Antiquities of the Jews — Book 4, Chapter 6

1. Now Moses, when he had brought his army to Jordan; pitched his camp
in the great plain over against Jericho. This city is a very happy
situation, and very fit for producing palm-trees and balsam. And now the
Israelites began to be very proud of themselves, and were very eager for
fighting. Moses then, after he had offered for a few days sacrifices of
thanksgiving to God, and feasted the people, sent a party of armed men
to lay waste the country of the Midianites, and to take their cities.
Now the occasion which he took for making war upon them was this that
follows:—

2. When Balak, the king of the Moabites, who had from his ancestors a
friendship and league with the Midianites, saw how great the Israelites
were grown, he was much affrighted on account of his own and his
kingdom's danger; for he was not acquainted with this, that the Hebrews
would not meddle with any other country, but were to be contented with
the possession of the land of Canaan, God having forbidden them to go
any farther 7 So he, with more haste than wisdom, resolved to make an
attempt upon them by words; but he did not judge it prudent to fight
against them, after they had such prosperous successes, and even became
out of ill successes more happy than before, but he thought to hinder
them, if he could, from growing greater, and so he resolved to send
ambassadors to the Midianites about them. Now these Midianites knowing
there was one Balaam, who lived by Euphrates, and was the greatest of
the prophets at that time, and one that was in friendship with them,
sent some of their honorable princes along with the ambassadors of
Balak, to entreat the prophet to come to them, that he might imprecate
curses to the destruction of the Israelites. So Balaam received the
ambassadors, and treated them very kindly; and when he had supped, he
inquired what was God's will, and what this matter was for which the
Midianites entreated him to come to them. But when God opposed his
going, he came to the ambassadors, and told them that he was himself
very willing and desirous to comply with their request, but informed
them that God was opposite to his intentions, even that God who had
raised him to great reputation on account of the truth of his
predictions; for that this army, which they entreated him to come and
curse, was in the favor of God; on which account he advised them to go
home again, and not to persist in their enmity against the Israelites;
and when he had given them that answer, he dismissed the ambassadors.

3. Now the Midianites, at the earnest request and fervent entreaties of
Balak, sent other ambassadors to Balaam, who, desiring to gratify the
men, inquired again of God; but he was displeased at [second] trial 8
and bid him by no means to contradict the ambassadors. Now Balaam did
not imagine that God gave this injunction in order to deceive him, so he
went along with the ambassadors; but when the divine angel met him in
the way, when he was in a narrow passage, and hedged in with a wall on
both sides, the ass on which Balaam rode understood that it was a divine
spirit that met him, and thrust Balaam to one of the walls, without
regard to the stripes which Balaam, when he was hurt by the wall, gave
her; but when the ass, upon the angel's continuing to distress her, and
upon the stripes which were given her, fell down, by the will of God,
she made use of the voice of a man, and complained of Balaam as acting
unjustly to her; that whereas he had no fault to find with her in her
former service to him, he now inflicted stripes upon her, as not
understanding that she was hindered from serving him in what he was now
going about, by the providence of God. And when he was disturbed by
reason of the voice of the ass, which was that of a man, the angel
plainly appeared to him, and blamed him for the stripes he had given his
ass; and informed him that the brute creature was not in fault, but that
he was himself come to obstruct his journey, as being contrary to the
will of God. Upon which Balaam was afraid, and was preparing to return
back again: yet did God excite him to go on his intended journey, but
added this injunction, that he should declare nothing but what he
himself should suggest to his mind.

4. When God had given him this charge, he came to Balak; and when the
king had entertained him in a magnificent manner, he desired him to go
to one of the mountains to take a view of the state of the camp of the
Hebrews. Balak himself also came to the mountain, and brought the
prophet along with him, with a royal attendance. This mountain lay over
their heads, and was distant sixty furlongs from the camp. Now when he
saw them, he desired the king to build him seven altars, and to bring
him as many bulls and rams; to which desire the king did presently
conform. He then slew the sacrifices, and offered them as burnt-
offerings, that he might observe some signal of the flight of the
Hebrews. Then said he, "Happy is this people, on whom God bestows the
possession of innumerable good things, and grants them his own
providence to be their assistant and their guide; so that there is not
any nation among mankind but you will be esteemed superior to them in
virtue, and in the earnest prosecution of the best rules of life, and of
such as are pure from wickedness, and will leave those rules to your
excellent children; and this out of the regard that God bears to you,
and the provision of such things for you as may render you happier than
any other people under the sun. You shall retain that land to which he
hath sent you, and it shall ever be under the command of your children;
and both all the earth, as well as the seas, shall be filled with your
glory: and you shall be sufficiently numerous to supply the world in
general, and every region of it in particular, with inhabitants out of
your stock. However, O blessed army! wonder that you are become so many
from one father: and truly, the land of Canaan can now hold you, as
being yet comparatively few; but know ye that the whole world is
proposed to be your place of habitation for ever. The multitude of your
posterity also shall live as well in the islands as on the continent,
and that more in number than are the stars of heaven. And when you are
become so many, God will not relinquish the care of you, but will afford
you an abundance of all good things in times of peace, with victory and
dominion in times of war. May the children of your enemies have an
inclination to fight against you; and may they be so hardy as to come to
arms, and to assault you in battle, for they will not return with
victory, nor will their return be agreeable to their children and wives.
To so great a degree of valor will you be raised by the providence of
God, who is able to diminish the affluence of some, and to supply the
wants of others."

5. Thus did Balaam speak by inspiration, as not being in his own power,
but moved to say what he did by the Divine Spirit. But then Balak was
displeased, and said he had broken the contract he had made, whereby he
was to come, as he and his confederates had invited him, by the promise
of great presents: for whereas he came to curse their enemies, he had
made an encomium upon them, and had declared that they were the happiest
of men. To which Balaam replied, "O Balak, if thou rightly considerest
this whole matter, canst thou suppose that it is in our power to be
silent, or to say any thing, when the Spirit of God seizes upon us?—for
he puts such words as he pleases in our mouths, and such discourses as
we are not ourselves conscious of. I well remember by what entreaties
both you and the Midianites so joyfully brought me hither, and on that
account I took this journey. It was my prayer, that I might not put any
affront upon you, as to what you desired of me; but God is more powerful
than the purposes I had made to serve you; for those that take upon them
to foretell the affairs of mankind, as from their own abilities, are
entirely unable to do it, or to forbear to utter what God suggests to
them, or to offer violence to his will; for when he prevents us and
enters into us, nothing that we say is our own. I then did not intend to
praise this army, nor to go over the several good things which God
intended to do to their race; but since he was so favorable to them, and
so ready to bestow upon them a happy life and eternal glory, he
suggested the declaration of those things to me: but now, because it is
my desire to oblige thee thyself, as well as the Midianites, whose
entreaties it is not decent for me to reject, go to, let us again rear
other altars, and offer the like sacrifices that we did before, that I
may see whether I can persuade God to permit me to bind these men with
curses." Which, when Balak had agreed to, God would not, even upon
second sacrifices, consent to his cursing the Israelites. 9 Then fell
Balaam upon his face, and foretold what calamities would befall the
several kings of the nations, and the most eminent cities, some of which
of old were not so much as inhabited; which events have come to pass
among the several people concerned, both in the foregoing ages, and in
this, till my own memory, both by sea and by land. From which completion
of all these predictions that he made, one may easily guess that the
rest will have their completion in time to come.

6. But Balak being very angry that the Israelites were not cursed, sent
away Balaam without thinking him worthy of any honor. Whereupon, when he
was just upon his journey, in order to pass the Euphrates, he sent for
Balak, and for the princes of the Midianites, and spake thus to them:—"O
Balak, and you Midianites that are here present, [for I am obliged even
without the will of God to gratify you,] it is true no entire
destruction can seize upon the nation of the Hebrews, neither by war,
nor by plague, nor by scarcity of the fruits of the earth, nor can any
other unexpected accident be their entire ruin; for the providence of
God is concerned to preserve them from such a misfortune; nor will it
permit any such calamity to come upon them whereby they may all perish;
but some small misfortunes, and those for a short time, whereby they may
appear to be brought low, may still befall them; but after that they
will flourish again, to the terror of those that brought those mischiefs
upon them. So that if you have a mind to gain a victory over them for a
short space of time, you will obtain it by following my directions:—Do
you therefore set out the handsomest of such of your daughters as are
most eminent for beauty, 10 and proper to force and conquer the modesty
of those that behold them, and these decked and trimmed to the highest
degree able. Then do you send them to be near camp, and give them in
charge, that the young men of the Hebrews desire their allow it them;
and when they see they are enamored of them, let them take leaves; and
if they entreat them to stay, let give their consent till they have
persuaded leave off their obedience to their own laws, the worship of
that God who established them to worship the gods of the Midianites and
for by this means God will be angry at them 11." Accordingly, when
Balaam had suggested counsel to them, he went his way.

7. So when the Midianites had sent their daughters, as Balaam had
exhorted them, the Hebrew men were allured by their beauty, and came
with them, and besought them not to grudge them the enjoyment of their
beauty, nor to deny them their conversation. These daughters of
Midianites received their words gladly, and consented to it, and staid
with them; but when they brought them to be enamored of them, and their
inclinations to them were grown to ripeness, they began to think of
departing from them: then it was that these men became greatly
disconsolate at the women's departure, and they were urgent with them
not to leave them, but begged they would continue there, and become
their wives; and they promised them they should be owned as mistresses
all they had. This they said with an oath, and called God for the
arbitrator of what they promised; and this with tears in their eyes, and
all such marks of concern, as might shew how miserable they thought
themselves without them, and so might move their compassion for them. So
the women, as soon as they perceived they had made their slaves, and had
caught them with their conservation began to speak thus to them:—

8. "O you illustrious young men! we have of our own at home, and great
plenty of good things there, together with the natural, affectionate
parents and friends; nor is it out of our want of any such things that
we came to discourse with you; nor did we admit of your invitation with
design to prostitute the beauty of our bodies for gain; but taking you
for brave and worthy men, we agreed to your request, that we might treat
you with such honors as hospitality required: and now seeing you say
that you have a great affection for us, and are troubled when you think
we are departing, we are not averse to your entreaties; and if we may
receive such assurance of your good-will as we think can be alone
sufficient, we will be glad to lead our lives with you as your wives;
but we are afraid that you will in time be weary of our company, and
will then abuse us, and send us back to our parents, after an
ignominious manner." And they desired that they would excuse them in
their guarding against that danger. But the young men professed they
would give them any assurance they should desire; nor did they at all
contradict what they requested, so great was the passion they had for
them. "If then," said they, "this be your resolution, since you make use
of such customs and conduct of life as are entirely different from all
other men, 12 insomuch that your kinds of food are peculiar to
yourselves, and your kinds of drink not common to others, it will be
absolutely necessary, if you would have us for your wives, that you do
withal worship our gods. Nor can there be any other demonstration of the
kindness which you say you already have, and promise to have hereafter
to us, than this, that you worship the same gods that we do. For has any
one reason to complain, that now you are come into this country, you
should worship the proper gods of the same country? especially while our
gods are common to all men, and yours such as belong to nobody else but
yourselves." So they said they must either come into such methods of
divine worship as all others came into, or else they must look out for
another world, wherein they may live by themselves, according to their
own laws.

9. Now the young men were induced by the fondness they had for these
women to think they spake very well; so they gave themselves up to what
they persuaded them, and transgressed their own laws, and supposing
there were many gods, and resolving that they would sacrifice to them
according to the laws of that country which ordained them, they both
were delighted with their strange food, and went on to do every thing
that the women would have them do, though in contradiction to their own
laws; so far indeed that this transgression was already gone through the
whole army of the young men, and they fell into a sedition that was much
worse than the former, and into danger of the entire abolition of their
own institutions; for when once the youth had tasted of these strange
customs, they went with insatiable inclinations into them; and even
where some of the principal men were illustrious on account of the
virtues of their fathers, they also were corrupted together with the
rest.

10. Even Zimri, the head of the tribe of Simeon accompanied with Cozbi,
a Midianitish women, who was the daughter of Sur, a man of authority in
that country; and being desired by his wife to disregard the laws of
Moses, and to follow those she was used to, he complied with her, and
this both by sacrificing after a manner different from his own, and by
taking a stranger to wife. When things were thus, Moses was afraid that
matters should grow worse, and called the people to a congregation, but
then accused nobody by name, as unwilling to drive those into despair
who, by lying concealed, might come to repentance; but he said that they
did not do what was either worthy of themselves, or of their fathers, by
preferring pleasure to God, and to the living according to his will;
that it was fit they should change their courses while their affairs
were still in a good state, and think that to be true fortitude which
offers not violence to their laws, but that which resists their lusts.
And besides that, he said it was not a reasonable thing, when they had
lived soberly in the wilderness, to act madly now when they were in
prosperity; and that they ought not to lose, now they have abundance,
what they had gained when they had little:— and so did he endeavor, by
saying this, to correct the young inert, and to bring them to repentance
for what they had done.

11. But Zimri arose up after him, and said, "Yes, indeed, Moses, thou
art at liberty to make use of such laws as thou art so fond of, and
hast, by accustoming thyself to them, made them firm; otherwise, if
things had not been thus, thou hadst often been punished before now, and
hadst known that the Hebrews are not easily put upon; but thou shalt not
have me one of thy followers in thy tyrannical commands, for thou dost
nothing else hitherto, but, under pretense of laws, and of God, wickedly
impose on us slavery, and gain dominion to thyself, while thou deprivest
us of the sweetness of life, which consists in acting according to our
own wills, and is the right of free-men, and of those that have no lord
over them. Nay, indeed, this man is harder upon the Hebrews then were
the Egyptians themselves, as pretending to punish, according to his
laws, every one's acting what is most agreeable to himself; but thou
thyself better deservest to suffer punishment, who presumest to abolish
what every one acknowledges to be what is good for him, and aimest to
make thy single opinion to have more force than that of all the rest;
and what I now do, and think to be right, I shall not hereafter deny to
be according to my own sentiments. I have married, as thou sayest
rightly, a strange woman, and thou hearest what I do from myself as from
one that is free, for truly I did not intend to conceal myself. I also
own that I sacrificed to those gods to whom you do not think it fit to
sacrifice; and I think it right to come at truth by inquiring of many
people, and not like one that lives under tyranny, to suffer the whole
hope of my life to depend upon one man; nor shall any one find cause to
rejoice who declares himself to have more authority over my actions than
myself."

12. Now when Zimri had said these things, about what he and some others
had wickedly done, the people held their peace, both out of fear of what
might come upon them, and because they saw that their legislator was not
willing to bring his insolence before the public any further, or openly
to contend with him; for he avoided that, lest many should imitate the
impudence of his language, and thereby disturb the multitude. Upon this
the assembly was dissolved. However, the mischievous attempt had
proceeded further, if Zimri had not been first slain, which came to pass
on the following occasion:—Phineas, a man in other respects better than
the rest of the young men, and also one that surpassed his
contemporaries in the dignity of his father, [for he was the son of
Eleazar the high priest, and the grandson of [Aaron] Moses's brother,]
who was greatly troubled at what was done by Zimri, he resolved in
earnest to inflict punishment on him, before his unworthy behavior
should grow stronger by impunity, and in order to prevent this
transgression from proceeding further, which would happen if the
ringleaders were not punished. He was of so great magnanimity, both in
strength of mind and body, that when he undertook any very dangerous
attempt, he did not leave it off till he overcame it, and got an entire
victory. So he came into Zimri's tent, and slew him with his javelin,
and with it he slew Cozbi also, Upon which all those young men that had
a regard to virtue, and aimed to do a glorious action, imitated
Phineas's boldness, and slew those that were found to be guilty of the
same crime with Zimri. Accordingly many of those that had transgressed
perished by the magnanimous valor of these young men; and the rest all
perished by a plague, which distemper God himself inflicted upon them;
so that all those their kindred, who, instead of hindering them from
such wicked actions, as they ought to have done, had persuaded them to
go on, were esteemed by God as partners in their wickedness, and died.
Accordingly there perished out of the army no fewer than fourteen 13
[twenty-four] thousand at this time.

13. This was the cause why Moses was provoked to send an army to destroy
the Midianites, concerning which expedition we shall speak presently,
when we have first related what we have omitted; for it is but just not
to pass over our legislator's due encomium, on account of his conduct
here, because, although this Balaam, who was sent for by the Midianites
to curse the Hebrews, and when he was hindered from doing it by Divine
Providence, did still suggest that advice to them, by making use of
which our enemies had well nigh corrupted the whole multitude of the
Hebrews with their wiles, till some of them were deeply infected with
their opinions; yet did he do him great honor, by setting down his
prophecies in writing. And while it was in his power to claim this glory
to himself, and make men believe they were his own predictions, there
being no one that could be a witness against him, and accuse him for so
doing, he still gave his attestation to him, and did him the honor to
make mention of him on this account. But let every one think of these
matters as he pleases.