(Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men who were upon the face of the earth.)
All Commentaries on Numbers 12:3 Go To Numbers 12
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Exceeding meek. Moses being the meekest of men, would not contend for himself; therefore God inspired him to write here in his own defence: and the Holy Spirit, whose dictate he wrote, obliged him to declare the truth, though it was so much to his own praise. (Challoner)
So he mentions his defects without reserve. (Calmet)
There are occasions when a person may be not only authorized, but in a manner forced to declare what may be to his own praise. Moses was in such a situation. The peace of the whole nation was in danger, when false insinuations were thrown out against the lawgiver and king, by his own nearest relations, and by them who were next in authority to himself. Aaron, the high priest, countenanced at least the remarks of his sister, who seems to have been the most to blame, as she alone is punished with the leprosy. (Haydock)
Some have suspected, that this verse has been inserted by a later inspired writer. (Conrnelius a Lap ide)
But whether it was or not, there is no reason to infer with Thomas Paine, that Moses was either "a vain and arrogant coxcomb, and unworthy of credit, or that the books (attributed to him) are without authority. "For if he did not write this verse, it does not follow that he wrote none of the Pentateuch; and if he did write it, he was justified by the predicament in which he stood, to do so. Paine scruples not to write of himself: "the man does not exist, that can say. I have in any case returned evil for evil: "and is not this praising himself as a very meek man, when at the same time he is writing to cause all the mischief he can both in church and state, and thus during the heat of revolutionary madness, to involve thousands in ruin? (Watson) (Haydock)
