Mary and Aaron murmur against Moses, whom God praiseth above other prophets. Mary being struck with leprosy, Aaron confesseth his fault. Moses prayeth for her, and after seven days’ separation from the camp, she is restored.
Marie and Aaron murmur against Moyses. 6. whom God praiseth aboue other prophetes. 10. Marie being stricken with leprosie, Aaron confesseth his fault. 13. Moyses prayeth for her, and after seuen daies separation from the campe, she is restored.
1And Mary and Aaron spoke against Moses, because of his wife the Ethiopian,E Maria ed Aronne ne parlarono contro Mosè, a causa della moglie di lui, che era di Etiopia:AND Marie and Aaron spake against Moyses, for his wife the Aethiopian,Locutaque est Maria et Aaron contra Moysen propter uxorem ejus Æthiopissam, 2And they said: Hath the Lord spoken by Moses only? Hath he not also spoken to us in like manner? And when the Lord heard this,E dissero: Ha egli forse il Signore parlato solamente per bocca di Mosè? Non ha egli parlato egualmente anche a noi? Ciò avendo udito il Signore,and they said: hath our Lord spoken by Moyses onlie? hath he not spoken to vs also in like manner? Which when our Lord had heard, (et dixerunt: Num per solum Moysen locutus est Dominus ? nonne et nobis similiter est locutus ? Quod cum audisset Dominus 3(For Moses was a man exceeding meek above all men that dwelt upon earth)(Perocché Mosè era il più mansueto di quanti uomini viveano sopra la terra)For Moyses was the mildest man aboue al men, that dwelt vpon the earth)(erat enim Moyses vir mitissimus super omnes homines qui morabantur in terra), 4Immediately he spoke to him, and to Aaron and Mary: Come out you three only to the tabernacle of the covenant. And when they were come out,Disse subito a lui, e ad Aronne, e a Maria: Andate voi tre soli al tabernacolo dell'alleanza. E andati che furono,immediatly he spake to him, and to Aaron and Marie: Goe forth you three onlie to the tabernacle of couenant. And when they were come forth,statim locutus est ad eum, et ad Aaron et Mariam: Egredimini vos tantum tres ad tabernaculum fœderis. Cumque fuissent egressi, 5The Lord came down in a pillar of the cloud, and stood in the entry of the tabernacle calling to Aaron and Mary. And when they were come,Il Signore scese nella colonna della nuvola, e si pose all'ingresso del tabernacolo, e chiamò Aronne e Maria. E questi essendosi appressati,our Lord descended in the piller of a cloude, and stoode in the entrie of the tabernacle calling Aaron and Marie. Who going vnto him,descendit Dominus in columna nubis, et stetit in introitu tabernaculi, vocans Aaron et Mariam. Qui cum issent, 6He said to them: Hear my words: if there be among you a prophet of the Lord, I will appear to him in a vision, or I will speak to him in a dream.Disse loro: Udite le mie parole: Se saravvi tra voi profeta del Signore, io gli apparirò in visione, o gli parlerò in sogno.he said to them: Heare my wordes: If there shal be among you a prophete of the Lord, in vision wil I appeare to him, or in sleepe I wil speake ho him.dixit ad eos: Audite sermones meos: si quis fuerit inter vos propheta Domini, in visione apparebo ei, vel per somnium loquar ad illum.
7But it is not so with my servant Moses who is most faithful in all my house:Ma non così al mio servo Mosè, il quale in tutta la mia casa è fedelissimo:But my seruant Moyses is not such an one, who in al my house is most faythful:At non talis servus meus Moyses, qui in omni domo mea fidelissimus est: 8For I speak to him mouth to mouth: and plainly, and not by riddles and figures doth he see the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak ill of my servant Moses?Perocché io a lui parlo testa a testa: ed egli chiaramente, e non sotto enimmi, o figure vede il Signore. Come adunque avete ardito di parlar male di Mosè mio servo?for mouth to mouth I speake to him: and plainely, and not by riddels and figures doth he see the Lord. Why therfore did you not feare to detract from my seruant Moyses?ore enim ad os loquor ei: et palam, et non per ænigmata et figuras Dominum videt. Quare ergo non timuistis detrahere servo meo Moysi ? 9And being angry with them he went away:E irato contro di essi si ritirò:And being wrath against them, he went away:Iratusque contra eos, abiit: 10The cloud also that was over the tabernacle departed: and behold Mary appeared white as snow with a leprosy. And when Aaron had looked on her, and saw her all covered with leprosy,E se n'andò anche la nuvola che era sopra il tabernacolo: e di repente Maria comparve bianca come neve per la lebbra. E avendola mirata Aronne, e vedutala coperta di lebbra,the cloude also departed that was ouer the tabernacle: and behold Marie appeared white with leprosie as it were snow. And when Aaron had looked on her, and saw her wholy couered with leprosie,nubes quoque recessit quæ erat super tabernaculum: et ecce Maria apparuit candens lepra quasi nix. Cumque respexisset eam Aaron, et vidisset perfusam lepra, 11He said to Moses: I beseech thee, my lord, lay not upon us this sin, which we have foolishly committed:Disse a Mosè: Di grazia, signore mio, non imputare a noi questo peccato che abbiamo stoltamente commesso,he said to Moyses: I besech thee my Lord, lay not vpon vs this sinne which we haue foolishly committed,ait ad Moysen: Obsecro, domine mi, ne imponas nobis hoc peccatum quod stulte commisimus, 12Let her not be as one dead, and as an abortive that is cast forth from the mother’s womb. Lo, now one half of her flesh is consumed with the leprosy.E che costei non diventi come morta, e come un aborto gettato fuor dell'utero di sua madre: ecco che la mela della carne di lei è già consumata dalla lebbra.let not this woman be as it were dead, and as an abortiue that is cast forth of the mothers wombe. Lo now the one halfe of her flesh is deuoured with the leprosie.ne fiat hæc quasi mortua, et ut abortivum quod projicitur de vulva matris suæ: ecce jam medium carnis ejus devoratum est a lepra.
13And Moses cried to the Lord, saying O God, I beseech thee heal her.E Mosè alzò le sue grida al Signore dicendo: Rendile, ti prego, o Signore, la sanità.And Moyses cried to our Lord, saying: God, I besech thee, heale her.Clamavitque Moyses ad Dominum, dicens: Deus, obsecro, sana eam. 14And the Lord answered him: If her father had spitten upon her face, ought she not to have been ashamed for seven days at least? Let her be separated seven days without the camp, and afterwards she shall be called again.Rispose a lui il Signore: Se il padre suo le avesse sputato in faccia, non avrebb'ella dovuto portar la sua confusione almeno per sette giorni? Sia separata fuor degli alloggiamenti per sette giorni, e poi sarà richiamata.To whom our Lord answered: If her father had spitte vpon her face, ought she not to haue bene ashamed seuen daies at the least? Let her be separated seuen daies without the campe, and afterwards she shal be called againe.Cui respondit Dominus: Si pater ejus spuisset in faciem illius, nonne debuerat saltem septem diebus rubore suffundi ? separetur septem diebus extra castra, et postea revocabitur. 15Mary therefore was put out of the camp seven days: and the people moved not from that place until Mary was called again.Fu adunque Maria messa fuori degli alloggiamenti per sette giorni, e il popolo non si mosse da quel luogo, fino a tanto che Maria non fu richiamata.Marie therfore was shut forth without the campe seuen daies: and the people moued not from that place, vntil Marie was called againe.Exclusa est itaque Maria extra castra septem diebus: et populus non est motus de loco illo, donec revocata est Maria.
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Year of the World 2514.
Calmet
Ethiopian. Sephora, the wife of Moses, was of Madian, which bordered upon the land of Chus, or Ethiopia; and therefore she is called an Ethiopian: where note, that the Ethiopia here spoken of, is not that of Africa but that of Arabia, (Challoner) on the east side of the Red Sea, Exodus 2:15. Jealousy instigated Aaron and his sister on this occasion. (Calmet)
Haydock
Perhaps Sephora had claimed some pre-eminence on account of her husband's glory, in being a mediator between God and his people, and therefore they pretend to the same honour, ver. 2. (Haydock)
Onkelos
The Hebrew insinuates, that they laid hold on the pretext of Moses having married, or received again, a woman of a different nation contrary to the law which he had promulgated, "for it adds, he had married or retaken an Ethiopian woman." Others believe that he had put her away, and that Aaron and Mary stood up in her defence. "Mary and Aaron murmured against Moses, on account of the wife whom he had taken, who was a perfect beauty, because he had separated himself from his beautiful wife." (Onkelos)
Calmet
Some are of opinion, that this woman was Tarbis, the daughter of the king of Ethiopia, whom Moses espoused after he had terminated the wars between him and the Egyptians, before he retired to Madian. But this account of Josephus, (Antiquities 2:5,) and the explication of Onkelos, and of the Rabbins, seem to be destitute of any solid foundation. (Calmet)
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Challoner
Exceeding meek. Moses being the meekest of men, would not contend for himself; therefore God inspired him to write here in his own defence: and the Holy Spirit, whose dictate he wrote, obliged him to declare the truth, though it was so much to his own praise. (Challoner)
Calmet
So he mentions his defects without reserve. (Calmet)
Haydock
There are occasions when a person may be not only authorized, but in a manner forced to declare what may be to his own praise. Moses was in such a situation. The peace of the whole nation was in danger, when false insinuations were thrown out against the lawgiver and king, by his own nearest relations, and by them who were next in authority to himself. Aaron, the high priest, countenanced at least the remarks of his sister, who seems to have been the most to blame, as she alone is punished with the leprosy. (Haydock)
Conrnelius a Lapide
Some have suspected, that this verse has been inserted by a later inspired writer. (Conrnelius a Lapide)
Haydock
But whether it was or not, there is no reason to infer with Thomas Paine, that Moses was either "a vain and arrogant coxcomb, and unworthy of credit, or that the books (attributed to him) are without authority." For if he did not write this verse, it does not follow that he wrote none of the Pentateuch; and if he did write it, he was justified by the predicament in which he stood, to do so. Paine scruples not to write of himself: "the man does not exist, that can say....I have in any case returned evil for evil:" and is not this praising himself as a very meek man, when at the same time he is writing to cause all the mischief he can both in church and state, and thus during the heat of revolutionary madness, to involve thousands in ruin? (Watson) (Haydock)
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Come to the door of the tabernacle, where Moses also was standing.
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Haydock
Vision. Other prophets were inspired in a more mysterious manner: Moses, though he saw not the majesty of God in any corporeal figure, was instructed by him in the most secret things with the utmost perspicuity, (Calmet) as if a man were explaining his sentiments to his most intimate friend, Exodus 33:19. (Haydock)
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Haydock
Faithful: Hebrew Neeman, steward or master of the palace. Such was Samuel, 1 Kings 3:20; David, (Calmet) 1 Kings 22:14; Naaman, the general of Syria, 2 Kings v.; and Bacchides, 1 Machabees vii. (Haydock)
Calmet
Ambassadors had this title, (Proverbs 13:17,) and fidelity often denotes an office, 1 Paralipomenon 9:22. Job 12:20, speaks of the Namonim. (Calmet)
Haydock
But none among the Israelites was more justly entitled to this honour than Moses. He announced the word of God without any mixture of falsehood, and did not arrogate to himself more than his due, as Aaron seems to have done, ver. 2. (Haydock)
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Calmet
Departed from the door to its former place, (Calmet) as if in abhorrence of Mary's leprosy, (Hiscuni) and still more of the sin, which had brought upon her that punishment. (Calmet)
Haydock
Perhaps the cloud was raised higher in the air than usual, but did not proceed forward; (Menochius) otherwise the Israelites would have decamped. They remained at Haseroth till Mary was returned into the camp, ver. 15. (Haydock)
Calmet
Leprosy, of an incurable kind, like that of Gieze, 4 Kings 5:27. It covers the whole skin with a white scurf, Leviticus 13:10. Aaron is spared, either because he had sided with his sister only out of complaisance, without any formal malice against his brother; or because God, in consideration for his priestly character, would not render him contemptible in the eyes of all people, intending to punish him in a more secret manner: for we are not always to judge of the grievousness of a fault, by its present punishment. Perhaps Aaron obtained pardon by his speedy repentance, ver. 11. (Calmet)
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Menochius
Dead; consumed by leprosy, or incapable of performing the duties of life. (Menochius)
Hebrew, "an abortive, whose flesh is half consumed before he comes forth from his mother's womb." Septuagint, "he eateth half her flesh." "Permit not her to be separated from us, I beseech you, for she is our sister: pray, I beg, that her flesh may be healed," Chaldean.
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Calmet
Answered him. The force of this reply must be very obvious. If a father had been so irritated by his daughter, as to shew his indignation in the strongest manner, (see Job 30:10.; Mark 14:65,) she would surely keep out of sight for a time: and can she complain, if I, who have been more injured in the person of my minister, exclude her from society seven days, after having covered her with the leprosy as with spittle. (Calmet)
Menochius
The excommunication, in the Christian Church, bears some resemblance with this exclusion. Mary did not undergo all the legal purifications, (Leviticus xxxiv.) as the miraculous cure dispensed her from them. (Menochius)
St. Jerome
Origen (hom. 6:7,) and other Fathers, explain the mystery of this historical event. Moses, taking to wife the Ethiopian, represents Christ calling the Gentiles, which excites the murmurs of the synagogue. Mary shews the deformity of the latter religion at the present day, without head or sacrifice. The encomiums bestowed upon the Jewish legislator, belong in a still stricter sense to Jesus Christ, the mildest of men, fully acquainted with all the secrets of God, and the most faithful in all his house. (St. Jerome, ep. ad Fab. mansion xiv.)
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Exceeding meek.... Moses being the meekest of men, would not contend for himself; therefore, God inspired him to write here his own defence: and the Holy Spirit, whose dictate he wrote, obliged him to declare the truth, though it was so much to his own praise.
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Concordance Exod. 2.
Madianites were also called Aethiopipians. S. Aug. q. 20. in Num.
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The Holie Ghost forced Moyses to vtter his owne praise, which of him self, he desired not.
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Aaron was not publikly punished, lest therby he had bene made cō •emptible to the people, but was otherwise chatised.
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus, XXXII 1
Why was it, that when these two (Aaron and Miriam) had both acted with despite towards him (Moses), the latter alone was adjudged punishment?
Aphrahat † AD 346 Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations 6.3
… Through a woman he fought with Samson, until he took away his Nazariteship. Reuben was the first-born of all his brethren, and through his father’s wife, (the adversary) cast a blemish upon him. Aaron was the great high-priest of the house of Israel, and through Miriam
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.1
… “For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be” not as is there said, “of one flesh,” but “of one spirit.” Your bridegroom is not haughty or disdainful; He has “married an Ethiopian woman.”
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Tertullian † AD 220 A Treatise on the Soul 35
… These substances are, in fact, the natural property of each individual; whilst “the spirit and power” are bestowed as external gifts by the grace of God and so may be transferred to another person according to the purpose and will of the Almighty, as was anciently the case with respect to the spirit of Moses.
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St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Ephesians: Shorter and Longer Versions 10
… oppose to their blasphemies your earnest prayers; while they go astray, stand ye stedfast in the faith. Conquer ye their harsh temper by gentleness, their passion by meekness. For “blessed are the meek;” and Moses was meek above all men;
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Magnesians: Shorter and Longer Versions 12
… And David says, “Who am I before Thee, O Lord, that Thou hast glorified me hitherto?” And Moses, who was “the meekest of all men,”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 51.16
… And when the apostle says, “Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit,” we are to avoid those things which do not come from God’s clemency, but are begotten of the presumption of a too rigid philosophy. Concerning Moses, moreover, we find it said in the Scriptures, “Now the man Moses was very meek;”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 18.24
24. But what was most excellent and most characteristic, though least generally recognized, was his simplicity, and freedom from guile and resentment. For among men of ancient and modern days, each is supposed to have had some special success, as each chanced to have received from God some particular virtue: Job unconquered patience in misfortune, Moses
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 3.15
… Moses was asked to put an end to these horrors, and he prayed and obtained his request. In the one case it was a fact worthy of praise that he checked himself from joining in deceit; in the other it was noteworthy how, by his innate goodness, he turned aside from the foe those divinely ordered punishments. He was indeed, as it is written, gentle and meek.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Treatise Concerning the Christian Priesthood 4
… persons who have been chosen for this high office by God himself, though they have never so often refused it, have paid such heavy penalties, and if nothing has availed to deliver any of them from this danger, neither Aaron nor Eli, nor that holy man the Saint, the prophet, the wonder worker, the meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth,
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 17
… but took his revenge upon the Devil. ( 1 Sam. xxvi. 7 .) Moses, when he saw a stranger doing an injury, even slew him ( Exod. ii. 22 ): but when one of his own people, he did not so: them that were brethren he would have reconciled; the others not so. That “most meek” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 1
… and thus our whole life is made prosperous, through peace one with another. For no man can injure God: His nature is imperishable, and above all suffering. Nothing makes the Christian so admirable as lowliness of mind. Hear, for instance, Abraham saying, ( Gen. xviii. 27 .) “But I am but dust and ashes;” and again, God [saying] of Moses, that (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 82.3
… The Roman people refused to brook insolence even in a king. Moses was leader of the host of Israel; he brought ten plagues upon Egypt; sky, earth, and sea alike obeyed his commands: yet he is spoken of as “very meek above all the men which were” at that time “upon the face of the earth.”
Socrates Scholasticus † AD 440 The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus 7.42
… For in fact he himself was a pattern to all true clergymen, and never approved of those who attempted to persecute others. Nay I may venture to affirm, that in meekness he surpassed all those who have ever faithfully borne the sacerdotal office. And what is recorded of Moses in the book of Numbers,
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Tertullian † AD 220 An Answer to the Jews 9
… therefore the man who was being prepared to act as images of this sacrament was inaugurated under the figure of the Lord’s name, even so as to be named Jesus. For He who ever spake to Moses was the Son of God Himself; who, too, was always seen .
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Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 4.22
… but not so is my manner to Moses; with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently” (that is to say, in the form of man which He was to assume), “and not in dark speeches.”
Tertullian † AD 220 Against Praxeas 14
… not as with Moses, with whom I shall speak mouth to mouth, even apparently , that is to say, in truth, and not enigmatically, ” that is to say, in image;
Tertullian † AD 220 On Monogamy 6
… you have Moses, the intimate eye-witness of God;
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Hexæmeron 1.1
… My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house, with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently and not in dark speeches.”
Pseudo-Clement The Clementine Homilies 17.18
… but it is covered and revealed by the hand of God, who works so far as each one through his knowledge deserves. But the declaration of anything by means of apparitions and dreams from without is a proof, not that it comes from revelation, but from wrath. Finally, then, it is written in the law, that God, being angry, said to Aaron and Miriam,
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Pope St Clement I † AD 99 The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians 17
… humbly declared, “I am but dust and ashes.” Moreover, it is thus written of Job, “Job was a righteous man, and blameless, truthful, God-fearing, and one that kept himself from all evil.” But bringing an accusation against himself, he said, “No man is free from defilement, even if his life be but of one day.” Moses was called faithful in all God’s house;
Pope St Clement I † AD 99 The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians 43
And what wonder is it if those in Christ who were entrusted with such a duty by God, appointed those [ministers] before mentioned, when the blessed Moses also, “a faithful servant in all his house,”
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.6.5
… but he is not properly termed Lord, nor is called God by the prophets, but is spoken of by the Spirit as “Moses, the faithful minister and servant of God,”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 18.1
… But why should I enumerate all the titles which your virtue, in its varied forms, has won for and applied to you as your own?
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Letters on the Apollinarian Controversy 101
… Or, if you like, an Angel compared with God, or a man with an Angel. So our mind is perfect and commanding, but only in respect of soul and body; not absolutely perfect; and a servant and a subject of God, not a sharer of His Princedom and honour. So Moses was a God to Pharaoh, but a servant of God,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 11.7
… Before these, was there not holy Noah, who alone of the whole human race, with all his house, was worthy to be delivered from the flood,—he in whom, and in his sons, the Church was prefigured? Borne by wood, they escaped the flood. Then afterwards great men whom we know, whom Holy Scriptures commends, Moses faithful in all his house.
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.20.9
9. And the Word spake to Moses, appearing before him, “just as any one might speak to his friend.”
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 1
… And of the lawgiver Moses it is related that “The Lord spake to Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend,” and the God of the universe Himself said, “With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently and not in dark speeches.”
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Pope St Clement I † AD 99 The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians 43
And what wonder is it if those in Christ who were entrusted with such a duty by God, appointed those [ministers] before mentioned, when the blessed Moses also, “a faithful servant in all his house,”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 63.24
57. Miriam the prophetess herself, who with her brothers had crossed the straits of the sea on foot, because, being still ignorant of the mystery of the Ethiopian woman, she had murmured against her brother Moses, broke out with leprous spots,
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 26
… and thereby stopping their mouths, He said, “How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand ?” And much as with Moses, so it fell out also with David. For as Miriam, even against Moses’ will, was punished by God for insolence to her brother,
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 10
… Call upon Him as Stephen did; “Lord,” he said, “lay not this sin to their charge.” ( ch. vii. 59 .) Call upon Him as did the wife of Elkanah, with tears and sobs, and prayers. ( 1 Sam. i. 10 .) I prevent you not, rather I earnestly exhort you to it. Call upon him as Moses called upon Him, yea, cried, interceding for those
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Pope St Clement I † AD 99 The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians 4
… Envy compelled Moses to flee from the face of Pharaoh king of Egypt, when he heard these words from his fellow-countryman, “Who made thee a judge or a ruler over us? wilt thou kill me, as thou didst kill the Egyptian yesterday?” On account of envy, Aaron and Miriam had to make their abode without the camp.
St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus, XXXII 1
… And he did not neglect to do so, but at once poured forth his supplication. Upon this the Lord, who loves mankind, made him understand how He had not chastened her as a judge, but as a father; for He said, “If her father had spit in her face, should she not be ashamed? Let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her come in again.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 20.10
… notwithstanding that in other respects she had been meek and modest. Afterwards, when Moses himself, the party injured, besought that the wrath might be removed, God consented not: but what did He say? “If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed? Let her remain,” saith He, “without the camp seven days.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 5
… Though again it be Samuel who is doing this, He saith unto him, “Mourn not thou for Saul.” Though for his own sister one entreat, when it is not fitting, he again shall have the same sort of answer as Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 34
… ( v. 38 .) And yet no need for him to beg, who had to make an accusation presently. This happens even in the case where God and men are the parties: the man requests, God is wroth. For instance, when He saith, “If her father had spit in her face” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 77.5
… As Fabiola was not ashamed of the Lord on earth, so He shall not be ashamed of her in heaven. She laid bare her wound to the gaze of all, and Rome beheld with tears the disfiguring scar which marred her beauty. She uncovered her limbs, bared her head, and closed her mouth. She no longer entered the church of God but, like Miriam the sister of Moses,
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Note: In this murmuring Mary sinned especially, as a woman and rival of Zipporah, and appears to have incited Aaron against Zipporah and Moses; hence she alone was punished with leprosy, not Aaron.
1. AND MARY SPOKE, AND AARON ALSO, AGAINST MOSES, BECAUSE OF HIS ETHIOPIAN WIFE. -- You will ask, who was this Ethiopian woman? Josephus, lib. II Antiq. x, and from him Eusebius, Isidore and others relate that Moses, while still dwelling in the paternal house of Pharaoh, waged war for the Egyptians against the Ethiopians, and subjugated them by the treachery of Tharbis, daughter of the king of the Ethiopians, whom Moses therefore took as his wife, and that this is the Ethiopian woman. But Scripture makes no mention of this war and victory, nor of Moses' wife, except of Zipporah alone. I say therefore that Zipporah is here called an Ethiopian, because she was a Midianite. For the Midianites in Scripture are called Ethiopians, as is clear from Habakkuk cap. III, verse 7, and II Paralipomenon xiv, 10, 12. For there is a twofold Ethiopia in Scripture, namely one Western beyond Egypt, such as Abyssinia, where the Prester John now reigns, which alone is now called Ethiopia; the other Eastern, which is Arabia, in which dwelt the Ishmaelites, Amalekites, Midianites, etc.: these therefore are called Ethiopians. Thus St. Augustine here, Quaest. XX, Theodoret, Quaest. XXII, Rabanus, Rupert, Lyra, Abulensis, Eugubinus, Vatablus and Oleaster.
In this marriage of Moses with the Ethiopian woman, was figured allegorically the marriage of Christ with the Church of the Gentiles; tropologically, the marriage of the Word with a sinful soul, as St. Bernard says, serm. 39 in Cantica.
You ask secondly, why did Mary and Aaron rise up against Moses on account of Zipporah? It is probable what the Abulensian says, that Zipporah in womanly fashion (for this sex, since it is of weak intellect and judgment, is ambitious and desirous of its own honor) wished to prefer herself to Mary, in that she was the wife of Moses, and exalted Moses, as it were the leader of the people, in words, and preferred him to Mary and Aaron: by which thing first Mary was stirred up, then Aaron, they began to raise themselves up, wishing to equal themselves not only to Zipporah, but also to Moses, boasting that they were as noble prophets as Moses was. That this is so is gathered both from the following verse, and from verse 6, where God indicates and cuts off this cause of murmuring, and teaches them that they are deceived in their ambition, in that Moses is the most excellent, most faithful, and most familiar with God as a Prophet, to whom no one else can be compared.
The Abulensian adds that Aaron was not struck with leprosy, because he was a high priest, in whom the greatest cleanliness, authority and reverence were required. For it would have been a grave disgrace in the worship of God, if his high priest Aaron had ever been a leper. Let Princes and Prelates learn here to keep all disgrace away from their prefects and Pastors, and not to promote and place over the people those who have at some time labored under disgrace, even if they have already amended themselves: for the people will despise them on account of their past disgrace, indeed will mock them.
Allegorically St. Ambrose, book X, epistle 82: "To the type," he says, "of the Synagogue this murmuring against Mary pertains, which, ignorant of the sacrament of the Ethiopian woman, that is of the Church to be gathered from the Gentiles, daily murmurs with reproach, and envies that people, by whose faith she herself is stripped of the leprosy of her perfidy, at the end of the age." Thus also St. Prosper, part II On Predictions, chapter IX, Rupert and St. Jerome to Fabiola, in Mansion 14. Where note from St. Jerome that this murmuring happened, and this leprosy was inflicted on Mary in the fourteenth mansion, namely in Hazeroth, as is evident from the preceding chapter, last verse.
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3. FOR MOSES WAS A MAN EXCEEDING MEEK ABOVE ALL MEN THAT DWELT UPON THE EARTH. -- That is to say, Because Moses was the meekest of men of that age, hence when Mary and Aaron detracted from him and quarreled with him, he did not answer them, and therefore God undertook to defend him, and answered for him. Note: Moses, praying and beseeching at the request of Aaron for his detracting sister, was in the Old Testament the meekest; but in the New Testament St. Stephen was meeker than he, says the Abulensian, who prayed for his very stoners and Saul, without anyone asking; whence he also obtained Paul for the Church, and made Paul out of Saul. Indeed by this meekness Moses merited colloquy and familiarity as it were continuous with God. Hear St. Dionysius, epistle 8 to Demophilus: "The history of the Hebrews relates that Moses, by the merit of extraordinary meekness, was deemed worthy of divine friendship and familiarity; and if it ever records that he himself fell away from divine sight, it does not describe this as having happened to him before he fell away from meekness. For he was," it says, "very meek, and therefore is called the servant of God, and more worthy than all Prophets, to whom God would grant the grace of His vision."
See what meekness obtains with God, see how great is its virtue, see how magnanimous it is. Rightly Seneca in the wise man: "Humility of spirit," he says, "moves the affection of pain, contracting itself on account of a deed or word that is dishonorable; but the wise man is despised by no one, he knows his own greatness. The fruit of insult is in indignation, and in the sense of the one suffering;" and in the book On Anger: "Everything weak by nature is querulous; nor is anything great, unless it is at the same time also calm."
Surely this equanimity and meekness in tolerating injuries is the mark of a Christian and truly wise and great-souled man. Hear again Seneca, in the book On Anger: "A certain man struck Marcus Cato in the bath inadvertently; afterwards, when making satisfaction to Cato, he said: I do not remember being struck; he thought it better not to acknowledge it than to forgive it. It is the mark of a great soul to despise injuries: it is the mark of a petty and wretched man to repeat the bite, like mice and ants, which if you put your hand to, turn their mouths: they think themselves weakly injured if they are touched." And in the Consolation to Helvia: "Aristides was being led to execution at Athens; whoever met him groaned, not as if a just man were being punished, but as if justice itself were being executed; yet someone was found who spat in his face; but he wiped his face, and smiling said to the magistrate accompanying him: Remind that man, lest he hereafter yawn so impudently." Concerning Julius Caesar, Cicero said "that he was accustomed to forget nothing except injuries," as St. Augustine reports, epistle 5 to Marcellinus. Hear St. Basil, homily On Reading the Books of the Gentiles: "A certain man in the forum assailed Pericles with every kind of abuse; he, however, seeming not to care at all, endured it the whole day: then in the evening, as he was departing, he accompanied him with a light. Again, a certain man swore he would bring death to Euclid: but he in turn swore that he would patiently bear it, and would reconcile himself to him even though hostile. A certain man struck Socrates' face with vehement force; Socrates, not at all disturbed, did nothing other than what he inscribed on his own forehead: Such a one made it; as the name of the maker is inscribed on a statue." Aristotle, according to Aelian, gave counsel to Alexander the Great, who was naturally irascible, that, esteeming himself superior to all, he should despise insults. The Gentiles did these things; what will Christians do? But far more sublime, purer, stronger and more constant than all these was the meekness of Moses, tolerating for 40 years a people so rebellious. I shall presently add some examples of the faithful.
Moses wrote this praise of himself as the pen of the Holy Spirit impelling him to write it: just as St. John wrote of himself, that he was the disciple whom Jesus loved. Secondly and more truly, these things seem to have been added to Moses after his time by some other hagiographic writer, who arranged these diaries of his and wove them in, as I said in the preface to Genesis.
Morally, Origen says: There is, he says, a certain family of the meek, over which Moses presides; a family of the patient, over which Job presides; a family of the continent, over which Daniel presides; and each one in death shall be gathered to his own family, the meek with the meek, the virgin with virgins, the irascible with the irascible, the lustful with the lustful, according to what is said in Leviticus xxv, 10: "Each one shall return to his former family, because it is a jubilee." Again, the proper virtue of the Saints is meekness: "Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth." Hear the Wise Man in Ecclesiasticus III, 19: "My son, in meekness accomplish thy works, and thou shalt be beloved above the glory of men." Hear Christ: "Learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart, and you shall find rest."
That holy elder among Cassian, harassed by unbelieving Alexandrians, and being asked what great and wonderful things Christ had done beyond nature, said: "This, that I, provoked by your insults and injuries, am not moved to indignation." Another in the Lives of the Fathers prescribed this discipline and way to perfection to his disciple: first, that for three whole years he should bear the burdens of others; second, that for another three years he should give payment to those by whom he was attacked with insults and reproaches: the disciple did as commanded; then the elder said: Come now, that I may test what progress you have made. Led to Athens, when he was assailed with insults at the gate, the young man began to laugh. The other, amazed: What is this, he said, that you laugh, being mocked by me and derided with jeers? Should I not laugh? said the disciple; for three years I paid wages to those who burdened me with curses; today I suffer this from you for nothing. The Athenian, astonished: Enter, he said, the city, you are worthy of the assembly of the wise. Third: Teach me, Father, said he, something that I may keep, that I may possess heaven. "Can you," said the elder, "endure insults?" as if the head of salvation consisted in meek tolerance of contempt and scorn, and rightly so, since Christ says: "In your patience you shall possess your souls." Fourth, St. Amma in the monastery of virgins, as if foolish, exposed to the laughter and mockery of all, when she bore this meekly and cheerfully, was declared by St. Pitirius by the instinct of God to be the wisest of the whole monastery, and equally the holiest, as Palladius relates in the Lausiac History, cap. XLII. Fifth, Abba Pimenius in the Lives of the Fathers, lib. VII, cap. xxxvii: "To endure injury," he says, "and not to return like for like, is to lay down one's soul for one's neighbor." Sixth, Abba Macarius there: "It is the fault," he says, "of a monk, if injured by the brethren, not to be the first to run to him in charity with a purified heart. For just as the Shunamite received Elisha, because she had no quarrel with anyone: so a quiet soul receives the Holy Spirit, if it keeps no dispute or offense with anyone." Seventh, Abba John there, lib. VI, cap. iv, num. 12: "The gate of heaven," he says, "is the endurance of injuries, and our fathers entered it rejoicing through many injuries."
12:6
6. IF THERE BE AMONG YOU A PROPHET OF THE LORD, I WILL APPEAR TO HIM IN A VISION, OR I WILL SPEAK TO HIM IN A DREAM. -- "In a vision," that is in an imaginary or intellectual representation and rapture. God tacitly hints here that Mary and Aaron were Prophets, and that they received some visions and revelations from God, but not so many, nor of such a kind, as Moses received daily. Eugubinus notes that five species of prophecy are distinguished here: the first is that which is made bemaree, that is in a vision; the second, through a dream; the third, in an enigma, when one thing is seen and another is signified, as it was when Jeremiah, cap. I, saw a boiling pot, when he ate the book, Ezekiel cap. II, 8, and St. John, Apoc. x, 10; the fourth, through figures, when we behold images of things, when we see armies, when we see choirs, when we see processions, when we behold certain most splendid things: these four happen through abstraction from the senses, by which it comes about that we neither hear nor touch, but the whole mind is carried away into these visions; the fifth is when, with the sense and state of the body unchanged, divine speech is made to man: in which way God speaks to angels, and spoke to Moses and a few others.
In this, therefore, Moses is said to have surpassed the Prophets of his time, in that he spoke openly and mouth to mouth, present with the present, commonly and familiarly with God, and, as appears from this place, also saw God in bodily form (that is, the angel representing God), especially after he saw His glory on Sinai, Exodus xxxiv, 6; but to other Prophets God spoke more rarely, and not familiarly, nor through Himself, but through other forms and figures, which He presented to the Prophets.
The Jews in their symbol of faith, which Genebardus published at the end of the Chronology, last edition, assert that Moses excelled other Prophets in these four things: first, that God spoke to Moses through Himself, but to others through an angel; second, that He spoke to others at night, but to Moses by day; third, that all others, hearing the angel, were shaken with horror and trembling, so that they were almost overcome, as happened to Daniel, cap. x, vers. 8: Moses suffered nothing of the sort; fourth, that Moses prophesied whenever he wished, others only at that time when they were breathed upon by the Spirit of God: hence often for many months and years they ceased, because they were not taught by the Spirit. But these things are partly false, partly futile and Jewish: yet some true things are mixed in after their manner.
From what has been said it is clear that no argument can be drawn from this place for the opinion of those who wish Moses to have seen the divine essence here. For nothing new is said here about Moses, nor is any new vision of his brought forward here, but his customary conversation with God (which is described in Exodus xxxiv, 6, and elsewhere often) is here recalled again; see what is said on Exodus XXXIII and XXXIV.
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7. WHO IS MOST FAITHFUL IN ALL MY HOUSE. -- That is to say, In all my Church, that is in the whole assembly of Israel, no one is more faithful than Moses; in Hebrew it is, he himself is faithful, where the word 'himself' has emphasis, as if to say: He himself is faithful by way of eminence and excellence.
12:8
8. AND (THROUGH) FIGURES HE SEES THE LORD. -- Modern scholars distinguish this in the Hebrew by an accent separating it from the preceding words, and translate it, and he sees the likeness of the Lord, that is to say, Moses sees the corporeal form of God, in which God exhibits Himself to be seen by him. So also the Chaldean and the Septuagint, who translate, and he saw the glory of the Lord, namely Exodus xxxiv, 6. But the Hebrew does not have the past tense, but the future, which here, as often elsewhere, is taken for the present. The sense of all the versions, although they differ in words, comes to the same meaning.
12:10
10. THE CLOUD ALSO WITHDREW, -- not by going forward and preceding: for thus it would have been a sign that the camp should be moved; but by ascending above the tabernacle: for thus it was a sign of God's anger, and of His departing from Mary and Aaron.
AND BEHOLD MARY APPEARED SHINING WITH LEPROSY LIKE SNOW. -- See here that leprosy is the punishment of those who rebel and murmur against the Prelates, as I said at the beginning of Leviticus xiii. Moreover, this punishment is fitting for murmuring; for murmuring spreads like leprosy, and infects the whole body, namely the whole congregation and assembly. Whence just as lepers, Levit. xiii, are commanded to be cast out of the camp, and to dwell apart outside the camp: so here the murmuring Mary is cast out of the camp, lest she by her murmuring and her leprosy infect others.
Hear St. Ephrem speaking concerning the disease of the tongue: "From the most foul leprosy of Mary the prophetess," he says, "we are taught how grave and detestable a vice is detraction. The body, which was seen to be infected with leprosy, was as it were a certain mirror of the soul, which was not seen, whose blemish it indicated. From that corruption of the flesh it was made manifest how the soul of a man who detracts is corrupted; for just as she had failed toward her brother, so also her own body failed from her, so that from herself she might learn charity." See Origen here, homily 7, likewise St. Chrysostom, homily on Psalm c, where among other things he says: "Detraction is a grave evil, a turbulent demon, and never rendering a man at peace. From it hatreds spring up, quarrels are kindled, dissensions take their origin, evil suspicions are begotten: without any cause it makes an enemy of one who a little before was a friend: it subverts entire households, and stirs peaceful cities to war: it dissolves the fair bonds of peace, it breaks the knot of great charity. Whoever devotes himself to detraction serves the devil: inasmuch as he carries out the works of calumny. Wherefore the detractor, as a liar and a thief, ought to be driven away." St. Jerome to Rusticus: "Never," he says, "detract from anyone at all, nor wish to appear praiseworthy through the vituperation of others; rather learn to order your own life than to carp at that of another." St. Augustine, as testified by Possidius in his Life, cap. xxii, against the pestilence of human custom, inscribed this couplet upon his table: Whoever loves to gnaw at the life of the absent with words, Let him know this table is forbidden to him. "Whence also he sometimes reproved certain co-bishops most familiar to him, forgetful of that scripture and speaking against it, so sharply that he would say either those verses must be deleted from the table, or he would rise from the midst of the meal to his own chamber: which I and others who were present at that table have experienced." Thus Possidius. See against detractors the same St. Augustine, epistle 137, and in Psalm. LIV and XCII. St. John the Almsgiver, Patriarch of Alexandria, also forbade even public sinners to be censured: "For it can happen," he says, "that they have wiped away their sin by repenting. But it is unjust for this to be reproachfully cast up to a man by another, which has been mercifully forgiven by God." Truly the Wise man compares the evil tongue to a serpent: "If a serpent bite in silence," he says, "he who detracts in secret has nothing less," Eccli. x. "The detractor, and he who willingly listens, each carries the devil in his tongue," says St. Bernard in a sermon. "This is the office of the demon, who is hence called diabolus, that is, a calumniator." The same: "The tongue of the detractor," he says, "is a most fierce viper; it is a lance, which pierces three with one blow:" for it kills the soul first, of the one speaking; secondly, of the one listening; thirdly, the reputation of him against whom he detracts. Hear him, sermon On the threefold custody, of the hand, tongue and heart: "Is not this tongue a viper?" he says. "Most fierce indeed, namely one which so lethally infects three with one breath. Is not this tongue a lance? Assuredly and most sharp, which pierces three with one blow. Their tongue is a sharp sword. A two-edged sword indeed, nay a three-edged sword is the tongue of the detractor: nay worse, he says, than the point by which the side of the Lord was pierced. A light thing indeed is speech, because it flies lightly, but it wounds gravely; it passes lightly, but it burns gravely; it penetrates the soul lightly, but it does not exit lightly." Hear also the Gentiles. Cicero in the Offices: "To detract from another," he says, "and to increase one's own advantage by the disadvantage of a man, is more contrary to nature than death, than pain, than other things which can happen to the body, or to external things. For they take away the intercourse of men and society." Horace in the Satires: He who gnaws at an absent friend, Who can fabricate what he has not seen, who cannot keep silent about what is entrusted to him; this man is black; you, Roman, beware of him.
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11. LAY NOT THIS SIN UPON US, -- do not impute to us the sin which we have committed, do not be offended with us, and do not punish us or permit or consent that we be punished by God; but spare us, and have mercy and forgive, and pray that Mary be cured of leprosy, and that her leprosy, since I am a partaker of her murmuring, may not seize upon me and correct me.
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12. LET NOT THIS BE AS ONE DEAD. -- Both because leprosy, creeping and eating away at Mary, was gradually making her like one dead or like an aborted child, mutilated and deformed; and because leprosy was as it were a kind of civil death: for it separated a man from dwelling and intercourse with men.
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14. IF HER FATHER HAD SPIT IN HER FACE, etc., that is to say, If the father of Mary thy sister, being angry, had spit in her face, she, on account of shame and reverence toward her father, would not dare to approach her father for seven days; how much more does it befit her now, since on account of sin she has been marked by me with leprosy, to be confounded, and to be shut out from the camp, and not to approach me in the tabernacle for seven days?
LET HER BE SEPARATED SEVEN DAYS OUTSIDE THE CAMP, AND AFTERWARDS LET HER BE RECALLED. -- Therefore in fact for seven days Mary, as if leprous, was excluded from the camp: those days having elapsed, she was healed by God and recalled. Where note that in her recall the ceremonies and expiations prescribed for lepers were not observed, Leviticus cap. xiv. For the miraculous healing of Mary by God herself and her recall was sufficient for her own purification and expiation, so that she had no need of another legal one. Thus Abulensis.
See here the just punishment for arrogance. Mary had raised herself proudly above her brother Moses, the leader of the camp, and had despised him: therefore justly here she is humbled, so that as if infamous and unworthy not only of the sight of her brother, but also of the people, she is separated from the camp. Our Raderus relates a similar example, and one far more admirable, from the Practicum of the Greeks, tract. On Simplicity, cap. v, concerning the Stylite of Edessa, who because he had judged his own brother, simple in despising gold, and had contemned him, because he himself had distributed that same gold prudently, as it seemed to him, to religious men and the poor, was rebuked by an angel, and separated from his own brother for his whole life, and was commanded to stand on a column for 49 years; after so long and harsh a penance, at length he merited pardon in the fiftieth year, or jubilee: for then an angel appearing to him announced that his sin was remitted to him, and that he was restored to the grace of God, and moreover he was filled with wonderful consolation and new blessing from God.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
12:1
… In Jer. 13:23 the Cushite is described as belonging to the black race; while in Am. 9:7 a certain contempt is shown toward that people, generally employed as slaves (cf. 2 Sam. 18:21 ff.; Jer. 38:7; 39:16). Yet even the wife of Moses was a Cushite (Num. 12:1). Angelo Penna
… of the neighboring regions (cf. Ex. 34:11-16; Deut. 7:1-4). But in the most ancient times such a law appears less rigorous (cf. Gen. 34:14; 41:45; Ex. 2:21; Jud. 3:6; 14:3, 10; Ruth 1:4). Even Moses had a Midianite as his wife (Ex. 2:21; Num. 12:1). After the exile, on the other hand, the exclusion becomes ever more rigorous, as appears from the books of Ezra and Nehemiah and from Talmudic tradition. …
… Yahweh punished M. with leprosy; healing her, however, through the immediate intercession of Moses; she nevertheless had to remain 7 days outside the camp (Num. 12:1-15). She died at Kadesh shortly after the arrival of the Hebrews and was buried there (Num. 20:1).
There is no reason to regard S. as different from the "Cushite wife" of Moses, as she is called elsewhere (Num. 12, 1), with a disparaging intent (hence one should not insist on the Cushite-Midianite opposition), [a source of contention] for Mary and Aaron, on account of some personal friction. …
12:2
… him as a nurse by the daughter of Pharaoh (Ex. 2:4-10). At the crossing of the Red Sea, M. was 90 years old (Ex. 7:7) and as a prophetess led, under divine influence, the dances and songs of joy and thanksgiving to Yahweh (Ex. 15:20 ff.; Mic. 6:4; cf. Num. 12:2). In the desert, at Hazeroth, she murmured with Aaron against the authority of Moses, as though they too were not prophets, made jealous by the influence that Zipporah had over Moses, …
Moses (Mōšeh, Μω[θ]σῆς, Vulg. MoySES, Ancient Latin Moses)
… This is a religion that does not come from man, but from God, of whom M. was only the "prophet," the spokesman (Ex. 3:10; 4:12; Num. 11:24 ff.; 12:2; Deut. 18:15, 18; 34:10; Hos. 12:4; Ps. 103:7, etc.). …
The biblical sources recall, after Moses, the great prophet (Os. 12:14 [Vulg. 13]; Num. 11:25; 12:6; Deut. 18:15, 18; 34:10): Miriam his sister (Ex. 15:20; Num. 12:2; cf. Mt. 6:4); Joshua (Ecli. 46:1); during the period of the Judges: Deborah and an anonymous nābhi (Iude. 4:4; 6:8), an anonymous "man of God" who announces to Heli the decline …
12:6
… divine (Hos. 4, 1; Joel 1, 1; Am. 1, 6, 9, 11, 13; 2, 1 etc.; Obad. 1; Jon. 1, 1; 3, 1; Mic. 1, 1; 3, 5; 6, 1; Nah. 1, 12; Zeph. 1, 1; Hag. 1, 1; 2, 1, 11, 21; Zech. 1, 1; 7, 1 ff.) what he has written; reports visions, revelations or supernatural dreams (Num. 12, 6 ff.; Is. 6, 20; Jer. 1, 11-16; Ezek. 4, 1-5, 4; Jer. 4, 20 ff.; Is. 5, 9; 22, 14; Ezek. 9, 1; Jer. 20, 7-12; 23, 28; Mic. 3, 8; Is. 6, 6-9; Jer. 1, 17-19; Ezek. 3, 8-9). The hagiographer …
The biblical sources recall, after Moses, the great prophet (Os. 12:14 [Vulg. 13]; Num. 11:25; 12:6; Deut. 18:15, 18; 34:10): Miriam his sister (Ex. 15:20; Num. 12:2; cf. Mt. 6:4); Joshua (Ecli. 46:1); during the period of the Judges: Deborah and an anonymous nābhi (Iude. …
12:10
besides a certain quantity of flour and oil. The expiatory sacrifice implies the concept of leprosy regarded as a punishment from God. In the Old Testament (cf. Ex. 4:6; Num. 5:2; 12:10; II Kings 5:1; 7:3; II Chron. 26:20 ff.) and in the New (cf. Mt. 8:2; 10:5; 11:5; 26:6) lepers are often spoken of, and the miraculous healing of some of them is narrated. …
12:14
… Other precisions: for example, that one verse (Jer. 21:7) has 42 words and 160 letters; that in four verses (Gen. 18:5; 24:55; Num. 12:14; Ps. 36:7) there is a wāw added through the fault of the scribes which must not be taken into account; etc.
12:26
… After the victories won by Moses over the Amorite kingdoms of Sihon and Og (Num. 12, 26; Jos. 13, 15-32), it was in part inhabited by the Israelite tribes of eastern Manasseh, of Gad and of Reuben, and then disputed between the kings of Samaria and of Damascus. …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.