Judges 2

Judges 2:1

Augustine of Hippo: And the angel of the Lord went up to Clautmonte. The author of this book gave this name to the place, because he wrote later, since, when the angel of the Lord ascended to that place, he still did not call himself that. This name means “weeping,” because klauzmós, in Greek, means “weeping.” The reason is because the people wept there to hear this angel the words of the Lord rebuking him for having disobeyed by not exterminating the people he had ordered exterminate, people they had managed to overcome, preferring to make tributary rather than exterminate and destroy them , as the Lord had commanded (Cf Joshua 17,12-14). And if they did so, either out of contempt of the Lord’s command, or out of fear that the enemies would force them to fight against them, more to obtain their salvation courageously than to pay the tribute, they undoubtedly sinned, or despised what the Lord He had ordered them, or not believing that he could help them who had sent him. And he did not want to tell him through Josue-if, even when he was alive, he had already ordered them to do it, and he had not mentioned in advance what began to happen after he died-precisely because he wanted to throw it on everyone. through the angel. They had not yet done all of these, living Joshua; although some may have already begun to do it. But it is more likely that none of this had begun to be done by living Joshua Ship, and that the children of Israel, in the time of Joshua, dominated the extent of the territory that would be enough for them to settle, even though in the corresponding lot they had reasons to exterminate even the adversaries, growing and becoming stronger. Therefore, after the death of Joshua, when they had already become strong to carry out this, they preferred to have them as tributaries, according to their decision, rather than kill them and destroy them, according to the will of God. The angel was sent to rebuke them. Now, the fact that the book by Joshua Nave mentioned it, I think it is rather due to anticipation of what happened after the death of Joshua, or because Joshua already knew, because of the prophetic spirit he had (Cf Joshua 13,1-3), that he had It will happen like this, in case he is the one who wrote the book called Josué Nave, or because if someone else wrote it, he already knew what happened in Joshua’s death before the death of Joshua. — QUESTIONS ON JUDGES, Q. 12 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Judges 2:3

Augustine of Hippo: The angel of the Lord says the following, among other divine threats: I will not again expel the people I said I would expel (I will not remove) from your presence; and they will be a cause of anguish for you and their gods cause scandal. Why is this said except to let us think that some sins come from the wrath of God? God, enraged, threatened them by telling them that the gods of the nations, among which the Israelites wanted to live without exterminating them, would be an occasion for scandal, that is, they would make them scandalize the Lord their God and live offenders. And this, evidently, is with all certainty a great sin. — QUESTIONS ON JUDGES, Q. 13 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Judges 2:4

Jerome: Let us consider where he has set his ascent: “In the valley of tears, in the place that he has appointed.” We have read in the book of Judges that when the angel came and preached repentance to the people, saying, “You have abandoned the Lord, and the Lord shall abandon you,” the Israelites wept aloud when they heard the threat; and that place was called the valley of tears. We have called attention to ancient history in order to avoid heresy. The valley of tears, moreover, we may understand allegorically as this world, for we are not on the mountain, that is, in the kingdom of heaven, but in the valley, in the darknesses of this world; through a fault, we have been cast out of Paradise with Adam into a lowly vale of tears where there is repentance and weeping. “In the valley of tears, in the place that he has appointed.” What did the prophet mean? God made this world an arena that here we may strive against the devil, against sin, in order to receive our crown in heaven. Why did he ordain a contest? Could not he save us without the struggle? He gave us, as it were, a master of contests; he gave us a stadium in which to carry on our wrestling against vices, so that afterwards he may crown us meritoriously, not as those who sleep but as those who labor. — HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS, ALTERNATE SERIES 63 (Psalms 83)

Judges 2:6

Augustine of Hippo: And Joshua sent the people away, and the children of Israel went every man to his house, and every one to his inheritance to occupy the land. There is no doubt that this is repeated here by recapitulation (Cf Joshua 24,28). Because even the death of Josué Nave himself is mentioned even in this book (Cf Jc 2,8), to briefly insinuate all things as if from the beginning, when God granted them the land, and to indicate how they lived under the Judges or what they had to endure. And so it goes back to the order of the book of Judges, from the order that had first been established. — QUESTIONS ON JUDGES, Q. 14 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Judges 2:7

Origen of Alexandria: Who are these elders who either came with Joshua/Jesus or after him, if not the very apostles who illumined our hearts by their writings and precepts, even bringing a certain kind of “day” among us from that “true light” in which they were partakers? Whoever, therefore, is enlightened and instructed from the precepts of the apostles and is ordained according to the apostolic rules for the service of the Lord is the very person who is said to serve the Lord in the days of the elders who came after Jesus. Do you wish to see that the apostles also were the “light of the world,” just as the Savior “was the true light which illumines every person coming into the world"2? The Lord himself said to them, as it is written in the Gospel, “You are the light of the world.” But if the apostles are also the light of the world, then the “days” in which “we serve the Lord” undoubtedly illuminate us through their precepts and commandments. — HOMILIES ON Judges 1.2

Origen of Alexandria: It mentions “the days of the elders who knew all the works of the Lord.” Who is the person who “knows all the works of the Lord,” except the one who does them himself? For just as it was said that the sons of Eli were “sons of pestilence, having no knowledge of the Lord,” yet not meaning that these men who taught others were ignorant of the Lord, but rather that they behaved like those who did not know the Lord, so also in like manner is this statement to be understood that the elders “knew all the works of the Lord.” Moreover, it does not merely say that “they knew the works of the Lord” but specifies that “they knew every work of the Lord,” that is, that they knew the Lord’s work of justice and work of sanctification and patience and kindness and piety, for everything that comes from the commandments of God is called a “work of the Lord.” … Therefore, they are said to “know” the work of God who do his work. But that its customary use of “to know” and “not to know” may shine still more clearly from the authority of the Scriptures, observe how it is written elsewhere that “he who keeps the commandment,” it says, “will not know an evil word.” Can, therefore, one who keeps the commandments become one who does not know evil? He knows, of course, but “not know” is said of him because he is careful to avoid the evil. It is even said of the Lord and Savior himself that “he did not know sin,” certainly indicating in this case that to be ignorant of sin is equivalent to refraining from every sinful act. In this way, therefore, he is said to “know the works of the Lord” who performs “the works of the Lord,” whereas he who does not do the work of God is ignorant of the work of God. — HOMILIES ON Judges 1.4

Judges 2:8

Origen of Alexandria: Joshua’s death is also recounted for us. But it is nothing unusual that he who was the “son of Nun” died, for everything that is owed to nature gets paid. Yet, because we have established that what is read here about the son of Nun must be seen as referring to our Lord Jesus Christ, we need to ask how is it befitting to say that “Jesus died.” It is my opinion, though speaking according to the authority of Scripture, that Jesus lives in certain persons and is dead in other persons. Jesus lives in Paul and in Peter and in all those who can rightly say, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” and, again, “But for me to live is Christ and to die is profit.” In persons such as those, therefore, Jesus is rightly said to live. But in whom is Jesus dead? He is dead in those persons, undoubtedly, who are said to insult the death of Jesus by frequently repenting and then failing again, persons whom the apostle describes in his letter to the Hebrews as “crucifying the Son of God again for their own sake and holding him out for show.” You can see why, therefore, Jesus is not only said to be “dead” in those sinners but is also asserted to be “crucified” and “mocked” by them. But examine yourself as well and ask, when you have avaricious thoughts and desire to despoil others, if you are ever able to say that “Christ lives in me.” If you have thoughts of defilement, if you are harassed by fury, if you are inflamed with envy and aroused with jealousy, if you revel in drunkenness, if you are exalted with pride, or if you act with cruelty, will you be able to say in all of these things that “Christ lives in me”? Christ is dead in sinners, therefore, because no justice, no patience, no truth, nor anything else that Christ is operates within them. But for saints, on the other hand, Christ is said to be the one who enacts whatever they do, as the apostle declares: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me, Christ.” — HOMILIES ON Judges 2.1

Judges 2:10

Augustine of Hippo: After them came another generation that did not know the Lord or the things that he did for Israel. The author explained why he said that he did not know the Lord, that is, in those preclear and admirable works through which it happened before them that Israel knew the Lord. — QUESTIONS ON JUDGES, Q. 15 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Augustine of Hippo: And he sold them into the hands of his enemies around him. He usually wonders why it has been said: he sold, as if he had to understand that some price has been given. In a psalm it is also read: You sold your people for nothing (Sal 43,13). And the prophet says: You have been sold for nothing and you will be rescued without money. Why then does it say: sold, if they were “bucket” and “for nothing”? Why do not you say “donated”? Is it perhaps an expression of the Scriptures, in such a way that it could be called also sold to the one who is donated? Here the most acceptable sense of the phrases: You have been sold for nothing and you have sold your people for nothing, this is it: Those to whom you gave your people were ungodly; they did not deserve that, serving God, the people would be given to them in such a way that this cult would seem like the price. In relation to the other phrase: And you will be rescued without money, it is not said “for nothing”, but without money, so that we understand that the price of the ransom is what the apostle Peter says: For you have only rescued with silver or with gold, but with a precious blood as of lamb without spot. When the prophet says: You will be rescued without money, in silver he understands all the money, because they would be rescued by the price of the blood of Christ and not by the price in cash. Nor will I again throw out of his presence any of the towns left by Joshua, son of Nave; and he left them to test Israel with them, whether or not they kept the way of the Lord to go for him, as his parents had kept him. And the Lord left these people so that he did not expel them quickly and did not deliver them into the hands of Joshua (Jc 2,21-23). The cause of Joshua not exterminating all those peoples with war is sufficiently demonstrated by these words of the Lord. If he had, there would be no villages for the Israelites to have been tested. They could be of use to them, if proven by them, they would not turn out to be reprobate and, once they were not reprobate, as the Lord had ordered them not to be, those peoples would be expelled from their presence if they lived there. And it would not be necessary for the Israelites to practice war. It must be noted that the words of the Lord reach here: Since these people have abandoned my covenant, which I commanded their fathers, and they have not obeyed my voice, neither will I again expel from their presence any of their enemies. The rest of the words are those of the writer, which explains why the Lord said that he would not throw any of the people that Joshua, son of Nave, left alive. Then he explains the cause of why they were left, adding the following: He left them to test Israel with them, whether or not they kept the Lord’s way to walk through it, as their parents had kept them. By this is meant that the parents who were with Joshua, that is, when Joshua lived, kept the way of the Lord. But before it is said that another generation arose, after those who lived with Joshua, and they began the transgressions that offended the Lord. To tempt them, to prove them, those towns were alive and they were not exterminated by Joshua. Afterwards, so that no one would think that Joshua had done so because of his human decision to leave those peoples alive, the Scripture adds: The Lord left these people, so he did not expel them quickly and did not hand them over to them. of Joshua. And then it continues: These are the towns that Joshua left alive, to prove to them Israel, to all those who had not known any of the Canaan wars; but it was because of the generations of the children of Israel, to teach them war. This was, then, the cause to put them to the test: to learn the arts of war, to make war with so much piety and obedience to the law of God how much their parents had, that they pleased the Lord God even by making war , not because war is desirable, but because mercy is laudable even in war. What follows: But to those who did not know them before, to whom do you refer but to the nations that did not know in war those who lived before them for whose temptation or trial they were left alive? Remembering who they were, he says later: the five satrapies of foreigners. They are spoken of more explicitly in the books of the Kings (Jc 2,20). Satrapias is called a kind of small kingdoms, in front of which were the satraps. Now, this name in those regions is or was a reason for a certain honor. And the text continues: And to all the Canaanites and Sidonians and Evens, who lived in Lebanon, from Mount Hermon to Laboemat. And it came to pass that Israel was tempted with these. It is as if he said: This happened so that Israel would be tempted with them to know if they will hear the commands of the Lord. Not for God to know, who knows all things including future ones, (Cf Daniel 13,42) but for them to know and their conscience and glory or be convinced if they heard the commands of the Lord that he sent to his parents through Moses. Well, as they knew that they had not obeyed God in those nations that had remained, for their temptation, to exercise and test them, that is why God said the things that the angel sent by God spoke more clearly and expressly to those the Lord said shortly before: Since this people abandoned my covenant, which I sent to their parents, and they did not obey my voice, neither will I ever expel anyone from their presence. Deuteronomy puts the following in the mouth of God, when speaking of these enemy peoples: I will not expel them in a single year, so that the land will not be deserted, and the beasts of the field multiply against you. I will expel them little by little, until you multiply and grow and conquer the land (Exodus 23,29.30). The Lord could keep this promise of his for the obedient ones, so that the extermination of those nations, as the Israelites grew, would be partially done, not allowing their multitude to leave deserted the lands from which the adversaries would be exterminated. The phrase: And do not multiply against you the beasts of the field, I would be very surprised if you did not refer to the desires and passions, in a way beastly, that are usually born of a sudden attainment of earthly happiness. For it is not true that God could not exterminate men and could not annihilate the beasts, or rather not allow them to be born. — QUESTIONS ON JUDGES, Q. 17 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Judges 2:11

Origen of Alexandria: It was the ancients who did this, of course, but because what was written is said to be “written for our sake, to whom the end of the ages has arrived,” not on their account, we should watch lest these sayings are seen to be true of more of us than of them. Do you want to see that such things are applied to us through the apostle, rather than through me? Listen for yourself to what he said: “What does Scripture say about how Elijah interceded with God against Israel? ‘Lord, they killed your prophets, they destroyed your altars, and I am left alone and they seek my soul.’ But what was the divine response? ‘I preserved for myself seven thousand men who did not bend the knee to Baal,’ " then the apostle adds " ’thus, in this time also a remnant chosen by grace is saved,’ " You can see, therefore, that those who “bent the knee to Baal” and those who “did not bend the knee” are understood by the apostle as the multitude of unbelievers and the remnant of believers, respectively. This demonstrates, then, that those who lived in unbelief and impiety at the time of the Savior also “bent the knee to Baal” and worshiped idols, whereas those who believed and fulfilled the works of faith “did not bend the knee to Baal.” It is never mentioned in the historical books or in the Gospels or in any other book of Scripture that some at the time of the Savior did in fact bend the knee to idols, but such an act is indeed attributed to those persons who were bound by their sins, as though held by fetters. Whenever we sin and “are taken captive to the law of sin,” therefore, we “bend our knees to Baal.” But we are not called to this, nor do we believe in this, such that we would again become servants of sin and again “bend the knee” to the devil. Instead, our calling and the purpose of our faith is both to bend the knee at the name of Jesus, for “at the name of Jesus, every knee bends in heaven and on earth and in hell,” and to bend the knee to “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.” — HOMILIES ON Judges 2.3

Judges 2:12

Origen of Alexandria: As long as a people serves God, they are not “delivered into the hands of plunderers.” But when they “abandon the Lord” and begin to serve their own passions, then it is said of them that “God gave them over to shameful passions” and, again, “He gave them over to a reprobate mind, that they would do unsuitable things.” Why? Because, he says, “they were filled with every iniquity, wickedness, fornication, greed” and all other evils. It was because “they served and worshiped Baal and Ashtaroth” that “God delivered them into the hands of plunderers and handed them over to their enemies.” This, as I have often said before, the Jews read as though it were merely a record of past events. We, however, “for whose sake this was written,” it is said, ought to know that if we sin against the Lord and against our own souls by indulging the desires of the flesh as though we were worshiping our God, we also betray ourselves and concede our apostolic authority into the hands of Zebulun. Listen, then, to [Paul] speaking about one who sins: “I delivered this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit might be saved.” You can see, therefore, that it was not only through his apostles that God “delivered” sinners “over to their enemies,” but even now, through those who govern the church and have the power not only of releasing but also of binding, sinners “are delivered for the destruction of the flesh” when they are separated from the body of Christ for their crimes. — HOMILIES ON Judges 2.5

Tertullian: After the death of Joshua the son of Nave [Nun] they forsook the God of their fathers and served idols, Baalim and Ashtaroth; and the Lord in anger delivered them up to the hands of plunderers, and they continued to be plundered by them and to be sold to their adversaries, and [they] could not at all stand before their enemies. Wherever they went forth, his hand was upon them for evil, and they were greatly distressed. And after this God sets judges, the same as our censors, over them. But not even these did they continue steadfastly to obey. So soon as one of the judges died, they proceeded to transgress more than their fathers had done by going after the gods of others and serving and worshiping them. Therefore the Lord was angry. “Since, indeed,” he says, “this nation has transgressed my covenant which I established with their fathers and has not hearkened to my voice, I will not remove from them any of the nations which Joshua left at his death.” And thus, throughout almost all the annals of the judges and of the kings who succeeded them, while the strength of the surrounding nations was preserved, he meted wrath out to Israel by war and captivity and a foreign yoke, as often as they turned aside from him, especially to idolatry. — SCORPIACE 3

Judges 2:13

Augustine of Hippo: And they served Baal and the Astartes. It is often said that the name of Baal among the people of those regions corresponds to that of Jupiter, and that of Astarte to that of Juno, which seems to be demonstrated also by the Punic language. In effect, the Punic seem to designate Baal as the Lord; from where it is thought that they call Baalsamen as the Lord of heaven; because Samen, for the Punic, means heavens. And without a doubt they call Astarte to Juno. And since these languages ​​do not differ much from one another, it is rightly believed that the Scripture here says that the children of Israel served Baal and the Astartes, because they served Jupiter and the Junos. And we should not be surprised if he did not say to Astarte, that is, to Juno, but that he has put this word in the plural, as if there were many Junos. The Scripture wanted to indicate in this way a great amount of images, because each image of Juno was called Juno. And that’s why he wanted to say that there were so many Junos how many were the images of the goddess. And I think he wanted to use the singular for Jupiter and the plural for Juno because of variety. Because if I had done so because of the number of images, I could also have spoken in the plural of the Jupiter. Now, the plural name of the Junos is found in the Greek text. In the Latin texts, on the other hand, it was in the singular. In the text that is not based on the version of the Seventy, but in the Hebrew, we read Astarot and not Baal, but Baales. And if by chance these names mean something else in the Hebrew or Syriac language, it is certain that they were strange and false gods, whom Israel was not to serve. — QUESTIONS ON JUDGES, Q. 16 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

Judges 2:21

Caesarius of Arles: Although all the nations in the surrounding country were subject to king David, still God did not allow the Jebusites to be destroyed entirely, as he himself says elsewhere: “I for my part will not clear away for them any more of the nations. Through them the Israelites were to be made to prove whether they would fear me.” For this reason the prophet said to David, “Go up, and build an altar to the Lord in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” That pagan king represented the people of the Gentiles. Notice, brothers, that no place in the land of the Jews was found worthy for the altar of the Lord to be built; but in the land of the Gentiles a place is chosen where the angel is seen and the altar of the Lord is built, and thus the wrath of the almighty Lord is appeased. Then already was prefigured the fact that in the hearts of the Jews no worthy place could be found to offer spiritual victims; the land of the Gentiles, that is, the conscience of Christians, is chosen as the place for the Lord’s temple. — SERMON 122.1

John Cassian: Divine grace ever stirs up the will of human beings, not so as to protect and defend it in all things in such a way as to cause it not to fight by its own efforts against its spiritual adversaries, the victor over whom may set it down to God’s grace, and the vanquished to his own weakness, and thus learn that his hope is always not in his own courage but in the divine assistance and that he must ever fly to his Protector. And to prove this not by our own conjecture but by still clearer passages of holy Scripture let us consider what we read in Joshua the son of Nun: “The Lord,” it says, “left these nations and would not destroy them, that by them he might test Israel, whether they would keep the commandments of the Lord their God, and that they might learn to fight with their enemies.” And if we may illustrate the incomparable mercy of our Creator from something earthly, not as being equal in kindness but as an illustration of mercy: if a tender and anxious nurse carries an infant in her bosom for a long time in order sometime to teach it to walk, and first allows it to crawl, then supports it that by the aid of her right hand it may lean on its alternate steps, presently leaves it for a little and if she sees it tottering at all, catches hold of it and grabs at it when falling, when down picks it up, and either shields it from a fall or allows it to fall lightly, and sets it up again after a tumble, but when she has brought it up to boyhood or the strength of youth or early manhood, lays upon it some burdens or labors by which it may be not overwhelmed but exercised, and allows it to vie with those of its own age; how much more does the heavenly Father of all know whom to carry in the bosom of his grace, whom to train to virtue in his sight by the exercise of free will, and yet he helps him in his efforts, hears him when he calls, leaves him not when he seeks him, and sometimes snatches him from peril even without his knowing it. — CONFERENCE 13.14

Judges 2:23

Augustine of Hippo: You may read that it was possible for the nations to be exterminated at once out of the land which was given to the children of Israel, and yet that God willed it to be gradually effected. And one may meet with a thousand other incidents, the past or the future possibility of which we might readily admit, and yet be unable to produce any proofs of their having ever really happened. Accordingly, it would not be right for us to deny the possibility of a man’s living without sin, on the ground that amongst men none can be found except Him who is in His nature not man only, but also God, in whom we could prove such perfection of character to have existed. — ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 1

Isaac of Nineveh: Some of his [humanity’s] petitions God grants him promptly (I mean those without which no one can be saved), but some He withholds from him. And on certain occasions He restrains and dispels from him the scorching assault of the enemy, while on others, He permits him to be tempted, that this trial may become to him a cause for drawing near to God (as I said before), and also that he may be instructed and have the experience of temptations. And such is the word of Scripture: “The Lord left many nations, without driving them out; neither delivered He them into the hands of Jesus [Joshua], the son of Navi, to chastise the sons of Israel by them, and that the tribes of the sons of Israel might be taught, and learn war.” For the righteous man who has no consciousness of his own weakness walks on a razor’s edge, and is never far from falling, nor from the ravening lion—I mean the demon of pride. And again, a man who does not know his own weakness falls short of humility; and he who falls short of this, also falls short of perfection; and he who falls short of perfection is forever held by dread, because his city is not founded on pillars of iron, neither upon lintels of brass, that is, humility. — ASCETICAL HOMILIES 8