Commentaria in Josue
11. And It Reacheth Northward to a Part of Accaron
Accaron and the other four satrapies of the Philistines, namely Azotus, Ascalon, Geth and Gaza, belonged at first to the tribe of Juda, but afterwards part of them fell to the tribe of Dan, as is plain from chapter 19:43: for what is there called Acron is Accaron, as is manifest in the Hebrew; for although the warriors of the tribe of Juda afterwards stormed it, Judges 1, yet they did this not because Accaron belonged to them, but because its inhabitants, as neighbours, were hostile to them. Finally the Philistines at last occupied all these five satrapies, and waged perpetual wars with the Jews.
13. BUT TO CALEB THE SON OF JEPHONE HE GAVE (Josue), etc. CARIATH-ARBE, THE FATHER OF ENAC,—that is, the city of Arbe, who was the father of Enac the giant, from whom the giants Enacim sprang. “Which is Hebron.”
15. AND GOING UP FROM THENCE HE CAME TO THE INHABITANTS OF DABIR, WHICH BEFORE WAS CALLED CARIATH-SEPHER, THAT IS, THE CITY OF LETTERS.—This seems, therefore, to have been the academy of the Chanaanites, in which men of letters taught any letters whatever. Moreover this city had three names; for first it was called Dabir, as oracle of wisdom; or from dabar, that is, to speak, because in it eloquence and the art of speaking rightly were taught; second, it was called Cariath-sepher, that is, city of letters; third, the same, as is plain from verse 49, was called Cariath-senna, that is, city of acuteness, in which, namely, subtle discourse was held on each matter: for sanan (the letter samech being changed into the neighbouring shin) is to sharpen. Whence among the Chaldeans senina signifies acuteness of intellect, and sinan to discourse acutely. Hence the Septuagint in the same place translate, City of letters.
This was therefore the most ancient and first academy of the world which we read of in Scripture. See here the antiquity of academies. For this academy was famous and ancient in the time of Josue, who preceded Christ by 1456 years. See Middendorp, book On the Origin of Academies. So Lyranus, Abulensis, Serarius, Arias and others here, and Driedo, book 4 On Various Dogmas, page 938. So the metropolis of Spain, once called Mantua, occupied by the Moors, was named Madrid, that is, “mother of science,” because the Moors erected in it their schools and academy, as Serarius relates from the Spanish archives on Judges chapter 1, verse 12. Such also in a later age was Thecua; whence that wise woman of Thecua calls it a mother in Israel, and therefore begs David to spare it, 2 Kings chapter 14, verse 2. Such also was the city of Theman among the Idumeans, from which came Eliphaz the Themanite, the friend of Job. Whence the Themanite sophists and wise men are celebrated, Baruch 3:23. Such also were Athens in Greece, Memphis and Heliopolis in Egypt. Masius, from the Chaldean, translates Cariath-sepher as the city of archives, or of records, because in it there was an archive, in which, namely, many monuments of antiquity after the deluge of the world were laid up. Arias calls it “a public library.”
AND OTHONIEL THE SON OF CENEZ, THE YOUNGER BROTHER OF CALEB, TOOK IT.—“Brother,” that is, kinsman, namely the son of a brother, or nephew of Caleb: for Caleb was not the son of Cenez, but of Jephone, and therefore could not be the full brother of Othoniel, who was the son of Cenez. Cenez, then, was the brother of Caleb, and the father of Othoniel. Whence the Septuagint, Vatican and Roman, have adelphou (the Royal, however, have adelphos), that is, of the brother. The Chaldean also and Vatablus translate in the genitive: the son of Cenez the brother of Caleb, or the son of Cenez, who was the younger brother of Caleb. For the Hebrews often leave the relative pronouns and the verb “is” unexpressed. So here the genuine sense seems to be: the son of Cenez. Who (Cenez) was the younger brother of Caleb.
Masius, however, and others think that Caleb was truly the full brother of Othoniel, but only a uterine one, since both had the same mother, by whom Jephone begot Caleb, and Cenez begot Othoniel. And Othoniel could lawfully, though an uncle, marry his niece by his brother, namely Axa, because Leviticus 18:14 forbids only the marriage of an aunt with a nephew, but not of a niece with an uncle. This opinion is probable, and very conformable to the Vulgate version.
Moreover God directed this whole matter, because he destined Othoniel to be the successor of Josue in the leadership. He gave him, therefore, courage and strength to storm Cariath-sepher, held by most valiant men and giants, that he might give a specimen of his eminent virtue and fortitude, on account of which he might deserve to become prince, and obtain among the people an authority worthy of a prince; and therefore Caleb promised him his daughter Axa to wife, as conscious of his valour, and foreknowing that none other than he would attempt so great a thing.
18. AND AS THEY WENT TOGETHER,—as if to say: When Axa was being led as a bride into the house of Othoniel her bridegroom. For it was then the custom (as it still is in many places) that brides were led from the house of their parents to the dwelling of the husband, accompanied by a great crowd of kinsfolk, and if the way was rather long, they were carried on asses or mules, or horses, or camels (as Rebecca, Genesis 24:64), according to the custom of the region, for the sake of honour. And so, says Arias, among those mountain men who dwell near our rock in the territory of Aracena (in Spain), it is thought honourable for a new bride to be carried on a little ass as far as the threshold of the church.
Moreover the Rabbis give this etymology of Axa. Axa, they say, in Hebrew is the same as anger or angry, because Axa was so beautiful that whoever beheld her was angry with his wife, because she seemed deformed in comparison with Axa. So say these carnal and gross men. Far better Pagninus and others: Axa, they say, is the same as elegantly shod, adorned, and walking with measured step, Isaias 3:16, according to that of Canticles 7:1: “How beautiful are thy steps in sandals, O prince’s daughter!” see what is said there. Such tropologically is the modest, quiet, composed soul, mistress of her passions.
WAS MOVED BY HER HUSBAND.—The Hebrew has the contrary: She urged him, namely Axa her husband; but I answer that Axa urged her husband either to ask of her father Caleb the watered land himself, or to allow her to ask the same of him, and advised what would be better in the matter; the husband, however, assenting, answered and urged that she herself should ask. By the urging of her husband, therefore, she asked it, as our interpreter shrewdly translates; and the Septuagint hint this when they translate: and she took counsel with him: I will ask my father for a field.
AND SHE SIGHED.—The Hebrew tsanach, which Masius, Vatablus, Pagninus and Hebraists generally translate, she let herself down, or she fixed herself on the ground; for ours also, Judges 4:21, translates fixed. But the Septuagint agree with ours, who here translate eboesen, that is, she cried out, and in Judges 1:14, egongysen, that is, she murmured: either because both ours and the Septuagint, instead of tsanach, read tsenach, that is, she groaned, sighed; for tsade and ain are neighbouring letters: or because they knew that tsanach was sometimes taken for the kindred anach, which we can no longer know, because the word tsanach is nowhere else found. And truly that Axa sighed, and by her sigh moved her father to grant what she asked, is very probable.
For this is the way of women, this is their art.
19. BUT SHE ANSWERED: GIVE ME A BLESSING,—Acutely and aptly, says Arias, the prudent and sagacious girl used the Hebrew word berachah, by which she signifies blessing, and good fortune, and good prayers, and a singular benefit, a privilege, fertility, and also an abundance of water. For all these things Axa asked in one word, berachah.
Allegorically Rupert on the Book of Judges chapter 2: “Othoniel,” he says, “is Christ, our Saviour and judge, who smote Cariath-sepher, that is, the city of letters, which was before called Dabir, that is, speaking or speech, when, the truth of the Gospel being manifested, he reproved the talkative synagogue of the Scribes and Pharisees, glorying in the letter of the law,” etc. And a little below: “The reward being proposed to him that he should receive Axa as wife, that is, the new Church of the Gentiles; whose father by faith became Caleph, which is interpreted as heart, namely God, who has become to us as a heart, by saying: Turn ye to me, and I will turn to you. Hence he who has become her husband, the Saviour of the world, urged her to ask a field of her father. For he taught his Church to pray, and to ask of God the Father the kingdom of heaven. When she had sighed, sitting on the ass, Caleph said to her: What aileth thee? Axa sits on the ass and sighs when the Church, converted to Christ, the first grace, that is, the remission of sins, being received, asks for the second grace, that is, by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the desire of the heavenly kingdom.”
THOU HAST GIVEN ME A SOUTHERN AND DRY LAND, GIVE ME ALSO A WATERED ONE.—For although the south wind in Europe is rainy and fruitful, and therefore a southern land is fruitful: yet to the Jews the south wind, as blowing from the vast solitude of Arabia, is hot, burning and dry, and therefore, sucking up the moisture of the earth, makes it arid and sterile; but the west wind, as coming from the sea, is to the Jews rainy and fruitful, as is plain from 3 Kings 18:44; Amos 5:8; Luke.
AND CALEB GAVE HER THE UPPER AND THE NETHER WATERY GROUND.—In Hebrew gullot mayim, that is, says Masius, eddies of waters, or springs or sources, by which, as from veins of the earth, boiling waters seem to be thrust out rolling (for galal signifies to roll, to roll together), and these twofold, namely upper, by which the hilly places, and lower, by which the fuller places and fields, could be watered, and so made fertile. With the springs understand also their grounds, as I shall presently say. So also Theodoret, Question 2 on Judges, and Procopius, who adds that Symmachus translated, a possession in the upper parts, and a possession in the lower. By which tropologically, says Procopius, he signifies the faculty of heavenly and sublime thought, as well as of humiliation; wherefore the upper possession is prayer and meditation; the lower, humiliation and mortification.
More plainly and exactly St. Gregory (whom Rupert follows), book 3 of the Dialogues, chapter 34, and book 6 of the Register, epistle 93 to Theoctista, teaches that a twofold compunction is here noted: “Axa,” he says, “sits on the ass when the soul presides over the irrational motions of her flesh. Sighing, she asks of her father a watered land, because the grace of tears is to be sought from our Creator with great groaning. For there are some who have already received in gift to speak freely for justice, to protect the oppressed, to give possessions to the needy, to have ardour of faith, but have not yet the grace of tears. These indeed have a southern and dry land; but they still need watered ground, because, set in good works, in which they are great and fervent, it behoves them too, by fear of punishment or love of the heavenly kingdom, to bewail even the evils which they perpetrated before.” Wherefore he presently adds: “But because, as I have said, there are two kinds of compunction, her father gave her the upper watery ground and the nether watery ground. The upper watery ground the soul receives when she afflicts herself in tears with desire of the heavenly kingdom; the nether she receives when weeping she dreads the torments of hell. And indeed the nether is given first, and afterwards the upper. But because compunction rises above in the dignity of love, it was necessary that the upper watery ground should be mentioned first, and the nether afterwards.” Whence a little before he said: “And so it comes about that perfect compunction of fear hands the soul over to compunction of love.” Hear St. Augustine, book of Meditations chapter 36: “Give me,” he says, “an evident sign of thy love: a watered fountain of tears, ever flowing, that my very tears also may testify thy love in me; let them proclaim, let them speak how much my soul loves thee, while for the excess of sweetness of thy love it cannot contain itself from tears.”
WATERED.—In the Septuagint is wrongly read lytrosin, that is, redemption, as Theodoret, St. Augustine and Procopius read it, instead of loutrosin, that is, washing, watering, as Theodotion translates. Cajetan understands by the upper watered ground springs bursting forth in the mountains, by the lower, wells. Others understand by the upper watered ground a field watered by rains, or one that is wont to be watered by rains; by the lower, springs. Others better understand mountain fields and estates, and slopes, watered by springs and waters; for daughters could be heirs of estates if they married a husband of their own tribe and family; for then they were not transferred to another tribe and family, which alone is forbidden, Numbers 36:6.
and thirty, if you number the individual names; but among them some more celebrated villages are mentioned, so that properly there were only twenty-nine cities. So Masius.
62. AND THE CITY OF SALT.—So called, either because it is near the Dead or Salt Sea; or because near it Lot’s wife, looking back, was turned into a pillar of salt; or because in it there were salt-works, in which waters from the neighbouring Dead or Salt Sea were boiled down by the heat of the sun, and from them salt was made. Some suppose this to be Segor, to which Lot fled, Genesis 19:23. Adrichomius, however, and others distinguish it from Segor, and make it a city of salt in its own right.
63. BUT THE JEBUSITE, THE INHABITANT OF JERUSALEM, THE CHILDREN OF JUDA COULD NOT DESTROY,—On account of their sloth and sins, by which God, provoked, withdrew his help from them, as is said Judges chapter 2, verse 20.
Nay, even in David’s time the Jebusites dwelt among the Israelites, and David wrested from them the citadel of Sion, yet did not wholly remove them, but only subjugated them, and that the Jebusites passed into the jurisdiction and dominion, as also into the sacred rites and religion, of the Israelites, is gathered from 2 Kings 24:22, where David buys from Areuna the Jebusite a threshing-floor on which to sacrifice to God. So Masius. It is a prolepsis. For these things happened after the happy times of Josue, under the Judges: therefore Josue took Jerusalem, and slew its king Adonisedec with the four other kings, as we heard in chapter 10; yet he did not take the citadel of Jerusalem, but the Jebusites held it: whence it came about that after the death of Josue the same gradually occupied the whole city again, as they occupied Hebron and Dabir, before stormed by Josue; hence it was necessary that the children of Juda should storm Jerusalem, which they did after the death of Josue, as we shall hear in Judges 1.
Wrongly, therefore, does R. David say that it was not lawful for the Jews to storm Jerusalem, because the Jebusites, sprung from Abimelech, with whom Abraham had made a covenant, Genesis 21, held it; but that David did it when this covenant was extinguished by length of time. For these are mere fictions. Tropologically, the Jebusite in Hebrew is the same as treader (for bus signifies to tread); here he signifies our concupiscence and its motions, which daily harass, vex and trample on the Jew, that is, the reason and mind professing faith and piety toward God, and cannot be expelled by our strength, but there is need of David, that is, Christ, sprung from David’s blood; yet neither does he wholly exterminate them, but subdues them, that by constantly wrestling with them and suppressing them, we may have a perpetual exercise of fighting and conquering.