Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 18/23

But since this arrogance seems to be greater than befits a man, some have thought these words fitting for the one who is truly arrogant, who stiffened his neck against the Almighty, who is unsubjected and apostate, and who caused the evil spirits that followed him to fall away together with him into his own wickedness.

For that one thinks himself to have a great mind, and imagines that he surveys the heights, and threatens to make the whole inhabited world subject to himself;

he who, indeed, when the Lord asked him whence he came, did not refuse to say, "Having gone about the world under the sun and walked through that which is under heaven, I am here."

This one dared even to show to the Lord of all creation the kingdoms of the earth and to say, "All these are mine;"

"Now therefore, if you will fall down and worship me, I will give them to you."

Perhaps, then, the discourse hints at the king of the Assyrians as the ruler of this age;

for indeed the Lord names him ruler of this age, saying,

"Now the ruler of this world will be cast out."

"I will no longer speak much with you;"

"for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in me."

But since there are many rulers, certain ethnarchs, appointed for the guarding and preservation of each of the nations under them, as Moses says in the song:

"When the Most High divided the nations, when he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God."

And again the Apostle says:

"We speak wisdom, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age;"

"but we speak the wisdom of God, which none of the rulers of this age has known."

For the angel says to him:

"And I came because of your words."

"And the ruler of the kingdom of the Persians stood opposed to me."

"And behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I left him there with the ruler of the kingdom of the Persians."

"And I was going forth," he says, "and the ruler of the Greeks was coming."

Perhaps, then, if these things are spoken as from the person of the devil, his arrogance is directed not against men, but against intelligible beings or certain powers.

"Will the axe be glorified apart from the one who cuts with it? Or will the saw be exalted apart from the one who draws it? So likewise if one lifts up a rod, or a piece of wood."

This discourse is a rebuke of the arrogance of the ruler of the Assyrians.

Why do you think so highly of yourself, as one who cuts down nations and destroys the dominions of cities? For in that case the axe too might think highly of itself, as felling the massive trees to the ground, and the saw likewise, as dividing pieces of wood that are joined and united together.

But if indeed anyone is to be praised, it is the one who uses the axe, and the one who skillfully draws the saw.

In the same way, neither should the piece of wood that has been fashioned into a scepter enjoy the honor of ruling, but rather the one who handles it, as a symbol of the dominion that belongs to him.

So then I too took you up for the punishment of the people who had sinned;

employing your savagery as an axe and a saw, for the just chastening of the people, effected for their benefit.

As, then, in the courts the executioners appointed for punishment are not lords of the penalty, nor do they act by their own strength or authority, but only what is permitted them by the laws, so also the Assyrians — not a strong nation, nor able to accomplish anything of themselves — employ their harmful activities only according to the measure granted to them by the physician of those who have sinned.

"But it shall not be so; rather the Lord Sabaoth will send dishonor upon your honor, and upon your glory a burning fire shall be kindled."

"And the light of Israel shall become a fire, and he shall sanctify him with burning fire, and it shall devour the wood as though it were grass."

This is the recompense of irrational arrogance.

Since, exalting yourself as a great mind, you were speaking, and gloried in the loftiness of the glory of your eyes, "the Lord will send dishonor upon your honor, and fire upon your glory."

For since you threatened to remove the boundaries of nations, and to shake inhabited cities, and to seize the whole inhabited world as a nest, and to take it up as abandoned eggs, with no one escaping and no one gainsaying, therefore "a burning fire shall be kindled, and the light of Israel shall become a fire."

"The state of affairs will be reversed," he says, "and Israel will be in splendor," he says — Israel who is now humbled and handed over to you for punishment on account of sin.

So then his splendor will become obscurity for you.

"For," he says, "the light of Israel shall become a fire."

And since fire has two operations (the illuminating and the burning), the sweet and pleasant aspect of the fire will remain for Israel, illuminating him and shining round about him;

while the bitter and painful aspect will be apportioned to the arrogant one, burning him and delivering him over to inconsolable pain through the burning.

"And he shall sanctify him with burning fire, and it shall devour the wood as though it were grass."

For he shall sanctify him, as it were with a burning fire.

But how does the fire sanctify? When it has devoured the wood, as though it were grass.

Since, then, our God is a consuming fire, he will consume — clearly — the matter and the passions that come from matter, not indeed for the soul that dwells in the spirit, but for the one that dwells in the flesh.

But it should be known that those who are precise about the meanings of words distinguish glory from renown;

and they say that glory is the praise that comes from the many, while renown is the praise that comes from the good.

Likewise they also divide honor, saying that one kind is a refined honor and falls to the man of worth, being an estimation befitting a prize;

and they set the prize as the reward of virtue;

while a certain other kind of honor, coming from ordinary people, they regard as a recompense given to those who have not become altogether commendable.

"In that day the mountains and the hills and the thickets shall be quenched, and it shall devour from soul even to flesh."

After the Lord Sabaoth has sent dishonor upon the honor of the ruler of the Assyrians, and upon his glory a burning fire, and after the light of Israel has become fire for the Assyrian (so that he who was not sanctified by the splendor of the light might be purified by the burning of the fire, which is at work for purification and devours like grass the matter of sins present in him), then thereafter, once the matter that kindles the punishing flame has been consumed, the burning mountains and the hills and the thickets will cease, he says, and the fire of the conflagration, devouring and feeding upon all things, will come to an end — having made its beginning from the soul, but reaching as far as the flesh.

...those who have become such, and who, as far as their constitution goes, possess something more than the many, he is accustomed to call "mountains" and "hills";

but those who are unfruitful and randomly mingled together with one another, as though possessing some spontaneous and imperfect life, and not planted by the planting of the true husbandman, he calls "thickets."

The fire, however, touches all, beginning from the soul, but ending at the flesh.

For sins that have halted at the level of thoughts (such as committing adultery in one's own heart) are matter present in the soul, worthy to be consumed by fire;

but those that have proceeded even as far as deeds, the sins having been extended to the activities carried out through the flesh and in action — these I take to be the sins meant by "flesh."

For though the evil reasonings begin from the soul and end in the heart, they are not confined even to the heart;

but they go out and, as it were, peer forth, passing through the flesh and manifesting themselves to the outside.

For if someone conceived in his heart the intention to commit murder, but did not carry it out, the murder did not go forth from the heart.

And he who has looked at a woman to lust after her, yet has not defiled the temple of God, nor made the members of Christ the members of a harlot, has made his heart, as it were, the boundary of his sin;

so that the evil thought did not go forth from the heart of such a one.

Thus one may also speak concerning theft, and idolatry, and sorcery, and whatever other kinds of sins there are, whenever they are not contained by the body, but, as though flowing through a porous vessel, are carried outward.

And the one fleeing shall be like one fleeing from a burning flame.

And those who are left of them shall be a number, and a child shall write them down.

After the conflagration from the fire that comes upon the mountains and the hills and the forests, he speaks of the easily-numbered remnant of those being saved.

And thus (he says) their multitude will be reduced to a number so plainly marked, that even by a child not at all skilled either in counting or in writing, they can be recorded.

Perhaps the one fleeing from the conflagration flees, by repentance, the wicked life, and by conversion escapes the flesh that punishes.

For everyone who, after being caught in sins, becomes conscious that he is worthy of correction by rod and scourge (fleeing sin as the fuel of punishment) flees as from a burning flame.

And then those who are left shall be a number, not only because they are easily numbered (as we have explained), but also because thereafter they are worthy to be taken up into the number. Just as we have found in the Book of Numbers, children and women and old men, all who have an age useless for wars, and the mixed multitude (as alien to Israel) are left outside of being numbered, while those from twenty years old and upward, able for war, are numbered.

And all the firstborn of Israel are numbered, from a month old and upward.

Likewise also the Levites, from a month old and upward;

and the priests who minister are numbered up to fifty years.

But what child will record such persons (not a man, nor an elder)? No one will deny that it is those who preside in the Church — because of their living in innocence, and because they are entrusted by those who have sinned with the secrets of which no one is a witness except him who searches out the hidden things of each one.

This one will record such persons, who have been, as it were, blotted out through sin; he will again inscribe those who have fled the conflagration, and who have received the purification through repentance, as it were a consuming fire of the fuel of evils inherent within them;

Or perhaps (since those worthy of being numbered by the right hand of the Most High are written in the book of life, and are inscribed together with the righteous) it is fitting to understand the scribe of those being saved as one who takes them up together with the righteous, and enrolls the names of those turning from evil works in the book of the heavens.

For rejoice (he says), because your names are written in the heavens.

...of the well-approved, or concerning whom it was said, 'A child was born to us, a Son also was given to us'? That very Child, whom the Magi worshiped;

that one, who went down into Egypt and returned again to the land of Israel.

Since, then, there are many conceptions of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, one of the things understood concerning him is also 'the Child' who will record those who come, through repentance, to the knowledge of God.

And it shall be in that day, the remnant of Israel shall no longer be added, and those of Jacob who have been saved shall no longer trust in those who wronged them, but they shall trust in God, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

And the remnant of Jacob shall be upon the mighty God.

Clearly these words have reference to those who withdraw from wicked works and transfer their hope to the living God.

We who sin are added to the enemies, and we trust in those who wrong us.

A certain wicked army of demons goes about, subverting our souls through the baits of pleasure.

Adding ourselves to these, like foolish children to slave-traders, who often, by first showing certain childish toys, have deceived children, and having drawn them far from their fathers' eyes, through a brief delight have prepared for them a bitter slavery.

Adding themselves, then, those also to those who wrong them;

and we, giving heed to the bait of pleasure, remove ourselves far from God, and subject ourselves to the heavy tyranny of the relentless demon;

who, since he is condemned to the eternal fire, contends to have many condemned together with him.

Concerning those who repent, then, he says that those who are left and those who are saved shall no longer be added, nor shall they hope in those who wronged them, but they shall trust in God, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

Blessed is he who has separated himself from every hope pertaining to this world, and has God alone as his hope;

For as 'Cursed is the man who has his hope in man,' so blessed is the one who leans upon the Lord.

But do not pass over the addition carelessly;

For they shall be (he says) trusting in God, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

For hope in God does not admit of double-mindedness, nor does the Lord consent to grant his help in full to one who at one time has hoped in riches and human glory and worldly power, and at another time puts forward the Lord himself as his own hope;

but one must truly rest in the help that comes from God.

And the remnant of Jacob shall be (he says) upon the mighty God.

Clearly these words have reference to what is named by the Apostle 'a remnant according to the election of grace,' as what follows makes clear.

And though the people of Israel be as the sand of the sea, their remnant shall be saved.

For he is completing and cutting short the word in righteousness, because the Lord will make a word cut short in all the whole world.

Having altered a few words, the Apostle made use of this saying in the Epistle to the Romans.

But if anyone seeks the reason for which the Apostle omitted some things and altered others, let him know this: that, being a Hebrew, he was not enslaved to the translations which we make use of;

but, having interpreted the saying as it occurred to him, he set it forth accordingly.

For indeed the others also appear rather to have run together with the apostolic account.

The meaning of the saying, however, is as follows:

It was said above, that even a child will record those who are being saved from sin.

Here let no one wonder (he says) if so great a number of Israel should be reduced to a few.

Do not pay attention to the multitude of those called godly;

since to many belongs the name of Christ, but for only a few does the testimony of works confirm the appellation.

Though the people of Israel be as the sand of the sea, their remnant shall be saved.

But what is the manner of salvation? That, he says, 'completing and cutting short the word in righteousness.'

For the one who has encompassed the whole stamp of the Law and the ordinance of the Prophets in the brief statement of the Gospel, and who does what has been shown to him by the Lord, this one shall be saved.

For you shall love the Lord your God, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.

He, then, who completes the word, who brings it into action and cuts it short, and who, as it were, sums up its breadth in the briefest commandments, this one is the remnant that is saved.

All things (he says) whatsoever you wish that men should do to you, do also the same to them.

For this is the Law and the Prophets.

You see, in this natural notion, the whole word being completed and cut short in righteousness;

Because the Lord will make a word cut short for all the whole world.

The Lord will do it upon the earth.

And in agreement with him are Symmachus and Theodotion:

For the hard-to-observe requirements of the Law — 'Do not touch,' 'Do not taste,' 'Do not handle';

the ordinances concerning feasts, those concerning days, those concerning whole burnt offerings, those concerning purification, those concerning propitiation — all these have been cut short into one brief and easily-observed summary, so that no excuse is left to those who do not live according to the Gospel.

Chapter 11. And it shall be in that day, the root of Jesse, even he who rises to rule the nations,

For in that day, that is, at the times of old appointed beforehand, and at the pre-ordained season, the root of Jesse shall be.

Elsewhere he says that a rod shall spring up from the root, and a flower shall rise up from the root of Jesse, taking the rod as referring to the beginning, and the flower as referring to the desirable and universally pleasing sojourn.

And that, having granted the grace of his becoming man for a brief while, he makes his sojourn swift and, as it were, transitory;

but here he says that there shall be a root of Jesse.

nor shall he merely seem to be, but in truth.

For he took on flesh not in appearance, nor in supposition, but in very truth.

The root of Jesse, therefore, shall be — that is, the lump of flesh from Jesse — shall exist in truth and shall have real subsistence.

And he who arises is himself both root and the one who arises.

"Root of Jesse", because the God-bearing flesh was assumed from the royal succession.

And he who arises, to rule the nations.

For having risen from the dead, he ruled over the nations, having left behind the people who had murdered him;

for to that people he left death behind, but to the nations he granted the resurrection;

because the former cried out, "Let him be crucified," and "His blood be upon us and upon our children";

but the latter received the Crucified One and were redeemed from death by his blood.

"And his rest," it says, "shall be honor."

This is the rest of Christ: the honor of those who honor him as the Word of God, and the Wisdom of God, and the Power of God.

He who gives Christ rest confesses his equal honor with the one who begot him, the communion of dignity;

and the eternal existence of his nature from everlasting.

But those who are anxious to discover some word tending toward dishonor do not utter the things that lead to the rest of Christ.

For the rest with which the Lord will give rest is honor, which, after the righteous judgment of God, shall be distributed according to the worth of the deeds done.

to some with greater honors, but to others with lesser, since star differs from star in glory.

And since there are many mansions with the Father, he will give rest to some in more excellent and higher conditions, but to others in lesser ones.

Yet all, nonetheless, shall have their rest through honor.

"And it shall be in that day, the Lord will again show his hand."

The hand of the Lord has been shown in various ways in each generation, through those capable of receiving the working of the wonders.

For first he showed the prodigies in Egypt, then in the wilderness;

then in the times of Joshua son of Nun, then in the time of the Judges, and of the Prophets who ministered great things.

But now the hand of the Lord is said to be shown at the coming of our Savior, who healed every disease and every infirmity among the people, and did the things proclaimed in the Gospel.

For the Lord added this further showing of power, since the former things did not prove sufficient to lead the disobedient people into the knowledge of God.

"That he might show zeal for the remnant of the people that is left."

And the multitude of those who made war is enumerated: Assyria and Egypt, and Babylonia, the Ethiopians and the Elamites and those from the rising of the sun, and the Arabs.

concerning the Ethiopians it says that "Zerah the Ethiopian went out with an army and a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots."

"And Asa went out to meet him, and cried out to the Lord, and said:"

"Lord, it is not impossible for you to save by many or by few."

"Strengthen us, O Lord our God, for we trust in you, and in your name we have come against this great multitude."

"O Lord our God, let not man prevail against you."

Now it was the Assyrians who took them captive, and the Egyptians who from the beginning had enslaved them, and Nebuchadnezzar who came from Babylonia.

And the Elamites are the race of the Parthians, which, together with those from Mesopotamian Syria, often attacked Israel.

And the Arabs, a warlike nation, at war with Israel throughout all time.

So then, while all these make war against the noble seed, some are defeated, but others prevail;

and because of prevailing and being exercised through many labors, they receive as a kind of prize the privilege of beholding the further showing of the hand of God.

"And he will lift up," it says, "a sign for the nations, and will gather the lost of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."

The root of Jesse, therefore — he who arose to rule the nations — he it is who will lift up a sign for the nations, that the lost of Israel might be gathered.

"For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost."

And this is the sign that he lifted up for the nations, that which is spoken of in the Gospels:

"They will see the sign of the Son of man" — which you would say is the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to the saints, and they to the world;

in which passage he also declares the power of the sign.

For the parts of the cross are divided fourfold, so that each part inclines toward the four quarters of the world.

Whether, then, it was so that all the parts of the world might, through the parts of the cross, be ordered unto salvation, and for this reason death by the cross was chosen above others;

or because, prior to the wooden cross, a certain intelligible cross had already been crucified together with the whole world, the four parts of the universe being joined together at the center, and the power that is at the center extending to the four parts.

This sign, then, having been lifted up, the lost of Israel will be gathered, and the scattered of Judah will be gathered from the four corners of the earth.

...of the principalities and powers, which he triumphed over on the wood, having stripped them off and, as it were, cast away the garment we had woven for ourselves from them — he stripped off the principalities and the powers and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them on the wood.

"But far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."

For after the sign has been lifted up, and the lost of Israel — which is called Ephraim — have been gathered, and the scattered of Judah have likewise been gathered, "the jealousy of Ephraim shall be taken away, and the enemies of Judah shall perish."

Observe, however, that Israel is said to have been lost, but Judah to have been scattered.

Yet, by the concord that is according to Christ, who makes peace between the things on earth and the things in heaven, and reconciles all things in himself, the passions are abolished which formerly, through contentiousness and division, held sway over life.

For jealousy seems, above all, to become for the many an occasion of enmity.

Now "zeal" here is said by Scripture to mean not the imitation of good things, but envy at the prosperity of others.

Then, therefore, having come into concord, "they shall fly in the ships of the foreigners, and together plunder the sea."

whenever, with full sail, the wind blowing favorably from the stern, they are borne across the sea.

And they plunder the sea by prevailing over the dragon and those under his power, whom the Apostles of Christ, by transferring them into the knowledge of the truth, might rightly be said to plunder — making, as it were, spoils for themselves of those things formerly held by him who led man away captive.

And "sea" here should be understood as the place of affliction, which elsewhere we have learned to call "the valley of weeping."

And "the ships of the foreigners" perhaps refer to our bodies, because they do not stand in a fitting relation to the constitution of the soul.

"For the flesh is not subject to the law of God, but lusts against the Spirit."

These are also said to plunder Idumea, that is, to prevail over earthly things, and to lay their hands upon Moab.

"Moab" is interpreted "from the father."

To them, therefore, the Lord said, "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you wish to do."

Upon these they lay their hands, so that through their own good conduct they might bring them under their subjection.

"Then the sons of Ammon shall be the first to obey."

"Ammon" is interpreted, "a people with us."

Perhaps those who have less wickedness will be the first to obey the word, compared with those who have it in greater measure and more widely spread.

"And the Lord will make desolate the sea of Egypt."

Just as Ezekiel speaks of the rivers of Egypt, which Pharaoh arrogantly boasts to have made, so Isaiah names the sea of Egypt, which the good God will make desolate.

For desolation, when brought upon evil things in an acceptable time, is a benefaction.

And just as "the Lord will make desolate the sea of Egypt, and will lay his hand upon the river with a mighty wind", so also "he will smite the seven ravines of Egypt."

"And then one shall cross over the river of Egypt while wearing sandals."

'Scanty' signifies the water that is left remaining amid the river's waters;

which someone, having loosed his sandals, will be compelled to enter the river.

Or perhaps, rather, since it was said to Moses and to Joshua to loose the sandal from the foot because the ground on which they stood was holy, whereas this ground is by no means such, but is Egypt, a profane land, they are commanded, while shod, to tread upon the river, and not to remove their sandals.

And it is dried up, being held fast by a violent wind of God.

Hence also those who ate the Passover were commanded to have their sandals on their feet.

For where there is a biting serpent and a scorpion, let sandals be on the feet, securing the feet that they cover;

but whenever one has already arrived at the holy place, then let him take off his sandals, as the Apostles of Christ did, to whom it was said not even to carry sandals.

And it shall be to Israel as the day when he went out of the land of Egypt.

And they passed through the Jordan on foot, keeping their footprint unwetted, since all moisture fled from beneath their step.

CHAPTER 12. Then, therefore, the people will say:

I will bless you, O Lord, for you were angry with me, and you turned away your wrath and had mercy on me.

One is often let go and forsaken, because he was once dragged down into the evils of Egypt, and for a time enjoyed his own folly, so that he might reap what he sowed in wickedness;

and when he is not utterly forsaken but obtains some benefit, he will say: 'I will bless you, O Lord, for you were angry with me and you turned away your wrath and had mercy on me.'

Similar to this is: 'I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he vindicates my cause.'

And after this he will bring judgment through to its conclusion.

For he will not be angry to the end, nor will he bear a grudge forever.

'I will bless you, O Lord, for you were angry with me and had mercy on me' — perceiving the benefaction of God, he will boast in it and will say:

Behold, my God, my Savior; I will be confident in him and will not be afraid, for the Lord is my glory and my praise.

These things will not be said by those who do their almsgiving before men, nor by those who receive glory from one another;

nor by those who do not seek the glory that comes from God alone, nor altogether by those who transgress the commandment of him who says:

But since the Lord promises, 'Those who glorify me I will glorify,' it is evident that he who rightly glorifies God is glorified by him.

Thus also the face of Moses was glorified, since he knew well how to glorify God.