Commentaria in Josue
Let the leader of war learn here from Josue to be watchful and early, and hear the Emperor Leo in the Tactics, ch. 2, no. 4: “It is fitting to be sober and watchful, that amid the greatest preparation of the lines the mind may as it were keep watch. For by night, when the mind of the commander most rests, the resolution is often changed by turning it over, often confirmed by thought.”
14. AGAINST THE DESERT,—that is, against the line of Josue, which was coming from the northern part of the city, where likewise was the desert; or, as others translate, a level place: for the Hebrew ʻarabah signifies both. The Hebrews add lammoʻed, that is, at the appointed time, namely that hour which was fixed by the king for the sally.
the stretching out of the hands of Moses against Amalec (which fits much more the lifting of the spear by Josue here), allegorically adapting it to the stretching out of Christ’s hands on the cross against the devil: “Note, brethren: Moses indeed lifts his hands, yet does not stretch them out. For whom, then, was it reserved to stretch out the hands, if not for our Lord Jesus Christ, who, stretched on the cross to embrace the whole world, spread out the arms of his piety? Moses therefore lifted his hands; and although he did not spread them out, yet by this lifting he showed the mystery of the cross. See, brethren, that already then by the sacrament of the cross the adverse nations were overcome. And we also, dearest brethren, if by the Lord’s help we raise our hands, overcome the devil. In our hands we ought to understand works: if then your works are such that you can lift them on high in the sight of the Lord, you too can put out your adversaries in yourself. Who lifts his hands well, but he who by almsgiving continually lays up treasure in heaven?”
Moreover, the shield on a spear aptly represents the cross of Christ, because the cross is for us shield and spear: for it supplies all arms both defensive and offensive. For it is a shield to us for repelling all temptations of the flesh and the demon. It is a spear for piercing and subduing the flesh.
19. THEY SET IT ON FIRE,—casting fire into some houses of the men of Hai, to raise smoke, which they might give as a signal to Josue and the Hebrews that the city was now taken by them. For afterwards Josue again ordered the whole city to be burned, verse 28.
20. SEEING THE SMOKE OF THE CITY RISE EVEN TO HEAVEN.—“To heaven,” that is, very high. It is a hyperbole. So the Poet says:
The shout goes up to heaven.
And: The women’s cry strikes the golden stars.
THEY COULD NOT FLEE THIS WAY OR THAT ANY FURTHER.—For they had behind them their city Hai, now fired by the enemy, on the left the other part of the ambush of thirty thousand, and in front and on the right all the rest of the army of the Israelites, who, extending from east to south, had a little before feigned flight; but now, turned about and attacking them, surrounded them on every side, which was Josue’s design, that no one of the enemy should escape.
The Hebrew has, they had no hands to flee, that is, place: so Masius and Pagninus; or means: so the Chaldee and Vatablus. For yadayim signifies both, namely place and strength or means.
27. THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL DIVIDED THE SPOIL OF THE CITY AMONG THEM.—In Jericho all the spoil was burned, because God had appointed it anathema, for a terror to the other cities. But in Hai God gave the spoil to the Hebrews, to enrich them, poor as they were, and encourage them for the battles to come.
28. WHO BURNED THE CITY, AND MADE IT AN EVERLASTING HEAP,—In Hebrew, Josue shook out Hai and reduced it to a perpetual heap, and to a desolation to this day; in Chaldee, he made it a heap desolate for ever to devastation. For everlasting the Hebrew is ʻolam, a word which often signifies not eternal nor perpetual but a long time, which is nevertheless interrupted by some notable change of things. So Hai here, according to its name laid waste and made waste by Josue, was built again after a thousand years and inhabited in the time of Esdras and Nehemias, ch. 11, verse 31, when, namely, after the captivity there seemed to be a new age and a new world.
In Hai, therefore, was fulfilled that word of Isaias 24:10: “The city of vanity is broken down, all joy is forsaken, the mirth of the earth is gone away.” See what was said there.
29. AND HE HANGED THE KING THEREOF ON A GIBBET.—The Septuagint: on a double wood. For in a cross and gibbet there must be two pieces of wood, one upright, the other transverse, either after the likeness of a cross or of the Greek letter T, or the Hebrew tau, which Origen here, homily 8, allegorically interprets of the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ, he says, was twofold, that is, it consists in a twofold and double manner: because visibly Christ was crucified on the cross, but invisibly the devil himself, according to that of Colossians 2: “The handwriting that was against us, he took out of the way, fastening it to his cross, and despoiling principalities and powers, he led them openly, triumphing over them on the wood of the cross.” For so the Greek has, in place of which the Latins have “in himself.” The cross therefore was the trophy of the devil, on which he himself was crucified and triumphed over. Hence Paul said: “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world,” Galatians 6. For we are crucified to the world when the prince of the world, coming, finds nothing in us; and the world is crucified to us when we do not admit the concupiscences of sin. So far Origen.
Moreover, Josephus, after his manner, narrates all this for show, that it may be more pleasing to the ears of Vespasian and the Romans, and that he may provide for the fame and honour of his nation, namely the Jews, among them. Hence he has many things at variance with Holy Scripture, indeed contrary to it, as when he says that the Hebrews took and spared the little ones, women and servants of the city of Hai, while Scripture, ch. 8, verse 25, expressly asserts that all its inhabitants, from man to woman, were slain.
30. THEN JOSUE BUILT AN ALTAR TO THE LORD THE GOD OF ISRAEL IN MOUNT HEBAL.—“Then,” namely about the time when, Jericho and Hai being overthrown, Josue could safely go with the Hebrews to Sichem, to Mounts Garizim and Hebal, that, now possessing the land promised by God, they might confirm the covenant once made with God through Moses on Mount Sinai, and that in the same place in which the patriarch Abraham, when first he left the land of Chaldea, at God’s call, and entered Chanaan, had raised an altar to God, Genesis 12:7. So St. Jerome in the Epitaph of St. Paula, and Adrichomius. See what was said on Leviticus ch. 11, verse 30. Moreover, that these mountains Garizim and Hebal lie near Sichem, and not near Jericho, [is plain from what follows]. And he divides what is mingled in the Hebrew in this manner: As the Lord commanded Moses, to bless the people of Israel. Understand: so Josue did according to the form of blessing prescribed by God, Numbers 6.
34. AFTER THIS HE READ,—that is, he ordered it to be read by the Levites. For so God had commanded through Moses, Deuteronomy ch. 27, where I have explained this whole rite of blessing and cursing; wherefore I will not repeat it here.
as Eusebius or Jerome wishes in the Places of the Hebrews, Josephus plainly teaches, Antiquities book 4, last chapter, and others.
33. AND FIRST HE BLESSED.—Our translator clearly separates