Heptateuch (Biblical Epic) 1 part 7/11

let him also lift up his countenance, that the Lord may look upon you again from his glorious seat and grant peace with an immense gift.' Nor any the less meanwhile the prophet, prompt about all the commands of God, adorns the first sanctuary of the Lord in the allied camps and bedews it with rich oil. And whatever vessels of the holy house, made gleaming with silver or gold, he washes with a like stream. Then the wagons which the tribunes of the tribes had given, joined together, he divided to the parallel use of horned oxen and gave to the Levites; two carts drawn by twice two bullocks he handed to the first squadron of Gershon; but the cohort of Merari, yoked with twice four oxen, received four carriages for carrying the things which are made for the holy things of God; for Gad alone, exempt from the gifts, bore burdens on its neck.

Meanwhile the chiefs of the tribes, bringing holy gifts, kept separate days; for the throngs of the people are five hundred, and at the same time twenty and two thousand, to be led by twice six men, in whose first order the tribe of Judah vowed its gift through the tribune Nahshon; in which he gave vessels notable for tawny silver, which together, when filled, make twice a hundred pounds and ten, indeed full of snowy fine flour soaked according to custom in the stream of the green olive; and thereafter a calf and a shining lamb and a ram likewise, to which is joined a whitening kid, which lightens sins, with like brow two heifers together, which, joined, aid the holy things for salvation, five rams and goats and ewe-lambs following in like number: these are of the first offering.

After this, each tribe, on separate days, gave its glad gifts, nowhere discordant in the fraternal offering, if the sum be set down equally in all the vessels. But indeed in the bowls glowing with engraved gold there came to be twenty and a hundred pounds by weight. When the prophet had vowed these emblems of the holy things, he heard the Lord speaking in the consecrated shrine, while it glowed ruddy above the choice summits, and gave forth doctrines of the law from among the Cherubim. No less also the lamps set in a different part poured forth twice six torches, which the bright row gave to glow distinctly, while it spread out the golden arms of the candelabra and propped up the separated lights.

Meanwhile the Levite, handling the gifts with his hands, is taken up from twice twenty and five years, and he who shall have completed the Lord's service in five-times-ten years, let him be free from the care of obedience and succeed in place of an aged young man, and be present. Of these the bodies are rendered pure by the light dew of river or spring, and the blade of sharp iron trims the hair, if the great mane has grown sordid. Thereafter the garments are washed with zeal and care, lest at any time contagions stain the hidden body. Among these things, men of the people whom a savage care for crime pursued, while they confess with the soul as witness, entreat the chief, whether they might be able to celebrate the holy Passover on the accustomed day;

whom he sustains for a little while, and, supported, prays the commands of the Lord and reports the mandate, that it is lawful for those tainted with crime to consecrate the noteworthy day and render its observance — that day which the glad night announces, when, the year run out, it comes. But indeed if the innocent of the people should slight the festivals, and the care of journeying should hold him not far from the temple, he bears the crime of death: this law is equal for all. After the holy prophet had completed all the offices worthy of God's temple, presently he set the throngs in motion and filled the terrifying trumpets with strong blasts, which before, by the Lord's commands, he had prepared of silver, while the thin plate is curved into a rounded circle and opens a small note to the airy murmurs, the ranks set in order, that at the first sound the bugle may halt the anxious battle-lines at the holy oracles.

This first portion of the camp hastens forward, that which stretches itself toward the dawn and toward the first lights of the sun. And when the trumpet repeats other sounds, let that throng come forth which, fickle, looks back from the opposite hinge toward the south. But the third blast of the clarion gives the signal to those legions which hold camps bordering on the sea; after whom the youth set against the north gathers up the vessels. But when the Levites, chosen for the divine offices, set the throngs in motion — the pledges of the prophet Aaron — even then the becoming care of blowing the clarions and of stirring all things assigned to God remained with the pontiffs. They come to the first, going into the long desert, to the place Paran for their camps; here the prophet entreats with friendly speech his son-in-law, Hobab, the young man begotten of Reuel, a nursling of the Midianite land.

that, walking together, he might come to the promised kingdoms, in which sweet honey would flow abundantly from full combs with a great stream of snowy milk. But sluggish and tarrying a little with a doubtful mind, he prefers to turn his course to his ancestral homes, by no means won over by the words of his asking father-in-law: 'Why,' he says, 'do you depart turning aside? Direct your mind hither: to where the kingdoms of the Lord call us, which, ever rich, ever honoured, totter beneath no stain. And what cause, so harsh and unknown to us, moves you, that you should seek again your borders and your father's people? — a people which long ago and long since, your sense seeking better things, the desert dismissed and sunders amid the sands: in which no opinion has moved your senses. And there could then have been a cause, since more justly these things.'

You greatly longed for it, when there were no cups running with wandering streams and they burned beneath the hot star of the sun, and when the doubtful journey and the uncertain hope of the future shook the ignorant. But now, already beneath the very end of moderate toil, when the happy kingdoms show themselves and join the gifts of God, do you so waver in mind, as though I were urging worse things upon you than I wish for your senses? Nay, rather, young man, give yourself back to your dear parent, and run through the road begun and complete the duty received, so that, as soon as the Lord has founded all in the longed-for seats, you may take up what is better, and, set among the chiefs, be greater in act.' Thence they depart and leave the mountain of God behind:

And no less the camps followed the ark, the guardian of the heavenly doctrine, after the third morning-star had lifted itself high in the sky, night now left behind, so that, the holy things of the Lord ever going before, there might be just rest for the people travelling beneath a heavy load. Then first the prophet, while diligently he presents the signal to the foremost ranks, speaks these words as a suppliant: 'Rise up sublime, O God, and scatter promptly the hostile thousands; let those flee who prepare to make war against your camps, O God, and those who in the onset of their mind hate you, O most high Father; you against them, however firm their strength, prevail to lay them low with your eternal word.' As he speaks, a bright cloud covers him and overshadows the crowded host and the immense battle-lines with the spreading of its garment.

But while the fierce, savage people rolled out murmurs and cast the reproaches of a rabid tongue against the Lord, on this account a sublime peak of fire glided down from the upper sky and devoured the people and the camps up to a certain part; but a prayer pleasant to holy ears extinguished the flames sadly flickering into a crop of punishment and dissolved them in the hoary dust; while the devout prophet labours with bowed neck and demands the immense God on behalf of so great a crime, and again declares that he is unwilling, with a heart wearied to no purpose, to endure the unceasing tumults of the people.

But the Lord God displays his accustomed solaces to the prophet and asks for seventy elders at once from the fraternal host, whose joined judgment and number might easily break the angers of the quarrellers, when so many concordant hearts of the prophets bore divine oracles as with one sense: yet these, when as equals they spoke discourses to all, withdraw themselves and speak with their former accustomed speech. No less also two young men, remaining in a part of the camp, with divine mind speak most certain things and likewise prophesy with prophetic speech, Medad and Eldad; and after a messenger brought this to the ears of the chiefs, Joshua presses more insistently, that he should rein in and rebuke those telling true things as though by an unlawful report;

but the prophet at once with gracious address rebukes him and teaches that to restrain a mind sent from heaven through envy is not of faith. Straightway they come to Hazeroth and locate their camp on a vast rampart, as though there were nocturnal wars to fear. Here the sister of the devout prophet and his brother swell up and rage with envy: 'Why was an Ethiopian woman joined as a wife to the prophet, and why should one man presume the honour common to his brethren? For we too receive the monuments of the most high God and his glorious commands.' The diligent and gentler-than-all prophet hears these things, silent with innocent mind, and renounces anger for himself. Yet the Lord does not permit the unbridled impulses to proceed; from his sublime seat he rebukes them placed before him and, walled round with a clear cloud, speaks forth:

'Whoever among you is a prophet from a kindred race shall see true dreams rather with a beholding sense in the middle of the night, when the lulled senses of men relax themselves and God grants the joys of his holy word; while I speak and accommodate my discourse with equal sayings, by which he may perceive me, and behold my face and lights joined to him — which no one living is able to discern? But this is not the custom here, when my truthful opinion is granted to the prophet, wholly faithful in my seat, while he attaches his heart to lawful holy things. He is able to stand before my countenance and to survey God and behold him with clear sight. Nothing is ambiguous, and no riddles are inserted into my words: I bear myself with confessed face:

He, therefore, was able to discern the honour of the reigning Lord and to turn his gaze upon the light unseen by mortals. And could he not set among you your impulses, gentle peace, and abolish the sad whisperings?' Scarcely had he uttered these things, when, the cloud suddenly removed, the anger of the Lord came and, embracing trembling Miriam, smote her and flooded her whole body with leprosy. Seeing these examples, terrified Aaron began: 'Spare us, I pray, Lord, and turn away your harmful anger and remit my sin and our sister's. We did it unknowing: that which strikes our limbs and scourges our senses — lest death sent forth follow it, the avenger of wickedness, guard and have regard for us!'

Without delay, the prophet gives his heart to the fraternal prayers, with suppliant vows demanding the Lord's remedies for the death-bearing plague, which, scattered through all the limbs, tortured the inward parts of his sister with sad biting. While he cries out such things: 'So great a punishment exceeds the guilt! O God, dismiss the dread and heal the disease.' Straightway it is granted; but the woman, thrust out, is exiled from the camp, and, having suffered the wasting for seven days, receives her unharmed limbs back with glad countenance, and thereafter is celebrated with the people's accustomed honour. But the Jewish phalanx, striving toward the promised rewards, moves its standards, and thereafter places its camp in the fields of Paran and arranges its walls with a safe rampart. There, compelled by the starry word to send twelve young men, whom we said before to be the tribunes of the tribes.

that they might more swiftly survey the land and the cities of the Canaanites, and bring back to their companions a full report. They depart and make for the pass called Emath, and traversing the deserts of the wilderness they scan Chebron, which the fierce peoples of Sesi and Thali held. When they came to the valley—even then planted with figs, with sweet apples, but those that are called stony, or rather pomegranates—it grew green and glad with the vine. From this place they bring fruits to bear witness to their faith, and from others too which the rich field had brought forth in abundance. They strip from the pliant shoot a huge cluster, and then, propping it on a crossbeam, they carry it back; and at last, after forty fearful days had passed in anxious care, they bring back the things they had seen, adding terror as they say that the walls were raised to a vast height and the nations beyond measure.

lifting their heads to heaven, just as when a great oak is joined by its aged trunk to the star-strewn skies. By these words the people is broken, and stricken with bitter feeling it groans mournfully and bathes its face in a flood of tears. While they recount such things: 「O men ever worthy to be borne up in praise, whom no image of so great an evil terrified, and whom it set to rest in their accustomed land! whom no grim soil scorched with its burning sands, and the thirst long endured, and the morsel of manna—sweet indeed, yet dripping with gall, because it does not nourish the limbs—afflicted with sharper hunger; to which the quail alone is joined, and it consumes the body with meagre fare.」

「But when we once dwelt in the land of Pharos, such mournful foods did not torment us, when to sweep up fish was sport, and to set the whole Nile or the windswept sea upon our tables from the varied throng of swimming things, to strip them and to slacken our bellies with glad feasting. We, rich in flocks, we plucked with greedy gulp the melons unbought from all the fertile gardens, and the cucumbers that gnaw and are wont to swell the gut. We had garlic and onions; there the sliced leek fed us, and refreshed us, filled and lulled with drowsy sleep. Come then, and put an end now to these hard things; turn the standards swiftly back and restore these troops to the Nile, and from our own kindred choose a notable leader—one who shall set the safety of our welfare before his own, or before that of the trembling chieftains—one who, having followed (as he says) the dread commands of God,」

「has left us wretched amid the desert fields and exposed us to a monstrous foe, so that idle we suffer things heavier than the fear of death, while a beloved wife falls, while a virgin daughter is led away and serves as captive to a swollen tyrant.」 At these words they prepare graver deeds; for the roused crowd seizes stones and, rising with their whole body, hurls them. But while they are in a panic, while they steel themselves for the crime, the chieftains rend their garments and, falling prone to the ground, they flow down in fear and entreat them all: that they should not, in doubtful matters, cast foolish revilings against heaven and the seat of God, nor deem the promises hard that were given by God's decrees. Then Chaleb, with the faith of Iesus accompanying him, thus prays, kneeling: 「In the time when it pleased God to test the lands set apart and the hostile homes, and to disclose to you the things we saw—」

「from all the tribes the foremost tribunes were chosen, whose well-known faith could in no way speak discordantly, nor mock the citizens with lying utterance. And now, if a like reverence for our name still holds firm, and if we send forth no windy beginnings, believe what has been ascertained; for what assurance would make us deceive the citizens, we who follow the answers of the Lord and walk with you in every matter in like manner? The things which some deem to be feared, while a pale pallor sits on their faces and their senses falter, gripped by dread—these are vain indeed, because the commands of God establish us most strongly and suffer us neither to be conquered nor driven off, though the giants raise their lofty necks and array their squadrons with dense soldiery.」

「The land lies open to us; after surveying the fields long destined for us, it is a joy to have traversed that land which flows rich with much water and with the eddy of sweet honey. Only do not sunder your hearts from the holy God, nor hold back your timid hands; for, following His standards, the victory of God, ever serving Him, never conquered, enriches us.」 When these words were spoken, the venerable majesty of God came at once from His lofty dwelling, and bathed the people and the fathers and the synagogue in wondrous honor. Amid these things the Lord proclaims grim wrath and a final plague, by which the immense nation should be slain—amid squalid glens and a forsaken land—two only excepted from the dreadful pestilence, whom kindred valor had strengthened with equal practice, seeing that nothing can contend against God's commands, whatever it be.

This the prophet, by entreating, tried to avert, pleading amid timid words with gentle addresses, lest the Canaanites, foolishly hurling words in vain, should clamor that the people was aided by no virtue—the people that was longed for and chosen for the rewards of the Lord. Yet he did not avail to bend the dread decrees, which fly fixed beneath the law; for to none was it permitted to behold the fields granted to faith alone; for in forty years the warrior people perished, and left lofty kingdoms to their sons. Amid these things, armed and roused with foolish cares, the legion rises and on the topmost peak of the hill plants its standards, and headlong is borne against the foe at an angle; and because the Lord did not terrify the warlike wings, it is conquered, and with its soldiery routed it turns its back.

Foreknowing this, the prophet remained in the camp's abode, keeping the consecrated ark with the valley's guardians. Meanwhile, in that people, a certain man, while on a festal daylight he gathered firewood—a despiser of the eternal law—is seized and, by God's holy commands, is slain with hurled stones, lest the forbidden audacity should creep on. Moreover, that his careful mind might often warn men to turn their minds to the Lord's eternal admonitions, a hyacinth-colored fringe is fastened to all with a tied knot, and marks out the garments with a known border. Thence a cause of evil arises from a forbidden deed: for Coras the Levite by tribe, and likewise Dathamus and Abirus, believing in their madness that it was lawful for all to offer incense to the Thunderer with pious frankincense, sought out the prophet with a swelling complaint; nor was their death long delayed;

for, the hinge being broken, the gaping earth sent all down to the infernal depths of Tartarus; together with whom, slain alike, behold their own ruin two hundred—who were bringing to God offerings not commanded—and five times ten, of all of them a clustered throng, and the cattle, and whatever had been under the power of the guilty; and just as if one death came alike upon them all, scattered they tremble in fear, and try in vain to flee the fire from on high and to hide themselves. Moreover, when the day came round again, not fearing to seethe with tumult, they are at once crushed by a great slaughter, and under the same death there fall twice seven thousand and six hundred men; and had not the prophet, seeing such peril, entreated the Lord amid coaxing prayers, a heavier punishment would have chastised the unspeakable guilt.

But when, after the trembling commotions, calm returned, Moses scatters the gilded censers in which the young men, sinister, had before offered to the God of heaven offerings unaccustomed, and skillfully consecrates them all into thin plate and lays them upon the Lord's altars; therefore, because whatever things are brought to the Lord and set before the high presence of God become holy. And no less, that there might be a distinction among the prophet and the foremost men and the tribes, he demands a rod from every prince, twelve until they should fill the full number; and then the prophet displays one set apart with Aaron's name, and leaves it within the midst of the Lord's tabernacle. And when the stars had gleamed at the returning sun, a thing not known before, with the assembled people marveling, is beheld, and laid open the great honor of the Lord.

For Aaron's rod—before knotless and cut by iron, sprung from no tinder of the earth—blossomed and, from its now dry stock, put forth nuts. There is added to the memorials and commands of the consecrated law: that a heifer, whose tawny skin gleams over its limbs, should be slain before the Lord's doors and its body burned with fire; and that the ash, born of the burned flesh, should purify bodies foul with unclean touch, sprinkled over the limbs of men, to which a stalk of hyssop is joined, that with a slender flick it may scatter river dews and with cleansing water wash away the infected. For whoever touches with his hand dead bodies, or under whose roof lies a corpse bereft of life, is afflicted with defilement and forever sullies the temple. Moreover the little vessels, foul with their open...

...all are at their mouths; and thereafter whoever touches a bleeding wound, or the bones of men, or the tomb of one buried, can on the third light or the seventh make himself clean, if, having prayed to the Lord with silent heart, he brings the gifts of the healing branch, purged by the river's flood. Amid these things, while the Judaean phalanx marches through the desert fields, it comes to Cadessa, and buries the chieftain's sister who had died, and is kindled with much wrath, because the desert region, parched with thirst, would yield no streams from cool springs; and because all mouths were dry and their bodies burned in the scorched sun. The Lord, pondering this, commands the prophet to bring forth the rod and to touch the rock with a twofold stroke. Yet Moses, striking it with doubtful heart, rebukes the people, saying: 「Alas!」

「fierce in mind and hard in senses, can any rocks at all be made to ooze with streams and send forth living springs?」 While, thus moved, he speaks, with the slow rod he deals blows. ...... the waters burst from the crags. — Yet the Almighty rebukes the hearts of the hesitating prophets, chiding them: 「Because your judgment was beneath a doubtful, wavering heart, and your unsteady mind does not see that I can do all things, and you imparted but little honor to the command of the sublime Lord, before whom to believe openly it had befitted the Judaean ranks, and to render faith that God can do all things:」

「For this reason, it is not permitted you to lead the people to the seats long ago betrothed and the fruitful land, nor to take up the great gifts.」 Meanwhile the people is joined to the fields of Edom, through which Moses, greatly desiring to lead his peaceable ranks, with placid speech petitioned the king, who was savage with overweening might and preparing battle. Avoiding him, nonetheless, the people is joined to Mount Or, on which, after a life run through over very long ages, Aronus is laid to rest, and left the famed insignia of the priestly festival, who at the lofty altars appoints Eleazaron as greater than all, as the mighty God had commanded and had chosen the minister for His well-pleasing altars. There the Canaanites, confident in their manifold youth, dealt to the Judaeans excessive terror with mighty slaughter, when they turned their bared backs through the fields.

Yet nonetheless they take up courage, and with the Lord favoring them they lay low the hostile columns and set fire to the strong cities, and triumph with measureless praise. But although prosperity flowed with the things desired, yet crooked murmurings and complaints are not lacking, cast against the pious prophet; while each one with fierce voice groans that Egypt, rich with much bounty of the lands, was given over behind their backs, and the Nile, fruitful of crops and ever cultivated by the carefree tiller of fields. This the omnipotent God, punishing with even-balanced scale, brought forth viperous ranks from a poisonous tinder, which laid many men low, while though the wounds were slight they distended the bodies with deadly venom. But the people, mournfully groaning, while prostrate it prays before the prophet's feet and recounts the public deaths,

with the acknowledgment of guilt laid up in the heart of all, receives the longed-for remedy from the saving Lord. For the upright prince, bidden to fashion from tawny bronze a swollen serpent, hung it aloft upon a pole, so that whomever the horned vipers had fixed with their tooth, the man, turning toward the hanging serpent, might cast off death. Hence the people comes to Obetha; then it seeks the fields of Achina; then Zaredina; soon it crosses to Adar. Now in a green plain, where the tiller of the pleasant region, the Amorite, dwells and feeds upon the rich field, there is a well clear with glassy water, beside which the Lord, speaking with holy discourse, bade Moses gather the crowded people thick together, that he might draw forth the watering streams and the gleaming wave. Then deep within, the tongue of all was harmonious in divine songs.

while it sings praises to the Lord in this hymn: 「The immense Lord has sent streams and removed all the heat of the people. While the well lies open with full depth and gushes much with cool waters—the well which mighty kings once made, while they ruled strong nations with the reins and pressed timid clients with their scepters, as if its use lay open to themselves alone, all strangers being kept far off—this well, given by the Lord for our salvation, has filled the watered fields with living waters.」 When they had spoken these songs to their star-throned King, they move the camp, and leave behind them varied places. Led on by their downward course, they come to King Seon, and overthrow with mighty contest the opposing ranks, which he—mocking the words of the harmless prophet—had marshaled, and was vaunting in vain and empty praise of the Amorite nation;

which, subjected to harsh war, lay prostrate, long since hedged about by strong cities. Moreover Iazera, laid waste by a like duel, received the yoke once crushed, and surrendered many towns, asking for the repose of longed-for peace. When fame had dictated these things to anxious Balac, who ruled the peoples and cities of the Moabites, he is shaken with graver fear, and courts the prophet Balam with honored prayers, that he might hinder with his words the people performing such great deeds and rein in entirely the course of the warriors; since whatever he might pray, prostrate, the Almighty hears, and prospers all grim things. He refuses that it is right for him to utter curses against a people that ever walks with the Lord as its guide toward its abode and its kingdom, and that it seems far more just to pray for each thing fitting to their deserts.

Since, in the time of night, the Lord, appearing in a vision, forbids the old man to disclose answers to Balac. But after the dismissed messenger had departed with such words, and his own care holds the king, he, panting, seeks out the chosen chieftains and again sends envoys to the prophet's threshold, asking again for what had already been said—in vain, because the words of God war against it. Yet nonetheless the prophet, having set out, mounts the she-ass and matches with collected steps those going before. Behold, in the middle of the way the Lord's angel soon presents a drawn blade against him, and turning to face him, pressing on, terrifies the horn-footed beast, which, roused, with swift leap, straining to one side, flees and wanders over the plain.

While the prophet, with headlong fear, wheels about the beast scorning the bridle and fights with tightened reins, and digs at it with his heels and lashes it with the sharp rod, among the vine-tendrils, the covering now fallen, a half-ruined wall, set in the path of the lingering she-ass, blocked her advance; she struck her foot back against the stones and crushed it, and afflicted the old man with bitter feeling. Then the swift messenger resists in another quarter, where a narrow track led, a slender path, leaving no detours on any side. The quadruped saw him gleaming with drawn glittering blade, and much terrified rushed on; bidden to rise, the rider lashes her and restrains her with many a welt. She, when she had grieved deeply, suddenly spoke in speech, while God loosed her utterance into unaccustomed words: 「What have I done, or how have I deserved this of you,」

「that with many a blow you drive me as I stumble, straining against me? Have I ever refused you the back accustomed to you? or, fearful, have I ever fled my burdens, or thrown you headlong, while you, bending forward over my drooping shoulder, slip and, poured out over my drooping neck, are rolled to the ground?」 To her who speaks such things the priest, moved, often returns grim words and boils over with much wrath; and while raging he storms, soon the angel with clear voice flashes forth and addresses the prophet with holy speech: 「The undeserving beast you strike now with a threefold blow, which fled prone before me and lies dashed to the earth for this reason: because your path is not pleasing to the supreme God, and now with wandering steps you stray far. And had not the horn-footed beast, going to one side, a sure course turned away,」

「this hand would have laid you low with a harsh wound borne by the iron, and would have driven home the cruel sword, so that, having laid you down, she might have been possessed by me.」 Here the prophet leaps down, and bowed adores the holy one, and grieving for his sin entreats return and life. Dismissed, he hastens and fulfills the tasks undertaken, about to speak the words of the Lord to be dictated for report. And now, conquering the road, he is joined to the Moabite city, and beholds the notable king amid dense soldiery, and sees him asking aid for himself with timid voice; and he makes supplication to the Lord at seven altars; and at once he sacrifices conspicuous bullocks and chosen two-year sheep, and entrusts all the offerings to the king, and earns the judgment of God beneath the silent night. Then, unrolling it, he terrified the king with these beginnings: 「From my ancestral mountains, bidden by the prince of Moab,」