Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The Jews, fearing Holofernes, fortify themselves, and clad in sackcloth and ashes, cry out for God's help. The High Priest Eliakim comforts them and promises God's help if they persevere in prayer.
Vulgate Text: Judith 4:1-17
1. Then the children of Israel who dwelt in the land of Judah, hearing these things, feared greatly before him. 2. Trembling and horror seized their senses, lest he do to Jerusalem and the temple of the Lord what he had done to other cities and their temples. 3. And they sent into all Samaria round about as far as Jericho, and occupied all the mountaintops: 4. and they walled their villages, and gathered grain in preparation for battle. 5. The priest Eliakim also wrote to all who were opposite Esdraelon, which faces the great plain near Dothan, and to all through whom there could be a passage of the roads, 6. that they should hold the mountain passes through which there could be a way to Jerusalem, and guard there, where the path between the mountains could be narrow. 7. And the children of Israel did according to what the priest of the Lord, Eliakim, had directed them. 8. And all the people cried out to the Lord with great earnestness, and they humbled their souls in fasting and prayers, both they and their wives. 9. And the priests clothed themselves with sackcloth, and they prostrated the children before the temple of the Lord, and they covered the altar of the Lord with sackcloth: 10. and they cried out unanimously to the Lord God of Israel, that their children might not be given as prey, and their wives divided among captors, and their cities destroyed, and their holy things polluted, and that they might not become a reproach among the nations. 11. Then Eliakim, the great priest of the Lord, went around all Israel, and addressed them, 12. saying: Know that the Lord will hear your prayers, if you remain steadfast in fasting and prayers in the sight of the Lord. 13. Remember Moses the servant of the Lord, who cast down Amalek, trusting in his own strength, in his power, in his army, in his shields, in his chariots, and in his horsemen, not by fighting with the sword but by praying with holy prayers: 14. so shall it be with all the enemies of Israel, if you persevere in this work which you have begun. 15. Therefore at this exhortation of his, praying to the Lord, they remained in the sight of the Lord, 16. so that even those who offered holocausts to the Lord, girded with sackcloth, offered sacrifices to the Lord, and there was ash upon their heads. 17. And with all their heart they all prayed to God, that He would visit His people Israel.
Verse 2: Trembling and Horror Seized Their Senses
2. TREMBLING AND HORROR SEIZED THEIR SENSES. — The Greek has more fully: And they feared greatly before him, and were troubled for Jerusalem and the temple of the Lord their God, because they had recently come up from captivity, and lately all the people had been gathered from Judea, and the vessels, and the altar, and the house (of God, that is, the temple) had been sanctified after their profanation.
Many, as I said in the introduction with Bellarmine, Salianus and others, refer this to Manasseh king of Judah, who having been captured with his people in Babylon, was released and returned to his kingdom, and repenting, purified the temple which he had profaned through idols, and restored it to the worship of the true God. But this was also the captivity and liberation of King Manasseh, not of the entire people. Add that no mention is made of King Manasseh in this entire book, which surely should have been done, since it would have pertained to him as king, rather than to Eliakim the High Priest, to fortify Judea against Holofernes and to garrison the mountain passes.
Therefore others more rightly refer these events to the times of Xerxes, when the temple had already been rebuilt after being profaned and burned by the Chaldeans. You object: How did the Jews, recently returned from captivity, have such strength and courage as to dare to oppose such numerous and powerful armies? I reply that this was done from fear of captivity, whose bitterness and hardships they had recently experienced in Babylon, and from fear of losing the true religion. For Nebuchadnezzar was threatening destruction to God and the temple, because he wanted to be worshipped alone as God. But this seemed intolerable to the Jews who worshipped the true God, so that they preferred to die rather than permit it. Finally, the offspring of the Jews was innumerable, and their multiplication through generation was like that of frogs and fish, as it was in the time of Moses, Exodus I. For Josephus, book XI of Antiquities, chapter IV, counts among those who returned from the Babylonian captivity in the second year of Darius Hystaspes four million adult males, and additionally 620,000, and this from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin alone, to whom very many from the other ten tribes joined themselves. And so they could easily raise a numerous army to oppose Holofernes, especially in the mountain passes and precipices, where one man can resist ten enemies.
Verse 4: And They Gathered Grain
4. AND THEY GATHERED GRAIN. — For their fields had recently been harvested, as the Greek adds: 'Against other disasters,' says Vegetius, book III, chapter III, 'there can be timely remedy: but provisions and supplies in a crisis have no remedy unless they have been stored beforehand.' Therefore the old Roman discipline 'had stored in most towns for the use of the entire year, vinegar, grain, lard, barley and straw,' says Capitolinus in the Life of Gordian. For, as Vegetius says, book III, chapter III, 'more often scarcity than fighting consumes an army, and hunger is fiercer than the sword. In every expedition, the one greatest counsel is that your provisions suffice for you, while want breaks the enemy. Therefore before war is begun, there must be a skillful discussion of supplies and expenses, so that fodder, grain, and other provisions which custom requires from the Provincials may be demanded in timely fashion, and in places suitable for operations and well fortified, a larger supply than is needed should always be gathered.' And chapter XXVI: 'He who does not prepare grain and necessary provisions is conquered without a sword.'
Verse 5: The Priest Eliakim Also
5. THE PRIEST ELIAKIM ALSO — In Greek, Joachim, as he is also called by our text in chapter XV, verse 9. For these two names signify the same thing, namely 'the one whom God establishes' or 'God's establisher,' who made the armies of the Jews stand firm against Holofernes. For God is called both El and Io, which is an abbreviation of Jehovah. From this it is clear that these events took place in the time of Xerxes. For then the High Priest was Joachim, as I said in the introduction, who in the absence of a king administered the commonwealth: for, as Josephus says, book II Against Apion: 'The constitution of the Jewish commonwealth commonly entrusts to the priests the administration of all the most important affairs. And to the High Priest of all, it delegates the leadership of the other priests in turn.' In brief: 'The priests, he says, are overseers of all things, judges of what is disputed, avengers of what is condemned.' He went around all Israel, encouraging constancy, confidence and perseverance in prayers and fasting, promising them victory if they did so. 'The precepts of Christ,' says St. Ambrose, sermon 86, 'are weapons for Christians, and divine fear drives out from us the terror of the enemy. And these are our weapons with which the Savior has equipped us: prayer, mercy and fasting. For fasting protects better than a wall; mercy delivers more easily than plunder; prayer wounds from further away than an arrow. For an arrow only strikes the enemy when he is close at hand; but prayer wounds the enemy placed further away.' The Greek has more fully here: Joachim the High Priest, and all the priests who stood before the Lord, and the others who ministered to the Lord, girding their loins with sackcloth, offered that daily holocaust and the vows; and the voluntary offerings of the people, and dust was upon their turbans or mitres, and they cried to the Lord with all their strength, for good; that is, that He would visit the whole house of Israel to do good and to help. Let Bishops and Princes imitate this High Priest, going around the peoples committed to them, visiting, encouraging, instructing, and correcting them.
Verse 8: And All the People Cried Out to the Lord
8. AND ALL THE PEOPLE CRIED OUT TO THE LORD WITH GREAT EARNESTNESS. — Note here the practice, manner and power of public prayer and penance in a public calamity, which Christians should imitate, to avert their own calamities in a similar way. Namely, first, all the people cried out with great earnestness; second, they humbled their souls in fasting and prayers; third, they clothed themselves in sackcloth; fourth, they prostrated the children before the Lord and the temple; fifth, they covered the altar with sackcloth, so that by a public mourning as it were of religion, justice, the temple and the altar, they might provoke God to have mercy and come to their aid; so that, as Tertullian says in the Apology, they might compel Him as if by force and violence. The Ninevites did the same, Jonah II, and the Maccabees, I Maccabees III, 47, and therefore they all deserved to be heard and delivered by God.
The Greek has more fully: The people were fasting (and praying while fasting) for many days in all Judea and Jerusalem before the face of the Holy Things, that is, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, that is, the temple. For those who were in Jerusalem to pray went to the temple; those who were outside turned their faces toward the temple.
Verse 11: Then Eliakim Went Around All Israel
11. THEN ELIAKIM THE GREAT PRIEST OF THE LORD WENT AROUND ALL ISRAEL, — to exhort all to constancy,
Verse 13: Remember Moses the Servant of the Lord
13. REMEMBER MOSES THE SERVANT OF THE LORD, WHO AGAINST AMALEK, etc. — See the account in Exodus XVII, where I explained it. Note: Eliakim, like Moses, commands two things here for war: first, that they invoke God, and request and expect victory from Him; second, that they fortify their cities, occupy the passes, and gather all human defenses for resistance. For God does not help the idle, but those who labor and fight. The pagan Cato saw this, as Sallust records in the Catilinarian War: 'The aid of the gods is not obtained by prayers or by womanish supplications; by watching, acting, and taking good counsel, all things prosper.' Namely: The Thunderer on high helps not the thunderer, but the one who strives.