Commentaria in Judices
The sense, then, is, as if to say: When with us, O Lord, with the ark, presiding over it as upon thy throne, thou wentest through the desert, to which Seir or Edom adjoins, that is, Idumea, and especially on Mount Sinai, then there thou shewedst to Moses and the Hebrews our fathers thy presence, power, providence and magnificence by storms, thunders, earthquakes and lightnings, by which thou didst so strike the Idumeans and other neighbouring nations that they dared not resist us, because they saw that thou hadst fought for us against Pharao in the Red Sea, and daily fightest for us and protectest us. Debbora renews the former benefits of God and wonders shewn to Israel by Moses, to show that God has now renewed those in this wonderful victory, and therefore continues His care and beneficence toward Israel; wherefore it is meet that He be praised and glorified by herself and the other Israelites for all ages: so Lyranus, Serarius and others; Abulensis, however, Question 2, takes these properly as they sound, and thinks that those things happened exactly as is here said, though they are not written in the Pentateuch. See what was said on Num. 21:14.
6. IN THE DAYS OF SAMGAR THE SON OF ANATH, IN THE DAYS OF JAHEL, THE PATHS RESTED, AND THEY THAT WENT BY THEM WALKED BY BYE WAYS.—As if to say: Before this war with Sisara happily accomplished, all the roads were beset and infested by enemies, and therefore it was necessary to journey by crooked, pathless and hidden paths, lest anyone fall into their hands. For although Samgar is said to have been a Judge, yet he was so for a short time, and only began the liberation of Israel, but Debbora and Barac completed it by this battle and victory. Whence also the time in which Samgar presided is comprehended under the years of Barac in the last verse here.
But why is Jahel joined with Samgar? Some suspect that Jahel was the wife of Samgar, who is the same with Haber: whence, he being dead, Jahel was a widow and presided over the whole house. For Samgar seems to have been a Cinite, such as Jahel was. Hence Samgar in Hebrew is the same as a stranger there, such as the Cinites were.
But this is plainly uncertain. Whence you may more certainly say that Jahel is introduced here because she was the chief woman among the Cinites, to whom therefore the Cinites flocked, but with difficulty and secretly on account of the roads beset by enemies, as I said. It signifies, then, that Jahel could not make the roads safe and turn away the evils of the people, until the prophetess Debbora by the impulse of God roused Barac and the Hebrews, and consequently Jahel, to this war, and to the slaying of Sisara. So the Hebrews, Serarius and others.
7. THE VALIANT MEN CEASED.—More recent authors render, the villages ceased, namely of the peasants, deserted on account of the raids of enemies.
UNTIL DEBBORA AROSE, A MOTHER AROSE IN ISRAEL.—Hence St. Ambrose, book On Widows, thinks Debbora was the mother of the judge Barac. “Whom,” he says, “she instructed as a mother, set in charge as a judge, trained as a brave woman, sent on as a prophetess sure of victory.” But I say that Debbora is here called mother of Israel on account of maternal charity, by which, like a mother, as a prophetess, she cared for, directed, protected and freed the people, as a mother is wont to do for her son.
8. THE LORD CHOSE NEW WARS.—The word “wars” is not in the Hebrew. Whence the Septuagint, Theodoret, Augustine, Cajetan and others render, Israel chose new gods, and therefore was delivered by God to Sisara. For the Hebrew Elohim signifies as well God as gods; for it is plural. But this is not the place for mentioning gods, where a song of victory is sung to the true God. Wherefore better and more fittingly our Vulgate, understanding wars, renders, the Lord chose new wars; because, namely, through a few and unarmed Hebrews, as follows, He routed the very many and best-armed forces of Sisara, and because He fought from heaven for them, as is said in verse 20. Finally because not through men, but through unwarlike women, Debbora and Jahel, He accomplished this war.
Allegorically Debbora was a type of the Blessed Virgin Mary. First, because Debbora in Hebrew is the same as bee, so called from dabar, that is, word, speech, because the bee continually utters a murmur as it were a speech, says Marinus in his Lexicon, as if to say: The bee is debora, that is, eloquent. So the Blessed Virgin brought forth for us the divine Word, when she embodied him in her womb in human flesh and bore him. Again she is Debbora, because she uttered that most holy, most resounding, most sweet canticle: “My soul doth magnify the Lord,” etc., of which Debbora gave the prelude in this her canticle. Besides, she, as a prophetess, continually poured forth the words and oracles of God. Hence although modern Hebrews call her Debora with a single b, the Septuagint however and St. Jerome call her Debbora with a double b. She is called, therefore, not Debora (as some will have it), but Debbora, as if debbera, that is, speaking and continually pouring forth the great things of God, which the Blessed Virgin did before her.
Moreover the bee is called Debora from dibberah, that is, habit, series, order, because it composes its honeycombs in most beautiful order, with wonderful art and industry. What more orderly than the Blessed Virgin, of whom the Wise Man says, Prov. 8:23: “I was set up from eternity”? Hence her whole life was a mirror of most orderly virtue, charity and all perfection, and so she, as St. Ambrose says, was “the rule of probity, the form of virtue.”
Second, the bee is most chaste, and remaining a virgin generates her little bees. So Blessed Mary is the Virgin of virgins, who therefore deserved to bring forth not a man but God. Aristotle relates this of the bee, History of Animals book IX, chap. 40, and St. Ambrose, book I On Virgins: “Worthy is virginity that is compared to bees; so laborious, so modest, so continent. She feeds on dew, knows no wedlock, composes honey.”
Third, the bee is diligent and a worker, and makes two most excellent things, wax, which we use for lights in church for the worship of God, and honey, which is most sweet and most wholesome. Hence Debbora, that is, bee, alludes to debash, that is, honey, which she produces. Wherefore Proverbs 6:6 and following: “Go to the ant, O sluggard,” etc. The Septuagint add, go to the bee, and learn how industrious she is, and how venerable she makes her work. See what was said there. So the Blessed Virgin works assiduously works of religion, piety, charity; whence she is called and invoked by the Church “mother of mercy, mother of fair love, our life, hope and sweetness.” For, as St. Bernard says, no one, however wretched or wicked, flees to her, who does not experience the most sweet bowels of her mercy.
Fourth, Debbora was a prophetess. So also the Blessed Virgin is the queen of Prophets. Again Debbora brought forth victory over Sisara: the Blessed Virgin over the devil. Hence Isaias, chap. 8:3: “I went,” he says, “to the prophetess (the Blessed Virgin), and she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said to me: Call his name, Make speed to take away the spoils, make haste to take the prey.”
Fifth, Debbora bade Barac go to mount Thabor, that is, of purity, and there by fighting lay low the forces of Sisara; so the Blessed Virgin bore Christ, who as Barac, that is, lightning, transfigured on the same mount Thabor, vanquished impiety and impurity, and taught men to seek not carnal and filthy pleasures, but pure and heavenly ones.
Sixth, Barac would not go to the conflict unless with Debbora as companion, indeed as leader. Whence St. Avitus, book VI, chap. 15, says that she went before the camp; for so he sings of her:
And thou now holdest in mindful memory how Debbora once led the arrayed squadrons after the strong trumpet-call, And a woman, taking the standard, went before the ranks, exhorting the wondering men: whom herself, by example and word warning, she kindled against the fierce foe. And after the spirited Princess, leading, drove on those bands, kindling the arms quickened with fury, the barbarian hosts fell.
So the Blessed Virgin, as standard-bearer of Virgins, Apostles, Martyrs and all the Saints, goes before all, and by word and example exhorts them to contend generously with the flesh, the world and the demon. Wherefore she is far more excellent than Victorina, or Victoria, who was once called mother of the camps, as Trebellius Pollio says, in his book On the Thirty Tyrants. These are the new wars which the Lord chose.
Seventh, Debbora was sent to care for the Doctors of the law, as we shall hear from the Chaldee at verse 9. So the Blessed Virgin is the patroness, indeed the teacher, of the Apostles and of all Doctors.