Chapter 2
The camp of Israel is terrified by Goliath for forty days, seeking single combat, finally overcome by David with a sling and stone. (1 Samuel 17.) But the Philistines gathered their troops for battle, etc. . . . And all Israel loved David, etc. This reading mystically teaches the prolonged and frequent ambushes of the ancient enemy against the human race, overcome only by the power and patience of the incarnate Christ. Therefore, the Philistines signify contrary powers, while Israel signifies the people of the faithful, both by the merit of action and the meaning of the name. For Israel means seeing God, or it is said of a man or mind seeing God: And blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5). The ruin of the Philistines is interpreted as twofold. Both angels or wicked men falling first into sins, and afterwards into the punishment of eternal fire. But the Philistines, gathering their troops for battle, convene in Socho of Judah, that is, in the humility of praise or confession, when malicious spirits come united against the Church, shaking it with various temptations of vices. For they lead not one, but multiple troops against Israel; for according to the various qualities of their wickedness, some spirits of wrath, others of envy, others of pride, others of vainglory, others of lust, others of gluttony, others of discord, others of avarice, attempt to strike down the chosen with their weapons. Because all these strive to take away the humility of the devotion of confession and praise to God, which they lost by being proud, from even wicked humans. For it is indeed that noble foundation, on which the house of virtues and faith is constructed, knowing to fall by no storm's force. And they measure their camps between Socho and Azekah in the borders of Domim, that is, between humility and courage, in the borders of bloods, when the entire intention of their detestable battle is to strip the faithful either of the strength of their works, or the preservation of humility amidst strong works. For they themselves, being the most proud and weak, cannot ascend the lofty walls of humility or virtue. But laying snares among these in Judah, which means they aim to destroy the confession of the pious, they seek to tear them away. Rather, they are placed in the borders of bloods, that is, always seeking to inflict wounds of evil suggestion on the elect. But against this, the men of Israel direct their line of battle in the valley of Elah to fight against the Philistines, when the strong among the Church, attacked by the temptations of demons, seize the protection of true humility. Which is most fittingly called the valley of Elah. For Elah is a tree, shedding a most excellent resinous tear which, dissolved by the skill of a physician, binds and heals wounds. Such indeed is the humble and tearful life of the saints, which, restraining the flowing vices, restores the dissolved members of the soul by binding. Concerning which valley the Psalmist says: Blessed is the man whose help is from you, O Lord; he has set his steps in the valley of tears, in the place which you have appointed for them (Psalm 84). Because evidently, with the Lord's help, one ascends through the tears of humility to the very place of the heavenly kingdom. The Elah tree can also be fittingly understood as the tree of life itself, which is in paradise, that is, the coeternal wisdom of God the Father; which, to overshadow us with its branches of gifts, indeed to elevate us from the valley of tears to the place which it has appointed for us, and to open more sublimely the fragrance of its knowledge, to exalt us to see the God of gods in Zion, first came down to the very valley of tears, being born a second time from the earth. Hence the same wisdom, which is the tree of life to those who embrace it, speaks in Ecclesiasticus: I also spread out my branches like a terebinth, and my branches are of honor and grace (Sirach 24).
[1 Samuel 17:3] -- And the Philistines stood on the mountain on this side, etc. And even to this day, unclean spirits contending against the Church stand lifted up with proud boasting, after the example of that first proud one, of whom it is written in the Revelation of John: And as a great mountain burning with fire, it was cast into the sea (Rev. VIII). And the soldier of righteousness stands, not relying on his own arms, but exalted by His help, who says: A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden (Matt. III). And there was a valley between them; the place of their conflict is the temporal life itself, in which the good and the wicked fight among themselves, and the tree of life in the middle helps and refreshes the worthy, condemns and casts out the wicked; and that same life of the world is common, and the just pass through it, hoping in Christ as the highest mountain, with diligent mind, saying: But our conversation is in heaven (Phil. III). And the reprobates through the devil, by swelling up, despise the society of their neighbors and transcend. Against this the Apostle admonishes the faithful, saying: Be not wise in your own conceits, but condescend to men of low estate (Rom. XII). For the Philistines represent no less the perverse men than the angels, serving in the one and the same kingdom of the devil.
[1 Samuel 17:4] -- And a man went out from above... named Goliath, etc. This notable man is the devil, who, daily going out from the camps of the Philistines, that is, from the hearts of the impious to rebel against God, does not cease to provoke the pious. And rightly he is called Goliath, that is, revealed or transmigrating. For he had long been hidden from mortals, seemingly in vain troubling Saul and the men of Israel; in vain boasting in the minds of the depraved, as in the camps of the Philistines, that he was the strongest; but now, through the diligence of the boy David, he is revealed to them, who can say: For we are not ignorant of his thoughts. Long pridefully inhabiting the hearts of the wretched, he is now transmigrated through the same strong hand, that is, the Lord Savior, who said: Now is the judgment of this world, now the prince of this world will be cast out (John XII). Or certainly, he is rightly called transmigrating because he transmigrated from angelic happiness to hell through pride. But if we wish to understand him who transmigrates others, that is, transfers them from place to place, in an active sense, the name should be referred to him; because he strives to transmigrate all his followers from the land of promise to the land of perdition, from life to death. He is well described as being six cubits and a palm high, because he who boasts to be similar to the Most High, promises to preach perfect works and a blessed end through his philosophers. For God made the world in six days and rested on the seventh; and he established for mortals through the law six days of work, the seventh of rest. Indeed, Ezekiel saw in the hand of the man measuring the new city, a reed of six cubits and a palm; because the Lord measures the perfection of work in His chosen ones, as if in six cubits; and He contemplates the hope of eternal rest, which will be completed in the future, as if the part of the seventh. Therefore, what the Lord truly exhibits, the devil falsely promises. The height of Goliath, comparable to the Lord's measure, is asserted to fall. His city also, Gath, which is interpreted as "press," aptly shows the multitude of the wicked, namely the devil’s city, always practiced in the torments of the good in the world. It is also worth informing those unaware that he is a bastard, who is generated by an ignoble father but a noble mother; just as conversely, one generated by a noble father, but an ignoble mother, is customarily known.
[1 Samuel 17:5] -- And a bronze helmet on his head, etc. If you inquire what a chain mail is, read in Virgil, a coat linked with hooks, and triple with gold.
[1 Samuel 17:6] -- And he had bronze greaves on his legs, etc. Helmet, mail, shield, and greaves, are different types of arguments or reasoning methods, by which the devil rebelling against the Lord, or defending the foolishness of his own head, namely, all the wicked, or his miserable body, attempts to defend. For he covers the head of sin, when, even condemned, he does not fear to say and be believed to be God. He also covers the body when the heart of the wicked inclines to the evil word, to excuse excuses in sins. He covers, when he hedges all sides of the human mind against the darts of the truth. All these types of defenses are declared to be made of bronze, a metal more resonant than others; because whether by wicked deeds, or perverse doctrine, he is accustomed to defending not by the recognized reason of invincible truth, but by the fabulous sweetness of secular eloquence. And it is well said that the weight of his mail is five thousand shekels of bronze; because through the sweetness of deceptive speech, he does not protect all the senses of his soldiers from the enemy's incursion as he promises; but on the contrary, he closes all their senses, the five most notable, from receiving the word of truth, by which they would be saved. But he arms his right hand with a spear, when he even attempts to disturb or attack the faith of the Church through some men of sharper intellect. For with helmet, mail, or shield, and other such things, we protect ourselves from wounds: but with a spear or sword we are accustomed to strike the adversary. Hence, it is not inappropriate that those weapons which are defenses for the fighters, when carried by the Philistine, signify those persons or speeches by which the wicked cover their crimes; but those by which the adversary is accustomed to be wounded, signify those speeches or men, by which even the virtue of the good is wounded and disturbed. Concerning which it is rightly added:
[1 Samuel 17:7] -- However, the shaft of his spear, etc. For indeed the work of those whom the devil brings forth against the Church for battle seems most fitting to the eyes of the foolish, as if to weave a garment of righteousness and holiness. But the sharpness of their speech knows how neither to look beyond nor to speak beyond the boundaries of this world, which persists through six ages. Although they are of such great ingenuity as to be able to judge the age, they do not know how to find its Creator. But truly, their webs are not in the garment that might warm the soul; for as Isaiah said, they have woven spider webs (Isaiah 59). And as in the one hundred and forty-third psalm, which is specifically written against Goliath, the victor of the same Goliath, the Psalmist testifies: "Whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity" (Psalm 143).
[1 Samuel 17:7] -- And his armor-bearer went before him. The armor-bearer precedes Goliath as he goes out against Israel, just as the weapons of iniquity and the examples of the wicked precede and assist the devil as he tries to deceive the faithful.
[1 Samuel 17:10] -- And he stood and cried out against the ranks of Israel, etc. Pride is the enemy of old, so that until the incarnation and passion of the Lord Savior, he assumed he could not be overcome by any mortal. For it is not without reason that it was said to blessed Job: "There is no power upon the earth that can be compared to him, who was made to fear no one" (Job 41); and even up to the end of this present age, he troubles the Church through the Jews, gentiles, and heretics, as if with a wicked armor-bearer preceding him, standing against the ranks of Israel and crying out. Nor is it surprising if all the Israelites, fearing this one, flee. For how, without the Lord's presence, can flesh fight against an archangel? But for the flesh to prevail against a spirit lacking flesh, first God must triumph against the same in the guise of the flesh. Concerning which it is typically added:
[1 Samuel 17:12] -- David, however, was the son of an Ephrathite man. David indeed, as always, is the Lord Christ, who is the son of an Ephrathite man, that is, a fruitful one; because from that ancient people of the Hebrews, who by believing bore many fruits of righteousness, he deigned to take flesh. Although he is also always born and nurtured in the fruitful heart of his faithful ones through love. Not only the mystical names of the place, of which the interpretation is well-known, but also the place itself, Ephrathah or Bethlehem, bore witness to Christ being born there. And fittingly that elderly man, that is, a people mature in the knowledge of the law, is remembered to have had eight sons, because after the proclamation of the Sabbath and the Old Testament, he also foretold the grace of the Gospel and the faith of the resurrection, which was to come through Christ.
[1 Samuel 17:13] -- But his three eldest sons went off, etc. The teachers of that people, whose three orders we have previously explained, always waged spiritual war, either girded against the allurements of their own flesh and mind, or concerned with instructing others.
[1 Samuel 17:14] -- David, however, was the youngest. The Lord is to be understood as the youngest among his brothers for a twofold reason: in which he filled the number eight, that is, those to whom he entrusted the sacraments of the Gospel when they were perfected in the law, both in time and in humility. For when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law (Galatians IV). And: The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew XX). For even that grain of the evangelical mustard seed, which he himself sowed in his field, namely in the hearts of believers, is indeed the smallest of all seeds, in the humility of the doctrine of discipline, but foremost in the fervor of spiritual grace.
[1 Samuel 17:15] -- Therefore, with three major ones following Saul, David went, etc. Because we all stumble in many ways, the only one conceived in sanctification, (James V), Anamartitos, that is, without sin, could live in the flesh, is rightly understood as God; because even teachers, certain lawgivers in Judea, prophets, and psalmists, as some interpret, priests, scribes, and Pharisees, sweating in the spiritual struggle against the law of sin opposing the law of their mind, only our Creator and Redeemer remained free from the conflict of all assaulting faults, who exceedingly also, with the generous mercy of eternal divinity, although humble in mortal flesh, refreshed the faithful flock of His Father; for He indeed agreed with mortals in the truth of nature, but differed from them in the power of sinning, imbuing men with spiritual gifts, but committing no vices among them. Rightly, David the Psalmist is brought forth to heal Saul, but in fighting the Philistines, he returns as if free from the enemy. Furthermore, like a good shepherd, with others placed in the readiness of war, he himself, free from war, invites his most gentle lambs to the pastures of Bethlehem.
[1 Samuel 17:16] -- However, the Philistine came forward morning and evening, etc. The number of forty days, during which the Philistine came forward and stood against Israel, represents all the time of the Church, during which it struggles in this life and, with the aid of the grace of the Gospel, tries to fulfill the Decalogue of the law amid the snares of the ancient enemy. Every day, he comes forward to tempt, morning and evening; for he tries to corrupt either the beginnings or the end of all our works of light. He terrifies the weak morning and evening, whom he struggles to overpower either by adversities or by prosperities; the same time of the struggling Church is specifically expressed in its head, when He was in the desert for forty days and was tempted by Satan. But the cunning tempter, who long rejoiced in having conquered the first Adam, perpetually grieves in being defeated by the second.
[1 Samuel 17:17] -- Jesse said to David, his son, etc. All the faithful Hebrew people said to the Lord Savior, about to be born of their seed, desiring His advent with eager longing: Take, I beg you, to refresh and help in the spiritual battle your people Israel, who are your brothers; for you have also deigned to become man and to be born of them according to the flesh; take, I say, appearing in the midst of their camps worn out by the daily battle, the form of perfect humility; and deign to freely undergo the observance of the law, to which you owe nothing. For pounded grain signifies the contrite spirit, and the heart broken and humbled. The measure of the ephah, which holds three seahs, signifies the spirit, soul, and body of the Lord Savior Himself, or of each one of the elect, perfectly united and combined with a worthy rite of humility. Indeed, this grain of humility appeared to us in the Lord in His own power, as much as He willed, to instruct us. But in all of us, it can be completed by the lower and upper millstone, that is, fear and hope. The ten loaves brought by David also openly demonstrate the nourishment of completing the Decalogue, which we have not from ourselves but as a gift of the giver. After He Himself was made under the law, He also made the burdens of the law bearable for us; just as by His undue humility, He taught us to be humble by the grace of so many debts, which we could in no way repay. But, He says, from the milk-like tenderness of the same Decalogue, so to speak, and as if still suited to infants, to the strength of spiritual understanding, by which He can refresh and strengthen also the great and distinguished leaders of the heavenly army, convert. Then indeed, our mighty and desirable One, after giving loaves to His brothers, and pounded grain, also brought little cakes of cheese to the tribune, when, after showing to the magistrates of the Jews the example of patience and humility, after not abolishing but fulfilling the mandates of the law and the prophets, He also opened the minds of His disciples, whom He was more intimately instructing as leaders of the Church, so that they might understand the Scriptures.
[1 Samuel 17:17] -- And you will visit your brothers, etc. And the Lord Himself in the flesh carefully attended to His own, if they acted rightly. And wherever and with whomever He found them, He made sure to visit and call them, and now also through His own members He ceaselessly does the same, distinguishing the good from the bad, giving His gifts to these, dismissing those empty-handed. This Isaiah commanded to do just as he commanded David, just as all faithful ones in Israel either in their own words or in prophetic speech entreated the Lord to come quickly and redeem the world, saying: Lord God of Hosts, turn now, look down from heaven, and see, and visit this vineyard, and direct it (Psalm 80), and other such things.
[1 Samuel 17:20] -- So David rose early, etc. The shadow of the law receded, truth arose from the earth; that is, the Lord in the flesh, who would minister the light of the Gospel to the world, appeared; whereby He did not abandon the ninety-nine elect sheep divinely in heaven, even when, made man, He sought the one erring sheep in the world. But He came full of grace and truth, and from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace (John 1); the kind whom all the pious expected to come, believed in, preached, and loved.
[1 Samuel 17:20] -- And He came to the place of Magala, etc. The Lord appearing in the flesh found both the saints struggling for faith and the unclean spirits plotting to destroy the fortresses of faith. Such was the state of the world when the Lord was born, such it persists until the end of this age.
[1 Samuel 17:22] -- Therefore David left the vessels he had brought, etc. The Lord, leaving with the memory of His faithful ones the heavenly signs or the tokens of His earthly birth which He brought to the world as soon as He was born, so that these among their good treasures of virtues may be diligently kept; He Himself, ready to battle the prince of the world, does not delay to hasten, but also concerned for the salvation of His own, through performing and teaching works of righteousness, inquires openly, as it were, about His brothers, whether their works are right or if they still seem in need of correction.
[1 Samuel 17:23] -- And while he was still speaking to them, the man appeared... named Goliath, etc. As the Lord Savior was speaking to men and diligently examining their deeds and sayings of justice, as if their works seemed rightly performed to him, the ancient enemy appeared, arising from the hearts of the impious, and through their actions and wicked tongues, he hurled his dreadful poisons of malicious pride against the elect, which he also does today; neither was any deceit hidden from that malicious one, nor was any virtue feared. Hence it is openly added:
[1 Samuel 17:24] -- And all the Israelites, when they saw the man, fled, etc. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3). Only Christ could say: The prince of this world is coming, and he has no claim on me (John 14). And therefore David alone despises, and considers as nothing, the pride of the Philistine, whom all the others shunned and fled in fear.
[1 Samuel 17:25] -- And one of the Israelites said: Have you seen? etc. One of the Israelites, asking whether he saw David or the Philistine; those who were awaiting the redemption of Israel, already illuminated by the miracles at the Lord's birth, with a careful mind inquired whether the same Lord was free from the snares of that ancient enemy who habitually reproaches all the faithful, whether he was in debt to death in any way, or to him who had the power of death; nor was it easy for all to recognize immediately that the Son of God, conceived from sanctification, born without sin, and destined to live in the world.
[1 Samuel 17:25] -- Therefore, the man who strikes him, the king will enrich, etc. They say, the man who will overthrow the kingdom of the devil, the entire people of Israel acknowledges, distinguished above all nations by royal and priestly mystery, as the possessor of all the riches that are in the heavens and on the earth, that is, as the Lord of the whole world. But also, the early Church, undoubtedly generated from his own flesh, rejoices to be united to this man, outstanding above others, by the bond of a chaste and faithful spouse, and also testifies with unfaltering faith that all his elect will be freed from the bondage of sin and elevated by the freedom of the Holy Spirit. Whether you choose to understand it as the Father of Christ the Lord or as the people of the saints, from whom Christ is according to the flesh, the explanation will hold the same end valid; for there is also one house of all the faithful, living by one and the same faith, hope, and charity, and this same house is of Him to whom it is sung: And let all those who hope in You rejoice, they will exult forever, and You will dwell in them (Psalm V). Such was the faith of the ancients concerning the coming Christ in the flesh, and such is our faith concerning Him whom we rejoice has already come.
[1 Samuel 17:27] -- The people, however, reported to him the same word, etc. With the Lord clearly teaching, and proclaiming the ejection and downfall of the prince of the world, all the people indeed, as the evangelist recalls, were amazed, hearing him: but the envious lawyers and chief priests, inquiring how they might quench his saving deeds, or even destroy him, marking him with the note of pride and fury, because he revealed himself as the author of sobriety and humility.
[1 Samuel 17:28] -- Why, he says, have you come? etc. Let the Jews be angry with Christ, and let them reproach Him with blasphemies about the compassion of His coming and incarnation; let us return due thanks to Him, who, seeking us on earth, deigned to leave those most blessed cohorts of angels in heaven; which, although they are innumerable in the many choirs of spiritual hosts, are nonetheless not unreasonably called a few sheep, until the hundredth sheep that had strayed is brought back, and with us added, they rejoice in the perfection of their number. Let us rejoice that, having inclined His heavens, in which peace and justice reign, He came down of His own will to see our battle. For He descended to confront the enormous enemy, to conquer him in battle; that He might crown in His kingdom His own who had rejoiced with Him in victory.
[1 Samuel 17:31] -- The words that David spoke have been heard, etc. The words spoken by Christ about the glory of the coming kingdom were trusted and spread by fame even to the leaders of the Judean empire. And when many of these also came in part to hear the word, He spoke to them; lest they be troubled by the soon-to-be-weakened power of the old deceiver, lest they be disturbed by his soon-to-be-nullified fraud, lest they lose hope in the redemption of the human race, which was already about to come. I, He says, who for this very reason assumed the form of a servant, progressing to greater works of virtue, will conquer the ancient enemy of the world, the devil.
[1 Samuel 17:33] -- And Saul said to David: You are not able to resist this Philistine, etc. This is the trembling of the weak, or even the resistance of the proud. Can this one engage in battle against the strength of the devil, which belongs solely to the Divinity; since he is clothed in human, indeed humble flesh; and yet his adversary, powerful by his spiritual nature, has learned to wield arms against the Creator and also against our kind, ever since he was created in rebellion? For he was a murderer from the beginning, and did not stand in the truth (John VIII). A murderer, of course, first of himself by his pride, and then of man by his seduction; in which double murder he long fell away from the truth he had once deserted, indeed, and he does not cease sinning until the end of the world, continually falling by accumulating sins.
[1 Samuel 17:34] -- And David said to Saul: Your servant was tending, etc. The Lord strengthens the weak in faith, calls unbelievers to faith, urging modestly that amidst the frailties of His humanity, by which He took on our pains, even the exalted aspects of His Divinity, by which He is capable of healing those pains, may be recognized. He Himself, he says, now deformed in the habit of a servant, for the sake of your salvation, was feeding from eternity with heavenly aliments the hearts of all the faithful, namely the flock of My Father. And one of the unclean spirits would come, either exceedingly powerful by strength or cunning with deceit. For both the lion and the bear, although each excels both by strength, yet the bear has more deceit and the lion more strength; and thus one expresses the deceit, the other the violence, each the wickedness of the demons figuratively. They came, he says, and by deceiving they would take away some of the strong leaders of the Church, drawing him into sin from the midst of brotherly society. But I, either through angels or men by openly testifying, or by myself inwardly pricking, such men, having defeated the evil spirits, would call them back to the path of salvation; but these spirits, gravely annoyed, turning their fury to tear at the souls of the faithful that were snatched from their darkness, to blaspheme the worship of My name, promptly turned their rage of madness; whose blasphemy I, by bringing to light and revealing through my prophets, would utterly reduce the whole ritual of idolatry to nothing; catching the wise in their craftiness, I was closing the mouths of the damnable profession, saying: For all the gods of the nations are demons: but the Lord made the heavens (Psalm 95). And: The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they shall not speak, and so forth (Psalm 113). But also by another prophet: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth, and from those things that are under heaven (Wisdom 15); for both all the power and wisdom of the profane, which are wont to be shown through them or through men deceived by them, I was powerfully nullifying myself, who always remaining in the divinity of God, appearing temporarily in humanity to serve the salvation of men. Therefore, this inventor and source of all evil will be as one of his henchmen, that is, he will be caught in his own snares; who dared once to provoke angels in heaven, and afterward men on earth, to curse the Creator; but also unjustly always exacerbate with darts of cursing those who persist in the faith of their Creator, as though they do not serve the true God, the worshipers and devotees of Him, of whom it is said: For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself (John 5). Which he will never cease to say through Gentiles, Jews, and heretics.
[1 Samuel 17:37] -- Saul said to David: "And may the Lord be with you." The people of the Jews finally agreed to the undertakings of the Lord in those who could come to faith, and having truly recognized his two natures in one person, they desired that, encountering the proud darts of the devil with the humility of man, with the assisting Divinity, he would obtain the palm of victory.
[1 Samuel 17:38] -- And Saul clothed David with his garments, etc. The people of the Jews applied to the incarnate Lord the figures of legal observations, by circumcising him on the eighth day, then carrying him to the temple on the thirty-third day, offering a sacrifice for him, teaching carnal sabbaths, and annually providing examples of the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb, and other such things, which in their time were most beneficial, and the spiritual teachers in the law of the Jewish people armed them very usefully against all the fiery darts of the wicked one, almost as the head and body of Saul.
[1 Samuel 17:39] -- David then girded himself with Saul's sword, etc. The sword of Saul is the law, which was given through Moses: the garment of David, the work of grace and truth, which was made through Jesus Christ. Therefore, David, girded with the sword of Saul over his own garment, began to test whether he could proceed if armed. For he said he was not accustomed. Observing for a time the carnal commandment of the law, while the spiritual gift of grace was not yet manifested to the peoples, the Savior began to gradually show that his body, which is the Church, burdened with the ceremonies of the law, could not suffice for the spiritual combat, especially among those who, called from the Gentiles to the faith, had no custom at all of enduring the more severe decrees of the law. Finally, the apostle Peter, contesting and criticizing those who wanted to burden the members of David advancing towards the struggle against the giant with Saul's arms, said: "Now therefore why do you tempt God, by imposing a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus we shall be saved, just as they will."
[1 Samuel 17:40] -- And he placed them and took his staff, etc. The Lord arranged the sacraments of the law, which He deemed good to adopt for a short time to prove their goodness in its time, and He exercised His power of judgment, which He always used to rule everything, even freely concerning the arrangement of the law. He set aside Saul's armor when He said: For the Son of Man is the Lord even of the Sabbath (Matt. XII). He took his staff, always held in his hands when he was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes and Pharisees. He put on Saul's armor, coming to the singular battle, when, as His passion's struggle approached, He said to His disciples: With desire I have desired, etc. (Luke XXII). He set them aside when he added: For I say unto you, I will not eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God, etc. (Ibid.). In the same manner, He foretold that the Paschal cup, legally observed, should no longer be observed carnally. He took his staff, which he always had in his hands, when, with the mystery of His cross beneficial for the salvation of the world (for the figure of the staff can not improperly be applied to Him, who always had time and manner in His power), He taught His disciples: Taking bread, He gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them, saying: This is my body, etc.
[1 Samuel 17:40] -- And he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, etc. Having shown the rejection of the preceding commandment, because of its weakness and unprofitableness, the Lord rather taught Himself to choose the very law, which is written in five books, to be observed spiritually, extracting it from the turbid minds of those who, having a veil over their hearts, could not look attentively at the face of Moses, and lifting it into the free air of evangelical light. Therefore, He also was careful to commit the spiritual law's sublime intellect to the hearts of the spiritual pastors, whom He had with Him as companions. To this, He added the aid of the allegorical, moral, and anagogical senses, as if woven into a threefold cord. Thus armed with such fitting weapons, He set forth to conquer the prince of this world as a victor.
[1 Samuel 17:42] -- And when the Philistine had looked and saw David, etc. And when the devil had very shrewdly looked and saw the Son of God in the world doing and teaching things contrary to him, as if proceeding against him, since he found him humble, he, knowing nothing but pride, despised him. For he was full of new virtue and grace, reddened with the blood of passions, and beautiful in the action of great deeds.
[1 Samuel 17:43] -- And the Philistine said to David: Am I a dog? etc. Whether you understand the power of the Savior or the wood of the cross, it refers to the same meaning. For the most arrogant enemy denies that he is like a dog, that is, despicable in work and weakness. Moreover, he denies that the patience of the Savior and the power to overcome him would be comparable to all those who pass through the life of this world, pursuing with dire, insane, furious, and barking, and tearing with bites. Let us see what he thinks about the adversary that has come forth. For he says to the Father: Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog (Psalm 22). But elsewhere he has also marked the members of the same adversary to be compared to dogs, when he says: It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs (Matthew 15). However, by ministering the children's bread to them, he converted many of the most shameless or rabid dogs into the most chaste and meek sheep.
[1 Samuel 17:43] -- And the Philistine cursed David by his gods, etc. The devil curses the living and true God when he does not fear to present as gods to mortals the spirits deceived by him and for this reason damned and to be damned to eternal fire. Furthermore, arguing against the spiritual men of the Church as if they belong to a carnal life, he boasts that they can be subdued by his own teachers, who are partly heavenly beings of angelic nature and partly mortals of earthly flesh, claiming that the members should be transferred. He also curses the body of the true David through heretics by his gods, teaching to prefer fabricated thoughts from his heart and forged in the worst fire over evangelical truth, which, teaching carnally, presume that they can overcome the statements or actions of the spiritual ones. Such things more fit the proud philosophers of the gentiles or certain barbarians (for to these, birds of the sky and beasts of the earth can be very fittingly compared) than the education and humility of the Church.
[1 Samuel 17:45] -- But David said to the Philistine: You come to me with a sword, etc. The Lord aptly showed both to all whom he helped and to the powers he subdued, that the devil of the air is armed solely with the weapons of pride and deceit, by which he either defends and protects his own little things or breaks the true thoughts. He showed that he himself is the one whom the Psalmist foretold: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord (Psalm 117). Finally, reproaching some unbelievers, he said: I have come in my Father's name and you did not receive me (John 5).
[1 Samuel 17:46] -- And the Lord will deliver you into my hands, etc. And by the power of my divinity, he says, you will be overcome, you who, beholding the vileness of my flesh, are proud and exalt yourself, and I will remove you, who are the head of all evils, from the unjustly attached mortal members; and I will give your falling members and those of your followers, that is, men separated from you and humbled by my power or grace, who, deceived by your godless cults, had stuck with you: I will, I say, give them to be instructed by my own, and joined to my own ministers, who are partly heavenly beings of angelic nature and partly mortal in earthly flesh, so that with the Gospel preached throughout the entire world, every man may know that there is one true God who is now known in Judea, and in Israel his name is great (Psalm 75). Then by the universal praise of the catholic, that is, universal, from the ends of the earth those who cry out to God will say: Lord our God, how admirable is your name in all the earth (Psalm 8)! Nor should anyone find it absurd that we have said the depths of the flesh, the birds of the air, and the beasts of the earth signify the teachers who eagerly capture and draw in through faith the souls that were formerly carnal. For even the Lord himself is most openly called the lion from the tribe of Judah, and the Church is typically called a lioness: not only on account of its strength, but also to signify the diligent pursuit of holy rapaciousness. For the patriarch Jacob says of the Lord, "Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up" (Gen. 49). And the Lord himself says of the Church to Job: "Will you take the prey for the lioness, and fill the soul of her young ones?" (Job 39). But the Savior is also symbolized by the four living creatures. Just as he wanted to indicate the humility of incarnation and offering through the man and the ox, so through the lion and the eagle he wanted to indicate the power and sublimity of his resurrection and ascension into heaven. He also speaks to blessed Job about the Church, saying: "Does the eagle mount up at your command and make its nest on high?" (Job 39). So that you would not think it typifies only the height of nesting or flying, or even the sharp vision of gazing at the sun, but also the unity of devouring, he added at the end: "And where the carcass is, there immediately it is present." Wherever he sees someone having fallen from a fitting state of life, he promptly takes care to restore such a one, as if raised from death, to catholic life through the biting corrections of his words. We thought it should be given as an example concerning two of them, so that through these whoever reads may also know what he may think without the scruple of faith about the other birds and beasts.
[1 Samuel 17:49] -- And he put his hand into his bag, etc. We said above that the pastoral bag represents the hearts of the shepherds, who cling intimately to the side of Christ. Why then should not more rightly the conscience or soul of the highest and singularly good shepherd be called the pastoral bag? It contains five most clear stones, strong enough to overthrow the enemy: for it holds the purest knowledge of divine law, by which all error is conquered: whose fullness is expressed in one stone, and its breadth is spread in five books, which Christ alone could perfectly know and fulfill. Putting his hand into this bag, he took one of the five stones he had placed there, arming himself with one of the five books of Moses, of which he was the author and fulfiller, that is Deuteronomy, he used it as testimony to repel the ancient enemy's temptations. Moreover, he taught us, instructed by the Holy Scriptures, to overcome the snares of the same enemy through the unity of faith and charity. And he skillfully threw with the sling; for by the spiritual sense of the Scriptures, which we showed above as triple, he broke the pride of the enemy and gave us spiritual understanding as weapons against him. And he skillfully struck the Philistine on the forehead, because the very audacity of his presumption felled the devil: from the very show of his profession, he proved the worshippers of perverse doctrines to be foolish. For just as the hand indicates the strength of operations, so the forehead indicates the recognition of profession. Therefore, whoever fears being struck on the forehead, let him arm his forehead with the sign of the life-giving cross, saying with the Apostle: But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians VI). Finally, David himself, because he knew how to say: The light of your countenance is signed upon us, O Lord (Psalm IV), indeed struck down the forehead of the loquacious boasting Philistine, not sealed with the light of heavenly grace, although covered with the helmet of boasting. And rightly the stone is said to be fixed in his forehead, because the devil will never completely shake off the sentence of the divine word, which he receives either in himself or in his followers from Christ the Saviour or His members, but cursed he will suffer eternal damnation in hell without end. Similar to what Isaiah testifies to his irrevocable damnation, saying: And the passage of the rod is founded, which the Lord God will rest upon him (Isaiah XXX), that is, he will never be saved from torments in eternity, nor will he roam between punishments over varying times, nor will he find rest after the manner of our blows, who frequently raise the rod or lash from the back of the one being flogged, so that we can strike again, but without any interval of rest, he will groan subjected to perpetual retribution. This is against those who, because of Isaiah’s testimony, where it is written about the impious, say: And they will be imprisoned together in the dungeon, and after many days they will be visited (Isaiah XXIV); promise the devil and his angels and all the reprobate remission of such great crimes and eternal life with the Lord after long and innumerable ages, against the judgment of the Lord himself, who foretold that he will say in the last judgment: Depart from me, you cursed, into eternal fire (Matthew XXV). But the giant, struck by the stone, fell to the ground; because the diabolic error, struck by the word of God, no longer lofty as it once boasted, was revealed to be not heavenly but earthly and even lowest.
[1 Samuel 17:50] -- And when David had no sword in his hand, etc. When he had no one and the Lord of his word's minister, through whom he might shatter the pride of the devil by teaching, except whom he himself had first snatched victoriously from the devil; for all are by nature children of wrath, all conceived in iniquities, and in sins are generated by the mother (Ephesians V; Psalm L); he came unexpectedly, and the adversary long strong, as a stronger surpassing him, took away all his weapons, in which he trusted, so that through those whom the enemy previously as his weapons used to kill the souls of the wretched, through them afterward the Savior, transformed into weapons of righteousness, may cut off the head of iniquity from its body, that is, compel those converted to faith to anathematize Satan, and renounce all his works and pomps. And rightly is it recounted that David first took the sword with which he slew the Philistine by his hand, and drew it out of its sheath; because every great and strenuous one of the devil's empire, whom the Lord first receiving by his visitation of piety, draws out from the obscure hiding places of errors into the light of liberating grace; and so through him also allows others to be similarly corrected and reproved. But we too, when disputing against the madness of heretics, we convict them as fabricators of lies and cultivators of perverse doctrines, either by the arguments or by the testimonies of Scripture which they themselves had proposed to bring us back; indeed, with the giant's own sword we strike down his insolence.
[1 Samuel 17:51] -- Seeing that their strongest man had died, etc. Seeing that the unclean spirits were defeated and prostrated by the incarnation and passion of the Lord, they fled from the hearts of the believers. And all the strong ones in the Church, gathered from both the circumcised and the uncircumcised, arose and lifted up a voice terrifying to the wicked of divine preaching and praise, and pursued them until they recognized that they were to be humbled by Christ, and as it were submerged in the valley of dejection, who had previously boasted of setting up their camp on the mountain of pride against Him; and the fugitives might withdraw to the hearts, which they had previously inhabited evilly, plundering completely every fruit of piety and faith. For the gates of Accaron, that is, of barrenness, the fleeing Philistines reached, when the malignant spirits, repelled from the minds of the faithful, once again referred to their teachers. They entered the walls of the city of vanity and falsehood itself, when they also compelled the ignorant crowd to increase their unfruitful work worthy of fire. But they also reached Geth, that is, the press, when they drew out the hearts of the deceived to torment the good ones with unjust persecution. All these can also be understood in the same order even about perverse humans.
[1 Samuel 17:53] -- And the children of Israel returned, etc. It is of proper order that the teachers of truth first expel from the hearts of their hearers every unclean spirit by exhaling and catechizing, and thus, those who had been the camps of demons, but now made the spiritual possession of Israel, incorporate them into the company of the strong by imbibing them with the salutary sacraments of the saints.
[1 Samuel 17:54] -- But David, taking the head of the Philistine, etc. I think it should be understood, according to the letter, that David took care to bring the head of such a strong adversary, which had been cut off, to the rebellious city of Jerusalem, still inhabited by the Jebusites, for no other reason than to terrify those who, trusting in the impregnable firmness or height of the walls, presumed that they could not be overcome by anyone. As a result, in its capture, which was achieved through David himself, we read that they rose to such a level of arrogance that they said: Even if only the blind and the lame, who might possibly be found in the city, were set in the strongholds, they would be sufficient both in number and strength to preserve it. Therefore, the triumphant boy hung the head of the defeated giant against the adversary city so that the citizens, however fierce, would not doubt that they could also be conquered by the same. But according to the rules of allegory, it should be said that the Lord hastened to show the victory over the ancient enemy, received by the apostles preaching and performing miracles, to the still faithless nations, so that He might convert them to the completion of the sacraments and dogmas of life and truth by this sign of victory, whose arms He also placed in His tabernacle; because He united the men snatched from the devil to the holy Church, and exposed his snares (for these too can be understood in the arms). There is no doubt to anyone that the tabernacle of David indicates the house of Christ, which is the Church of the faithful.