upon them, not indeed such as they deserved for their sins, but
such as parents inflict on their children, in order to their
correction. For, he said, that when he was in the tabernacle, and
was bewailing with ears that destruction which was coming upon
them God put him in mind what things he had done for them, and
what benefits they had received from him, and yet how ungrateful
they had been to him that just now they had been induced, through
the timorousness of the spies, to think that their words were
truer than his own promise to them; and that on this account,
though he would not indeed destroy them all, nor utterly
exterminate their nation, which he had honored more than any
other part of mankind, yet he would not permit them to take
possession of the land of Canaan, nor enjoy its happiness; but
would make them wander in the wilderness, and live without a
fixed habitation, and without a city, for forty years together,
as a punishment for this their transgression; but that he had
promised to give that land to our children, and that he would
make them the possessors of those good things which, by your
ungoverned passions, you have deprived yourselves of.

2. When Moses had discoursed thus to them according to the
direction of God, the multitude, grieved, and were in affliction;
and entreated Most to procure their reconciliation to God, and to
permit them no longer to wander in the wilderness, but bestow
cities upon them. But he replied, that God would not admit of any
such trial, for that God was not moved to this determination from
any human levity or anger, but that he had judicially condemned
them to that punishment. Now we are not to disbelieve that Moses,
who was but a single person, pacified so many ten thousands when
they werre in anger, and converted them to a mildness temper; for