Commentaria in Judices
THE WIFE OF LAPIDOTH.—This was the name of Debbora’s husband. The Rabbis and Arias render, woman of lamps, who, namely, trimmed the wicks of the tabernacle. For Lapidoth in Hebrew signifies lamps, torches, firebrands: and from it is derived the Greek and Latin word lampas, says Arias, who renders, woman of lamps, or of splendours, because Debbora was illumined by divine splendours and oracles. Others think that Lapidoth was the Judge Barac himself. More truly Serarius and others hold that Lapidoth was the husband of Debbora, and another from Barac: for if he had been the same, Scripture would not have kept silence on it here.
Moreover St. Ambrose, in his book On Widows, thinks Debbora was a widow: “A widow,” he says, “rules peoples, a widow leads an army, a widow chooses leaders, a widow herself arranges wars, commands triumphs.” St. Jerome denies this, epist. 10, because here she is called a wife. Abulensis, Arias and Serarius reconcile both by saying that Debbora, at the time when she received the grace of prophecy, separated herself from her husband’s bed, and so was a wife as to the bond of marriage, but a widow as to continence and separation of bed.
WHO JUDGED THE PEOPLE,—She gave justice to the people. You will ask, was Debbora therefore a judge and prince of the people? St. Ambrose and St. Jerome in the places just cited affirm it. Abulensis, Arias, Cajetan, Serarius and the Rabbis better judge that she is called a judge improperly, but properly was not; for Jabin and Sisara, ruling over the Hebrews, would not have permitted it. Debbora therefore judged, that is, gave justice, says Serarius, and settled some disputes without any jurisdiction, but only from prophecy and the authority which this gained her, as Deioces at the beginning, before he became king, by wisdom alone and the authority following from it, acted as Judge among the Medes, as Herodotus relates in his first book: and as Samuel answered those who consulted him about hidden and doubtful matters, 1 Kings chap. 9. And so what Scripture, what the Fathers say, that she judged, ruled and governed the people, is to be understood thus: “She judged,” says St. Augustine, book XVIII On the City, chap. 41, “among the Hebrews, the woman Debbora; but through her the Spirit of God did this, for she was also a Prophetess.” The Judge then, by God’s command through Debbora, was made Barac, not Debbora herself.
(palm), because she by her oracles was to bestow the palm of victory over Sisara on Barac and the Hebrews; and because “the just shall flourish like the palm tree,” says Origen.
BETWEEN RAMA AND BETHEL.—“Rama,” says Origen, hom. 5, “is interpreted high places; Bethel, house of God. See in what places prophecy is said to dwell, between high places and the house of God. For nothing lowly, nothing cast down, nothing base can be found in the seat of prophecy. Prophecy, which is now described in Debbora, is said to dwell between high places and the house of God; for it teaches us not to seek the things that are upon earth, but those that are in heaven and in the high places, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Thither prophecy exhorts us to ascend, thither it labours to lead over its disciples.”
FOR ALL JUDGMENT,—for all disputes to be decided and ended by Debbora’s sentence and judgment.
6. WHO SENT AND CALLED BARAC THE SON OF ABINOEM.—St. Ambrose, in his book On Widows, thinks Barac was the son of Debbora; for bar signifies son, because Debbora, chap. 5, verse 7, is called mother in Israel. Genebrardus thinks Barac was her father, some Rabbis that he was the husband of Debbora. But Scripture here plainly intimates that he was a stranger, not a blood relation of Debbora. For Debbora was of the tribe of Ephraim, but Barac of the tribe of Nephtali, as is plain from verses 5 and 6. Barac in Hebrew signifies lightning, because he, leaping like lightning, with heavenly force laid low Sisara and his very strong camp, as will appear in verse 15, according to what was said of both the Scipios, Asiaticus and Africanus: “The two thunderbolts of war, the Scipiads.”
The father of Barac was Abinoem, which in Hebrew is the same as father of beauty, or beautiful, pleasant, glorious father. Hear Rupert, chap. 4: “Barac, the same who is also Lapidoth (which I have already refuted), is handed down as the husband of the prophetess Debbora. Lapidoth, however, is interpreted lightning. Barac also thunderbolt. Lightning, therefore, because before he avenged Israel on the Chanaanites, he shone like lightning among the people, namely by merits and prerogatives of works. But after he avenged Israel on the Chanaanites, he was called thunderbolt, that is, the striker.”
LEAD AN ARMY TO MOUNT THABOR.—Thabor is a very high and very pleasant mountain, on which Christ was transfigured, of whom Barac, that is, lightning, was a type: for then the face of Christ was seen like lightning and his garments shining. In Greek exastrapton, that is, flashing forth, says Luke, chap. 9:29. Hence Thabor in Hebrew is the same as purity, or election, or light coming, or the coming of light.
8. AND BARAC SAID TO HER: IF THOU WILT COME WITH ME, I WILL GO: IF THOU WILT NOT COME WITH ME, I WILL NOT GO.—The Septuagint add the reason, who add of themselves, as we read in St. Augustine, Question 26: “I know not the day on which the Lord prospers his Angel with me.” In St. Ambrose, book On Widows: “I know not the day on which the Lord sends his Angel with me.” Which is explained: I do not know whether the Lord of Angels will prosper me on such a day through the Angel, or whether through him he will be present with me and prosper what is begun.
Barac at first, hearing that so great and arduous a task as vanquishing Sisara was imposed on him by God, was slow in believing and obeying; whence he asked Debbora as companion: soon, however, resuming courage, and strengthened by Debbora, with great faith and hope he undertook the matter and happily accomplished it; whence the Apostle celebrates his faith, Heb. 11:32.
AT THIS TIME THE VICTORY SHALL NOT BE ATTRIBUTED TO THEE, BECAUSE SISARA SHALL BE DELIVERED INTO THE HAND OF A WOMAN (Debbora, or rather Jahel, as is plain from verse 21).—In Hebrew: Going I will go with thee: nevertheless thy glory shall not be in the way, or on account of the way in which thou goest. For into the hand of a woman the Lord will sell Sisara. For in place of victory there is tiphartecha, that is, thy honour, praise, glory. The Septuagint render proteuma, that is, pre-eminence or first place, as if to say: Because thou didst not at once believe, nor obey God, but didst tremble like a woman, therefore God will transfer from thee the glory of the future victory, and will make not thee, but the woman Jahel, slay Sisara. See how quickly and strongly God wills to be obeyed, even in arduous things and those surpassing nature. Hear St. Ambrose, book On Widows: Debbora instructed the leader Barac as a mother, set him in charge as a judge, trained him as a brave woman, sent him on as a Prophetess sure of victory. Finally that the sum of victory was in the hand of a woman her son Barac teaches, saying: Unless thou come with me, I will not go, for I know not the day on which the Lord sends his Angel with me. How great, then, was the virtue of that woman, to whom the leader of an army says: Unless thou come, I will not go?
14. BEHOLD HE IS THY LEADER.—The Chaldee, is not the Angel of the Lord going out to prosper before thee? The Septuagint, will not the Lord go before thee? So an Angel went before Judas Machabeus, and made him victor.
15. AND THE LORD (in Hebrew vayyahom, that is, he discomfited, crushed, destroyed) STRUCK A TERROR INTO SISARA, AND ALL HIS CHARIOTS AND ALL HIS MULTITUDE.—Josephus, and from him Abulensis, asserts that there were three hundred thousand foot and ten thousand horse; for Sisara had drawn together and mustered for this battle all kings, not only subjects but allies and friends. The Chaldee favours it, which, chap. 5:8, numbers two hundred and fifty thousand soldiers of Sisara, besides nine hundred scythed chariots. Josephus adds that part of them were slain by the Israelite darts and swords, part trampled down by their own cavalry and infantry through a panic terror sent into them by God, part struck by God with storms, thunders and lightnings, so that not even one survived the slaughter, as the Hebrew has in verse 16. This is what is said in the next chapter, verse 20: “From heaven there was war against them; the stars remaining in their order and courses fought against Sisara.” Josephus adds that Barac, leading the army to Asor, the city of king Jabin, met the king himself and slew him, and levelled the city itself with the ground.
In like manner God struck and astonished Pharao with storms, thunders and lightnings in the Red Sea, Exod. 14:24, and the Chanaanites, Josue 10:10, and the Philistines under Samuel, 1 Kings 7:10; for these are the chariots, these the arms with which He smites the impious, as the Psalmist teaches, Psalm 17:14: “And the Lord thundered from heaven”; and Psalm 143:6: “Lighten forth lightning,” he says, “and thou shalt scatter them: send out thy arrows, and thou shalt trouble them.” So when the army of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius was besieged by enemies, the Christian soldiers by their prayer obtained from God rain, lightnings and thunders with hail, by which the enemies, struck, were turned to flight. Whence that legion was called Keraunobolos, that is, Thunderbolt-bearing, as Tertullian testifies, Apology chap. 5, and Eusebius, book V of the History, chap. 5. The same happened to the Emperor Theodosius fighting against the tyrant Eugenius, which Claudian beautifully describes in these verses in the Panegyric on the Third Consulship of Honorius: