Chapter XI.
On the benefits pertaining principally to the punishment of adversaries.
She directed their works. Here he treats of the benefits pertaining to the punishment of adversaries, and first of those pertaining to punishment through lighter penalties, ordained for their correction, namely in this chapter and in the twelfth chapter; second, of those pertaining to punishment through heavier penalties, ordained for condemnation, namely in the thirteenth chapter and thereafter.
First, the punishment through lighter penalties is treated in two ways. In the first part, he treats principally of the punishment of the Egyptians who were unjustly oppressing the Israelites; second, of the punishment of the Canaanites who were unjustly holding their land, namely in the twelfth chapter.
First, concerning the punishment of the Egyptians for a twofold sin, first for unjust oppression.
In the first part, the punishment of the Egyptians is treated first on account of the unjust oppression of the children of Israel; second, on account of idolatry: For some who were erring.
In the first part, there is first shown toward the children of Israel, whom they wished to hold captive, the mercy of God; second, against the Egyptians wishing to unjustly hold them, the justice of God: For by what things.
In the first part, there is first touched upon the direction of the Israelites on the way; second, the clearing away or removal of impediments occurring on the way: They stood; third, their refreshment on the way: They thirsted.
(Vers. 1.). He says therefore: She directed, as if to say: not only did wisdom bestow the aforementioned benefits upon the Israelite people, but she also directed their works: The Gloss: "of the Israelites," namely after their departure from Egypt: in the hands, that is, in the power and governance, of a holy Prophet: The Gloss: "Moses," who was a prophet as regards doctrine: Deuteronomy 18: "The Lord will raise up for you a Prophet like me": holy as regards life: Exodus 33: "You have found grace before me." He taught and governed them not only by words, because he was a prophet, but also by examples, because he was holy, so that there could be said of him that word of Luke 24: "He was a prophet mighty in work and in word."
(Vers. 2.). They made a journey: Gloss: "Hastening to the promised land": through deserts, that is, through many places abandoned, namely by cultivators: which were not inhabited, namely by human inhabitants. And this was done with wisdom directing them through the hand of Moses, according to that passage of the Psalm: "You led your people like sheep by the hand of Moses and Aaron." Which many did not acknowledge; whence Jeremiah 2: "They did not say: Where is the Lord, who brought us through the desert, through an uninhabitable and pathless land?" And in desert places they made huts: Gloss: "Tabernacles," that is, poor little dwellings, and they are called huts from "falling," because they can easily fall down: similarly it is read of Abraham that he dwelt "in tents," Hebrews 11. And they did this through forty-two encampments, which are specified in Numbers 33.
(Vers. 3.). They stood against enemies, namely against the Amalekites, fighting with them, as is found in Exodus 17, and against the Midianites, Numbers 31. And against their foes, namely the Amalekites, they avenged themselves, namely by triumphing and slaying them, and this through the prayer of Moses and the raising of his hands, as is clear from Exodus 17.
(Vers. 4.). They thirsted, namely on the part of the body because of a scarcity of water, as is clear from Exodus 17 and Numbers 20, and they called upon you, namely on the part of the soul, and this by themselves or through Moses: whence Numbers 20: "Lord God, hear the cry of this people"; in the Psalm: "They cried out to the Lord when they were in distress." And water was given to them from a most high rock, that is, from a lofty crag: Exodus 17: "You shall strike the rock," etc.; likewise Numbers 20: "Speak to the rock, and it will give you waters." And the quenching of thirst, that is, the allaying of thirst through the drinking of water, from the hard stone, supply: was given to them: in the Psalm: "He struck the rock, and waters flowed"; likewise Numbers 20: "Most abundant waters came forth, so that the people and the beasts drank." Moreover, it is called a most high rock, that is, very high, or most high by reason of what it signifies, namely because it signified Christ; whence 1 Corinthians 10: "And the rock was Christ." From this rock come forth the spiritual waters of graces: John 4: "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him," etc.; likewise John 7: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink."
For by the very things. Here is shown the effect of divine justice against the Egyptians, who wished to detain the Israelites. And first is touched upon, through the failure of water, the punishment of the Egyptians: second, the fittingness of the punishment: For instead of a fountain: third, the intention of the one punishing: When they were diminished: fourth, the gravity of the punishment: These indeed: fifth, the effect upon those punished: For when they heard.
(Vers. 5.). By which things etc.: Gloss: "Having recalled the benefits given to the earlier people, the punishment of the enemies is narrated." For by which things etc., as if to say: To the Israelites was given an abundance of waters: for, meaning "because": by which things their enemies suffered punishments, namely the Egyptians, from the lack of their drink, namely all the water of Egypt was turned into blood, so that they could not drink from it, as is clear from Exodus 7. And in these things, when they abounded, the children of Israel, namely in the waters which abounded in the land of Goshen, or according to the Gloss: "Which had flowed from the rock," Numbers 20: rejoiced.
(Vers. 6. 7.). By these things, namely by the waters, when they were lacking to them, namely the waters, Gloss: "To the Israelites," it was dealt well with them, because that lack was supplied through a miracle.
For instead of a fountain etc., as if to say: fittingly and appropriately a lack of water was given to the Egyptians, but an abundance of waters was conferred upon the Israelites: for instead of a fountain indeed, certainly, of an everlasting river, that is, the Nile flowing continuously from the beginning of the world — for it is one of the rivers of paradise: human blood, that is, the appearance of human blood, you gave to the unjust, that is, to the Egyptians, since, according to the Gloss, "their waters were turned into blood," as is clear from Exodus 7.
(Vers. 8.). Who, namely the children of Israel, when they were being diminished by the exposure of the slain infants, that is, by the public exposure and slaying of infants, which was done lest the people should multiply but rather be diminished, as is clear from Exodus 1: you gave them, namely the children of Israel, abundant water unexpectedly, "that is, unforeseen," because in the desert and flowing from a rock through a miracle in the desert. "A miracle is a difficult and unusual work existing beyond the hope and capacity of the one who marvels at it." Human blood etc., as if he wished to say, according to the Gloss: To the Egyptians instead of water you gave blood, to the Israelites instead of the shed blood of the children you gave water.
(Vers. 9.). Showing, O Lord, through the thirst which then was, namely in Egypt to the Egyptians and in the desert to the Israelites: how you would exalt your own, namely in the future, when "you will give them to drink from the torrent of your pleasure": in this, namely, that so wondrously you gave them drink in the present. And would slay their adversaries ; Gloss: "With eternal thirst," as the rich banqueter, of whom Luke 16 speaks: likewise Isaiah 65: "Behold, my servants shall drink, you shall thirst." Or according to the literal sense, by this was prefigured that the Egyptians were to be slain in the Red Sea and the Israelites to be delivered.
(Vers. 10.). For when they were tried, namely the children of Israel in the desert by many trials and plagues: the Gloss says: "God corrected the sinning Israelites with fitting plagues and consoled them when they repented." Whence it follows: And indeed, that is, certainly, they received discipline with mercy ; in the Psalm: "You were angry and you had mercy on us": with mercy, namely consoling, discipline, correcting: or: a merciful and light correction or scourging for their faults, and therefore they ought not to have cast it off: Proverbs 3: "My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord": Hebrews 12: "But if you are without discipline, you are illegitimate and not sons." They knew, namely through experience, how with wrath, that is, how harshly — which the Prophet feared, saying: "Lord, do not rebuke me in your fury, nor correct me in your wrath"; the impious, being judged, namely in the present, would suffer torments, namely incomparably graver ones in the future: "For he shall rain snares upon sinners," etc. They knew, I say, through experience and in this, that they were so harshly corrected: Luke 23: "If they do this in the green wood, what shall be done in the dry?" Likewise Proverbs 11: "If the just man receives his due on earth, how much more the impious and the sinner"?
Likewise Jeremiah 25: "Behold, in the city in which my name has been invoked, I shall begin to afflict: and shall you be as though innocent and exempt?" As if to say: no.
(Vers. 11.). These indeed: the Gloss says: "the Israelites"; as a father admonishing, namely unto greater progress or unto advancing to what is better, you tested, that is, by admonishing through their correction you rendered them proven. "For the Lord scourges every son whom he receives," Hebrews 12: and Proverbs 3: "Whom the Lord loves he corrects, and as a father in his son he delights"; likewise above in chapter 3: "As gold in the furnace he tested them." But those: the Gloss says: "the Egyptians, or the Canaanites"; as a harsh king, through the effect of punishment, namely, you who in your nature are benign: examining, namely with punishments and examinations of torments, just as robbers and thieves and malefactors are put to examination and tortured: Gregory says: "Punishment examines whether one loves the truth when at peace." You condemned, because through scourges they were not amended but made worse: Ezekiel 24: "Much labor was sweated, and its excessive rust did not come out of it, not even by fire"; likewise Jeremiah 6: "Call them rejected silver, because the Lord has cast them away."
(Vers. 12.). For those who were absent etc., as if to say: rightly I said that you harshly condemned them. For those who were absent, namely the Egyptians from the presence of Moses and Pharaoh, or from the children of Israel, and those who were present, namely those expressly consenting to the malice of Pharaoh: or also, according to the Gloss, the Canaanites, whether those who were slain by Israel or those who heard of the victory of the others: were similarly tormented, because the plagues were "in all the land of Egypt," as is clear concerning the plague of blood, Exodus 7. Or: those present were tormented in body, those absent, who heard of this, were tormented in mind.
But then it is asked: how then were they similarly tormented, namely those absent in mind, but those present in body?
It must be said that they were similarly tormented in genus, namely insofar as both these and those were tormented, but not similarly in species or mode.
(Vers. 13.). For a twofold [weariness] had seized them, namely as if taking possession of them, weariness, that is, affliction, according to that passage of the Psalm: "Let them be clothed with their confusion as with a double cloak"; Jeremiah 17: "Destroy them with a double destruction." Twofold, I say: and, in place of 'that is': groaning, over the onset of present evils: with the memory of past things, that is, with the grief they had from the recollection of past evils, seeing that plagues succeeded upon plagues. The Gloss: " Twofold weariness, that is, the recollection of past evils and the storm of present ones."