Commentaria in I Regum (I Samuelis)
AND THE REST OF THE PEOPLE,—that is, the rest of the people: for “of the people” is not a nominative plural, but a genitive singular, says Abulensis. These words are wanting in the Hebrew, Chaldee and Septuagint, the Royal and Complutensian editions, and are obscure and intricate: their sense, however, seems here to be, as if to say: The rest, who, the others fleeing from fear of the Philistines, had remained in the camp, went up with Saul from Galgal to Gabaa, which was a city set on a hill of the tribe of Benjamin.
TO MEET THE PEOPLE (of the Philistine enemies, who from the neighboring town of Machmas, as is said in the following verse, made sallies, and) WHO FOUGHT AGAINST THEM,—namely the Hebrews, coming from Galgal to Gabaa. For Jonathas had stormed the garrison of the Philistines in Gabaa, as was said verse 3. Wherefore many from Galgal went to Gabaa; these the Philistines, dwelling in the neighboring city Machmas, attacked on the flank and cut down: that Saul, therefore, might make this way safe for his men, he went up with his men against them; and at the same time to join himself with Jonathas dwelling in Gabaa, as he in fact there joined himself, as follows:
17. AND THERE WENT OUT OF THE CAMP OF THE PHILISTINES THREE COMPANIES TO SPOIL.—In Hebrew, three heads; in Chaldee, three troops; the Septuagint, three beginnings; Vatablus, three bands. A wedge (cuneus) is properly a sharp iron, thickening gradually, by inserting which into cracks logs are split. Whence the saying: “For a bad knot a bad wedge must be sought.” Hence by metaphor, cuneus signifies a multitude of foot soldiers drawn up in the form of a wedge, narrower and as it were sharper in front, then proceeding broader and denser, says Vegetius, book 1 On Military Affairs. Whence Virgil, book 12 of the Aeneid:
Dense, with wedges formed, each gathers in a mass.
19. NOW THERE WAS NO SMITH TO BE FOUND IN ALL THE LAND OF ISRAEL: FOR THE PHILISTINES HAD TAKEN CARE LEST PERHAPS THE HEBREWS SHOULD MAKE SWORD OR SPEAR,—that they might hold them under their yoke, that they might not be able to rebel. So arms were once forbidden by the Romans to slaves, lest they attack their masters, except in extreme necessity, such as was after the disaster of Cannae: then they armed slaves against Hannibal, as Valerius Maximus testifies, book 7, chap. 6. So Aristotle teaches, Politics 2, that arms are to be taken away from slaves. So Cyrus took away their arms from the Lydians rebelling against him, as Justin testifies, book 1.
But God eluded the caution and prudence of the Philistines, while through Samuel he gave the Hebrews victory without iron and iron arms. Whence St. Gregory: “The armed,” he says, “were conquered by the unarmed; that all that is conquered may be ascribed to the praises of almighty God.”
The smith. Mystically, the “smith” is the one who prays and meditates, who from the bellows of his discourse in the smithy, that is, in meditation, kindles the fire of devotion and charity, according to that: “In my meditation a fire shall flame out,” as the Archbishop of Braga says in his notable compendium of spiritual doctrine, chap. 27, p. 285: “The blacksmith, drawing the glowing iron from the fire, strives to soften it with blows; but before it quite cools, he brings it back to the fire, that it may easily glow again; so also our spirit, drawn from the fervor of devotion and struck by the blows of earthly occupation, lest it grow wholly cold and hard, must be brought back to the furnace of devotion. For those who studiously take care to nourish devotion daily easily preserve and keep it; but if, even for a very few days, they withdraw from the practice, they are wont to return with difficulty to the fervor of the interior exercise. Wherefore this is especially to be taken care of, that by assiduity of prayer the heart be always open to God.”
Tropologically, the “smith” is the preacher, preceptor, and any other chastiser of vices: this the “Philistines,” that is, demons, try to remove, that men unarmed may not be able to resist their temptations.
Hear Blessed Peter Damian, book 1, epist. 18, which in order is 106: “Any spiritual community that does not use the frequent correction of fraternal zeal labors under the mystic want of the Israelite people; which, namely, at the beginning of the rule of king Saul, had not a smith.” And a little after: “The Philistines,” he says, “take smiths from the land of Israel when malignant spirits, under pretext of false piety, remove the zeal of correction from the lips of the brethren.” He adds the cause: “As iron strongly tames the other metals, so the hammer of correction represses the vices of offenders, and as it were by forging breaks the hardness of a stiff mind.” From which he concludes: “If the censure of corrections is withdrawn from the sacred community, the vigor of discipline is utterly enervated, and the whole religious life is destroyed; because while each follows the choice of his own will, returning to secular things, he violates the institute of spiritual observance.” Then he gives this pious admonition for practice to each: “Whence whoever he is in whom the fervor of the regular life boils, he gladly embraces corrections: and even when he is innocent, he is delighted with his reproofs: not that conscience may bite him as having sinned; but because he hopes this will profit the other hearers; that from whence he, innocent and clean, is reproved, others who either have fallen or perhaps are about to fall may be corrected.” For as Ecclesiastes says, chap. 12, verse 11: “The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails deeply fastened in, which by the counsel of masters are given from one shepherd.” Hence also that of Jeremias 23:29: “Are not my words as a fire, and as a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” So also St. Gregory, Eucherius, Bede, Hugo, who add that the demon takes away from the faithful “smiths,” that is, good preachers, chastisers of vices, when he makes them preach subtle, philosophical, poetical, vain, elegant things pleasing to the people, and seek the applause of the people, not their lamentation, as St. Bernard says.
Again, “smiths” are the masters and doctors who teach philosophy, rhetoric, mathematics, poetry, etc., which serve faith and sacred doctrine, that they may defend it against heretics, Gentiles and the impious. Satan takes these away, when he works that Religious, Clerics and Priests do not study them, but sluggish and unlearned grow torpid in idleness: for from this arose the heresy of Luther and his successors, as well as of the ancient heretics. So St. Gregory and Cyril of Alexandria, book 7 Against Julian.
Finally, “iron arms” are mortifications and penances, by which the concupiscence of the flesh is blunted and crushed.
21. SO THAT THE EDGES OF THE PLOUGHSHARES WERE BLUNTED,—because by continual ploughing, furrowing the earth, they were blunted and dulled by its resistance and opposition; and it was hard for the Hebrews to sharpen them, so often to go to the Philistines.
EVEN TO THE GOAD TO BE MENDED,—as if to say: So blunt were the edges of the rural instruments that not even a small goad with which oxen are pricked remained that was not dulled; and therefore it had to be mended and sharpened. So Lyranus. Or with Abulensis refer this to verse 20 above: “So all Israel went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his ploughshare, and his spade, etc., even to the goad to be mended,” as if to say: Not only for sharpening the greater instruments, but also for mending and sharpening the smallest goads, it was necessary to go to Philistia, because in Israel there was no smith to sharpen them.
22. AND WHEN THE DAY OF BATTLE WAS COME, THERE WAS NOT FOUND A SWORD.—The people, therefore, and the soldiers following Saul were armed with bows, slings (for the Gabaasites were excellent slingers, as is clear from Judges 20:16) and stones; but these are rustic and ancient arms: likewise with spades, sickles, forks, goads, hammers, axes, saws, staves or flails with which grain is threshed and beaten out, and the other rustic instruments: and perhaps they melted these in fire and forged them into poles, daggers and swords, but rude and unpolished, according to that of Virgil:
And the curved sickles are forged into a stiff sword.
So Samgar the judge with the ploughshare slew six hundred Philistines, Judges 3:31. And Samson, lacking a sword, with the jawbone of an ass slew a thousand men, Judges chap. 15, 15. From which it is clear that this precaution of the Philistines, that the Israelites should have no arms and no smiths, was ancient.
EXCEPT SAUL AND JONATHAS.—Mystically Dionysius the Carthusian: “Prelates,” he says, “and their Vicars ought to be of such perfection that, however much subjects are deprived of spiritual arms, and agitated by the immoderation of passions, they themselves nevertheless persevere most firmly in every virtue, in the splendor of reason, in the light of wisdom, and overcome evil with good, and by their own uprightness repress and reform the defects of others, since they are as it were the measure and rule of their subjects.” Furthermore the Hebrews say or feign that these swords were brought to Saul and Jonathas from heaven by angels. More plainly you may say that they themselves had hidden these swords, or secretly procured them from neighboring places.
23. AND THE GARRISON OF THE PHILISTINES WENT OUT TO PASS OVER INTO MACHMAS.—It was already in Machmas, as was said verse 5; “into Machmas,” therefore, is either to be referred to the garrison, not to “to pass over,” as if to say: The garrison of the Philistines, which was in Machmas, passed beyond Machmas and went farther to meet Saul and the Hebrews to fight with them; or certainly “into Machmas,” that is, beyond Machmas, as the Septuagint render. In Hebrew, the garrison of the Philistines went out to the passage (Chaldee, ford) of Machmas; Vatablus: they moved the garrison or post to the farther part, which was between Machmas and Gabaa.