Bede : Likewise, all the Israelites who had hidden themselves in Mount Ephraim, etc. It is rightly a matter of discretion that he who can, should strive for the Church by teaching or arguing against the reprobate, avoiding that prophetic curse: Cursed is he who withholds his sword from blood (Jer. XLVIII). But he who is not effective in teaching should hide himself in the height of a fruitful mind, lest he be found by the deceitful enemy to be stripped of his virtues. For there are those who are not suitable for discovering and overcoming the cunning of heretics and the other snares of the ancient enemy, but do not fail to follow and detest these when exposed by others according to their strength: and this is what it means when the Israelites who had previously hidden in Mount Ephraim, that is, fruitful, join themselves to their own ranks upon hearing that the Philistines have been put to flight: yet the Church is always saved not by its own effort, but by divine aid. — Commentary on Samuel Gregory the Dialogist : This indeed happens as often as those devoted to the more remote life deign to turn their zeal toward seeking the profit of souls. For they join themselves with their own in battle when they preach the true joys of eternal life together with the doctors of Holy Church, and equally drive malign spirits from the hearts of sinners. But it must be carefully asked how it is said: "Hearing that the Philistines had fled." A glorious victory is certainly not to pursue those who flee, but to put to flight those who resist. What then does it mean when it says: "Hearing that the Philistines had fled, they joined themselves with their own in battle," unless that by these words the fitting gains of that same remote life are signified? For it is the custom of those men to offer their word rather to those consulting them than to those opposing them, because unless they recognize a devout heart in the listener, they disdain to send forth their preaching as though it would perish in vain. Therefore, before they join themselves with their own in battle, they hear that the Philistines have fled: because they are not so much intent on converting the wicked as on raising up the converted to the heights of a more perfect life. Moreover, because the very sublimity of the more perfect life is usually urged with the great labors of exhortation, those who hear that the Philistines have fled are rightly said to fight. And so the enemies flee, but those recently hidden now fight, because men of the remote life do not deign to speak except to devout listeners, yet even when speaking, they can scarcely persuade by the great combat of words and examples the loftiness of the life which they themselves hold. And because the weak and imperfect cannot gather the great gains of preaching, there follows: (Verse 22.) "There were with Saul about ten thousand men." He does not say ten thousand, but "about ten thousand." The complete perfection of this number is not found on earth, but in heaven. For since there are nine orders of angels, and that multitude of chosen men is raised up to fellowship with them, those ten thousand men are those who rejoice in the holy angels and the elect among men in that seat of eternal glory. Therefore "about ten thousand men" are those who, still placed in the exile of this present age, have taken on in their conduct the form of that blessed fellowship. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 5, Chapter 4