Commentaria in Judices
AND IT BECAME A RUIN TO GEDEON AND TO HIS HOUSE.—In Hebrew lemokesh, that is, a snare, both of the guilt of idolatry and of its punishment: for on account of that guilt the whole posterity of Gedeon was cut off, as we shall hear in the following chapter. And Gedeon himself also underwent this punishment, who incautiously made this Ephod, which was to be an occasion of idolatry for a posterity so prone to idols. Gedeon for this reason lost all his posterity.
But the guilt of idolatry was committed not by Gedeon himself, but by his posterity. Gedeon did not foresee this; hence he is to be excused from at least mortal guilt, for venial imprudence and inadvertence may be admitted in him. Hence in this sense, when it is said: “to Gedeon and to his house,” it is to be taken expositively, by way of exegesis, so as to signify, that is, as if to say “to Gedeon,” that is, to his house or posterity: for this posterity worshipped this Ephod, just as the Israelites worshipped the brazen serpent set up by Moses, Num. 21, which was accordingly broken in pieces by king Ezechias, 4 Kings chap. 18, verse 4.
Morally, let princes here learn how dangerous and ruinous it is to meddle in sacred things. Behold Gedeon there, making the Ephod with a good intention indeed, destroyed all his offspring. So king Ozias, wishing to burn incense to God, was struck with leprosy, 2 Paralip. 26:17. Core, Dathan, and Abiron, attempting the same, were swallowed up alive by the earth, Num. 16.
28. AND THE LAND RESTED FORTY YEARS,—that is, until the fortieth year of Gedeon; hence under these forty years Scripture includes the seven years during which Israel served the Madianites, as I said in chap. 6.
29. SO JEROBAAL WENT,—that is, the adversary and destroyer of Baal, the false god, namely Gedeon.
30. AND HE HAD SEVENTY SONS,—precisely, Abimelech also included, of whom in the following verse, says Serarius, although others take the seventy sons to be those he had by his wives, excluding the one he had by his concubine, so that with Abimelech he would have had seventy-one.
Moreover, these sons seem, after Gedeon’s death, to have worshipped idols, and especially the Ephod made by Gedeon, and therefore were slain and cut off by God’s avenging hand. For this is what has already been said: “And it became a ruin to his house” (that is, his family, namely his sons). Learn here how vain is the hope and glory of parents in their sons: for none of so many sons succeeded their father Gedeon in the leadership; nay, all were soon slain; certainly “the sons of heroes are a disgrace.” So “Artaxerxes,” says Justin, book 10, “king of the Persians, had a hundred and fifteen sons by concubines, but only three by lawful marriage, Darius, Ariaretes, and Ochus, who all perished without glory.”
31. AND HIS CONCUBINE,—named Druma, says Josephus, book 5, chap. 9. A concubine was a secondary wife, who was like a handmaid, and therefore her son did not succeed with the sons of wives to his father’s inheritance. Wherefore Abimelech was not a bastard or illegitimate son, as Josephus calls him, but Gedeon’s legitimate son.
IN SICHEM.—He says this to indicate the occasion by which Abimelech aspired to the kingdom; namely that he was advanced to it by his fellow citizens, the Sichemites.
BORE HIM A SON CALLED ABIMELECH.—Abimelech is the same as father king, or father of a king, or royal father. His mother gave him this name to win dignity for herself and her son, as being the son of Gedeon, who was judge and as it were king of Israel: perhaps also she wished this name to be an omen of kingship, namely that he himself would one day reign, as she hoped. So Agrippina, consulting diviners whether her son Nero would be king and emperor, and hearing that he would, but that he would kill his mother, in her eagerness for her son’s rule replied: “Let him kill me, provided he reigns,” and, truly killed by him, paid the due penalty for her rash wish.
Hear what Trebellius writes of Regillianus in the book On the Tyrants: “It may perhaps seem wonderful, if the origin of his empire is told. For he earned kingdoms by a soldiers’ jest. For when certain soldiers were dining with him, the Tribune Valerian stood by and said: Whence do we think the name of Regillianus was derived? Another at once: We think from kingship. Then a scholar who was present began to decline it as in grammar, and to say: Rex, regis, regi, Regillianus. The soldiers, as men are prone to what they have in mind, said: Therefore he can be king. Another: Therefore he can rule us. Another: God has given you the name of king. Why say more? After these words, when he went forth the next morning, he was saluted Emperor by the leaders. So what boldness or judgment brought to others, jesting cunning brought to him.”
32. AND GEDEON THE SON OF JOAS DIED IN A GOOD OLD AGE.—“Good,” that is, first, advanced, great, full of years. Second, “good,” that is, quiet and tranquil. Third, “good,” that is, glorious, which all revered, honored, and looked up to. Fourth, “good” by the goodness of virtue, from a good conscience, probity, and holiness: for this is the fountain and origin of all other goods. Cicero also saw this, who in the book On Old Age says: “The most fitting arms of old age are the arts and exercises of the virtues, which, cultivated at every age, when you have lived long and much, bring marvelous fruits, not only because they never desert you, not even at the very end of life (although this is indeed the greatest thing), but also because the consciousness of a life well spent and the recollection of many good deeds is most pleasant.” So in a good old age died Abraham, Gen. 25:8; David, 1 Paral. 29:28; Tobias, chap. 14: for “old age, to be venerated not for years but for character, ought to be the harbor of the former life, not the shipwreck of the former life,” says St. Ambrose, book On Jacob and the Happy Life, chap. 10. The same, book On Abel, chap. 1: “Let our thoughts,” he says, “be unfolded in the progress of good works, that our end may find nothing imperfect, that the term of our life may meet nothing unfinished, that the use of our work may leave nothing behind as if lying on the anvil.” And a little after: “Let faith be our offspring; let the precepts of doctrine be our nourishment. With these let the infancy of our heart be steeped, let childhood be trained, let adolescence grow to youth, let old age grow white. For the age of old age is an unspotted life. And so that old age is at length good in spirit which no stains of faithlessness have defiled.”
The same, book 1 On the Duties, chap. 8: “But old age itself, he says, is sweeter in good morals, more useful in counsels, better prepared for constancy in facing death, firmer in restraining desires: the weakness of the body also is sobriety of mind. Hence the Apostle says: When I am weak, then am I powerful. And so he gloried not in virtues, but in infirmities. The divine answer also shone forth in the saving oracle, that strength is made perfect in infirmity.”
33. BUT AFTER GEDEON WAS DEAD, THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL TURNED AWAY (from God and the worship of God), AND COMMITTED FORNICATION WITH BAALIM (idols, the gods of the nations) AND THEY MADE A COVENANT WITH BAAL, THAT HE SHOULD BE THEIR GOD.—They set Baal over themselves by covenant as God, that is, they entered into a covenant with Baal that he should be their God; in Chaldee, they set him over themselves by covenant for error; the Septuagint, they set Baal berith over themselves for a covenant, that he himself should be their God. So also St. Augustine reads. Hence from the Hebrew and the Septuagint it is clear that the Hebrews worshipped as God Baal berith, that is, Baal of the covenant, whom they covenanted with themselves by this covenant as their God, as it were the president of covenants: for berith is a covenant.
35. NEITHER DID THEY SHOW MERCY TO THE HOUSE OF JEROBAAL (properly so named) GEDEON,—because they permitted his house, that is, all his sons, to be slain by the tyrant Abimelech, nay, they helped in the slaying, as will appear in the following chapter. Mercy, in Hebrew chesed, signifies every virtue that shows itself toward one’s neighbor, namely beneficence, piety, gratitude, justice, fidelity, etc. The Israelites therefore, unfaithful to God, were also unfaithful to Gedeon, ill-doing, impious, ungrateful, and unjust, as will appear from chap. 9.