Commentaria in Judices
4. TO ALL THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL,—to the whole assembly of the Israelites, or to all who had come together.
5. AND THE NAME OF THAT PLACE WAS CALLED THE PLACE OF WEEPERS, OR OF TEARS.—The Septuagint, Klauthmon, that is, place of Wailers, from the event just mentioned, because, as I said in verse 4, the children of Israel, having heard the threat of God through the Angel, “lifted up their voice and wept,”
You will ask, who and where was this place of Weepers, or Klauthmon? Adrichomius answers that it was near Galgal, for thence the Angel had come up. Others think it was Silo, for there was the ark; whence the people flocked thither to sacrifice, which they also did here. Hence follows: “And they offered there sacrifices to the Lord.” But I say that the place of Weepers was in the tribe of Juda, near Jerusalem on the western side, in a wood situated beyond the valley of Raphaim, which had the Philistines at its back. That this is so is clear from the fact that David lay hidden in this same wood, when he attacked and struck down the Philistines in the valley of Raphaim at the movement of the tops of the trees of the wood, 2 Kings 5:24. For that this place was “in the woods which are called the places of Weepers,” Josephus expressly says, book VII of the Antiquities, chap. 4, and the Septuagint clearly, 2 Kings 5:23: You shall come upon them, they say, near Klauthmon (that is, the place of Weepers), and when you hear the sound of a rustling from the wood of Klauthmon, then you shall go down upon them.
Evidently God willed this place of Weepers to be a perpetual example to the Hebrews for doing penance in weeping and tears, as often as they went up yearly by the law to Jerusalem to the temple to pray and sacrifice.
Tropologically, Klauthmon, or the place of Weepers, is this earth and life of men, exiled by God on account of the sin of Adam. For Adam, and we in him, were cast out of paradise into this valley of tears, that by penance we may expiate every sin, and therefore we are condemned to a thousand labours, sorrows and death itself, Genesis 3, and Psalm 83:7. Again, the place of Weepers is penance and compunction, to which the preacher, after the manner of an Angel, ought to rouse the people, “that he may move to lamentation, not to applause,” says St. Bernard; for, as the same says, serm. 30 on the Canticle: “The tears of penitents are the wine of the Angels, so that in them is the odour of life, the savour of grace, the taste of indulgence, the sweetness of reconciliation, the health of returning innocence, the sweetness of a serene conscience.” See Climacus, step 5, On Penance, where he recounts the wonderful compunction and tears of the ancients in the place of Weepers, which they called the prison. Blessed Antiochus, hom. 107: “The dewy sprinklings of tears,” he says, “are to the heart like the sweetness of honey, or a sweet-smelling incense before God.” St. Chrysostom, hom. 6 on Matthew: “As after violent rains the air is made clean and pure,” he says, “so also after the showers of tears serenity and tranquillity of mind follow, and all that fog poured forth from the darkness of sins is dissolved. And as we are cleansed by water and the Spirit, so again by tears and confession.”
AND THEY OFFERED THERE SACRIFICES TO THE LORD.—For although the proper place of sacrificing was in the temple and before the temple in the tabernacle, which was then at Silo, yet for grave reasons the Jews at times sacrificed elsewhere, as Samuel did in Bethlehem, 1 Kings 16:4 and 5, and David in the threshing-floor of Areuna the Jebusite, 2 Kings 24. For by the very fact that the Angel appeared there, and exhorted the people to propitiate God, he seemed to point out a holy place, and at the same time to give power to offer sacrifices there. The corrected Septuagint add that the Angel went up also to Bethel and the house of Israel: by which is signified that he flew through various cities of the Israelites and compelled the inhabitants to go to Silo; or by Bethel and the house of Israel are to be understood the Bethelites and the Israelites who had assembled in that place. So Serarius.
6. AND JOSUE SENT AWAY THE PEOPLE.—This is a hysteron proteron: for he repeats from the end of the preceding book of Josue certain of his deeds, that thence he may conveniently and in order pass to the institution and origin of the Judges who succeeded him. For this book is connected with the book of Josue, and the history of the Judges depends on the history of Josue, as on its beginning. From a higher point, therefore, from its first beginning, namely from Josue, he here draws the origins of the Judges.
9. IN THAMNATHSARE.—The Hebrew and the Septuagint have Thamnath-cheres, that is, in the image of the sun, which is carved on the sepulchre of Josue, because he stayed the sun, and therefore his city Thamnathsare was by metathesis called Thamnath-cheres. See what was said on Josue 24:30.
11. AND SERVED BAALIM,—that is, idols, or the gods of the Gentiles; for by Baalim are signified all male gods, as by Astaroth all female goddesses. Moreover, Baal in the singular signifies in Hebrew Lord; whence by antonomasia they called their god Baal, that is, Lord absolutely. The first Baal was Nemrod, whom the Assyrians worshipped; Nemrod, however, was Baal, or Belus, the father of Ninus, husband of Semiramis. Baal, Bal, Bel, Belus, and so on, are therefore the same. From the Assyrians the idol and worship of Bel passed to the Babylonians, as is plain from Daniel 14:2; then the idols and gods of the Gentiles, the name being extended, were called Baal, Bel, Baalim. Hence from the variety of gods, or of places and events, they were called Beelphegor, that is, Priapus; Beelzebub, that is, the god of flies; Beelsephon, that is, the god of the North, or the hidden god, namely Mercury; Baal Gad, that is, the god of fortune; Baal Shemesh, that is, the god sun, and so on. See what was said on Genesis 10:10. From Baal are compounded Punic names (for this language is akin to the Hebrew): Hannibal, that is, Lord of camps; Hasdrubal, that is, Lord of villages or courts; Muthumbal, that is, Lord of death; Adherbal, Maharbal, Ithobal, Jerobaal, and so on. So St. Augustine here, Question 16.
13. SERVING BAAL AND ASTAROTH.—“Astaroth.” You will ask first, of what language is this word, and whence is it so called? Suidas, under Astarte, thinks it a Greek word, derived from astron (star): “From the star,” he says, “they made the surname; for they fable that she is the morning star (Lucifer).” And Phavorinus, under Astarte: “Astarte,” he says, “an image of a star; the star itself Lucifer,” which they call Venus. So also the Etymologicum, which adds the reason: for this goddess is the president of the stars. Hence some think that Astarte is the goddess Asteria, daughter of Phoebus and Coeus, whom Perses took to wife, of whom Hesiod in the Theogony. But they err. For Astaroth is a Syrian word, not Greek, signifying sheep, especially females, when their udders are swollen and they suckle their lambs; so called from athar, that is, to multiply, because they are fruitful, and in Syria bear many lambs in a year; and from ashar, that is, to enrich, because by cheese, wool, milk and offspring they enrich their owners; whence the wealth of the ancients lay in sheep, not in gold and silver.
Wherefore many think that Astarte is Venus Urania, surnamed polymastos, that is, many-breasted, or rather megalomastos, that is, great-breasted, because she had great breasts, which was a symbol of fruitfulness, such as is in female sheep. From this, then, this Goddess was made out of sheep by the Tyrians and Sidonians, that from her they might obtain the fruitfulness of their flocks, and so be enriched and blessed. For in Hebrew ashar signifies as much to bless as to enrich, because the rich man is esteemed blessed by the world. Whence Cicero, book III On the Nature of the Gods: “The fourth,” he says, “is the Syrian Venus, conceived at Tyre, who is called Astarte, who is said to have been wed to Adonis.” So also Herodotus, book I, Diodorus, book II, chap. 11, Theodoret on 1 Kings 7:4, and there Procopius, Aquila and the Greek Scholiast, chap. 7. Hear also St. Jerome in the Life of St. Hilarion: “With a distinguished company of monks he came to Elusa on that day on which, by chance, the yearly solemnity had gathered the whole people of the town into the temple of Venus. They worship her on account of Lucifer, to whose cult the nation of the Saracens is devoted.” Epiphanius writes, heresy 59, that the mother of Melchisedech was called Astoaroth or Asteria. What if she was worshipped by posterity as a Goddess, and from her the Goddesses were called Astaroth?