_Fatigue. Hebrew simply, "and the people were like those who complain of evil, or who seek pretexts, inwardly, in the ears of the Lord." St. Jerome explains this evil to mean the fatigue of the journey, which lasted for three days together. (Calmet) --- Hence, some who were ready to lay hold of ever... [ Continue Reading ]
_Up, as rain is by the earth, Amos ix. 5._... [ Continue Reading ]
_The burning. Hebrew tabherah. (Challoner) --- Calmet uses no reason for confounding this station with that mentioned [in] ver. 34._... [ Continue Reading ]
_For, seems, however, to connect the burning of some with the destruction of many more, who had eaten the quails, as if both judgments took place at the same encampment. Septuagint render the Hebrew, "and a mixt rabble among them, desired greatly; and sitting, cried, as well as the Israelites, and s... [ Continue Reading ]
Fish. The Nile abounds in fish, which they might catch freely. The fish of the lake M\'9cris, brought a considerable revenue to the king of Egypt. (Herodotus, ii. 149.) The Hebrews had dwelt also near the Mediterranean Sea. Fish was formerly in greater esteem than it is at present. The priests of Eg... [ Continue Reading ]
_Dry, like people quite worn out for want of food. (Psalm ci. 5, 12; Lamentations iv. 8.) --- Nothing. An exaggeration. We are disgusted with this light food. (Calmet) --- They wished not only for the taste, but also for the colour, of other meats. (Menochius) --- How often do we imitate their folly... [ Continue Reading ]
_Bdellium. Bdellium, according to Pliny, ([Natural History?] lib. xxi. chap. 9,) was of the colour of a man's nail, white and bright; (Challoner) or like wax, ([Natural History?] lib. xii. 9,) between white and yellow. It might resemble a tarnished pearl or ivory in colour, and coriander-seed in sha... [ Continue Reading ]
_Oil; or, when unprepared, like flour and honey, Exodus xvi. 31. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_By. Hebrew, "for." Jonathan and others endeavour to excuse their ancestors, by saying that they wept because they were forbidden to marry their near relations. --- His tent. Some explain the Hebrew of the tent of Moses. But the Israelites more probably staid at home._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Nurse. We often read of men nursing or watching over others. (4 Kings x. 5; Esther ii. 11.) Thus kings shall nurse the Church, Isaias xlix. 23. (Calmet) --- All who have authority should treat their subjects with love. (Menochius)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_For me. Had he not the judges, whom Jethro advised him to appoint? But all matters of consequence were still brought to Moses. He was made answerable for all things._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Evils. Hebrew, "my misfortune." The Rabbins say their, or thy, was formerly written, but corrected by the scribes. (Calmet) --- Moses fears the anger of God falling upon the people. (Haydock) --- It is very wonderful that the Hebrew text here retains the feminine pronoun att, instead of atta; thy,... [ Continue Reading ]
Seventy men. This was the first institution of the council or senate, called the Sanhedrim, consisting of seventy, or seventy-two senators or counselors. (Challoner) --- Calmet calls this in question. (Dissert. on the Police, &c.) Moses chose these senators from among the officers, whom he had befor... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thy spirit. St. Augustine (q. 18) reads "of the spirit which is on thee;" (Septuagint) referring it to the indivisible spirit of God, so that these ancients received what was sufficient for them, while Moses suffered no diminution. Thus one lamp communicates light to another, without being impaired... [ Continue Reading ]
_Sanctified. Prepare yourselves to receive flesh. The word is often used in this sense, Jeremias vi. 4, &c. (Onkelos) --- Cease to murmur, and bewail your sin. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Of days complete. So two years of days, means two full years. (1 Machabees i. 30.) --- Loathsome to you. "Indigestible," Symmachus. "Bilious," Septuagint. "Till it become loathsome to you, and a source of scandal, (Chaldean) or of dispersion, as some translate the Hebrew._... [ Continue Reading ]
_People, able to bear arms. (Haydock) --- In all there were above two millions. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Fishes. Moses does not distinguish them from flesh, no more than St. Paul does, 1 Corinthians xv. 39. Fish was not formerly allowed on fasting days. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Unable: Hebrew, "shortened." Septuagint, "insufficient." Moses had expresed his astonishment, not his doubts; though the words might convey the latter idea to us more than his behaviour in chap. xx. 10. But God sees the heart. --- To pass. Hebrew may be also, "hath called thee;" (Calmet) Septuagint... [ Continue Reading ]
_Afterwards. Some give a contrary meaning to the Hebrew, with the Septuagint, Syriac, &c.: "They prophesied, (on that occasion) but they did not continue" to do so; except when they were favoured with the influence of the spirit. When it was requisite, they were enabled to declare God's will and his... [ Continue Reading ]
_Forth, being lawfully hindered, (Calmet) or out of humility. (St. Jerome, ep. 127.)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Man. The Rabbins say, without proof, that he was Gersom, the son of Moses, and that the two prophets were half-brothers of the lawgiver, and foretold his death and the persecutions of Gog, &c. (Calmet) --- Hermas (11. 2.) refers to some of their predictions: "The Lord is nigh to those who are conve... [ Continue Reading ]
_Chosen among the seventy, and designed, from his youth, to be the general, and successor of Moses; the Hebrew may be understood in all these senses. See Exodus xvii. 10. (Calmet) --- Josue was afraid lest they had assumed this air of authority in opposition to Moses. St. John addressed our Saviour,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Camp of the people, from the tabernacle, which was in the midst of it. (Haydock)_... [ Continue Reading ]
Sea; the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The wind blew from the south-west to the west with respect to Moses, or from the south with respect to Jerusalem, Psalm lxxvii. 26. Many quails are found about Rinocorura, and some have imagined that these had continued during winter at the bottom of the water... [ Continue Reading ]
Cores. Hebrew, "Chomarim," each of contained 100 gomers. One gomer was the daily allowance of manna for each person, and of course their must have been sufficient quails for one hundred days. But Moses tells us that each one collected at least ten times that quantity, or as much has he could eat for... [ Continue Reading ]
_Plague of fire, ver. 3, Psalm lxxvii. 21. (Cornelius a Lapide) --- Failed, after the month was expired. (Menochius) --- They had been accustomed to live upon manna, which was a light food, during the space of a year; and now eating greedily of this flesh, their stomachs were overcharged, and they d... [ Continue Reading ]
_The graves of lust; or the sepulchres of concupiscence: so called from their irregular desire of flesh. In Hebrew Kibroth Hattaavah. (Challoner) --- Hence St. Augustine observes that, "it is not a matter of so much moment to be heard by God. For some he hears in his wrath, granting their requests,... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER XI.... [ Continue Reading ]