1 These are the words, which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan, in the plain wilderness, over against the Red Sea, between Pharan and Thophel and Laban and Haseroth, where there is very much gold.
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VERS. 1.-- *These are the words,* etc. The lawgiver sets before it a title as it were a prologue, in which he shows the name of the author, and what he did, and where, and when. As will be distinguished a little later in the gloss; and it ends, as it seems to some, there: *In the fortieth,* etc., or lower down, there: *Our God,* etc. But for the making plain of the things which are in the prologue, and of those which follow, the truth of the history must be touched upon a little. From the going out of the children of Israel from Egypt until they came to the plains of Moab above the Jordan there flowed forty-two years, in which at divers times they made forty-two stations. When the cloud was lifted up, the camp was moved; and when it stood still, they pitched and remained in the same place until the cloud was lifted up again. The first station was in Ramesse, the last in the plains of Moab. From Ramesse as far as Mount Sina, in the space of forty-seven days, they made twelve stations, and this in the first year; and there they stayed almost the whole year. There the law was given; there Genesis was written, Exodus and Numbers were written, and a great part of this book. Moving their foot thence, in the second year they came into Cadesbarne, and in that space they made twenty stations; from Cadesbarne they sent scouts, who on returning reported the land good, but they found strong men and giants, and being terrified they wished to return into the land of Egypt, whereat the Lord was angered. They went back and ranged about Mount Seir for thirty-eight years; there the murmurers died and were laid low. In the fortieth year they came to Cadesbarne, whence they had gone back through the desert, and in that space they again made nine stations. But for eleven days, before he came to Cadesbarne, Moses recapitulated the law by word alone; and from Cadesbarne as far as the plains of Moab, and in that space of eleven days, he willed to commit it to writing. Behold: from the first year twelve, from the second one and twenty, from the rest nine; and so forty-two stations. This was the cause of this book: namely, that the things which had been done, being briefly gathered, might be the more closely held in memory; for the things that are briefly said are easily retained. *These are the words,* etc. The beginning of Deuteronomy seems to be the title of the whole work, because it indicates the person of the author, and what he did, and the place, and the time. The name of the book also shows forth the grace of the New Testament. For Deuteronomy is interpreted "the second law," and signifies the Gospel, which expounds spiritually the mysteries of the Old Testament. Just as the book of Deuteronomy is a repetition of the four books of the law: for those contain in themselves their own matters, this one repeats them all, and itself also has its own mysteries. *These are the words.* This of himself as of another, etc., *as far as* that no one can doubt that Moses wrote these things. *He spoke.* Moses is the old law, which beyond the Jordan, that is, before baptism, taught the Israelite people. For by the Jordan is signified baptism, in which Christ was baptized: in the wilderness of the plain, that is, in the barrenness of the carnal people, which brought forth no fruit of virtues. *In the wilderness,* the barrenness of the people, to whom it is said: *Your house shall be left to you desolate*. *Over against the sea.* Because the depraved and perverse generation would not believe in the washing away of sins in the blood of Christ. *Between Pharan.* Pharan, increased; Thophel, insipidity; Laban, whitening; Haseroth, courts. For the people was increased in the number of men, in the doctrine of the law and of the prophets; but it was insipid, because it had not the salt of wisdom; whitened indeed by the ceremonies of the law and by divers cleannesses, which it believed itself to have from the letter of the law. And it is well signified by the courts, as being made ready through the divine Scriptures for the entrance of faith; whence many at the coming of Christ received him the more easily, whom they had known as foretold beforehand; whence Philip: *Whom Moses wrote of in the law, and the prophets, we have found: Jesus the son of Joseph of Nazareth*. These four mountains signify the four Gospels, with which the Church is encompassed.
2 Eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir to Cadesbarne.
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VERS. 2.-- *Eleven days.* The law expounded by Moses in eleven days signifies the transgression of the Jewish people in the commandments of the Decalogue: The eleven days are the eleven apostles, through whom (Judas being reprobate) the Gospel of Christ was preached in the world. *From Horeb.* Which in Hebrew is *Choreb* ( ); beginning through Seir, that is, passing through the people hairy and foul with vices, he came to Cadesbarne, which is interpreted changed, or chosen, or noble, signifying the literal sense of the law changed into the spiritual through the Gospel. *For all these things happened to them in figure, and were written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come*. For the law is not loosed, but fulfilled, *nor shall one iota or one tittle pass away till all be done*.
3 In the fortieth year, the eleventh month, the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel all that the Lord had commanded him to say to them:
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VERS. 3.-- *In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day,* etc. Forty years, etc., *as far as* they shall remain without corruption. The number forty consists of ten and four, and signifies the fulfilment of the law, of the Gospel, which comes to pass in the Church; for ten belong to the law, and four to the Gospel. *In the eleventh month,* etc. As in the eleventh is expressed the transgression of the law, so in the first day the lawgiver's intention, ever watchful to teach; who, from the time when the disobedient people feared not to transgress the law, straightway, by preaching and correcting, was zealous to instil the will of the Lord, and ceased not to draw or to provoke them to better things by words and by examples.
4 After that he had slain Sehon king of the Amorrhites, who dwelt in Hesebon: and Og king of Basan who abode in Astaroth, and in Edrai,
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VERS. 4.-- *After he had slain Sehon,* etc. It is to be noted that, the two kings of the Amorrhites being slain, the law is recapitulated and the people instructed; because, scandals being removed and the troops of the vices overcome, one fittingly applies oneself to doctrine, and the light of faith is opened to them that worthily desire it. We ought first to slay the vices in ourselves, and so to deliver the divine commandments to the peoples. *Sehon king of the Amorrhites who dwelt in Hesebon,*etc. In these kings, etc., *as far as* but, remaining without, let them ever apply themselves to depraved works.
5 Beyond the Jordan in the land of Moab. And Moses began to expound the law, and to say:
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VERS. 5.-- *In the land of Moab.* For that people was lawless, which had not the spiritual law.
6 The Lord our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying: You have stayed long enough in this mountain:
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VERS. 6.-- *The Lord our God.* In the book of Numbers the setting out of the children of Israel from the desert of Sinai is narrated, but the command of the Lord to Moses concerning that same passage is not spoken of; but rather of the cloud which covered the tabernacle, and which withdrew when they were to set out, and went before them to the place where the camp was to be pitched. For thus it is written: *In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud was lifted up from the tabernacle of the covenant, and rested in the wilderness of Pharan*. But it is manifest that that passage was ordered by the command of God, although it is not there recorded. Whence elsewhere in the book of Numbers, at the command of the Lord they pitched their tents, and at his command they took them down. *It is enough for you,* etc. Moses is commanded to withdraw from the mountain on which he had received the law, because a teacher ought not always to be intent upon contemplation, but should sometimes come down, that he may take care of himself and of his neighbours; whence, *Whether we be transported in mind, it is to God; or whether we be sober, it is for you.*
7 Turn you, and come to the mountain of the Amorrhites, and to the other places that are next to it, the plains and the hills and the vales towards the south, and by the sea shore, the land of the Chanaanites, and of Libanus, as far as the great river Euphrates.
8 Behold, said he, I have delivered it to you: go in and possess it, concerning which the Lord swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he would give it to them, and to their seed after them.
9 And I said to you at that time:
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VERS. 9.-- *And I said to you at that time,* etc. Concerning this division of powers it is written in Exodus, before they came to Mount Sinai, that Jethro the priest of Madian, the kinsman of Moses, suggested this to him. Whence it is rightly asked: how do these things agree together, both now and at that time? But that which Moses is here said to have said at that time, *I am not able alone to bear you,* etc., does not signify that time in which they were setting out from Horeb, but the whole time in which, having gone out from Egypt, they were tarrying in the wilderness; and Moses urged this upon his people not from his own, from his kinsman's counsel. *At that time.* The saints do all things in the fitting season; so God also, when the fulness of time came, sent his Son.
10 I alone am not able to bear you: for the Lord your God hath multiplied you, and you are this day as the stars of heaven, for multitude.
11 (The Lord God of your fathers add to this number many thousands, and bless you as he hath spoken.)
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VERS. 11.-- *The Lord God of your fathers add,* etc. He teaches teachers to rejoice at the progress of their subjects, to give thanks, and always to wish better things. *To this number,* etc. Determined with God. *He knoweth who are his, who numbereth the multitude of the stars*. See how carefully that is to be observed which elsewhere Scripture says: *Son, let not thy acts be in many things*. Consider also the words of Jethro giving counsel, for he says: *Hear me, and I will give thee counsel, and God will be with thee*. It seems to be signified that a mind too intent upon human actions is in some manner emptied of God, of whom it becomes the fuller the more freely it is stretched out toward things above and eternal.
12 I alone am not able to bear your business, and the charge of you and your differences.
13 Let me have from among you wise and understanding men, and such whose conversation is approved among your tribes, that I may appoint them your rulers.
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VERS. 13.-- *Give from among you.* Give ye, not I: as if, I will not command you, but obey. *I will appoint them.* Note: he granted the choice to his subjects, the appointing he kept for himself, lest the people should despise or hate, if it were not permitted them to have whom they wished. *Tribunes.* Commanders of a thousand, in Greek χιλιάρχους, who teach their subjects, namely, of the hope of the eternal reward. *And centurions.* Centurions, in Greek ἐκατοντάρχους: who deliver the heavenly commandments to the perfect. Rightly are they set over others, who are endowed with the number of a hundred, that is, with perfection: they rule as it were a hundred, while they lead men through to perfection. *And officers of fifty.* In Greek πεντεκοσιάρχους: who announce the works of penance. *Deans,* δεκάρχους: who, awaiting through the perfection of the denary the denary of the vineyard, make ready many to be partakers of that same denary.
14 Then you answered me: The thing is good which thou meanest to do.
15 And I took out of your tribes men wise and honourable, and appointed them rulers, tribunes, and centurions, and officers over fifties, and over tens, who might teach you all things.
16 And I commanded them, saying: Hear them, and judge that which is just: whether he be one of your country, or a stranger.
17 There shall be no difference of persons, you shall hear the little as well as the great: neither shall you respect any man's person, because it is the judgment of God. And if any thing seem hard to you, refer it to me, and I will hear it.
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VERS. 17.-- *Because it is the judgment of God;* not of men, because in judging you are the vicars of God, who accepteth not the person. *But if anything be difficult.* All greater and difficult matters the greater ought to discern and to judge; small and easy ones the lesser.
18 And I commanded you all things that you were to do.
19 And departing from Horeb, we passed through the terrible and vast wilderness, which you saw, by the way of the mountain of the Amorrhite, as the Lord our God had commanded us. And when we were come into Cadesbarne,
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VERS. 19.-- *And when we had come to Cadesbarne,* etc. That in the second year of their going out the people came into the desert of Pharan, which is Cades, where, the scouts having returned with the fruits of the land and reporting what they had seen, they murmured against Moses and Aaron, and therefore, afflicted with the weariness of a long journey and with mortality, perished: this passage will give a manifest indication. Where it is to be noted that the forty-two stations which they had from Egypt as far as the Jordan seem to fit the courses of three years only: namely, the first, the second, and the fortieth from the going out of Egypt. The first, by a sure division, contains twelve: the first Ramesse, entered on the fifteenth day of the first month; the last the wilderness of Sinai, added on the first day of the third month, and by no means left for eleven continuous months, for the sake of building the tabernacle and of teaching the law. Of which twelve stations only nine are expressed by name in Exodus; three are signified without distinction under the name of the desert of Sin (which is said to be between Elim and Sinai). The second year comprises twenty-one stations. All of which, in the order of the history, being included indifferently under the name of the wilderness of Pharan, only the first and the second and the last, that is, the Graves of Lust, Haseroth, and Cades, are distinguished by name. But in the catalogue of the stations it is shown alike of them all how many they are in number, and by what name they are called. The first station, that is, the Graves of Lust, was entered in the second month of that same second year, on the two and twentieth day of the month. For in the second year (as the Scripture says), in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, they moved the camp from the desert of Sinai, and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Pharan; and they set forward from the mount of the Lord a journey of three days, until they came to the place of the station which, by the desert of a people lusting after flesh, received the name of the Graves of Lust. On what day or in what month of that same year they entered the last of these, that is, Cades, is not said; yet that it is situated in the wilderness of Pharan, and that it was reached in that same year, is not passed over in silence. For it is written: *The people was not moved from that place until Mary was called back. And they set forward from Haseroth and pitched their tents in the desert of Pharan, where the Lord spoke to Moses saying: Send men who may view the land of Chanaan*. And lest this be thought to have been commanded and done at the station next after Haseroth, but rather to have been fulfilled at the last of those which are contained under the name of Pharan, it is written below: *And the scouts of the land, returning after forty days, having gone round the whole region, came to Moses in Pharan, which is Cades.* In Deuteronomy also Moses says to the people: *When you had come to Cadesbarne, I said to you: You are come to the mountain of the Amorrhite,* etc., *and you said: Send men who may view the land,* etc.. And that they came to that same station in the second year of the going out, from which nevertheless, by the sin of murmuring, they deserved to turn back, and long to wander through the desert, and to fall on every side, Moses testifies in what follows, saying: *You sat in Cadesbarne a long time, and setting forward thence we came into the wilderness which leads to the Red Sea, as the Lord had said to me; and we went round Mount Seir a long time, and within the time in which we walked from Cadesbarne as far as the torrent Zareth* was in the eight and thirtieth year, until the whole generation of the men of war was consumed. But Zareth is not the name of any station of the forty-two, but of a torrent to which (as is read in the book of Numbers) they came when the eighteenth station, by name Jeabarim, had been passed; leaving which, he says, they encamped over against Arnon, which is in the desert and juts out in the borders of the Amorrhite; and it is not hidden that this was done in the fortieth year, which last year contains ten stations of a very long way through the desert: of which the first was regained with great labour, namely that very same Cades of the desert of Sin, which eight and thirty years before, their fault requiring it, they left behind them when they had turned back; of which it is written: *The children of Israel came into the desert of Sin in the first month, and the people abode in Cades; and Mary died there and was buried in the same place. And when the people wanted water, they came together against Moses and Aaron,* etc., as far as this, *This is the water of contradiction,* etc.. It is to be noted that the same Cades came to be both in the desert of Pharan and in the desert of Sin, as the Scripture relates; whence we conjecture that the part of the desert of Pharan where Cades is, is specially called Sin: but Sin is not that same Cades which, soon after the Red Sea was crossed, they passed through between Elim and Sinai, but altogether another, and written with other letters among the Hebrews. But the second station of that same fortieth year is Mount Hor, in which Aaron died on the first day of the fifth month; the last, the plains of Moab above the Jordan over against Jericho, where, meditating upon Deuteronomy, they remained until, Moses being dead, under Josue their leader, on the first day of the tenth month they crossed the Jordan. There are therefore twelve stations of the first year, twenty-one of the second, and of the last that same twenty-first which is Cades, and nine others; namely, all together forty-two.
20 I said to you: You are come to the mountain of the Amorrhite, which the Lord our God will give to us.
21 See the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee: go up and possess it, as the Lord our God hath spoken to thy fathers: fear not, nor be any way discouraged.
22 And you came all to me, and said: Let us send men who may view the land, and bring us word what way we shall go up, and to what cities we shall go.
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VERS. 22.-- *And you came near to me.* In the book of Numbers it is written that the Lord said to Moses that he should send men who might view the land; but here the people is read to have said: *Let us send men who may view the land;* but the people first suggested this to Moses, Moses referred it to the Lord, according to whose command he afterward sent the scouts.
23 And because the saying pleased me, I sent of you twelve men, one of every tribe:
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VERS. 23.-- *I sent from among you.* Twelve scouts sent to explore the rich land, etc., *as far as* because neither Christ without the law, nor the law without Christ. *Twelve.* These signify the teachers of the Church, of whom some, by teaching depraved things, pervert the people; others, by preaching right things, make progress.
24 Who, when they had set forward and had gone up to the mountains, came as far as the valley of the cluster: and having viewed the land,
25 Taking of the fruits thereof, to shew its fertility, they brought them to us, and said: The land is good, which the Lord our God will give us.
26 And you would not go up, but being incredulous to the word of the Lord our God,
27 You murmured in your tents, and said: The Lord hateth us, and therefore he hath brought us out of the land of Egypt, that he might deliver us into the hand of the Amorrhite, and destroy us.
28 Whither shall we go up? the messengers have terrified our hearts, saying: The multitude is very great, and taller than we: the cities are great, and walled up to the sky, we have seen the sons of the Enacims there.
29 And I said to you: Fear not, neither be ye afraid of them:
30 The Lord God, who is your leader, himself will fight for you, as he did in Egypt in the sight of all.
31 And in the wilderness (as thou hast seen) the Lord thy God hath carried thee, as a man is wont to carry his little son, all the way that you have come, until you came to this place.
32 And yet for all this you did not believe the Lord your God,
33 Who went before you in the way, and marked out the place, wherein you should pitch your tents, in the night shewing you the way by fire, and in the day by the pillar of a cloud.
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VERS. 33.-- *Showing by night.* Night is the sinner's, day the life of the just. In the pillar of fire, the damnation of the wicked, to whom the Lord will appear terrible in the judgment; in the pillar of cloud, the light and gentle vision wherewith the elect shall be consoled. *By day through the pillar.* Overshadowing in the heat of this world, and sustaining by the strength and by the propitiation of his flesh.
34 And when the Lord had heard the voice of your words, he was angry and swore, and said:
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VERS. 34.-- *He swore.* God is not passible, nor subject to the vice of anger. But by these things the charity of Moses toward the people is made manifest, and the goodness of God, which surpasses all understanding.
35 Not one of the men of this wicked generation shall see the good land, which I promised with an oath to your fathers:
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VERS. 35.-- *Not one shall see.* The like is said of those who, being invited to the supper, excused themselves: *None of those men that were invited shall taste of my supper*. The worst generation possesses not the good land, because it believes not the incarnation of Christ.
36 Except Caleb the son of Jephone: for he shall see it, and to him I will give the land that he hath trodden upon, and to his children, because he hath followed the Lord.
37 Neither is his indignation against the people to be wondered at, since the Lord was angry with me also on your account, and said: Neither shalt thou go in thither.
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VERS. 37.-- *Nor is it to be wondered at.* Here Moses says that the Lord, being angered with him on account of the people, said that he should not enter into the land of promise, whereas in the book of Numbers it is read: *The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: Because you have not believed me, to sanctify me before the children of Israel, you shall not bring these peoples into the land which I will give them.* But the sentence that follows seems to resolve the question: *This is,* he says, *the water of contradiction, where the children of Israel strove against the Lord,* etc.. For the strife and the rebellion of the people was the cause of the anger and of the vengeance, both upon the people and upon Moses and Aaron. *Neither shalt thou enter.* It seems in Mary, etc., *as far as* when Christ the exalted is acknowledged as it were in the eminence of a mountain.
38 But Josue the son of Nun, thy minister, he shall go in for thee: exhort and encourage him, and he shall divide the land by lot to Israel.
39 Your children, of whom you said that they should be led away captives, and your sons who know not this day the difference of good and evil, they shall go in: and to them I will give the land, and they shall possess it.
40 But return you and go into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.
41 And you answered me: We have sinned against the Lord: we will go up and fight, as the Lord our God hath commanded. And when you went ready armed unto the mountain,
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VERS. 41.-- *And when, being armed.* This sentence strikes at human pride, which presumes upon its own strength, and trusts not in the power of God. For the Amorrhites, that is, the embittering, are spiritual enemies, who dwell in the mountains of pride and slay the presumptuous, from Seir even to Horma, that is, from the squalor of vices even to the damnation of punishments: for Seir is interpreted hairy, Horma anathema. For whosoever fears not to be defiled with the filth of vices, he must needs, according to his deserts, be delivered to the fires of Gehenna. For the demons wish to entangle us in earthly desires; and if we persevere in sins, and cease not to ascend into the mountain of pride, they cut us down with fiery darts and lead us through to perpetual anathema. Therefore let us not, after the manner of the Pelagianists, presume upon our own power; but, considering our infirmity, let us obey the Lord in all things, that, our enemies being overcome, we may attain the promised joys of the heavenly fatherland. We must beware lest, murmuring against the Lord, we ascend into the mountain of pride, thinking that we can be saved by our own strength, lest we be straightway delivered to the Amorrhites, that is, to the demons.
42 The Lord said to me: Say to them: Go not up, and fight not, for I am not with you: lest you fall before your enemies.
43 I spoke, and you hearkened not: but resisting the commandment of the Lord, and swelling with pride, you went up into the mountain.
44 And the Amorrhite that dwelt in the mountains coming out, and meeting you, chased you, as bees do: and made slaughter of you from Seir as far as Horma.
45 And when you returned and wept before the Lord, he heard you not, neither would he yield to your voice.
46 So you abode in Cadesbarne a long time.