Commentaria in Judices
More probably Lyranus, Arias, Serarius and others think that those who had lapped the water were chosen before those who had drunk with bent knee, as more temperate, more enduring, and more expedite, as being wholly intent on the impending contest, they quenched thirst by the way and on the run in the manner of dogs by lapping water, and therefore were fitter for battle. For first, these drank standing, but the others with knee bent or prone to the ground; second, these cast a little water to the mouth with the hand; but the others sucked the river with the mouth, to fill the whole belly, which was an indication of great gluttony.
Tropologically, he who knows not to bend to earthly and bodily things, who indulges not vices, and is not laid prone by the thirst of sin, he is approved, he is chosen. This desire at last shuts us out from the possession of God, a good infinitely better. For excellently Prosper says: “He who wishes to possess God, let him renounce the world, that God may be to him a blessed possession. Nor does he renounce the world whom the ambition of earthly possession still delights; because, as long as he does not leave his own, he serves the world whose goods he retains. And certainly he cannot serve the world and God at once: and for this reason God willed His worshippers to renounce all things on account of which the world is loved, that, the cupidity of the world being excluded, divine charity might be increased or perfected in them.” So far Prosper, book II On the Contemplative Life, chap. 16. Again St. Gregory, book XXX of the Morals, chap. 32: “By the waters,” he says, “the doctrine of wisdom, by the standing knee, however, right working is designated. Those, then, who are said to have bent the knee while drinking the waters departed, forbidden from the contest of battles; because with those Christ goes to battle against the enemies of the faith, who, while they drink the streams of doctrine, do not bend the rectitude of their works.”
6. AND THE NUMBER OF THEM THAT HAD LAPPED WATER, CASTING IT WITH THE HAND TO THEIR MOUTH, WAS THREE HUNDRED MEN.—Behold here he explains what it is to lap water after the manner of dogs, namely to cast water with the hand into the mouth, as a dog casts it with the tongue. For otherwise standing they could not touch the water with the tongue, as dogs do by lapping: in this therefore they were unlike dogs, who have no hands, but use the tongue for a hand: “With the hand,” says St. Augustine, Question 27, “they cast the snatched water into the mouth, and this was like dogs drinking, who do not draw water with the mouth applied, as oxen, nor drink water so, but snatch it into the mouth with the tongue, as these also are understood to have done, but when they cast the water with the hand into the mouth, they received it with the tongue.”
Evidently says Origen, hom. 9: “He is approved, he is chosen, who, after he has come to the waters of baptism, knows not to bend to earthly and bodily necessities, who does not indulge vices, nor is laid prone by the thirst of sin.” Origen then adds: “But also what it says, that they lap water with the hand or tongue, seems to me written not without some significance of a sacrament, namely that the soldiers of Christ ought to work with both hand and tongue, that is by deed and word; for he who teaches and does, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. But that Scripture also set the likeness of a dog lapping, this animal seems to me to be named in this place for this reason, that above all other animals it is said to preserve love for its own master, nor is its affection said to be blotted out in it by time or by injuries.”
10. LET PHARA THY SERVANT GO DOWN WITH THEE,—that is, thy servant. This courageous servant of Gedeon, dispelling his fear, was a type of Christ, says Leo Castrius on Isaias chap. 20: for “Phara” is the same as fruit-bearing, or branched, and exalted on the tree of the cross; for by this Christ took away fear from martyrs and the faithful.
Mystically St. Gregory, book XXX of the Morals, chap. 31. The three hundred represent the mystery of the Holy Trinity, he says, and adds: “This number of three hundred is contained in the letter Tau, which has the shape of a cross. If to it above the transverse line that which projects in a cross were added, it would no longer be the shape of a cross, but the cross itself. Because, therefore, this number of three hundred is contained in the letter Tau, and by the letter Tau, as we have said, the shape of the cross is shown, not undeservedly in these three hundred following Gedeon are designated those to whom it was said,” Luke chap. 9: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” “Who following the Lord take up the cross the more truly the more sharply they both subdue themselves and are crucified with the compassion of charity toward their neighbours. Whence also through the prophet Ezechiel (chap. 9) it is said: Mark Thau upon the foreheads of the men.” St. Augustine, serm. 108 On the Time.
13. I SAW A DREAM, AND METHOUGHT A HEARTH CAKE OF BARLEY BREAD ROLLED INTO THE CAMP OF MADIAN.—For “hearth cake” the Hebrew is tsalil, which R. David and the like render, giving a sound, or ringing, from tsalal, that is, to sound, to ring. Better our Vulgate, the Septuagint, the Chaldee and others render roasted or baked under ashes, that is, a hearth cake, from the root tsala, that is, he roasted, he scorched: so from hagah, that is, to meditate, to speak, comes higgayon, that is, meditation.
Congruously God in this dream, sent to the chief soldier of Madian, by this barley and hearth-cake bread signified Gedeon, in appearance abject and contemptible, who hastily and suddenly, as if from ashes, had gathered this small army of three hundred soldiers. So St. Augustine, Question 37, Lyranus, Abulensis, Arias and others, and with a beautiful allusion. For the Hebrews call war milchamah, that is, eating, or devouring of men, the name derived from lechem, that is, bread. Whence it is fittingly said to this purpose, Num. 14:9: “We can eat them up as bread.” This vision therefore signifies that Gedeon and the Hebrews, who hitherto had been the bread of the Madianites, as devoured by them, as bread is devoured, were henceforth to be swords, strikers and slayers of the Madianites devouring them.
This Madianite conjectured, then, very well from the ambiguous signification of the name; for lechem signifies both bread and war. From this conjunction and affinity, therefore, not of nature (for what affinity has bread to a sword?) but of signification, he conjectured that by the bread was signified the sword and the war which was now threatening the camp of the Madianites from Gedeon. So Arias and our Gaspar Sanchez on Isaias chap. 14, no. 29. Fittingly to Gedeon, beating out grain on the threshing-floor for bread, and liberally offering loaves to the Angel, God gave bread as an omen and sign of victory, in reward of hospitality, to show how efficacious beneficence and hospitality are, since they turn loaves into swords, with which to lay low any enemies.
Allegorically, this bread was a type of the Eucharist, which strikes and casts down the Madianites, that is, demons and other enemies, like a sword; for this is the bread which came down from heaven, and overthrows the camps of enemies, as this bread seemed to descend from on high into the camp of Madian, as if sent down by God into it to throw it into confusion.
AND WHEN IT WAS COME TO A TENT, IT STRUCK IT.—“Tent” understand of the prince or leader, and thence of the other soldiers. The tent, therefore, that is, the tents, which are wont to be in the middle of the camp, that they may be safer from the enemy. Hence soon in the following verse this tent is interpreted as all the camp of Madian. So Cajetan, Arias and others.
14. HE TO WHOM HE SPOKE ANSWERED,—namely a comrade, or companion, of the Madianite, who had narrated to him the dream he had seen: “This is nothing else but the sword of Gedeon,” on account of the analogies already recounted. He said this certainly by impulse from God; whence he adds: “For the Lord hath delivered Madian and all their camp into his hands.” So Abulensis.
15. AND WHEN GEDEON HAD HEARD THE DREAM (for he understood the Madianite tongue, either because it was near to the Hebrew, or because he had learned it from the Madianites occupying Judea now for seven years) HE ADORED—God, because He had afforded him this divine omen foretelling victory.