Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
Hence some, reading for lo (to him) lo with aleph, render: the thoughts of God are not measurable (by men or angels), according to Paul, Romans chapter 11, verse 33: “O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor?”
Tropologically Rupert: “To the Lord of knowledge,” he says, “thoughts are prepared as a gift. If you wish to deserve or obtain of Him the gift of knowledge, not many offerings of rams and bulls, but holy thoughts are the preparation for that thing.”
Hence see what you think. For God sees through not only actions and words but also the inmost thoughts and intentions, and will reveal them and judge them to the whole world on the day of judgment, according to Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12: “For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword; and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Finally some expound thus: “The Lord is a God of knowledge,” that is, God is most knowing, because He knows how to turn the thoughts and endeavours of all men to what He Himself has willed to be done; wherefore men’s thoughts are prepared for Him, as matter is prepared for the craftsman, that he may make of it what he has willed. So He turned the brothers’ thoughts of selling Joseph into Joseph’s good and exaltation, that he might become prince in Egypt; so the taunts and curses of Phenenna He turned into the praise and honour of the patient Anna.
4. THE BOW OF THE MIGHTY IS OVERCOME (Septuagint, weakened), AND THE WEAK ARE GIRDED WITH STRENGTH.—The antistrophe to this verse is that of the Blessed Virgin: “He hath put down the mighty from their seat and exalted the humble.”
Anna proclaims the omnipotence of God from the fact that He has often cast down the strong in their strength, and conversely made the weak strong. Whence the Chaldee renders: And those who were weak were made manly, as if to say: God made the strong, like men, weak like women, and conversely made the weak, like women, strong like men, as He has now made Phenenna, who in bearing so many sons seemed strong, weak, so that she bears no more, and me, Anna, barren, strong to bear, so that I have borne Samuel and am to bear five other children; for this verse depends on the following verse: “Until the barren hath borne,” etc. She calls the bow strength, power, fortitude, because before the invention of guns they fought with bows, as even now the Indians and Tartars fight. But properly she calls the bow the biting tongue of Phenenna, which hurled jeers and mockery like arrows at Anna; which Anna, as weak and barren, heard in silence. But God broke this tongue and these jeers when He made Anna fruitful, and so made Phenenna the weaker. So Lyranus, Hugh, Abulensis and the Gloss.
Moreover this sentence is general; whence it can be applied to many things. First, then, St. Gregory applies it to St. Michael and his angels, and to Lucifer and his follower demons, who were the highest and most powerful, in comparison with whom Michael and the Angels seemed lesser and less powerful: “Whom God cast down from heaven,” says St. Gregory, “that in the fallen angels man might learn what to fear; for what will become of an earthen vessel if God spares not golden ones full of the stench of pride?”
Secondly, Origen, homily On Elcana, applies this saying to demons, who are most powerful spirits, and to men, who are of flesh and therefore most weak: “And yet thou,” says Origen, “if thou be clothed with the armour of God, fortified with the shield of faith, covered with the helmet of salvation, and the breastplate of charity, and girt with the sword of the spirit, the bow of the mighty against thee shall be weakened by such defences.”
Thirdly, Bede and Origen attribute it to the pagan Philosophers and to faithful common and simple folk; of whom the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians 1: “The foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the wise.”
Fourthly, St. Jerome in the Questions refers it to Pharao and the Egyptians, and Moses and the Hebrews: for Pharao, mighty in horses and chariots, pursuing the Hebrews through the Red Sea, was drowned in it, while the Hebrews went out safe and strong. In like manner you may attribute it to the Chanaanites, whom, though giants and warlike, the unwarlike Hebrews under Josue’s leadership overthrew.
Fifthly, St. Augustine, book 17 On the City of God, chapter 4, St. Gregory, Theodoret, Angelomus and Bede refer it to the Jews and Gentiles. For the Jews, strong in the law, were weakened by Christ; but the Gentiles, raised up by the same, were made stronger than the Jews.
Sixthly, Lyranus refers it to the Pharisees and Apostles; for those noble, learned and powerful men were cast down by the grace of God through the unlearned, poor and weak Apostles: “Who once,” says St. Gregory, “feared the words of women, afterwards broke the authority of princes with freedom.”
Finally Euthymius, Cajetan and Dionysius adapt it to the proud and the humble; for the powerful and strong are proud in their strength, but the weak humble themselves in their weakness and invoke the help of the powerful God; whence these are strengthened by the Lord, whose help and strength they feel they need; but those are deprived of their strength, because they do not acknowledge that they received it from God and depend on Him: “That no flesh should glory in his sight,” but should attribute all glory of strength to God by whom it is given. And this is the cause why God often works greater things through the weak than through the strong, that “he that glorieth may glory in the Lord,” says the Apostle. “For power is made perfect in infirmity,” 2 Corinthians 12, 9. See what is said there.
THEY THAT WERE FULL BEFORE HAVE HIRED OUT THEMSELVES FOR BREAD, AND THE HUNGRY ARE FILLED.—The antistrophe to this is that of the Blessed Virgin: “He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away,” Luke 1. See what is said there. According to the letter, God often impoverishes the impious who are filled with wealth and food, and afflicts them with hunger, so that they are forced to hire out their labour to earn bread, and to exhaust their strength by working: whence Aquila renders, they wore themselves out; as He did to the Prodigal Son, who, forced by hunger, had to feed swine and eat their husks, Luke chapter 15. So God, on account of sins, often sends barrenness and famine upon peoples, as He sent upon the Egyptians and the whole world in the time of Abraham, Genesis chapter 12, verse 10, and in the time of Joseph, Genesis 41, and in the time of Moses, the same, 10, 14, and in the time of Ruth, chapter 1; but the pious who were hungry God satisfied, and even fed others by them, as is plain of Joseph feeding Egypt and the whole world, of Abraham, Genesis 12, of the Hebrews whom for forty years He fed with manna in the desert. So the Jews besieged by Titus He wasted with famine, so that mothers devoured their sons, while the Christians who had gone out of the city abounded in food. So Anna here, not eating on account of the grief of barrenness, chapter 1, verse 7, was hungry, but now, grief being driven away by child-bearing, eating, she is satisfied and made glad; but Phenenna, formerly glad and satisfied, now mourning, began to loathe food, perhaps even she with her sons was reduced to such want that they were forced to hire out themselves and their labours to gather bread; for this Anna here hints.
Mystically: God satisfies the faithful and pious with wisdom, preaching and the doctrine of the word of God, the Eucharist and the Sacraments, while He deprives the Jews and other impious of them. So St. Ambrose, sermon 12 on Psalm 118: “The rich,” he says, “have wanted and hungered, because those who before abounded in grace afterwards, on account of their perfidy, began to want; but those who were poor, the peoples of the nations, are now through the faith of Christ satisfied and abound; as it is written: The poor shall eat and shall be filled.”
Anagogically, God here satisfies the Saints who fast with eternal delights in heaven, and torments the wicked who here gorge themselves with perpetual hunger in gehenna, according to Isaias 65, 13: “Behold my servants shall eat, and you shall be hungry: behold my servants shall drink, and you shall be thirsty: behold my servants shall rejoice, and you shall be confounded.” Hear Tertullian, book On Spectacles, chapter 28: “The matter is disposed by turns; now they rejoice, we are afflicted.” And a little after: “Let us therefore mourn while the heathen rejoice, that when they begin to mourn we may rejoice.”
The same, book On Idolatry, chapter 13: “While the world rejoices,” he says, “let us mourn, and when the world afterwards mourns we shall rejoice. So also Lazarus, who obtained refreshment in the bosom of Abraham, and on the contrary the rich man set in the torment of fire, make up the alternate turns of evils and goods by a corresponding retribution. The poor man,” he says, “bought blessedness by beggary, and the rich man punishment by wealth.”