Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The kings of Syria and Mesopotamia, out of fear, surrender to Holofernes, who nevertheless fiercely destroyed their cities, groves and gods, so that Nebuchadnezzar alone might be worshipped as a god.
Vulgate Text: Judith 3:1-15
1. Then all the kings and princes of every city and province sent their ambassadors, namely of Syria, Mesopotamia, Syria Sobal, Libya, and Cilicia, who coming to Holofernes said: 2. Let your indignation toward us cease: for it is better that we serve Nebuchadnezzar the great king while living, and be subject to you, than that dying with our own destruction we suffer the losses of our servitude. 3. Every city of ours, and every possession, all our mountains and hills and plains, and herds of oxen, and flocks of sheep and goats, and of horses and camels, and all our resources and households are in your sight: 4. let all that is ours be under your authority. 5. We and our children are your servants. 6. Come to us as a peaceful lord, and use our service as it pleases you. 7. Then he descended from the mountains with cavalry in great force, and took every city and every inhabitant of the land. 8. From all the cities he took for himself auxiliary men, strong and chosen for war. 9. And so great a fear fell upon those provinces that the inhabitants of all the cities, their princes and notables together with the peoples, went out to meet him as he came, 10. receiving him with garlands and torches, leading dances with timbrels and flutes. 11. Yet even by doing these things they could not mitigate the ferocity of his heart: 12. for he also destroyed their cities and cut down their groves. 13. For King Nebuchadnezzar had commanded him to exterminate all the gods of the land, so that he alone might be called God by those nations which could be subjugated by the power of Holofernes. 14. Passing through Syria Sobal and all Apamea and all Mesopotamia, he came to the Edomites in the land of Gabaa, 15. and took their cities, and stayed there thirty days, during which days he commanded the whole army of his forces to be assembled.
Verse 1: Then They Sent Ambassadors
1. Then they sent ambassadors. — Thus Alexander the Great wished to return to Babylon, says Curtius, because it was reported to him that ambassadors from various parts of the world had flowed together into Babylon from everywhere, and were awaiting his arrival. To such an extent had the terror of his name invaded the whole world that all nations fawned upon him as though he were their destined king.
OF SYRIA, — taken strictly, whose capital is Damascus, which is therefore called Damascene, whose king was Benhadad, Rezin, Hazael, III Kings chapter XX and following. It includes Antioch, Phoenicia, Judea, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Assyria, as Pliny attests, book V, chapter XII.
SOBAL, — is a part of Syria which is called Sophene by Ptolemy, Strabo and Pliny, about which see the books of Kings.
OF LIBYA. — Some suspect it should read 'Lycia,' because Libya is in Africa and is far from Syria. But the terror of Nebuchadnezzar was so great that it could reach Libya, just as the fame and terror of Alexander the Great penetrated to the Garamantes and the Indians.
Verse 2: That We May Serve Nebuchadnezzar the Great King
2. THAT WE MAY SERVE NEBUCHADNEZZAR THE GREAT KING WHILE LIVING. — Truly Alexander the Great, in Plutarch, book II On the Fortune of Alexander, used to say: 'Many are great only in name.'
Verse 7: Then He Descended From the Mountains
7. THEN HE DESCENDED (Holofernes) FROM THE MOUNTAINS. — Of Syria, namely Casius, Lebanon, and Anti-Lebanon, between which Damascus is situated, whose fertile plains Holofernes occupied at harvest time, as was said in chapter II, verse 17.
Verse 10: Receiving Him With Garlands and Torches
10. RECEIVING HIM WITH GARLANDS AND TORCHES, LEADING DANCES WITH TIMBRELS AND FLUTES. — For the garland is the insignia of a king, before whom formerly lit torches or fires were carried, as Tertullian teaches in the Apology and Xiphilinus on Nero. Hear Curtius, book V: 'Bagistanes, the guardian of the Babylonian citadel and the royal treasury, went out to meet the victorious Alexander, and had strewn the entire road with flowers and garlands, with silver altars arranged on both sides, which he had heaped not only with incense but with every kind of perfume.' See what was said on Jeremiah I, 13, on the words: 'I see a boiling pot.'
12. And he cut down their groves, — with the gods and idols that were worshipped in groves according to the custom of the nations, concealing their obscenities, as I said in the books of Kings.
Verse 13: That He Might Exterminate All the Gods
13. THAT HE MIGHT EXTERMINATE ALL THE GODS, SO THAT HE ALONE MIGHT BE CALLED GOD. — See to what heights the pride of man rises, who forgetting that he is earth and dust, declares war on God and divinity, and wishes himself to be considered and worshipped as God, indeed as the only God. And this also because he had conquered Arphaxad. Truly Curtius says in book IV: 'Human frailty has too great a forgetfulness in prosperity.' Similar was the pride of Lucifer, Isaiah XIV, 15, and of Pharaoh, Ezekiel XXIX, 3, and of the King of Tyre, Ezekiel XXVIII, and therefore they all deserved to be struck down and cast from their kingdom and life. Pride therefore is sheer madness, which makes a man like a Titan, not merely a giant-fighter but also a God-fighter, so that he dares to challenge God as it were to a duel, just as if a dog were to challenge an elephant, or a mouse a lion to combat.
Verse 14: Into the Land of Gabaa
14. INTO THE LAND OF GABAA, — that is, into hilly and mountainous land. For this is what Gabaa means in Hebrew. The Greek has: He came toward, or into the plain of Esdraelon near Dothaea which is opposite the Great Ridge of Judea, and he pitched camp between Gabaa and Scythopolis. Hence Serarius suspects that instead of 'Edomites' we should read 'Dothaeans.' 'Ridge,' says Arias, 'is a tract perpetually closed and divided, or narrow like the teeth of a saw, as are the passes and narrow places of the mountains.'