Chapter XII.
Second, concerning the punishment of the Canaanites and Amorites.
O how good etc. After he treated of the benefits shown to the children of Israel in the affliction or punishment of the Egyptians principally, here he treats of the benefits shown to the same in the affliction of the Canaanites and Amorites who principally inhabited the land of promise.
In the first part, first is shown the just punishment of those peoples; second, the mercy shown in the manner of punishing: But also to these: third, the instruction of the people of God in both: But you, O ruler: fourth, the condemnation of incorrigible adversaries through both: Whence also to those.
First, concerning the just punishment of these peoples in two ways.
In the first part, first the pious intention of the one punishing is touched upon; second, the equity of the punishment: For those.
Of the pious intention, he first shows the cause, second the sign: And therefore etc.; third the end: That having abandoned wickedness etc.
(Verse 1). O how good etc. It is an exclamation suggesting the insufficiency of the speaker to express the goodness of the Creator; for the sense is: O how etc., as if to say: I am unable to express how great, and this on account of the infinity of your goodness. Good, namely by communicating your good things: "for the good is diffusive of itself," according to Dionysius; Matthew 19: "None is good but God alone"; for God alone communicates what is his own, every creature communicates what belongs to another, because it has nothing of its own; whence 1 Corinthians 4: "What have you that you have not received"? And your spirit is sweet, O Lord, in all things, namely by sparing our evils: in the Psalm: "Taste and see that the Lord is sweet"; your spirit, I say, in us, namely, all things, the Gloss: "Because the love of God is the font of all good." In all things, especially in those in which the mercy of God appears more: in the Psalm: "The Lord is sweet to all."
(Verse 2). And therefore, because You are good and gentle, those who go astray, that is, who wander outside the way of truth in faith or in morals, as those of whom Isaiah fifty-three says: "All we like sheep have gone astray"; likewise Lamentations four: "The blind have wandered in the streets"; You correct in parts, that is, sending punishments by parts, not all at once, but successively, according to Exodus twenty-three: "I will not cast them out from before your face in one year," but "little by little I will drive them out"; Job thirty-five: "For now He does not bring His fury, nor does He avenge wickedness greatly," but moderately: You correct, I say, either by Yourself, or "through others, whom You fill with the Holy Spirit," according to the Gloss: John sixteen: "He will convict the world of sin." And concerning the things in which they sin, that is, concerning the sins by which they sin: You admonish them, namely by promising pardon, according to Matthew four: "Do penance," etc.; likewise Isaiah forty-five: "Turn to Me, and you shall be saved," etc.; the Gloss: "Blessed are those who hear the voice of the one admonishing"; Isaiah thirty: "Your ears shall hear the word of one admonishing from behind." And You address them, that is, by threatening punishment: Isaiah one: "If you hear Me, you shall eat the good things of the land; but if you will not hear, the sword shall devour you"; so that, having abandoned malice, namely of sin, or of unbelief, they may believe in You, Lord, namely with formed faith: in You, I say, not merely You, or to You only: Isaiah fifty-five: "Let the wicked forsake his way," etc. For the movement of penance is contrary to the movement of malice, because, just as the latter is from good to evil, so the former is from evil to good.
For those, etc. Here is touched upon the equity of punishment, and first from consideration of the fault itself; second, from consideration of the punishment: You willed to destroy.
(Verse 3). For those etc. I rightly said: You correct, etc., which is clear from the example. For those ancient inhabitants, namely the Canaanites and the Amorites and others of this kind, inhabitants of Your holy land, that is, the land promised to Your Saints, namely Abraham, Genesis fifteen; Isaac, twenty-six; Jacob, twenty-eight: whom You abhorred, so much so that You willed Your people neither be joined to them nor mixed with them, according to Deuteronomy seven: "You shall not enter into a covenant with them, nor shall you join in marriages, nor shall you show mercy to them."
(Verses 4-5). Because they were doing works hateful to You, namely enormous sins, below, chapter fourteen: "Alike hateful to God are the impious man and his impiety"; through sorceries, namely of poisoners, and unjust sacrifices, of idols, and this against God. There were, however, also just sacrifices, which were offered to God, as Noah offered, Genesis eight.
And slayers of their own children, and this against the neighbor, without mercy, that is, without compassion, because in the sacrifices of demons they immolated them with great devotion, according to that passage of the Psalm: "And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons." Against which, Deuteronomy 18: "Do not desire to imitate the abominations of those nations, nor let there be found among you one who purifies a son or daughter by leading them through fire." And eaters of the entrails of men, this is not read to have happened, but it must be believed to have been possible, just as during the siege of Samaria it is read to have occurred, 4 Kings 6; and Lamentations 4: "The hands of compassionate women cooked their own children"; and devourers of blood, human blood, against that passage of Genesis 9: "You shall not eat flesh with blood."
(Vers. 6.). And authors, that is, shedders of blood, parents, that is, although they were parents of the blood that was shed, which is more grievous: of the blood, I say, of souls, that is, of human beings; for he puts the part for the whole, and it is a synecdoche, as in Exodus 1, where it is said: "All the souls that entered with Jacob into Egypt"; helpless; The Gloss: "That is, of those who could not defend themselves, or whom they were unwilling to help," namely their own little infants, of whose blood they themselves were the begetters and shedders in sacrifice and eaters by eating of the sacrificed. Slayers, I say, of their own children, etc., you willed to destroy, that is, to expel, from the midst by your sacrament, that is, from the holy land of promise; and the land of promise is called holy or a sacrament on account of its signification of a sacred reality, that is, of the land of the living, and on account of the completion of the sacraments of our salvation in it, and on account of the institution of the Sacraments of the Church in it, such as the Eucharist and Baptism, and on account of the future dwelling of holy men in it, such as the Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles, and on account of the shedding and sprinkling of the blood of Christ in it, and on account of the dissolution of the sacred bodies and dust in it, namely of the ancient Fathers buried there; likewise on account of the building of a sacred place in it, namely the Temple, and on account of the birth and life of the Holy of Holies. Through the hands of our parents, namely those who entered the promised land with Joshua.
(Vers. 7.). That they might receive a worthy, namely our forefathers, sojourning, that is, a land of sojourning, of the children of God, namely the Patriarchs, concerning whom in Hebrews 11: "Confessing that they are pilgrims and strangers upon the earth." Which, namely the land of sojourning, is to you a land dearer than all, namely than all lands, that is, than all lands, namely on account of the salvation of the human race to be procured there, according to that passage of the Psalm: "He wrought salvation in the midst of the earth."
Second, the mercy shown in the manner of punishment is demonstrated in two ways.
But even to these etc. Here the mercy shown in the manner of punishment is demonstrated: and of that manner he first removes the false cause; second, he introduces the true one: When therefore.
In the first part he first shows that that manner of punishing was not from impotence; second, that neither from ignorance: But in parts; third, that neither from fear: Nor fearing; fourth, that neither from injustice: For neither.
(Verse 8.). But even to these etc. Although some read this concerning the Fathers who were to be introduced, whose enemies the Lord first mercifully terrified, not wishing to expose them as mortal men to the sudden dangers of wars, nevertheless it seems more fittingly to be expounded concerning the Canaanite nations to be cast out from before them. He says therefore: But even to these, although, that is, they had sinned so enormously, you spared, that is, by not expelling all of them immediately and at once, as human beings, clothed in fragile flesh, and therefore more prone to sinning. "For the sense and thought of the human heart are prone to evil from its youth," Genesis 8. The Lord himself alleges this reason in Genesis 6: "My spirit shall not remain in man, because he is flesh." And you sent wasps as forerunners of your army, that is, a kind of fly that stings severely; the Gloss says: "The sharpest fears, by which the hearts of the nations were stung." These are the hornets, concerning which Deuteronomy 7: "The Lord your God will send hornets among them, until he destroys and scatters them all"; Exodus 23: "I will send my terror before you"; and afterward: "Sending hornets first, which will put the Hivite to flight" etc. So that those, namely the Canaanites, they might destroy little by little, that is, place or drive them beyond the boundaries of the promised land, or beyond the boundaries of the present life, or beyond the boundaries of the land of the living; whence Baruch 3: "They were driven out and descended to the netherworld," excluded, that is, from the land of the living.
(Verse 9.). Not because you were unable in war to subject the impious to the just, according to that of the Psalm: "You have girded me with strength for war, and you have subdued those who rise against me beneath me"; or by savage beasts, that is, or through cruel beasts, according to that of Jeremiah 5: "The wolf at evening laid them waste and the leopard watching over their cities"; above in chapter 11: "For your almighty hand was not unable" etc. Or by a harsh word, that is, through a severe word, to destroy them all at once, according to that of Jeremiah 23: "Are not my words as fire and as a hammer that breaks rocks?"
(Vers. 10.). But by parts etc. Here he shows that he did not do this out of ignorance, namely of their actual or original fault, saying: But by parts etc. I have rightly said that not because he was powerless etc. ; but by parts, "that is, little by little or by portions" and successively, judging, that is, justly punishing; Deuteronomy 7: "He will consume these nations in your sight little by little and by parts, lest perhaps the beasts of the earth multiply against you"; you gave a place of repentance, so that, with some punished, others might be corrected; Job 24: "God gave him a place of repentance, and he abuses it in pride." Not being ignorant, because ignorance does not fall upon God, just as neither do shadows upon light: whence 1 John 1: "God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all." Because their nation is wicked, through the malice of fault, because the children of wicked fathers are wicked: whence above in chapter 4: "All who are born from the wicked are witnesses of their iniquity"; and their malice is natural, that is, similar to what is natural through the practice of evil habit. "For habit is a second nature"; for just as those things which are from nature can with difficulty or never be cast off, so neither can those things which are from habit: whence Jeremiah 13: "If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard its spots, then you also will be able to do good, when you have learned evil"; Gregory: "He rises with difficulty whom the weight of habit presses down." And their malice is natural: The Gloss: "Abiding, ingrained," namely through the practice of evil habit. And because their thought could not be changed forever, namely on account of the obstinacy of their perverse will: The Gloss: "Hardened by their own wickedness"; Lamentations 1: "He has delivered me into a hand from which I cannot rise."
But to the contrary: It is within the freedom of choice to sin and after sin to repent.
I respond: It could not, that is, it could scarcely; or it could not by itself alone, but only by God's inspiration. For man is "a spirit that goes forth," namely through fault, "and does not return," namely except through grace.
(Vers. 11.). For their seed was cursed from the beginning, that is, in the first parent of their race, namely in Canaan: Genesis 9: "Cursed be Canaan." Or according to the Gloss: From the beginning, "that is, in the foreknowledge of God," or according to the Gloss: From the beginning, because "from the time they existed, a certain depraved quality was in them worthy of a curse."
Neither fearing. Here he excludes fear from God by a fourfold reason: first, because no one can examine his judgment; second, because neither can anyone resist him: Or who shall stand; third, because neither can anyone take vengeance: Or who in the sight; fourth, because neither can anyone reprove: Or who to you.