Heptateuch (the first seven books of the Bible in verse) 4.25–4.618

Since a different guard over the holy things and the temple of God awaits these numbers, so they divide the camps. The first takes the side toward the sea; another stretches to the south; the third looks toward the icy breezes of the north. But where the first flame of coming day reddens, the conspicuous prophet’s men pitch the greatest tents. Next he prepares to single out the boys born first and consecrate them to the Lord, which make twice eleven thousand, if you add on top two hundred and seven times ten; for these the priests may take a drachma and assign it to the sacred things of the temple, since the divine altar releases them as though bought. At once they choose those assigned to the service of sacred things from the band of Gershon and of Kohath and that called Merari, twice four thousand, with five hundred joined and fifty more on top, whom he ordered to carry separately or bring out the ornaments of the Lord’s house. So there they took their leisure in the camp now pitched; from it he chose to shut out beyond the threshold of the gate those whose limbs the dire wasting of disease had corrupted, lest, placed among the healthy, they bring contagion, while hidden dangers run through their hot veins. At once, he who is jealous of his wife in a silent breast and has no witness to betray her, if a secret adulterer has polluted the bed of a once-chaste couch, let him go in haste to the priest and present before him

the woman he believes has sinned against him, and bring white flour, made from barley, to the sacred altar, which he neither smears with incense nor moistens with rich oil. Here the foreseeing priest takes water from a spring in an earthen vessel and tinges it with a little dust that he takes, bending down, from the middle of the temple floor. Soon he will make her bare her head and hold in both palms the offering of the sacred memorial. And the elder will make her drink the water that holds curses within it. If she is free of crime, she remains unharmed in mind and serene in face. But if crimes are hidden in her silent heart, the woman will swell with the sudden distension of disease, and her shameful thigh will melt with rotting flesh. Moreover she provokes the curses of the jesting people, as they reproach her sins with easy laughter. Meanwhile, if anyone resolves to lead his life in a chaste rite and desires with watchful mind to fulfil the obligation of a vow, lest bodily luxury thrive in him within the fixed term, let him gladly deny himself wine and refuse all drinks that the care of drinkers is used to turning into wine with warm water or with honey or fruits, when they renew liquid draughts from pure springs. Let him shudder at grapes and bite no grape,

whether it is moist with the dew of wine or dries in the sun into a raisin, shrunken with wrinkled, cracked edge; moreover let him avoid the liquid of biting vinegar, sipping sober cups from running streams; and let him wear a grown beard the whole time who is enrolled by the vow, and let his unshorn crown keep its flowing hair; let him not visit tombs, the graves of his fathers or his sister’s pyre, so that his holy honour may remain. If perhaps someone under the same roof has loosed his limbs in death, it will make him unclean as if infected. Let him therefore pray for pardon with biting cares and cut the hair grown on his squalid head; and when the bright day has shone at its seventh rising, let him offer turtledoves or doves white with like plumage, so that the fault may be lightened by the priest’s words and prayer; yet let the time be lost in which he had abstained before, and let him take up again a beginning, running anew with the vows he desires, so that he may reach the goal sought by his merits. All this done, when, having gained it, he holds his sure rewards, let him offer like lambs of white fleece, yearlings, a year’s course complete, so that one may fall for the reward sought and lighten sin; the other, now of clean body, and a ram, lie down for the acts that bring salvation.

He also sprinkles snowy loaves with oil, and whatever the solemnities of the ancient rite require, so that he may again take the cups he had given up. Come then, and whenever you wish to consecrate the people as they pray, ask Christ in these words: “While the right hand rests bent over the heads of men, may the shining Almighty bless you from the heavenly hall, and may he become your guardian through the ages, and may God lift his shining face over all your heads, and be merciful for ever; and may he lift up his countenance, so that he may look on you again from his glorious seat, and may the Lord give peace as his immense gift.” Meanwhile the prophet, ready in all God’s commands, adorns the first house of the Lord in the allied camp and sprinkles it with rich oil, and whatever vessels of the holy house gleam, made of silver or gold, he washed with the same stream. Then the wagons, which the tribunes of the tribes had given yoked, he divided with horned oxen for equal use and gave to the Levites; two carts drawn by twice two bullocks were handed to the first band, the Gershonites; but the Merari cohort received four carriages, yoked with twice four oxen, to carry the things made for the rites of God; for Kohath alone, exempt from the gift, carried its loads on the neck.

Meanwhile the chiefs of the tribes, bringing pious gifts, had separate days; for the columns of the people are five hundred and twenty and two thousand, to be led by twice six men; of whom in first order the tribe of Judah vowed its gift through its tribune Nahshon, in which he gave vessels outstanding with tawny silver, which together, when filled, make weights of twice a hundred and ten, full indeed of snowy fine flour, soaked, according to the custom of sacrifices, in a stream of green olive oil; and then a calf and a shining lamb and a ram together, with which is joined a white kid that lightens sins; two bullocks of like brow together, which, joined, help the sacred rites for salvation; five rams and he-goats and lambs following in like number: these were the first gift. After this each tribe on separate days gladly gave gifts, nowhere differing in the brotherly gift, if the sum of all the vessels is set out alike. But in the dishes gleaming with engraved gold the weight comes to a hundred and twenty pounds. When the prophet had dedicated these emblems of the sacred rites, he heard the Lord speaking in the sacred house, while, glowing, he shines above the outstanding summit and gives the teachings of the law between the Cherubim.

And the lamps placed on the other side put forth twice six flames, which the bright row was set to shine separately, while the golden lampstand spreads its arms and holds up its separate lights. Meanwhile the Levite band handling the offerings is taken from the age of twice twenty and five years, and he who has completed the Lord’s service for five times ten years, let him be free of the duty of serving, and let the young man succeed to the old man’s place and be present. Their bodies are made pure with a light sprinkling from river or spring, and a blade of sharp iron trims their hair if their thick locks are dirty. Then their garments are washed with zeal and care, lest contagion ever stain the hidden body. Meanwhile men of the people who were troubled by fierce care for a defilement, confessing it with conscience as witness, ask the chief whether they might celebrate the sacred Passover on the accustomed day; he holds them back a little and, relying on the Lord’s commands, prays, and reports the command that those stained with defilement may hallow the notable day and renew the worship that the glad night recalls when it comes at the year’s end. But if an innocent man of the people turns away from the festival, and no need of travel keeps him far from the temple, he incurs a capital charge: this law is the same for all.

After the pious prophet had completed all the duties worthy of the temple of God, he soon moved the columns and fills the terrifying trumpets with strong blasts, which he had earlier made of silver at the Lord’s command, while a thin sheet is curved into a round tube. It gives a small signal to the windy murmurs, the ranks being set, so that at the first call the trumpet may halt the anxious ranks before the holy oracles. The first part of the camp hastens at this, the part that stretches toward the dawn and the first light of the sun. And when the trumpet repeats other sounds, let the column go forth that the light south wind looks upon from the opposite quarter. But the third blast of the clarion gives the signal to those legions that hold the camp bordering the sea, after which the youth facing the north gathers its gear. But while the Levites chosen for divine duties hold back the columns, the children of the prophet Aaron, already priests, had the fitting duty of blowing the trumpets and of summoning all that was assigned to God. Going into the long desert, they come with their first camp to the place Paran; here the prophet with friendly speech entreats his kinsman Hobab, the young man born of Reuel, a son of the land of Midian, to go with them and come to the promised realms, in which sweet honey flows abundantly from full combs with a great river of snowy milk.

But he, sluggish and lingering a while with doubtful mind, prefers to turn his course back to his native home, not at all won over by the words of his kinsman, who asks: “Why do you go off another way? Turn your mind here, where the Lord’s realms call us, which, ever rich, ever honoured, waver under no fall. And yet what cause, so hard and unknown to us, moves you to seek again the borders of your father’s people, which long ago, far off, when your mind sought better things, you left, and which the wilderness separates by its sands? In that wilderness no thought moved your mind. And then there might have been a cause, because you would more justly have longed for home, when there were no drinks running in wandering streams and the hot sun burned, and when an uncertain journey and uncertain hope of the future shook those who did not know. But now, at the very end of a modest labour, when happy realms show themselves and God joins them to us, you waver so in mind, as though I were urging you to worse than I wish in my heart. Rather, young man, give yourself back to your dear kinsman, finish the road you began and complete the task you took up, so that, as soon as the Lord has settled all in their longed-for seats, you may take up better things and, placed among the chiefs, be greater in deed.” Then they depart and leave the mountain of God behind them:

and the ark, guardian of heaven’s teaching, went before the camp, after the third morning star had lifted itself in the high sky, the night left behind, so that, with the Lord’s holy things always going before, the people travelling under heavy burdens might have fitting rest. Then first the prophet, as he diligently gives the signal to the first columns, speaks these words as a suppliant: “Rise up on high, O God, and swiftly scatter the enemy thousands; let those flee who prepare to fight against your camp, O God, and those who with violent mind have hated you, highest Sower; you are strong against forces however firm, to be laid low by your everlasting word.” As he speaks, a bright cloud covers him, and overshadows the crowded column and the immense ranks with its covering like a garment. But the people, fierce, while they rolled out savage murmurs, also hurled the reproaches of a raging tongue against the Lord. For this the lofty point of fire glides down from the sky above and devours the people and the camp in a certain part; but the flames flashing grimly over their harvest of punishment a pleasing prayer quenched in the holy ears and dissolved them into grey dust, while the pious prophet labours with bowed neck and entreats the immense God for so great a crime, and repeats that he cannot, with his weary breast, bear alone the constant tumults of the people.

But the Lord God gives the prophet his accustomed comfort and calls for seventy elders from the brotherly host together, whose joint judgment and number might easily break the anger of the quarrelsome, when so many prophets’ hearts in harmony together should utter divine oracles as with one mind. Yet when they had spoken words like the others, they withdraw and speak in their former accustomed way. And two young men too, remaining in a part of the camp, speak most certain things with a divine mind and prophesy together in prophetic speech, Medad and Eldad; after a messenger brought this to the chief’s ears, Joshua presses urgently that he restrain and rebuke them, as though they spoke true things unlawfully; but the prophet at once with kindly words rebukes him and teaches that to restrain through envy a mind sent from heaven is no part of faith. At once they come to Hazeroth and pitch the camp with a vast rampart, as though they feared war by night. Here the pious prophet’s sister and brother swell and roar with envy: “Why should the wife joined to the prophet be an Ethiopian woman, and why should one man presume to the honour common to his kin? For we too receive the memorials and glorious commands of the highest God.” The prophet, attentive and milder than all, hears this, silent, with innocent mind, and renounces anger.

Yet the Lord does not let their untamed passions go further from his lofty seat, but rebukes them as they stand before him, and, walled in a clear cloud, he speaks: “Whoever among you of the kindred race is a prophet will rather see true dreams with watchful sense at midnight, when the lulled senses of men relax, and God gives the joys of the holy word, while I speak and fit my discourse to like words; but who could see me and discern my mouth and eyes joined to his own, which no one living can make out? But this is not the custom when my true judgment is given to the prophet who is faithful in all my house, while he joins my heart to lawful rites. He is able to stand before my face and survey and see God with clear sight. Nothing is ambiguous and no riddles are set in my words: I show myself with open face. He, then, who could see the honour of the reigning Lord and turn his mortal eyes to the invisible, could he not set gentle peace among your passions and do away with sad whispers?” Scarcely had he said this, when suddenly, the cloud removed, the anger of the Lord came and, enfolding Miriam, struck her as she trembled and spreads leprosy over her whole body. Seeing this example, Aaron, terrified, began:

“Spare, I pray, Lord, and turn away your harmful anger, and pass over my sin and our sister’s. We did it unknowing: what strikes our limbs and lashes our senses, let not death, sent as the avenger of wickedness, follow; guard us and take thought for us!” Without delay the prophet gives his heart to his brother’s prayers, asking with suppliant vows for the Lord’s remedies for the deadly plague that, spread through all her limbs, was torturing his sister’s flesh with its sad bite, while he cries thus: “The punishment exceeds the guilt, so great is it! God, take away the fear and heal the disease.” At once it is granted; but the woman, thrust from the camp, lives in exile, and, having suffered the wasting for seven days, receives back her limbs unharmed with glad looks, and from then on is held in the accustomed honour of the people. But the Jewish host, making for the promised rewards, moves its standards and then pitches camp in the fields of Paran and builds its walls with a safe rampart. There, urged by a word from the stars, Moses sends twice six young men, whom we have said earlier were the tribunes of the tribes, to spy out quickly the Canaanite land and cities and report the results to their companions. They go and make for the glade called Hamath, and, having crossed the deserts of the wilderness, survey Hebron, which fierce peoples held, Sheshai and Talmai.

When they came to the valley, which was then planted with figs, with sweet apples and those called stony, or rather pomegranates, it was green with flourishing vines. From it they bring fruits to give a sign of their faithfulness, and also from other things the rich field had produced. They cut a huge cluster from the pliant vine and then, straining, carry it back on a pole across their shoulders. And when forty days had passed in anxious care, at last they report what they had seen, adding terror, as they say that the walls are raised to a vast height and the nations are immense, lifting their heads to heaven, as when a very great oak of aged trunk is joined to the starry heavens. The people are broken by this and, stricken with bitter feeling, groan sadly and wet their faces with a flood of tears, while they say: “O men ever worthy to be praised, whom no image of evil so great frightened, and whom death laid in their accustomed land! Whom neither the sad soil scorched with hot sands, nor thirst long endured, nor the crumbs of manna — sweet indeed, but soaked in gall, because it does not strengthen the limbs — afflicted with heavier hunger, manna to which only quail is added, and which wastes the body with thin food.

But when we lived once in the land of Egypt, no such sad foods tormented us, when to sweep up fish was sport, and to set the whole Nile on our tables, or strip the windy sea of its varied swimming people and ease our bellies with glad fattening. We, rich in flocks, we, in all the rich gardens, plucked unbought melons and the biting cucumbers that swell the belly, with greedy mouths. Garlic and onions, and the cut leek there, fed us, and refreshed us, full, in drowsy sleep. Come then, and put an end at last to hardships; turn the standards quickly and give these companies back to the Nile, and appoint a conspicuous leader from the kindred people who will put our safety before his own, or before that of the trembling chief, who, following the words of God — to be feared, as he says — through desert fields has abandoned us wretches and set us against an enormous enemy, so that we, helpless, suffer things heavier than the fear of death, while a beloved wife falls, while a virgin daughter is led away and serves a proud tyrant as a captive.” After these words they prepare worse things; for the roused crowd takes stones and, rising with all their body, poise them. But while they hesitate in fear and steel themselves for the crime, the chiefs tear their clothes and, falling prone, sank to the ground in fear and begged them all

not to hurl foolish reproaches, in uncertain matters, against heaven and the seat of God, nor to think the promises hard for God’s decrees; then Caleb, with Joshua joining him in faith, prays thus, prostrate: “When it was decided to explore the distant lands and the enemy’s homes and set out to you what we saw, the first tribunes of all the tribes were chosen, whose known faithfulness could by no means speak discordantly or deceive the citizens with lying speech. And now, if the same reverence for our name remains and we utter no windy speeches, believe what has been found; for what confidence would make us deceive our fellow citizens, when we follow the Lord’s answers with you and go through all things in the same way? What some think fearful, while a white pallor is on their faces and their senses waver, seized by fear, is vain indeed; for God’s mighty commands make us firm and do not let us be defeated or driven out, though giants raise their high necks and set their companies against us with dense soldiery. The land lies open to us, which, after the barren fields, it is a joy to have surveyed as happy, which flows rich with a great river of milk and a flood of sweet honey. Only do not separate your hearts from the holy God,

and do not hold back timid hands; for victory, as a servant, enriches those who follow God’s standards, never conquered.” When this was said, the venerable majesty of God came at once from its lofty seat and flooded the people and the fathers and the congregation with wondrous honour. Meanwhile the Lord announces sad anger and an extreme plague, by which the immense nation is to be killed amid barren glades and a land left behind, except only two from the fearful plague, whom a shared strength had made firm by like conduct, seeing that nothing can contend with God’s commands. However much the prophet, trying to avert it by praying, asked with gentle speeches amid timid words, lest the Canaanites, hurling foolish words in vain, should clamour that the people was helped by no power, the people who were desired and chosen for the Lord’s rewards, yet he could not bend the fearful words that fly under firm law; for no one was allowed to see the fields granted only to faith; for within forty years the warrior people fell and left the lofty realms to their sons. Meanwhile, armed and roused by foolish cares, the legion rises, sets its standards on the very top of the hill, and is carried headlong against the enemy on the slope.

And because the Lord did not shield the fighting wings, it is defeated and, its soldiers routed, turns its back. Foreknowing this, the prophet stayed in the camp, keeping the sacred ark within protecting ramparts. Meanwhile a man of the people, on the festal day, while gathering sticks, a despiser of the eternal law, is seized and by God’s holy command is killed with thrown stones, lest the forbidden daring spread. Moreover, so that a cautious mind might often warn men to turn their minds to the Lord’s eternal admonitions, a hyacinth fringe with a knotted cord is fastened for all and marks their garments with a known border. Then a cause of evil arises from a forbidden act: for Korah of the tribe of Levi, and with him Dathan and Abiram, believing with mad daring that anyone might offer incense with pious frankincense to the Thunderer, attacked the prophet with swollen complaint. Nor was death long delayed; for, its hinge broken, the earth opened and sent them all to infernal Tartarus, and with them, destroyed likewise, two hundred and fifty, who brought rites to God that were not commanded, see their death, from the whole gathered crowd, and the cattle and whatever had belonged to the guilty; and, as though one death were coming on all alike, scattered, they tremble with fear and try in vain to flee the fire from above and hide themselves.

Moreover, on the next day, those who were not afraid to seethe in tumult are at once overwhelmed by a great slaughter, and in the same death fall twice seven thousand and six hundred men; and unless the prophet, seeing such danger, had entreated the Lord with gentle vows, a greater penalty would have punished the unspeakable guilt. But when quiet returned after the fearful upheaval, the gilded censers, with which the wicked young men had earlier offered to God unaccustomed offerings of heaven, Moses breaks up, and skilfully devotes them all as a thin sheet and sets it on the altars of the Lord; because whatever is brought to the Lord and placed before the lofty face of God becomes holy. Moreover, so that a distinction might be made between the highest priests and the tribes, the prophet asks for a rod from every chief, until the total reached twelve; and the prophet then shows one set apart with Aaron’s name and leaves it in the midst of the Lord’s dwelling. And when the stars had faded as the sun returned, a thing not known before is seen by the gathered people, to their wonder, and revealed the great honour of the Lord. For the rod of the chief Aaron, once knotless and cut off with iron, with no nourishment from the earth flowered and put forth nuts on the dry stick.

It is added to the records and commands of the sacred law that a heifer, whose tawny hide shines over her limbs, should be slain before the doors of the Lord and her body burned in the fire, and that the ash from the burnt flesh should purify bodies soiled by foul touch, sprinkled on the limbs of men, with a sprig of hyssop joined to it, so that with a light stroke it may scatter river water and wash the defiled with clean water. For whoever touches dead bodies with his hand, or under whose roof a lifeless corpse lies, is stained with uncleanness and defiles the eternal temple. Moreover all vessels with open mouths are unclean, and whoever then touches a bloody wound, or the bones of men, or the tomb of one buried, can on the third and seventh day make himself pure, if, having prayed to the Lord in a silent heart, he brings his gifts, purified by the stream from the healing branch. Meanwhile, while the Jewish host walks through desert fields, it comes to Kadesh and buries the chief’s sister, who had died, and is inflamed with great anger, because the region, deserted through thirst, gave no streams from cool springs, and because the mouths of all were dry and their bodies burned in the scorching sun. The Lord, considering this, commands the prophet to bring out the rod and touch the rock with a double touch.

Yet Moses, striking it with a doubtful heart, rebukes the people, saying: “Alas, you fierce in mind and hard in sense! Can any rocks be wet with streams and send forth living springs?” While, moved, he says this, he strikes with the pliant rod. … rivers burst from the rocks. Yet the Almighty rebukes the hesitant hearts of the prophets, chiding: “Since your judgment was in a divided heart, and your mind, not firm, does not see that I can do all things and gives small honour to the command of the lofty Lord, whom it befitted the Jewish ranks to believe openly and to bear witness that God can do anything: for this reason it is not permitted you to lead the people to the seats long promised and the fertile land and to take up the great gifts.” Meanwhile the people reach the fields of Edom, through which Moses, longing to lead his peaceful ranks, asked with calm speech the king, wild in his swollen courage and preparing for battle. Avoiding him, however, the people reach Mount Hor, on which, after very long years of a life run out, Aaron is buried and left his well-known festal insignia to the priest, who adds to the lofty altars Eleazar, greater than all, as mighty God had commanded and chosen him as minister for the altars that please him.

There the Canaanites, trusting in their numerous youth, gave immoderate terror with a heavy defeat to the Jews, as they turned their bare backs through the fields. But yet they take heart and, with the Lord’s favour, lay low the enemy’s companies and set fire to the strong cities and triumph with immense praise. But though benefits flowed with all they desired, sullen roars and murmurs were not lacking, cast against the pious prophet, while each groans with fierce voice that Egypt, full of the rich dowry of its lands, had been left behind, and the Nile, fertile in crops and with its ever-secure tiller. Almighty God, punishing this with level scale, brought forth ranks of vipers from a poisonous source, which laid many men low, since, though the wounds were slight, they swell the bodies with deadly venom. But the people, groaning mournfully, while they pray prostrate before the prophet’s feet and tell of the public deaths, with the recognition of their disgrace laid up in the hearts of all, receive the longed-for remedy, the Lord saving them. For the upright chief, ordered to fashion a swollen serpent of yellow bronze, hung it from a high pole, so that whoever had been pierced by the wandering tooth of the horned snake might escape death by turning toward the hanging serpent.

From there the people come to Oboth, then seek the fields of Iye-abarim, then Zered; soon they pass on to Arnon. Now in a green plain, where the Amorite lives as tiller of a pleasant seat and feeds on rich fields, there is a well, clear with glassy water, near which the Lord, speaking with holy speech, commanded Moses to gather the crowded people, so that he might draw the watering streams and the shining water. Then the tongue of all was wholly in harmony in divine songs, as it sings praises to the Lord in this hymn: “The immeasurable Lord has sent streams and taken away all the heat of the people, while the well lies open in its full depth and gushes abundantly with cool streams; which once mighty kings made, while they ruled mighty nations with the reins and pressed their fearful dependants with sceptres, as though its use lay open to themselves alone, all strangers kept far away. This well, given by the Lord for our salvation, has filled the thirsty with living waters.” When they had sung these songs to the starry King, they move the camp and leave various places behind, led to King Sihon when the border was crossed.

They rout in strong combat the opposing ranks, which Sihon, mocking the words of the innocent prophet, had drawn up, and he boasted in vain with empty praise of the Amorite nation; which, subdued in hard war, lay prostrate, though long hedged in by strong cities. Moreover Jazer, laid waste by a like war, crushed, accepted the yoke and surrendered many towns, asking for the leisure of the peace it longed for. When report told these things to anxious Balak, who ruled the peoples and cities of the Moabites, he is shaken with heavier fear and courts the prophet Balaam with honouring prayers, that by his words he might hinder the people doing such deeds and wholly curb the course of the warriors, since whatever he prays prostrate the Almighty hears and fulfils, however grim. He says that it is not right for him to bring curses on a people going with the Lord always as their leader to their seat and kingdom, and that it seems far juster to pray for what befits their merits, since the Lord, seen in the night, forbids the old man to unlock answers for Balak. But after the dismissed messenger brought back such things, and his care holds the king, breathless he seeks out chosen chiefs and sends envoys again to the prophet’s threshold, asking for what was already denied, in vain, because the words of God fight against it.

But yet the prophet sets out and mounts his she-ass and keeps pace with those going before him. See, in the middle of the road the angel of the Lord soon holds out a drawn blade against him, and, facing him and pressing on, terrifies the beast, which, roused with a swift leap, striving to one side, flees and wanders over the plain. While the prophet turns her round as she scorns the reins in headlong fear and fights her with tight reins, digs his heels in and beats her with the sharp rod, amid leafy vines, their covering now fallen, a half-ruined wall set in the hesitating ass’s way stopped her advance; she struck his foot against the stones and crushed the old man’s foot and caused him bitter pain. Then the messenger quickly stands in another place, in a very narrow path where a thin track led, leaving no way round on any side. The four-footed beast saw him flashing with drawn sword and, in great terror, sinks down. Ordered to rise, she is beaten by her rider and checked with many weals. When she felt great pain, she spoke with sudden speech, while God loosens her speech into unaccustomed words:

“What have I done or deserved of you, that with many blows you drive me on, straining as I fall? Have I refused my back, so used to you? Or have I ever, in fear, fled my burdens, or thrown you headlong, while you, head down over my bent shoulder, slipped and were rolled, thrown over my bent neck?” As she speaks thus, the priest, moved, often returns harsh words and boils with great anger; and while, roaring, he rages, soon the angel shines forth with bright face and addresses the prophet with holy voice: “You beat the undeserving beast now with a third blow, who, bowing low, flees me and lies down, struck to the earth, because your path is not pleasing to the highest God and you now wander far with straying steps. And unless terror had turned the beast aside in another direction, this hand would have laid you low with a hard wound of iron and driven home the cruel sword, so that, with you struck down, she would have been spared by me.” Here the prophet leaps down and, bowing, worships the holy one, and, grieving for his offence, asks to return and for his life. Dismissed, he hastens and fulfils the task he had undertaken, to speak the words of the Lord that were to be given him. And now, completing the road, he reaches the city of Moab and sees the conspicuous king amid dense soldiery, sees him asking help for himself with timid voice, and makes supplication to the Lord on seven altars;