You Philistines! Vipers! Always the same! They’re all cut from the same cloth and bear poisonous fruit, grumble the hungry and weary disciples. May you receive back what you give! The land of the Philistines, including Ashqelôn (Ascalon), stretches from the present-day Gaza Strip to Jaffa. A great enmity reigned between the Philistines and the Jews. It dates back to the wars that pitted them against one another, the most famous episode of which is David versus Goliath. This land was still identified as such in the 2nd century B.C. See 1 Maccabees (Book of the Martyrs of Israel) 3:24: Judas pursued him down the slope of Beth-horon to the plain; eight hundred of their men were killed, and the rest fled to the land of the Philistines.
Have you never read how David, at Nob, took the consecrated bread to feed himself and his companions? The consecrated bread belonged to God, in His house, set aside by an eternal decree for the priests. It is written: “They shall belong to Aaron and his sons, who shall eat them in a holy place, for it is a most holy thing.” Cf. 1 Samuel 21:1–4 and Leviticus 24:9.
God punished David severely for his lust and for his census: regarding his lust, see 2 Samuel 12:9–14 (see also 94.7). For the census, see 2 Samuel 24:1–17 and 1 Chronicles 21:1–17.
To the good as well as to the wicked, for I am Mercy. But you do not know what mercy is. If you knew what it means, you would also understand that I desire nothing but it. Cf . Hosea 6:6, also quoted in Matthew 9:13.
They finally come upon a hedge of prickly pears, at the tops of which, bristling with thorns, figs are beginning to ripen. This mention is intriguing: the prickly pear, or Barbary fig, is said to have been imported from Mexico by Christopher Columbus. Is this a glaring anachronism or a rare piece of knowledge on Maria Valtorta’s part? See the commentary.
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Leviticus 24:9
Lev 24:9: They shall belong to Aaron and his sons, who shall eat them in a holy place; for it is a most holy thing to them among the offerings made by fire to the Lord. This is a perpetual statute.
First Book of Samuel 21:1–7
1 Sam 1–7: David got up and left, and Jonathan returned to the city. David went to Nob, to the high priest Ahimelech; and Ahimelech came running out to meet David in fear and said to him, “ ‘Why are you alone, and is there no one with you?’” David replied to the priest Ahimelech, “The king gave me an order and said, ‘Let no one know anything about the matter for which I am sending you, and I have given you an order.’ I have appointed a meeting place for my men. Now, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you have.” ” The priest replied to David, saying, “I have no ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread—provided your men have abstained from women.” ” David replied to the priest and said, “We have abstained from women for the three days since I set out, and the vessels of my men are holy; and even if the journey is profane, is not the vessel itself sanctified?” ” Then the priest gave him consecrated bread, for there was no other bread there except the showbread, which had been removed from before the Lord and replaced with fresh bread at the time it was taken away.
2 Samuel 12:9–14
2 Sam. 12:9–14: “Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his sight? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you took his wife to be your own, and you killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. And now the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own wife. Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will bring disaster upon you from within your own house; I will take your wives before your very eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you acted in secret, but I will do this in the sight of all Israel and in broad daylight.”
David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord has forgiven your sin; you will not die. But because by this deed you have caused the Lord to be despised by his enemies, the son born to you will die.”
2 Samuel 24:1–17
2 Sam. 24:1–17: The anger of the Lord was kindled again against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, take a census of Israel and Judah.” ” The king said to Joab, the commander of the army, who was with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba; take a census of the people, so that I may know the number of the people.” ” Joab said to the king, “May Yahweh your God add to the people a hundred times as many as there are, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it! But why does my lord the king take pleasure in doing this? ” But the king’s command prevailed over Joab and the commanders of the army; so Joab and the commanders of the army set out from the king’s presence to take a census of the people of Israel.
After crossing the Jordan, they camped at Aroer, on the right side of the city, which is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and then at Jazer. They came to Gilead and to the land of Tachthim-Hodsi; then they came to Dan-Jaan and to the vicinity of Sidon. They went to the stronghold of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites, and they reached the Negev of Judah, at Beersheba. When they had thus surveyed the entire land, they returned to Jerusalem after nine months and twenty days. Joab presented the king with the census report: there were eight hundred thousand men of war in Israel who could wield a sword, and five hundred thousand in Judah. David’s heart was troubled after he had counted the people, and David said to the LORD: “I have committed a great sin in what I have done! Now, O Yahweh, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”
The next day, when David arose, the word of the LORD came to Gad, the prophet, David’s seer, saying: “Go and tell David: Thus says the LORD: I set before you three things; choose one of them, and I will do it to you.” ” Gad came to David and told him the word of the Lord, saying: “Shall there be a famine of seven years in your land, or shall you flee for three months before your enemies who will pursue you, or shall there be a plague for three days in your land? Now consider and see what I should answer the one who sent me.” ” David replied to Gad, “I am in great distress. Oh, let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hands of men! ” And the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning of that day until the appointed time; and seventy thousand men of the people died, from Dan to Beersheba. The angel was stretching out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it. But the Lord relented from this disaster and said to the angel who was striking down the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand now.” ” The angel of Yahweh was standing near the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. When David saw the angel striking down the people, he said to Yahweh: “Behold, I am the one who has sinned; I am the one who is guilty. But these sheep—what have they done? Let your hand fall on me and on my father’s house!”
That day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” David went up, as Gad had said, just as the Lord had commanded. When Araunah looked up, he saw the king and his servants coming toward him; Araunah went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground, saying, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David replied: “To buy this threshing floor from you so that I may build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be lifted from the people.” Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take the threshing floor and offer whatever sacrifice he deems fit! Here are the oxen for the burnt offering, along with the sleds and the ox yokes for the wood. All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said further to the king, “May the Lord your God be gracious to you!” ” But the king said to Areuna, “No! I want to buy it from you for a price in silver, and I will not offer to Yahweh, my God, burnt offerings that cost me nothing. ” And David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25And David built an altar to Yahweh there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
Thus the Lord was appeased toward the land, and the plague was lifted from Israel.
1 Chronicles 21:1–17
1 Chr 21:1–17: Satan stood against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. And David said to Joab and the leaders of the people, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba to Dan, and report the number to me, so that I may know how many there are.” ” Joab replied, “May Yahweh add to his people a hundred times as many as there are! O king, my lord, are they not all servants of my lord? Why then does my lord ask this? Why bring sin upon Israel?” But the king’s word prevailed over Joab. Joab set out and traveled throughout all Israel, and he returned to Jerusalem. And Joab presented to David the results of the census of the people: there were in all Israel eleven hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, and in Judah four hundred seventy thousand men who could handle a sword. He did not count the Levites and the Benjamites among them, for Joab was reluctant to carry out the king’s command.
God was displeased with this matter, and He struck Israel. Then David said to God, “I have committed a great sin in doing this. Now, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” ” Yahweh spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying: “Go and speak to David, saying: Thus says Yahweh: I set before you three things; choose one of them, and I will do it to you.” Gad came to David and said to him: “Thus says Yahweh: Choose either three years of famine, or three months during which you will be swept away before your adversaries and struck down by the sword of your enemies, or three days during which the sword of the LORD and the plague will be in the land, and the angel of the LORD will bring destruction throughout the territory of Israel. Now see what I should answer the one who sent me.” David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Oh, that I might fall into the hands of the Lord—for his mercy is very great—rather than into the hands of men!”
And the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand men in Israel fell. And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but as the angel was destroying it, the Lord saw what was happening and relented from this disaster, and He said to the angel who was destroying it, “Enough! Withdraw your hand now.” ” The angel of Yahweh was standing near the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. David looked up and saw the angel of Yahweh standing between earth and heaven, with his drawn sword in his hand, pointed toward Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. And David said to God, “Was it not I who commanded that the people be counted? It is I who have sinned and done wrong; but these—these sheep—what have they done? Yahweh, my God, let your hand be upon me and upon my father’s house, but not upon your people to bring ruin upon them.”
Book of Hosea 6:6
Hos 6:6: She became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said to Hosea, “Name her Lo-Ruhama (that is, ‘Not Loved’), for I no longer love the house of Israel and will no longer forgive them.”
Gospel of Matthew 9:13
Mt 9:13: “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Gospel of Matthew 12:1–8
Mt 12:1–8: At that time, on a Sabbath, Jesus was walking through the grain fields; his disciples were hungry, so they began to pluck heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him: “Look, your disciples are doing what is not permitted on the Sabbath!” But he said to them: “Have you not read what David did when he and those with him were hungry? He entered the house of God, and they ate the bread of the Presence; yet neither he nor those with him were permitted to eat it, but only the priests. Or have you not read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath rest without being guilty of a sin? But I tell you: there is one here who is greater than the temple. If you had understood what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned those who have committed no offense. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Gospel of Mark 2:23–28
Mk 2:23–28: One Sabbath, Jesus was walking through the grain fields; and as they went along, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look what they are doing on the Sabbath! That is not permitted.” And Jesus said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, both he and those with him? During the time of the high priest Abiathar, he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which no one is allowed to eat except the priests, and he also gave some to those who were with him. ” He also said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. That is why the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Gospel of Luke 6:1–5
Luke 6:1–5: One Sabbath, Jesus was walking through the fields; his disciples were plucking heads of grain and eating them after rubbing them in their hands. Some of the Pharisees then said, “Why are you doing what is not permitted on the Sabbath?” Jesus replied, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and those with him were hungry? He went into the house of God, took the bread of the Presence, ate it, and gave some to those who were with him—even though only the priests are allowed to eat it.” He also said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”