Commentaria in Judices
Chapter 2. Synopsis of the Chapter
The Hebrews are rebuked by an Angel for worshipping idols; thence, verse 11, the cause of the institution of the Judges is recounted, namely that the Hebrews after the death of Josue worshipped idols, and therefore God delivered them to the Idumeans and other enemies; whence they, repenting, returned to God and implored His help: who accordingly sent them Judges, to free the Hebrews from the servitude and tyranny of the nations.
1. And an angel of the Lord went up from Galgal to the place of weepers, and said: I made you go out of Egypt, and brought you into the land, for which I swore to your fathers: and I promised that I would not make void my covenant with you for ever: 2. so that you should not make league with the inhabitants of this land, but should throw down their altars; and you would not hear my voice: why have you done this? 3. Wherefore I would not destroy them from before your face, that you may have enemies, and their gods may be a ruin to you. 4. And when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel, they lifted up their voice, and wept. 5. And the name of that place was called, The place of weepers, or of tears; and they offered there sacrifices to the Lord. 6. And Josue sent away the people, and the children of Israel went every one into his possession to hold it: 7. and they served the Lord all his days, and the days of the ancients that lived a long time after him, and who knew all the works of the Lord, that he had done for Israel. 8. And Josue the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old, 9. and they buried him in the borders of his possession in Thamnathsare, in mount Ephraim, on the north side of mount Gaas. 10. And all that generation were gathered to their fathers: and there arose others that knew not the Lord, and the works that he had done for Israel. 11. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim. 12. And they left the Lord the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt: and they followed strange gods, and the gods of the people that dwelt round about them, and adored them: and they provoked the Lord to anger, 13. forsaking him, and serving Baal and Astaroth. 14. And the Lord being angry against Israel, delivered them into the hands of plunderers: who took them, and sold them to their enemies, that dwelt round about: neither could they stand against their enemies: 15. but whithersoever they meant to go, the hand of the Lord was upon them, as he had said, and as he had sworn to them: and they were greatly distressed. 16. And the Lord raised up judges to save them from the hands of those that oppressed them: but they would not hear them, 17. committing fornication with strange gods, and adoring them. They quickly forsook the way in which their fathers had walked, and hearing the commandments of the Lord, they did all things contrary. 18. And when the Lord raised them up judges, in their days he was moved to mercy, and heard the groans of the afflicted, and delivered them from the slaughter of them that oppressed them. 19. But after the judge was dead, they returned, and did much worse things than their fathers had done, following strange gods, serving them and adoring them. They left not off their own inventions, and the stubborn way, by which they had been accustomed to walk. 20. And the wrath of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he said: Behold this nation hath made void my covenant, which I had made with their fathers, and hath despised to hearken to my voice: 21. I also will not destroy the nations which Josue left when he died: 22. that through them I may try Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord, and walk in it, as their fathers kept it, or not. 23. The Lord therefore left all these nations, and would not quickly destroy them, neither did he deliver them into the hands of Josue.
1. AND AN ANGEL OF THE LORD WENT UP FROM GALGAL TO THE PLACE OF WEEPERS.—First, then, this Angel appeared in Galgal, in order that by the place he might recall to the Hebrews’ memory the profession and obedience to be rendered to God, undertaken and promised by them. For in Galgal they had been initiated by the sacred rite of Circumcision and had professed that they would keep the law of God given by Moses, as we in Baptism profess the law of Christ. From Galgal the Angel betook himself to the place which afterwards, in verse 5, from the event was called the place of Weepers, where the Israelites, pressed by the sense of their enemies and miseries, seem to have assembled bewailing their calamity, either by common counsel, to consult together there about a remedy, or rather at the admonition of the Angel, who, appearing in Galgal, seems to have warned the Hebrews to betake themselves to the place of Weepers: for he had something to say to them there, and a remedy of their calamity to suggest.
Moreover, the Rabbis think that this Angel was Phinees the High Priest: but it is certain that he was an Angel properly so called: it is probable that he was St. Michael, both because he was the president and guardian of the Synagogue, as he now is of the Church; and because the same appeared to Josue, chap. 5, verse 13, at the beginning of his government, teaching and directing him. Hence the same seems to have appeared here, and to have suggested to the Hebrews the way of obtaining from God judges who should free them from servitude. Wherefore this Angel speaks in the person of God, as an ambassador speaks in the person of his King, and the people thought that he was God, not an Angel. For he says: “I made you go out of Egypt,” etc. Finally, this Angel appeared here, and said these things to the Hebrews, not while Josue was still living, as Abulensis and Torniellus would have it; for while Josue lived the Hebrews worshipped the true God, but after his death, when a new generation, growing up and conversing with the neighbouring nations, especially the Tyrians and Sidonians, learned from them, as rich men, to worship their idols, Baalim and Astaroth. So Procopius, Cajetan, Serarius, and St. Augustine favours it.
2. SO THAT YOU SHOULD NOT MAKE LEAGUE WITH THE INHABITANTS OF THE LAND,—lest they, by conversing with you, should entice you to their idols and crimes. God therefore forbade these leagues: so that they were unlawful to the Hebrews, but not immediately void; for the Hebrews, entering into league with the Chanaanites, though unlawfully, yet after the contract made were bound to keep it, especially if they had confirmed it by oath: both because the law of nature and of nations demands this, for otherwise all commerce and all society of men would be taken away if it were lawful to violate leagues and pacts; and because the reverence of the divine name invoked in the oath demanded it, lest they should seem to perjure themselves if they violated it; and finally because the Chanaanites did not know that God had forbidden, much less annulled, these leagues with them: wherefore they would have been greatly scandalized if the Hebrews had violated them, and would have blasphemed both them and God and their religion. After it was made openly plain to them, however, that God had forbidden these leagues, they could not be scandalized if the Hebrews, obeying God, rescinded them. Hence Esdras, book I, chap. 9, annulled and dissolved the marriages of the Hebrews contracted with the nations against the law of God. For although they were true and valid, yet under that law they were dissoluble by a bill of divorce granted them by God, if a just cause were present, as here there was disparity of worship, and the danger of perversion from the unbeliever, which the faithful spouse incurred.
3. WHEREFORE I WOULD NOT (and still will not, and so I determine and decree) DESTROY THEM FROM BEFORE YOUR FACE, THAT YOU MAY HAVE ENEMIES (who may punish you, afflict you, and compel you to return to God), AND THEIR GODS MAY BE A RUIN TO YOU.—The “that” in this latter part is to be taken consecutively, not causally. For God, most holy, could not intend this ruin of the Hebrews and their fall into idolatry, but only permit it, in order to punish their preceding sins, as if to say: I have permitted you to be led by the nations, which you tolerated against my command, to worship their gods, that afterwards I might chastise and exterminate you: for God permits ruin into guilt on account of ruin into punishment; for by this He intends to chastise guilt. For God does not permit the evil of guilt except to this end, that He may draw good out of it, either of showing mercy, or, if they will not use mercy, of punishing, namely of shewing His clemency in pardoning, or His justice and vengeance in chastising, as St. Augustine, St. Thomas and the other Theologians teach.