Commentaria in Judices
22. RULE THOU OVER US, AND THY SON, AND THY SON’S SON, BECAUSE THOU HAST DELIVERED US FROM THE HAND OF MADIAN.—Gedeon was already judge and prince of the people appointed by God; the Israelites therefore do not here wish to create him Judge, but offer him full command, that is, kingship, and that hereditary down to the second generation. For this is what “rule” signifies, namely with pure and full right like a king. A judge in that age could not rule over the people of Israel, but had to judge and govern them according to the laws. A king is the absolute lord of all, and therefore like an earthly god; hence many kings wished to be regarded and worshipped as gods, such as Caligula and Domitian, whom Martial accordingly, whether flattering or reproving, calls Lord and God: “The edict,” he says, “of our Lord and God.” Moreover Augustus Caesar, hearing that a king, the Messiah, namely Christ, was born, refused to be called Lord.
23. AND HE SAID TO THEM: I WILL NOT RULE OVER YOU, ETC., BUT THE LORD SHALL RULE OVER YOU.—Gedeon modestly refuses the title of lord and the right of a king, and transfers it to God, who was properly the king and lord of the Israelites, and therefore later took it ill that they asked a king of Samuel; yet to their insistence he gave Saul; because a king seemed to take something away both from the name and from the right of God over His people, and could with impunity violate the laws and commands of God, and even bring in new gods, as Jeroboam, Manasses, Solomon, and other kings of Israel did.
26. A THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED SICLES OF GOLD,—which make 6800 French crowns, or nearly 70 pounds of gold. For a sicle is half an ounce. Wherefore it is not likely that all this gold was expended on the Ephod alone. For what Pontiff, nay what man, could bear an Ephod, or garment, weighing 70 pounds? Wherefore part of this gold was spent on other ornaments. In a similar way David is said, 1 Paral. chap. 20, verse 2, to have made himself a diadem from the crown placed on the idol Melchom, which weighed a talent of gold, 2 Kings 12:30. That is, he fitted part of the crown into a diadem, not truly the whole. Who could carry a talent of gold on his head?
superhumeral, Exodus 28:6. It is asked what kind of Ephod this was, and whether Gedeon sinned in making it?
First, Procopius and others in Abulensis think that this Ephod was an idol; whence the word “put” is in Hebrew yatseb, that is, set up, as the statues of idols are wont to be set up. Hence Israel also committed fornication, that is, committed idolatry in it: “Hence also it came to pass that it became a ruin to Gedeon and all his house.” But who would believe that a holy man, nay a familiar and beloved friend of God, and chosen by Him, such as Gedeon was, after so great a victory received from God, turned aside to idols, and was the author of idolatry, as Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, was, by casting golden calves and setting them up in Dan and Bethel to be worshipped as gods?
Second, Arias thinks that this Ephod, being of gold, was different from the Ephod of the Pontiff made of scarlet, purple, fine linen, and blue, Exodus chap. 28, verse 6, and was made by Gedeon for this purpose only, that it might be a perpetual monument of so admirable a victory. Hence Cajetan thinks that this Ephod was a breastplate of beaten gold, to be a sign of warfare, battle, and victory. For a breastplate covers and protects the shoulders and breast, as does the Ephod or superhumeral. This opinion is sufficiently favored by the Hebrew, which has, and he made it into an Ephod, and set it up in Ephra; which words imply that this Ephod was made from the gold of the spoils, and was therefore like a golden breastplate, which posterity accordingly worshipped as an idol. This exposition is very fitting.
Third, Lyranus takes Ephod properly as the Pontifical Ephod, and under it understands the other priestly vestments, as though Gedeon had made them so that he himself might sacrifice in them for his house, and therefore “sinned mortally,” but repented of it before his death. But neither here nor elsewhere do we read anything of this repentance of his.
Fourth, more probably St. Augustine, Question 41; Theodoret, Question 16; Dionysius, Serarius, and others think that Gedeon made the Pontifical Ephod and the other vestments of the Pontiff; for these are understood under Ephod as the principal garment, says St. Augustine both here and in chap. 17:5, and chap. 18:14 and 18. Hence in Osee 3:4 the Septuagint render Ephod as priesthood and every priestly instrument. So then by Ephod here understand all the equipment necessary for sacrifice. This Ephod, therefore, Gedeon made first as a perpetual monument of the victory: for he had obtained it by the sacrifice offered on the altar erected by himself at God’s command. Hence also, after he had refused the kingdom offered him by the Hebrews and had resigned it to God, he made this Ephod to profess himself a religious minister of God, and to take upon his shoulders God’s commands as well as the care of the people, so as to bear them and their infirmities on his shoulders, and to be mediator and intermediary between God and the people. For this is what the Ephod or superhumeral represented. Hence also he made this Ephod from the spoils of the enemy. Whence the Hebrew is: And he made it (namely this whole gift of gold from the spoils) into an Ephod, that is, from it and its value he made the Ephod.
Second, he made this Pontifical Ephod splendid and shining with gold, because in it were the Rational with the Urim and Thummim, through which God, consulted by the Pontiff, gave oracles to the prince and the commonwealth, Exodus chap. 28, not that Gedeon himself should use it, but that the Pontiff, who dwelt not far from his city Ephra, in Silo, where the tabernacle with the ark was, being summoned by him to Ephra, and clothed in this Ephod, might consult the Lord for him, as David consulted Him through Abiathar the Pontiff; for Gedeon was Judge of the people, and in doubtful and perplexing matters, which often occurred, he needed the answer and oracle of God.
Third, Gedeon seems to have made this Ephod so that the Pontiff, clothed in it, might sacrifice for himself and the people on the altar erected by himself at God’s command in Ephra, chap. 6. Serarius adds that Gedeon himself sacrificed on it in person. For since he himself, at God’s command, had immolated a bull on it, chap. 6, verse 26, he seems to have thought that God had dispensed him, so that although he was not a priest of the tribe of Levi, he might sacrifice on it as one authorized by God outside the ordinary rule. For this seems to be why God commanded him to erect this altar. For an altar essentially regards sacrifice; for, as Aristotle says, book 1 De Caelo, chap. 4: “A shoe is in vain whose use is not.”
Therefore Gedeon did not sin in making this Ephod. This is proved first, because it is said here that he rested in a good old age; second, because by St. Paul, Heb. chap. 11, he is placed in the catalogue of the Saints and heroes of the Old Testament, who excelled in eminent faith and heroic works of faith; third, because while Gedeon lived, Israel served God under his leadership; but after his death it turned aside to Baalim, as is said in verse 33. St. Augustine favors this, Question 41, when he says: “God bore this deed of Gedeon patiently, that peace might continue in the land, because although it was done what He had forbidden, yet it was not far removed from him who had commanded something of the kind to be made in the tabernacle for His honor”; nay, God had nowhere forbidden such an Ephod to be made, nor such a tabernacle like that of Moses, as Serarius rightly notes. For Solomon made such a tabernacle, 2 Paral. chap. 1, verses 4 and 5.
Yet the posterity of Gedeon sinned, who, moved by the memory of the miraculous victory obtained as it were through this splendid Ephod, paid it divine honors. Hence it follows:
AND ALL ISRAEL COMMITTED FORNICATION WITH IT.—In Hebrew acharav, that is, after him, namely after the death of Gedeon. So the Septuagint, the Chaldees, and others. Our version, however, refers “with it” to the Ephod, that in it and with it Israel committed fornication mystically, that is, committed idolatry, worshipping it as an idol and a god, or at least abusing it for the worship of Baalim, namely because a priest of Baal sacrificed to him clothed and adorned in this Ephod. For the demon rejoices if he can steal things from God, and transfer to his own worship those things by which God is worshipped.