Commentaria in Judices
HE HIMSELF OVERTHREW THE GATES OF THE ENEMIES.—“Gates,” that is, all strength, for this is wont to be in the gates. In Hebrew az lacham shearim, that is, then he ate or devoured. The Septuagint render, then the cities of the Princes fought, because lacham signifies to devour and to fight; for as the mouth devours bread, so the sword devours a man. Again the Septuagint took shearim as: she a relative, signifying who, then arim signifying cities, as if to say: they fought who were of the cities, namely the Princes. Moreover St. Augustine, Question 30, and Theodoret from another version of the Septuagint, read, they chose new gods like barley bread, that is, worse; for barley is worse than wheat: so new gods are worse than the true God; because lechem too is a name signifying bread, and if for shearim you read with other points seorim, it signifies barley. Whence lechem seorim signifies barley bread.
A SHIELD AND SPEAR WAS NOT SEEN AMONG FORTY THOUSAND OF ISRAEL.—“If,” that is, not, as if to say: There were not among forty thousand, that is, in the whole army of Israel (for a fixed number is put for an uncertain), shields and spears, but armed with slings, clubs, ploughshares (like Samgar), mattocks, and the rest of the Israelites unarmed, they routed with God as leader the best-armed enemies. Evidently the Chanaanites, like the Philistines, had craftily taken away the arms of the Hebrews, indeed took care that there should be no ironsmith in Israel who could make them, as is plain 1 Kings 13:19. Moreover the Septuagint here as in what follows vary and are corrupt; for they have the contrary by deleting “if,” but the Romans restored it in the correction of the Septuagint.
9. MY HEART LOVETH THE PRINCES (in Hebrew chokekhe, that is, Princes, Lawgivers, Doctors, Scribes) OF ISRAEL (because they rule them and teach the law of God, especially those who, as follows), OF YOUR OWN GOOD WILL OFFERED YOURSELVES TO DANGER (and therefore now triumphing), BLESS YE THE LORD.—Learn here to shrink from no danger for God, when He Himself calls to it: for, as St. Leo says, “he justly urges the precept, who prevents with help”; for then God tacitly promises a happy issue and victory, if we undertake the danger of our own accord and generously. Moreover the Chaldee in his manner paraphrastically takes this of Doctors and Scribes: “Debbora,” he says, “said in prophecy: I am sent to praise the Scribes of Israel, who, when that tribulation was, did not cease from interpreting the law, and so it was beautiful for them that, sitting in the house of assembly with head uncovered, and teaching the people the words of the law, they blessed and confessed the people.”
10. YOU THAT RIDE UPON FAIR ASSES, AND SIT IN JUDGMENT, AND WALK IN THE WAY, SPEAK.—It is a periphrasis of honourable men, and magistrates and judges. For these among the Jews were carried on asses instead of horses, as is plain chap. 10, verse 4, both because God had forbidden them a store of horses, and because the asses there are strong, choice and shining, in Hebrew tsechorot, leukai, that is, gleaming. The sense is, as if to say: You, O chiefs and judges, as well as commoners, who walk now securely along the roads of Israel once perilous, speak of the great things of God, which He Himself has shewn us in this battle.
Tropologically Origen: He mounts upon the she-ass who moderates the motions and desires of his body with the bridle of reason, that they may come under the yoke of the word of God; and then the she-ass, that is, the flesh, is said to shine when it has been adorned with the splendour of chastity and purity.
11. WHERE THE CHARIOTS WERE DASHED TOGETHER (the nine hundred scythed chariots of Sisara), AND THE ARMY OF THE ENEMIES WAS CHOKED (in the torrent Cison. The Interpreter renders clearly what in the Hebrew is obscure, and which literally runs thus: from the voice of the archers among the drawers of water, when, namely, the Sisarian archers, hurled into the waters of Cison, drank of them and were drunk up and choked by them. So Arias, Cajetan, Vatablus and others), THERE LET THE JUSTICES (that is, the just vengeance which God took on the tyrant Sisara) AND HIS CLEMENCY TOWARDS THE BRAVE MEN OF ISRAEL BE REHEARSED.—To whom He gave the victory over him. THEN THE PEOPLE OF THE LORD WENT DOWN TO THE GATES, AND OBTAINED THE SOVEREIGNTY,—as if you should say: When Sisara was slain, Israel obtained the gates and cities of the enemies.
Awake, awake, Barac, and take hold of the captives whom thou hast taken in the battle, and plunder them and their spoils, and distribute them among thy fellow-soldiers. Thou, I say, O Barac, SON OF ABINOEM.—Abinoem in Hebrew is the same as father of grace or beauty, or my mother is beauty or grace, or my father is delight or pleasantness. For noam is grace, beauty, delight, pleasantness. The son of this one, then, was Barac the victor and triumpher.
13. THE REMNANTS OF THE PEOPLE ARE SAVED, THE LORD HATH FOUGHT AMONG THE VALIANT ONES (with the valiant, or the valiant Israelites).—The Hebrew more forcefully, literally, thus: then the remnant, or the residue, shall have dominion over the illustrious of the people, the Lord will have dominion for me over the strong.
14. OUT OF EPHRAIM HE DESTROYED THEM INTO AMALEC, AND AFTER HIM OUT OF BENJAMIN INTO THY PEOPLE, O AMALEC.—Hebrew: out of Ephraim their root in Amalec, after thee Benjamin in thy peoples. But our Vulgate better, for shorescham, that is, their root, which has no sense here, with other points reads sherescem, that is, he rooted them out, or destroyed them. For the Septuagint too render exerrizosen, that is, he rooted out. Again our Vulgate supplies “Amalec” from what went before, and for acharecha, that is, after thee, reads acharav, that is, after him.
The sense here is difficult and obscure on account of ignorance of the history accomplished, and of the involved obscurity of the poetic phrase and style.
First, they commonly expound it of the war in which Josue overthrew Amalec, Exodus 17, as if to say: Josue, who was of the tribe of Ephraim, overthrew the Amalecites, and at a future time another leader shall arise of the tribe of Benjamin, namely Saul, who shall afflict thy peoples further, O Amalec. See the history 1 Kings 15. So the Chaldee, the Rabbis, Hugh of St. Victor, Abulensis, Lyranus, Dionysius, Cajetan, Arias, Vatablus and others. But what has Josue to do with Barac, and Amalec with Sisara, of whom the song of victory is here sung?
Second, therefore, more fittingly, as if to say: Barac with his men pursued the forces of Sisara fleeing from mount Thabor as far as the tribe of Ephraim, and Benjamin neighbouring it; wherefore the Ephraimites seeing this, and after them the Benjamites, joined themselves to Barac, and with him pursued the Sisarians to the last borders of Juda, indeed as far as Amalec adjoining them, and so plainly slew and destroyed them all, that none remained.
Third, and plainly, as if to say: The Amalecites, as old enemies of the Jews, hearing that Sisara was invading the Jews with such great forces, resolved to send him succours; which when the Ephraimites and Benjamites their neighbours understood, they attacked and slaughtered them. This the “in Amalec” and the “in thy peoples, O Amalec” seem to require.
Moreover the Septuagint here vary: for the Complutensian and the Royal Codices have, out of Ephraim they avenged them in the valley (for instead of Amalec they seem to have read emek, that is, valley), thy brother Benjamin in thy peoples (for acharecha, that is, after thee, they read achicha, that is, thy brother). But the Codices corrected at Rome have as the Vulgate: Out of Ephraim he rooted them out in Amalec, after thee Benjamin in thy peoples.
OUT OF MACHIR THERE CAME DOWN PRINCES.—Machir was the only son of Manasses. The sense, then, is, as if to say: The chiefs of the Manassites with their countrymen, neighbours of mount Thabor, hearing that their allies were fighting against Sisara on it, ran to them and brought them help. For here he praises the Manassites, Zabulonites and Issacharians, that they courageously brought help to the Nephtalites against Sisara, when the Rubenites, Galaadites and Gadites, fearing for themselves, refused to do it, whom therefore he carps at and censures.
For princes the Septuagint render, searchers, which Procopius explains thus, as if to say: The Manassites searched out the fleeing Sisarians hiding themselves in caves and caverns, and drew them forth and slew them.
AND OUT OF ZABULON (repeat, princes came down) THEY THAT LED THE ARMY TO FIGHT—with Barac against Sisara. The Septuagint render, and out of Zabulon mighty in the sceptre, scribes; the Hebrew, drawing with the rod or sceptre, by which are signified magistrates, chiefs and princes. Others understand Scribes and Doctors, as though so great was the fervour of those running to the war that even their Doctors changed their pens and writing-styles into arms and swords, and went down to the battle.
15. THE CAPTAINS OF ISSACHAR WERE WITH DEBBORA, AND FOLLOWED THE STEPS OF BARAC.—The Issacharians are praised because they generously undertook with Barac and Debbora the hazard of so arduous and dreadful a battle.