Here [is] a great contest [Certamen]. First, Abulensis — [on] this ch. 2 quest. 8 & 9 & 11, [and] ch. 4 q. 2 — thinks [that] immediately after Moses [was] mourned [eluctum], and the discourse [was] had by Joshua with God, before the preparation for the march indicted [proclaimed in] ch. 1, these legates [spies] were sent — namely, on the first or second day of nisan [ניסן], or the first Month, of the year 41 from the Egyptian exit. Secondly, Masius, ch. 1 & 3: [they were] sent before Moses [was] mourned, [before] God’s discourse and the indicted march; nay — what [is] more — even before this [they had] also returned. But whether in the same month in which [Moses] died, or in the following, and likewise on what day of that month, never (as far as I have seen) does he explain from his own opinion. Thirdly, more openly, ch. 2, Cajetan: “It is plain,” he says, “the spies were sent before the preparation of the people was promulgated. But on how many days they were sent before, is uncertain — although it be certain that they were sent before.” Fourthly, one of the Jews, Ralbag [Gersonides], thinks [that] on the same day on which the preparation was ordered, these spies could be sent out; and that [view] both he himself sufficiently copiously, and also Masius, discusses. Fifthly, the same Masius also shows [that] to Christians it can be seen [held] [that] the preparation [was] promulgated on the 3rd of Nisan, and on the same day were sent out [those] who should spy out the city.
That in all [things] truth may conquer, there seems [to be] a fourfold [quadruplex] comparison to be instituted about this time. First, while the spies’ mission is compared to Moses’s mourning [luctus] — whether, namely, [it was] made before this [was] finished, or after — and about this I assent to Abulensis rather than to the Rabbis. For [it is] not likely [that], before the Lord excited a new Commander [Joshua] to the crossing of the Jordan, he would so [devote] his
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—cares and cogitations, as to see to all exploration [matters]. But that excitation [of Joshua] happened after the mourning’s end, ch. 1 quest. 1. Then, if Joshua were to send spies before the outcome of the Mosaic mourning, he would seem to have less of honor for the dead Moses — since he would both give himself over to cares which could be deferred so long as they can [be], and would abstract [draw away] some of his own Israelites (though few) from quiet, [and] implicate [them] in journeys and dangers not yet necessary — against q. 4:12, ch. 1. The other comparison [Altera comparatio] is to the indiction [proclamation] of the preparation — whether the spies’ mission was made before it, or after, or at the same time with it. And it seems [that it was] first, [and] not made after [it]. Because [it] would seem [the mark] of a little-prudent Leader to indict the marching-out somewhat, and then first destine [assign] spies thither; [and] then hardly could enough of days be found for their going, return, and hiding, as below [it will be] patent. 3. No one — whom indeed I have been allowed to see — asserts this very thing. Secondly. It can conveniently be said [that it was] made before that indiction, and yet after the mourning — because it is uncertain to whom [it belongs], for the conjunction of these two, [and] to whom [it is] to be denied. On [this] the cited Rabbis rely [as their] foundation. For thus they dispute: Moses died in the 40th year, in the last month, on the seventh day. Therefore up to the 10th day of the following first month [Nisan] there are 33 days. Therefore, [if] 30 days of mourning be subtracted, there will remain only three — which do not suffice for the going, return, and hiding of the spies. Therefore necessarily [they] must have set out before the mourning [was] finished, and before the indiction. But, as I showed beneath the end of the Pentateuch, some even of the Rabbins think Moses died in the penultimate month, and indeed on its third or fourth day; others [say] in the last month, but on the first or seventh day — as [do] the Christians. Meanwhile I will omit the opinion of those who, in [their] martyrologies, place his death on September 4th. Then, [suppose] Moses died on February 7th; [it] is not certain [that] between the crossing of the Jordan and Moses’s death there were only 33 days. For if — as they themselves will [hold] — the months then were not equal, it could be that January then was of 29 days, and therefore February of 30 days. And therefore the days from Moses’s death up to the crossing (inclusively — as they themselves, the Rabbins, do, always taking all [things]) would be 34 days. And thus one day before the indicted march, those [spies] could go, and on the same day go out from Jericho, and hide in the mountains — and that would be the first day of hiding [latebrae]. They would have stayed [hidden] there the next day [postridie], which was the first of the indiction; and on the third day, which was the second of the indiction, still a little while there they would have stayed; on the same day they would have returned. For all these [things], if — as below [it will be] patent — the length of the places [distances] and the common manner of acting be considered, could have been done. For ἐντὸς ὀλίγου [entos oligou (?), “within a short [time]”] they had hidden that triduum [three-day space]. 2. Elsewhere I have already said [that] it seems [that] at that time all the months were equal, and all of 30 days; but [that on] the last, which is called Adar [אֲדָר] or February, five [days], for constituting the fixed reckoning of their years, [were] epacts, or adjoined [added in]. Whence it happens that — whatever opinion about Moses’s death one pleases to follow, and whether we take the termini inclusively or exclusively — [there is] enough of time for the spies to be sent after the completion of the mourning, and before the indiction of the journey. For let us take [it that] Moses died on February 7th; there will be from the same Month 23 residual days; let there be added to them the epacts—
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—to them the epacts, 5: there will be 28. Let there be added, from the first month of the following year, 9 days: there will be 37 days. The termini excluded [but] included, 39. From 37 let there be taken the 30 days of mourning: there remain seven, or nine. From these let there be taken the three days of the indiction: there remain 4, or 6, before the indiction. If, therefore, [with] 34 days posited before the crossing of the Jordan, and only one day posited before the indiction, for all [things] which are narrated about the exploration there was enough of time — how much more if from Moses’s death the days be 37 or 39, and before the preparation is indicted [there] be given 4 or 6? But much more time do those opinions concede which assert Moses [to have] died earlier. Strongly [valde], therefore, as I said, it can conveniently be asserted [that] both after the mourning and before the indiction of the preparation the spies [were] sent. Thirdly, it can also conveniently be said [that] the spies [were] sent on the same [day] at the same time [as] the Israelites [were] admonished about the preparation. 1. because Josephus so teaches, bk. 5 ch. 1, while he narrates [that] the spies were away for one and the same triduum, and [that] the people [in the same triduum] prepared itself. 2. because either the indiction will be made [in such a way] that the day of the indiction be not a part of the indicted triduum itself — and thus it would be the same as that which was said before, about the four days after the mourning before the crossing — or [the indiction-day] be a part [of it]; and thus, on the first day the spies would have set out, and gone out of Jericho, [and] begun to hide; the following day [they were] wholly hidden; also at the beginning of the third day following [hidden], and then returned. Fourthly. Out of all these, to me [it] seems more likely [that] the spies [were] sent before the indicted preparation, and indeed according to that explanation which sets [them] at minimum 37 or 39 days before the crossing of the Jordan. 1. because more conveniently, and more properly, all [things] which about the time are here handed down can be explained. 2. because in the last opinion — which sets the spies sent on the same day [as] the preparation promulgated — if a part of the promulgated triduum be reckoned [as] the day of promulgation, the spies do not return before the departure from Setim; and thus ch. 3’s beginning does not cohere with ch. 2’s end. But in that [opinion] to which I rather assent, there is only a prolepsis of narration, and ch. 3 coheres with ch. 2, and [there] is enough for all the [matters] of time. The third comparison [Tertia comparatio] could be to the year; but of it below, when [it will be treated] of the crossing of the Jordan. The third [comparison], therefore, now let it be to the month. If Moses died in January, the spies could be sent in February; if in February — and indeed on the 7th, as the Jews’ calendar has [it] — they seem [to have been] sent in April, or the following Nisan. For before April, even if those 5 days [epacts be] added and be numbered, the end of mourning is not imposed, since that [mourning] lasted all 30 days, [and] in that February only 24 days would be left; to which if 5 days be added, they are only 29. The fourth and last comparison is to the day of this month. But [it is] more probable [that] the same spies [were] sent on the second [day] of April itself, or Nisan. First, because on the first day [Moses’s] mourning had its end, and therefore not on the very Neomenia [New-Moon] were the spies sent. And since Joshua knew the time of crossing to be at hand — [being] now excited and corroborated by God to that [end], and [with] a whole space of 30 days for [thinking about] the manner of crossing — [he] could think various [things]: who would doubt but that he then thought, of all [things] first, [that] spies [were] to be sent? And who would deny [it], since prudently
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—he had cogitated [that] he gave [it] effect as soon as [it] was allowed? 2. because thus more conveniently is explained the time of their setting-out, hiding, and return. For they set out, for example, on that [day] — the second [day] of the month Nisan — for Jericho, and thence in the evening they went out, and began to hide in the mountains. And thence to the following evening of the third day was one day; thence to the evening of the fourth day, the second [day]; thence to the evening of the fifth day, the third [day]. And then, either at once, or in the morning of the sixth day of the month, from their departure, on the fourth [day] they returned. On the seventh day of the month was made the promulgation. On the same day, and the following eighth [day, was] the preparation; on the ninth day, the departure to the Jordan itself; and that was the third day of the preparation. On the tenth day, the crossing over the Jordan.
But in these last days there is one difficulty which properly pertains to ch. 3. Yet I add [that] it can also truly be said [that] that evening of the second day was the first day of hiding, [that] day 3 was the second of hiding, [that] day 4 [was] begun [and] was the third of hiding, and the same was the day of returning — as some of the Hebrews think, [and] Masius, and I below p. 2 q. 22 — or [that they] returned on the fifth day. On the sixth day [was] made the promulgation, and the same day 6 was the first of preparation; day 7 the second; the eighth, third; and on the ninth day likewise [the departure] to the Jordan, which on the 10th day they crossed. Only [Tantum] there is one difficulty: whether, on the same [day] on which they entered Jericho, they also went out on the same [day]. But of this quest. 7 below; and [it] scarcely impedes the calculation. And therefore this whole chapter about the spies, if the order of time were held, would be to be subjoined to the 9th verse of the first chapter, and set before the 10th; but the third chapter [would be] to be attached to the last verse of the first chapter. But the order of time [is] not retained, because Joshua wished to embrace, in one thread of narration, [the things] which he did publicly after the divine colloquy; but, in one other narration, [something] which [he did] privately and secretly [clam] [from] the people. But he wished this because — “the mission of the spies,” says Cajetan, “proceeded from Joshua by human counsel, but the promulgation of the preparation proceeded from divine revelation. But fitting it was that the beginning of the book of Joshua’s deeds should have [its start] from the divine disposition, and [that] what had been done by human counsel should be subjoined.” Moreover, out of these are had those [things] which, [in] the preceding chapter, in the prior preparation, quest. 4, were sought. There is had also the preterite [past-tense] verb from which — Hebraically, Greekly, and Latinly — this chapter begins, [and which is] rightly expounded by the pluperfect: “He had sent [Miserat] therefore” — although the first Hebrew particle could be turned not only “therefore [igitur],” but also “and [&],” as by the 70 [it] is turned.