And carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of their thousand, and look how your brethren fare, and bring back a token.
Read Chapter 17
Bede
AD 735
The whole nation of the faithful Hebrews was saying to their Lord and Savior who would be born from their seed, as they sighed for his advent with earnest desire, “Take these, I beg you, to refresh and aid your people in spiritual warfare. They are your brothers because you deigned to be born from their midst according to the flesh. Amid their camps worn out by daily warfare, take, I say, the form of perfect humility in the body and guardianship of the law, although you in no wise need to submit voluntarily to its demands.” For the parched grain refers to a distressed spirit and a contrite and humiliated heart. The ephah is a measure which holds three amphoras and points to the spirit, soul and body perfected and joined together by humility—whether of our Lord or of each of the elect. This parched grain of humility appeared in the Lord by his own power and volition so that he might build the same in us, but really such humility cannot be brought about except by being placed between the...
Just as this happened, then, in the blessed patriarchs, Isaac and Jacob, dearest brothers, so we know it was prefigured in Jesse the father of David; for when he sent his son David to look for his brothers, he seems to have typified God the Father. Jesse sent David to search for his brother, and God sent his only-begotten Son of whom it is written: “I will proclaim your name to my brothers.” Truly, Christ had come to seek his brothers, for he said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
“And Jesse said to David his son, ‘Take an ephah of flour, and ten little cheeses, and go see your brothers.’ ” An ephah, brothers, is a quantity of three measures, and in three measures is understood the mystery of the Trinity. Blessed Abraham knew this mystery well; for when he merited to perceive the mystery of the Trinity in the three persons under the holm-oak of Mamre, he ordered three measures of flour to be mixed. It is three measures, and for this reason Jesse gave th...
Cheeses. Hebrew, "of milk. "Septuagint, "pieces of soft cheese: "érts is no where else used to denote cheese. This was a present (Calmet) for (Hebrew) "the Chili arch. "
Placed, who is their immediate officer. (Haydock)
Hebrew, "how they are mixed: "their company. Septuagint, "what they stand in need of. "Symmachus, "Thou shalt receive their pay. "Syriac and Arabic, "what news. "Others would translate, "their pledge "or bill of divorce to their wives, that, in case they be made prisoners for three years, the latter may be allowed to marry. (Trad. Heb.) (Calmet)
