Moses was born in Egypt 424 years after the birth of Abraham, where the third age begins. He was of the tribe of Levi, born of his father Amram and his mother Jochebed, while Amenophis, the eighth Pharaoh after the one who exalted Joseph, reigned in Egypt. This Amenophis had issued the decree that newborn males should be drowned in the river, according to Exodus 1.
Because of that decree, Josephus says that Amram abstained from marriage lest he beget offspring whom he would have to kill. But it was revealed to him that he should not do this, for he would beget a male who would humble the Egyptians. He therefore knew his wife, and she bore Moses, who was of graceful form. After hiding him for three months, she placed him in a little basket and exposed him upon the river, while his sister Miriam watched what would happen to him.
Pharaoh’s daughter came out to the river, had the basket she saw brought to her, and adopted the little child found in it as her son. She gave him to his own mother, that is, the child’s mother, to be nursed, according to Exodus 2.
Vincent relates in Book III of the Historical Mirror that one day King Pharaoh held Moses in his lap or arms and placed upon the infant’s head the crown he wore upon his own. The little child Moses cast it to the ground, and it broke. Certain people interpreted this as an evil omen, namely as a sign that the child would one day take away or destroy Pharaoh’s kingdom, and wished to kill him.
But others attributed the deed to the ignorance of infancy. So that the truth of the matter might become more apparent, they had burning coals brought before the child in a vessel. He took one live coal, put it into his mouth, and spat it out. Hence Moses is said to have become speechless or somewhat stammering. Attributing the earlier deed to childhood for this reason, they did not kill him.
Josephus says that Moses was of such beauty that no one was so severe that he did not become gentle at the sight of him, and that people left their work to look at him as he passed.
Vincent’s history also relates of Moses that, after becoming a young man and commander of the Egyptian army, he went to war against the Ethiopians, who had caused great devastation in Egypt. Being warlike and most skilled in arms, he defeated them and enclosed those who fled in their royal city Saba.
Tharbis, daughter of the king of the Ethiopians, saw Moses’ beauty and fell in love with him. She offered to give him the city if he would take her as his wife. He did so, because the city was impregnable. She is said to be the Ethiopian woman on whose account Miriam and Aaron murmured against Moses.
At last, when Moses wished to return to Egypt and she would not consent, he made a golden ring enclosing a gem with an image that had the power to induce forgetfulness, and gave it to her. When she had forgotten him, he returned to Egypt. For Moses was skilled in the stars.
Moses afterward went out to see the Hebrews in the land of Goshen. Seeing a certain Egyptian injuring a Hebrew and observing that no one was watching, he killed the Egyptian. Concerning this deed Augustine seems to say that Moses acted from zeal but not according to knowledge, and so sinned, as did Saul when he persecuted the Church and Peter when he cut off the ear of one of the Jewish ministers. Others say that he did not sin but acted from inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as one already appointed by God as leader of the people for this purpose, as in Acts 6.
On another occasion, when Moses reproved one Hebrew who was injuring another, the man complained against him as though Moses wished to kill him as he had killed the Egyptian. Seeing that this had become public and that Pharaoh sought to kill him, Moses withdrew into the land of Midian.
There he defended the seven daughters of Jethro the priest when they wished to water their flocks and shepherds hindered them. At last he took one of them, named Zipporah, as his wife. Dwelling with his father-in-law Jethro, he pastured his flocks in the desert. By Zipporah he had two sons, Gershom and Eliezer. These things are in Exodus 2.
§ I
When Moses had driven the flock of his father-in-law Jethro into the interior of the desert, according to Exodus 3, he saw a bush burning and not being consumed. When Moses approached to look at it more closely, the Lord spoke to him from the burning bush and commanded him to remove the shoes from his feet.
The Lord then said that He had seen the affliction of His people in Egypt. Having compassion on them, He would deliver them from Egypt and lead them into the land promised to their fathers. He commanded Moses to go with the elders of the Hebrews to Pharaoh on His behalf and order him to release His people to sacrifice in the desert.
He declared to Moses that Pharaoh would not release them except through plagues. Therefore, around the time of their departure, they should ask the Egyptians to lend them vessels of gold and silver and, when departing, carry these with them. When Moses asked about the name of the one sending him, in case he should be questioned about it, the Lord answered, “I am who am,” this being His name.
When Moses told the Lord that people would not believe him, the Lord gave him three things as signs. First, Moses’ staff, when cast down, was changed into a serpent, and when the serpent was taken up, it was changed back into a staff. Second, when he placed his hand into his bosom it became leprous, as he saw when he drew it out; and when he put it back into his bosom, it was cleansed.
Third, he was to take water from the river of Egypt and pour it out, whereupon it would be changed into blood, according to Exodus 4.
When Moses still excused himself because his speech was impeded and slow, the Lord encouraged him, saying that He would be with his mouth. When Moses continued to refuse and begged that He send the one whom He was going to send, the Lord became angry and told him that his brother Aaron, an eloquent man, would be his companion and would speak for him.
Moses therefore asked permission from his father-in-law Jethro to visit his brothers in Egypt. He took his wife and sons with him. At a lodging place, however, an angel wished to kill him because his sons were uncircumcised. He therefore circumcised his sons with a very sharp stone, and Zipporah left him and returned to her father with the sons.
Aaron, obeying God’s command, met Moses and kissed him. Moses announced the Lord’s words to him, and when they together announced them to the children of Israel, the people fell prostrate and gave thanks to God.
§ II
Moses and Aaron entered Pharaoh’s presence and on God’s behalf told him to let His people Israel go to sacrifice, according to Exodus 5. Pharaoh did not listen to them. Instead, he commanded those who supervised the labor of the children of Israel no longer to give them the straw previously supplied for baking bricks, but to make them go and gather it. Because they had leisure, he said, they were crying out to go sacrifice.
Because they could not render the customary number of bricks, since they had to spend time gathering straw, Pharaoh’s ministers scourged them. They complained about this before Pharaoh, but he despised them; they also complained before Moses and Aaron.
When Moses reported to the Lord the people’s affliction and complaint because of the burden Pharaoh had added after Moses and Aaron spoke to him, according to Exodus 6, the Lord told him to signify to the people that He would lead them out of that servitude. Oppressed by their labors, they did not listen to him.
The genealogy of certain persons, especially those descended from Levi, is then given. Among them were Aaron, Moses, and Miriam, the children of Amram. Aaron had four sons—Eleazar, Ithamar, Nadab, and Abihu—by a wife named Elisabeth, daughter of Aminadab, of the tribe of Judah.
When Moses excused himself before God, who was sending him to Pharaoh, saying that he was uncircumcised in lips, according to Exodus 7, the Lord said to him, “Behold, I have appointed you the god of Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. He shall speak for you.” He commanded them to go together to Pharaoh and, when he was unwilling to release the people, to perform signs before him.
They did this, first performing the sign of the staff changed into a serpent. Pharaoh’s magicians did similar things; although Moses’ staff devoured those of the magicians, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. Second, they performed another sign, namely changing the river’s water into blood, on account of which the fish also died. When the magicians performed similar things, Pharaoh was hardened. These things are in chapter 7.
Moses therefore told Pharaoh to release the people. When he did not consent, Moses stretched out his hand over the river, and innumerable frogs came up throughout Egypt, filling houses, beds, and other places, according to Exodus 8. The magicians did the same through incantation.
At Pharaoh’s request Moses and Aaron prayed for the frogs to be removed. When they did so, the frogs died, but Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. Then Moses struck the dust of the earth with the staff, and innumerable gnats arose. Unable to do this, the magicians said, “This is the finger of God.”
The Lord afterward sent the plague of flies, which filled all Egypt, but there were none in the land of Goshen where the Hebrews dwelt. Moses prayed at the request of Pharaoh, who promised to release the people, and the flies ceased. But Pharaoh was hardened and refused to release them. After this the Lord sent pestilence among the pack animals, yet Pharaoh still did not release the people; afterward He sent ulcers upon people and animals.
When Pharaoh was warned again to release the people and was unwilling to listen, according to Exodus 9, hail descended with thunder and lightning. It destroyed all the trees and fruits and killed the people and animals upon which it fell. There was no hail in the land of Goshen. The hail ceased at Moses’ prayer when Pharaoh promised to release the people, but he did nothing.
Through Moses the Lord threatened Pharaoh that locusts would be sent into Egypt if he did not release the people, and that He would harden his heart, according to Exodus 10. When the Egyptians urged Pharaoh to release the people lest they suffer worse things, he wished to release the men alone and not the others. Because of this came locusts and caterpillars without number, which devoured every green thing.
When this plague ceased at Moses’ prayer, Pharaoh was unwilling to release them with all their possessions as he had promised, but wished to retain the sheep and pack animals. Moses stretched out his hands toward heaven, and a palpable darkness appeared. People could not see one another for three days and did not move from their places. There was light in Goshen. Not even because of this did Pharaoh release the people; instead, he threatened Moses and Aaron with death if they came before him again.
The Lord foretold to Moses that after the plague that was to follow, namely the death of Egypt’s firstborn, Pharaoh would release them and compel them to depart, according to Exodus 11. Therefore, the children of Israel should borrow vessels of gold and silver from the Egyptians and carry them away when they departed from Egypt, as compensation for their losses.
The Lord told Moses that every household of Israel should sacrifice a lamb or kid toward evening on the fourteenth day of that month, which was the first month of the year, according to Exodus 12. They were to smear its blood upon both doorposts of the house. The lamb was to be a year old and without blemish. They were to eat it roasted with fire, observing certain rites.
When this had been done, at midnight an angel passed through Egypt and killed all the firstborn of people and pack animals. Wherever blood was upon the doorposts, he did nothing. Because of this, Pharaoh and all Egypt compelled the people of Israel to depart from Egypt, fearing that everyone would die. They carried with them the vessels of gold and silver and the garments borrowed from the Egyptians.
They departed in a number of six hundred thousand men, apart from the children and women, with all their possessions and pack animals. From Rameses they came to Succoth, according to Exodus 13.
The Lord commanded Moses that all the firstborn should be His, because when the firstborn of the Egyptians died, their own firstborn remained unharmed by the devastating angel. From that time onward, every male first born of man or beast was offered to the Lord as His own. The firstborn of men who were not of the tribe of Levi were redeemed for five shekels.
The Lord also commanded the solemnity of Passover to be observed for seven days with unleavened bread. Its rite is expressed more fully in the preceding chapter. There it is also said that they were in Egypt for 440 years. This reckoning begins from the first promise made to Abraham in Mesopotamia.
They proceeded through the desert toward the Red Sea, with an angel going before them by day in a pillar of cloud and by night in a pillar of fire.
When Pharaoh heard of this, he regretted that he had released the people, according to Exodus 14. Gathering his armies and chariots, he pursued them to bring them back to Egypt. When the children of Israel saw him approaching, they began to murmur against Moses because he had led them out of Egypt.
Moses prayed and, at the Lord’s command, stretched his staff over the Red Sea. The waters were divided, making roads in the midst of the sea through which the children of Israel freely walked. Pharaoh pursued them with his armies along those roads. But after all the Hebrew people had departed, Moses stretched his staff over the sea; the waters returned as before, overthrowing Pharaoh and his people in the midst of the waves.
Moses therefore sang this song to the Lord with the people, while his sister Miriam the prophetess sang with the women who played tambourines: “Let us sing to the Lord gloriously,” and so forth, according to Exodus 15.
From there they came to Marah, where the waters were bitter so that they could not drink them. At God’s command Moses put wood into them, and they were made sweet. They then proceeded to Elim, where they found twelve springs and seventy palm trees.
From Elim they came into the desert of Sin. When the people murmured against Moses and Aaron because of the lack of meat and other foods of Egypt, according to Exodus 16, the wind blew and sent them quails, and behold, manna rained upon them like dew.
The Lord commanded each person to gather a gomor, which was a certain measure, and no more, and not to reserve it for another day except on the sixth day. On that day they were to gather two gomors, one for that day and the other for the Sabbath. Those who gathered more found no more than a gomor, and those who reserved it for another day found it putrefied. The Hebrews were nourished by this food in the desert for forty years.
From the desert of Sin they proceeded to Rephidim. When they murmured there because of the lack of water, Moses at the Lord’s command struck the rock of Horeb with the staff. Waters flowed in abundance so that they and their animals could drink, according to Exodus 17.
When the Amalekites made war upon them to hinder their journey, Moses sent Joshua with many men to fight them. Moses himself remained on the summit of the mountain, holding his staff with hands raised toward heaven, while Aaron and Hur supported his arms. Whenever he lowered them, his people were defeated; whenever he kept them raised, the people prevailed. Thus Amalek was defeated.
Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came to visit him, bringing his wife and their sons Gershom and Eliezer, according to Exodus 18. When they had been received with thanks and God’s wonders related, Jethro saw Moses’ great labor in hearing the cases of individuals from morning until evening. He advised him to appoint different officers—tribunes, centurions, rulers of fifty, and rulers of ten—who would hear the people’s cases, while Moses reserved the more difficult matters for himself. Moses did this.
§ III
From Rephidim they came to Mount Sinai and its foot. There the Lord commanded them through Moses to sanctify themselves and wash their garments for two days, and that on the third day Moses should ascend the mountain. No one else, nor even an animal, was to approach or touch the mountain, lest they die.
On the third day the mountain began to smoke. Thunder and the sound of a trumpet were heard, lightning was seen, and a very dense cloud covered the mountain. Moses entered it to receive the law. When these things had been completed, in the third month after the departure from Egypt the Lord gave His people the law upon Mount Sinai.
This law is divided into three kinds of precepts: moral, judicial, and ceremonial. The moral precepts are the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20. Certain other moral precepts are scattered in different places of the Pentateuch, and especially in Deuteronomy, but they are reduced to the Decalogue. All nations have always been and will always be bound to observe them.
The first three commandments, carved upon one stone tablet, order us toward God; the other seven order us toward our neighbor.
The judicial commandments were ordained for preserving the peaceful life of that people together and maintaining good civil society. Like civic statutes, they bound that people alone until Christ’s Passion. Now they bind no one unless the Church or some city chooses to assume any of those precepts as its own statutes. They would then bind not because they were written in the Mosaic law, but because they were established in the city. They are found in the two chapters 21 and 22, partly in chapter 23, and also scattered elsewhere, especially in Deuteronomy.
The ceremonial precepts were ordained for the worship of God among that people, principally prefiguring Christ and the customs of the Christian people. They bound that people alone. They are said to have been given to the perfect as a sign, so that through them they might be exercised in faith in the things those rites prefigured; to the imperfect and ignorant as a pedagogue, so that they might be held in devotion under them; and to the unruly and hard as a scourge, so that, burdened by them, no access to Gentile rites would be open.
Because all those ceremonial things happened as a figure and were fulfilled when Christ came and the Christian people came into being, they are now abolished. Whoever observed them in that manner would Judaize and sin mortally.
These ceremonial precepts are divided into sacred objects, sacrifices, sacraments, and observances. Sacred objects are those things that pertain to the tabernacle and were ordained around it.
In Exodus 24 it is said that Moses made an altar at the foot of Mount Sinai. When victims had been sacrificed there and the book of the law that he had written first read, he sprinkled the people with their blood, while they promised to fulfill all the Lord’s commandments.
Afterward Moses and Aaron, with Aaron’s sons and seventy elders of the people, proceeded toward the Lord. Moses admonished the people to await his descent from the mountain. If any question should arise, they were to refer it to Aaron and Hur. He ascended the mountain, and a cloud covered it for seven days. On the seventh day Moses entered the cloud and remained there forty days and nights, fasting and speaking with the Lord.
§ IV
The Lord therefore commanded Moses to make an ark of shittim wood, which is incorruptible. Its length was to be two and a half cubits, its width one and a half, and likewise its height. It was entirely covered within and without with plates of gold and had a golden crown above.
He was also to make a golden mercy seat that was like a covering of the ark, but stood upright above and rose over the ark like the lid of a chest when it is completely open, or like panels erected above altars. He was to make two cherubim, one on one side of the ark and the other on the other. These were kept in the Holy of Holies. In the ark were placed Aaron’s rod, a golden vessel full of manna, and the two tablets of the Decalogue.
He likewise commanded a wooden table to be made of shittim wood and covered with golden plates, with a crown above it. Twelve loaves were continually kept upon it and changed every Sabbath. He also commanded a golden lampstand with seven lamps, and a golden altar upon which incense was offered, together with a censer. These three were in the Holy Place.
In addition, he was to make many golden vessels and censers, cups, bowls, mortars, forks, and other things of this kind. These things are contained in chapter 25.
And in chapter 26 He commanded that the tabernacle be made from boards covered with golden plates. Its length was to be thirty cubits, its width ten, and likewise its height, with silver bases. Across the middle of the tabernacle, along its width, He commanded a beautiful veil to be made, suspended upon four columns, which divided the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. The space of the Holy of Holies was ten cubits in length, while the space of the Holy Place was twenty cubits.
The tabernacle had a fourfold covering. The first was of curtains woven in various colors; the second, of cloths made from goats’ hair; the third, of reddened skins; and the fourth, of hyacinth-colored skins. There was also a hanging at the entrance. The entrance was on the eastern side, just as, conversely, the entrance of churches is now on the western side.
In chapter 27 of Deuteronomy [read: chapter 27 of Exodus], it is contained that the Lord commanded an altar of holocausts to be made before the entrance of the tabernacle. It was to be five cubits long and likewise five cubits wide, but three cubits high, made from shittim wood covered with bronze. Sacrifices were burned there. He also caused a court to be made around the tabernacle, surrounded with curtains. Its length was one hundred cubits and its width fifty.
In chapter 27 there is an account of the vestments to be made for the priests. When all the ordinary priests ministered, they had four garments: breeches, a linen garment, a belt, and a tiara. But when the high priest entered the Holy of Holies—which occurred once a year, namely in the month of September, on the feast of propitiation, that is, on the tenth day—he put on the following garments in addition to those already named. There was a hyacinth-colored tunic, which was close fitting like a little tunic; on its lower edge were bells and woven pomegranates. Then there was the ephod; afterward, on his breast, the breastpiece, which was square; behind, upon his shoulders, the superhumeral; and on his forehead a plate shaped like the moon.
In chapter 29 mention is made of the sacrifices performed at the consecration or anointing of the priest Aaron and his sons. In chapter 30 He commands that an altar of incense be made, as well as a bronze laver in which the priests washed their hands and feet when they were to minister. It was placed between the entrance of the tabernacle and the altar of holocausts. He also commands that incense be compounded in the manner of an ointment from myrrh, cinnamon, cassia, aromatic cane, and oil. With this preparation all the things in the tabernacle were anointed, and the priests themselves were consecrated through this anointing.
In chapter 31 it is related that God gave wisdom to Bezalel, of the tribe of Judah, and Oholiab, of the tribe of Dan, to make all the things just mentioned. These matters belong to all the sacred objects. The solemnities of the Jews also belong here; three of them last for a week, namely Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles.
The sacrifices made from animals, the offerings made from dry things such as bread and the like, and the libations made from liquids are treated especially in the book of Leviticus, although some are also set down occasionally elsewhere. The sacraments of the Jews were circumcision, begun in Abraham; the eating of the paschal lamb, which is discussed in Exodus 12; the anointings of priests; the sprinkled ashes of the heifer; and certain sacrifices. Observances are the distinctions between clean and unclean things, which are treated in Leviticus. All these belong to the ceremonial precepts of the Jews, which have now ceased; hence they are now observed to one’s damnation.
§ V
Returning to the history: while Moses remained upon the mountain with the Lord, the people rose up and told Aaron to make golden gods for them to worship. Because Hur resisted and opposed them, he was suffocated by their spittle, as the Hebrews hand down, although this is not contained in the text. Aaron told them to bring the golden earrings of their wives. When they had done so, they melted the gold, made a calf from it, and adored the calf as a god.
The Lord told Moses to descend from the mountain because His people had sinned by committing idolatry. He said that He wished to destroy them from the earth because they were stiff-necked. But Moses prayed and appeased the Lord’s anger. He descended from the mountain with stone tablets written by the finger of God. When, at the foot of the mountain, he saw the people worshiping the calf, he was moved to wrath through zeal and broke the tablets.
After he had rebuked Aaron for making the calf and Aaron had offered his excuse, Moses broke the calf. He commanded the Levites to take up swords with him and kill all who had committed idolatry, sparing no one, not even their parents. The Hebrews say that a golden hair appeared in the beards of the idolaters. Thus they were distinguished from the others, and twenty-three thousand men were killed because of this.
Moses then returned to the Lord upon the mountain and asked Him either to forgive the people that fault or to blot Moses himself out of the book of life. The Lord answered that He would blot out the one who offended Him, and that Moses should lead that people to the place He had named and His angel should go before him. All these things are in chapter 32.
After this Moses returned to the camp and pitched the tabernacle outside the camp. Whoever had some matter of inquiry went to him there. Entering the tabernacle, Moses consulted the Lord, and a cloud appeared before it in the form of a column. Moses spoke with the Lord, as is said in the text, face to face, just as a friend speaks with his friend. Nevertheless, it was an angel who represented the Lord.
When Moses asked the Lord to show him His face and His glory, He answered that a living man could not see His face. Moses was instead to place himself in the rock and, as He passed by, would see His hinder parts. He also said to him, “I shall show you every good.” This takes place in the vision of the divine essence. Hence both Thomas and Augustine say that Moses saw God by His essence in the present life. This is in chapter 23.
Afterward, at God’s command, Moses made two stone tablets and ascended Mount Sinai with them. The Ten Commandments were carved upon them by God’s work. God promised to lead the people into the land promised to their fathers, but commanded that they should neither worship the gods of that land nor contract marriages with its inhabitants. Their firstborn were to be offered to Him, and three times each year they were to approach the place of His name, that is, the place where the temple would be.
Moses remained on Mount Sinai for a second period of forty days, neither eating nor drinking. When he descended from the mountain, he told the people what the Lord had commanded. Because of the rays issuing from Moses’ face, he appeared to have horns. Moses therefore veiled his face when he spoke to the people. These things are in chapter 34.
Moses admonished the people to offer as gifts whatever gold, silver, or other things they freely wished to give toward the construction of the tabernacle. They did so, as is contained in chapter 25. The four following chapters relate in detail how Bezalel and Oholiab, with their assistants, made the tabernacle and the other things that the Lord had commanded Moses to have made.
When these things had been completed, the Lord commanded Moses to erect the tabernacle itself, to place everything belonging to it as He had ordained, to consecrate Aaron and his sons, and to offer the appointed sacrifices. When this had been fulfilled and everything arranged, on the first day of the first month of the second year after the departure from Egypt, at the foot of Mount Sinai, a cloud filled the tabernacle. Because the glory of the Lord flashed forth, Moses could not enter the tabernacle.
Fire also descended from heaven and set the prepared sacrifices alight. This fire never failed until the Babylonian captivity of that people, although at God’s command the priests fed it morning and evening by placing wood upon it. The erection of the tabernacle is treated in the fortieth and final chapter of Exodus.
§ VI
Because the Decalogue contains a brief summary of God’s commandments, every person has always been and still is bound to observe it among all nations, since its commandments belong to natural law. Nor could an adult be saved otherwise than by observing them, according to Christ’s words in Matthew 19 when He explains some of them: “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
As for the observance of the Sabbath, it was ceremonial with respect to the determination of that particular day. Nevertheless, insofar as it required a person to devote some time to God and to his own salvation, it was moral and belonged to the dictate of natural reason. Therefore, a very brief exposition of the commandments will be set down from what is contained in the Decrees.
In the expression of the Decalogue itself God says: “I am the Lord your God, mighty and jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, and showing mercy to thousands among those who love Me and keep My commandments.” This is expounded in three ways.
First, the severity of divine justice is shown, for God visits—that is, punishes—sins committed not only in their first authors but also in the children of the fathers, or those who imitate their parents’ wickedness. Hence He adds, “of those who hate Me.” Because people do not ordinarily live so long that more than a fourth generation descends from them, and because it commonly happens that children imitate the evil conduct of the parents whom they have seen, He therefore says, “to the third and fourth generation.”
Second, it is expounded as indicating God’s clemency and long expectation of them for penance. He visits them by healing and curing the sins of their fathers, waiting for them as long as they are able to live, which extends to the third or fourth generation descended from them; if they are converted, He is ready to forgive them, as is contained in Cause 1, question 4, in the section Contra.
Third, it is expounded morally, as the gloss there notes, and well. For there is a fourfold process of sin, as though a fourfold generation. The first generation consists of the first movements of sin, which are themselves sometimes sins. The second generation is sensual complacency in the sin suggested, but short of the assent of reason. The third is the heart’s consent to sin, which is mortal. The fourth generation is the deed. Therefore, God does not punish the first and second generations eternally, but He does punish the third and fourth, because mortal sin is there. Hence He adds, “of those who hate Me.”
The first commandment, therefore, is this, as is contained in Exodus 20: “You shall have no foreign gods before Me.” As though explaining this more fully, He adds: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, nor any likeness of those things that are in heaven, on earth, or in the waters. You shall not adore them with the veneration of latria, nor worship them with interior worship.” By these words all idolatry and superstition are prohibited.
Augustine says in his book On Christian Doctrine: “Anything instituted by human beings that pertains to making and worshiping idols, or to worshiping a creature or any part of a creature as God, is superstitious. The same is true of consultations and certain covenanted or agreed compacts of signs with demons, such as the volumes of magical arts, which poets customarily mention rather than teach. To the same class, though one of seemingly more permissible vanity, belong the books of augurs and haruspices.”
He continues: “To this class also belong all bindings and remedies that the discipline of physicians condemns, whether they consist of incantations, certain marks called characters, or any objects hung or tied upon a person.” This is in Cause 26, question 2, Illud quod est. Augustine concludes that a Christian must flee all these things.
In the same Cause, question 5, chapter Episcopi, it is also said that bishops must expel from their parishes those devoted to magical arts and sorcery, together with those wicked women who say that they travel at night upon beasts and whom some call streges. It declares that this is not true, but that everything occurs through the illusion of demons, and that those women falsely think that what happens in the phantasms of dreams is really happening to them.
It adds that everyone must be publicly told that whoever believes such things, and things like them, loses the faith. At the end of the chapter it says: “Whoever, therefore, believes that any creature can be changed for the better or the worse, or transformed into another species or another likeness, except by the Creator Himself who made it, is without doubt an unbeliever and worse than an unbeliever.” Thus it is written there.
Augustine likewise says in Cause 26, question 7: “Do not observe the days that are called Egyptian, nor the Kalends of January,” and so forth. After enumerating many superstitions and observances—of auguries, fates, divinations, and inquiries through Pythagorean necromancy into someone’s life or death, or into adverse or prosperous things to come; through books of dreams falsely entitled to Daniel; through lots called the Lots of the Apostles; through speaking superstitious charms while gathering herbs; or through placing little written tablets for any illness upon people or animals—he concludes there that those who believe or do these things, or go to the houses of people who do them, have denied the Christian faith and baptism.
The second commandment is: “You shall not take the name of your God in vain.” To this is referred what is said more openly elsewhere: “You shall not swear falsely in My name,” in Leviticus 19.
On this passage one must note what Jerome says upon Jeremiah when treating the words, “They shall swear in My name in judgment, justice, and truth”: “One must observe that an oath has these companions: truth, judgment, and justice. If they are absent, it will not be an oath but perjury.” This is in Cause 22, question 2, Animadvertendum.
In the following section it is said: “Since all who speak a lie are to be destroyed”—that is, damned—according to the Psalm, “You will destroy all who speak a lie,” those who are found to swear falsely while lying are much more deserving of damnation, because they take God’s name in vain.
Likewise, in Cause 22, question 4, it is said: “A person who swears badly must perform a fitting penance, because against the Lord’s commandment he has taken His name in vain.” Perjury therefore occurs when someone knowingly swears to something false; truth is then absent. According to Thomas in the Second Part of the Second Part, it is always a mortal sin.
Second, perjury occurs when someone swears that he will do something unlawful. Justice is then absent. This also appears to be a mortal sin when someone does it knowingly, since he is bound to do the contrary. Hence it is said in Cause 22, question 4, You Shall Not Commit Perjury: “The evil that someone has vowed he will do, he must by no means do, because foolish vows must be broken altogether.”
The conclusion of that whole fourth question is that unlawful oaths and promises are not to be kept and do not bind. Nevertheless, there is sin in making that unlawful promise, oath, or vow. This is proved by many chapters.
Third, the word “perjury” is used broadly when someone swears to something that is true and lawful, but without any urgent cause. Judgment—that is, discretion—is then absent. Such a person swears in vain, that is, uselessly, and this appears to be a venial sin.
It is also prohibited to swear by God’s members, His head or hair, and other expressions that sound of blasphemy, in Cause 22, question 1, Si quis per capillum.
The third commandment is: “Remember that you sanctify the Sabbath day,” that is, set it apart for the worship of God by abstaining from manual works and also from criminal works.
Here note that the Sabbath day was changed by the Church to the Lord’s Day. Hence it is said in On Consecration, distinction 3, Pronunciandum: “Every Lord’s Day, from evening until evening”—that is, until late, lest people be taken by Judaism—“must be kept as a holy day.” The Sabbath was changed to Sunday out of reverence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead on that day; on that day the blessed life, even as regards the body, was begun in human nature. He was also born on that day, sent the Holy Spirit on that day, and began the world on that day.
As is also said in On Consecration, distinction 3, Ieiunia: “On the Lord’s Day nothing else is to be done except to be at leisure for God. No manual work is to be performed on that holy day, but the day is to be passed only with hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs.” The Church has also added a commandment binding under mortal sin, namely that Mass be heard by everyone on Sundays, according to On Consecration, distinction 2, Missas. This commandment appears to extend also to the other days that the Church has made holy days—that is, which the Church has commanded to be celebrated by cessation from work. These are treated in On Consecration, distinction 3, Pronunciandum, and in the Extra, On Parishes, That on Sundays and Feast Days.
The fourth commandment is: “Honor your father and your mother.” According to the doctors’ exposition, this is understood of the honor of reverence and obedience. Under this commandment is understood to be included all spiritual or temporal assistance that a person is bound to furnish to his neighbor, as in the matters of fraternal correction, the giving of alms, the instruction of one’s neighbor, prayer for others, and the like. But the first among the number of our neighbors whom we are bound to help first and more fully are our parents.
Ambrose says: “That liberality is to be approved by which you do not despise those nearest of your seed if you know them to be in need. For it is better that you yourself assist your own relatives, whom shame prevents from asking or seeking the aid of their need from others. This does not mean, however, that they should wish to be made richer from what you are able to bestow upon the needy.” This is in distinction 86, Non satis.
The same author says in the following chapter: “Moreover, it is God’s tradition that you first feed your parents. For if, according to the divine oracle, an insult to a parent is paid for with death, how much more is hunger, which is much more grievous?” Thus he speaks.
Everyone must also obey his parents, but only in lawful things and in the things to which he is bound, namely those that pertain to the ordering of the household. For a person is free with respect to assuming a state, such as marriage, the clerical state, or the religious life. In matters of this kind he is not bound to obey his parents—for example, an order that he not enter religious life or that he contract marriage with a certain person. In other things that are not contrary to the Lord, he must obey.
Hence Jerome says upon the Epistle to the Ephesians: “If a master commands things that are not opposed to the Holy Scriptures, let the servant be subject to the master. If he commands contrary things, let the spirit obey rather than the master of the body.” He says the same concerning servants in relation to masters, wives in relation to husbands, and children in relation to parents: in those things alone are they to be subject to masters, husbands, and parents which are not contrary to God’s commandments. Thus Jerome speaks in Cause 11, question 3, If a Master.
Under this commandment is also included the care and providence that carnal parents—and much more spiritual parents, such as prelates and rulers of cities—must exercise over those subject to them, both with respect to good conduct and with respect to sustenance. For the Apostle says to Timothy: “He who has no care for his own, and especially for the members of his household, has denied the faith”—that is, natural fidelity—“and is worse than an unbeliever.” Hence it is also said in distinction 30: “If anyone abandons his own children and does not nourish them or provide what piety requires, but thinks that they should be neglected under the pretext of continence, let him be anathema.”
Not only Eli, who did not harshly rebuke his delinquent sons, is censured, but David also. Although he was intent upon divine governance, he permitted his sons to use excessive freedom and vanity. He was punished in them, as is evident in Amnon and Absalom. Gratian notes this in distinction 47, § Necesse, and in Cause 23, question 4, Duo ista.
The fifth commandment is: “You shall not kill.” Augustine expounds this in Book I of The City of God as meaning, “neither yourself nor another.” For someone who kills himself kills no one other than a human being. Apart from those whom either a just law commands generally to be killed or the very fountain of justice, God, commands particularly to be killed, whoever kills a human being, whether himself or another, is held guilty of homicide. This is in Cause 23, question 5, Si non licet.
Homicide is sometimes committed in the heart alone. Hence Jerome says: “Although you do not kill with a sword, nevertheless you kill by your will.” This is in On Penance, distinction 1, Omnis. Those who bear hatred toward their neighbor are also called murderers in the distinction On Murderers. Augustine says in On Penance, distinction 1, Homicidium, that every wicked movement—namely, every deliberate movement—to harm one’s neighbor appears to be counted in the class of homicide.
Homicide is sometimes committed by the mouth. Hence Augustine says: “Those who think that only people who kill a human being with their hands are murderers dangerously deceive themselves. Rather, those through whose counsel, fraud, or exhortation human beings are destroyed are also murderers.” This is in On Penance, distinction 1, The Same. When you persuade your brother to evil, namely to commit a mortal sin, you kill him spiritually.
Sometimes homicide is committed by deed, and this occurs in many ways. Hence Augustine says: “When a human being is killed by another human being, it makes a great difference whether this is done from a desire to harm or to take something unjustly, as by an enemy or a robber; in the order of vengeance or obedience, as by a judge or an executioner; or from the necessity of escaping or bringing aid, as when a robber is killed by a traveler or an enemy by a soldier.
“Sometimes the one who was the cause of the death is more at fault than the one who kills. An example is a person who deceives his surety, and the latter lawfully pays the penalty for him. Nevertheless, not everyone who is the cause of another’s death is guilty. For example, suppose that someone solicits another for fornication and, if he does not obtain it, kills himself; or that a son, fearing his father’s pious blows, dies by throwing himself from a height; or that another person inflicts death upon himself because a man has been freed or so that someone else will not be freed, and so forth. When these things occur, we ought to grieve for them with human sorrow, but we must not repress the will of those who act rightly merely to keep such things from happening.” Thus Augustine speaks in Cause 23, question 5, When a Human Being Is Killed by a Human Being.
The sixth commandment is: “You shall not commit adultery.” Isidore says upon Exodus that this means no one should unite with other women outside the covenants of marriage in order to satisfy lust. This is in Cause 32, question 6, You Shall Not Commit Adultery.
Augustine says in his book On the Ten Chords: “‘You shall not commit adultery’ means: you shall not go to any woman other than your wife. You demand this from your wife and are unwilling to render it to her. Although you ought to precede your wife in virtue, since chastity is a virtue, you fall under a single assault of lust. You wish your wife to be victorious while you lie conquered. Although you are the head of your wife, she whose head you are precedes you toward God.” Thus Augustine speaks in Cause 32, question 6, You Shall Not Commit Adultery.
Augustine expounds this commandment more completely in his book Questions on Deuteronomy, where he says: “The Lord prohibits there being prostitutes and going to prostitutes, whose shame is publicly for sale.” The gloss there says that this is contained in the Lord’s words, “There shall be no prostitute among the daughters of Israel, nor any male prostitute.”
The text continues: “In the Decalogue, however, the Lord does not appear to have openly prohibited this under the name of adultery, because adultery is ordinarily understood to mean only violation of marriage.” And below: “But just as under the name of theft every unlawful usurpation of another’s property is understood to be prohibited, the whole being understood from a part, so also under the name of adultery every unlawful act of intercourse and every illegitimate use of those members must certainly be understood to be prohibited.” Thus Augustine speaks in Cause 32, question 4, Meretrices.
Jerome also says against Jovinian, in Cause 32, question 7: “Natural use is lawful, as in marriage; it is unlawful, as in adultery; but what is against nature is always unlawful and without doubt more shameful and disgraceful.” The Apostle censured this both in males and in females, namely in Romans 1.
The seventh commandment is: “You shall not steal.” Augustine says in his book Questions on Exodus: “It is punishable to take something secretly; to seize it openly is deserving of a much greater penalty. Therefore, taking something from an unwilling person, whether secretly or openly, has its own commandment, for under the name of theft every unlawful usurpation of another’s property is understood. He who prohibited theft did not permit robbery; he wished robbery also to be understood. For by a part he signified the whole: whatever of one’s neighbor’s possessions is taken unlawfully.” This is in Cause 14, question 5, Penale.
Jerome also says: “Let everyone learn that it is a sin resembling robbery if someone does not return things he has found.” This is in Cause 14, question 5, Multi. Ambrose says: “If anyone accepts usury, he commits robbery; he does not live the life”—namely, the life of grace. This is in Cause 14, question 4.
Augustine likewise says: “We judge that the things taken contrary to the law of human society by thefts, robberies, calumnies, oppressions, and invasions are to be returned rather than given”—namely, to the poor—“following the example of Zacchaeus, who said, ‘If I have defrauded anyone,’ and so forth, ‘I restore it.’” This is in Cause 14, question 5, Non sane. As the same Augustine says in question 6, If Property: “The sin is not forgiven unless what was taken is restored, if it can be restored.”
The eighth commandment is: “You shall not speak false testimony against your neighbor.” Augustine says in The City of God: “Because everyone receives from himself the rule for loving his neighbor, when it is said, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ a person who falsely confesses against himself is no less guilty of false testimony than if he did this against his neighbor.” This is in Cause 22, question 5, Si non licet.
This commandment prohibits not only false testimony in court but also false testimony outside court in common speech, as when someone detracts from his neighbor. As Pope Adrian says in Cause 6, question 1: “Those who corrupt the life and conduct of good people”—namely, by detraction—“are worse than those who plunder the substance and estates of others.”
Not only detraction but also lying is prohibited, as the Master sets down near the end of Book III of the Sentences, because a word is the testimony of what is in the heart. Nevertheless, not every lie is a mortal sin. It is mortal when it is contrary to God’s honor and to things pertaining to the faith and the good conduct necessary for salvation, or when one’s neighbor is harmed notably in soul, reputation, or substance. Augustine sets down eight kinds of lies in Cause 22, question 2, Primum.
The ninth commandment concerns the will: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.” From Christ’s saying, “Whoever looks at a woman in order to lust after her has already committed adultery in his heart,” Augustine shows openly that adultery is committed by sight alone when an unmarried woman is shamefully desired. This is in Cause 32, question 5, Whoever Looks.
In On Penance, distinction 1, Si cui, Augustine also says that if someone has the will to know another man’s wife but does not act because of impediments, he is no less guilty than if he were caught in the deed. This is true before God and with respect to the kind of sin—that is, each is mortal—although the unfulfilled will is not equally grave.
The same must be said of the tenth commandment, namely that a deliberate desire to take another person’s possessions in any unlawful manner is mortal just as the deed is, although it is not equally grave. This is the meaning of the chapter Si propterea in On Penance, distinction 1: the intention is reckoned as the deed.
Thus, in the tenth commandment an unlawful desire for another person’s property is prohibited, just as the ninth prohibits an unlawful desire for any carnal vice. In this they are distinguished from the sixth and seventh commandments, which prohibit the external acts. A deliberate desire contrary to any of the other commandments, such as the desire for homicide or perjury, is also mortal, and the prohibition of that desire is included under the commandment itself. But in these two matters—namely, the concupiscence of the flesh and of temporal possessions—the desire itself was specifically prohibited in addition to the external deed because the mind takes more delight in desires of this kind than in other things.
All these commandments are treated at length in the First Part, in the title on the Mosaic law, and still more fully in the Second Part, under different titles and chapters according to the subject matter of the vices.
The things that follow in the text, namely the construction of the tabernacle and the things belonging to it—its boards, curtains, vessels, and other things—are all full of mysteries. They signify the Church and the different states and conditions of the faithful. Some exposition of these matters, as regards the tabernacle, is contained in the First Part, in the title on the Mosaic law. That these things were figures of things to come is found in On Consecration, distinction 1, at the beginning.
The tabernacle that God commanded to be made through Moses, as will be said below, signifies the Church Militant, or the synagogue in which the Church existed under the Old Testament. For just as that tabernacle was portable and was transferred from place to place, so the Church Militant is transferred by the doctors, through the teaching of the faith, from one region to another when people are converted to the faith. At last it is brought to a fixed place, namely the Church Triumphant, just as that tabernacle or ark was brought to Jerusalem with great solemnity.
The synagogue was also changed into the Church converted from the Gentiles. This was signified by Solomon’s temple, built by Jews and Gentiles—namely, with the aid of Hiram, king of Tyre—through Christ. The sacraments of the Old Law signified the sacraments of the New Law. Aaron’s priesthood signified Christ’s true priesthood of the New Testament. The other ceremonial precepts signified the good conduct of Christians; the Jews’ feasts signified the solemnities of Christians; and all that Jewish worship signified the just and holy life of the faithful. These matters are fully treated in the First Part, in the title on the Mosaic law; they may be seen there.
§ VII: On Leviticus
Jerome says that Leviticus has as many mysteries as it has words, for almost the whole book treats the ceremonial precepts, especially sacrifices. These signified Christ’s Passion and the mortification of vices among the Christian people.
Thus the first nine chapters treat the different kinds of sacrifices and their modes, or the ceremonies to be observed in them. Chapter 10 relates that Nadab and Abihu, two priestly sons of Aaron, took their censers and put into them fire not from the altar but another fire that had been procured. When they presumed to offer incense before the Lord, they were miraculously consumed by fire sent by the Lord. After they had died, they were carried out of the tabernacle and buried, while Aaron and his other sons continued their sacrifices.
Chapter 11 treats the observances concerning foods. It explains which foods they could eat as clean and from which they were required to abstain as unclean.
Chapter 12 of Leviticus treats the sacrifice of a woman after childbirth and the requirement that, after giving birth to a male child, she abstain for forty days from approaching the tabernacle.
Chapter 13 treats the many kinds of leprosy, namely of the flesh, hair, garment, and house. It explains how the priest was to conduct himself in judging it, by what signs he was to judge, and what was to be done with lepers, namely that they were to be separated from others.
Chapter 14 sets down the sacrifice to be offered by a leper when he happened to be cleansed from leprosy. Chapter 15 treats how a person suffering a flow of seed was to conduct himself and the sacrifice to be offered when he was healed. It also treats how a woman menstruating either naturally or continuously was unclean.
Chapter 16 treats the solemn sacrifice to be offered on the feast of propitiation, namely two goats, of which one was sent into the desert and the other offered, together with a red heifer from which the ashes of sprinkling were made. On that day alone, once each year, the high priest entered the Holy of Holies.
Chapter 17 prohibits the eating of any blood or of anything that died by itself. Chapter 18 sets down the degrees of consanguinity and affinity within which, according to the law, people were required to abstain from contracting marriage with one another.
Chapter 19 sets down certain moral precepts that are reduced to the Decalogue and certain ceremonial observances. Chapter 20 prohibits certain vices under pain of death, especially those pertaining to lust and superstitions.
Chapter 21 treats certain observances to be kept by priests in contracting marriage and in other matters, and requires them to be free from certain bodily defects. Chapter 22 prohibits the people from eating things sanctified to the Lord and declares that animals offered in sacrifice had to be free from certain blemishes and defects.
Chapter 23 treats the solemnities to be celebrated, especially Passover or the feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles, and also the Feast of Propitiation, together with the sacrifices and other observances to be kept in them.
Chapter 24 treats the oil to be procured for lighting lamps in the temple, the changing of the twelve loaves of proposition, and the blasphemer who, when discovered, was stoned by the people at God’s command.
Chapter 25 treats the observance of the Jubilee, namely the fiftieth year. In that year the lands were not to be cultivated, slaves became free, things that had been sold returned to their possessors, and many other matters of this kind were observed.
In chapter 26 the Lord promises many temporal goods—peace, victory, and abundance—to those who observe the law, but many great scourges if they transgress it. Chapter 27, the last, treats vows, the redemption of vows, and the obligation of vows and also of oaths.
§ VIII: On the Book of Numbers
In chapter 1 the Lord caused all males twenty years old and above who were fit for war to be numbered. From all the tribes of Israel six hundred thousand five hundred and fifty were found, excluding the tribe of Levi. The twelve princes of the tribes were also designated. The Levites, however, were twenty-two thousand.
In chapter 2 the Lord commanded that, when they encamped and settled in another place, they should arrange themselves around the tabernacle in such a way that three tribes encamped on the east, the first of which was the tribe of Judah; three on the west; three on the south; and three on the north, with their princes.
In chapter 3 He commanded that the Levites should likewise encamp all around the tabernacle, in the middle between the people and the tabernacle: one part on the east, one part on the west, one part on the south, and one part on the north.
Chapter 4 explains how, when they departed from one place for another, Aaron and his sons were to cover everything in the tabernacle with hyacinth-colored skins or other materials, and to assign different things to different men to be carried.
Chapter 5 treats the expulsion of lepers from the camp and the sacrifice of jealousy. Chapter 6 treats the vow of the Nazirites, the things they were to observe, their sacrifice when the vow had been completed, and the form of blessing to be given to the people by the priests.
Chapter 7 explains how, on the day the tabernacle was erected, the twelve princes of the tribes offered sacrifices, one on each successive day. Chapter 8 treats the arrangement of the lamps of the lampstand in the tabernacle, the application of the Levites to the worship of the temple in place of the firstborn of Israel, and their sanctification.
In chapter 9 the Lord commanded that whoever had not celebrated Passover at its proper time because of some impediment—namely on the fourteenth day of the first month—should make good the omission on the fourteenth day of the second month. It also relates that a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night remained over the tabernacle. While it remained fixed, the people stayed there, arranged as described above; when it moved, they too departed from the place and followed it.
In chapter 10 Moses, at God’s command, caused two silver trumpets to be made. They had four uses: to summon the multitude, to call the princes of the tribes, for war, and at the Kalends and solemnities. When the cloud over the tabernacle moved, they departed from Sinai into the desert of Paran. As the trumpets sounded, the tribe of Judah was the first to set out on the journey, and the other tribes followed successively.
In chapter 11 the people murmured and burned with desire for meat. Remembering the foods of Egypt, they grew weary of manna. Because of this, Moses, wearied, asked for helpers to govern the people. Seventy elders were appointed to assist his government. Two of them, Eldad and Medab, did not present themselves before Moses out of humility, but prophesied among the people in the camp.
The Lord sent quails. But, as the Psalm says, “While their food was still in their mouths, the anger of God rose upon them,” and fire sent from heaven burned up those gluttons.
Chapter 12 describes the murmuring of the prophetess Miriam and Aaron against Moses because of his Ethiopian wife, Miriam’s punishment with leprosy for eight days, and her cleansing.
In chapter 13 they proceeded from Paran to Kadesh-barnea. From there Moses, by the Lord’s command, sent twelve scouts, one from each tribe, to examine the Promised Land so that they might report its quality to the people and bring back some of its fruits. They went and traversed the whole land. After forty days they returned, praising the land but saying that they could not obtain it because of the strength of those peoples and their impregnable cities.
In chapter 14, when the people heard this, they began to lament and murmur against Moses and Aaron for having led them out of Egypt, and they considered returning to Egypt. Caleb and Joshua alone, from among those twelve scouts, contradicted the other ten. They comforted and encouraged the people to go into that land because the Lord would give it to them. The people, angered against those two, therefore wished as though to stone them.
The Lord in His anger wished to kill the people with pestilence, but when Moses prayed for them, the Lord was appeased. Nevertheless, He said that none of those twenty years old and above who had been numbered at the departure from Egypt would enter the Promised Land except Caleb and Joshua. The other ten scouts, who had caused the murmuring, died. The Lord therefore commanded them to return through the desert.
When the people wished to proceed toward the Promised Land contrary to Moses’ ordinance, the Amalekites and Canaanites rose against them, defeated them, and compelled them to return.
Chapter 15 treats certain sacrifices to be made and their manner, the offering of the first fruits, the wearing of hyacinth-colored fringes upon garments, and a man who gathered wood on the Sabbath, whom the Lord commanded to be stoned.
Chapter 16 relates that Dathan, Abiram, and Korah, with two hundred and fifty Levites, began to murmur against Moses and Aaron because, they said, Moses and Aaron had usurped the leadership of the people and the high priesthood for themselves. When Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram and they excused themselves from coming at his word, the earth opened and swallowed them.
Korah and his two hundred and fifty followers offered incense in their censers with Aaron in the tabernacle. Fire came forth from the Lord and burned Korah with his followers. When the people murmured against Moses and Aaron because they had killed those men, fire devoured many of the people. But Aaron stood among them offering incense with a censer, and the plague ceased.
Chapter 17 relates that Moses commanded the twelve princes of the tribes to bring rods. Moses placed all the rods, together with Aaron’s rod, in the tabernacle. Aaron’s rod alone was found to have budded, produced flowers, and borne almonds. By this sign it was shown to the people that Aaron possessed the priesthood by the Lord’s will.
In chapter 18 the Lord established that Aaron and all qualified Levites should serve in the tabernacle. They were to be content with the tithes, first fruits, and portions of the sacrifices that fell to them, so that they would otherwise have no possessions among the children of Israel. The Levites themselves were to give a tithe of the tithe to the high priest.
Chapter 19 treats the sacrifice of the red heifer that was to be burned. From its ashes was made the water of expiation, and the chapter explains from which impurities people were purified by those ashes.
Chapter 20 relates how Miriam died and how, when the people murmured because they lacked water, the Lord commanded Moses to strike the rock with his staff before the multitude. Because Moses and Aaron failed through unbelief, the rock produced no water when it was struck the first time, but did so the second time. On account of this unbelief, the Lord told Moses and Aaron that they would not enter the Promised Land.
Moses also sent messengers to the king of Edom, asking him to allow them to pass through his land. He refused and came against them in war, so they turned away from him. When they came to Mount Hor, Aaron died and was buried there. His son Eleazar was made high priest in his place.
Chapter 21 contains the victory the Israelites gained over the king of the Canaanites, Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan. These kings were unwilling to permit them passage and instead came to battle against them.
Moreover, when many of the people murmured because they had become weary from the labor of the journey, the Lord sent serpents among them whose bites killed them. But at the Lord’s command a bronze serpent was made and placed on high; anyone who had been bitten and looked upon it was healed.
Chapter 22 says that, when the people of Israel came into the plains of Moab, Balak, king of the Moabites, sent messengers to the soothsayer Balaam, asking him to come curse God’s people. At first Balaam was unwilling to go because he had been forbidden in dreams. But when the messengers returned a second time, he undertook the journey. On the way, as he urged the ass to proceed along the straight road, the ass upon which he sat spoke; afterward Balaam saw an angel with a drawn sword.
Chapters 23 and 24 relate that Balaam, after offering sacrifices to demons—for he was a soothsayer—began to speak in praise of the people of Israel and to bless them. He did this three times in different places from which he could see the people of Israel. Among other things he prophesied, “A star shall arise from Jacob,” and so forth. After leaving Balak, he gave him evil counsel, namely how to induce Israel to commit fornication.
Chapter 25 relates that the children of Israel fornicated with the Midianite women and adored their idols. Because of this, the Lord commanded that the twelve princes of the tribes be hanged. Phinehas, son of Eleazar, struck and killed one of the children of Israel while he was fornicating with a Midianite woman, and thereby appeased the Lord’s anger. Twenty-three thousand Israelites fell because of this evil.
In chapter 26 the Lord again commanded that all males twenty years old and above be numbered by their individual tribes. In all, six hundred and one thousand seven hundred and thirty were found. They had not been numbered at the departure from Egypt, because all those previously numbered had died in the desert except Joshua and Caleb. The Lord declared that possession of the land should be given to the aforesaid tribes according to the lots that fell to them.
In chapter 27 the five daughters of Zelophehad asked for an inheritance. The Lord commanded that they be given the portion that would have fallen to their father and handed down a rule for the order of succession to an inheritance when someone died without male children.
Afterward He commanded Moses to ascend Mount Abarim and from there to look upon the land promised to the fathers, which he would not enter because of his unbelief at the Waters of Contradiction. He also commanded that Moses appoint Joshua as leader of the people in his place; in matters to be done, Joshua was to consult Eleazar the high priest. Moses died there.
Chapters 28 and 29 mention the sacrifices to be offered and their observances or modes. First they treat the daily holocaust, namely two lambs to be offered on the altar, one in the morning and the other in the evening; then the sacrifice to be made at the Kalends; and then the sacrifices to be made at the solemnities of Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles, and the Feast of Propitiation.
Chapter 30 treats vows and oaths made by women while they are in their parents’ house, married, or widowed, and explains how or when they can be made void by parents or husbands.
In chapter 31 many thousands from Israel were sent at the Lord’s command to wage war against the Midianites. They defeated and killed all of them except the virgin women, captured the cities, took exceedingly great plunder, and divided it among everyone. With the others they also killed Balaam the soothsayer.
In chapter 32 the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh asked to be given possessions and dwelling places there, on this side of the Jordan. After rebuking them, Moses granted the request on the condition that they cross the Jordan to fight with the others until they obtained the Promised Land.
Chapter 33 treats the forty stopping places made in the desert over forty years and gives their names. Chapter 34 treats the boundaries of the Promised Land they were to possess and names those who were to divide the land among the tribes.
Chapter 35 treats the cities, towns, and suburbs that they were to give to the Levites, and the cities of refuge, three on this side of the Jordan and three beyond the Jordan. Chapter 36, the last, commands that men and women contract marriage only within their own tribe, lest an inheritance pass from tribe to tribe and the tribes thereby be confused and intermingled.
§ IX: On the Book of Deuteronomy
The book of Deuteronomy is called the “second law” because it is, as it were, a recapitulation of the law, but with many additions and explanations of the moral, judicial, and ceremonial precepts.
In chapter 27 Moses ordained that six of the tribes should ascend Mount Gerizim and that the Levites there, crying aloud, should invoke against transgressors of the law the many curses written in that place. Conversely, six other tribes were to ascend Mount Ebal, and the Levites, crying aloud, were to invoke the many blessings concerning temporal things that are narrated in chapter 28 upon those who observe the law.
Chapter 31 contains the song “Hear, O heavens.” Chapter 33 contains the blessings that Moses gave to the individual tribes before his death. The final chapter relates how Moses, ascending Mount Nebo at God’s command, was shown the Promised Land by the Lord. He was gathered to his fathers, and his grave was not found. All Israel mourned him for thirty days, and Joshua assumed the leadership of the people. Jerome, commenting on Amos, says that Moses was taken up into paradise with Enoch.
§ X: In the Time of Moses
Helinand says that Abderas reigned in Crete. He founded a city and called it Abderas after his own name. The philosopher Democritus came from that city.
In Crete a certain most ancient king named Gargaris was the first to discover the practice of gathering honey. When his daughter had conceived a son through incest, out of shame for the crime she commanded that he first be exposed to various wild beasts so that he would be killed, and afterward to the waves of the sea. But the waves cast him onto the shore, and deer nourished him. At last he was caught in a snare with the deer among which he lived and was brought to the king. The king recognized and pitied him, appointed him as his successor, and gave him the name Avidis. He established laws for the people, taught them to tame oxen for the plow, and taught them to seek grain from the furrow.
In the thirty-fifth year of Moses, Cecrops reigned in Attica. From him until the capture of Troy were 375 years. From that time—that is, after the aforesaid year—is marked the beginning of the Athenian kingdom. While Cecrops reigned, Minerva was born, and from Minerva’s name, which in Greek is called Athena, those regions were called Athens.
Seventeen kings succeeded Cecrops, one after another over many years. The last of them was Codrus, who was killed in the Peloponnesian War, something he himself arranged. For when an answer had been received from the gods that the army whose king was killed in battle would have the victory, Codrus wished his own army to have victory. He changed his appearance so that he would not be recognized, approached the enemy army, fought with one man, and was killed by him. When the victory had been obtained, the rule of the Cecropidae, which had lasted 437 years, was destroyed. After Codrus there were successively thirteen other kings at Athens; afterward there were princes and magistrates, and finally nine princes who were changed annually.
In the time of Moses, the first Hercules is reputed to have defeated Antaeus in a wrestling contest. Cecrops was the first who, when sacrificing an ox, called upon Jupiter. Deucalion began to reign among them and dwelt near Parnassus. In those days occurred the flood in Thessaly under Deucalion, the conflagration caused by Phaethon in Ethiopia, and many local pestilences, as Plato records. A temple to Apollo at Delphi was built by Cecrops.