Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 17/23

and when God becomes all in all, once those who are in turmoil through apostasies have been quieted, they will hymn God in peaceful harmony.

"Your judgments," he says, "are a great abyss;"

and "Your righteousness is like the mountains of God."

Neither, then, are his judgments comprehensible, nor is his righteousness able to be contemplated in a manner worthy of its height.

"And the zeal of the Lord Sabaoth will do these things."

Having been zealous for us, who were perishing through ignorance, he will receive us, for the sake of securing for his own kingdom the dispensation worked out among men.

So then, the zeal of the Lord Sabaoth, the God of hosts, to whom all power is subjected—this is what will do these things.

"The Lord sent a word against Jacob, and it came upon Israel."

"And all the people of Ephraim shall know it, and those who dwell in Samaria, saying in insolence and haughtiness of heart:"

"but come, let us hew stones and cut down sycamores and cedars, and build ourselves a tower."

In the appellation of Jacob and of Israel, the text seems to suggest to us the notion of two things:

both the introduction of those still imperfect, and the perfection attained at the very summit of virtue.

This is the sense that the manner of the patriarch's renaming suggests to us:

for at his birth, because he had grasped his brother's heel, he was called Jacob;

but after the wrestling, the name is given to him as a prize, as to one who had been victorious:

"For your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name."

The Word, then, was sent to Jacob, and came upon Israel.

But those who were more perceptive, sensing the benefit that came from him, as it were seized him eagerly for themselves, forestalling the sluggishness of those to whom he had been sent.

"The Lord, then, sent a word against Jacob."

Do you know the Word, who was in the beginning, who was with God? This is the one whom the Father sent to Jacob.

And the true Israel—the more perceptive souls—came to know him.

"And all the people of Ephraim came to know it, they who formerly dwelt in Samaria in insolence and haughtiness of heart,"

He caused the schism, and having fashioned golden calves, persuaded the people to withdraw from the worship of God and to worship the idols of the Egyptians.

So then, those who dwelt in Samaria in insolence and haughtiness of heart—these, having come to a perception of the truth, received the word, just as the Acts also relate, that the Apostles heard that Samaria had received the word.

Then the Prophet describes how great their insolence and pride were:

"but come, let us hew stones,"

By "bricks" they meant the edifice of the kingdom of the sons of Jesse;

and by the solidity of stones fitted together with one another they designated their own power, and their concord regarding the affairs of life.

"And let us cut down," he says, "sycamores and cedars, and build ourselves a tower," in place of the temple that Solomon built for Judah.

They had in mind something similar to those who, by the construction of a lofty tower, attempt to make heaven accessible to themselves.

The sycamore is a tree most abundant in fruit, fruit possessing no good quality, unless someone, by careful incision, draws out from it a certain sap that produces pleasure to the taste.

Whence we consider it to be a symbol of the assembly of the nations, which multiplies indeed, but is, as it were, made foolish through habituation to pagan practices; which, if someone should be able to incise through the Word, being sweetened by the change, is transformed into usefulness.

And cedars are also sometimes taken as an image of great souls possessing a noteworthy elevation, from having risen up in mind and having their citizenship in the heavens:

"Fruit-bearing trees and all cedars."

"The trees of the plain shall be satisfied, the cedars of Lebanon, which he planted."

But we also know that hard and inflexible characters, those exalted against the knowledge of God, are called cedars:

And those who are puffed up over falsely-named knowledge, and who imagine that they have grasped the mysteries of the God who is above all, are called cedars:

"For I saw the ungodly exalted on high and lifted up, like the cedars of Lebanon;"

whose destruction is swift:

"For I passed by, and behold, he was not."

These, then, were the cedars that those who, before the coming of the Word, dwelt in Samaria in insolence took up for the building of the tower, mocking the piety practiced by Judah, and calling the edifices built in that people's doctrines "fallen bricks."

"And God will dash to pieces those who rise up against Mount Zion, against him, and he will scatter his enemies, Syria from the rising of the sun and the Greeks from the setting of the sun, those who devour Israel with the whole mouth."

He promises, then, to dash them to pieces and to cast down all who rise up against Mount Zion, and to scatter their impious concord against the truth.

Now the enemies are the Syrians and the Greeks:

the former occupying the regions toward the rising of the sun, the latter those toward its setting.

By "mouth" he now means the sophistic power of speech, which they employed to the full for plotting against those who had believed in God with simplicity.

"For all this his wrath has not turned away, but his hand is still lifted up high."

"And the people did not turn back, until they were struck;"

"and they did not seek the Lord of hosts."

Since, then, this people is healed not by word but by blow, it is written:

"And all the people did not turn back, until they were struck."

Let no one, then, meddle in inquiring into the causes of the more grievous afflictions:

why droughts, why torrential rains, why thunderbolts, why hailstorms.

"And the Lord will take away from Israel head and tail, great and small, in one day."

After the sent Word has reached them, he says that their whole evil order will be thrown into confusion, and that the rulers and their followers will be removed—both those who, in positions of power, are greatly puffed up, and those who are subordinate.

The presidency of the elders will be dishonored, and that of those who judge according to favoritism.

But those who hold no order at all among the people, but are self-appointed and falsely lay claim for themselves to a prophetic gift—which they did not receive from the Spirit—and who teach lawless things, such as Hananiah was in the days of Jeremiah, and the false prophets in the days of Micaiah, among whom there arose a lying spirit which deceived Ahab, urging him on to the war against the Syrians:

these too will be taken away, as it were holding the rearguard of the people.

Moreover, also those who pronounce this people blessed, and lead them astray, and reap profit for themselves through the deception—

"Neither, if there is any orphan among such a people, nor if there is any widow, will they be shown mercy."

For that which is weak and helpless is worthy of mercy;

but that which is powerful in wickedness and evil is worthy of aversion and hatred.

Then he adds that his wrath has not yet turned away, but his hand is still lifted up high against them, because of those who lead astray among the people, and those who are led astray, among whom all are lawless and wicked and speak unjust things.

But the threat also carries a certain implication of benefit, in that "lawlessness shall be burned up like fire."

"And it shall be consumed," he says, "like dry couch-grass by fire, and shall be burned among the thickets of the forest."

As long as the soul is buried in earthly passions, its passions, sprouting forth from the mind of the flesh, creep along like couch-grass, having their generation one from another, and being begotten one upon another.

For just as couch-grass is the most prolific of plants, and its propagation nowhere ceases, but the end of the first generation always becomes the beginning of the next, such also is the nature of sins:

And fornication begets fornication:

But habituation in falsehood becomes the mother of falsehood, and he who has practiced in acts of theft readily dares to commit the wrongdoing.

For the sin that has gone before becomes an occasion for [further] sin.

If, then, we strip our sin bare through confession, we make it dry grass, worthy to be consumed by the purifying fire.

And this is burned in the thickets of the forest.

Observe all that is said about forests in the First Book of Kingdoms [1 Samuel].

The people, hard pressed in war, entered into the forest, and grew faint from not eating.

But Absalom too, being warred against, enters into a forest.

If, then, our sin does not become like dry grass, it will not be consumed by fire, nor will it be burned up.

"I came to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!"

"And the people shall be like a man consumed by fire."

He does not threaten annihilation, but intimates purification, according to what is said by the Apostle: "If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss;"

"but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire."

Next he describes the wickedness present among the people, and the discord among them which is now unceasing and has advanced entirely to the point of being incurable.

"For a man," he says, "will not have pity on his own brother, but when one approaches to obtain some assistance from him, he will turn aside to the right" — that is, he becomes 'unsuccessful' [ungracious] — "for he will be hungry and will eat from his own left hand."

For he who does not perform deeds that are right and worthy of acceptance, this man will be filled with more sinister and forbidden things.

What, then, is the meaning of "he shall eat from his own left hand"? He explains it thus:

"And a man," he says, "shall not be satisfied, eating the flesh of his own arm."

He intimates a certain bestial condition of the soul, describing the mutual devouring of brothers as they savagely fall upon one another.

"For Manasseh shall eat Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh."

For wickedness makes them savage and causes them to be likened to flesh-devouring beasts, who are not satisfied with eating from the flesh of one another's arm — whose end is utter destruction, according to what was said by the Apostle: "If you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another."

Yet though thus hostilely disposed toward one another, they will nevertheless agree together in plotting against their neighbor.

"For together they will besiege Judah," he says — that is, those who confess to God and continue steadfastly in His service.

For "Judah" is interpreted "confession."

Yet wickedness, though discordant with itself, displays a certain concord in its warfare against virtue —

for instance, rashness and cowardice are opposed to one another, the one being an excess, the other a deficiency;

but against courage, which lies in the middle, they fight in like manner, as though besieging it from both sides.

CHAPTER 10. Woe to those who write wickedness.

"For in writing, they write wickedness, turning aside the judgment of the poor, seizing the justice due to the needy of my people,"

"so that the widow becomes to them a prey, and the orphan a spoil."

"And what will they do in the day of visitation? For your affliction will come from afar."

"And to whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your glory, so as not to fall into captivity? And they shall fall beneath those who have been slain."

"For all this his anger has not turned away, but his hand is still raised."

There are some who, disdaining to follow the fathers and the doctrines handed down by them, desire themselves to originate heresies.

Upon these the woe falls — upon the fathers of falsely-named knowledge, and the authors of godless doctrines.

For such men seize upon those who are poor in faith, and tyrannize over souls that are widowed of the true Bridegroom, God the Word.

But even if they see someone orphaned of God on account of sin, they make this one too their own spoil, promising them full license and holding out to them a life of pleasure, provided only they can get them to consent to the doctrines of godlessness.

Such is the heresy of the Anomoeans that has now sprung up as an offshoot, promising forgiveness of sins to fornicators and adulterers and sodomites and slave-dealers and perjurers and liars, if only they can get them to join in blasphemy against the Only-Begotten.

"What will they do in the day of visitation?" By "day" he means the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven, in which he will come to dwell among the world, rendering to each according to his works;

in which they will receive back the affliction that comes upon them from afar, as those who wrote wickedness.

...that which you wrote, before him who judges the living and the dead.

Your own writings will be your accusation.

"Where will you leave your glory?" You who are ambitious for display and cling to human honor, and who have desired to become heresiarchs in order to obtain a name, and for this reason have spoken injustice on high — where then, on the day of judgment, will you leave your glory? "But beneath," he says, "such men shall fall among those who have been slain."

Now you are a patron of the deceived, and you are admired by them, bearing about the name of teacher and instructor, extolled and called blessed by them;

but then you will be more dishonored than these very ones who have been murdered by you.

For the acceptance of a false opinion is the murder of the soul.

You will therefore be found fallen beneath these, and the weight of those slain by you will lie upon you.

Since each of us, through the course of life, writes, as it were, our own handwritten documents, sealing the impressions of our deeds into our memory, perhaps the text also pronounces such men wretched, as those who write wickedness.

For the heart of the righteous has been inscribed not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God;

but the heart of the unrighteous is inscribed not with the Spirit of the living God, but with ink, which is akin to darkness and hostile to light.

So that each one either writes on his own behalf, by doing good deeds, or, acting against himself, deposits wicked documents.

There is, then, a certain document against us, written by our own hands, whenever we do worse things;

and there is a document in our favor, whenever we do better things.

Already, indeed, there are some who tamper fraudulently with the letters in contracts and forge the characters of writing in the titles to fields, in wills, in mortgages, and in various transactions — as many as derive their validity through the proof of written documents —

and such men, in writing thus, write wickedness, perverting just judgment against the poor and plundering the goods of the needy of the people, so that the widow becomes to them food to devour, and the orphan a gain.

Such are the things that fall to the victors in the plundering of wars — of whom the text reminds us, saying, "What will they do in the day of visitation?" He called the day of judgment, and of the recompense according to the deserts of each one's transgressions, "the day of visitation," which he threatens against these, saying, "Your affliction will come from afar."

Let us understand what he means by "from afar," as follows:

Our salvation is not far off, but is near to us.

"For I am a God who draws near," he says;

and, "I will draw near to them more closely than the garment upon their skin."

"This commandment," he says, "which I command you today, is not too burdensome for you, nor is it far from you."

It is not up in heaven, that one should say:

"Who will go up to heaven and get it for us?" Nor is it beyond the sea, that one should say:

"Who will cross over the sea for us and get it for us, that we may hear it and do it?" The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.

"The kingdom of God," he says, "is within you."

The better things, then, and those through which salvation comes, are near to us and within us;

but the opposite things come to us from afar, being outside of us.

For sin does not inhere in our constitution [our created nature], but came upon us afterward.

"It is the rod of my wrath, and there is anger in their hands."

"I will send my wrath against a lawless nation, and I will charge my people to make spoil and plunder, and to trample the cities, and to reduce them to dust."

"But he himself did not intend it so, nor did he reckon so in his soul; rather his mind will turn aside to destroy not a few nations."

'You alone are ruler,' he will say. 'Have I not taken the region above Babylon, and Chalanne, where the tower was built?'

'These I have taken, and I shall take all the [other] dominions.'

not because of their own righteousness, but because of the surpassing unrighteousness of the people

But nevertheless these too—not understanding that they were given as a disciplining scourge against the people who transgress the divine ordinances, but instead exalting themselves, as though they possessed some power of their own—are declared wretched by the word [of Scripture].

'Woe to you, Assyrians, who are the rod of my wrath; you are an instrument of chastisement.'

You do not act by your own power, but by the working of the One who moves you, you are brought against those who deserve to be crushed.

'And wrath (he says) is in their hands.'

Here he plainly calls discipline 'wrath,' just as the psalmist also does:

'Neither chasten me in your wrath.'

The discipline of Israel, then, is in the hands of the Assyrians.

'I will send my wrath against a lawless nation.'

I will bring the punishment upon the people who cannot endure to live according to the law appointed for them.

'And I will command my people to take spoil.'

For because it acted lawlessly, he sends forth wrath;

but since he once chose it because of the election of the fathers, he does not disown his kinship with it.

'I command, then (he says), that spoil and plunder be made, that the cities be trampled, and that they be reduced to dust;'

so that we may know that all the grievous things we suffer, we endure by divine ordinance.

For he does not allow us to be given over unreservedly to the evil, punitive powers, but he himself determines the measure of the chastisements, taking aim at the capacity of those being healed.

Spoils, then, are the things stripped from the dead who have fallen in war, whether weapons, or clothing, or any other adornment;

and plunder is the distribution of the booty, apportioned according to the rank of those who have prevailed.

The Assyrians, then, were commanded to despoil Israel, to plunder her, to trample her cities, and to reduce them to dust.

'But he himself did not think so, nor did he reckon so in his soul;'

but he was lifted up in his mind, not [understanding] that it was because of the sins of the people that it had been handed over to him; rather, being puffed up in mind and having banished the true word from his own thinking, he supposes himself able to utterly destroy nations, and not a few.

And, since those under his hand, flattering and fawning upon him, say:

'You alone are ruler'—as though speaking to them ironically, he says:

'Have I not taken the region above Babylon, and Chalanne?'

'Not yet (he says) have I become lord of all;'

'the region above Babylon, and Chalanne, where the tower was built, still escapes my kingdom.'

By 'tower,' then, he means that ancient one which they built in the plain of Shinar, saying:

But the name 'Chalanne' has not become familiar through the usage of Scripture;

we conjecture that it lies somewhere near Babylonia, since Babylon takes its name from the confusion of tongues which the Lord confused, tearing apart the harmony that was directed toward evil.

For Scripture says that the name of that place was called 'Confusion,' and in Hebrew, 'Babel.'

'In the manner that I took these, so also shall I take all the [other] dominions.'

Since, then, he attributed to himself the ability to subjugate all the cities, and did not understand that he prevailed over men not by his own power, but that he prevailed through the dispensation of God who was disciplining those who had sinned, for this reason the prophetic word deems him worthy of lamentation.

'Wail, you carved images in Jerusalem and in Samaria.'

'For as I did to Samaria and to her handmade idols, so shall I do to Jerusalem and her idols'

...and her images? A wailing-cry is a mournful sound, representing the anguish of the heart by a certain inarticulate utterance.

How, then, will carved images wail? Because certain demons, flying to them out of the unseen, take up residence beside them—wood shaped by human hands (or stone, or even gold and silver, or ivory, or whatever other material, whether precious or less precious, of which the idols worshiped among the nations are made)—thus enjoying the pleasure that comes from the defilements offered to them.

For just as greedy little dogs linger around the places of the slaughterhouses, where there is blood and gore, so also the greedy demons, hunting for the enjoyment that comes from the blood and the savor of the sacrifices, coil around the altars and the statues dedicated to them.

For perhaps their airy bodies are also nourished thereby—bodies that are either fiery, or a mixture of both these elements.

and the one who falls upon his face is the demon, who is overcome by the glory surrounding the ark of God;

and even as he himself falls upon his face, he brings down along with himself the handmade image.

Since a portion of the victim offered to the idol was also apportioned to the demon sitting beside it—the demon receiving a certain share from the blood as it vaporized, and from the fat as it rose in smoke, and from the rest of the whole burnt offerings—

'And whoever drinks from the cup, from which the libation is poured, drinks the cup of demons.'

And when it is said that the Lord will come into Egypt, and the handmade things of Egypt will be shaken, and their heart will be overcome, we expound this in the same sense.

For the demons that linger about the earthly place will be shaken as they are put to flight, and will be driven away into their own proper place in the abyss, at the coming of the Lord.

'And it shall be, when the Lord has finished doing everything on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, that he will bring [punishment] upon the great mind—the ruler of the Assyrians—and upon the haughtiness of the glory of his eyes.'

After commanding a wailing upon the carved images in Jerusalem and in Samaria, and the threat against them—namely, that Jerusalem, once purified and freed from the defilement of idols, and disciplined by the chastising blows which she endured through being handed over to the Assyrians—then, thereafter, the word threatens that it will transfer the blow upon the ruler of the Assyrians.

For since he was lifted up in his pride and did not understand that their sin had become the cause of so many evils, but instead supposed that by his own device and power he had prevailed against Jerusalem—because of this arrogance and the irrational haughtiness of his mind's exaltation—'He will bring (he says) [punishment] upon the great mind, upon the ruler of the Assyrians, and upon the haughtiness of the glory of his eyes.'

One is great, on the one hand, according to his own nature;

but another is great according to conceit, and the excess of things that in no way belong to him.

A truly great mind is the one that contemplates great things, that is able to grasp the creative principles [of the universe], and from them to understand the beauty of the wisdom of the Craftsman of all things.

But the one who blesses himself and exalts himself would rightly be called, in respect of mind, rather a conceited pseudo-wise man and a vain-minded person, than 'great.'

But nevertheless, since it is customary for Scripture to follow common conceit in naming things, it has spoken of a 'great mind,' not thereby attesting to a greatness that belongs to him by nature, but naming that which was ascribed to him out of [his own] self-conceit.

And exposing this feeble supposition, he says he will bring the punishment upon the haughtiness of the glory of his eyes.

For indeed, some have defined 'glory'—a word of many meanings—according to one of its senses, as 'a feeble supposition.'

As in: 'The serpent was more prudent than all the beasts of the earth;'

and 'the steward of unrighteousness acted prudently;'

and 'The sons of this age are more prudent than the sons of light, in their own generation.'

The Apostle explained to us the meaning of 'prudent' in his letter to the Corinthians, when he said:

'But I fear, lest, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness...'

For he showed that the [scriptural] narrative attributes to the serpent a blameworthy prudence, from the very fact that it turns 'the prudent' into 'craftiness.'

So, then, 'great mind' too is not spoken of as something praiseworthy, as those who scrupulously classify the meanings current among the Greeks would have it, calling 'mind' a concentrated prudence, but rather is used here as a name falsely applied.

Whether admiring himself, or being so addressed by his flatterers, he has now been given this name by Scripture.

This 'great mind,' since he knows that the eyes of the wise man—the truly wise man—are in his head, glorifies his own eyes, as though he did not look downward, nor busy himself with earthly things, but was occupied with lofty matters and spent his time above.

Such are those who are called wise among the Greeks: their life wallows in the most shameful passions of the flesh, yet by theorizing about the heavens and the stars, and about the ethereal phenomena and the occurrences of the air, they invest their own eyes with a certain glory.

'By my strength I will act, and by the wisdom of understanding I will remove the boundaries of nations, and I will plunder their strength.'

'And I will shake inhabited cities, and I will seize the whole inhabited world with my hand, as a nest, and I will gather it as abandoned eggs.'

'And there is none who shall escape me, or gainsay me.'

Now he clearly explains why he called him 'great mind,' and why he threatens to bring punishment upon the haughtiness of the glory of his eyes: it is [because of] his boastful words, which he employs against those weaker than himself, threatening them with every kind of utter destruction, with all bitterness, declaring his own power to be invincible and unopposable.

For as one who is master, obtaining whatever he wishes and certainly accomplishing what accords with his purpose, so he boasted.

"Since I have great cavalry and infantry power, and no one resists me, and since unapproachable wisdom in matters of strategy is present with me and my understanding is beyond reproach, therefore," he says, "I will remove the boundaries of nations and plunder their strength."

For having forced all the nations to submit together to my kingdom, I make one boundary of all things: my own dominion.

For now each nation is marked off from the other by its own boundary-lines;

so, having removed their boundaries, I will force all things to come under one scepter, that of my kingdom.

And I will plunder their strength.

"Plunder" is the term for the distribution among the conquerors of those captured from the enemy, whenever the conquerors divide among themselves either captive persons, or some of the livestock, or certain other goods pertaining to life.

"And the cities now firmly established," he says, "I will shake and convulse by my own power, and I will seize the whole inhabited world with my hand, as a nest."

For what labor is it to seize with the hand unfledged nestlings, being warmed in the nest by the birds that rear them, who are able to use neither wing nor feet for flight? Then, intensifying his contempt for men and exalting his own power beyond measure, he says: not even as a nest, he says, will I take the inhabited world, but as abandoned eggs, he says, so will I take it.

And there is no one who will escape me, or speak against me.

Now as regards the literal sense, the ruler of the Assyrians will say these things, his mind having been puffed up on account of his success against Judea and Samaria, thinking that he will conquer all the nations by a swift onslaught and that he will have no one raising a hand against him, but that all the boundaries of nations will be thrown into confusion by his power, and that the whole inhabited world will be shaken with fear at his invasion;

and that whoever comes into his hands will be easier to catch than the nestlings of a bird, and will more easily be carried off by his power as it ranges over the whole world under the sun, than one would take eggs bereft of the bird that warms them and gives them life.