Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets

The Arabic name for Korah is Karoun, and under this name he has returned to Rabbinic legends, and the identity of Korah and Karoun has not been observed.

The Rabbis relate of Karoun that he is an evil angel, and that Moses dug a deep pit for him in the land of Gad, and cast him into it. But whenever the Israelites sinned, Karoun crept out of his subterranean dwelling and plagued them.560

This is a curious instance of allegorizing upon a false interpretation of a name. The Karoun of the Mussulmans is clearly identical with Korah, but Karoun in Hebrew means Anger, and Karoun was supposed to be the Angel of the Anger of the Lord, and the story of his emerging from his pit to punish the sinful Israelites is simply a figurative mode of saying that the anger of the Lord came upon them.

12. THE WARS OF THE ISRAELITES

The children of Israel had many foes to contend with. Amongst these were the Amorites. They hid in caves to form an ambuscade against the people of God, intending, when the Israelites had penetrated into a defile between two mountains, to sally forth upon them and to overthrow them. But they did not know that the ark went before Israel, smoothing the rough places and levelling the mountains.561 Now, when the ark drew near the place where the ambush was, the mountains fell in upon the Amorites, and the Israelites passed on, and knew not that they had been delivered from a great danger. But there were two lepers named Eth and Hav, who followed the camp and they saw the blood bubbling out from under the mountain; and thus the fate of the Amorites was made known.562

The Israelites found a redoubtable enemy in Og, king of Bashan, who was one of the giants who had been saved from the old world by clambering on the roof of the ark; but his weight had so depressed the vessel, that Noah was obliged to turn out the hippopotamus and rhinoceros to preserve the ark from foundering.

Og determined to destroy Moses. Moses was ten cubits in height, and when Og came against him, he took a hatchet of ten cubits’ length, and he made a jump into the air, and hit Og on the ankle. Og tore up a mountain, and put it on his head to throw it upon Moses; but the ants ate out the inside of the mountain, and it sank over Og’s head to his neck, and he could not draw his head out, for his teeth grew into tusks and thrust through the mountain, and he was blinded and caught as in a trap. Thus Moses was able to slay him.563

Some further details on Og, furnished by the Rabbis, will assist the reader in estimating the powers of Moses.

At one meal, Og ate a thousand oxen and as many wild roes, and his drink was a thousand firkins; one drop of the sweat from his brow weighed thirty-six pounds.564 Of his size the following authentic details are given. The Rabbi Johanan said, “I was once a grave-digger, and I ran after a deer, and went in at one end of a shin-bone of a dead man, and I ran for three miles and could not catch the deer or reach the end of the bone. When I went back, I inquired, and was told that this was the shin-bone of Og, king of Bashan.”565 The sole of his foot was forty miles long. Once, when he was quarrelling with Abraham, one of his teeth fell out, and Abraham made a bed out of the tooth, and slept in it; but some say he made a chair out of it.566

When the Israelites came to Edrei and fought against it, in the night Og came and sat down on the wall, and his feet reached the ground. Next morning Moses looked out and said, “I do not understand how the men of Edrei can have built a second wall so high during the night.”

Then it was revealed to him that what he had taken for a wall was Og.567 Og had built sixty cities, and the smallest was sixty miles high. These cities were in Argob.568

The Moabites also resisted Israel, and they were encouraged by Balaam the son of Beor.

Balak, king of Moab, sent to Balaam to curse Israel. Then Balaam rose in the morning and made ready his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. The Mussulman account is that Balaam, having been told by God not to go, resolved to obey, but the princes of Moab bribed his wife, and she gave him no peace till he consented to go to Balak with his messengers.569 But the anger of the Lord was kindled, because he would go to curse them, and the angel of the Lord stood in the way to be an adversary to him. But he sat upon his ass, and his two sons, Jannes and Jambres, were with him.

And the ass discerned the angel of the Lord standing in the way with a drawn sword in his hand, and the ass turned aside out of the road to go into the field; and Balaam smote the ass. And the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path that was in the midst between the vineyards, in the place where Jacob and Laban raised the mound, the pillars on this side and the observatory on that side,570 that neither should pass the limit to do evil to the other. And as the ass discerned the angel of the Lord, and thrust herself against the hedge, and bruised Balaam’s foot by the hedge, he smote her again. Ten things were created after the world had been founded at the coming in of the Sabbath between sunset and sunrise, – the manna, the well, the rod of Moses, the diamond, the rainbow, the cloud of glory, the mouth of the earth, the writing on the tables of the covenant, the demons, and the speaking ass.

Then the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to thee, that thou hast smitten me twice?”

And Balaam said to the ass, “Because thou hast been false to me; if there were now a sword in my hand, I would kill thee.”

And the ass said to Balaam, “Woe to thee, wanting in understanding! Behold thou hast not power with all thy skill to curse me, an unclean beast, which am to die in this world and not to enter the world to come; how much less canst thou curse the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, on whose account the world was created.”571

Balaam finding that he could not curse the people, and that they were under the protection of the Most High, saw that the only way to ruin them was by leading them into sin. Therefore he advised Balak, and the king appointed the daughter of the Midianites for the tavern-booths at Beth Jeshimoth, by the snow mountain, where they sold sweetmeats cheaper than their price. And Israel trafficked with them for their sweet cakes; and when the maidens brought out the image of Peor from their bundles, the Israelites did not notice it to take it away, and becoming accustomed to it they went on to sacrifice to it.572

And Moses saw one of the sons of Israel come by, holding a Midianitess by the hand, and Moses rebuked him. Then said the man, “What is it that is wrong in this? Didst not thou thyself take to wife a Midianitess, the daughter of Jethro?”

When Moses heard this, he trembled and swooned away. But Phinehas cried, “Where are the lions of the tribe of Judah?” and he took a lance in his hand, and slew the man and the woman.

Twelve miracles were wrought for Phinehas, but they need not be repeated here.573

Then all the Israelites went forth against the Midianites and defeated them; and when they numbered the slain, Balaam and his sons were discovered among the dead.

13. THE DEATH OF AARON. (Numb. xx. 22-29.)

Moses was full of grief when the word of the Lord came to him that Aaron, his brother, was to die. That night he had no rest, and when it began to dawn towards morning, he rose and went to the tent of Aaron.

Aaron was much surprised to see his brother come in so early, and he said, “Wherefore art thou come?”

Moses answered, “All night long have I been troubled, and have had no sleep, for certain things in the Law came upon me, and they seemed to me to be heavy and unendurable; I have come to thee that thou shouldst relieve my mind.” So they opened the book together and read from the first word; and at every sentence they said, “That is holy, and great, and righteous.”

Soon they came to the history of Adam; and Moses stayed from reading when he arrived at the Fall, and he cried bitterly, “O Adam, thou hast brought death into the world!”

Aaron said, “Why art thou so troubled thereat, my brother? Is not death the way to Eden?”

“It is however very painful. Think also that both thou and I must some day die. How many years thinkest thou we shall live?”

Aaron.– “Perhaps twenty.”

Moses.– “Oh no! not so many.”

Aaron.– “Then fifteen.”

Moses.– “No, my brother, not so many.”

Aaron.– “Then ten years.”

Moses.– “No, not so many.”

Aaron.– “Then surely it must be five.”

Moses.– “I say again, not so many.”

Then said Aaron, hesitating, “Is it then one?”

And Moses said, “Not so much.”

Full of anxiety and alarm, Aaron kept silence. Then said Moses gently, “O my beloved! would it not be good to say of thee as it was said of Abraham, that he was gathered to his fathers in peace?” Aaron was silent.

Then said Moses, “If God were to say that thou shouldst die in a hundred years, what wouldst thou say?”

Aaron said, “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all his works.”

Moses.– “And if God were to say to thee that thou shouldst die this year, what wouldst thou answer?”

Aaron.– “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all his works.”

Moses.– “And if He were to call thee to-day, what wouldst thou say?”

Aaron.– “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works.”

“Then,” said Moses, “arise and follow me.”

At that same hour went forth Moses, Aaron, and Eleazer, his son; they ascended into Mount Hor, and the people looked on, nothing doubting, for they knew not what was to take place.

Then said the Most High to His angels, “Behold the new Isaac; he follows his younger brother, who leads him to death.”

When they had reached the summit of the mountain, there opened before them a cavern. They went in and found a death-bed prepared by the hands of the angels. Aaron laid himself down upon it and made ready for death.

Then Moses cried out in grief, “Woe is me! we were two, when we comforted our sister in her death; in this, thy last hour, I am with thee to solace thee; when I die, who will comfort me?”

Then a voice was heard from heaven, “Fear not; God himself will be with thee.”

On one side stood Moses, on the other Eleazer, and they kissed the dying man on the brow, and took from off him his sacerdotal vestments to clothe Eleazer his son with them. They took off one portion of the sacred apparel, and they laid that on Eleazer; and then they removed another portion, and laid that on Eleazer; and as they stripped Aaron, a silvery veil of clouds sank over him like a pall and covered him.

Aaron seemed to be asleep.

Then Moses said, “My brother, what dost thou feel?”

“I feel nothing but the cloud that envelopes me,” answered he.

After a little pause, Moses said again, “My brother, what dost thou feel?”

He answered feebly, “The cloud surrounds me and bereaves me of all joy.”

And the soul of Aaron was parted from his body. And as it went up Moses cried once more, “Alas, my brother! what dost thou feel?”

And the soul replied, “I feel such joy, that I would it had come to me sooner.”

Then cried Moses, “Oh thou blessed, peaceful death! Oh, may such a death be my lot!”

Moses and Eleazer came down alone from the mountain, and the people wailed because Aaron was no more. But the coffin of Aaron rose, borne by angels, in the sight of the whole congregation, and was carried into heaven, whilst the angels sang: “The priest’s lips have kept knowledge, have spoken truth!”574

The Mussulman story is not quite the same.

One version is that both Moses and Aaron ascended Hor, knowing that one of them was to die, but uncertain which, and they found a cave, and a sarcophagus therein with the inscription on it, “I am for him whom I fit.”

Moses tried to lie down in it, but his feet hung out; Aaron next entered it, lay down, and it fitted him exactly.

Then Gabriel led Moses and the sons of Aaron out of the cave, and when they were again admitted Aaron was dead.575

Another version is this: God announced to Moses that he would call Aaron to Himself. Then Moses took his brother from the camp, and they went into the desert, till they came to a tree. When Aaron saw the shadow, he said, “O my brother, whose tree is this?”

Moses said, “God alone knows.”

Then spake Aaron, “I am weary, and the shadow is cool; suffer me to repose a little while under the tree.”

Moses said, “Lie down my brother; and may thy rest be sweet.”

Aaron lay down, and Moses sat by him till he died.

Then suddenly the tree, the shadow, and Aaron vanished; and Moses returned alone to the Israelites. They were angry with him, that he had not brought back Aaron, and they took up stones against him. But Moses cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed them Aaron on a bed, and he was dead; and the people looked, and wondered, and wept: then said a voice from heaven, “God hath taken him.” The people bewailed him many days.576

14. THE DEATH OF MOSES

When the time came for Moses to die, the Lord called Gabriel to Him, and said, “Go and bring the soul of My servant Moses to Paradise.”

The angel Gabriel answered in astonishment, “Lord, Lord, how can I venture to give death to that man, the like of whom all generations of men have not seen?”

Then the Most High called to Him Michael, and said, “Go and bring the soul of My servant Moses to Paradise.”

The angel Michael answered in fear, “Lord, Lord, I was his instructor in heavenly lore! How can I bear death to my pupil?”

Then the Most High called to Him Sammael, and said, “Go and bring the soul of My servant Moses to Paradise.”

The angel Sammael flushed red with joy. He clothed himself in anger, and grasped his sword, and rushed down upon the holy one. But he found him writing the incommunicable name of God, and he saw his face shine with divine light. Then he stood irresolute, and his sword sank with the point to earth.

“What seekest thou?” asked Moses.

“I am sent to give thee death,” answered the trembling angel. “All mortals must submit to that.”

“But not I,” said Moses, “at least from thee; I, consecrated from my mother’s womb, the discloser of divine mysteries, the mouthpiece of God, I will not surrender my soul into thy hand.”

Then Sammael flew away.

But a voice fell from heaven, “Moses, Moses, thine hour is come!”

“My Lord,” answered Moses, “give not my soul into the hands of the Angel of Death.”

Then the Bath-kol, the heavenly voice, fell again, “Be comforted. I myself will take thy soul, and I myself will bury thee.”577

Then Moses went home, and knocked at the door. His wife Zipporah opened; and when she saw him pale and trembling, she inquired the reason.

Moses answered, “Give God the praise. My hour of death is come.”

“What! must a man who has spoken with God die like ordinary mortals?”

“He must. Even the angels Gabriel, Michael, and Israfiel must die; God alone is eternal, and dies not.”

Zipporah wept and swooned away.

When she recovered her senses, Moses asked, “Where are my children?”

“They are put to bed, and are asleep.”

“Wake them up; I must bid them farewell.”

Zipporah went to the children’s bed and cried, “Arise, poor orphans! arise and bid your father farewell; for this is his last day in this world, and the first in the world beyond.”

The children awoke in terror, and cried, “Alas! who will pity us when we are fatherless? who will stand protector on our threshold?”

Moses was so moved that he wept. Then God said to him, “What mean these tears? Fearest thou death, or dost thou part reluctantly with this world?”

“I fear not death, nor do I part reluctantly with this world; but I lament these children, who have lost their grandfather Jethro and their uncle Aaron, and who now must lose their father.”

“In whom then did thy mother confide, when she cast thee in the bulrush ark into the water?”

“In Thee, O Lord.”

“Who gave thee power before Pharaoh? who strengthened thee with thy staff to divide the sea?”

“Thou, O Lord.”

“Who led thee through the wilderness, and gave thee bread from heaven, and opened to thee the rock of flint?”

“Thou, O Lord.”

“Then canst thou not trust thy orphans to Me, who am a father to the fatherless? But go, take thy staff, and extend it once more over the sea, and thou shalt have a sign to strengthen thy wavering faith.”

Moses obeyed. He took the rod of God in his hand, and he went down to the sea-beach, and he lifted the rod over the water. Then the sea divided, and he saw in the midst a black rock. And he went forward into the sea till he reached the rock, and then a voice said to him, “Smite with thy staff!” And he smote, and the rock clave asunder, and he saw at its foundations a little cavity, and in the cavity was a worm with a green leaf in its mouth. The worm lifted up its voice and cried thrice, “Praise be God, who doth not forget me, though I, a little worm, lie in loneliness here! Praised be God, who hath nourished and cherished even me!”

When the worm was silent, God said to Moses: “Thou seest that I do not fail to consider and provide for a little worm in a rock of which men know not, far in the depths of the sea; and shall I forget thy children, who know Me?”

Moses returned with shame to his home, comforted his wife and children, and went alone to the mountain where he was to die.578

And when he had gone up the mountain, he met three men who were digging a grave; and he asked them, “For whom do you dig this grave?”

They answered, “For a man whom God will call to be with Him in Paradise.”

Moses asked permission to lend a hand to dig the grave of such a holy man. When it was completed, Moses asked, “Have you taken the measure of the deceased?”

“No; we have quite forgotten to do so. But he was of thy size; lie down in it, and God will reward thee, when we see if it be likely to suit.”

Moses did so.579

The three men were the three angels Michael, Gabriel, and Sagsagel. The angel Michael, had begun the grave, the angel Gabriel had spread the white napkin for the head, the angel Sagsagel that for the feet.

Then the angel Michael stood on one side of Moses, the angel Gabriel on the other side, the angel Sagsagel at the feet, and the Majesty of God appeared above his head.

And the Lord said to Moses, “Close thine eyelids.” He obeyed.

Then the Lord said, “Press thy hand upon thy heart.” And he did so.

Then God said, “Place thy feet in order.” He did so.

Then the Lord addressed the spirit of Moses, and said, “Holy soul, my daughter! For a hundred and twenty years hast thou inhabited this undefiled body of dust. But now thine hour is come; come forth and mount to Paradise!”

But the soul answered, trembling and with pain, “In this pure and undefiled body have I spent so many years, that I have learned to love it, and I have not the courage to desert it.”

“My daughter, come forth! I will place thee in the highest heaven beneath the Cherubim and Seraphim who bear up My eternal throne.”

Yet the soul doubted and quaked.

Then God bent over the face of Moses, and kissed him. And the soul leaped up in joy, and went with the kiss of God to Paradise.

Then a sad cloud draped the heavens, and the wind wailed, “Who lives now on earth to fight against sin and error?”

And a voice answered, “Such a prophet never arose before.”

And the Earth lamented, “I have lost the holy one!”

And Israel lamented, “We have lost the Shepherd!”

And the angels sang, “He is come in peace to the arms of God!”580

But the Mussulmans narrate the last scene differently.

They say that the Angel of Death stood over Moses, as he lay in the grave, and said, “Prophet of God, I must take thy soul.”

“How wilt thou take it?”

“From thy mouth.”

“Thou canst not, for my mouth hath spoken with God.”

“Then from thine eyes.”

“Thou canst not, for my eyes have seen the uncreated Light of God.”

“Then from thy ears.”

“Thou canst not, for my ears have heard the Voice of God.”

“Then from thy hands.”

“Thou canst not, for my hands have held the diamond tables, on which was engraven the Tora.”

Then God bade the Angel of Death obtain from Rhidwan, the porter of Paradise, an apple from the garden, and give it to Moses to smell.

Moses took the apple out of the hand of the Angel of Death, and smelt at it; and as he smelt thereat, the angel drew his soul forth at his nostrils.

None know where is the grave of Moses, save Gabriel, Michael, Israfiel, and Azrael, for they buried him and defend his grave to the Judgment Day.581

By Nebo’s lonely mountain,On this side Jordan’s wave,In a vale in the land of MoabThere lies a lonely grave.And no man knows that sepulchre,And no man saw it e’er,For the angels of God upturned the sod,And laid the dead man there.That was the grandest funeralThat ever passed on earth;But no man heard the trampling,Or saw the train go forth —Noiselessly as the daylightComes back when night is done,And the crimson streak on Ocean’s cheekGrows into the great sun;Noiselessly as the spring-timeHer crown of verdure weaves,And all the trees on all the hillsOpen their thousand leaves;So without sound of music,Or voice of them that wept,Silently down from the mountain’s crownThe great procession swept.And had he not high honor —The hill-side for a pall,To lie in state, while angels waitWith stars for tapers tall;And the dark rock-pines, like tossing plumes.Over his bier to wave,And God’s own hand in that lonely landTo lay him in the grave?582

Once when the Persian Empire was at the summit of its power, an attempt was made to discover the body of Moses. A countless host of Persian soldiers was sent to search Mount Nebo. When they had reached the top of the mountain, they saw the sepulchre of Moses distinctly at the bottom. They hastened to reach the valley, and then they clearly distinguished the tomb of Moses at the summit. Thus, whenever they were at the top, they saw it at the foot; and when they were at the foot, it appeared at the top; so they were forced to abandon the prosecution of their search.583

The incident of the contention of Michael with Satan for the body of Moses mentioned by S. Jude is contained in the apocryphal “Assumption of Moses,” now lost, but which has been quoted by Origen and other Fathers.

XXXIII

JOSHUA

Hitherto Israel had required a lawgiver, and they had been given one in Moses; now they needed a general, and they were provided with one in Joshua.

After the death of Moses and his brother Aaron, the children of Israel remained seven years in the wilderness, till the forty years were accomplished. Then God conferred on Joshua the function of prophet, and ordered him to lead the chosen people out of the desert and to attack the three cities of the giants.

Joshua was of the tribe of Joseph. He was the son of Nun, who was the son of Ephraim, who was the son of Joseph; and his mother was Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron.584

Before Joshua led the people of the Lord to the conquest of the Holy Land, Joshua sent three deputations into Canaan; of these the first proclaimed, “Let any one who will escape death, leave the country.”

Then came the second deputation, and declared, “Let such people as will make an alliance with us, do so, and we will receive them.”

Then came the third deputation, and cried, “Let those who persist in desiring war prepare for it.”

The result of these deputations was that one nation deserted the country and settled in Africa, and that another nation made terms with Israel. But thirty-one princes made ready for war.585

Joshua marched with his army against Jericho, took the city, and slew all the men therein; they were giants, and it took a hundred men to cut off the head of each giant.

After the capture of Jericho, Joshua went against Ai, which is beside Beth-aven, on the east side of Bethel. And as the people went up, the men of Ai came forth, and routed them, and they fled.586

Then Joshua rent his clothes, and fell on his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord, until eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust on their heads.

And the Lord said to Joshua, “Get thee up. I am wroth with the people, for there is amongst them a sin which is not put away, and till that accursed thing is cast out, victory shall not attend their arms.”