Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
By God's command Gideon dismisses from thirty-two thousand soldiers those who are fearful, numbering twenty-two thousand, and then those who had drunk water from the river with mouths bowed down: therefore he retains only three hundred for himself. Secondly, verse 9, descending into the camp of Midian, he hears a Midianite's dream about a loaf of bread overturning the camp of Midian, and that this loaf is the sword of Gideon. Whence he conceives a sure hope of victory. Thirdly, verse 16, with three hundred men he attacks the innumerable Midianites, and sounding trumpets, with the smashing of pitchers, and from there with flashing torches, he strikes the Midianites with such terror that they slaughter each other.
Vulgate Text: Judges 7:1-25
1. Therefore Jerubbaal, who is also Gideon, rising by night, and all the people with him, came to the fountain called Harod; and the camp of Midian was in the valley to the north of the high hill. 2. And the Lord said to Gideon: The people with you are too many, and Midian will not be delivered into their hands, lest Israel boast against Me and say: I was delivered by my own strength. 3. Speak to the people, and proclaim in the hearing of all: Whoever is fearful and timid, let him go back. And they withdrew from Mount Gilead, and twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and only ten thousand remained. 4. And the Lord said to Gideon: The people are still too many; lead them to the water, and there I will test them: and the one of whom I shall say to you that he is to go with you, let him go; whomever I shall forbid to go, let him return. 5. And when the people had gone down to the water, the Lord said to Gideon: Those who lap the water with their tongue, as dogs usually lap, you shall set apart; but those who drink bending their knees shall be on the other side. 6. Now the number of those who lapped the water by throwing it with their hand to their mouth was three hundred men: but all the rest of the multitude had drunk kneeling. 7. And the Lord said to Gideon: By the three hundred men who lapped the water I will deliver you, and I will give Midian into your hand; but let all the rest of the multitude return to their place. 8. So taking provisions and trumpets according to their number, he commanded all the rest of the multitude to go to their tents: and he with the three hundred men gave himself to the battle. And the camp of Midian was below in the valley. 9. That same night the Lord said to him: Arise and go down into the camp, for I have delivered them into your hand; 10. but if you are afraid to go alone, let Purah your servant go down with you. 11. And when you hear what they are saying, then your hands will be strengthened, and you will go down more confidently to the enemy's camp. So he went down, he and Purah his servant, to that part of the camp where the sentinels of the armed men were stationed. 12. But Midian and Amalek and all the Eastern peoples lay spread out in the valley like a multitude of locusts: their camels also were innumerable, like the sand that lies on the seashore. 13. And when Gideon had come, someone was telling a dream to his companion; and he was relating what he had seen in this manner: I saw a dream, and it seemed to me as if a barley cake baked under ashes was rolling and descending into the camp of Midian; and when it had come to the tent, it struck it and overturned it, and leveled it utterly to the ground. 14. The one to whom he was speaking answered: This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; for the Lord has delivered Midian and all its camp into his hands. 15. And when Gideon had heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped; and he returned to the camp of Israel and said: Arise; for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into our hands. 16. And he divided the three hundred men into three groups, and gave trumpets into their hands, and empty pitchers and torches in the middle of the pitchers. 17. And he said to them: What you see me do, that do; I will enter part of the camp, and what I do, follow. 18. When the trumpet sounds in my hand, you too sound your trumpets around the camp and shout: For the Lord and for Gideon! 19. And Gideon and the three hundred men who were with him entered part of the camp, at the beginning of the middle watch of the night, and when the guards had been roused, they began to sound their trumpets and to smash the pitchers against one another. 20. And when they sounded in three places around the camp, and had broken the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands, and in their right the sounding trumpets, and they cried out: The sword of the Lord and of Gideon! 21. Each standing in his place around the enemy's camp. And all the camp was thrown into confusion, and screaming and wailing they fled: 22. and nevertheless the three hundred men continued sounding their trumpets. And the Lord sent the sword into all the camps, and they cut each other down with mutual slaughter, 23. fleeing as far as Beth-shittah, and the bank of Abel-meholah in Tabbath. And the men of Israel from Naphtali and Asher and all Manasseh, raising the war cry, pursued Midian. 24. And Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying: Come down to meet Midian, and seize the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan. And all Ephraim raised the cry, and seized the waters and the Jordan as far as Beth-barah. 25. And having captured two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. And they pursued Midian, carrying the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon beyond the waters of the Jordan.
Verse 1: The fountain called Harod
1. At the fountain called Harod. Harod in Hebrew signifies fear, that we may learn that "the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord." For "blessed is the man who is always fearful," Proverbs 28:14. This fountain is a type of baptism and penance, which soldiers ought to practice before battle, as did those who by the command of Emperor Constantine were about to fight against Maxentius, who for this reason carried off the victory over him, as Theodoret narrates, Book 3, chapter 3.
Verse 2: Lest Israel boast against Me
2. Lest Israel boast against Me and say: I was delivered by my own strength. "Lest the work of the heavenly right hand be attributed to human strength," etc. "So that the small number could claim nothing for itself from the divinely wrought work of war," says Salvian, Book 7 On Providence, as if to say: I wish that you employ only three hundred men, and those unarmed, for this battle, so that it may be clear to all that the victory was won not by the strength of soldiers but by Mine. For this reason God chose the weak things of the world to confound the strong, 1 Corinthians 1, namely the lowly and unlearned fishermen, to convert the world through them as Apostles; for these soldiers of Gideon were their type.
Verse 3: Whoever is fearful, let him go back
3. Whoever is fearful and timid, let him go back, lest he spread this fear of his to the other soldiers, and this according to the law of Deuteronomy 20:8. Thus Christ rejected the timid from His service, saying: "He who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me," Matthew 10:38. Let the spirited soldier of Christ therefore say: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" Psalm 26.
And they withdrew from Mount Gilead. This is a different mountain from the Gilead where Jacob made a covenant with Laban, Genesis 31:48, which was across the Jordan: for this one was on this side of the Jordan, since Gideon had his camp there. Serarius thinks that Mount Gilboa is here called Mount Gilead. Adrichomius supports this.
Verse 5: Those who lap water like dogs
5. Those who lap the water with their tongue, as dogs usually lap (that is, throwing water drawn from the river by hand into their mouth, as the following verse explains, just as dogs by lapping with their tongue throw water into their mouth, but do not apply their mouth to the water to suck it up, as horses and oxen do), you shall set them apart (to enlist them in your army and expedition against Midian); but those who drink bending their knees shall be on the other side, so that you may send them home from your camp.
Josephus thinks those chosen by Gideon here were the cowardly, and the strong were rejected. For hear: "So that they might know that the whole matter depended on God's help, He ordered him to lead the army to the river around noon when the heat was greatest, and however many drank lying down, he should consider them brave men, but however many took their drink fearfully and in haste, he should consider that they did this from fear of the enemy, and with these He commanded him to attack the foe." Whence Abulensis gathers that those who lapped the water, being more timid, were chosen by Gideon and God as cowardly and contemptible, so that the greater power of God might shine forth in this victory. So also Theodoret, Question 15, and St. Augustine, Question 37.
More probably, Lyra, Arias, Serarius, and others hold that those who had lapped the water were chosen over those who drank kneeling, as being more temperate, more tolerant of thirst, and more nimble, inasmuch as being wholly intent on the impending battle, they quenched their thirst in passing and quickly by lapping water in the manner of dogs, and were therefore more fit for battle. For first, these drank standing, while the others knelt or fell prone on the ground; secondly, these threw a small amount of water into their mouth by hand; while the others gulped the river with their mouth, to fill their whole belly, which was a sign of great gluttony.
Tropologically, he who knows not how to bend toward earthly and bodily things, who does not indulge in vices, nor is struck prone from thirst for sin, he is approved, he is chosen. For it is this very desire that excludes us from the possession of God, a good infinitely better. For Prosper excellently says: "He who wishes to possess God, let him renounce the world, that God may be his blessed possession. Nor does he renounce the world whom the ambition of earthly possession still delights; because, as long as he does not leave his own things, he serves the world whose goods he retains. And certainly he cannot serve the world and God at the same time: and if for this reason God willed that His worshipers renounce all things for which the world is loved, it is so that with worldly desire excluded, divine charity may be increased or perfected in them." Thus far Prosper, Book 2 On the Contemplative Life, chapter 16.
Again, St. Gregory, Book 30, Moralia, chapter 33: "By water, he says, the teaching of wisdom is meant, while by the standing knee right action is designated. Those therefore who are said to have knelt while drinking the water withdrew, prohibited from the contest of wars; because Christ goes to battle against the enemies of the faith with those who, when they drink the streams of doctrine, do not bend the uprightness of their works."
Verse 6: Three hundred men who lapped
6. Now the number of those who had lapped the water by throwing it with their hand to their mouth was three hundred men. Here it explains what it means to lap water in the manner of dogs, namely to throw water by hand into the mouth, just as a dog throws it in with its tongue. For otherwise, standing, they could not touch the water with their tongue as dogs do in lapping: in this therefore they were unlike dogs, which do not have hands but use their tongue in place of a hand: "With their hand, says St. Augustine, Question 37, they threw the seized water into their mouth, and this was similar to dogs drinking, who do not draw in water with their mouth placed against it, as oxen do, but snatch it into their mouth with their tongue, as these men are understood also to have done, but by throwing the water into their mouth with their hand, which their tongue then caught."
Indeed, says Origen, homily 9: "He is approved, he is chosen who, after coming to the waters of baptism, knows not how to bend toward earthly and bodily necessities, who does not indulge in vices, nor is struck prone from thirst for sin." Then Origen adds: "But also that it says they lapped water with hand or tongue does not seem to me to have been written without a certain sacramental significance, namely that the soldiers of Christ must work both with hand and tongue, that is, by deed and word; because he who teaches and does, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Moreover, that Scripture also introduced the likeness of a dog lapping, it seems to me that this animal is mentioned in this place because it is said above all other animals to preserve love for its own master, and neither time nor injuries are said to obliterate its affection."
Verse 10: Let Purah your servant go down with you
10. Let Purah your servant go down with you, that is, your attendant. This spirited boy, dispelling Gideon's fear, was a type of Christ, says Leo of Castro on Isaiah chapter 10: for "Purah" means the same as fruitful, or branching, and exalted on the tree of the Cross; for by this Cross Christ took away fear from martyrs and the faithful.
Mystically, St. Gregory, Book 30 of the Moralia, chapter 33. The three hundred represent the mystery of the Holy Trinity, he says, and adds: "This number of three hundred is contained in the letter Tau, which holds the form of the cross. If what projects above the crossbar on the cross were added above the transverse line, it would no longer be the form of a cross, but the cross itself. Because therefore this number of three hundred is contained in the letter Tau, and through the letter Tau, as we have said, the form of the cross is shown, not undeservedly are those designated by these three hundred following Gideon to whom it was said," Luke chapter 9: "'If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.' Those who follow the Lord take up the cross more truly the more sharply they both subdue themselves and are tormented by compassion of charity toward their neighbors. Whence also through the prophet Ezekiel (chapter 9) it is said: 'Mark the Tau upon the foreheads of the men who groan and grieve.'" So also St. Augustine, Sermon 108 On the Seasons.
Verse 13: The barley cake dream
13. I saw a dream, and it seemed to me as if a barley cake baked under ashes was rolling and descending into the camp of Midian. For 'baked under ashes,' the Hebrew is צליל tselil, which Rabbi David and the like translate as making a noise or ringing sound, from צלל tsalal, that is, to make noise, to ring. Better, our Vulgate, the Septuagint, the Chaldean, and others translate it as toasted or roasted under ashes, that is, baked under embers, from the root צלה tsalah, that is, he roasted, he parched: thus from הגה hagah, that is, to meditate, to speak, comes הגיון higgaion, that is, meditation.
Fittingly God, in this dream sent to a chief Midianite soldier, by this barley cake baked under ashes signified Gideon, apparently abject and contemptible, who tumultuously and suddenly, as if from the ashes, had gathered this small army of three hundred soldiers. So say St. Augustine, Question 37, Lyra, Abulensis, Arias, and others, and with a beautiful allusion. For in Hebrew they call war מלחמה milchamah, that is, eating or devouring of men, the word being derived from לחם lechem, that is, bread. Whence it is fittingly said to this effect, Numbers 14:9: "We can devour them like bread." This vision therefore signifies that Gideon and the Hebrews, who had hitherto been the bread of the Midianites, inasmuch as they were devoured by them as bread is devoured, would henceforth be swords, strikers, and slayers of the Midianites who were devouring them.
This Midianite therefore conjectured most aptly from the ambiguous meaning of the word; for לחם lechem signifies both bread and war. From this conjunction and kinship therefore, not of nature (for what relation has bread to a sword?), but of meaning, he conjectured that by bread was signified the sword and war that was threatening the camp of the Midianites from Gideon who was now approaching. So say Arias and our Gaspar Sanchez on Isaiah chapter 14, number 29. Fittingly, to Gideon who was threshing grain for bread on the threshing floor, and who had liberally offered bread to the Angel, God in reward for his hospitality gave bread as an omen and sign of victory, to show how efficacious beneficence and hospitality are, seeing that they turn bread into swords that can strike down any enemies.
Allegorically, this bread was a type of the Eucharist, which strikes and overthrows the Midianites, that is, demons and other enemies, like a sword; for this is the bread that descended from heaven, and overturns the camps of enemies, just as this bread seemed to descend from on high into the camp of Midian, as if sent down from God to throw it into confusion.
And when it had come to the tent, it struck it. By "tent" understand that of the prince or leader, and thence of the rest of the soldiers. Therefore by 'tent,' that is, tents, which are usually in the middle of the camp, that they may be safer from the enemy. Whence in the very next verse this tent is interpreted as all the camp of Midian. So say Cajetan, Arias, and others.
Verse 14: This is the sword of Gideon
14. The one to whom he was speaking answered, namely his comrade, the companion of the Midianite who had told him the dream he had seen: "This is nothing other than the sword of Gideon," for the analogies already reviewed. He said this assuredly prompted by God; whence he adds: "For the Lord has delivered Midian and all its camp into his hands." So says Abulensis.
Verse 15: Gideon heard the dream and worshiped
15. And when Gideon had heard the dream (for he understood the Midianite language, either because it was akin to Hebrew, or because he had learned it from the Midianites who had been occupying Judea for seven years) he worshiped God, because He had provided him with this divine omen foretelling victory.
Verse 16: Three groups with trumpets and pitchers
16. And he divided the three hundred men into three groups (as three battle lines, to encircle the Midianites with three squadrons), and he gave trumpets into their hands, and empty pitchers and torches in the middle of the pitchers. The word 'torches,' in Hebrew לפידים lappidim, generically signifies a burning flame, in whatever thing or material it may be. The Chaldean translates begurakha, that is, set on fire or ignited. Whence it is not likely that these torches were our common domestic ones, which burn with and are fed by oil; for these enclosed in pitchers would have been extinguished when the pitchers were smashed. Rather, as Arias says, they were wooden firebrands of pine, cypress, cedar, or a similar oily and resinous tree, which could receive, maintain, and preserve fire for a long time, the wind serving rather to stir up and increase it than to extinguish it; especially if they had been smeared and coated with pitch, wax, oil, bitumen, etc.
And so everything here was designed for terror and struck the Midianites with panic: the unexpected and nocturnal sound of three hundred trumpets blaring for battle; the crash of the pitchers, as each man dashed his own against his comrade's pitcher, and from there the suddenly flashing flames of nearby torches on every side, that is, of firebrands or burning brands, pursuing the enemy.
By a similar stratagem Hannibal, besieged by Quintus Fabius Maximus at Casilinum, eluded and escaped him: for he tied lighted torches to the horns of two thousand oxen, and by goading them drove them into the mountains held by the Romans, "and the very fear of the gleaming flame from their heads, says Livy, Decade 3, Book 2, and the heat now reaching the living flesh at the base of their horns, drove the oxen as if goaded by frenzy, by whose sudden rushing about all the surrounding brush blazed no differently than if forests and mountains had been set on fire, and the restless tossing of their heads fanning the flame presented the appearance of men running about in every direction. Those who had been posted to guard the passages of the forest: when they saw certain fires on the mountain tops and above them, thinking themselves surrounded, abandoned their post: while the huge flame blazed forth, they made for the mountain ridges as if the safest path, and then encountered certain oxen straying from their herds: and at first when they saw them from afar, astonished as at the miracle of fire-breathing creatures they stood still, then when the human trick became apparent, then truly thinking it was an ambush, with much and very great noise they put themselves to flight, and ran into the light-armed enemy."
Similar to this are the accounts that Julius Frontinus recounts, Book 2 On Stratagems, chapter 4: "The Spaniards, he says, against Hamilcar placed oxen yoked to carts in the front line, and set fire to the carts filled with pitch, tallow, and sulfur when the signal for battle was given, and then by driving the oxen against the enemy broke through the terrified battle line.
"The Falisci and Tarquinians, having dressed up many of their men in the garb of priests, carrying torches and serpents in furious attire, threw the Roman battle line into confusion. The Veientes and Fidenates did the same, snatching up torches.
"Atheas, king of the Scythians, when fighting against a larger army of the Triballi, ordered the women and boys and the whole non-combatant crowd to drive herds of donkeys and cattle toward the enemy's rear, and to carry raised spears before them: he then spread a rumor that reinforcements were coming to him from the farther Scythians, and by this assertion turned the enemy away."
The same, Book 3, chapter 8: "Cyrus, he says, king of the Persians, having shut Croesus up in Sardis, on the side where the steep mountain afforded no approach, raised masts equal in height to the walls and the ridge: upon which he had placed the figures of armed men in Persian attire, and by night he moved them toward the mountain. Then at first light he attacked the walls from the other side; when the sun rose and those figures resembling armed men in their costume shone forth, the townspeople, believing the city had been taken in their rear, and on account of this fleeing in panic, conceded the victory to the enemy."
The same, Book 2, chapter 5: "Alexander of Macedon, he says, when the enemy had fortified a camp on a higher mountain pass, drawing away part of his forces, ordered those whom he was leaving behind to light fires as usual and present the appearance of the whole army: he himself, leading his troops by roundabout routes, attacked the enemy from a higher position and dislodged them."
Allegorically, Procopius and St. Augustine, Sermon 108 On the Seasons: Gideon's soldiers, he says, are the disciples of Christ, who carried before them the torches of miracles and the trumpet of preaching, by which they overthrew Midian, that is, paganism and the worship of idols.
Tropologically, Rupert: The pitchers, he says, are the fragile and as it were earthenware bodies of the martyrs, which when broken through death began to flash with miracles, by which the persecutors were put to flight and the unbelievers converted to Christ. So likewise St. Ambrose, Book 1 On the Holy Spirit, chapter 16, and at length St. Gregory, Book 30, Moralia, chapter 33, whom hear: "In the trumpets is designated the cry of preachers, in the torches the brilliance of miracles, in the pitchers the fragility of bodies. For our Leader brought with Him to the battle of preaching such men as would, despising the safety of their bodies, overthrow the enemies by dying, and would overcome their swords not with arms, not with swords, but with patience. For our martyrs came armed under their Leader to battle; but with trumpets, with pitchers, with torches. They sounded the trumpets by preaching; they broke the pitchers when they exposed their bodies, to be destroyed in their suffering, to the swords of the enemy; they shone with torches when, after the dissolution of their bodies, they gleamed with miracles. And immediately the enemies were turned to flight; because when they saw the bodies of dead martyrs flashing with miracles, broken by the light of truth, they believed what they had attacked."
He explains the same more clearly when he adds: "They sounded the trumpets therefore, so that the pitchers might be broken; the pitchers were broken so that the torches might appear; the torches appeared so that the enemies might be put to flight; that is, the martyrs preached until their bodies were dissolved in death; their bodies were dissolved in death so that they might flash with miracles; they flashed with miracles so that they might prostrate their enemies by the divine light; so that they would in no way resist God standing upright, but as subjects would fear Him."
Bede has the same words verbatim, and transcribed them from St. Gregory.
Again Origen here, homily 9, toward the end: "See, he says, that the chosen soldiers of God fight with torches. For thus Christ had armed them, saying: 'Let your loins be girded, and your lamps burning.' And again: 'So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.' With such torches therefore lit, it befits the soldiers of Christ to fight, shining with the light of works and the splendor of deeds. But what are the horns of trumpets in which they sound the blast? He who speaks of heavenly things, who discourses on spiritual matters, who reveals the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven — he plays the trumpet, he speaks with the horn; he who speaks of great and very great things, who opens the knowledge of Christ to human ears. But why is the trumpet also called horned? Because of the holy man it is also said: 'His horn shall be exalted in glory.' Whence each person's trumpet is called horned, in that he discourses on the manifold knowledge of Christ and the sacraments of His Cross, which is designated by the horn. Fighting therefore with this trumpet, and battling with it, we conquer foreigners and put enemies to flight, even if their multitude be like locusts. For the multitude of demons is compared to locusts, which have a home neither in heaven nor on earth. Let therefore the light of works, the power of knowledge, and the preaching of the divine word go before us also in this war."
Verse 17: What you see me do, that do
17. What you see me do, that do. Indeed Serarius says these six things: "first, when I sound the trumpet, sound yours as well; second, when I cry, For the Lord and for Gideon, cry out likewise; third, when I break my pitcher, break yours as well; fourth, when I hold a torch in my left hand, hold yours too; fifth, when I hold a trumpet in my right hand and blow it, hold and blow yours likewise; sixth, when I stand in my place, each of you stand in yours."
Tropologically, let the Prelate learn here to go before his subjects by example, and to teach them more by that than by words. For examples are stronger than words, and persuade more. For a soldier is ashamed to be idle where he sees his commander laboring and fighting. Thus did Christ, of whom Luke, Acts chapter 1, verse 1: "Jesus began to do" first "and" secondly "to teach:" "Learn from Me, He says, for I am meek and humble of heart," Matthew chapter 11, verse 29. Whence St. Ephrem, letter to John the Monk: "You act rightly, he says, presenting yourself as an example of good works, and most of all to the brothers who live with you, according to Him who says: 'From Me you shall see, and so shall you do.'"
Morally therefore learn here that a leader must precede his soldiers, a father his children, a Superior his inferiors to difficult tasks, and must be the first to put his hand to the difficult matter, if he wants it quickly and rightly accomplished. Thus did Cato, who in Lucan, Book 9, by his own example drives soldiers to every danger, saying:
"I shall enter, and be the first to set foot in the dust. / Let the scorching heat strike me, let the serpent full of venom / meet me, and test your perils by my fate: / let whoever sees me drinking thirst, / or whoever sees me seeking the shade of groves grow hot, / or let him faint who sees the horseman ride ahead of the foot troops — / if by any distinction it shall be known / whether I go as leader or as soldier, etc."
Verse 18: For the Lord and for Gideon
18. Shout: For the Lord and for Gideon! namely, may this battle and victory belong to them. Whence in verse 20, they are said to have cried out: "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon," that is, this is He who will destroy you, O Midianites, pursues, strikes, and lays low. Whence the Chaldean: the sword proceeds from the face of the Lord, and the victory is by the hand of Gideon, whom you, O Midianites, dread as your adversary, and whom you have already learned through a dream will triumph over you, as if to say: It is God, God I say, who avenges Himself against the Midianites, brandishes His sword against them, and puts them to death; Gideon however is His minister in this matter, receives from Him the avenging sword, and with his own hands plunges it into the enemies. Hear St. Augustine, Question 40: "This signifies that the sword was going to accomplish what would please the Lord and Gideon."
Hence the Poles and Hungarians are to be praised, who after the fashion of Gideon begin battle by invoking the name of Jesus, and the Spaniards by invoking the name of St. James, and therefore often carry off victory from their enemies.
Verse 19: The beginning of the middle watch
19. At the beginning of the watches of the middle of the night and when the guards had been roused, they began to sound the trumpets. The night itself and the blast of the trumpets struck the Midianites with terror, so that they thought a very large Israelite army was rushing upon them, which they did not trust themselves to be able to resist. Whence, turning to flight, they trampled and slew one another. This stratagem is imitated by clever military commanders; for when they have few soldiers, they have many trumpets blown, so that from these the enemy may suspect that very great forces are coming against them, and so think of flight.
Thus did Pompey act when about to fight Mithridates. Hear Cassius Dio, Book 36: "First, he says, all the trumpeters sounded the war call in unison by pre-arrangement, then the soldiers and all the rest of the crowd shouted: and the former clashed their spears or javelins against their shields; the latter (the camp followers and sutlers) even struck stones against bronze vessels." Fredegund, queen of France, did something similar, fighting for her young son Clothar, for by order of the general Landeric, each of her soldiers, screened by cut branches of trees and ringing bells, terrified the enemy in the dead of night and put them to flight, as Aimoin narrates, Book 3, chapter 81.
And they smashed the pitchers against one another, so that the Midianites would be terrified partly by the crash of this smashing, partly by the flashing of so many torches or burning brands blazing forth and flashing from them. By a similar stratagem the Salonians put to flight Octavius Caesar, later Augustus, who was besieging Salonae, as Cassius Dio narrates, Book 42: "The women, he says, letting down their hair, dressed in black garments, carrying torches, composed in the most terrible appearance possible, approached the enemy's camp at midnight: and when the sentinels were struck dead with fear (for they presented to them the appearance of demons), they set fire to the camp at all points simultaneously; the men following them killed many who were aroused by the tumult and many who were still sleeping: thus they immediately seized both the camp and the naval station that Octavius held."
Tropologically, the author of the Homily On Virginity, found among St. Bernard's works: "They went out, he says, with torches, having their loins girded, and burning lamps in their hands, so that both the belt of chastity might be tightened in the body, and for the benefit of neighbor and the glory of the Father the light of example might shine forth in action."
Verse 20: Torches in the left, trumpets in the right
20. They held the torches in their left hands, and the sounding trumpets in their right, so that they might hold them more firmly and therefore blow them with greater force and sound; for there is greater strength in the right hand. St. Gregory gives the mystical meaning and reason, Book 30, Moralia, chapter 34: "We are said to hold in the right, he says, whatever we value highly; in the left what we count as nothing. Well therefore is it written there, that they held the trumpets in the right and the pitchers in the left; because the martyrs of Christ hold the grace of preaching as of great value, but the advantage of their bodies as of very little. For whoever makes the advantage of the body more important than the grace of preaching holds the trumpet in the left and the pitcher in the right. But if the grace of preaching is given priority, and the advantage of the body comes second, it is certain that the trumpets are held in the right, and the pitchers in the left."
Verse 21: Each standing in his place
21. Each standing in his place around the enemy's camp. "Standing," so that by standing they would pretend to be giving passage to their own very large forces invading the Midianites, as if each trumpet and each trumpeter had led his own cohort of armed men; for each squadron of cavalry has its own trumpeter: it was night when nothing is seen, and therefore many things that do not exist seem to be seen, especially by the frightened and panicked.
And so all the camp was thrown into confusion, not so much because of the diversity of languages, as Josephus holds, but because they thought the Israelites were in their camp, and did not recognize each other, and with a certain divine blindness and madness they attacked everyone they encountered. Thus tropologically heretics, who are our Midianites, fight with swords against each other and destroy themselves. Truly St. Jerome on Ezekiel: "The mutual warfare of heretics, he says, is our victory." And St. Hilary, Book 7 On the Trinity: "The war of heretics, he says, is the peace of the Church."
Verse 22: The Lord sent the sword into the camps
22. And the Lord sent the sword into all the camps, and they cut each other down with mutual slaughter. Namely, God sent terror and blindness upon the Midianites, and they, thinking the Hebrews were wreaking slaughter in the midst of their camp, from sheer panic, from the inability of their half-sleep, from grief and rage, each one thinking his neighbor was the enemy struck with the sword, and those who were fleeing believed that those following them, who were also fleeing, were the Israelite enemy in pursuit; therefore while they thought they were striking and slaying Israelites, they cut each other down, because the Israelites were pursuing them with the continuous blast of trumpets and the glare of torches, that is, of burning brands.
This was merited by the faith and lofty hope of Gideon, by which, obedient to God, with three hundred soldiers armed with the playful weapons of pitchers and torches, he courageously attacked the innumerable and heavily armed Midianites, and therefore prostrated them, and as Sidonius Apollinaris says in his Panegyric:
"Victory came by song alone."
In a similar way God struck and defeated the enemies of Jehoshaphat king of Israel, 2 Chronicles 20. Among the pagans, Leonidas imitated Gideon, who with three hundred Spartans courageously opposed himself at Thermopylae to Xerxes and his innumerable forces, and slew and routed them, and who is therefore celebrated in all histories.
In all these things Gideon was a type of Christ, as I showed through sixteen analogies in my commentary on Isaiah chapter 9:4, at those words predicted of Christ: "You have overcome the rod of His oppressor as in the day of Midian."
Finally, the army of Midian was at a minimum 135,000, of which 120,000 were slain here, and the remaining 15,000 who fled Gideon pursued and cut down across the Jordan, as we shall hear in the next chapter, verse 10. And he accomplished all these things with only three hundred soldiers; but through stratagems, with God fighting for him and striking the enemies with terror. Truly Judas Maccabeus was another Gideon: "Not in the multitude of the army, he says, is victory in war, but strength comes from heaven," 1 Maccabees 3:19.