Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
2. AND SAUL CHOSE HIM THREE THOUSAND MEN OF ISRAEL.—You will ask, when did he choose them? Abulensis and Cajetan answer, in the first year of his reign, after he cut down Naas, and renewed the kingdom in Galgal, chap. 11, verse 15. Better Bede, Hugo, Dionysius, Pineda in the place cited, Mendoza and others think that Saul did this in the second year of his reign, namely after he had reigned two years, as went before; for to this time these words belong: whence Vatablus renders, then he chose. I gave the cause why he chose them at verse 1, to which add that Saul chose these three thousand so that, the Philistines, Ammonites and other neighboring enemies rushing in suddenly, as was their wont, he might have them at hand to oppose to them at once, lest they lay waste the fields and cities of Israel.
Some add that Saul after the two years of his reign fell away from his first innocence and trust in God; and therefore looked to human defenses, and enrolled these three thousand; but the defect and fall of Saul happened afterwards, as we shall hear at verse 10.
Mystically, Bede by the “three thousand” understands the three Theological virtues, which defend us against all temptations and enemies. “The people of the faithful,” he says, “chose for themselves three thousand of Israel, because when it has known that hope and love are to be joined to the unity of faith, it soon chooses Doctors for itself, who may teach more diligently the same faith, hope and charity to itself and its own, and defend them from the onrush of the enemy.” St. Gregory refers it to the three states of the Church: “There are said to be three thousand,” he says, “because in the summit of perfection virgins bring forth, next to whom they place the continent and the defenders of truth: for while by the example of virgins they kindle others to the highest incorruption, while by the life of the continent they take others from the corruptions of the world; while they defend the weakness of the humble by the aid of the powerful; good Doctors come against the enemies of the holy Church as it were with three thousand chosen men.”
Furthermore St. Gregory skillfully presses the words three thousand men, which the Septuagint have. “Because the preachers of truth,” he says, “lead to the defense of the holy Church not the weak and feeble but robust and strong warriors.” And a little after: “They are called men for fortitude; they are said to be of Israel for divine contemplation.” For Israel in Hebrew is the same as seeing God, or rather, prevailing with God.
AND TWO THOUSAND WITH SAUL IN MACHMAS.—“Machmas,” says Adrichomius, “Magmas, and Megmas, a city quite large, of which there is much mention in the Scriptures, the boundary of the tribe of Ephraim toward the South. In it Jonathas Machabeus dwelt, and here the Blessed Virgin perceived that the boy Jesus was not in the company, but had remained in Jerusalem; wherefore she returned to Jerusalem to seek him. To this day,” says Jerome, “a large village is shown in the borders of Elia, retaining the ancient name, nine miles distant from it near the village Rama. Now it is called Byra, and is in the dominion of the Brothers of the Knighthood of the temple, as Brocardus and Breidenbach hand down.”
Mystically St. Gregory: “Machmas,” he says, “that is, humility, what else does it signify but the blush of the continent? For while they recall the past delights of the flesh, they blush.” And a little after: “While they recall what they were in the world, they cannot be proud of this, that they see themselves great in God.”
Now Bethel, that is, the house of God, is the Church, which holy prelates and preachers defend, as strong warriors, against the incursions of demons and tyrants, says St. Gregory.
AND A THOUSAND WITH JONATHAS IN GABAA OF BENJAMIN.—Jonathas in Hebrew is the same as gift of the dove; whence it denotes purity and the pure, who dwell in Gabaa, that is, on the hill of holiness. Hear Bede: “Jonathas, gift of the dove, is said to be the founder of virgins; because by the incomparable grace of the Holy Spirit it is brought about that by those remaining in the flesh the corruption of the flesh is not known. Well also are virgins said to be on high, because that which passes beyond human nature is situated on the highest summit of virtues. Whence also that virgin beloved of Jesus, pointing to the place of virgins, says: I saw upon mount Sion the Lamb standing, and with him a hundred forty-four thousand, etc. For they are virgins, Apoc. chap. 14, verse 1. They are said to be on the mount with the Lamb, because by the merit of incorruption, by which they separate themselves from earthly and carnal delights, they are raised to the supreme glory of the Redeemer.”
AND THE REST OF THE PEOPLE HE SENT BACK EVERY MAN TO HIS TENT,—“the rest of the common people is sent back, lest it be condemned for rashness in a higher life, and, weak and infirm, perish in the war, while it promises the faith of a lofty conversation which it has not the strength of lofty virtue to sustain.”
3. AND JONATHAS SMOTE THE GARRISON OF THE PHILISTINES, WHICH WAS IN GABAA.—Gabaa was the country and seat of Saul and Jonathas, and therefore Jonathas, a spirited and bold youth, at once drove out of it the garrison of the Philistines, that is, as the Septuagint, Aquila and Theodotion render, a post, that is, a garrison. For the Philistines, in the time of Samson and afterwards, ruling over the Hebrews, to keep them under the yoke that they might not dare to rebel, erected on the higher and stronger places of Juda (such as Gabaa was) citadels, or fortified places, which they surrounded with a rampart (the Italians call them fortezze), in which they stationed soldiers as a garrison; and therefore they called them stations, or garrisons of soldiers. So Josephus, Theodoret, Procopius, Abulensis, Cajetan, Dionysius and others. The Chaldee renders, Jonathas smote the plantation of the Philistines: for these stations were as it were plantations not of trees but of men and soldiers: whence even now the English, when they transfer colonies of their own people to Ireland, say that they make a plantation in it.
You will ask, with what arms did Jonathas smite the Philistines? for the Philistines had taken away iron arms from them, as is clear from verse 19. I answer, the arms were those of the ancients: “For they did the business with fists, from which fight is named. Among the adversaries themselves,” says Cassiodorus, book 1, chap. 30, “there were not at first armed contests, but eager intention, however fervid, assailed with fists, whence also the fight took its name.” Hence Lucretius, book 4, p. 118:
The ancient arms were hands, nails, etc.
“Afterwards Belus first brought forth the iron sword, from whom also war was pleased to be named.” Before Belus they used slings, bows, staves, clubs, poles, stakes hardened in the fire. Hear Virgil, book 7 of the Aeneid: Here armed with a charred stake;
Here a heavy club with knots, for each, as he finds it, anger makes a weapon.
And a little after:
With hard clubs it is driven, and with stakes hardened by fire.
Jonathas could also throw fire into the garrison, and so burn it: he could moreover invade the Philistines unawares, or sleeping, by night, and seize their arms, and with these cut them down.
Mystically St. Gregory: “Jonathas,” he says, “smites the garrison of the Philistines, because chosen virginity from the flesh, raised to the citadel of continence, extinguishes base motions. Well is it called the garrison of the Philistines, because in the virginal body carnal motions have not the rest of delight, but the standing of a contest. They stand, indeed, because they assail: but they cannot rest, because they do not delight the holy mind.”
AND WHEN THE PHILISTINES HAD HEARD OF IT,—that is, the Philistines not now slain by Jonathas, but the others who dwelt in Judea. Some understand, they were troubled: so St. Jerome, Hugo and Cajetan; but although this is true, it is not necessary to supply it here; for the sense is completed by what is added: “Saul sounded the trumpet,” as if to say: When the Philistines had heard of the slaughter of their men made by Jonathas, and were consternated, Saul sent around trumpeters, who, sounding the trumpets, should summon the Hebrews from every side, to attack and slay the Philistines consternated by this disaster. So Abulensis, Dionysius and others. Hear St. Jerome in the Quaestiones: “This trumpet was a sign of victory and of exhortation, that the Hebrews might hear and know that the Philistines were troubled and overcome.” St. Gregory: “To sound the trumpet,” he says, “is both to announce victory, and by the example of the victors to rouse the minds of others to the purpose of spiritual warfare.”
Mystically St. Gregory: “Jonathas smote the garrison of the Philistines; but Saul, sounding the trumpet, gave out that he had smitten it; because, namely, it is ascribed to the triumphs of the chosen preachers that hidden adversaries are overcome by their subjects.”
4. LET THE HEBREWS HEAR—that the camp of the Philistines has been cut down, and that they are summoned by this trumpet to pursue the victory begun, that we may plainly cast the Philistines out of our Judea. The Septuagint, reading for ibrim, that is, Hebrews, abadim, that is, servants, render: the servants were disobedient.
AND ISRAEL ROSE UP AGAINST THE PHILISTINES,—the Hebrew: and Israel became fetid (that is, hateful, loathed) among the Philistines; Vatablus: the Palestines abhorred the Israelites, as a thing ill-smelling and putrid; Cajetan: the Palestines loathed Israel. Our version has given the sense. For Israel was therefore fetid, that is, hateful, to the Palestines, because it had risen up against them and rebelled against them. Whence the Septuagint render, and Israel despised the Philistines. Furthermore the Roman corrected Septuagint have: and Israel was ashamed before the foreigners; whence you may better render from the Hebrew, and Israel contracted a stench from the Philistines, that is, the Palestines stank to the Israelites; the Palestines were to the Israelites a stench, that is, a shame and abomination; it stank to and shamed the Israelites that they served such unwarlike and vile Philistines, and that they did not shake off their so feeble and vile yoke. Wherefore, roused by this indignity and shame, they raised their courage to cast them out of their borders.