Commentaria in II Regum (II Samuelis)
Mystically, Respha is the pious solicitude of holy Pastors and spiritual Fathers, who guard the sons whom they have begotten to Christ, crucified to the world, and succour them by the rigour of fasting and the instance of prayers, until they obtain mercy from heaven upon them, restraining wicked men, and also malignant spirits, lest by evil suggestions they snatch them from the cross, tear and devour them. So Angelomus. Hence Respha in Hebrew is the same as live coal, or burning ember, which is a symbol of ardent love; or pavement, on which she, afflicting herself for her sons, lay on haircloth.
12. AND DAVID WENT AND TOOK THE BONES OF SAUL,—David, stirred by the example of Respha’s piety, who so diligently guarded the bodies of her sons, saw to it that their bones, and those of Saul and Jonathan, should be gathered and honourably buried in the sepulchre of Cis his father; to show that he was unmindful of the injuries done him by Saul, and repaid him for such great wrongs with exceptional benefits; which is an act of heroic charity.
15. AND THERE WAS ANOTHER BATTLE.—Henceforth four wars of David against the Philistines are recounted, which seem to have happened in the order in which they are narrated here. For this the simple narration of the history requires, though others think that the order of time is not kept here, but that some things happened earlier, some later; but what I have said is truer, and so think Josephus, Severus Sulpitius, Sigonius, Lyranus, Abulensis, Cajetan, Serarius, Vatablus, Dionysius, Adrichomius, Salianus.
AND DAVID GROWING FAINT,—when David, now growing old, fighting in the battle, wearied with labour, heat, hunger and thirst, failed in strength, and could no longer sustain the force of the enemies pressing on; then Jesbibenob, a giant of the race of Rapha, or Raphaim, that is, giants, descended from the first giant Rapha (Arapha is the same as Rapha), rushed upon him. In Hebrew Harapha, where the first letter he is not radical, but servile, taking the place of the article or demonstrative pronoun. But Abisai succoured David, and killed the giant. Hear Theodoret in manuscript: “How came it that David failed in the line? He was old, but conquered the body by the alacrity of his spirit. But when in the conflict he had borne much labour (for he was first in the line fighting), he was wearied, and failed, not bearing the toil. And when he came into danger of being killed by him who was first fighting among the foreigners, he was unexpectedly saved, Abisai having protected him, and slain that greatest enemy.”
17. LEST THOU QUENCH THE LAMP OF ISRAEL,—that is, the splendour and glory of Israel, such as King David was: the Chaldee: lest the kingdom of Israel perish with thee.
19. WHEREIN ADEODATUS THE SON OF THE FOREST, AN EMBROIDERER OF BETHLEHEM, SLEW GOLIATH THE GETHITE.—By Adeodatus many with the Chaldee understand David, who was given by God to Israel for its salvation (so St. Augustine called his son Adeodatus). For David was a Bethlehemite, and killed Goliath. So the Hebrews in St. Jerome, Angelomus, Lyranus, the Gloss, Rabanus, Rupert, Hugh, Dionysius and others. Hear St. Jerome:
“Adeodatus is David himself. He is called Adeodatus because he was chosen by God for the kingdom. Son of the Forest, because he was brought out of the forest where he pastured sheep. An embroiderer, because his mother was of the race of Beseleel. A Bethlehemite, because Noemi and Ruth in the time of plenty returned to Bethlehem.”
But better Vatablus, Abulensis, Pagnini, Cajetan, Serarius, Sanchez, Salianus and others think that Adeodatus, in Hebrew Elchanan, was another than David. For here are recounted the wars which David waged after the beginning of his reign, indeed when he was now old: but that fight of David with Goliath was not a war, but a duel undertaken by David as a youth before his reign. This Adeodatus was the son of the Forest; in Hebrew, son of Jare, where Jare is the proper name of the father of Adeodatus, as the Septuagint, Vatablus, Chaldee and others render it.
Now Jare in Hebrew signifies a forest or wood; whence our version renders son of the Forest. For the father of Adeodatus was called Jare, that is, wood, or forest, because he was born in a wood, or because he was accustomed to dwell and hunt in a wood. The word “Forest” is therefore the proper name of Adeodatus’s father, and so is to be written with a capital letter, as the Roman editions have it. Adeodatus is called an embroiderer. In Hebrew, of weavers, that is, because he was descended from weavers, or rather because he himself was one of the weavers, who weave embroidered, that is, variegated threads, and thence make embroidered cloths and garments, that is, of various colours and threads.
The same killed “Goliath the Gethite,” that is, the brother of the giant Goliath whom David killed, as is expressly said in 1 Paralipomenon 20:5. The brother of Goliath was likewise called “Goliath”; or rather he is called “Goliath” because in height, strength and powers he was like the Goliath whom David laid low. So commonly of an exceptionally strong man we say: He is another Hercules, or another Samson. Hence Josephus calls him the strongest of the Philistines.
21. AND JONATHAN THE SON OF SAMAA THE BROTHER OF DAVID SLEW HIM.—The Hebrews in St. Jerome think this “Jonathan” is Nathan the prophet. “Jonathan,” says St. Jerome, “is himself Nathan the prophet, who had two brothers Joel and Jonadab. Therefore the name of his father is put to him here, because he is described among the warriors. But where his prophecy is written of, his father is not noted for him, because his father was not a prophet.” But far truer, nay to me certain, is it that “Jonathan” was not Nathan the prophet, nor Adeodatus, of whom in verse 19, as others will have it, but different from both. Josephus adds: “This battle with the (Philistine) nation was the last, which afterwards did not dare to move against the Israelites.”
22. THESE FOUR WERE BORN OF ARAPHA IN GETH.—Many think that Arapha is Orpha, the mother-in-law of Noemi and kinswoman of Ruth, and therefore that Goliath whom David killed was the son of Orpha. So the Hebrews, Philo Biblicus and Prudentius in the Hamartigenia; but I have refuted this on Ruth chapter 1, verse 4, to which add that “Arapha” is not a woman, as Serarius and Sanchez hint, but a man, namely “Rapha,” from whom the giants “Raphaim” are sprung and so called, as if to say: These four giants just mentioned were born of that first and powerful giant Rapha, who therefore by antonomasia, the article He being prefixed, is called Harapha, as if to say: That giant, that Titan. That it is so is plain, first from other places of Scripture where the “Raphaim” are said to be born of the giant Rapha, as Genesis chapter 14, verse 5; Josue 12:4, and 12:12. Secondly, because Scripture in assigning the stock and family of sons assigns their fathers, not mothers; and this “of the race of Arapha” signifies. Thirdly, because the Roman Septuagint translates, who was of the descendants of Rapha, that is, of the man Rapha: for the word is masculine, and signifies a man. The Royal edition has “of the giants” and “of the Titans.” So also Josephus, the Chaldee and others. Finally, he who is here called “Arapha” is “Rapha,” from whom the “Raphaim” are sprung.
THESE FOUR, etc., FELL BY THE HAND (by the hand, strength and fighting) OF DAVID AND OF HIS SERVANTS;—for though David killed none of these by himself, he killed all through his servants and soldiers just mentioned. For what a soldier does, the leader does. Add that David had trained these soldiers, and had gone before them by example in killing the giant Goliath. So Eucherius and others. For his soldiers, following this deed of David, killed other giants.