Joshua 11:1

These same scriptures, before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, when that Israel which is according to the flesh read them, understood in them nothing other than wars and the shedding of blood; and by this their spirits were whetted to excessive ferocity, and they were forever fed on wars and seditions. But afterward, when the presence of my Lord Jesus Christ poured the calm light of knowledge into human hearts — since indeed, according to the Apostle, He Himself is "our peace" — He teaches us peace from this very reading about wars. For peace is restored to the soul if its enemies, its sins and vices, are driven out from it. And therefore, according to the tradition of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we read these things, we too are indeed armed and roused to battle, but against those enemies who "proceed from our heart," namely "evil thoughts, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies," and the rest of the adversaries of our soul like these; concerning whom we strive, according to what this scripture reports, if it can be done, "to leave no one who may be saved, nor who may draw breath." For if we gain the mastery over these enemies, we shall fittingly gain the mastery also over the "powers of the air," and we shall drive them out of their kingdom, which they had established within us above the seats of the vices. In the earlier readings the king of Jerusalem had gathered with himself four other kings against Jesus and against the sons of Israel; but now no longer does one gather four or five, but see how great a multitude one gathers.…You see how great swarms of contrary powers and of the most wicked demons are stirred up against Jesus and the army of Israel. All these demons, before the coming of our Lord and Savior, possessing human souls at quiet and secure, reigned in their minds and bodies. But when the grace and mercy of our Savior God appeared upon the earth, teaching us to live piously and holily in this world and separated from all contagion of sin, so that each soul might recover its own freedom and the "image of God" in which it was created "from the beginning" — for this cause wars and battles arise from those wicked old possessors of them. And if the first are crushed, many more rise up afterward and come together into one and conspire for evil, they who are ever at odds with the good. And if they are conquered a second time, again a third time…

But let us attempt, as God may grant, to examine each of the kings of the hostile army one by one, and, according to the significations of the names of each, to contemplate also the work which each performs in wickedness. First of all, he who is also named as the author of this war, gathering the rest and inviting them to the conspiracy of crime, is named "Jabin," who was "king of Hazor." For he it is who is said also to have summoned the rest. Now "Jabin" is interpreted as sense or prudence. Who then is this sense or prudence, if not that one whom the prophet Isaiah calls the "great mind"? For he says: "And I will bring upon the great mind the prince of the Assyrians, who said: By my own strength I will act, and by the wisdom of my mind I will remove the boundaries of the nations, and I will plunder their strength." This, then, is he who there indeed is called the "great mind," the king of the Assyrians, but here Jabin, sense or prudence. For indeed the "serpent" is written to have been in paradise "more prudent than all the beasts which were upon the earth." But the "steward of iniquity" too is said to have done "prudently" the things which he did. This "Jabin," therefore, is "king of Hazor." Now Hazor is interpreted as a court. All the earth, then, is the court of this king, who holds the principate of the whole earth as of a single court — who is the devil. But do you wish to see that the earth is his court? In the Gospels it is written that the strong man sleeps secure in his court, until there comes one stronger, who both "binds him" and "carries off what he possesses." The king of the court, then, is the "prince of this world"; this one "sends to Jobab"; for he it is who sends to all the nations and invites them to battle. He "sends" also "to the king of Merom." "Jobab" indeed is interpreted as enmities, but "Merom" as bitternesses. The devil, then, sends to another hostile power — of the apostate angels, without doubt — which power is king of bitternesses; by whose authorship, that is, and agency all the bitternesses and harshnesses that are inflicted on wretched mortals in this world come about. And these are the diverse kinds of sin. For nothing can be more bitter than sin, even though certain sins seem sweet at first, just as Solomon writes: "but in the end," he says, "you will find it more bitter than gall" — that which at the beginning seemed…