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| Chapter XX.
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Chapter XX.
Then follows the book of
Leviticus, in which the precepts bearing upon sacrifice are set forth;
commandments also are added to the law formerly given; and almost the
whole is full of instructions connected with the priests. If any one
wishes to become acquainted with these, he will obtain fuller
information from that source. For we, keeping within the limits of the
work undertaken, touch upon the history only. The tribe of Levi, then,
being set apart for the priesthood, the rest of the tribes were
numbered, and were found to amount to six hundred and three thousand
five hundred persons.286
| 286 The text here
varies: we have followed Halm. | When, therefore,
the people made use of the manna for food, as we have related above,
even amid so many and so great kindnesses of God, showing themselves,
as ever, ungrateful, they longed after the worthless viands to which
they had been accustomed in Egypt. Then the Lord brought an enormous
supply of quails into the camp; and as they were eagerly tearing these
to pieces, as soon as their lips touched the flesh, they perished.
There was indeed on that day a great destruction in the camp, so that
twenty and three thousand men are said to have died. Thus the people
were punished by the very food which they desired. Thence the company
went forward, and came to Faran; and Moses was instructed by the Lord
that the land was now near, the possession of which the Lord had
promised them. Spies, accordingly, having been sent into it, they
report that it was a land blessed with all abundance, but that the
nations were powerful, and the towns fortified with immense walls. When
this was made known to the people, fear seized the minds of all; and to
such a pitch of wickedness did they come, that, despising the authority
of Moses, they prepared to appoint for themselves a leader, under whose
guidance they might return to Egypt. Then Joshua and Caleb, who had
been of the number of the spies, rent their garments with tears, and
implored the people not to believe the spies relating such terrors; for
that they themselves had been with them, and had found nothing dreadful
in that country; and that it behooved them to trust the promises of
God, that these enemies would rather become their prey than prove their
destruction. But that stiff-necked race, setting themselves against
every good advice, rushed upon them to destroy them. And the Lord,
angry on account of these things, exposed a part of the people to be
slain by the enemy, while the spies were slain for having excited fear
among the people.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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