Commentaria in Judices
“remaining in their order,” in Hebrew in their paths; Vatablus, from their stations, that is, advancing in orderly array they fought against Sisara, because upon him and his camp they hurled winds, storms, lightnings, with which they smote and laid them low. “Remaining in their order and course” signifies, then, first, that the stars advanced in order after their manner, as an army of soldiers advances. For in Scripture the stars are called the host or army of God: and in an army order of the soldiers is chiefly regarded; for this, if kept, conquers; if disturbed, is conquered. Second, that the stars fought against Sisara not hand to hand, but from a distance from heaven. Third, that the Angels who govern the order and course of the stars contended by them against Sisara. Fourth, that the sun and stars here did not stand still as they stood under Josue, when he commanded the Sun to stand, chap. 10, verse 12, but continued their ordinary motion, and so produced storms and lightnings, and hurled them upon the Sisarians. So Lyranus, Cajetan and others. Fifth, that the stars from their stations in heaven easily destroyed the Sisarians on earth, because from on high it is easy to destroy an enemy standing below in the valley. For darts are cast more easily, more strongly and more surely from high to low than from low to high. Hence leaders about to fight are wont to seize a lofty place, and this is the omen and cause of victory: both because the enemy from below must climb to it with great effort, and so exhausts his strength before he engages his antagonists, who are quiet and of whole strength; and because darts are more efficacious from the mountain into the valley than from the valley to the mountain; and finally because from on high all the ranks, forces, contrivances, etc., of the enemy are seen, so that they may be met. The Rabbis add in the Seder Olam: “All things that are in the heavens, and that are on earth, fought against Sisara,” for Barac and the Hebrews.
For “dragged away” the Hebrew is garaph, that is, rolled, rolled down, rolled together, rolled about; the Septuagint, cast out; the Chaldee, broke; Vatablus, swept, that is, swept away like a broom. The torrent Cison flows at the foot of mount Thabor, where Sisara was crushed: wherefore his soldiers fleeing through the torrent Cison, it being by God’s providence overflowing with waters and swollen, were drunk up and drowned; wherefore the torrent rolled down their carcasses. Whence Josephus says that God then sent an immense rain, by which the torrent Cison was greatly swollen. Festively R. Eliezer, chap. 42, narrates that God wished the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea to be buried; but the earth pleaded against it, that those who had been slain by the waters ought also to be swallowed up by the waters; but God said: “O earth, this time take these; another time I will cast into the sea those who shall be slain upon thee. For it is said: The torrent of Cison dragged away their carcasses.” It is a Rabbinic ethopoeia, by which it is signified that all things, even inanimate, comply at God’s nod, and are all governed by Him sweetly and in a manner suited to their own natures. So Serarius.
THE TORRENT OF CADUMIM, THE TORRENT OF CISON.—The torrent Cadumim is the same as the torrent Cison, as the Chaldee has. It is, he says, the torrent Cison; but why is it called “Cadumim”? First, the Septuagint in the Roman Codex, for the torrent Cadumim, render, torrent of antiquities: for kedem signifies ancient, primeval, first, which Marinus simply explains, as if to say: Cison is an ancient torrent; for although it is a torrent, yet it flows from of old, nor ceases to flow, whereas other torrents are often dried up in summer and cease to flow. The Chaldee explains more loftily thus: The river in which signs and mighty deeds of Israel were done from of old; but R. Ralbag: It is called Cison, he says, Cadumim, that is, ancient, because in it the ancient wonder of the Red Sea was renewed; for as God drowned Pharao in that, so in Cison He drowned the forces of Sisara. So also Rupert, who thinks that Cadumim is the Red Sea, and is so called on account of the ancient wonder of Pharao drowned in it.
Arias and Vatablus explain it best thus, as if to say: From of old, from long ago, from the beginning, the torrent Cison was made and ordained by God for this, that in it, Barac fighting, the Sisarians should be drowned.
Secondly, Serarius renders the torrent Cadumim, the torrent of the Orientals: for kedem signifies also the East. For the torrent Cison flows partly toward the Mediterranean sea, which is to the West; partly into the sea of Galilee, which is to the East: this Eastern part of the torrent is that in which the Chanaanites were drowned.
Thirdly, others render Cadumim, which is a passive participle, properly of those prevented, forestalled; where, namely, the Sisarians were unexpectedly overtaken by the waters and suffocated: for kadam signifies to prevent, to forestall. All these expositions are probable conjectures; for nothing certain can be fixed here. Whence St. Jerome in the Hebrew Places: “Cadomi,” he says, “a torrent, near which Debbora waged war.” Adrichomius adds that a certain rivulet proceeding from the torrent Cison is called Cadumim, but whether it is so called from some city, or from elsewhere, he does not explain.
Allegorically Blessed Peter Damian, serm. 40, which is on the martyr St. Cassian, applying this whole battle to the Church, takes by the torrent Cison Baptism. “For when the catechumen,” he says, “is immersed in the bath of the sacred font, like Sisara with his army, so the most wicked spirit with all the vices that serve him must needs be destroyed.”
Moreover of this victory, as illustrious and heavenly, mention is made at times in Scripture, as Psalm 82:10: “Do to them as to Madian and Sisara, as to Jabin at the brook of Cisson,” that is, destroy our enemies, as thou didst destroy the Madianites by Gedeon, and the forces of the leader Sisara and king Jabin at the torrent Cison. For Sisara himself did not perish in Cison, since he was slain by Jahel, much less did king Jabin perish there, who was not present in the battle. Again, Elias ordered the priests of Baal to be slain at the torrent Cison, 3 Kings 18:40, and this fittingly, that where the heathen Sisarians had been drowned, there also the idolatrous Baalites should be drowned. Hence Cison is the same as hardness, or hardened, or stubble; for this torrent swept them away like stubble, because they were hardened in their crime and idolatry.
TREAD THOU, MY SOUL, UPON THE STRONG ONES.—Debbora says this poetically, as if to say: Rejoice, exult, triumph, O my soul, because God has laid low the Sisarians, however armed and strong, and subjected them to thee to be trodden underfoot; Some render, Thou didst tread, my soul, strongly, as if to say: The torrent which drowned the Sisarians, thou, O Debbora, didst tread with strong and dry foot, as the Red Sea, which swallowed Pharao, dividing itself, gave a dry bed and passage to the Hebrews. The Septuagint and the Romans favour it, who have, my mighty soul trod on it (the torrent Cison). So Serarius. If this is true, it is a new and prodigious miracle. But the Complutensian, Royal and others have, for “it,” “them,” namely the soldiers of Sisara. Whence also the Chaldee renders, where my soul trod upon their slain in strength.
Cajetan goes in quite another direction, who renders: My soul, that is, of my people, shall direct strength, that is, shall place its strength in God, so that Cadumim here would mark a part.
22. THE HOOFS OF THE HORSES FELL, WHILE THE STOUTEST OF THE ENEMIES FLED AMAIN, AND TUMBLED ONE OVER ANOTHER HEADLONG.—For hoofs are wont, in violent running, from collision with stones, to fall from horses’ feet. By this phrase, then, is signified the enemies’ great terror, and thence the impetus in flight. The Septuagint, Romans, render, when the heels of the horse were hindered, they hastened with haste. The Complutensian and Royal have, then the legs of the horses were cut off by the neighings of his mighty ones.
HIS STRONG ONES.—Aquila, says Procopius, expounded the Hebrew middaharoth, God of the rushing, that is, the hoofs of the horses most agile in the line of battle were made useless. In Chaldee, then the hoofs of the horses were drawn out by the roaring.