Literal Commentary on Judges

Again, the literal commentary on Judges. In the time of the judges, there was no king in Israel, that he might mediate between the people and God, that he might know what was to be done. And they would cast lots; and whichever [lot] came up, whether to the priests of that time, or to the ministers of the sanctuary, or to some other man of worth, it would appear in a vision of the night, that which was commanded concerning the matter. First, Judah was chosen because of his valor and his strength, or because of his excellence, or because he was destined to become king. He who rebuked Israel, who went up from Gilgal: he was an angel of the people of the Hebrews, and not a priest or a prophet, because they had mingled with the nations and learned their practices. God sent to them an angel in human form, and he rebuked them, and they began to weep over their negligence; and that place was called “Bochim” on account of the name “weepers” and the “valley of weeping,” and this “Terebinth.” They crossed over into the valley of weeping and made it a dwelling place. No prophet arose in Israel after Joshua son of Nun until Samuel, except for judges, because there was among them no excellent man who was fit; and it is known that Deborah, although she was a woman, because of her excellence was worthy of prophecy and of the leadership of the people, the office of the judges.

God left the nations with the people, because it was shown whether they would keep the commandments or not, and whether they feared or not, so that they might rely on God and believe in him. And if someone says that their servants acted according to their own free will, they say that this is not the reason. For in the wilderness for forty years, while the nations did not turn to their own will, they worshipped the calf and idols. And in the days of David, when they were destroyed, they turned to the worship of idols in the time of Solomon and Jeroboam. The commandment of Samuel was sufficient, that they should not worship idols but their own will. And concerning this, before the foot, they would not say that they did not know that the worship of idols was evil. God chose a new one, this is the one that arose from the pit, and in the people something that was not customary and new. And then the bread of barley, that is Gideon, who saw in his dream a Mede, a cake of barley, when he hinted at Gideon. Again, God chose a new one, that is the New Testament, and then the bread of barley, that is the Old Testament, is arranged, as God placed in his church first the apostles and after them the prophets, for the truth, and they are for the type. Again, God chose Gideon, who chose three hundred men, Gideon a type of Christ, and as Gideon overturned the altar of Baal, Christ overturned the worship of idols from the world. And he made an altar of peace, that is, he made an altar and tended to both, and he made an altar in the church on which the sacrifice is offered in a bloodless manner, and he sacrificed to him the fatted bull of his father.

...that is in the seventh, that the sacrifice of the whole world, that which revolves around the seven days, and this in the night of ignorance and the darkness of error, and it concealed the truth, performed the governance secretly. And he took with him the servants of his father like the twelve apostles, who with him uprooted error from the world, and it was shown that with Gideon the priesthood was abolished from Levi, and also in the Messiah the priesthood was abolished from the Jews, when neither that one nor this one is from the tribe of Levi, for he knew that this was destined to be abolished; and it was permitted to him to do everything, a mystery of the peoples. This upon which the dew fell by night and upon the whole dry land, because in the night of sin and ignorance of the whole world, Israel received when called by God the dew of knowledge and of wonders, the dry land. A mystery of the peoples who dried up and became empty in sin and were hidden from the knowledge of God. Gideon, a type of the Messiah, when the threshing of the wheat began, the dew was withheld from it. The dew is the kingdom, the priesthood, and the prophecy; and this dew was given to the peoples in baptism, which healed the world and turned it from sin, and made kings, priests, and prophets at the beginning for those who believed in the Messiah. And again, the mystery is placed in the threshing-floor, as it were of the world, and this is the dry land, and the threshing-floor receives the dew, a mystery that when the Messiah came, the peoples received healing and the dew of knowledge, and Israel dried up and became empty. The trees that went to anoint a king for themselves: a mystery of the people and a mystery of the tribe of Judah.

...that he left the kingdom like an olive and a fig: like the priests, and the vine is the mystery of the priesthood, and they accepted that a foreign king should rule over them, who is a type of Satan. They hid in his shadow, they were his Origenists, with the murderers of Christ. Finally, the olive was likened to the priesthood, because with it priests and kings and the faithful are anointed; and like that which is offered like an olive, it is praised in the house of God. The vine, therefore, was likened to the priesthood, because from it is born the wine that gladdens the heart of the chief; for this is the teaching of the prophets, which gladdens the heart more than wine, and uproots souls from the error of idolatry. The fig, because of the sweetness of the wine that is born from it, and it is fulfilled in the kingdom. Abimelech, who killed his brothers, is a mystery of the people who killed the heralds. The sons of Shechem and Milo are a mystery of the priests and Pharisees who persisted in Judaism. Again, Abimelech is likened to Satan, who kills generations. He was the son of a maidservant, a mystery of the Church, which is likened to Hagar the maidservant. Jotham, who fled to his master, the mountain that stood over him, is a mystery of the lofty knowledge. Abimelech, who burned Shechem, which had given him kingship over it, is the death of Satan, who strives to destroy after him those who serve with him. He did not leave a shoot that he did not uproot, he did not cease to anoint. Good wine, he did not cease to offer. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, not for fear, but to be emboldened, and not like Saul, but to fear. And his vow was a vow that was not seen, it was his vow.

...that he left the kingdom like an olive and a fig: like the priests, and the vine is the mystery of the priesthood, and they accepted that a foreign king should rule over them, who is a type of Satan. They hid in his shadow, because he did not know by what means God would be worshipped. He said to his daughter, "Separate yourself from my house, whichever man you wish, choose." And she chose a sacrifice, and she said, "I am complete." The slanderer, while he lived, without the ordinance of the order, it was proclaimed that a snare of deception and estrangement from God was set for his fall. And he moved his daughter to go out to his way, so that when he saw her, he would take pity on her, and he would destroy the order and be condemned. But when he saw her, he was troubled and his hands dried up, because of his love for her. And when the love of nature grew, this love conquered by the power of his will and the love of God. He overthrew his spiritual nature in this, showing that he would cast her down. He did to me as what came out of your mouth, for I have no power over the request of your house, as your word began. He did not sacrifice her on that day, so that the boastful and proud would not perceive it. And this too is a wonder, that he hired out his spirit and did not sacrifice her, and he did not drink with the order and the destruction of God. He did not mock the opening of his order, because without distinction he ordered, and if a dog or an ass that defiles the law had come out to his way, he would have sacrificed it. He was not ashamed of the one who established his order and honored God, more than his daughter. God allowed his daughter to be sacrificed, so that Jephthah, when he did not intend the blood of men, like the teaching of the pagans, so that no man would ever again make an order without consideration, and the order of Jephthah was fulfilled and it was seen that he loved God, and he did not consider it a sin that he sacrificed her. And according to the order of martyrdom, God accepted his daughter.

...that he left the kingdom like an olive and a fig: like the priests, and the vine is the mystery of the priesthood, and they accepted that a foreign king should rule over them, who is a type of Satan. They hid in his ...the eater came out, the eater of generations and families: the body of the eater came out, the church, and it ate the sins. And bitterness was given sweetness, for the sweetness of the bitterness of all peoples was sweetened. The lion, which is the death that fought against the Philistines and ate Israel with a yoke. The interpretation of the lion: the mystery of the life of the Philistines, which is in the hands of Samson. In the interpretation of the Targum, the mystery of the sweetness of the olive that Israel took from the Philistines. And not because his strength passed away from him, but because the mystery of his Nazirite vow was revealed, which is that no razor passed over his head. For the pursuit of the covenant of freedom is harder than the pursuit of the covenant of the law. For when he was strong, his Nazirite vow did not pass away, and the strength of his power was increased. For after the covenant of his Nazirite vow passed, he was weakened. His eyes were blinded to those who loved him, for those who love the blind are like idols. Joseph was conquered by a woman, and Samson fathered Israel and destroyed his Nazirite vow. He was weakened, and he became like any other until he died for wisdom. A Nazirite is one who is to the Lord, and there was no great mountain in his Nazirite vow until his natural death. This is what the children of Israel asked, that they might go up against the Benjaminites, and afterwards they fell before them. This is the reason: because they erred in the error of the one without law who took her, and they did not err in the error of God, to whom they prostrated themselves in the place of idols.

...and they did not hide the mystery of the Lord, when the priest was silent before the idols, and they wished to follow after Abimelech and did not care for themselves. And because of this, the Lord decreed a judgment of fire upon both sides. Again, because of this, Israel fell by the sword, because the sons of Abimelech were very wicked and depraved from the beginning, and they did not wish to follow. And because of them, forty thousand of them fell in two days. The end of the literal commentary on the book of Judges.