Commentaria in Judices
26. AND THOU SHALT BUILD AN ALTAR TO THE LORD THY GOD IN THE TOP OF THIS ROCK, UPON WHICH THOU DIDST LAY THE SACRIFICE (the victim of bread and flesh) BEFORE: AND THOU SHALT TAKE THE SECOND BULLOCK, AND SHALT OFFER A HOLOCAUST.—Whence Arias thinks that both bullocks were immolated, and that under the second the former is understood. It may be, however, says Serarius, that of the two only one was immolated at daybreak, as seems to Abulensis, Question 40, or for some other reason, and that this was immolated first; because the seven-year-old, being very fat and most suitable for ending the servitude; and therefore, whether the other was already wholly burnt, or was afterwards to be burnt, the men of Ephra found this one alone laid upon the altar, and still burning. Here, then, God made Gedeon a priest, though not of the priestly tribe, namely of Levi, but of Manasses, and commanded him to sacrifice to Him, that he might be a type of Christ, who was a priest.
Allegorically St. Ambrose, preface to book I On the Holy Spirit: “Holy Gedeon,” he says, “slew the calf assigned by his father to the idols, and himself immolated to God another calf of seven years. By this deed he most manifestly revealed that after the coming of the Lord all the sacrifices of the Gentiles were to be abolished, and the sole sacrifice of the Lord’s Passion was to be offered to God for the redemption of the people. For that calf was a type of Christ, in whom dwelt the fullness of the seven spiritual virtues, as Isaias said. This calf Abraham also offered, when he saw the day of the Lord, and was glad. This is He who now in the type of a kid, now of a sheep, now of a calf was offered. Of a kid, because the sacrifice is for offences; of a sheep, because it is a voluntary victim; of a calf, because it is a spotless victim. Holy Gedeon therefore foresaw the mystery.” The same has Augustine, serm. 108 On the Time, but the phrase savours more of the style of St. Ambrose.
31. ARE YOU THE AVENGERS OF BAAL, THAT YOU FIGHT FOR HIM? HE THAT IS HIS ENEMY, LET HIM DIE BEFORE TO-MORROW LIGHT APPEAR: IF HE BE A GOD, LET HIM REVENGE HIMSELF ON HIM THAT HATH CAST DOWN HIS ALTAR.—The Hebrew has it more significantly: Will you plead for Baal? will you save him? By a plausible argument Joas the father frees his son Gedeon, the overthrower of the altar of Baal, from death, as if to say: If Baal is a God, he certainly feels this injury inflicted on him in the cutting down of his altar; wherefore if he is himself an omnipotent God and an avenger of impiety, let him preserve himself and his worship, and avenge himself on him who overthrew his altar before to-morrow, that it may appear to all that he is God, to be feared and worshipped by all.
32. FROM THAT DAY GEDEON WAS CALLED JEROBAAL: LET BAAL REVENGE HIMSELF ON HIM THAT HATH CAST DOWN HIS ALTAR.—Gedeon in Hebrew is the same as cutter-down of iniquity and of the idol, likewise cutter-down of sorrow; for this accompanies iniquity, as the lictor the culprit. The same was called Jerobaal, as if yarev Baal, that is, pleading, contending, striving with Baal. Whence for “let him revenge himself on him,” the Hebrew is yarev bo, that is, let him plead with him, let him bring and press a suit against him and strive with him, and if he is more powerful, let him avenge himself on him, and chastise and punish him, as if to say: Why do you plead with Gedeon my son, because he overthrew the altar of Baal? let Baal himself plead, if he is God, with him. For if he is God, he is powerful and just, to punish this injury of his; wherefore he needs no pleaders and litigants of yours. It is an argument plausible in appearance, and ad hominem. For the citizens and inhabitants of Ephra, worshippers of Baal, held this opinion and feeling of their Baal; but in truth he is in himself weak and powerless. For in like manner it would be permitted to say to the heretic iconoclasts: If God and the Saints take it ill that their images are broken, let them avenge themselves on us and chastise us. But this it is not lawful to say, nor does it suffice to excuse the deed: both because God often in this life dissembles the vengeance of His injury, and defers it to the other life, that it may be sharper and eternal; and because He has appointed kings and magistrates, who are to judge and avenge injuries done to Him; wherefore they are bound by office to do this very thing.
Moreover, instead of Jerobaal, Gedeon was by contraction called Arbel, as is plain Osee 10:14. See what was said there.
Tropologically: Wouldst thou be Gedeon, that is, cutter-down of iniquity? Cut down from thy heart and from those of thy neighbours all harmful desires; for these are the idols and altars of Baal, which each paints and fashions for himself in his mind, and if he cuts them down he will easily overcome the Madianites, that is, the demons.
Otherwise St. Gregory interprets and explains the name Gedeon (from what Hebrew root I do not know), book XXX of the Morals, chap. 17: “Gedeon,” he says, “is interpreted going round in the womb. For our Lord by the power of majesty embraces all things; and yet by the grace of dispensation took lowliness within the womb of the Virgin and came. Who is it then that goes round in the womb, but almighty God redeeming us by His dispensation, embracing all things by divinity, and taking humanity within the womb? In which womb He was both incarnate and not enclosed, because He was both within the womb by the substance of infirmity, and outside the world by the power of majesty. Madian is interpreted from judgment. For that His enemies were to be repelled and destroyed was not from the fault of the repelling one, but from the judgment of the just Judge.”
34. AND THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD CLOTHED GEDEON,—the Septuagint, and the Spirit of the Lord strengthened Gedeon; the Chaldee, and the Spirit of fortitude from before the Lord clothed Gedeon, as if to say: Gedeon received from God fullness and abundance of spirit and fortitude, to marshal the battle against the countless Madianites. For this signifies the word “clothed,” as is plain Job 7:5: “My flesh is clothed with rottenness,” that is, it is full of rottenness, and all as it were putrid and rotten. And chap. 8:22: “They that hate thee shall be clothed (that is, filled) with confusion.” Psalm 34:26: “Let them be clothed (filled) with confusion and reverence that speak great things against me.” Psalm 108: “He put on cursing like a garment,” with which he is encompassed and girded on every side: “Let it be unto him as a garment which covereth him, and as a girdle with which he is girded continually. Let them that detract me be clothed with shame, and let them be covered with their confusion as with a double cloak.” And 1 Cor. chap. 15: “this corruptible must put on incorruption.” Eph. 6: “Put ye on” Jesus Christ, that, filled with His spirit, you may be on every side as it were encompassed by Him, and represent Him to those who look on you, so that whoever sees and hears you may think that he sees and hears Christ Himself in you.
36. AND GEDEON SAID TO GOD: IF THOU WILT SAVE ISRAEL BY MY HAND, AS THOU HAST SAID.
37. I WILL PUT THIS FLEECE OF WOOL ON THE FLOOR: IF THERE BE DEW IN THE FLEECE ONLY, AND IT BE DRY ON ALL THE GROUND BESIDE, I SHALL KNOW THAT THOU WILT DELIVER ISRAEL BY MY HAND, AS THOU HAST SAID.—Gedeon had already had sure indications that an Angel of God had appeared to him, by the fire miraculously drawn by him from the rock, and that God willed him to undertake the war against Madian; why then does he ask anew a sign of the matter, namely dew on the fleece? St. Thomas, IIa IIae, Question 97, art. 9, ad 3; Abulensis here, and some others think that Gedeon sinned by unbelief, either mortal, or at least venial, because he doubted of the promises of God, and from weakness of faith asked a new sign of Him.
More mildly and better Origen, hom. 8; St. Ambrose in the place cited, Isidore, Lyranus, Cajetan, Arias, Serarius and others assert that he did not sin, because the Apostle, Heb. 11, numbers Gedeon among the saints of the Old Testament, and highly praises him for faith; and because God here so readily complied with both petitions of Gedeon.