Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He continues to establish judicial laws, especially concerning the acceptance of persons and bribes. Second, in verse 11, he adds ceremonial laws concerning the sabbath of the seventh year and the three principal feasts of the year. Third, in verse 20, He promises them an angel as guide and guardian, and other blessings, if they obey His laws.
Vulgate Text: Exodus 23:1-33
1. You shall not accept a false report, nor shall you join your hand to give false testimony for the wicked. 2. You shall not follow the crowd to do evil; nor in a trial shall you yield to the opinion of the majority so as to stray from the truth. 3. Neither shall you show partiality to a poor man in his lawsuit. 4. If you encounter your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. 5. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, you shall not pass by but shall help lift it up with him. 6. You shall not pervert justice due the poor. 7. You shall flee from falsehood. You shall not kill the innocent and the just, for I abhor the wicked. 8. You shall not accept bribes, for bribes blind even the prudent and subvert the words of the just. 9. You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the soul of strangers, since you yourselves were strangers in the land of Egypt. 10. For six years you shall sow your land and gather its produce. 11. But in the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and whatever is left over, let the beasts of the field eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard and your olive grove. 12. Six days you shall work; on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed. 13. Keep all things that I have said to you. You shall not swear by the name of foreign gods, nor shall it be heard from your mouth. 14. Three times each year you shall celebrate feasts to Me. 15. You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I have commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of new things, when you came out of Egypt. You shall not appear before Me empty-handed. 16. And the feast of the harvest of the first-fruits of your labor, whatever you have sown in the field; and also the feast at the end of the year, when you have gathered all your produce from the field. 17. Three times a year every male among you shall appear before the Lord your God. 18. You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, nor shall the fat of My feast remain until morning. 19. You shall bring the first-fruits of the produce of your land to the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk. 20. Behold, I will send My angel, who shall go before you and guard you on the way and bring you to the place that I have prepared. 21. Observe him and listen to his voice, and do not think him to be despised; for he will not forgive when you sin, and My name is in him. 22. But if you listen to his voice and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will afflict those who afflict you. 23. And My Angel shall go before you and bring you to the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, whom I will crush. 24. You shall not worship their gods nor serve them; you shall not do according to their works, but you shall destroy them and break their statues. 25. And you shall serve the Lord your God, that I may bless your bread and your water, and I will take away sickness from your midst. 26. None shall be barren or sterile in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days. 27. I will send My terror before you and will slay all the people among whom you enter, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs before you; 28. sending hornets ahead, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite before you enter. 29. I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts multiply against you. 30. Little by little I will expel them from before you, until you increase and possess the land. 31. And I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hands, and I will drive them out from before you. 32. You shall not make a covenant with them or with their gods. 33. They shall not dwell in your land, lest perhaps they make you sin against Me, if you serve their gods — for this will surely be a stumbling block to you.
Verse 1: You Shall Not Accept a False Report
1. YOU SHALL NOT ACCEPT A FALSE REPORT. — In Hebrew: "you shall not accept a hearing of falsehood," that is, so that you listen to a slanderer who is trying to draw you in as a party and witness to his calumny.
Vatablus translates: "do not take up a vain or false rumor," as if to say: Do not be a listener to false rumor against your neighbor, so as to invent something in your heart by which his reputation might be harmed; again, do not listen to or admit such a rumor.
The sages of the Hebrews say that he who listens to a false accuser sins no less than he who falsely accuses someone. Whence this is their saying: "Everyone who maliciously slanders someone, and whoever receives an accuser, and everyone who gives false testimony against his neighbor, is worthy of being thrown to the dogs."
NOR SHALL YOU JOIN YOUR HAND — you shall not make a pact, you shall not associate yourself with him, so as to be a witness of injustice and calumny by giving false testimony. So the Hebrew.
Thus Pericles, when a friend demanded false testimony from him that was to be confirmed by oath, replied that "he was a friend only as far as the altar." Plutarch is the witness, in the Laconic Sayings. And Phocion, to someone requesting something unjust, said: "You cannot, Antipater, have Phocion as both a friend and a flatterer."
"A false witness," says Isidore, book 3 of On the Highest Good, "is liable to three persons: first, to God, whom he despises by perjuring; second, to the judge, whom he deceives by lying; finally, to the innocent person, whom he injures by false testimony." Such a false witness against David was Doeg, 1 Kings 22:9; and against Mephibosheth, Ziba, 2 Kings 16:3; against Naboth, two suborned men, 3 Kings 21:13; against Jeremiah, Irijah, Jeremiah 37:12; against Susanna, two elders, Daniel 13:54; against Christ, those two in Matthew 26:61; against Stephen, those in Acts 6:11.
Verse 2: Nor in a Trial Shall You Yield to the Majority
2. NOR IN A TRIAL SHALL YOU YIELD TO THE OPINION OF THE MAJORITY SO AS TO STRAY FROM THE TRUTH. — In Hebrew there is a beautiful paronomasia: "And you shall not answer in a lawsuit so as to turn aside after the many to turn aside" — that is, to twist — understand: true and right judgment.
Socrates, says Laertius, book 2, chapter 5, used to say that those who trust the ignorant multitude do the same as if someone were to reject and despise a single tetradrachm coin, yet approve and accept a pile of similar ones heaped together. He who is not to be trusted alone is no more to be trusted in a crowd of similar persons; for it does not matter how many they are, but how weighty. A counterfeit coin, even in however great a heap, is still counterfeit.
Verse 3: Neither Shall You Show Pity to a Poor Man in Judgment
3. NEITHER SHALL YOU SHOW PITY TO A POOR MAN IN JUDGMENT. — In Hebrew, you shall not adorn the poor man in his dispute, that is, you shall not protect a poor man, out of misguided mercy toward him, in an unjust cause, or when he is truly guilty of a crime. For mercy is good, but it ought not to overturn judgment: for the Lord loves both. Hence the Psalmist says: "I will sing of mercy and judgment to You, O Lord;" and: "The honor of the king loves judgment."
Hence it was also foretold of Christ, the king of justice, that He would come "to judge Your people in justice, and Your poor in judgment," Psalm 71:2.
Verse 5: If You See the Donkey of One Who Hates You
5. IF YOU SEE THE DONKEY OF ONE WHO HATES YOU LYING UNDER ITS BURDEN, YOU SHALL NOT PASS BY, BUT SHALL LIFT IT UP WITH HIM.
The Hebrew here is obscure, and is translated variously by various scholars; but the sense of all comes to the same thing, and coincides with that which our Translator has rendered. Literally the Hebrew seems to be translated thus: If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, will you cease to leave to him? (the burden, that is, by passing by, as if to say: By no means, but rather) by leaving you shall leave to him, that is: You shall stand by him, and assist him in lifting it up and setting it on its feet.
One might also suspect that in the Hebrew it is erroneously read lo with vav, instead of lo with aleph, and then the sense here would be clearer: will you cease to leave (him groaning under his burden)? By leaving you shall not leave with him, namely the burden under which he groans. You see here that love of enemies was commanded not only to Christians, but also to Jews.
Verse 6: You Shall Not Pervert Justice Due the Poor
6. YOU SHALL NOT TURN ASIDE IN THE JUDGMENT (that is, condemnation: it is metonymy) OF THE POOR. — In Hebrew it is, you shall not turn aside (pervert) the judgment of the poor man in his cause; where judgment is taken in its proper sense. Therefore God, who previously forbade the poor man's person to be favored against equity in judgment, here likewise forbids his just cause to be perverted by unjust judgment.
Verse 7: You Shall Flee from Falsehood
7. YOU SHALL FLEE FROM FALSEHOOD. — In Hebrew, from the word of falsehood you shall be far.
YOU SHALL NOT KILL THE INNOCENT AND THE JUST. — From this the learned theologians rightly conclude that a judge cannot kill one whom he knows to be innocent, who nevertheless in trial is proven guilty by false witnesses. Others, however, teach the contrary, and explain it thus: "You shall not kill the innocent and the just," namely, one who is just in your court, because he is juridically proven to be innocent, or at least is not proven to be guilty: the Chaldean favors this interpretation when he renders it, and the one who has been justified, and has come forth just from the trial, you shall not kill.
BECAUSE I ABHOR THE WICKED. — In Hebrew it is, because I will not justify the wicked, that is, because I will condemn and abhor the wicked, such as he who kills the innocent: it is a litotes, similar to Exodus 20:7, as if to say: If you wickedly kill the just and innocent, although you may seem just to men, yet to Me you will be wicked, and I will abhor you as wicked.
So St. Augustine, Question 88, and Jerome on Psalm 32.
Verse 8: You Shall Not Accept Bribes
8. AND YOU SHALL NOT ACCEPT BRIBES, WHICH EVEN BLIND THE WISE (in Hebrew, the seeing, that is, those who have the eyes of the mind open, that is, the wise), AND SUBVERT THE WORDS OF THE JUST. — This is a most true and well-proven maxim, whence the riddle:
Mutnegra cum murua faciunt rectissima curva.
[Mutnegra with murua make the most straight things crooked.] Read backwards, and you will see that mutnegra is argentum [silver], and murua is aurum [gold].
The pagans held the same view. Hear the Poet: "Even wisdom is bound by profit."
And Plutarch, in his book On Isis, says: At Thebes, the images of judges are seen without hands, and the eyes of the chief judge are closed: because justice is neither captured by bribes nor swayed by the countenance of men. And Themistius says: The true prince is he who is unconquerable by gold. Hence Bion also said that a prince departing from office ought to emerge not richer, but more distinguished.
A memorable example was given by Manius Curius Dentatus, a Roman senator, to whom, as he sat by the hearth, when the Samnites had brought a great weight of gold, having rejected it, he freely declared: "Remember that I can neither be conquered in battle nor corrupted by money: for it is not glorious to have gold, but to rule over those who have gold," as Cicero testifies in his Cato, and Plutarch in his Apophthegms, who also adds that Curius, when the ambassadors came, was cooking turnips, and having shown them, said that he would have no need for gold so long as he lived content with such food.
Similar to him were the Fabii, who, sent as ambassadors to King Ptolemy, brought to the treasury the gifts they had privately received from him, before they reported their embassy to the senate.
Among the faithful, the illustrious Samuel was a judge of the people, as is clear from 1 Kings 12:3. On the contrary, his sons "turned aside after avarice, and accepted bribes, and perverted judgment," 1 Kings 8:3; and therefore they were deprived of office, and the judgeship and kingdom were transferred to Saul.
In this age the Blessed Thomas More stood out, a most fair judge, a despiser of bribes and riches. On one occasion a widow, for whom he had decided a case, offered him a golden cup; he accepted it indeed, but filling it with wine he offered it to her and returned it; and, to omit other things related in chapters 14 and 8 of his Life, this is admirable: that although from his earliest years he had discharged great offices in the state, and had even been Chancellor of the entire kingdom, and although he had a large family, yet in his whole life he never increased his annual income beyond seventy gold coins per year. What will those say to this, who in a few years increase their income to ten, even twenty thousand?
Verse 9: You Shall Not Oppress a Stranger
9. YOU SHALL NOT BE TROUBLESOME TO A STRANGER: FOR YOU KNOW THE SOULS OF STRANGERS, — what state of mind, that is, what feeling a stranger has, when he finds himself abandoned by his own people among foreigners and unknowns, how confined, timid, dejected, fearful, anxious, bashful, and sorrowful his spirit is: so that you ought not to add affliction to the afflicted, for whom it is punishment enough to be a stranger.
BECAUSE YOU ALSO WERE STRANGERS IN THE LAND OF EGYPT, — because, that is, you have experienced how pitiable is the condition of a stranger: for no one is so ready to help the wretched as one who has been wretched himself; hence Dido said: "Not ignorant of misfortune, I learn to help the unfortunate."
Verses 10 and 11: The Sabbath of the Seventh Year
10 and 11. FOR SIX YEARS YOU SHALL SOW YOUR LAND, AND SHALL GATHER ITS FRUITS: BUT IN THE SEVENTH YEAR YOU SHALL LET IT REST, AND MAKE IT TO BE STILL — from harvest, but not from sowing, say some, as if to say: In the seventh year you shall sow the field, but not reap. So St. Augustine, Question 89. But I say that both are forbidden here in the seventh year, namely both the sowing and the reaping of the land: for this is clearly stated in Leviticus 25:4: "In the seventh year, you shall not sow your field." And so it was observed among the Hebrews, as Josephus and the Hebrews testify. The same is indicated here also by the Hebrew. For this seventh year was a sabbath of the land, that is, a full rest for the land, just as the seventh day was a sabbath, that is, a rest for men.
God ordained this, that the seventh year should be a sabbath of the land: first, to remind the Hebrews of clemency even toward inanimate things, such as fields, and to draw them away from excessive care for this life and avarice; second, so that the land, in this seventh year of rest, having as it were regained its vigor, would thereafter be more fruitful: for that reason our own farmers also, at fixed times, let their fields rest, so that afterward they may yield crops with greater return; third, so that that seventh year of rest would be a symbol and memorial of the creation of the earth and all things, just as the seventh day was, namely the sabbath, Genesis 2:3; and so that the very designation of the land would be like a payment for habitation, and a kind of redemption from Him whose it is, that is, from its Creator God, says St. Augustine, Question 83 on Leviticus. For just as a feudal tenant pays homage and fixed dues to the lord of the fief, so the Hebrews, as if for the fief of their land, paid this homage of the sabbath of the land to God; fourth, so that the poor might enjoy the fruits of the field in that seventh year: for in that year the fruits of the fields were common, as is clear from this verse.
You will say: If in the seventh year it was not permitted to sow, what could the poor reap?
I reply: They reaped what had grown up from the fallen grains of the sixth year's harvest, and whatever herbs and vegetables the earth brings forth of itself: hence Leviticus 25:5: "What springs up of its own accord, you shall not reap," that is, you shall not entirely cut it down, and this so that both servant and stranger, and animals, as is said there, and the poor, as is said here, might gather their share of it. So Abulensis. And in this respect this law of the sabbath of the land, otherwise ceremonial, was also judicial: for it was ordained for the benefit of the poor.
The tropology of the seventh year is the same as that of the sabbath, on which see Deuteronomy 5:12.
Verse 13: You Shall Not Swear by Foreign Gods
13. AND YOU SHALL NOT SWEAR BY THE NAME OF FOREIGN GODS, NOR SHALL IT BE HEARD FROM YOUR MOUTH. — He commands, not that we not name them, but that we not call them gods, and not invoke them as gods for witnesses, by swearing by them, says Tertullian, book On Idolatry, chapter 19.
The Jews here are superstitious, indeed blasphemous: for they refuse to read or pronounce the name of our Savior Jesus; and if by chance they happen to read or utter it, they punish themselves, and strike their own mouth with a slap; or if they utter it, read it, or write it, they say Iiseu, and explain it by its initial letters thus: immach schemo uzichro, that is, "May his name and memory be blotted out." This is the hatred of those blind and wretched men toward Jesus Christ, for which they accordingly deservedly pay with perpetual exile and destruction.
Verse 15: The Feast of Unleavened Bread
15. FOR SEVEN DAYS YOU SHALL EAT UNLEAVENED BREAD, IN THE TIME OF THE MONTH OF NEW THINGS, — namely in the month Nisan, in which you went out of Egypt, when in the Holy Land and Egypt the new barley crops ripen. See above chapter 13, verse 4.
YOU SHALL NOT APPEAR BEFORE ME EMPTY-HANDED. — Here God commands an offering from everyone approaching the tabernacle or temple, as an act of religion pertaining both to the worship due to Him and to the sustenance of the Levites. But because Judea was vast, and many lived far from Jerusalem and the temple, Lyranus reports that for those who lived far away a dispensation was sometimes granted for Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles. See Istella on Exodus chapter 34, where he says: This law bound only men, not women, as is clear from the phrase "every male"; therefore also sons and servants. Hence Christ at age twelve went up to the temple to observe this law, Luke chapter 2, verse 42.
Tropologically, those approaching God ought to bring full sheaves of mercy and other virtues; thus they will be heard. See St. Chrysostom, Homily 1 on 2 Timothy 1.
Verse 16: The Feast of the First-Fruits
16. AND (you shall observe and celebrate) THE FEAST OF THE MONTH OF THE FIRST-FRUITS OF YOUR WORK, WHATEVER YOU HAVE SOWN IN THE FIELD, — that is, as Vatablus says: You shall observe the feast day of the month of the early fruits of your work, which you sowed in the field, that is, you shall celebrate the feast of Pentecost, and on it you shall offer me loaves made from the first wheat harvest, just as at Passover you offered ripening sheaves of barley; at Pentecost therefore God requires the first-fruits of all crops, that is, of the entire wheat harvest, about which see more in Leviticus 23:17.
The bread of first-fruits allegorically signified the Eucharist, says St. Irenaeus, book 4 Against Heresy, chapter 32.
Allegorically, St. Basil, on chapter 1 of Isaiah, says: God requires faith in the Holy Trinity; for, as the Gloss says, at Passover the Son is immolated, at Pentecost the Holy Spirit is given, and in the gathering of crops the power of the Creator Father is signified.
Seek the tropological sense from Rabanus.
THE FEAST ALSO AT THE END OF THE YEAR, WHEN YOU HAVE GATHERED ALL YOUR CROPS FROM THE FIELD. — This feast is the one that was later called the Feast of Tabernacles, at which they set up tents and lived in them for seven days, in memory and thanksgiving for the divine protection, by which God had led and protected the Hebrews as they wandered and dwelt in tents in the desert for 40 years.
This feast was celebrated on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and lasted for seven days.
From this passage it is clear that the beginning of the sacred year was different from that of the common year before the departure from Egypt, which the Hebrews thereafter also used in civil matters, as I said at chapter 22, verse 1.
The common year therefore began from the month or new moon that was nearest to the autumnal equinox (just as the sacred year began from Nisan, that is, from the month of the vernal equinox); so if the seventh month, which was called Tishri, was nearer to this autumnal equinox, then it was the beginning of the year: but if the eighth month, which was called Marcheshvan, was nearer to that equinox, it was the first month of the year; and this could easily happen, for example, if the vernal equinox fell on the full moon, or shortly before it, then Nisan, or the first month, was that same lunation, and the 14th day of Nisan fell on the equinox as well as the full moon: for since lunar months are shorter than solar ones, in many solar months (say 32) an extra lunar month accumulates; therefore since the sun in its six months runs from one equinox to the other, in the case supposed it would happen that the seventh solar month, in which the equinox fell, would coincide with the eighth lunar month.
Hence he says, "at the end of the year," that is, around the end of the year: the Feast of Tabernacles could take place before the end of the year and be celebrated at the beginning of the new year, if indeed the year began from the seventh month.
But Moses preferred to say "at the going out" rather than at the beginning of the year (which he certainly could have said: for what is the end of the preceding year is also the beginning of the following year), in order to indicate the cause of the feast, which was thanksgiving for every kind of crop, received both from fields, gardens, and vineyards, after that year had elapsed. Afterward another cause was added, namely the memory of divine protection in the desert, where they had dwelt in tents; whence afterward the name of Tabernacles was given to the feast, about which see more in Leviticus 23:42.
Verse 17: Three Times a Year All Males Shall Appear
17. THREE TIMES IN THE YEAR ALL YOUR MALES SHALL APPEAR BEFORE THE LORD, — namely at the three already mentioned more solemn feasts of the year, that is, at Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles, Deuteronomy chapter 16, verse 16.
BEFORE THE LORD, — that is, before the ark or before the tabernacle, if the ark had been separated from it, as happened when the Philistines in the time of Eli captured the ark, and after the ark was returned, for a long time afterward the ark was separated from the tabernacle; and then the Hebrews sacrificed not before the ark, but before the tabernacle, and celebrated their feasts.
Verse 18: You Shall Not Sacrifice with Leaven
18. YOU SHALL NOT SACRIFICE WITH LEAVEN, — with leaven, but with unleavened bread only, so that the sacrifice may be pure and unleavened; about which see more in Leviticus.
NOR SHALL THE FAT OF MY FEAST REMAIN UNTIL THE MORNING. — "The fat of my feast," that is, the fat of the sacrifice offered in my honor, or offered in the solemnity dedicated to Me: for that solemnity is Mine in which sacrifice is offered to Me; God therefore commands here that, when the victim is sacrificed and slaughtered, at the same time immediately what is chief and fattest in it, namely the fresh fat, should be burned and consumed in His honor.
Verse 19: You Shall Not Cook a Kid in Its Mother's Milk
19. YOU SHALL NOT COOK A KID IN ITS MOTHER'S MILK. — The Chaldean renders it, you shall not eat meat with milk: hence also some Hebrews, as Gregory of Venice testifies, Problem 442, in their fashion translate it thus: you shall not eat with the mother's milk. About this ceremony they have written a whole book, in which they teach what is permitted and what is not permitted in the eating of meat and milk.
The allegorical and chief cause of this law was to signify that Christ as an infant and nursing child could not be killed, whether by Herod or by the Jews, before His mature age and the time predetermined by the Father. So St. Augustine and Chrysostom above.
Morally, this law teaches us to have compassion on the tender and weak, and to tolerate their weakness.
Tropologically, heretics cook kids in their mother's milk. For the milk of the foul-smelling goat, that is, of heresy, is their impious doctrine: in this they cook their kids, that is, their disciples, to be cooked again afterward in the eternal fires of hell. For this milk is turned for them into eternal torment. So some say: although this tropology does not sufficiently agree with the allegory already given.
Second, others in Vatablus interpret it by hypallage thus, as if to say: you shall not cook, nor eat a kid with its nursing mother, as if to say: Let it suffice for you to eat the kid, but abstain from the mother: for this would seem cruel; thus God commanded one who catches chicks in a nest to let the mother go, Deuteronomy 22:6.
Third, Abulensis, Lyranus, Cajetan, and St. Thomas, III, Question 102, article 5 reply 4, simply take this commandment as it sounds, namely that it is forbidden to cook a kid, or, as it is in Hebrew, to boil it in its mother's milk, lest what was a delight for the kid be turned into its torment.
Fourth and best, Vatablus and Oleaster explain it thus: Do not cook a kid in its mother's milk, that is, do not kill and cook a nursing kid, as long as it is sucking its mother's milk: for this is what that Hebraism signifies. This interpretation is proven: for nowhere was there a custom of actually boiling kids in their mother's milk, such that this needed to be forbidden to the Jews: therefore these words must be taken in the sense I have already given; second, because this sense best corresponds to the allegory, as I shall say presently; third, because so St. Chrysostom understands it, Homily On the Innocents, and St. Augustine, Question 90. Literally therefore God forbade killing for food tender kids or lambs (for the Septuagint translates it as "lamb," and the reasoning seems to be the same for a kid and a lamb), so as to teach the Hebrews humanity and kindness toward men, since He commanded it even regarding brute animals, and ordered them to have compassion on their livestock, and to abhor and recoil from cruelty toward them, especially toward tender lambs and kids, which move everyone to pity when they are slaughtered.
I say "for food," for in Leviticus 22:27 it is said that on the eighth day a kid, lamb, and calf could be offered to the Lord; and he seems to be speaking entirely of the offering through slaughter and immolation: for in the sacrifices of victims, even tender ones, immolated to God by the priests, there was no appearance of cruelty; for religion purged and excluded this.
The Jews observe this law so superstitiously that they refuse to cook meat and milk in the same pot; indeed they do not think it lawful to cut meat and cheese with the same knife, but use different ones.
Verse 20: Behold I Send My Angel
20. BEHOLD I SEND MY ANGEL, WHO SHALL GO BEFORE YOU. — By this angel, first, Cajetan understands Moses himself; second, others understand Joshua, because he introduced the Hebrews into the promised land: so Justin Against Trypho, folio 58, and Eusebius, book 4 of the Demonstration of the Gospel, chapter 28, and Rabanus; third, Rupert here, and St. Athanasius, in his book On the Common Essence of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, near the end, and Hesychius, book 7 on Leviticus chapter 26, folio 653, think the Son of God is here called an angel, because it adds: "And My name (that is, God's name) is in Him," as if to say: He is equally called God as I am. But Rupert said this in an allegorical rather than a literal sense, as is his custom, and likewise Hesychius and Athanasius; fourth, therefore, and properly, this angel was a true and pure angel, namely the commander of the army of the Hebrews: for he went before them on the way in a pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night; he also commanded Moses and the Hebrews in the name of God; and finally he punished rebels. This angel was probably Michael, who in Daniel 10, last verse, is called the prince of the people of Israel. For he formerly presided over the Synagogue of the Jews, just as he now presides over the Church of Christians.
AND HE SHALL GUARD YOU ON THE WAY. — Note here the name of the guardian angel of the entire people, and his five duties: the first is, "he shall go before you;" the second, "he shall guard on the way;" the third, "he shall bring you into the place which I have prepared," namely into Canaan; the fourth, "he shall not forgive when you sin," as if to say: If you sin, he will punish you; the fifth, "my name is in him." The same can be applied to the guardian angel of every person.
Do you wish for remarkable examples of angelic guardianship and help? Receive all those from Sacred Scripture in their order: first, the Cherubim guard paradise, after Adam the sinner was expelled, and they turn a flaming sword, Genesis 3:24: for the most pure angels supremely either flee, or drive away impure sinners. "Just as smoke drives away bees, and a foul smell drives away doves: so the wretched and putrid sin repels the guardian angel of our life," says St. Basil, and from him Maximus, Sermon On Sin; second, an angel brought back the fugitive Hagar to Sarah her mistress, Genesis 16:7; third, three angels promised Abraham a son, Isaac, Genesis 18:10; fourth, two angels led Lot out of Sodom, and burned the Sodomites with heavenly fire, Genesis 19; fifth, an angel consoled Hagar, and by showing a well to Ishmael who was dying of thirst, saved his life, Genesis 21:17; sixth, an angel stayed the sword of Abraham, who wished to sacrifice Isaac, Genesis 22:11; seventh, Jacob saw angels ascending and descending by a ladder, for his help, Genesis 28:12; eighth, an angel taught Jacob the method of producing offspring owed to him by contract, through multi-colored rods, Genesis 31:11; ninth, angels escorted Jacob from Mesopotamia to Canaan, Genesis 32:1; tenth, an angel interposed himself between the camps of the Hebrews and of Pharaoh, illuminating the former and leading them through the Red Sea, darkening and drowning the latter, Exodus 14:19; eleventh, an angel led the Hebrews through the desert into Canaan, Exodus 23:20; twelfth, an angel spoke through the mouth of a donkey and rebuked Balaam, Numbers 22:22; thirteenth, an angel consoled the Hebrews when they were afflicted by enemies, Judges 2:1; fourteenth, an angel strengthened Gideon for war against Midian, Judges 6:11; fifteenth, an angel promised Manoah a son, Samson the Nazirite, Judges 13:3; sixteenth, an angel struck Jerusalem with a plague because David had numbered the people, 2 Kings 24:16; seventeenth, an angel strengthened Elijah with bread, so that he might walk for forty days to the mountain of God, Horeb, 3 Kings 19:5; eighteenth, an angel sent Elijah to King Ahaziah, to foretell his death on account of his worship of Beelzebub, 4 Kings 1:3; nineteenth, an angel struck 185 thousand Assyrians, 4 Kings 19:35; twentieth, Raphael led and brought back Tobias, and procured Sarah as a wife for him, as is clear from Tobias; twenty-first, an angel guarded Judith and directed her to the slaying of Holophernes, Judith 13:20; twenty-second, an angel defended the three youths in the Babylonian furnace from the fire, Daniel 3:49; twenty-third, an angel shut the mouths of the lions, lest they devour Daniel, Daniel 6:22; twenty-fourth, the angel Gabriel showed Daniel that in 70 weeks Christ was to be killed, Daniel 9:21: the same angel revealed to him various future events concerning the kings of Syria and Egypt, chapter 11; twenty-fifth, an angel protected and vindicated the chastity of Susanna, Daniel 13, verses 55 and 59; twenty-sixth, an angel carried off Habakkuk to bring a meal to Daniel in the lions' den, Daniel 14:33; twenty-seventh, an angel revealed to Zechariah various mysteries, chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; twenty-eighth, an angel brandishing a spear went before the army of Judas Maccabeus and gave him victory, 2 Maccabees 11:8.
And now in the New Testament, angels sang at Christ's birth: "Glory to God in the highest," they urged flight into Egypt and return from there, they ministered to Christ after His temptation, they strengthened Christ in His agony, they announced Christ's resurrection: an angel led Peter out of prison, seized Philip near the eunuch, commanded Cornelius to call Peter, delivered Paul and his companions from shipwreck, and finally, appearing frequently to St. John, revealed the Apocalypse.
Verse 21: Nor Think Him to Be Despised
21. NOR THINK HIM TO BE DESPISED. — In Hebrew, nor shall you provoke him to bitterness, or, do not be bitter, disobedient and rebellious toward him.
AND MY NAME IS IN HIM. — In Hebrew, in his midst, as if to say: This angel bears My name, person, authority and will; hence the Chaldean translates, because in My name is his word, as if to say: Whatever this angel commands, he commands in My name. Rightly therefore that Abbot in the Lives of the Fathers, book 7, chapter 44, when asked what was his daily exercise, replied: "I await my angel standing by me at my side, and I guard myself, remembering what is written: 'I set the Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand lest I be moved.' I fear him therefore, as one guarding my ways, and daily ascending to God, and reporting my deeds and words."
Verse 24: You Shall Not Do Their Works
24. YOU SHALL NOT DO THEIR WORKS. — In Hebrew, you shall not do according to their works, so that you should set up for them groves, shrines, altars, statues, in imitation of those which you will find and see in Canaan, but you shall destroy those you find.
Verse 25: I Will Bless Your Bread and Your Waters
25. I WILL BLESS YOUR BREAD AND YOUR WATERS, — as if to say: I will provide you with food and drink in abundance; for such were the promises of the Old Testament, says St. Augustine, Question 92.
Verse 26: I Will Fill Up the Number of Your Days
26. I WILL FILL UP THE NUMBER OF YOUR DAYS, — as if to say: I will make it so that you have a healthy and long old age, and die sated and full of days; on the contrary, of the wicked it is said in Psalm 54, last verse, that "they shall not live out half their days."
Verse 28: Sending Hornets Before
28. SENDING HORNETS BEFORE, WHICH SHALL PUT TO FLIGHT THE HIVITE. — By hornets St. Augustine, Locution 101, and Eusebius of Caesarea understand the stings of dread and fear by which the Canaanites were laid low as the Hebrews approached, as easily as if wasps and hornets had driven them out. But because an open mention of fear preceded here, hence more distinctly and better by hornets, real hornets are understood, because they are also so called in Deuteronomy 7:20, and Joshua teaches that such were sent against the Canaanites, last chapter, verse 12. The same is clear from Wisdom 12:8, where the Wise Man says thus: "You sent wasps as forerunners of Your army, to destroy them little by little: not because You were unable to destroy them with fierce beasts." God therefore sent hornets before the Hebrews, which harassed, weakened, and wore down the Canaanites, so that they might afterward be more easily conquered and destroyed by the Hebrews.
Verse 29: I Will Not Drive Them Out in One Year
29. I WILL NOT DRIVE THEM OUT FROM YOUR FACE IN ONE YEAR, LEST THE LAND BE REDUCED TO A WILDERNESS. — From this it is clear that Canaan was spacious and fertile, inasmuch as it could not be so cultivated by six hundred thousand Hebrews that a great part of its wilderness would not still remain, to be filled with wild beasts and with savage men who would do harm, unless the Canaanites remained in many places within it.
There was also another reason why those nations were not immediately exterminated by God: namely that God wished to instruct Israel through them, as is said in Judges 3:1, lest Israel grow sluggish in idleness, but by continually waging war would not dissolve into luxury, idol worship, and association with the Gentiles; and would learn to worship God out of fear of enemies, to serve Him alone, and to hope in Him as the giver of victory. But God passes over this reason here, lest He discourage the unwarlike people accustomed to peace by this fear of war.
For the allegory of all these things concerning the Church as the subduer of the Gentiles, see Rupert.
Verse 31: I Will Set Your Boundaries
31. AND I WILL SET YOUR BOUNDARIES FROM THE RED SEA TO THE SEA OF THE PALESTINIANS, AND FROM THE DESERT TO THE RIVER. — God here, according to the four quarters of the world, marks out the land of promise to be given by Him to the Hebrews: for it has to the south the Red Sea, as its boundary; to the west it has the Sea of the Palestinians, that is, whose inhabitants are the Philistines, which is the Mediterranean Sea: hence Scripture often signifies the west by the word "sea." Toward the east it has the deserts of Arabia, which lie between it and Egypt. To the north finally it has the Euphrates River, which by antonomasia is called "the river."
God sets these boundaries for the Hebrews, so that they may know the extent of the promised land and yearn for it: although through their own fault and demerit they did not possess all of it, except during the brief reign of Solomon, during which time, however, those regions were not cultivated and inhabited by them, but were merely subjugated and made tributary — regions which had long since been occupied and inhabited by enemies.
Verse 33: If You Serve Their Gods
33. IF YOU SERVE THEIR GODS. — Morally, the gods or idols of each person are his desires. Therefore learn from this that sinners serve sin with wretched servitude. Hear Claudian:
If you fear, if you desire what is wrong, if you are driven by anger,
You will suffer the yoke of servitude, you will endure unjust
Laws within: then you will hold all rights,
If you can be king of yourself.
And another:
Only the sinner serves badly, who though he enjoys
A vast kingdom, is a wretched enough servant:
When the carnal mind, with the tyrant ruling too much,
Serves as many scepters as vices to which it is given.
And Seneca, letter 47: "One serves lust, another avarice, another ambition, all serve fear: no slavery is more shameful than voluntary slavery."
And St. Jerome, letter to Simplicianus: "A fool, though he rules, serves his own passions, serves his own desires, whose domination can be driven away neither by night nor by day, because he has masters within himself, within himself he suffers intolerable slavery."
And St. Ambrose, book 2 On Jacob and the Happy Life: "He serves whoever is broken by fear, or ensnared by pleasure, or driven by desires, or exasperated by indignation, or cast down by grief. For every passion is servile."
And St. Augustine, book 4 of the City of God, chapter 3: "A good man, even if he serves, is free; but a bad man, if he reigns, is a slave; and not of one master, but, what is more grievous, of as many masters as vices."
WHICH WILL CERTAINLY BE A SCANDAL TO YOU, — that is, sinning, or the sin of the idolatry of the Canaanites, will be a scandal to you, in Hebrew a snare, that is, a ruin and destruction: for it will be the cause of your ruin and downfall.
The pronoun "which" can also be referred, in the Hebrew manner, to what preceded, namely "let them not dwell in your land:" for this was properly for the Jews a scandal of guilt, not of punishment, because it was for them an occasion of idolatry.