Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary: Judges
--- As for Zabulon, the Vulgate intimates that great generals were found among them but the Hebrew rather gives them the praise of learning: "They that handle the pen of the writer." (Haydock) --- Yet sopher is applied not only to writers, and to those who are learned in the law, as the scribes, Esdras, Baruch, &c., were, but also to commissaries, secretaries of state, and officers who were employed both in peace and war, 2 Paralipomenon xxvi. 11. Hence the Septuagint translate, "out of Zabulon, the powerful in the sceptre of learning;" (Calmet) (Grabe,) "of instruction." (Haydock) --- Some, without any proof, attribute the institution of these officers to Moses, others to David. We read of many who possessed this title under his reign; and ever after, the kings of Juda had scribes, as some great men had also. The kings of Persia kept secretaries to write their edicts, and some they sent, with greater authority, into the provinces. See 1 Esdras iv. 8. Ecclesiasticus (x. 5,) says, upon the person of the scribe God shall lay his honour. The scribes, or sopherim, seem therefore to have enjoyed an extensive authority, and the tribe of Zabulon used it on this occasion for the common good, (ver. 18.; Calmet) while many of the other tribes seem to be accused of backwardness in the cause of God.
Ver. 15. Exposed. Hebrew, "he was sent on foot into the vale," to contend with the 900 chariots of Sisara. Issachar boldly followed him in battle. They came down with such fury and speed, as if they were falling headlong down a precipice. (Haydock) --- Sisara presently turned his back, being affrighted with the apparition of angels, who probably fought at the head of Barac's troop. (Salien) --- Only three tribes exposed themselves to danger, while the rest were either engaged in civil broils, or in their usual employments. (Calmet) --- Divided. By this it seems that the valiant men of the tribe of Ruben were divided in their sentiments, with relation to this war; which division kept them at home within their own borders, to hear the bleating of their flocks. (Challoner) --- Hebrew may have different explanations, "In the divisions (families) of Ruben, there are princes of a great heart," renowned for their prudence and valour: or "Ruben dwelt in his division, (or territory) there are chiefs," &c. (Calmet) --- Protestants, "for the divisions of Ruben, there were great thoughts of heart." Bonfrere supposes that these disputes excited the surprise and observations of all. (Haydock)
Ver. 16. Borders, trusting in the strength of thy situation. Ruben was protected on all sides by the rivers Jordan, Arnon, and Jaboc.
Ver. 17. Galaad was inhabited by the tribes of Gad and Manasses; and took no part in this war. (Calmet) --- Dan. Hebrew, "Why did not Dan remain in ships?" Debbora now rebukes those who lived on the west side of the Jordan, as well as those on the east. Dan might think himself remote enough from the kingdom of Jabin. But Aser dwelt very near, yet durst not make any attempt to throw off the yoke. --- Havens. Hebrew, "Breaches." He had, perhaps, suffered much already, (Haydock) and preferred to remain quiet, even in his half-ruined cities, before engaging in the perilous attempt of his brethren. (Calmet) --- He was too much taken up with commerce, to pay any attention to the oracles of the Lord. Grabe's Septuagint, "Aser....pitched his tents upon his cavities, or the broken ground of it," the sea shore, which is commonly intersected with a variety of rivulets amid the cliffs. (Haydock)
Ver. 18. Merone. Hebrew, "In the heights of the field, or of Merome." Some take this place to be the lake Semechon, but we have endeavoured to shew that it was in the vicinity of Thanac, Josue xi. 5. (Calmet) --- Thabor was in the midst of a great field or plain. (Du Hamel) --- Barac seems to have been at the head of 10,000 men, of the tribe of Issachar, attacking Sisara, at the foot of Thabor, while 40,000 of the tribes of Nephthali and Zabulon, almost without arms, fell upon the kings of Chanaan, who had posted themselves near the waters of Mageddo, to intercept any recruits that might be sent from the southern tribes, ver. 8, 15, 19. (Calmet)
Ver. 19. Spoils. So far from it, they even lost their lives. (Menochius) --- Hebrew, "they took no piece (or gain) of money." If we understand this of the Israelites, we may say that they stopped not to plunder the slain, nor would they suffer any to redeem their life by the promise of a great ransom. Whatever riches they found afterwards, they consecrated to the Lord, in testimony of their gratitude. (Calmet) (Numbers xxxi. 54.)
Ver. 20. Stars, or angels, who are compared to the stars, and often fought for Israel, 2 Machabees x. 29. (Vales, Philos. chap. xxxi.) (Calmet) --- The favourable and malignant influences of the stars, which the Rabbins talk of, would here be nugatory, (Haydock) unless they might contribute to bring on rain. (Cajetan) --- Josephus ([Antiquities?] v. 6.) informs us that a furious tempest of hail, &c., met the enemy in the face, and rendered all their efforts useless. (Calmet) --- A similar instance of the divine protection was obtained by the prayers of the thundering legion, in the army of M. Aurelius; (Tertullian; Eusebius, Hist. v. 5.) and again, when Theodosius attacked the tyrant Eugenius, of which Claudian speaks, (in 3 Cons. Honor.) "Te propter gelidis Aquilo de monte procellis---Obruit adversas acies, revolutaque tela---Vertit in Auctores et turbine repulit hastas---O nimium dilecte Deo, cui fundit ab antris---Æolus armatas hiemes, cui militat æther---Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti." (Haydock) --- Courses. This miracle was of a different kind from that which proved so fatal to the enemies of Josue. (Lyranus) --- Septuagint Alexandrian, "They fought with (meta) Israel," for which Grabe puts, against Sisara. (Haydock)
Ver. 21. Dragged. Protestants, "swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon." --- Cadumim, which the Protestants translate ancient, (Haydock) means also eastern. The former epithet seems very insignificant. Some assert, that the Cison divided its streams about Mount Thabor, and one part ran towards the east into the lake of Genesareth, which is here designated, while the other empties itself above Carmel into the great sea. But there is no proof of this assertion in the Scripture, nor in Josephus. We read (Judith vii. 3,) of a place, which the Syriac properly calls Cadmon, and the Vulgate Chelmon, in this neighbourhood. Instead of Kedumim, Symmachus and Theodotion read Kodssim, which the former translates, "the holy vale." Many of the army (Calmet) of the kings, and perhaps of Sisara also, (Haydock) endeavouring to make their escape, were drowned in the Cison. (Calmet)
Ver. 22. Broken (ceciderunt) "fell off," the hoofs being fractured by the hard road, while the riders galloped full speed. (Haydock) --- Some translate the Hebrew, "the hoofs of the horses made a sound like that of a hammer beating an anvil, on account of the hurry of the strong ones who push them forward." Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungulâ campum, as Virgil attempts to imitate the sound in verse. Others, "the hoof....was broken by the precipitation (Calmet) (Protestants, prancings, the prancings of the mighty ones; Haydock) of those who fled." Formerly, Xenophon observes, the horses were not usually shod with iron. The feet of Bucephalus were consequently much worn. Yet some took the precaution to defend the feet of their horses with brass, (Homer) or iron, in the shape of crescents. (Eustathius) --- Nero shod his mules with silver; (Suetonius) and Poppea, his wife, had shoes of gold for her more delicate beasts. Soleas ex auro quoque induere solebat. (Pliny, [Natural History?] xxxiii. 11.) --- Yet many excellent horses in Arabia and Tartary are never shod. (Tavern. T. i. B. ii. 5.)