Commentaria in II Regum (II Samuelis)
Moreover Rabanus and the Gloss say that this imprecation was as it were a prophecy, which was in fact fulfilled. For the mountains of Gelboe were formerly very fertile, afterwards exceedingly barren; and St. Ambrose seems to hold this, book III On Duties, chap. 9. For it is certain that the mountains of Gelboe are in many places stony, dry and barren, as Bredenbach, Adrichomius and other geographers of the Holy Land attest. But others assert that these mountains were such before David; others think that this barrenness befell them from the time of Elias, who by his imprecation brought barrenness and drought upon all Israel, 3 Kings 17:1. So the Master of the Scholastic History. Moreover Abulensis asserts that he knew men upon whom rain had fallen on mount Gelboe.
Allegorically, St. Gregory, book IV of the Morals, chap. 4:
“Gelboe, he says, is interpreted ‘a running down’; but by Saul, anointed and dead, the death of our Mediator is expressed: not undeservedly are the proud hearts of the Jews signified by the mountains of Gelboe, who, while they run down in the desires of this world, mingled themselves in the death of Christ, that is, of the Anointed. And because in them the anointed king died in the body, they themselves are dried up from every dew of grace.”
Moreover Pagninus in his Hebrew Names says: “Gelboe in Hebrew is the same as a heap of swelling, or of inflation; for there the wicked fall and are cast down, like proud Lucifer from the height of heaven, and therefore Saul was slain in Gelboe.”
Mystically, St. Bernard, sermon 54 on the Canticle, by the “mountains of Gelboe” understands the demons, and likewise the lukewarm and irreligious; for these are dry and barren of grace and good works. Hear St. Bernard: “The sinner shall see and shall be angry, he shall gnash with his teeth and pine away. How wretched he is when he looks up to the heavens, in which he beholds countless mountains shining with divine brightness, resounding with divine praises, lofty in glory, abounding in grace! How more wretched when he looks back at the earth, which has no fewer mountains from the people of acquisition, solid in faith, lofty in hope, wide in charity, cultivated with virtues, laden with the fruits of good works, receiving daily from the dew of heaven, as from the pasture of the bridegroom, a blessing?”
St. Bernard then goes on, and heightens it: “With what grief and rancour, do we think, does that man most greedy of glory look upon these mountains so glorious around him, when he sees himself and his own opposite them, uncultivated, dark, barren of all good things, so that he feels himself to be a reproach of men and of Angels, who reproach him, according to that in the Psalms: This dragon whom thou
NEITHER BE THEY FIELDS OF FIRSTFRUITS—that is, of fruits, from which firstfruits may be chosen and offered to God. The Chaldee renders challeta (for which the Latin translator in the Royal Bibles wrongly put Halcho), that is, a cake or wafer, which was offered as the firstfruits of the fruits.
AS THOUGH HE HAD NOT BEEN ANOINTED WITH OIL—supply Saul, who was anointed by Samuel as king. Some refer “anointed” to the shield: hence R. Solomon and Vatablus think that at the creation of a king not only the king but also his shield was usually anointed with oil, that by this anointing it might become slippery for turning aside the weapons of the enemy; but in that case the shields of all the soldiers ought to have been anointed, as Abulensis rightly argues in refuting this, who nevertheless asserts that the king’s shield was usually anointed, but for another reason, namely that by this anointing its dignity as well as the strength of war might be represented. That is: The shield of Saul, once anointed with oil, is now so anointed with the blood of enemies that that former anointing by God does not appear in it; and it is just as if it “had not been anointed with oil.” Isaias favours this, chap. 21, verse 5, saying: “Arise, ye princes, take up (in Hebrew, anoint) the shield,” that is, that they may be polished, cleaned and shining. Hence the Chaldee renders: cleanse and make the arms bright. See what is said there.
22. FROM THE BLOOD OF THE SLAIN, FROM THE FAT OF THE VALIANT, THE ARROW OF JONATHAN NEVER TURNED BACK—but pierced the bodies of the enemy, even the strongest and fattest, and stained them with their blood, transfixed and destroyed them. That is: Jonathan and Saul with their arrows and swords drew forth and shed much blood, and wounded and slew many. Less rightly, therefore, do some connect “from the blood of the slain, from the fat of the valiant” with the preceding verse, as though these words gave the reason why rain and dew should not descend upon the mountains of Gelboe, namely on account of the shed blood of Saul, Jonathan and the Hebrews who were slain upon them. Moreover Saul was easily seventy years old, Jonathan more than forty; for his younger brother Isboseth, who soon succeeded Saul in the kingdom, was forty years old, as we shall hear in chap. 2, verse 10.
23. EVEN IN DEATH THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED—that is: As life joined Saul and Jonathan, so did death. For friends rejoice to live together and to die together, because the soul of the lover is more in the beloved friend than in the lover. So among the Gauls there were the Soldurii, as it were the bravest soldiers, who swore faith to one another in battle, either to conquer or to fall together, as Caesar attests, book V On the Gallic War.
Symbolically, the Church in the Church’s office adapts these words to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, who on the same day, month and year were crowned with martyrdom by Nero: “Glorious princes of the earth, as in their life they loved one another, so also in death they were not divided.”
“Swifter than eagles, stronger than lions.” It is a hyperbole, as if to say: Saul and Jonathan were most swift and most strong. Virgil, Eclogue 5, gives a like epitaph to his Daphnis, that is, to Julius Caesar, pierced with twenty-three wounds in the senate-house, or to Quintilius Varus, slain with three legions in Germany, where among other things he sings of him thus:
Daphnis, thy death even the Punic lions mourned, the wild mountains and the woods declare it; Daphnis taught men to yoke Armenian tigers to the chariot, etc.
And below he asserts that he was translated into heaven among the gods:
Radiant, Daphnis wonders at the strange threshold of Olympus, and sees beneath his feet the clouds and the stars, etc. Ever shall thy honour, thy name and thy praises remain.
26. AMIABLE ABOVE THE LOVE OF WOMEN.—“Love,” taken either actively, as if to say: As much as women are wont to love their spouses and sons, so much did I love thee, O Jonathan; or passively, as if to say: As much as women are wont to be loved by spouses and sons, so much and more wast thou to me lovable in delights and beloved. So Theodoret.
Morally, see here, admire and imitate how David was unmindful of so many injuries of Saul, and how he did not rejoice at the death of Saul, though he was his bitterest enemy, but mourned it so earnestly and honoured it with so elegant a dirge; and therefore he deserved to succeed him in the kingdom, and won the favour of the tribe of Juda, which at once anointed him as its king. Wherefore St. Chrysostom, in the homily On Virtue and Vices, teaches that Saul’s envy harmed Saul himself, not David; for it brought Saul infamy and death, but David glory and a kingdom: “The common people, he says, do not know how much more wretched than others are those who, while they think they harm others, pierce themselves through with swords; which is utter madness, to strike oneself, and not to know it; but while one thinks he does an injury to another, then indeed he cuts his own throat entirely.” He then shows this by the example and contrast of Saul and David: “Was not the one tormented by trouble and an evil demon, while the other was brighter than the sun in his trophies, and, because he chiefly worshipped God, was known above the heavens for his great piety? Did not the one waste away with envy, while the other, bearing all things in silence, bound all to himself by charity?” He adds the reason: “Because the one (Saul) had taken to himself soldiers terrible in arms, the other, namely David, justice, stronger than countless legions, as companion and helper.” The same Chrysostom, tome II On Saul and David: “If they had had a thousand lives, would they not readily have laid them down for their leader, as much out of the reverence which he showed even to an enemy, having seen in fact how kindly a mind he bore towards his own? For he who is gentle and mild towards those by whom he has been troubled will much more be affectionately disposed towards the benevolent. And this was to him a very great pledge of security.” And a little after: “They obeyed David, he says, no longer as a man, but as an Angel.” Finally St. Ambrose in the Apology of David, chap. 6: “He avenged, he says, the death of his enemy; he lamented his end with sufficient tears; and he long deferred the empire due to him, which he knew was due by God’s appointment. By this alone he taught all men not to seize a kingdom, even if it is owed, but to wait until it is offered in its own time.” Would that posterity had imitated him! We should not have endured such bitterness of wars.