That he did help seems to have been fair — both because Moses was now more advanced in age, and because [he was] not a little weakened by so long a fast. He was also his minister, so that deservedly…
(col. 127)
…[deservedly] he ought, of his own accord, to have demanded and asked for this burden of the stones for himself, if Moses would not impose [it] — and, if not both of those tables, at least one. Nevertheless, both at the beginning of the descent (v. 15) and at the end (v. 19) — whence one may also conjecture as to the middle, which is passed over in silence — Moses bears the tables alone in his hands. And although Joshua was unwilling to lift him [of them], and asked, out of his observance and duty toward Moses, [to carry] that pack, yet the same Moses was unwilling to give [it] up. 1. To signify that that divine gift was pleasing and dear to him. 2. To teach [that] the Law of the Lord, even if it seem grave and hard, is nevertheless to be borne bravely and constantly by all, of whatever age they at last may be. 3. Because Joshua himself was perhaps laden with other little burdens — a little water-jug, a little mortar, a little pot, a tinderbox. 4. Because, just as Joshua showed us the way of ascending to the steep peak of felicity, so also he showed our JESUS, descending from the highest summit of the heavens, bringing us a law not hard, heavy, and stony, but gentle and light, and such as makes stony hearts most soft. For thus he spoke through Ezekiel (ch. 36, v. 26): “I will give you a new heart, and put my spirit in the midst of you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh”; and in St. Matthew (ch. 11, v. 30): “My yoke is sweet, and my burden light.” 5. Those tables were a little after to be broken; but the law which JESUS CHRIST brought us is eternal, never to be taken away, never to be changed. Our mode of leading life shall indeed be taken away; but that which, through JESUS CHRIST, is grace and charity, [as] a law, never falls: in the very seats of the heavens it remains firm and unbroken. But although Joshua himself bore not the tables with his own hands, he was nevertheless present to Moses bearing [them] — because without CHRIST’s grace and help not even that old Law could be kept. And because CHRIST’s grace holds the first place in the observance of the commandments, therefore, by allegory, that which R. Eliezer writes (ch. 45) can be true: [that] the writing of the tables of the Decalogue was not carried by Moses, but carried Moses — until the choirs of the sinning and dancing Israelites came into sight. For then the tables were made so heavy that Moses could not hold them, but cast [them] down and broke [them]. For if these things be taken historically, are they not fabricated, and almost ridiculous?