Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/741

 DEBBORA

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DEBT

propriate prayer and the promise of St. James was renewed, 'that the prayer of faith should save the sick man and if he be in sins they should be forgiven'. The administration of the Eucharist concluded these relig- ious rites at the termination of which the friends of I he sick man ranged themselves around his bed, re- ceived tlie presents which he distributed among them as memi)rials of his affection, and gave him the kiss nf peace and b.idi' him a last and melancholy farewell." I>r. LinganI mentions a curious attitude with regard In I'xtiemr unction ;is prevalent among the illiterate Aimlo-Saxons of this time. He says, "It [extreme iinitionj appears to have been sometimes received willi reluctance by the illiterate from an idea that it \\ IS a kind of ortlination which induced the obligation c't eontinency and abstinence from flesh on those who afterwards recovered. The clergy were ordered to pi(\ich against the erroneous notion." (See Vi.\Ti- ( im; Extre.me Unction.)


 * J'Kane, Notes on the Rubrics of the Roman Ritual (New York,
 * ss3); MoRiARTY, .4fiocu/iww (Dublin, 1884); ¥ KSi^rt., Spirilual

< inferences (Baltimore, 1864); Catechism of the Council of Trent, r r by Donovan (New York, 1905); Noldin, Summa Theologice M>>ralis (Innsbruck, 1904); O'Malley and Walsh, Essays in rrloral Medicine (New York, 1907); Stang, Pastoral Theology \'Au\ ed.. New York, 1903); Lehmkuhl. Theologia Moralis (1 reibure im Br., 1887); /ft/uafe 7?o?nnnum (Ratisbon, 1888); -l LiNGARD, Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church. (Baltimore, ISol); Ferreres, Death, Real and. Apparent (St. Louis, 1906).

Joseph F. Del.\ny.

Debbora, |irophetess and judge; she was the wife of Lapidoth aiifl was endowed by God with prophetic gifts which secured for her the veneration of the di- vided Israelitic tribes and gave her great authority over them. Her wisdom was first displayed in set- tling litigious matters submitted to her: "She sat under a palm-tree, which was called by her name, be- tween Rama ami Bethel, in Moimt Ephraim, and the children of Israel came up to her for all judgment" (Judges, iv, 5). Debbora was thus a judge in the ordi- nary sense of the word. In the case of the other per- sons whose history is recorded in the book of Judges, the title seems to be given them as "deliverers aiul leaders" of the chosen people, no mention being made of ordinary judicial functions; but it was rather the confidence inspired by Debbora in the discharge of such functions which enabled her to bring about the deliv- erance of the nation, which was then suffering under the oppression of the Chanaanites.

The main army of the enemy was rendered partic- ularly formidable by the fact that it po.ssessed nine hundred iron chariots. It was commanded by Sisara, whose headquarters were at Haro-seth, probably iden- tical with the actual el Haritiyeh, between Haifa and Nazareth, on the banks of the Nahr Mucpiatt'a (Cison) in the plain of Esdraelon. Occupying this position in the centre of the country, the Chanaanites could harass the tribes to the north and south, and render it very difficult for them to unite in a common effort. For "twenty years" the enemy had "griev- ously oppressed" the children of Israel, when Deb- bora declared it was God's will that His people should be freed. This will of God she first made known to Barac, who dwelt in Cedes of Nephthali, to-day Qedeis, one of the principal ruins of Northern Galilee. She charged him to gather and lead to Thabor, a mountain to the east of the plain of Esdraelon, an army of ten thousand men, promising him that (iod would deliver into his hand Si.sara and the Chanaanite army. Banac undertook to carry o\it those instruc- tions only on the condition that the prophetess herself should accompany him. She agreed to do so, fore- telling, however, that the glory of ridding the land of Sisara would belong to a woman. This prophecy re- fers not to Debbora herself, but to Jahel whose story is told in the last part of the fourth chapter. Deb- bora, however, did certainly share in the glory of Barac. The call to battle was not merely issued to

the northern tribes of Nephthali and Zabulon; the "Canticle of Debbora", given in chapter fifth, praises the tribes of Ephraim and Benjamin, in the midst of which the prophetess had lived, as well as the tribes of West Manasses and Issachar, for furnishing their con- tingents, while it reproves Kuben, Gad, and Aser for their refusal to take part in the contest. Juda and Simeon were apparently not called upon.

In the battle of Thabor, which marked an era in the history of Israel, Debbora had an important part. She indicated the time to attack tlu> etiemy, and en- couraged Barac to go ilown IniliHy from tlu' mountain to light in the plain not uithslandiiii; the aii\aiitages which the chariot troops gave the Clianaanites on level grovmd. God jiLstified this assurance which He had inspired by the projjhetess. A violent rain storm swelled the torrent of Cison and rendered the ground unfit for the movements of the dreaded chariots. A panic seized upon Sisara 's army, and its rout was com- plete. The general himself died at the hands of Jahel. The "Canticle of Debbora" is in the sacred text at- tributed to Barac and Debbora. This very early poem is one of the most precious documents for the history of the period of the Judges. The faith in the God of Sinai of the still loosely connected tribes fintls vivid expression in the song. It strikingly describes the distress of the land " imtil Debbora arose, a mother arose in Israel", and the heroic fight for freedom to which she aroused her countrymen. After the deliverance "the land rested for forty years". We are not told what part was taken by Debbora in the affairs of her country during this period of peace; but it is likely that her influence was increased by the glorious event to which her name ever remained attached.

Lagrange, Z/chVe rfc.*j/»ffr.s (Paris. 1903): de Hummelauer, C omm^nlarius in libros Judicum ct Ruth (Paris, 1888); Palis in ViG. Diet, de la Bible, a. v.; von Orelli in Realcncyk. ftir prot, Theol., s. V.

W. S. Reilly. De BoUandt. See Bollandists.

Debt (ilcbitum), that which is owed or due to an- other; in general, anything which one person is under an obligation to pay or render to another. In a wide sense of the word this obligation may arise from a variety of sources. Thus we say that one who has received a favour from another lies under a debt of gratitude to make him some return for it. The super- fluous wealth of the rich is due to the poor; it is a debt to the payment of which, according to the expression of many Fathers and theologians, the poor have a right, not of justice but of charity. We here take the word in the ordinary and strict sense, according to which it signifies something which is due to another in justice. We treat the matter, too, from the etliical rather than from the legal point of view, and so we con- sider debts of honour as t rue debts though they cannot be enforced in the civil court.

A debt arises not merely from a contract of borrow- ing; something may be due to another in justice for many different reasons, but all these may be reduced to two. When one has wilfully cau.sed tmjust dam- age to another, he is bound to make good the loss which he has inflicted, and when he finds himself in possession of what belongs to another, he must restore the property to its owner. Justice requires this, that each one should have his own, and one who has suf- fered loss unjustly at the hanils of another has not his own, as long as the loss is not made good, any more than one whose property is unjustly detained by an- other. A state of indebtedness, then, of one to an- other arises from either of these two roots, as theo- logians call them. A debt must be paid to the owner of the property or to one who has tho right to receive payment for him. .Sometimes, however, the true owner is unknown, and then payment must be made to the poor or to charitable purposes. At any rate,