what with arrows, they made a slaughter of them all: Sihon also, their king, was slain. So the Hebrews spoiled their dead bodies, and took their prey. The land also, which they took, was full of fruits, and the army went all over it without fear, and fed their cattle upon it, and took the enemies prisoners. For they could noway put a stop to them, since all the fighting men were destroyed. Such was the destruction which overtook the Amorites, who were neither sagacious in counsel, nor courageous in action. Hereupon the Hebrews took possession of their land, which is situate between three rivers, and naturally resembling an island, the river Arnon being its northern limit, and the river Jabbok determining its southern side; which, running into Jordan, loses its own name, and takes the other. While Jordan itself runs along by it, on its western. coast. offer, and put his army in array, preparing every || and shot at them; so that what with darts, and thing in order to hinder their passage over Arnon.* When Moses saw that the Amorite king was disposed to commence hostilities, he thought he ought not to bear that insult; and determining to wean the Hebrews from their indolent temper, and prevent the disorders which arose thence, which had been the occasion of their former sedition; nor indeed were they now thoroughly easy in their minds: he inquired of God, whether he would give him leave to fight? which when he had done, and God had promised him the victory, he was very courageous, and ready to proceed to fighting. Accordingly he encouraged the soldiers, and desired of them that they would take the pleasure of fighting, now God gave them leave so to do. Upon this commission, which they so much longed for, they put on their armour, and set about the work without delay. But the Amorite king was not now like to himself, when the Hebrews were ready to attack him; both himself was affrighted at the Hebrews, and his army, which before had shown themselves to be of good courage, were then found to be timorous. So they could not sustain the first onset, nor bear up against the Hebrews: but fled away, thinking this would afford them a more likely way for their escape than fighting. For they depended upon their cities, which were strong; from which they reaped no advantage, when they were forced to fly from them. For as soon as the Hebrews saw them giving ground, they immediately pursued; and when they had broken their ranks, they greatly terrified them. And some of them broke off from the rest, and ran away to the cities. Now the Hebrews pursued them briskly; and obstinately persevered in the labours they had already undergone; and being very skilful in slinging, and very dexterous in throwing darts, or any thing else of that kind; and also having on nothing but light armour, which made them quick in pursuit, they overtook their enemies. And for those that were most remote, and could not be overtaken, they reached them by their slings and their bows, so that many were slain, and those that escaped the slaughter were sorely wounded; and these were more distressed with thirst, than with any of those that fought against them, for it was the summer season: and when the greatest number of them were brought down to the river, out of a desire to drink; as also when others fled away by troops, the Hebrews came round them, *Numb. xxi. 23. †This victory is celebrated in Numb. xxi. 30. Deut. i. 4. iii. 2. iv. 46. xxix. 7, 8. Josh. xiii. 10. Judges xi. 21. Ps. cxxxv. 10, 11. cxxxvi. 18, 19. and by Philo, p. 642. When matters were come to this state, Og, the king of Gilead and Gaulanitis, fell upon the Israelites. He brought an army with him, and came in haste to the assistance of his friend Sihon. But though he found him already slain, he resolved to fight the Hebrews, supposing he should be too hard for them, and being desirous to try their valour. But failing of his hope, he was both slain in the battle, and all his army was destroyed.§ So Moses passed over the river Jabbok, and overran the kingdom of Og. He overthrew their cities, and slew all their inhabitants; who exceeded in riches all the men in that part of the continent, on account of the goodness of the soil, and the great quantity of his wealth. Now Og had very few equals, either in the largeness of his body, or the beauty of his appearance. He was also a man of great activity; so that his actions were not unequal to the vast largeness and handsome appearance of his body. And men could easily guess at his strength and magnitude, when they took his bed at Rabbath, the royal city of the Ammonites. Its structure was of iron; its breadth four cubits, and its length a cubit more than double thereto. However, his fall did not only improve the circumstances of the Hebrews for the present; but by his death he was the occasion of further good success to them; for they presently took those sixty cities which were encompassed with excellent walls, and had been subject to him; and all the people got, both in general and particular, a great prey. Numb. xxi. 24. See Numb. xxi. 35. Deut. iii. 3. Josh. xii. 4. Ps. cxxxv. 11, 12. and Philo, p. 643. CHAP. VI. kindly. And when he had supped, he inquired what was God's will, and what this matter was for which OF BALAAM'S ATTEMPT TO CURSE ISRAEL, AND OF THE ARTIFICE BY the Midianites entreated him to come to them: but WHICH THE HEBREWS WERE WEAKENED. WHEN Moses had brought his army to Jordan, he pitched his camp in the great plain over against Jericho. This city was a very happy situation, and very fit for producing palm-trees and balsam. And now the Israelites began to be very proud of themselves, and were very eager for fighting. Moses, then, after he had offered for a few days sacrifice of thanksgiving to God, and feasted the people, sent a party of armed men to lay waste the country of the Midianites, and to take their cities. Now the occasion which he took for making war upon them was as follows: When Balak, the king of the Moabites, who had from his ancestors a friendship and league with the Midianites, saw how greatly the Israelites were increased, he was much affrighted on account of his own and his kingdom's danger. For he was not acquainted with this; that the Hebrews would not meddle with any other country: but were to be contented with the possession of the land of Canaan, God having forbidden them to go any farther. So he, with more haste than wisdom, resolved to make an attempt upon them by words; but he did not judge it prudent to fight against them, after they had had the prosperous successes, and even became out of ill successes more happy than before; but he thought to hinder them, if he could, from growing greater; and so he resolved to send ambassadors to the Midianites about them. Now these Midianites, knowing there was one Balaam, who lived by Euphrates, and was the greatest of the prophets at that time, and one that was in friendship with them, sent some of their honourable princes along with the ambassadors of Balak, to entreat the prophet to come to them; that he might imprecate curses to the destruction of the Israelites. So Balaam received the ambassadors, and treated them very *Numb. xxii. 1. + What Josephus here remarks is worthy our remark, viz. that the Israelites were never to meddle with the Moabites, Ammonites, or any other people, but those belonging to the land of Canaan, and the countries of Sihon and Og beyond Jordan, as far as the desert and Euphrates; and that, therefore, no other people had reason to fear the conquests of the Israelites; but that those countries given them by God were their proper and peculiar portion among the nations, and that all who endeavoured to possess them might ever be justly destroyed by them. ‡ Numb. xxii. 6. An opinion prevailed both in those days, and in after ages, that some men had a power, by the help of their gods, to devote not only particular persons, but whole armies, to destruction. This they are said to have done sometimes by words of imprecation, of which there was a set form among some people, which Eschines calls Sopiouavny apav, the determinate curse. Sometimes they also offered sacrifices, when God opposed his going, he came to the ambassadors, and told them that he was himself willing and desirous to comply with their request, but that God was opposite to his intentions, even that God who had raised him to great reputation on account of the truth of his predictions. For that this army which they entreated him to come to curse, was in favour of God. On which account he advised them to go home again, and not to persist in their enmity against the Israelites. And when he had given them that answer, he dismissed the ambassadors. Now the Midianites, at the earnest entreaties of Balak, sent other ambassadors to Balaam, who, desiring to gratify the men, inquired again of God; but he was displeased at this second trial, and bid him by no means to contradict the ambassadors. Balaam did not imagine that God gave this injunction in order to deceive him; so he went along with the ambassadors. But when the divine angel met him in the way, when he was in a narrow passage, and hedged in with a wall on both sides, the ass on which Balaam rode, understood that it was a divine spirit that met him; and thrust Balaam to one of the walls, without regard to the stripes which her master, when he was hurt by the wall, gave her. But when the ass, upon the angel's continuing to distress her, and upon the stripes which were given her, fell down; by the will of God she made use of the voice of a man, and complained of Balaam, as acting unjustly to her; that whereas he had no fault to find with her in her former service, he now inflicted stripes upon her, as not understanding that she was hindered from serving him in what he was now going about by the providence of God. And when he was disturbed by reason of the voice of the ass, which was that of a man, the angel plainly appeared to him,§ and blamed him for the stripes he had given his ass; informing him, that the creature was not in and used certain rites and ceremonies, with solemn charms. A famous instance of this we find in the life of Crassus, where Plutarch tells us, that Atticus, tribune of the people, made a fire at the gate out of which Crassus was to march to the war against the Parthians, into which he threw certain things to make a fume, and offered sacrifices to the most angry gods, with horrid imprecations upon him; these, he says, according to ancient tradition, had such a power, that no man who was loaded with them could avoid being undone. B. § Numb. xxii. 31. "Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way." There are several instances to be found, both in the Scriptures and in profane authors, where the eyes have been opened by a divine power, to perceive that which they could not see by mere natural discernment. Thus the eyes of Hagar were opened, that she might see the fountain, Gen. xxi. 19. Homer also presents us with an example of this kind. Minerva says to Diomed: fault, but that he was himself come to obstruct his journey, as being contrary to the will of God. Upon this Balaam was afraid, and was preparing to return back, yet God excited him to go on his intended way; but added this injunction, that he should declare nothing but what he himself should suggest.* When God had given him this charge, the prophet came to Balak; and after the king had entertained him in a magnificent manner, he desired him to go to one of the mountains, to take a view of the state of the camp of the Hebrews. Balak himself also came to the mountain, and brought the prophet along with him, with a royal attendance. This mountain lay over their heads, and was distant sixty furlongs from the camp. He then slew the sacrifices, and offered them as burnt-offerings, that he might observe some signal of the flight of the Hebrews. Then said he, "Happy is this people, on whom God bestows the possession of innumerable good things; and grants them his own providence to be their assistant and their guide: so that there is not any nation among mankind, but you will be esteemed superior to them in virtue, and in the earnest prosecution of the best rules of life, and of such as are pure from wickedness; and will leave those rules to your excellent children: and this out of the regard that God bears to you, and the provision of such things for you as may render you happier than any other people under the sun. You shall retain that land to which he hath sent you, and it shall be ever under the command of your children; and both all the earth, as well as the sea, shall be filled with their glory. And you shall be sufficiently numerous to supply the world in general, and every region of it in particular, with inhabitants out of your stock. However, O blessed army! wonder that you are become so many from one father! and truly the land of Canaan can now hold you, as being yet comparatively few; but know ye, that the whole world is proposed to be your place of habitation for ever. Your posterity shall also live in the islands, as well as on the continent, and shall be more numerous than the stars of heaven. And when you are become so many, God will not relinquish his care of you, but will afford you an abundance of all good things in times of peace, with victory and dominion in times of war. May the children of your enemies have an inclination to fight against you, and may they be so hardy as to come to arms, and to assault you in battle, for they will not return with victory, nor will their return be agrecable to their wives and children. To so great a degree of valour will you be raised by the providence of God, who is able to diminish the affluence of some, and to supply the wants of others." Thus did Balaam speak by inspiration; as not being in his own power, but moved to say what he did by the divine spirit. But Balak was greatly displeased, and said, he had broken the contract whereby he was to come, as he and his confederates had invited him, by the promise of great presents. For whereas he came to curse their enemies, he had pronounced an encomium on them; and had declared they were the happiest of men. To which Balaam replied; "O Balak, if thou rightly considerest this whole matter, canst thou suppose that that it is in our power to be silent, or to say any thing, when the spirit of God seizes perhaps we had better adhere closely to the text; which says, Numb. xxiii. 20, 21, that God only permitted Balaam to go along with, or in the Septuagint version, to follow, the ambassadors, in case they came and called him; or positively insisted on his going along with them, on any terms. Whereas Balaam seems, out of impatience, to have risen up in the morning and saddled his ass, and rather to have called them, than staid for their calling him. So zealous does he seem to have been for his reward of divination, his wages of unrighteousness. Numb. xxii. 7, 17, 18, 37. 2 Pet. ii. 15. Jude 11; which reward or wages the truly religious prophets of God never required nor accepted; as Josephus justly takes notice in the cases of Samuel, Antiq. VI. 4, and Daniel, Antiq. X. 17. See also Gen. xiv. 23, 24. 2 Kings v. 15, 16, 26. and Acts viii. 18-24. † Balaam required seven altars to be built, and suitable sacrifices to be prepared. The ancients were very superstitious about certain numbers, supposing that God delighted in odd numbers. Terna tibi hæc primum triplici diversa colore Around his waxen image first I wind DRYDEN. B. upon us? for he puts such words as he pleases in our mouths, and such discourses as we are not ourselves conscious of. I well remember by what entreaties both you and the Midianites brought me hither; and on that account I took this journey. It was my prayer that I might not put any affront upon you, as to what you desired of me. But God is more powerful than the purposes I had made to serve you. For those that take upon them to foretell the affairs of mankind, as from their own abilities, are entirely unable to do it; or to forbear to utter what God suggests to them, or to offer violence to his will. For when he prevents us, and enters into us, nothing that we say is our own. I then did not intend to praise this army, nor to notice the several good things which God intended to do to their race. But since he was so favourable to them, and so ready to bestow upon them a happy life, and eternal glory, he suggested the declaration of those things to me. But now, because it is my desire to oblige thee thyself, as well as the Midianites, whose entreaties it is not decent for me to reject; let us again rear other altars, and offer the like sacrifices that we did before; and I may see whether I can persuade God to permit me to bind these men with curses." Balak readily agreed to this proposal; but God would not even upon* second sacrifices consent to his cursing the Israelites. Then fell Balaam upon his face, and foretold what calamities would befall the several kings of the nations, and the most eminent cities; some of which of old were not so much as inhabited; which events have come to pass among the several people concerned, both in the preceding ages, and in this, till my own memory, both by sea and land. From which completion of these predictions, one may naturally expect that the rest will have their completions in time to come. Balak, being very angry that the Israelites were not cursed, sent away Balaam, without thinking him worthy of any honour. Whereupon, when he was just upon his journey, in order to pass the Euphrates, he sent for Balak, and for the princes of the Midianites, and spake thus to him: "O Balak, and you Midianites that are here present, I am obliged, even without the will of God, to gratify you. It is true, no entire destruction can *Whether Josephus had in his copy but two attempts of Balaam in all to curse Israel; or whether by his twice offering sacrifice he meant twice beside the first time already mentioned, which is not yet very probable; cannot now be certainly determined. In the mean time all other copies have three such attempts of Balaam to curse them in the present history. + Such a large and distinct account of this perversion of the Israelites by the Midianite women, of which our other copies give us but short intimations, Numb. xxxi. 16. 2 Pet. ii. 15. seize upon the nation of the Hebrews; neither by war, nor by plague, nor by scarcity of the fruits of the earth; nor can any other unexpected accident be to their entire ruin. For the providence of God is concerned to preserve them from such a misfortune; nor will it permit any such calamity to come upon them, whereby they may all perish. But some small misfortunes, and those for some time, whereby they may appear to be brought low, may still befall them. But after that they will flourish again, to the terror of those who brought those mischiefs upon them. So that if you are desirous of gaining a victory over them for a short space of time, you will obtain it by following my directions. Do you, therefore,† set out the comeliness of such of your daughters as are most eminent for beauty, and proper to conquer the modesty of those that behold them; and these decked and ornamented to the highest degree you are able. Then send them to the Israelites' camp; and give them in charge, that when the young men of the Hebrews desire their company, they allow it them. And when they see that they are enamoured of them, let them take their leave; and if they entreat them to stay, let them not give their consent, till they have persuaded them to neglect their own laws, and the worship of that God who established them, and to worship the gods of the Midianites and Moabites: for by this means God will be incensed against them." Accordingly when Balaam had suggested this course, he went his way. When the Midianites had sent their daughters, as Balaam had exhorted them, the Hebrew young men were allured by their beauty; and besought them not to grudge them the enjoyment of their beauty, nor to deny them their conversation. These daughters of the Midianites received their words gladly, and consented to stay with them. But when they had brought them to be perfectly enamoured, they began to talk of departing. Then it was that these men became greatly disconsolate at the women's departure; and were urgent with them not to leave them; but begged they would continue there, and become their wives, and promised them they should be owned as mistresses of all they had. This they said with an oath, calling God for the arbitrator of what they prom Jude 11. Apoc. ii. 14, is preserved, as Reland informs us, in the Samaritan chronicle, in Philo, and in other writings of the Jews, as well as here by Josephus. This grand maxim, that God's people of Israel could never be hurt, nor destroyed, but by drawing them to sin against God; appears to be true, by the entire history of that people, both in the Bible, and in Josephus; and is often noticed in them both. See in particular a most remarkable Ammonite testimony to purpose: Judith v. 5, 21. this ised; and this with tears in their eyes, and such other marks of concern as might show how miserable they thought themselves without them, and so might move their compassion. So the women, as soon as they perceived they had made them their slaves, and had enamoured them with their conversation, began to speak thus to them: 66 "O ye illustrious young men ; we have houses of our own at home, and great plenty of good things there; together with the natural affectionate love of our parents and friends. Nor is it out of our want of any such things that we are come to discourse with you; nor did we admit of your invitation with design to prostitute our beauty for gain: but, taking you for brave and worthy men, we agreed to your request, that we might treat you with such honours as hospitality required. And now seeing you say that you have a great affection for us, and are troubled when you think we are departing, we are not averse to your entreaties, and if we may receive satisfactory assurance of your good-will, we will be glad to lead our lives with you, as your wives; but we are afraid that you will in time be weary of our company, and will then abuse us, and send us back to our parents, after an ignominious manner. You must, therefore, excuse us in guarding against that danger." The young men professed they would give them any assistance they should desire; nor did they at all contradict what they requested; so great was the passion they had for them. "If then," rejoined they, "this be your resolution; since you make use of such customs* and conduct of life as are entirely different from all other men; insomuch that your kinds of food are peculiar to yourselves, and your kinds of drink not common to others; it will be absolutely necessary, if you would have us for your wives, that you do withal worship our gods. Nor can there be any other demonstration of the kindness which you say you already have, and promise to have hereafter to us, than this, that you worship the same gods as we do. For has any one reason to complain, that now you are come into this country, you should worship the proper gods of the same country? especially while our gods are common to all men, and yours such as belong to nobody but yourselves." So they said they * What Josephus here puts into the mouths of these Midianite women who came to entice the Israelites to lewdness and idolatry; viz. that their worship of the God of Israel, in opposition to their idol gods, implied their living according to the holy laws, which the true God had given them by Moses, in opposition to those impure laws, which were observed under their false gods, well deserves our consideration; and gives us a sub must either come into such methods of divine worship as all others came into, or else they must look out for another world, wherein they might live by themselves according to their own laws. Now the young men were induced, by the fondness they had for these women, to think they spake very well. So they gave themselves up to what they suggested, and transgressed their own laws; and supposing there were many gods, and resolving that they would sacrifice to them according to the law of that country which ordained them: they both were delighted with their strange food, and went on to do every thing that the women would have them do, though in contradiction to their own laws. So far, indeed, that this transgression was already gone through the whole army of the young men and they fell into a sedition that was much worse than the former, and into the danger of the entire abolition of their own institutions. For when once the youth had tasted of these strange customs, they went with insatiable inclinations into them; and some of the principal men, who were illustrious on account of the virtues of their fathers, were also corrupted together with the rest. Even Zimri, the head of the tribe of Simeon, accompanied with Cozbi, a Midianitish woman, who was the daughter of Sur, a man of authority in that country; and being desired by his wife to disregard the laws of Moses, and to follow those she was used to, he complied with her: and this both by sacrificing after a manner different from his own, and by taking a stranger to wife. When things were in this state, Moses was afraid that matters would grow worse, and called the people to a congregation: he then accused nobody by name; as unwilling to drive those to despair, who, by lying concealed, might come to repentance; but he said, that they did not do what was either worthy of themselves, or of their fathers; by preferring pleasure to God, and to the living according to his will: that it was fit to change their courses, while affairs were in a good state; and think that to be true fortitude, which, instead of offering violence to their laws, enabled them to resist their lusts. And besides that, he said, it was not a reasonable thing; when they had lived soberly in the wilderness, to act madly now they were in prosperity: and that they ought not stantial reason for the great concern that was ever showed under the laws of Moses, to preserve the Israelites from idolatry, and in the worship of the true God; it being of no less consequence than, whether God's people should be governed by the holy laws of the true God, or by the impure laws, derived from demons, under the pagan idolatry. |