Commentaria in Josue
Maharbal laced wine with mandrake, which brings sleep; then at night, unexpectedly, leaving some baggage in the camp and all the wine drugged, he feigned flight; and when the barbarians, having occupied the camp, poured out in joy and greedily drained the drugged wine and lay sprawled like the dead, he returned, took them and slaughtered them.
Hannibal, knowing that his camp and the Romans’ were in places short of wood, left within his rampart, from craftiness, in a deserted region very many herds of cattle; and the Romans, seizing them as booty, in their great want of firewood loaded themselves with unwholesome food. Hannibal, leading his army back by night, greatly distressed them, off their guard and heavy with half-raw meat.
Alexander of Macedon, when the enemy had fortified a camp in a rather high pass, drew off part of his forces, ordered those he left behind to kindle fires on the shore and give the appearance of the whole army; he himself, leading round a force through pathless regions, attacked the enemy from higher ground and drove him off.
The Iapygians offered to the proconsul P. Licinius even villages under show of surrender; these, received and placed in the rear line, struck the Romans down.
Scipio Africanus, having two camps of enemies opposed to him, that of Syphax and that of the Carthaginians, determined to attack Syphax’s, where there were abundant supplies, by night and set fire to it, so that from this the Numidians would be thought to be in alarm in their own camp, while the Carthaginians, certain to run to the aid of their allies, he would meet with ambushes set. Both turned out as he intended. All these are very like these ambushes of Josue, and stratagems of great commanders.
10. HE NUMBERED HIS ALLIES,—both that he might draw up from them the line by centuries of soldiers to fight against the men of Hai; and that from the number taken it might afterward be known whether anyone had fallen in the coming fight, and how many; and finally that he might send ahead a few troops of soldiers, but order the greater part of the army to follow at some distance, so that it could not be seen by the men of Hai. For if the men of Hai had seen the whole army of the Hebrews, which was of six hundred thousand, they would have been dismayed and not dared to go out of the city; but now, seeing the fewness of those sent ahead, they dared to attack them, as they had done before.
12. AND HE HAD CHOSEN FIVE THOUSAND MEN, AND HAD PLACED THEM IN AMBUSH BETWEEN BETHEL AND HAI.—With the same order and end as I said at verse 3, namely to invade and occupy the city emptied by its citizens’ going out. For Bethel the Septuagint wrongly has Bethaven. For Bethel is to be read with the Hebrews, Chaldees and Romans, as also at verse 9.
13. BUT ALL THE REST OF THE ARMY TOWARD THE NORTH (OF THE CITY OF HAI) DIRECTED ITS LINE, SO THAT THE LAST OF THAT MULTITUDE REACHED THE WESTERN SIDE OF THE CITY.—For the last the Hebrew has a word which the Chaldee, Masius, Pagninus and Vatablus render ambushes. For the root ʻaqab signifies a heel; hence ʻaqab is to trip up, to lie in ambush, to deceive: whence Jacob is the same as
15. BUT JOSUE AND ALL ISRAEL GAVE WAY FEIGNING FEAR,—that is, flight from fear, as though pretending to be afraid and driven back by the men of Hai, as before they had been beaten by them. The Hebrew is niggeʻu, that is, they were struck, that is, they pretended to be struck, or behaved as if they were being struck and put to flight. For the Hebrews often thus explain their words by “to seem” or “to appear.”
16. BUT THEY, CRYING OUT TOGETHER AND ENCOURAGING ONE ANOTHER, PURSUED THEM.—The translator faithfully renders the sense, though not word for word. For the Hebrew word for word is, and all the people in the city were called out or roused, pursuing them; as if to say, the men of Hai, having gone out of the city and seeing the Hebrews flee, by their shout roused all who had remained in the city to pursue them, so that no one remained in the city.
17. AND NOT ONE REMAINED IN THE CITY OF HAI AND BETHEL,—See here the rashness and folly of the men of Hai, arising from confidence in their former victory. They ought to have left some to guard the city and to shut its gates, lest the Hebrews take it by ambush; but blinded by God, who willed to deliver them to the Hebrews, they did neither,
18. AND THE LORD SAID TO JOSUE: LIFT UP THE SHIELD THAT IS IN THY HAND TOWARD THE CITY.—For shield the Hebrew is kidon, which Josephus, Symmachus and Theodotion also render shield; but the Septuagint, the Chaldee and more recent writers render breastplate, or dart, or spear, or standard. It is likely that Josue lifted a shield on a spear on high, that it might be seen by the ambush stationed by him behind the city; and that to them was given by Josue this signal (though Scripture does not express it), by which they should be warned to invade from behind the city emptied of its citizens.
Secondly, this lifting up of the shield by Josue was a sign of present aid, power and divine vengeance, as also the lifting of the hands of Moses against Amalec, while Josue fought with him; hence he called the altar he raised for the victory: “The Lord is my exaltation,” or “The Lord is my banner,” Exodus 17:15 and following. See what was said there. Hence Josue held the shield raised on high until all the men of Hai were slain, as is said at verse 26.
Moreover St. Jerome (if indeed he is the author) in the Questions on the Books of Kings asserts that this place, in which Josue lifted the shield, is that threshing-floor on which Oza, touching and holding the tottering ark, was struck by God and died, 2 Kings 6. Hence in 1 Paralipomenon 13:9 it is called the threshing-floor of Chidon.
Allegorically, Origen: Josue, or Jesus, stretches out his hand toward Hai, that is, toward the world laid waste by the demon, and given over by God to devastation (for this is what the Hebrew Hai signifies) and destruction on account of its crimes, when Jesus Christ fixed his hands to the cross, and kept them fixed, until the whole victory over the demon and the world was accomplished.
supplanter. But our version, the Septuagint, Arias and others better render the last or the hindmost: for ʻaqeb, because it signifies the heel, which is the last part of a man, hence signifies the end and last of a thing. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Josue directed the line of his army to the northern part of the city of Hai, yet so that the last column, or the hindmost, extended to the western part of the city, where the ambush lay hid, so that they could join the ambush, and if need were, bring aid. The sense therefore comes to the same whether you translate ambushes or the hindmost; for the ambush was to the west, and there likewise were the hindmost extending themselves.
JOSUE THEREFORE WENT THAT NIGHT (with all the rest of the army), AND STOOD IN THE MIDST OF THE VALLEY.—This verse seems to conflict with verse 9, where it is said: “But Josue abode that night in the midst of the people.” But I answer that they do not conflict. For this is an anacephalaeosis, or recapitulation. This, then, was the order of the event: Josue by night, the ambush having been sent ahead, followed it with all the people the same night (not the next, as Masius would have it) to half way of the valley that lay between himself and the city of Hai; but so that the greater part of his army was not so conspicuous, being covered by a hill, or ditches, wagons or woods, lest the men of Hai, seeing so great a multitude, should be terrified and not dare to go out of the city. Josue therefore stayed that night in the midst of the people or camp, but toward the end of the night, namely early in the morning, with a few chosen companions he advanced toward the city to draw the men of Hai outside. So when it says here, “that night,” understand it of the ending night, that is, at dawn, or very early in the twilight. The men of Hai, therefore, seeing him with few, at once burst out against him from the city, and being gradually surrounded by the multitude of the Hebrews as it opened out, were all slain to a man.