovah was seething with anger. After his cloud had ascended above the Tabernacle, Miriam was left standing there with her skin diseased, scaly and white as snow. Aaron turned to Miriam and lo and behold -- she had tzaraath! He cried out to Moses, "My master, please don't punish us for this offense we have foolishly committed! Don't let her be like a stillborn child emerging from the womb with her skin half eaten away.”
Moses cried out to Jehovah, "Oh, God, please heal her, I beg you!"
Jehovah answered Moses, "If her father had only spit in her face, wouldn’t she hide in disgrace for a week or so? Well then, keep her outside of the camp for 7 days and after that you may let her back in."
And so Miriam was quarantined outside of camp for 7 days, and her people waited to set out again until she could return. Afterwards, the Israelites departed Hazeroth and camped in the desert of Paran.
Notes
1. His older brother Aaron and older sister Miriam challenge the role that Moses has assumed of being the sole intermediary between Jehovah and the Israelite people. Aaron is Jehovah's high priest and Miriam seems to have some claim as a prophetess. It is hard to see, however, that they could view themselves as the equal of their brother in his relationship with Jehovah. There seems to be some fierce sibling rivalry here. How often it happens that when one family member becomes famous, the siblings merely bask in his reflected glory; any modest success they may achieve is usually dependent upon the star of the family. They resent the family star and delude themselves into believing that they are as good as he is and can do what he does. In this case, the sibling rivalry is exacerbated by the fact that Moses was raised as an Egyptian and spent much of his adulthood among the Midians. Moses would not be truly Israelite in their eyes -- or perhaps even a bona fide member of the family.
2. Although it has nothing to do Moses' position, a bone of contention between Moses and his siblings seems to be his wife. How often is the foreign wife resented by the family and regarded as an interloper. That resentment would have been considerable among the Israelites, who were very xenophobic and race conscious, as well as suspicious and unaccepting of all that was alien to their culture. This passage is quite problematic. It refers to Moses' wife as a Cushite. Cush was an ancient kingdom to the south of Egypt, generally synonymous with Nubia, inhabited by black Africans who, at an earlier period, established a civilization that rivaled that of Old Kingdom Egypt. The term Cushite was also used more generally to refer to sub-Saharan, black Africa, just as the term Ethiopian was similarly used by the Greeks and even by the Europeans right up until the middle of the Nineteenth Century. (Stephen Foster wrote Ethiopian songs.) In Hebrew, a Cushi is a black person. One might naturally conclude then that Moses' wife was a Negro. However, it becomes more complicated: Cush also referred to Arabia. (The Hebrews didn’t have the same conception of continents as we do.) This is the most likely meaning, and that is why I have used the less ambiguous "Arabian" in the translation. Sephora was a Midianite and, therefore, an Arabian, even though the Midianites were, in fact, Hebrews. This seems the most likely explanation of this, at first, puzzling passage. Rendered otherwise, it implies that Moses acquired an additional wife or remarried after Sephora's death, yet this remarriage is nowhere suggested. It should be mentioned, though, that there is an alternative non-Biblical narrative in which Moses is sent by the Egyptian government to lead Pharaoh’s armies in Ethiopia and returns in triumph with an Ethiopian princess as his bride. This would have been before his flight from Egypt and his marriage to Sephora. Would this other wife, if she existed, have still been around by the time of the Exodus? Even though the biblical account of Moses is, at best, more legendary than historical, this other account, no doubt of much later origin, is likely to be purely fabulous. In considering the possibility of a second Mrs. Moses, one must ask how there could have been any opportunity for Moses to marry after his flight from Egypt to Midian, which was made alone. He was a bit too busy dealing with the Pharaoh and the plagues to have done any courting and wooing after his return to Egypt. And he was a man with a wife and young children. Why would he contract a foreign marriage, when he was trying to establish his authenticity as a national leader of the Israelites? And as leader of the Exodus, he had his hands full, while his actions were continually subject to "divine" as well as popular scrutiny. How probable would it have been that some Cushite woman tagged along with the Israelites on their Exodus and found a way to marry the top man? Improbable, surely. And it's unthinkable that Jehovah would have allowed his man Moses to take a new foreign wife. Therefore, the correct interpretation is probably the simple one: the reference is to his original, one and only wife, Sephora, daughter of Jethro, and that the description of her as Cushite only means Arabian and Midianite and not black African.
3. The parenthetic reference to Moses’ humility or meekness probably explains why he doesn’t defend himself. He allows Jehovah to do so. (Odd, that if Moses were actually the author of the books ascribed to him, he would commend his own character, especially if he was really so humble!)
4. Jehovah takes Aaron and Miriam to the woodshed (in this case, the Tabernacle) and, like a stern father, gives them a good talking to and puts them in their place. However, the ever-irate Jehovah is not a father who spares the rod. If he has an excuse to punish someone, he will take it. Understanding, kindness, forgiveness, and mercy have, we've seen, little part in his nature. When the people complain about not having any real food to eat, he doesn't tell them to man up and tough it out. No, he gives them the food they desire and then arranges for the food to sicken and kill them -- a retributive act of devious cruelty. Here, instead of letting Moses' brother and sister off with a warning, after he reproves them, he punishes Miriam by inflicting her with the dreaded tzaraath, a disease that makes her skin white and flaky. When Moses appeals to him to have mercy, to heal her, Jehovah blows him off. He dismisses the punishment with a casualness and callousness that is appalling. "Big deal" he pretty much says, "she'll be OK in a week!"
5. Why Jehovah chooses to punish Miriam and not Aaron is unexplained. Did Aaron, as high priest, have immunity? Was Miriam more guilty? At any rate, it seems unnecessarily severe and nasty, if not misogynistic to punish the woman and not the man. (Gallantry is not a Jehovan virtue!)
6. Tzaraath is often translated as "leprosy." However, the term is also used to described mold and mildew infestation of houses and clothes. It is not known whether biblical leprosy is the same as modern leprosy or Hansen's disease, a chronic, infectious bacterial disease affecting the skin -- probably not. But tzaraath, when applied to humans, does denote a defiling skin disease that rendered one ritually impure and usually required the sufferer to be isolated or quarantined. Unlike leprosy, tzaraath infections often seemed to be of limited, even short durations.
7. Jehovah, as he is wont, descends to his Sanctum in a cloud. The cloud is described as a pillar. One might imagine his physical, human-like form coming down from the sky and being screened by the cloud. Some translations have Jehovah standing at the entrance to the Sanctum, or perhaps it's the Inner Sanctum, but it seems likely he is still within the veiling cloud. He insists that no one but Moses is allowed to see him in the flesh, in his real, physical form, yet we know that Moses only saw the back of his head and then only once. We may therefore assume that although Aaron and Miriam are hearing his voice, they are only looking at his cloud.
8. It is made clear by Jehovah that only Moses is his vicar, his human emissary, his agent. Others with whom he communicates through dreams and visions may be prophets, but they do not represent him or act for him as Moses does. Apparently Jehovah, not anxious to make friends and influence people, relies upon, trusts only Moses, whom he nevertheless uses and abuses, while treating his chosen people with a contempt that is exceeded only by the detestation with which he views the rest of mankind, the race he supposedly created.
While they were staying at Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on account of his Arabian wife, (for Moses had indeed married a woman from Arabia). They declared, "Has Jehovah spoken exclusively through Moses? Hasn't he spoken through us as well?"
Jehovah heard them. (Moses himself was a singularly humble man, more so than anyone in the world.) Immediately, Jehovah called to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam and told them, "Go out to the Tabernacle, the three of you!" And so they went to the Tabernacle. Jehovah descended in a pillar of cloud that settled before the entrance to the Sanctum. He summoned Aaron and Miriam, who stepped forward.
He said to them, "Now listen to what I have to say! When there are prophets among you, I, Jehovah, make myself known to them through visions; I speak to them in dreams. This is not true of my servant Moses, for he is the one in whom I have entrusted my people. With him, I speak face to face, clearly, not in allegories. And he has even glimpsed the true form of Jehovah. Why then did you dare speak against my servant Moses?"
As he departed, Jehovah was seething with anger. After his cloud had ascended above the Tabernacle, Miriam was left standing there with her skin diseased, scaly and white as snow. Aaron turned to Miriam and lo and behold -- she had tzaraath! He cried out to Moses, "My master, please don't punish us for this offense we have foolishly committed! Don't let her be like a stillborn child emerging from the womb with her skin half eaten away.”
Moses cried out to Jehovah, "Oh, God, please heal her, I beg you!"
Jehovah answered Moses, "If her father had only spit in her face, wouldn’t she hide in disgrace for a week or so? Well then, keep her outside of the camp for 7 days and after that you may let her back in."
And so Miriam was quarantined outside of camp for 7 days, and her people waited to set out again until she could return. Afterwards, the Israelites departed Hazeroth and camped in the desert of Paran.
Notes
1. His older brother Aaron and older sister Miriam challenge the role that Moses has assumed of being the sole intermediary between Jehovah and the Israelite people. Aaron is Jehovah's high priest and Miriam seems to have some claim as a prophetess. It is hard to see, however, that they could view themselves as the equal of their brother in his relationship with Jehovah. There seems to be some fierce sibling rivalry here. How often it happens that when one family member becomes famous, the siblings merely bask in his reflected glory; any modest success they may achieve is usually dependent upon the star of the family. They resent the family star and delude themselves into believing that they are as good as he is and can do what he does. In this case, the sibling rivalry is exacerbated by the fact that Moses was raised as an Egyptian and spent much of his adulthood among the Midians. Moses would not be truly Israelite in their eyes -- or perhaps even a bona fide member of the family.
2. Although it has nothing to do Moses' position, a bone of contention between Moses and his siblings seems to be his wife. How often is the foreign wife resented by the family and regarded as an interloper. That resentment would have been considerable among the Israelites, who were very xenophobic and race conscious, as well as suspicious and unaccepting of all that was alien to their culture. This passage is quite problematic. It refers to Moses' wife as a Cushite. Cush was an ancient kingdom to the south of Egypt, generally synonymous with Nubia, inhabited by black Africans who, at an earlier period, established a civilization that rivaled that of Old Kingdom Egypt. The term Cushite was also used more generally to refer to sub-Saharan, black Africa, just as the term Ethiopian was similarly used by the Greeks and even by the Europeans right up until the middle of the Nineteenth Century. (Stephen Foster wrote Ethiopian songs.) In Hebrew, a Cushi is a black person. One might naturally conclude then that Moses' wife was a Negro. However, it becomes more complicated: Cush also referred to Arabia. (The Hebrews didn’t have the same conception of continents as we do.) This is the most likely meaning, and that is why I have used the less ambiguous "Arabian" in the translation. Sephora was a Midianite and, therefore, an Arabian, even though the Midianites were, in fact, Hebrews. This seems the most likely explanation of this, at first, puzzling passage. Rendered otherwise, it implies that Moses acquired an additional wife or remarried after Sephora's death, yet this remarriage is nowhere suggested. It should be mentioned, though, that there is an alternative non-Biblical narrative in which Moses is sent by the Egyptian government to lead Pharaoh’s armies in Ethiopia and returns in triumph with an Ethiopian princess as his bride. This would have been before his flight from Egypt and his marriage to Sephora. Would this other wife, if she existed, have still been around by the time of the Exodus? Even though the biblical account of Moses is, at best, more legendary than historical, this other account, no doubt of much later origin, is likely to be purely fabulous. In considering the possibility of a second Mrs. Moses, one must ask how there could have been any opportunity for Moses to marry after his flight from Egypt to Midian, which was made alone. He was a bit too busy dealing with the Pharaoh and the plagues to have done any courting and wooing after his return to Egypt. And he was a man with a wife and young children. Why would he contract a foreign marriage, when he was trying to establish his authenticity as a national leader of the Israelites? And as leader of the Exodus, he had his hands full, while his actions were continually subject to "divine" as well as popular scrutiny. How probable would it have been that some Cushite woman tagged along with the Israelites on their Exodus and found a way to marry the top man? Improbable, surely. And it's unthinkable that Jehovah would have allowed his man Moses to take a new foreign wife. Therefore, the correct interpretation is probably the simple one: the reference is to his original, one and only wife, Sephora, daughter of Jethro, and that the description of her as Cushite only means Arabian and Midianite and not black African.
3. The parenthetic reference to Moses’ humility or meekness probably explains why he doesn’t defend himself. He allows Jehovah to do so. (Odd, that if Moses were actually the author of the books ascribed to him, he would commend his own character, especially if he was really so humble!)
4. Jehovah takes Aaron and Miriam to the woodshed (in this case, the Tabernacle) and, like a stern father, gives them a good talking to and puts them in their place. However, the ever-irate Jehovah is not a father who spares the rod. If he has an excuse to punish someone, he will take it. Understanding, kindness, forgiveness, and mercy have, we've seen, little part in his nature. When the people complain about not having any real food to eat, he doesn't tell them to man up and tough it out. No, he gives them the food they desire and then arranges for the food to sicken and kill them -- a retributive act of devious cruelty. Here, instead of letting Moses' brother and sister off with a warning, after he reproves them, he punishes Miriam by inflicting her with the dreaded tzaraath, a disease that makes her skin white and flaky. When Moses appeals to him to have mercy, to heal her, Jehovah blows him off. He dismisses the punishment with a casualness and callousness that is appalling. "Big deal" he pretty much says, "she'll be OK in a week!"
5. Why Jehovah chooses to punish Miriam and not Aaron is unexplained. Did Aaron, as high priest, have immunity? Was Miriam more guilty? At any rate, it seems unnecessarily severe and nasty, if not misogynistic to punish the woman and not the man. (Gallantry is not a Jehovan virtue!)
6. Tzaraath is often translated as "leprosy." However, the term is also used to described mold and mildew infestation of houses and clothes. It is not known whether biblical leprosy is the same as modern leprosy or Hansen's disease, a chronic, infectious bacterial disease affecting the skin -- probably not. But tzaraath, when applied to humans, does denote a defiling skin disease that rendered one ritually impure and usually required the sufferer to be isolated or quarantined. Unlike leprosy, tzaraath infections often seemed to be of limited, even short durations.
7. Jehovah, as he is wont, descends to his Sanctum in a cloud. The cloud is described as a pillar. One might imagine his physical, human-like form coming down from the sky and being screened by the cloud. Some translations have Jehovah standing at the entrance to the Sanctum, or perhaps it's the Inner Sanctum, but it seems likely he is still within the veiling cloud. He insists that no one but Moses is allowed to see him in the flesh, in his real, physical form, yet we know that Moses only saw the back of his head and then only once. We may therefore assume that although Aaron and Miriam are hearing his voice, they are only looking at his cloud.
8. It is made clear by Jehovah that only Moses is his vicar, his human emissary, his agent. Others with whom he communicates through dreams and visions may be prophets, but they do not represent him or act for him as Moses does. Apparently Jehovah, not anxious to make friends and influence people, relies upon, trusts only Moses, whom he nevertheless uses and abuses, while treating his chosen people with a contempt that is exceeded only by the detestation with which he views the rest of mankind, the race he supposedly created.
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Complaints of the People
(Book of Numbers 11:1 - 11:35)
The people complained of their hardships. Jehovah heard all their grumblings and was so angered that he sent down a fire that consumed the outskirts of their camp. The people cried for help to Moses. He prayed to Jehovah, and the fire then died down. (This place was thus named Taberah, since it was there that the fire of Jehovah raged against them.)
The motley riffraff who were traveling with the Israelites had cravings for regular food. The Israelites, too, began moaning and griping again, "If only we had some meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to get for free in Egypt. And the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic, we used to have all we wanted. Now we have lost our appetites. All we have to look at is this manna!" (Manna was like small coriander seeds, only an amber color like gum resin. People went around and collected it off the ground. It was ground in mills or beaten with mortars, then boiled in a pot or baked into flat cakes. It tasted like wheat cooked in olive oil. When, during the night, the dew would fall upon the camp, the manna would fall as well.)
From the openings in their tents, Moses could hear every family weeping and wailing. Jehovah was outraged and angry, and Moses was perturbed as well. Moses asked Jehovah, "Why have you so ill used your servant? What have I done to so displease you that you burden me with the responsibility for all these people? Did I conceive all these people or give them birth that you tell me that I must carry them in my arms, like a nurse carries a baby, to the land that you vowed to give to their ancestors? Where can I find meat for these people? They keep whining and demanding, 'Give us meat to eat!' I just can't carry all these people by myself. The burden is too heavy for me. If this is how I'm to be treated, just kill me now. If I’m still in your favor, then do so and spare me this misery."
In response Jehovah told Moses, "Summon to me 70 elders of Israel, those known by you to be leaders and officers of the people. Bring them into the Tabernacle where they may stand beside you. I will come down and speak to you there. I will remove some of my spiritual essence from you and give it to them so that they may share some of the burden of taking care of the people. You won't have to bear it all yourself. And you may tell the people to consecrate themselves for tomorrow and tell them that they will eat meat. Jehovah has heard your complaints, 'If we only had meat to eat. We were surely better off in Egypt!' Well, Jehovah will give you meat and meat you will eat. You’ll not eat it for just a day, or two days or five, or even ten or twenty days, but for an entire month until you’re stuffed and are sick of it. For you have defied Jehovah to his face, crying and asking, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?'"
But Moses pointed out, "Here I have 600,000 men on foot and you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for a full month.' If all the flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would it be enough? If all the fish in the sea were caught for them, would it suffice?"
"Is my power limited?" Jehovah asked Moses. "Now you will see whether or not I can make good on my word to your people."
Moses went out to see the people and told them what Jehovah had said. He gathered together the 70 elders and had them line up round the Tabernacle Sanctum. Jehovah descended in a cloud and addressed himself to them. He imparted to the 70 elders some of the spiritual essence that he had bestowed upon Moses. When this occurred, they began to prophesy. (This, though, would never happen again.)
Two men, Eldad and Medad, by name, had stayed behind in camp, though they were listed among the elders. Even so, the spirit possessed them. Not having gone to the Tabernacle, they began prophesying in camp. A young man ran and reported to Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in camp!" Joshua son of Nun, who, since his youth, had been an aide of Moses, spoke up, "My master, Moses, you must stop them!"
Moses, though, told him, "Are you jealous of them for my sake? Would that all the people of Jehovah were prophets and that Jehovah would entrust them with his spirit."
Moses and the elders then return to camp.
Jehovah sent a great wind that drove quail in from the sea. They flew only two cubits above the ground and settled all around the camp in the radius of what would be a day's walk. All that day and night, and the next day as well, the people were out catching quail. No one caught less than ten homer’s worth. The dead quails were spread to dry all around the camp. But while the people were chewing the quail meat, even before they could swallow it, they had incurred the wrath of Jehovah. He inflicted upon them a deadly illness. (This place was therefore called Kibroth-hattaavah, because it was there that they buried people who had the "craving".) From Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth, where they remained for some time.
Notes
1. The people, who certainly had plenty to gripe about, do not find Jehovah sympathetic to their plight. He led them out of bondage, out of Egypt and resents their ingratitude. When he hears them grousing, he sets fire to the outskirts of their camp. It's not clear how he does this, spontaneous combustion, does he hurl thunderbolts or drop incendiary material or what? The text is not explicit whether the fires merely destroyed property or incinerated some people as well. At any rate, it reveals what he already know of Jehovah's character. He is thin-skinned and quick to anger and to assuage his anger he becomes destructive and murderous. Moses must, as he often does, intervene to quell the violent rages of someone who consistently evinces the temperament of a psychopath.
2. The first description of manna is offered in Exodus. This seems an alternative narrative varying only somewhat from the first. Both have the Israelites during their wanderings in the desert of Sinai consuming manna exclusively. There has been much speculation as to what manna might have been, some sort of resin, a seed, an insect of some sort, but no natural explanation is credible: there is no food source that can, by itself, sustain a man over a long period of time or fill all his nutritional needs. Some hypothetical synthetic food developed by an advanced civilization might do so and, if Jehovah were, in fact, a member of such an advanced civilization, perhaps extraterrestrial, he might have supplied such a food to his people, dropping it from the sky via airship, or, alternatively, causing it to materialize it on the ground.
3. Moses complains to Jehovah about the burden of leadership and unasked-for responsibility. Jehovah actually addresses his complaint by investing some of his spiritual essence (?) in 70 of the Israelite elders. In practical terms, what this means is not made clear, but the immediate result is that the elders begin to prophecy, even two of the elders (Eldad and Medad -- wonderful how these names are always remembered!) who are AWOL from the Tabernacle meeting with Jehovah. Were they making meaningful predictions of the future? If so, why didn't someone record the prophecies? It seems more likely that what they were doing was speaking in tongues, that is, speaking a language they did not know. They could have been speaking in the language of Jehovah since they now may have been in telepathic rapport with him.
4. The story of the quails is an interesting one. It first seems a fairy tale, but when correctly translated and understood, it is a plausible incident. Quails, which are very good to eat, would have been much desired by the meat-deprived Israelites. They are plentiful in the area. They migrate in very large numbers. They fly with the wind and often only a few feet above the ground. They, therefore, are easy to catch. Once killed, it was customary to set them out in the sun to dry. Many translations mistakenly refer to quails lying on the ground 2 cubits high all over the camp. This is patently absurd. What is meant is that the quails were flying two cubits above the ground. Migrating quails sometimes feed on seeds which, though harmless to them, are poisonous to humans who may eat the quail. This was well documented in ancient times. We know the affliction to be coturnism, a toxic illness. Therefore, people eating migratory quail and then falling suddenly ill is authentic. Of course, since Jehovah must be the cause of everything, it is he, not the poisonous seeds, that is responsible for the illness, inflicted as a punishment for ingratitude. (Jehovah is like a cruel parent who when his children yearn for ice cream denied them, make them eat a whole gallon and get sick on the stuff. Here, though, Jehovah is quite content to kill his children as punishment.) Also, it might be pointed out that the Israelites, long accustomed to eating manna, might have had difficulty readjusting to a normal diet and would have been sickened after eating any kind of food. (There is some opinion that manna was so entirely consumed by the human body that defecation was unnecessary.)
5. Jehovah promises to furnish the Israelites with a month's supply of food. The large migratory flocks of quails suffice for a supply. But how can the people eat meat for a month when many of them drop dead at the first bite. And seeing others become ill after eating the quail, why would others tempt fate and continue eating it?
6. Moses claims he has 600,000 men to feed. He seems to forget that the women and children and older men also need to be fed. It has already been pointed out that such numbers are impossible and preposterous.
7. Two cubits would be about three feet. Ten homers would be 50 or 60 bushels.
8. Hazeroth, like Kibroth-hattaavah, is in the Sinai north of the holy mountain.
The people complained of their hardships. Jehovah heard all their grumblings and was so angered that he sent down a fire that consumed the outskirts of their camp. The people cried for help to Moses. He prayed to Jehovah, and the fire then died down. (This place was thus named Taberah, since it was there that the fire of Jehovah raged against them.)
The motley riffraff who were traveling with the Israelites had cravings for regular food. The Israelites, too, began moaning and griping again, "If only we had some meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to get for free in Egypt. And the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic, we used to have all we wanted. Now we have lost our appetites. All we have to look at is this manna!" (Manna was like small coriander seeds, only an amber color like gum resin. People went around and collected it off the ground. It was ground in mills or beaten with mortars, then boiled in a pot or baked into flat cakes. It tasted like wheat cooked in olive oil. When, during the night, the dew would fall upon the camp, the manna would fall as well.)
From the openings in their tents, Moses could hear every family weeping and wailing. Jehovah was outraged and angry, and Moses was perturbed as well. Moses asked Jehovah, "Why have you so ill used your servant? What have I done to so displease you that you burden me with the responsibility for all these people? Did I conceive all these people or give them birth that you tell me that I must carry them in my arms, like a nurse carries a baby, to the land that you vowed to give to their ancestors? Where can I find meat for these people? They keep whining and demanding, 'Give us meat to eat!' I just can't carry all these people by myself. The burden is too heavy for me. If this is how I'm to be treated, just kill me now. If I’m still in your favor, then do so and spare me this misery."
In response Jehovah told Moses, "Summon to me 70 elders of Israel, those known by you to be leaders and officers of the people. Bring them into the Tabernacle where they may stand beside you. I will come down and speak to you there. I will remove some of my spiritual essence from you and give it to them so that they may share some of the burden of taking care of the people. You won't have to bear it all yourself. And you may tell the people to consecrate themselves for tomorrow and tell them that they will eat meat. Jehovah has heard your complaints, 'If we only had meat to eat. We were surely better off in Egypt!' Well, Jehovah will give you meat and meat you will eat. You’ll not eat it for just a day, or two days or five, or even ten or twenty days, but for an entire month until you’re stuffed and are sick of it. For you have defied Jehovah to his face, crying and asking, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?'"
But Moses pointed out, "Here I have 600,000 men on foot and you say, 'I will give them meat to eat for a full month.' If all the flocks and herds were slaughtered for them, would it be enough? If all the fish in the sea were caught for them, would it suffice?"
"Is my power limited?" Jehovah asked Moses. "Now you will see whether or not I can make good on my word to your people."
Moses went out to see the people and told them what Jehovah had said. He gathered together the 70 elders and had them line up round the Tabernacle Sanctum. Jehovah descended in a cloud and addressed himself to them. He imparted to the 70 elders some of the spiritual essence that he had bestowed upon Moses. When this occurred, they began to prophesy. (This, though, would never happen again.)
Two men, Eldad and Medad, by name, had stayed behind in camp, though they were listed among the elders. Even so, the spirit possessed them. Not having gone to the Tabernacle, they began prophesying in camp. A young man ran and reported to Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in camp!" Joshua son of Nun, who, since his youth, had been an aide of Moses, spoke up, "My master, Moses, you must stop them!"
Moses, though, told him, "Are you jealous of them for my sake? Would that all the people of Jehovah were prophets and that Jehovah would entrust them with his spirit."
Moses and the elders then return to camp.
Jehovah sent a great wind that drove quail in from the sea. They flew only two cubits above the ground and settled all around the camp in the radius of what would be a day's walk. All that day and night, and the next day as well, the people were out catching quail. No one caught less than ten homer’s worth. The dead quails were spread to dry all around the camp. But while the people were chewing the quail meat, even before they could swallow it, they had incurred the wrath of Jehovah. He inflicted upon them a deadly illness. (This place was therefore called Kibroth-hattaavah, because it was there that they buried people who had the "craving".) From Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth, where they remained for some time.
Notes
1. The people, who certainly had plenty to gripe about, do not find Jehovah sympathetic to their plight. He led them out of bondage, out of Egypt and resents their ingratitude. When he hears them grousing, he sets fire to the outskirts of their camp. It's not clear how he does this, spontaneous combustion, does he hurl thunderbolts or drop incendiary material or what? The text is not explicit whether the fires merely destroyed property or incinerated some people as well. At any rate, it reveals what he already know of Jehovah's character. He is thin-skinned and quick to anger and to assuage his anger he becomes destructive and murderous. Moses must, as he often does, intervene to quell the violent rages of someone who consistently evinces the temperament of a psychopath.
2. The first description of manna is offered in Exodus. This seems an alternative narrative varying only somewhat from the first. Both have the Israelites during their wanderings in the desert of Sinai consuming manna exclusively. There has been much speculation as to what manna might have been, some sort of resin, a seed, an insect of some sort, but no natural explanation is credible: there is no food source that can, by itself, sustain a man over a long period of time or fill all his nutritional needs. Some hypothetical synthetic food developed by an advanced civilization might do so and, if Jehovah were, in fact, a member of such an advanced civilization, perhaps extraterrestrial, he might have supplied such a food to his people, dropping it from the sky via airship, or, alternatively, causing it to materialize it on the ground.
3. Moses complains to Jehovah about the burden of leadership and unasked-for responsibility. Jehovah actually addresses his complaint by investing some of his spiritual essence (?) in 70 of the Israelite elders. In practical terms, what this means is not made clear, but the immediate result is that the elders begin to prophecy, even two of the elders (Eldad and Medad -- wonderful how these names are always remembered!) who are AWOL from the Tabernacle meeting with Jehovah. Were they making meaningful predictions of the future? If so, why didn't someone record the prophecies? It seems more likely that what they were doing was speaking in tongues, that is, speaking a language they did not know. They could have been speaking in the language of Jehovah since they now may have been in telepathic rapport with him.
4. The story of the quails is an interesting one. It first seems a fairy tale, but when correctly translated and understood, it is a plausible incident. Quails, which are very good to eat, would have been much desired by the meat-deprived Israelites. They are plentiful in the area. They migrate in very large numbers. They fly with the wind and often only a few feet above the ground. They, therefore, are easy to catch. Once killed, it was customary to set them out in the sun to dry. Many translations mistakenly refer to quails lying on the ground 2 cubits high all over the camp. This is patently absurd. What is meant is that the quails were flying two cubits above the ground. Migrating quails sometimes feed on seeds which, though harmless to them, are poisonous to humans who may eat the quail. This was well documented in ancient times. We know the affliction to be coturnism, a toxic illness. Therefore, people eating migratory quail and then falling suddenly ill is authentic. Of course, since Jehovah must be the cause of everything, it is he, not the poisonous seeds, that is responsible for the illness, inflicted as a punishment for ingratitude. (Jehovah is like a cruel parent who when his children yearn for ice cream denied them, make them eat a whole gallon and get sick on the stuff. Here, though, Jehovah is quite content to kill his children as punishment.) Also, it might be pointed out that the Israelites, long accustomed to eating manna, might have had difficulty readjusting to a normal diet and would have been sickened after eating any kind of food. (There is some opinion that manna was so entirely consumed by the human body that defecation was unnecessary.)
5. Jehovah promises to furnish the Israelites with a month's supply of food. The large migratory flocks of quails suffice for a supply. But how can the people eat meat for a month when many of them drop dead at the first bite. And seeing others become ill after eating the quail, why would others tempt fate and continue eating it?
6. Moses claims he has 600,000 men to feed. He seems to forget that the women and children and older men also need to be fed. It has already been pointed out that such numbers are impossible and preposterous.
7. Two cubits would be about three feet. Ten homers would be 50 or 60 bushels.
8. Hazeroth, like Kibroth-hattaavah, is in the Sinai north of the holy mountain.
Departure From Sinai
(Book of Numbers 10:11 - 10:36)
On the second year after the Israelites' exodus from Egypt, on the 20th day of the second month (Iyar), the cloud lifted from the Sanctum of the Tabernacle. The Israelites, therefore, set out, leaving behind the desert of Sinai and settling in the desert of Paran.
This was the first time the people had set out following the instructions Jehovah had given to Moses. Under their standard Judah's part of the camp went first, led by Nahshon son of Amminadab,. They were followed by the tribe of Issachar, led by Nethanel son of Zuar, and the tribe of Zebulun, led by Eliab son of Helon. Next, the Tabernacle was dismantled and transported by the Gershonites and Merarites as they set out. The tribe of Reuben, led by Elizur son of Shedeur, followed, then the tribe of Simeon under Shelumail son of Zurishaddai, and the tribe of Gad under Eliasaph son of Deuel. Then the Kohathites, who carried the sacred objects from the Sanctum, set out. (By the time they would arrive in the new camp, the Tabernacle would already be set up.) Next, under their banner, went the tribe of Ephraim led by Elishama son of Ammihud, then the tribe of Manasseh under Gamaliel son of Pedahzur, and the tribe of Benjamin, led by Abidan son of Gideoni. Finally, assuming the role of a rear guard, the companies from the tribe of Dan, all supervised by Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai, marched out under their banner, followed by the tribe of Asher, led by Pagiel son Ocran and the tribe of Naphtali, led by Ahira son of Enan. This was the order, tribe by tribe, in which the Israelites set out on their journeys.
Moses said to Hobab, the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, "We are setting out for the land that Jehovah vowed to give us. Please come with us. You’ll do well for yourself, for Jehovah has promised great bounty to the people of Israel."
But Hobab replied, "No, I won't be going. I must get back to my own land and my own people."
"Please don't leave us," Moses insisted. "You know the places in the desert where we should camp. You could be our guide. If you do, we will share with you all the blessings that Jehovah may bestow upon us."
After leaving the mountain of Jehovah, they journey for three days. During those three days the Chest of Sacred Records went out before them as they sought out a new camping site. Jehovah's cloud hovered over them by day whenever they broke camp and set out again. Whenever the sacred chest set out, Moses would then declaim, "Arise, O Jehovah! Let your enemies scatter and those who hate you flee before you!" And when it was set down, he would cry, "Return, O Jehovah, to the countless thousands of Israel!"
Notes
1. The second month of occurs in late spring. Getting out of the desert before the hot summers begin seems like a good idea! However, thy seem to want to go from one desert to another.
2. The desert of Paran has not been positively identified. Although some scholars place it in the southern Sinai, most believe it refers to western Arabia, perhaps near what later would be Mecca.
3. This chapter reiterates what has already been written of in some detail, the cloud of Jehovah over the Chest of Sacred Records leading the Israelites in their travels, the enumeration of tribal leaders, and the marching order of the camp. It seems as if this section was inserted into the narrative from another, briefer account of the events. In fact, much of the Books of Moses gives the impression of being a cut-and-paste job, a somewhat inconsistent narrative compiled from several sources. This, of course, has been confirmed by scholars.
4. Moses invites his brother-in-law Hobab to join the Israelites on their journey to Canaan. It is not mentioned when or why Hobab was in the Israelite camp to begin with, although it can be assumed that his home in Midian was not far away. (Jethro visited at some point and maybe Hobab came with him and stayed on.) He turns down the offer, though. Moses persuades him further and it is assumed, though not stated, that Hobab then agreed to travel with the Israelites and share their fortunes.
5. Hobab apparently takes a position as a guide. Why on earth would Moses and his people need a human guide when they had Jehovah, the all-powerful and all-knowing god, to lead them and find places for them to camp. It makes no sense. Is Hobab going to take them where Jehovah does not want them to go? Will he furnish knowledge of the land that Jehovah does not possess? Perhaps Moses is tiring of his divine companionship and wants a human adviser. Perhaps he is sick of having to consult all the time with Jehovah in his cloud above the Tabernacle.
6. Moses' father-in-law is here called Reuel. Back in the Book of Exodus he was originally called Jethro. Either these are two names of the same man or Moses, if he is the writer of these books (which, of course, he is not), can't seem to remember who his wife's father is. Hobab is assumedly Sephorah’s brother; however, in Exodus she had no brothers, only sisters. Perhaps, then, he might have been a husband or widower of one of Sephorah’s sisters.
7. Moses' declamation, "Let your enemies scatter and those that hate you flee before you!" is consistent with the prevailing attitude of Jehovah. Everyone is an enemy to him. Other people are not to be befriended or won over, but driven out. There is no hope for the Israelites of finding a land of friendly natives with whom they can dwell in peace and harmony. There is only the promise taking a hostile land by force of arms. (in contrast, he American colonists and Western pioneers, who did end up taking the land from the Native Americans, generally had more benign intentions and entertained initial hopes for peaceful coexistence with the "Indians," despite a belief in Manifest Destiny.)
On the second year after the Israelites' exodus from Egypt, on the 20th day of the second month (Iyar), the cloud lifted from the Sanctum of the Tabernacle. The Israelites, therefore, set out, leaving behind the desert of Sinai and settling in the desert of Paran.
This was the first time the people had set out following the instructions Jehovah had given to Moses. Under their standard Judah's part of the camp went first, led by Nahshon son of Amminadab,. They were followed by the tribe of Issachar, led by Nethanel son of Zuar, and the tribe of Zebulun, led by Eliab son of Helon. Next, the Tabernacle was dismantled and transported by the Gershonites and Merarites as they set out. The tribe of Reuben, led by Elizur son of Shedeur, followed, then the tribe of Simeon under Shelumail son of Zurishaddai, and the tribe of Gad under Eliasaph son of Deuel. Then the Kohathites, who carried the sacred objects from the Sanctum, set out. (By the time they would arrive in the new camp, the Tabernacle would already be set up.) Next, under their banner, went the tribe of Ephraim led by Elishama son of Ammihud, then the tribe of Manasseh under Gamaliel son of Pedahzur, and the tribe of Benjamin, led by Abidan son of Gideoni. Finally, assuming the role of a rear guard, the companies from the tribe of Dan, all supervised by Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai, marched out under their banner, followed by the tribe of Asher, led by Pagiel son Ocran and the tribe of Naphtali, led by Ahira son of Enan. This was the order, tribe by tribe, in which the Israelites set out on their journeys.
Moses said to Hobab, the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, "We are setting out for the land that Jehovah vowed to give us. Please come with us. You’ll do well for yourself, for Jehovah has promised great bounty to the people of Israel."
But Hobab replied, "No, I won't be going. I must get back to my own land and my own people."
"Please don't leave us," Moses insisted. "You know the places in the desert where we should camp. You could be our guide. If you do, we will share with you all the blessings that Jehovah may bestow upon us."
After leaving the mountain of Jehovah, they journey for three days. During those three days the Chest of Sacred Records went out before them as they sought out a new camping site. Jehovah's cloud hovered over them by day whenever they broke camp and set out again. Whenever the sacred chest set out, Moses would then declaim, "Arise, O Jehovah! Let your enemies scatter and those who hate you flee before you!" And when it was set down, he would cry, "Return, O Jehovah, to the countless thousands of Israel!"
Notes
1. The second month of occurs in late spring. Getting out of the desert before the hot summers begin seems like a good idea! However, thy seem to want to go from one desert to another.
2. The desert of Paran has not been positively identified. Although some scholars place it in the southern Sinai, most believe it refers to western Arabia, perhaps near what later would be Mecca.
3. This chapter reiterates what has already been written of in some detail, the cloud of Jehovah over the Chest of Sacred Records leading the Israelites in their travels, the enumeration of tribal leaders, and the marching order of the camp. It seems as if this section was inserted into the narrative from another, briefer account of the events. In fact, much of the Books of Moses gives the impression of being a cut-and-paste job, a somewhat inconsistent narrative compiled from several sources. This, of course, has been confirmed by scholars.
4. Moses invites his brother-in-law Hobab to join the Israelites on their journey to Canaan. It is not mentioned when or why Hobab was in the Israelite camp to begin with, although it can be assumed that his home in Midian was not far away. (Jethro visited at some point and maybe Hobab came with him and stayed on.) He turns down the offer, though. Moses persuades him further and it is assumed, though not stated, that Hobab then agreed to travel with the Israelites and share their fortunes.
5. Hobab apparently takes a position as a guide. Why on earth would Moses and his people need a human guide when they had Jehovah, the all-powerful and all-knowing god, to lead them and find places for them to camp. It makes no sense. Is Hobab going to take them where Jehovah does not want them to go? Will he furnish knowledge of the land that Jehovah does not possess? Perhaps Moses is tiring of his divine companionship and wants a human adviser. Perhaps he is sick of having to consult all the time with Jehovah in his cloud above the Tabernacle.
6. Moses' father-in-law is here called Reuel. Back in the Book of Exodus he was originally called Jethro. Either these are two names of the same man or Moses, if he is the writer of these books (which, of course, he is not), can't seem to remember who his wife's father is. Hobab is assumedly Sephorah’s brother; however, in Exodus she had no brothers, only sisters. Perhaps, then, he might have been a husband or widower of one of Sephorah’s sisters.
7. Moses' declamation, "Let your enemies scatter and those that hate you flee before you!" is consistent with the prevailing attitude of Jehovah. Everyone is an enemy to him. Other people are not to be befriended or won over, but driven out. There is no hope for the Israelites of finding a land of friendly natives with whom they can dwell in peace and harmony. There is only the promise taking a hostile land by force of arms. (in contrast, he American colonists and Western pioneers, who did end up taking the land from the Native Americans, generally had more benign intentions and entertained initial hopes for peaceful coexistence with the "Indians," despite a belief in Manifest Destiny.)
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