A twofold cause chiefly can be brought. One from the consideration of those tribes themselves; the other from [the consideration] of Joshua the Leader. The former is understood from that history which is narrated Num. ch. 32 — [namely] how, from Moses, across the Jordan, these tribes received in possession [the kingdoms] of the Kings Sihon and Og. For thus it was agreed, that they themselves should accompany the rest of the tribes as they crossed the Jordan, should be present in the war, [and] should be ready for the occupation of Canaan. But since that was agreed [known] to all, what need [is there], now at this time, to admonish [them]? Masius answers, [that] the men of those tribes were not otherwise going to stand by the agreement: First, because Moses was now dead, and therefore they feared nothing from his wrath. Second, because the goodness and pleasantness of the land which they had received held them too much enticed and ensnared. Third, because, since that region was surrounded with various enemies, they were unwilling to leave it empty and bare of the garrison of warriors. “Since,” he says, “these tribes had lately obtained convenient seats — the kingdoms of Sihon and Og, and the whole of Gilead, by the authority of Moses (whose dignity, he being now sufficiently deceased, they would revere no more) — it is credible [that] they were not, unless separately and properly admonished, going to cross the river of their own accord with the others; but rather, in a sweet nest, affluent with all conveniences of life, among [their] wives and children and their family estate, [they were] about to remain — especially since they were not ignorant that these their new possessions were, from [their] neighbors and those most powerful enemies, not safe enough.” But, by the good leave of so great a man, [this censure is] too heavy on those tribes. For who would believe that they — when these [agreements] were most recently pacted and agreed, when of their own accord they had consented to it, and had voluntarily offered spontaneous help and escort, and in a great benefit had established themselves [as] heard [heeded] — would have willed so quickly to violate the faith given to God and men? Moses was indeed dead; but was all his authority dead among them? For with GOD (as the Lord said of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Matt. 22:32) did they not know [him] to be living himself? Did he who had succeeded him, Joshua, contemn [them] — especially when [he had been] adhibited [taken] as witness, together with Eleazar and the rest of the Princes of the tribes? Did they revere nothing [of] all these [men], living and breathing? The goodness of the land had indeed invited them to seek it — but had it impeded [them] from voluntarily promising that they would go from it with the other tribes against the enemy? Or, as in the Poet, shall we fabulate — without cause, without argument and reason — [that they were] made demented by tasting the moly herb [Homer’s charm-plant]? They did not fail to know [that] the enemies [were] surrounding [them], when they promised Moses that they would go out on the expedition; how then would the goodness of the land — which did not then restrain the promise — now restrain the promised going-out? Otherwise, of that matter, many [things] here, q. 63, Abulensis; and I, [what] suffices, below.
But besides, did they not know this condition [to be] posited — “if they should proceed with the others,”
(col. 304 [printed 305])
that land was to be left to them; but if they refused, [it was] to be taken away? And [that] the rest of all the tribes could compel them by force — either to drive [them] to the [things] promised, or to expel [them] from that land — since they [the others] were so much greater in number, [and] could most easily [do it]? Especially since one could meet and resist them [the 2½ tribes] as they came into it [the land], but they were already in it; nor [were] the cities as yet so fortified but that they could be stormed and destroyed with the slightest trouble. Those [tribes], therefore — now mindful of [their] promises, revering Moses (now enjoying a happier life), depraved [corrupted] by no fertility of this land, [nor] effeminated, broken by no fear of the surrounding nations, [nor] weakened — I establish [judge] them to have been; yet [I judge that they were] admonished by Joshua, so that, even if of themselves they were already eager and erect [ready], they might become more eager and more erect. For even most generous horses, and most incited to the race, we nonetheless daily see to be incited [spurred] the more by certain [clicking] shouts [popysmis].
“It does no harm to apply the spur to a horse [already] let go [at full gallop]” [Ovid].
And this the Lord confirms at Job ch. 39:24, saying: “Fervent and raging, [the horse] swallows the ground; when he shall have heard the trumpet [buccina], he says, ‘Vah!’ [Aha!].” And hence another cause arises. Therefore, namely, Joshua exhorted them, because he was a Leader and Commander most excellent and most prudent — who, even to those ardent with zeal of setting out, knew nonetheless most usefully to apply some torches [i.e. spurs], nor fled the labor of exhorting. There are not lacking sometimes inert and slothful men who — although they are set over others — never admonish them; and that (as they say) because those [subordinates] do their duty sufficiently, but in very truth because they either greatly fear them, or the least labor wearies and irks them. Better, in the fourth Philippic, Tullius [Cicero]: “I will do,” he says, “as Commanders instructed [in battle-line] are wont. Although they see the soldiers most ready to fight, yet they exhort them. So I will exhort you — [being] ardent and erect — to recovering [your] liberty.” And that great our Orator St. Leo, serm. 9 on the fast of the seventh Month: “I know indeed, dearly beloved,” he says, “[that] very many of you are so devoted in those [things] which pertain to the observance of the Christian faith, that they need not to be admonished by our exhortations. For what long ago both tradition decreed and custom firmed, neither erudition ignores, nor piety omits. But because it is of the Sacerdotal office to have a common care toward all the sons of the Church — in that which profits both the rude and the learned, whom we at once love — we equally incite [them], that the fast which the recurrence of the seventh month indicts to us, we may celebrate with alert faith, through the chastisement of mind and body.”
First, into memory it recalls to them (v. 13) those [things] which, Num. 32, were transacted between themselves and Moses; then, from those very [things], it institutes an exhortation (v. 14, there: “But you”). In those [things it is] to be observed: first, [that] Moses [is] adorned by that encomium of which above q. 2 & 3 — and indeed opportunely, so that greater weight, in those [things] which he had commanded, and a greater weight toward himself (though his life be extinct), of observance and obedience there might be. Then, [it is to be observed] that it is not Moses’s oration which begins “The Lord your God”—