And David struck them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, except four hundred young men, who rode upon camels, and fled.
Read Chapter 30
Bede
AD 735
It is a rule of the church to ask through its teachers about those who escape from the heretics and flee to it. They ask who they were before, what they thought about the faith, where they will travel in spirit in the future and when they recognized that they opposed the heresies with all their mind and began to approve of the catholic faith. Then, once they have been reconciled, the church applies to them the sacraments of the catholic faith. This procedure is followed so that they may not seem to cast what is holy to the dogs or pearls before swine. The church asks, “To whom did you listen and from what body of Christians or to which body of Christians did you arrange to come?” Whoever truly wishes to escape the snares of the heretics must answer, “I confess that I was concealed in sins, sold to the heretics as I listened to them. But my teacher abandoned me, after he had filled me with his errors. When the heretics were waging war against the church, my teacher saw that I was less s...
Evening. Hebrew, "twilight "in the morning (Calmet) or evening. (Haydock)
Some think that the pursuit lasted three days; others only from three till five in the evening. But David more probably slaughtered the intoxicated people, during the space of a whole day, from morning till evening. (Calmet)
Septuagint, "from the morning or evening star rising, apo eosphorou, till the afternoon, and on the following day "(Haydock) which commenced at sun-set. (Calmet)
It was no battle, but flight and carnage. (Menochius)
The poor and the feeble, the blind and the lame, are called and come because the weak and the despised in this world are often quicker to hear the voice of God, as in this world they have nothing to delight them.
The Egyptian servant of the Amalekites is a good example of this. When the Amalekites were plundering and moving about, he was left behind on the road sick and fainting from hunger and thirst. When David found him, he provided him with food and drink, and as soon as he revived he became David’s guide, found the celebrating Amalekites, and with great bravery overthrew the people who had left him behind sick.
Amalekite means “a people that laps.” What does “a people that laps” signify but the hearts of the worldly? Going about after the things of earth, it is as if they are lapping them up when they take delight in temporal things alone. A lapping people takes plunder, so to speak, when out of its love for earthly things it heaps up profit from others’ losses. The Egyptian serva...
