The Bible, Douay Rheims, Book 4: Numbers

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9:15. Now on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, a cloud covered
it. But from the evening there was over the tabernacle, as it were, the
appearance of fire until the morning.

9:16. So it was always: by day the cloud covered it, and by night as it
were the appearance of fire.

9:17. And when the cloud that covered the tabernacle was taken up, then
the children of Israel marched forward: and in the place where the cloud
stood still, there they camped.

9:18. At the commandment of the Lord they marched, and at his
commandment they pitched the tabernacle. All the days that the cloud
abode over the tabernacle, they remained in the same place:

9:19. And if it was so that it continued over it a long time, the
children of Israel kept the watches of the Lord, and marched not,

9:20. For as many days soever as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle.
At the commandment of the Lord they pitched their tents, and at his
commandment they took them down.

9:21. If the cloud tarried from evening until morning, and immediately
at break of day left the tabernacle, they marched forward: and if it
departed after a day and a night, they took down their tents.

9:22. But if it remained over the tabernacle for two days or a month or
a longer time, the children of Israel remained in the same place, and
marched not: but immediately as soon as it departed, they removed the
camp.

9:23. By the word of the Lord they pitched their tents, and by his word
they marched: and kept the watches of the Lord according to his
commandment by the hand of Moses.

Numbers Chapter 10

The silver trumpets and their use. They march from Sinai.

10:1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

10:2. Make thee two trumpets of beaten silver, wherewith thou mayest
call together the multitude when the camp is to be removed.

10:3. And when thou shalt sound the trumpets, all the multitude shall
gather unto thee to the door of the tabernacle of the covenant.

10:4. If thou sound but once, the princes and the heads of the multitude
of Israel shall come to thee.

10:5. But if the sound of the trumpets be longer, and with
interruptions, they that are on the east side, shall first go forward.

10:6. And at the second sounding and like noise of the trumpet, they who
lie on the south side shall take up their tents. And after this manner
shall the rest do, when the trumpets shall sound for a march.

10:7. But when the people is to be gathered together, the sound of the
trumpets shall be plain, and they shall not make a broken sound.

10:8. And the sons of Aaron the priest shall sound the trumpets: and
this shall be an ordinance for ever in your generations.

10:9. If you go forth to war out of your land against the enemies that
fight against you, you shall sound aloud with the trumpets, and there
shall be a remembrance of you before the Lord your God, that you may be
delivered out of the hands of your enemies.

10:10. If at any time you shall have a banquet, and on your festival
days, and on the first days of your months, you shall sound the trumpets
over the holocausts, and the sacrifices of peace offerings, that they
may be to you for a remembrance of your God. I am the Lord your God.

10:11. The second year, in the second month, the twentieth day of the
month, the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle of the covenant.

10:12. And the children of Israel marched by their troops from the
desert of Sinai, and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Pharan.

10:13. And the first went forward according to the commandment of the
Lord by the hand of Moses.

10:14. The sons of Juda by their troops: whose prince was Nahasson the
son of Aminadab.

10:15. In the tribe of the sons of Issachar, the prince was Nathanael
the son of Suar.

10:16. In the tribe of Zabulon, the prince was Eliab the son of Helon.

10:17. And the tabernacle was taken down, and the sons of Gerson and
Merari set forward, bearing it.

10:18. And the sons of Ruben also marched, by their troops and ranks,
whose prince was Helisur the son of Sedeur.

10:19. And in the tribe of Simeon, the prince was Salamiel the son of
Surisaddai.

10:20. And in the tribe of Gad, the prince was Eliasaph the son of Duel.

10:21. Then the Caathites also marched carrying the sanctuary. So long
was the tabernacle carried, till they came to the place of setting it
up.

10:22. The sons of Ephraim also moved their camp by their troops, in
whose army the prince was Elisama the son of Ammiud.

10:23. And in the tribe of the sons of Manasses, the prince was Gamaliel
the son of Phadassur.

10:24. And in the tribe of Benjamin, the prince was Abidan the son of
Gedeon.

10:25. The last of all the camp marched the sons of Dan by their troops,
in whose army the prince was Ahiezer the son of Ammisaddai.

10:26. And in the tribe of the sons of Aser, the prince was Phegiel the
son of Ochran.

10:27. And in the tribe of the sons of Nephtali, the prince was Ahira
the son of Enan.

10:28. This was the order of the camps, and marches of the children of
Israel by their troops, when they set forward.

10:29. And Moses said to Hobab the son of Raguel the Madianite, his
kinsman: We are going towards the place which the Lord will give us:
come with us, that we may do thee good: for the Lord hath promised good
things to Israel.

10:30. But he answered him: I will not go with thee, but I will return
to my country, wherein I was born.

10:31. And he said: Do not leave us: for thou knowest in what places we
should encamp in the wilderness, and thou shalt be our guide.

10:32. And if thou comest with us, we will give thee what is the best of
the riches which the Lord shall deliver to us.

10:33. So they marched from the mount of the Lord three days' journey,
and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them, for three days
providing a place for the camp.

10:34. The cloud also of the Lord was over them by day when they
marched.

10:35. And when the ark was lifted up, Moses said: Arise, O Lord, and
let thy enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee, flee from
before thy face.

10:36. And when it was set down, he said: Return, O Lord, to the
multitude of the host of Israel.

Numbers Chapter 11

The people murmur and are punished with fire. God appointeth seventy
ancients for assistants to Moses. They prophesy. The people have their
fill of flesh, but forthwith many die of the plague.

11:1. In the mean time there arose a murmuring of the people against the
Lord, as it were repining at their fatigue. And when the Lord heard it
he was angry. And the fire of the Lord being kindled against them,
devoured them that were at the uttermost part of the camp.

11:2. And when the people cried to Moses, Moses prayed to the Lord, and
the fire was swallowed up.

11:3. And he called the name of that place, The burning: for that the
fire of the Lord had been kindled against them.

The burning... Hebrew, Taberah.

11:4. For a mixt multitude of people, that came up with them, burned
with desire, sitting and weeping, the children of Israel also being
joined with them, and said: Who shall give us flesh to eat?

A mixt multitude... These were people that came with them out of Egypt,
who were not of the race of Israel; who, by their murmuring, drew also
the children of Israel to murmur: this should teach us the danger of
associating ourselves with the children of Egypt, that is, with the
lovers and admirers of this wicked world.

11:5. We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt free cost: the cucumbers
come into our mind, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and
the garlic.

11:6. Our soul is dry, our eyes behold nothing else but manna.

11:7. Now the manna was like coriander seed, of the colour of bdellium.

Bdellium... Bdellium, according to Pliny, 1.21, c. 9. was of the colour
of a man's nail, white and bright.

11:8. And the people went about, and gathering it, ground it in a mill,
or beat it in a mortar, and boiled it in a pot, and made cakes thereof
of the taste of bread tempered with oil.

11:9. And when the dew fell in the night upon the camp, the manna also
fell with it.

11:10. Now Moses heard the people weeping by their families, every one
at the door of his tent. And the wrath of the Lord was exceedingly
enkindled: to Moses also the thing seemed insupportable.

11:11. And he said to the Lord: Why hast thou afflicted thy servant?
Wherefore do I not find favour before thee? And why hast thou laid the
weight of all this people upon me?

11:12. Have I conceived all this multitude, or begotten them, that thou
shouldst say to me: Carry them in thy bosom as the nurse is wont to
carry the little infant, and bear them into the land, for which thou
hast sworn to their fathers?

11:13. Whence should I have flesh to give to so great a multitude? They
weep against me, saying: Give us flesh that we may eat.

11:14. I am not able alone to bear all this people, because it is too
heavy for me.

11:15. But if it seem unto thee otherwise, I beseech thee to kill me,
and let me find grace in thy eyes, that I be not afflicted with so great
evils.

11:16. And the Lord said to Moses: Gather unto me seventy men of the
ancients of Israel, whom thou knowest to be ancients and masters of the
people: and thou shalt bring them to the door of the tabernacle of the
covenant, and shalt make them stand there with thee,

Seventy men... This was the first institution of the council or senate,
called the Sanhedrin, consisting of seventy or seventy-two senators or
counsellors.

11:17. That I may come down and speak with thee: and I will take of thy
spirit, and will give to them, that they may bear with thee the burden
of the people, and thou mayest not be burthened alone.

11:18. And thou shalt say to the people: Be ye sanctified: to morrow you
shall eat flesh: for I have heard you say: Who will give us flesh to
eat? It was well with us in Egypt. That the Lord may give you flesh, and
you may eat:

11:19. Not for one day, nor two, nor five, nor ten, no nor for twenty.

11:20. But even for a month of days, till it come out at your nostrils,
and become loathsome to you, because you have cast off the Lord, who is
in the midst of you, and have wept before him, saying: Why came we out
of Egypt?

11:21. And Moses said: There are six hundred thousand footmen of this
people, and sayest thou: I will give them flesh to eat a whole month?

11:22. Shall then a multitude of sheep and oxen be killed, that it may
suffice for their food? or shall the fishes of the sea be gathered
together to fill them?

11:23. And the Lord answered him: Is the hand of the Lord unable? Thou
shalt presently see whether my word shall come to pass or no.

11:24. Moses therefore came, and told the people the words of the Lord,
and assembled seventy men of the ancients of Israel, and made them to
stand about the tabernacle.

11:25. And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spoke to him, taking away
of the spirit that was in Moses, and giving to the seventy men. And when
the spirit had rested on them they prophesied, nor did they cease
afterwards.

11:26. Now there remained in the camp two of the men, of whom one was
called Eldad, and the other Medad, upon whom the spirit rested; for they
also had been enrolled, but were not gone forth to the tabernacle.

11:27. And when they prophesied in the camp, there ran a young man, and
told Moses, saying: Eldad and Medad prophesy in the camp.

11:28. Forthwith Josue the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, and chosen
out of many, said: My lord Moses forbid them.

11:29. But he said: Why hast thou emulation for me? O that all the
people might prophesy, and that the Lord would give them his spirit!

11:30. And Moses returned, with the ancients of Israel, into the camp.

11:31. And a wind going out from the Lord, taking quails up beyond the
sea brought them, and cast them into the camp for the space of one day's
journey, on every side of the camp round about, and they flew in the air
two cubits high above the ground.

11:32. The people therefore rising up all that day, and night, and the
next day, gathered together of quails, he that did least, ten cores: and
they dried them round about the camp.

11:33. As yet the flesh was between their teeth, neither had that kind
of meat failed: when behold the wrath of the Lord being provoked against
the people, struck them with an exceeding great plague.

11:34. And that place was called, The graves of lust: for there they
buried the people that had lusted. And departing from the graves of
lust, they came unto Haseroth, and abode there.

The graves of lust... Or, the sepulchres of concupiscence: so called
from their irregular desire of flesh. In Hebrew, Kibroth. Hattaavah.

Numbers Chapter 12

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.

12:1. And Mary and Aaron spoke against Moses, because of his wife the
Ethiopian,

Ethiopian... Sephora the wife of Moses was of Madian, which bordered
upon the land of Chus or Ethiopia: where note, that the Ethiopia here
spoken of is not that of Africa but that of Arabia.

12:2. And 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,

12:3. (For Moses was a man exceeding meek above all men that dwelt upon
earth)

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.

12:4. Immediately 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,

12:5. The 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,

12:6. He 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.

12:7. But it is not so with my servant Moses who is most faithful in all
my house:

12:8. For 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?

12:9. And being angry with them he went away:

12:10. The 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,

12:11. He said to Moses: I beseech thee, my lord, lay not upon us this
sin, which we have foolishly committed:

12:12. Let 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.

12:13. And Moses cried to the Lord, saying O God, I beseech thee heal
her.

12:14. And 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.

12:15. Mary therefore was put out of the camp seven days: and the people
moved not from that place until Mary was called again.

Numbers Chapter 13

The twelve spies are sent to view the land. The relation they make of
it.

13:1. And the people marched from Haseroth, and pitched their tents in
the desert of Pharan.

13:2. And there the Lord spoke to Moses, saying.

13:3. Send men to view the land of Chanaan, which I will give to the
children of Israel, one of every tribe, of the rulers.

13:4. Moses did what the Lord had commanded, sending from the desert of
Pharan, principal men, whose names are these:

13:5. Of the tribe of Ruben, Sammua the son of Zechur.

13:6. Of the tribe of Simeon, Saphat the son of Huri.

13:7. Of the tribe of Juda, Caleb the son of Jephone.

13:8. Of the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph.

13:9. Of the tribe of Ephraim, Osee the son of Nun.

13:10. Of the tribe of Benjamin, Phalti the son of Raphu.

13:11. Of the tribe of Zabulon, Geddiel the son of Sodi.

13:12. Of the tribe of Joseph, of the sceptre of Manasses, Gaddi the son
of Susi.

13:13. Of the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli.

13:14. Of the tribe of Aser, Sthur the son of Michael.

13:15. Of the tribe of Nephtali, Nahabi the son of Vapsi.

13:16. Of the tribe of Gad, Guel the son of Machi.

13:17. These are the names of the men, whom Moses sent to view the land:
and he called Osee the son of Nun, Josue.

13:18. And Moses sent them to view the land of Chanaan, and said to
them: Go you up by the south side. And when you shall come to the
mountains,

13:19. View the land, of what sort it is, and the people that are the
inhabitants thereof, whether they be strong or weak: few in number or
many:

13:20. The land itself, whether it be good or bad: what manner of
cities, walled or without walls:

13:21. The ground, fat or barren, woody or without trees. Be of good
courage, and bring us of the fruits of the land. Now it was the time
when the firstripe grapes are fit to be eaten.

13:22. And when they were gone up, they viewed the land from the desert
of Sin, unto Rohob as you enter into Emath.

13:23. And they went up at the south side, and came to Hebron, where
were Achiman and Sisai and Tholmai the sons of Enac. For Hebron was
built seven years before Tanis the city of Egypt.

13:24. And forward as far as the torrent of the cluster of grapes, they
cut off a branch with its cluster of grapes, which two men carried upon
a lever. They took also of the pomegranates and of the figs of that
place:

13:25. Which was called Nehelescol, that is to say, the torrent of the
cluster of grapes, because from thence the children of Israel had
carried a cluster of grapes.

13:26. And they that went to spy out the land returned after forty days,
having gone round all the country,

13:27. And came to Moses and Aaron and to all the assembly of the
children of Israel to the desert of Pharan, which is in Cades. And
speaking to them and to all the multitude, they shewed them the fruits
of the land:

13:28. And they related and said: We came into the land to which thou
sentest us, which in very deed floweth with milk and honey as may be
known by these fruits:

13:29. But it hath very strong inhabitants, and the cities are great and
walled. We saw there the race of Enac.

13:30. Amalec dwelleth in the south, the Hethite and the Jebusite and
the Amorrhite in the mountains: but the Chanaanite abideth by the sea
and near the streams of the Jordan.

13:31. In the mean time Caleb, to still the murmuring of the people that
rose against Moses, said: Let us go up and possess the land, for we
shall be able to conquer it.

13:32. But the others, that had been with him, said: No, we are not able
to go up to this people, because they are stronger than we.

13:33. And they spoke ill of the land, which they had viewed, before the
children of Israel, saying: The land which we have viewed, devoureth its
inhabitants: the people, that we beheld are of a tall stature.

Spoke ill, etc... These men, who by their misrepresentations of the land
of promise, discouraged the Israelites from attempting the conquest of
it, were a figure of worldlings, who, by decrying or misrepresenting
true devotion, discourage Christians from seeking in earnest and
acquiring so great a good, and thereby securing to themselves a happy
eternity.

13:34. There we saw certain monsters of the sons of Enac, of the giant
kind: in comparison of whom, we seemed like locusts.

Numbers Chapter 14

The people murmur. God threateneth to destroy them. He is appeased by
Moses, yet so as to exclude the murmurers from entering the promised
land. The authors of the sedition are struck dead. The rest going to
fight against the will of God are beaten.

14:1. Therefore the whole multitude crying wept that night.

14:2. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron,
saying:

14:3. Would God that we had died in Egypt: and would God we may die in
this vast wilderness, and that the Lord may not bring us into this land,
lest we fall by the sword, and our wives and children be led away
captives. Is it not better to return into Egypt?

14:4. And they said one to another: Let us appoint a captain, and let us
return into Egypt.

14:5. And when Moses and Aaron heard this, they fell down flat upon the
ground before the multitude of the children of Israel.

14:6. But Josue the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephone, who
themselves also had viewed the land, rent their garments,

14:7. And said to all the multitude of the children of Israel: The land
which we have gone round is very good:

14:8. If the Lord be favourable, he will bring us into it, and give us a
land flowing with milk and honey.

14:9. Be not rebellious against the Lord: and fear ye not the people of
this land, for we are able to eat them up as bread. All aid is gone from
them: the Lord is with us, fear ye not.

14:10. And when all the multitude cried out, and would have stoned them,
the glory of the Lord appeared over the tabernacle of the covenant to
all the children of Israel.

14:11. And the Lord said to Moses: How long will this people detract me?
how long will they not believe me for all the signs that I have wrought
before them?

14:12. I will strike them therefore with pestilence, and will consume
them: but thee I will make a ruler over a great nation, and a mightier
than this is.

14:13. And Moses said to the Lord: That the Egyptians, from the midst of
whom thou hast brought forth this people,

14:14. And the inhabitants of this land, (who have heard that thou, O
Lord, art among this people, and art seen face to face, and thy cloud
protecteth them, and thou goest before them in a pillar of a cloud by
day, and in a pillar of fire by night,)

14:15. May hear that thou hast killed so great a multitude as it were
one man and may say:

14:16. He could not bring the people into the land for which he had
sworn, therefore did he kill them in the wilderness.

14:17. Let then the strength of the Lord be magnified, as thou hast
sworn, saying:

14:18. The Lord is patient and full of mercy, by taking away iniquity
and wickedness, and leaving no man clear, who visitest the sins of the
fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

Clear... i. e., who deserves punishment.

14:19. Forgive, I beseech thee, the sins of this people, according to
the greatness of thy mercy, as thou hast been merciful to them from
their going out of Egypt unto this place.

14:20. And the Lord said: I have forgiven according to thy word.

14:21. As I live: and the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of
the Lord.

14:22. But yet all the men that have seen my majesty, and the signs that
I have done in Egypt, and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now ten
times, and have not obeyed my voice,

14:23. Shall not see the land for which I swore to their fathers,
neither shall any one of them that hath detracted me behold it.

14:24. My servant Caleb, who being full of another spirit hath followed
me, I will bring into this land which he hath gone round: and his seed
shall possess it.

14:25. For the Amalecite and the Chanaanite dwell in the valleys. To
morrow remove the camp, and return into the wilderness by the way of the
Red Sea.

14:26. And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

14:27. How long doth this wicked multitude murmur against me? I have
heard the murmurings of the children of Israel.

14:28. Say therefore to them: As I live, saith the Lord: According as
you have spoken in my hearing, so will I do to you.

14:29. In the wilderness shall your carcasses lie. All you that were
numbered from twenty years old and upward, and have murmured against me,

14:30. Shall not enter into the land, over which I lifted up my hand to
make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephone, and Josue the
son of Nun.

14:31. But your children, of whom you said, that they should be a prey
to the enemies, will I bring in: that they may see the land which you
have despised.

14:32. Your carcasses shall lie in the wilderness.

14:33. Your children shall wander in the desert forty years, and shall
bear your fornication, until the carcasses of their fathers be consumed
in the desert,

Shall bear your fornication... That is, shall bear the punishment of
your disloyalty to God, which in the scripture language is here called a
fornication, in a spiritual sense.

14:34. According to the number of the forty days, wherein you viewed the
land: a year shall be counted for a day. And forty years you shall
receive your iniquities, and shall know my revenge:

14:35. For as I have spoken, so will I do to all this wicked multitude,
that hath risen up together against me: in this wilderness shall it
faint away and die.

14:36. Therefore all the men, whom Moses had sent to view the land, and
who at their return had made the whole multitude to murmur against him,
speaking ill of the land that it was naught,

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