desire to drink; as also, when others fled away by troops, the Hebrews came round them, and shot at them, so that what with darts, and 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 abundance of fruits, and the army went all over it without fear, and fed their cattle upon it, and they took the enemies prisoners, for they could no way 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 a country situate between three rivers, and naturally resembling an island, the river Arnon being its southern limit; the river Jabbok determining its northern side, which running into Jordan loses its own name, and takes the other, while Jordan itself runs along by it on its western coast.

3. 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, yet did he resolve still to come and 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 himself 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 yet 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 handsomeness of his appearance; he was also a man of great activity, in the use of his hands, 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 Rabboth, 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 farther 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 got both in general and in particular a great prey.

Concerning Balaam the prophet, and what kind of a man he was.

1. Now Moses, when he had brought his army to Jordan, pitched his camp in the great plain over against Jericho. This city is 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 sacrifices 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 this that follows.

*

2. When Balak, the king of the Moabites, who had from his ancestor a friendship and league with the Midianites, saw how greatly the Israelites were grown, 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 forbid 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 such prosperous success, and even became out of ill success 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 hon

* What Josephus here remarks, is well worth our remark in this place also, viz. that the Israelites were never to meddle with the Moabites, or Ammonites, or any other people, but those belonging to the land of Canaan, and the country 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 the proper and pecular portion among the nations, and that all who endeavoured to dispossess them might ever be justly destroyed by them.

ourable 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 kindly; and when he had supped, he inquired what was God's will, and what this matter was for which the Midianites entreated him to come to them? But when God opposed his going, he came to the ambassadors, and told them, that he was himself very willing and desirous to comply with their request, but informed them, 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 the 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.

3. Now the Midianites, at the earnest instances, and fervent 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 contradict the ambassadors. Now 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

* Note, that Josephus never supposes Balaam to be an idolater, nor to seek idolatrous enchantment, or to prophe y falsely, but to be no other than an ill disposed prophet of the true God; and intimates that God's answer the second time, permitting him to go, was ironical, and on design that he should be deceived, (which sort of deception, by way of punishment for former crimes, Josephus never scruples to adit, as ever esteeing such wicked men justly and providentially deceived.) But perhaps we had better keep here close to the text; which says, Numb. xxiii. 20, 21. that God only permitted Balaa'n to go along with the ambassadors, in case they came and called him, or pos tively insisted on his going along with them, on any terins: whereas Ba aan seems, out of impatience, to have risen up in the morning and saddled his ass, and rather to have called them than stayed for their calling him; so zealous does he seem to have been for his reward of divination, his wages of unrighteousness. Nu ab xxii. 7. 17 18. 37. 2 Pet. i. 15. Jude. v. 11. which reward or wages the truly religious prophets of God never required, nor accepted, as our Josephus jestly takes notice in the cases of Samuel, Antiq. B. v. ch. iv. 1. and Daniel, Antiq. B. x. ch. xi. § 3. See also Gen. xiv. 22, 23. 2 Kings, v. 15, 16.26. 27, and Acts, viii. 18–24;

him, and thrust Balaam to one of the walls, without regard to the stripes which Balaam, when he was hurt by the wall, gave her but when the ass, upon the angel's continuance 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 to him, 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; and informed him, that the brute creature was not in fault, but that he was himself come to obstruct his journey, as being contrary to the will of God. Upon which Balaam was afraid, and was preparing to return back again, yet did God excite him to go on his intended way; but added this injunction, that he should declare nothing but what he himself should suggest to his mind.

4. When God had given him this charge, he came to Balak; and when 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 their camp. Now when he saw them, he desired the king to build him seven altars, and to bring him as many bulls and rams; to which desire the king did presently conform. 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 the 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 ever be under the

command of your children; and both all the earth, as well as the sea, shall be filled with your 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. The multitude of your posterity also shall live as well in the islands, as on the continent, and that more in number than are the stars of heaven. And when you are become so many, God will not relinquish the care of you, but will afford you an abundance of all good things in time of peace, with victory and dominion in time 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 agreeable to their children and wives. 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."

5. 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 when Balak was displeased, and said he had broken the contract he had made, 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 made an encomium upon them, and had declared that they were the happiest of men. To which Balaam replied, "O Balak, if thou rightly considerest this whole matter, canst thou suppose that it is in our power to be silent, or to say any thing when the spirit of God seizes 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 so joyfully brought me hither, and on that account I took this journey. It was my prayer, that I might not put an 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