Commentaria in I Machabaeorum
1. AND GORGIAS TOOK FIVE THOUSAND MEN (footmen) AND A THOUSAND CHOICE HORSEMEN, AND THEY REMOVED THE CAMP BY NIGHT.—Gorgias was one of the three leaders of Antiochus and Lysias most experienced in war, which he also shows here, when with picked soldiers he attacks the camp of Judas by night, to crush him unexpectedly asleep with his men. By this stratagem Hannibal cut down the Romans, and the Romans Hasdrubal, the brother of Hannibal, as Livy testifies.
2. AND THE SONS THAT WERE OF THE CASTLE WERE THEIR GUIDES,—as if to say: The soldiers of Antiochus born or brought up in the citadel of Sion, and therefore acquainted with the country and places, led them by dark (for it was night), winding and hidden ways, of which they themselves were ignorant, as foreigners and strangers,
3. AND JUDAS HEARD OF IT, AND HE AROSE, HE AND THE VALIANT MEN (strong leaders and soldiers) TO ATTACK THE KING’S FORCES,—namely the whole camp left behind by Gorgias. The Greek has only dynamin, that is, force, strength, power, the army and forces of the king. But because in this camp there were armies of various nations, and these strong and numerous, hence our version renders: “the forces of the king’s armies.” Judas therefore learned by scouts the stratagem and plan of Gorgias, and turned it back upon himself. For that same night, the rest of the camp left by Gorgias, secure and sleeping, he attacked at Emmaus, and overwhelmed unexpectedly,
4. FOR AS YET THE ARMY WAS DISPERSED FROM THE CAMP,—as if to say: The soldiers of Gorgias were not yet gathered and distributed in the camp into their ranks and lines, but wandered about scattered, and were gradually collecting and ordering themselves in the camp. Judas, knowing this, easily overthrew them by attacking them dispersed and disordered.
5. AND GORGIAS CAME INTO THE CAMP OF JUDAS, AND FOUND NO MAN THERE,—because Judas with his men had gone that same night to Emmaus to cut down those left by Gorgias, as I said.
6. AND WHEN IT WAS DAY, JUDAS APPEARED IN THE PLAIN WITH THREE THOUSAND MEN (footmen) ONLY, WHO HAD NEITHER ARMOUR (that is, breastplates, or iron corselets and shields) NOR SWORDS,—namely, as they wished, as the Greeks and many Latin codices add, as if to say: They had not polished, sharp, broad and long swords, such as they desired, and such as the enemy had; but unpolished, covered with rust, blunted, narrow and short; many also went armed not with swords, but with poles, clubs, hammers, mattocks, sickles and other merely rustic arms, which they had found at home or in the field. So much the greater was the virtue of God and the fortitude of the soldiers, and the victory. This is what Josephus says, book 12, chap. 11: “Leading three thousand men not sufficiently equipped with arms because of poverty.” So Dionysius the Carthusian and Josephus, Stephanus here, who adds that many of them were slingers, who were not accustomed to use swords, that they might be free to hurl stones from slings. Less probably Lyranus, reading “because” for “who,” explains thus: Therefore Judas led out into the line only three thousand armed and swordsmen, because the other Jews had no swords and shields with which to fight. Moreover that they had swords is plain from verse 15, where it is said: “But all the hindmost of them fell by the sword,” and from the fact that a little before the Jews had despoiled the camp of Apollonius; and thence carried off swords and the rest of the arms.
7. AND THEY SAW THE ARMY OF THE GENTILES STRONG, AND IN BREASTPLATES, AND HORSEMEN—Note: Judas and the Maccabees fought on foot, and had no horsemen; for no mention is made of horses, whereas the enemy had a copious cavalry as well as infantry. There are several causes. The first, because God, Deuter. 17, 16, had forbidden the Jews a store of horses, that they might not trust in them, but in himself. So St. Basil and others, whom I cited there, although Abulensis seems to deny it. The second, because Judea is mountainous and broken; whence it is scarcely passable for horses and horsemen and inconvenient for battle. The third, because Judea lacked abundance of horses, and used instead of them asses and mules, but fetched horses from Egypt (as Solomon did): but to buy them there, and bring them thence into Judea, was too burdensome and costly for the Maccabees. The fourth, God willed this, to show more his power, and the virtue and strength of the Maccabees, namely that they, relying on God alone, as Judas here confesses, his help being implored, few against many, foot against horse, almost unarmed against the armed, should nevertheless overthrow them, according to that of David: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses: but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God,” Psalm 19, 8.
10. AND NOW LET US CRY TO HEAVEN,—saying:
Mi camocha baelim Jehova, that is: “Who is like to thee among the strong, O Lord?” Exodus 15. For this was the emblem and watchword of Judas; whence from the initial letters of that verse joined together he was called Machabi, that is Machabeus, as is sufficiently gathered from these his words and the like. For Judas everywhere placed his hope of victory not in arms, nor in soldiers, but in God alone, and invoked him, and by this confidence and suppliant prayer always obtained victory, except in the last battle, in which, wounded, he fell, because it is not read that he called upon God before the battle, as he was wont to do at other times.
AND REMEMBER THE COVENANT OF OUR FATHERS,—as if to say: God will remember the pact and covenant made with our fathers, that we should worship him as our God, and he in turn be our God, that is, protector, provider, guardian and keeper; and that God would deliver us from so many and so great enemies, and lay them low before us.
15. BUT ALL THE HINDMOST (of the fleeing) FELL—slain by Judas and his companions, who, pursuing the fugitives, harassed the rear of the enemy and cut down the last.
[Here is shown the] military [discipline] of Judas, who kept his men under the standards, and did not permit them to seize the spoils of the enemy, lest the fleeing enemies, seeing this, should gather themselves again, and attack the Jews scattered and laden with spoils and cut them down. For so in this age we have seen Germans and Transylvanians, when they had slain many thousands of Turks, slain by the same, because they had slipped away too hastily to the spoils, and given the Turks occasion to gather themselves in the mountains and attack and slaughter them laden with spoils. So Tomyris queen of the Scythians, feigning flight, left her camp full of feasts and wine to be plundered by Cyrus and the Persians: but soon returning she cut down to a man the same, buried in wine and sleep, as Justin, Herodotus and others testify. Boleslaus II routed Frederick, king of Bohemia, in a triple battle. But while he gives his army room to plunder the booty, and does not follow up the victory, Frederick, having gathered his army, conquered him swelling with his triple victory, and forced him to return to exile. So Delrio, book 13, gives more examples of Alexander, Hannibal, Tiberius. See in Frontinus, book 2, chap. 5. Avarice therefore, and greed of booty, deceives prudence, and wrests victory from the victors, and transfers it to the vanquished, and makes the place of slaughter that which a little before was the victor’s. Wherefore wise leaders of war restrain their soldiers from booty, and keep them armed in the line, and pursue the fleeing enemy until the victory over them is complete; for then plundering and spoiling is safe. For this reason leaders conquered in war, to delay the pursuing enemy and escape him, scatter money and precious things behind them, so that the enemy, busy gathering them, may cease to pursue. So Tryphon king of Syria, conquered, scattering gold and silver all along the road in his flight, and so delaying the horsemen of Antiochus who pursued him, escaped, as Julius Frontinus testifies, book 2 of the Stratagems chap. 13, who adds that the Gauls did the same fighting with Attalus. Plutarch relates in the Lucullus that Mithridates, conquered by Lucullus and the Romans, did the same, and escaped the hands of the Romans pursuing him by the royal treasure thrown in their way. So the beaver escapes from the hands of hunters, casting to them his genitals; for he knows that they hunt him so as to give castoreum from his genitals to physicians. Hear Polybius, book 10: “And since very many gape after booty, and cannot obtain full victory, it happens that they run risk of the whole issue. This has happened to many, that, although they had attained their wish, and had either burst into the camp of the enemy, or taken a city, nevertheless they were not only driven out, but also incurred the danger and loss of the whole cause.”