popular course, in order to gain the sovereign power for themselves by
enlisting the sympathies of the people, and alienating the high priest,
should have yielded to their demands, and introduced a new worship? (175) If
the state had been formed according to the original intention, the rights
and honour of all the tribes would have been equal, and everything would
have rested on a firm basis. (176) Who is there who would willingly violate
the religious rights of his kindred? (177) What could a man desire more than
to support his own brothers and parents, thus fulfilling the duties of
religion? (178) Who would not rejoice in being taught by them the
interpretation of the laws, and receiving through them the answers of God?

(17:179) The tribes would thus have been united by a far closer bond, if all
alike had possessed the right to the priesthood. (180) All danger would have
been obviated, if the choice of the Levites had not been dictated by anger
and revenge. (181) But, as we have said, the Hebrews had offended their God,
Who, as Ezekiel says, polluted them in their own gifts by rejecting all that
openeth the womb, so that He might destroy them.

(17:182) This passage is also confirmed by their history. As soon as the
people in the wilderness began to live in ease and plenty, certain men of no
mean birth began to rebel against the choice of the Levites, and to make it
a cause for believing that Moses had not acted by the commands of God, but
for his own good pleasure, inasmuch as he had chosen his own tribe before
all the rest, and had bestowed the high priesthood in perpetuity on his own
brother. (183) They, therefore, stirred up a tumult, and came to him, crying
out that all men were equally sacred, and that he had exalted himself above
his fellows wrongfully. (184) Moses was not able to pacify them with
reasons; but by the intervention of a miracle in proof of the faith, they
all perished. (185) A fresh sedition then arose among the whole people, who
believed that their champions had not been put to death by the judgment of