He divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put into the hands of all of them trumpets and empty pitchers, with torches within the pitchers.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 16. Lamps, or flambeaux, ( Calmet.) made of wood, full of turpentine. Bible.—The soldiers held one end in their hand, and when they had thrown down their pitchers, the sudden light, the sound of trumpets and of men on three sides of the camp, threw the various nations into the utmost consternation, as they very naturally supposed that they were surrounded with a great army. God also sent among them the spirit of confusion, so that they knew not one another. An ancient author, under the name of Tertullian, asserts that the 300 men were on horseback, and conquered by virtue of the cross, as the letter T, in Greek, stands for 300; ( Calmet.) and Saint Augustine (q. 37,) follows up this idea, saying that, as the Greeks are put by the apostle for all the Gentiles, this letter was to insinuate, that the Gentiles chiefly would believe in Christ. Some of the Fathers have given a like mysterious explanation of the 318 servants of Abraham, as the two first letter of the name of Jesus denote 18. Eucher. Genesis 14:14. Saint Ambrose de Abr. i. 3.—We can never conquer our spiritual enemies, without a lively faith in our crucified Saviour. If Amama, and other enemies of the cross of Christ, ridicule these pious meditations of the Fathers, we need not wonder. See Revelation 13:18. Bible.