He proclaims a sanctification, v. 5: “Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” The Chaldee Paraphrast — and from him the Rabbis, and some of ours following them, Lyranus [and] Abulensis — interpret the Hebrew verb “to sanctify” [as] “prepare yourselves.” But because there are various kinds of preparations, [it] is again asked: by what preparation ought the Israelites now to be prepared? Some say this: that they should pack up all their [belongings], gather their baggage — [so as] to be altogether girded and unencumbered for crossing the Jordan. But this will be the daily preparation in the desert, whenever the cloud, the index of the ways, moved. Besides, what need would there have been of this admonition now? Three days before, they had been warned by the public voice of the heralds [that] they would cross on that morrow, and [should] prepare provisions. Was it not enough for travellers [to be told] this — that they have their baggage collected? Thirdly, [and] finally, they had by now come here to the bank of the Jordan from Shittim. Therefore they had already gathered their vessels; nor, since they were in readiness [in procinctu] and awaiting the morrow’s crossing, did they greatly loosen or scatter them.
I would dare to say [that] in all the passages of scripture which the Rabbis gather [in order] to attribute to the Hebrew verb the meaning of “preparation,” there is always present — as the word itself properly signifies — a certain notion of sanctity. For example: Num. 11 v. 18, “Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow” — or, as [it is] more openly in Hebrew and Greek, “for the morrow.” For the Lord willed the murmuring people to come to their senses, and to expiate itself; for [it] was to be [the case] that he would comply with their desire, and give them flesh. Isaiah 13 v. 3, of the Medes and Persians, the Lord says: “I have commanded my sanctified ones, and called my strong ones in my wrath” — that is, I have commanded those whom I have so prepared for myself that, as if sanctified for me, and utterly devoted and consecrated to my service, they will thus serve my wrath against Babylon, will punish it, and lay it waste. Jerem. 6 v. 4, “Sanctify a war against her” — that is, wage a war against Jerusalem, which will be plainly just and holy; or, prepare a war against her thus, so that my justice and holiness may appear in it, avenging the impiety and crimes of my people. Joel 1, “Sanctify a fast” — that is, keep a fast which be holy, whereby you may be made holy, may recover holiness, may sanctify God himself; and so in the others. Certainly in this place not only a preparation is proclaimed, but also its kind is indicated — namely, that it be religious and holy. For, first, if only the vessels were to be gathered, it would have been enough to have said: “For tomorrow you shall proceed; tomorrow you must make the journey.” But now, with no — or the least — mention made of the journey, [he says] “sanctify—”
(col. 403)
—[with no mention of the journey,] another cause of the sanctification is subjoined — namely, the very magnitude and marvellousness of the things to be divinely done, as Masius acutely perceived. Then the Seventy rendered [it] ἁγνίσθε [hagnisthe, “be purified”], that is, “be made pure and chaste,” or “be expiated.” And if we regard the force of the Hebrew conjugation which is called hithpael [the reflexive], [it] will be permissible to render: “Sanctify yourselves” — make yourselves holy and clean. But by what means [is] this [done]? There is no doubt but that this same thing was effected by faith, and by hope of the things — marvellous, whatever they should at length be — which Joshua was promising from the Lord; and at the same time there intervened a certain holy thought of the divine power, and of [its] benevolence toward its people; the memory, too, of past benefits and miracles — especially, how they had marvellously escaped from the hands and lands of the enemies through the Red Sea, and [that] therefore, without doubt, [it] was now to be [the case] that they should likewise come marvellously into the lands and possessions of the enemies through the Jordan. For by these and other like [thoughts] their mind, [thus] raised up, was borne toward God — so that they were kindled with holy love of him, begged of him pardon of all [their] sins, praised him, and followed [him] with every sacred worship. The very reckoning of the time aided these their pursuits of religion. For the morrow, of which [it is] here treated, was that day on which the paschal lamb was to be taken, family by family, the Lord saying (Exod. 12 v. 3): “On the tenth day of this (first) month let each one take a lamb, by their families and houses.”
Pleasing, too, is that sanctification which — [as reported] in Lyranus and Abulensis — the older [writers], and from them Masius, hand down: that garments were to be washed by all, and by those who had spouses, continence [secubitus, sleeping apart] to be kept. For we see this manner of sanctification prescribed by the Lord (Exod. 19 v. 10 & 15) when the Law was promulgated on Mount Sinai. And when a sanctification was proclaimed for any great and unwonted matters, what other outward manner should the Israelites employ rather than [the one] which God had signified to be pleasing to himself? For other [sanctifications], through the waters of expiation, were employed only in certain defilements, and often required a fixed [number] of several days. But now there were neither those defilements, nor did the imminent day of crossing allow lustrations of a longer time. And indeed, even before the Law was given, a visitation of this manner too was commended among the ancient Fathers (Genes. 35 v. 2). But let us close this disputation with the words of St. Bernard:
It is usual in the scriptures, he says (sermon 22 on the Canticle), for “sanctification” to be put for continence or cleanness. In short, what were those so frequent “sanctifications” in Moses anything other than certain purifications of men restraining themselves from food, from drink, from intercourse, and things like these? But hear the chief Apostle himself, how familiar [it] is to him either to use or to employ “sanctification” in this sense: “This is,” he says (1 Thess. 4), “the will of God, your sanctification: that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification, and not in the passion of desire.” Likewise: “For God did not call us into uncleanness, but into sanctification.” It is clear that he puts “sanctification” for temperance.
(col. 404)