Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 22/23

"Let your loins be girded."

We understand that this hints at restraining the desires that serve for procreation.

The mourning, then, that lies upon Moab, becoming the cause of a self-controlled/sober life, cries out at the outcry of Heshbon and Elealeh and Jahaz.

"Her soul," he says, "shall know."

The passage now shows the progress of those who have done the aforementioned things unto repentance: "And the heart of the Moabite woman cries out within herself as far as Segor."

Now this Segor is the place which Lot, having come out of Sodom, was able to reach.

For the angels wanted him to go up into the mountain, and said to him:

"Do not look back, nor stand anywhere in all the surrounding region."

"Flee to the mountain for safety, lest you be swept away with them."

"Behold, this city is near, for me to take refuge there."

"Is it not a little one? And my soul shall live."

Therefore the heart of the Moabite woman cries out as far as Segor, which already lies on the borders of Palestine.

By indicating, then, the strong and vigorous repentance—or the grievous lament caused by the blow of the evils she had wrought—the text shows us the distance to which the outcry of Moab is made audible.

Now repentance requires, first, that one cry out within himself and crush his own heart;

and then, in order to become a good example to others, that he make himself heard abroad and publish openly the manner of his repentance.

For the three-year-old heifer already has the power to bear young, and to submit her neck to the yoke.

So then, in order to show that it belongs properly to those able to turn back, both to have reached maturity according to human age, and to possess reason capable of bowing beneath the yoke of truth, he spoke of a three-year-old heifer.

For he who has not yet, by reason of his age, attained the maturity found among men, nor has his mind fully formed, but is imperfect because of his youth, is not even required to perform the works of repentance.

"Take for me a heifer of three years and a ram of three years"—choosing in the three years the perfection of the animals and their fitness for breeding.

But he did not delimit the turtledove and the pigeon by age, because these creatures begin to breed immediately from birth.

"And on the ascent of Louith they shall go up weeping."

The beginning of gladness is to weep rightly; and grief according to God is the beginning of ascent and of progress toward the things above.

seeing his own words bring men to a sense of their state, and, through godly grief, work in them repentance unto salvation not to be regretted.

For those who weep over their evil deeds and their evil intentions shall no longer go down, nor shall they enter into the lowest parts of the earth;

but they shall ascend, as it were led by the hand, through godly grief, toward the exaltation above.

"And crushing and shaking together cry out."

For the word that convicts and lays hold of the soul crushes the wicked disposition, and produces, as it were, a kind of upheaval among the thoughts that had wickedly taken root—so that some may be uprooted, while sound reasonings are introduced in their place.

For while the habit of sinning still stands firm and has not yet been shaken, sinners will neither weep, nor ascend to the things above;

but when the wretched disposition has been crushed, and the soul has undergone, as it were, a kind of earthquake and tremor concerning its wicked opinions, then the cry becomes audible, for the benefit of those who hear it.

"The water of Nebrim shall be desolate."

The water of false doctrine, which formerly flowed abundantly and copiously to the harm of those who received it, shall (he says) be made to vanish and shall be desolate.

Now if it were possible to know the meaning of the name, one might find in it an occasion for penetrating more deeply into the thought of the prophetic mind, and for applying to the realities what is signified by the names.

This water, however, is opposite to the water of rest, by which the Lord nourishes those whom he shepherds;

and to the water which the Lord gives to those who believe in him, of which whoever is deemed worthy to drink has within himself a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

This water is so base and worthless that it nourishes nothing but grass, and even that shall not exist.

That is, the souls that have been trained up in this transient and swiftly withering glory of the world shall quickly fade away, once the word that, as it were, watered them has been laid waste.

For "the Moabite woman shall perish" and "by night she shall perish," and whatever else has been said, all bear reference to this: that these things happen in order that she may be saved.

"For I will bring Arabs upon the valley."

For the former shall be saved through weeping, but the latter—those who have an impenitent heart—through the blow inflicted upon them by the Arabs.

Or perhaps the powers resembling darkness are here called "Arabs," through whom the disciplinary blows are sent upon those who have an impenitent heart.

"For the cry has joined the border of Moab to Gallim, and her wailing..."

The border of Moab has been named Gallim.

Yet it is interpreted as "marked by a ram," named after that leading and ruling animal.

Since, then, the same thing can be both the end of a territory and its beginning, the border of Moab has now taken its name from being the beginning.

"And her wailing has filled everything."

Again he calls the water "teaching," which he says is full of blood, because those who lead others wrongly become liable to death on account of those whom they teach.

So that you might fittingly apply, concerning destructive words that ruin souls, the prophetic saying which reads:

"For Moabites shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation, and forever."

The text threatens to cut off what it calls "the seed of Ariel."

Now among the Hebrews, "Ariel" is interpreted "lion."

"that you are of your father the devil, and you do the works of your father."

"He was a murderer from the beginning."

The seed of Moab, then, are the apostates from the Church;

and the seed of Ariel are those who breathe murder against the brethren, and who, through destructive words, bring death upon their own souls.

After this he says, "The remnant of Adama" (which signifies "virgin earth," from which Adam's body was made) "I will send forth as creeping things upon the earth"—that is, the remnant of men who are minded of earthly things, and who, for this reason, have been begotten out of their own wickedness as creeping and venomous things.

They are "creeping things" in that they have cast away the loftiness on which, according to their first formation, they had stood;

and they are "venomous," because of the harm they do to those who associate with them.

The text says that these it sends forth.

So then, after the former Moabites, concerning whom the better things were said, if anyone is left in the land and becomes like the serpent—of which it was said, "You shall eat earth all the days of your life"—this one is sent forth like the creeping things.

Now he eats earth who sows unto the flesh, and reaps corruption from the flesh.

"Is not the mountain of the daughter of Zion a desolate rock? For you shall be like a nestling taken away from a bird that has flown up;"

"Then, O Arnon, take further counsel."

"Make for her a continual shelter of mourning."

"In the darkness of noonday they shall flee;"

"the fugitives of Moab shall sojourn with you."

"They shall be a shelter for you from the face of the pursuer, for your alliance has been taken away, and the ruler has perished, he who trampled you out of the land."

The word is still directed against Moab.

"Is not the mountain of the daughter of Zion a desolate rock?" He rebukes her contempt, with which she despised Zion, supposing the mountain to be a desolate rock, as having neither notable size, nor able to produce the good things of husbandry, so as neither to feed those who dwell there, nor those who pasture upon it.

For she who has taken up these thoughts about the mountain and disparaged it, but has been puffed up with arrogance, and has exalted herself with insolence and pride—you shall be like a nestling abandoned by the bird that warmed it, when, startled, it flies up from the nest, leaving desolate the one it had been rearing.

For the one departs in flight, while the other is easily caught by whoever wishes to catch it.

For the eagle, or any other of the great birds naturally able to rise high from the earth, is beyond the reach of harm from those who would attack it;

but you shall be like a nestling, needing another's help for food, just having peeped out of the egg, not yet clothed in body with thick plumage, but still in need of shelter from elsewhere, in order to be kept warm at night and not scorched by day.

So then, when the mother has been put to flight, you shall be carried off from the nest, being powerless to defend yourself, and unable to flee.

He himself will be the very one who also pulls you down from the nest, and drives away the mother who shelters you.

"You shall be, O daughter of Moab" — that is, once the weakness within you has been exposed, you shall be what is left over.

"What will you be, O daughter of Moab?" What you were, this shall be made manifest.

...since, when he approached, your mother made use of night and wine for the theft of her father's seed.

"Then, O Arnon, take further counsel."

Since your former counsels profited you nothing, O Arnon, nor did much philosophizing about doctrines woven together out of every school of philosophy, add, if you think fit, to your counsels.

Arnon is a region of Moab, and from this one place the passage indicates to us the whole territory of Arabia.

The name Arnon was chosen in preference, because of the meaning that is interpreted from it:

for Arnon is interpreted as "their illumination."

Since, then, it is especially those who suffer great elation from conceit about wisdom who suppose their own mind to dwell in light, while in truth they are darkened in understanding and estranged from God, the discourse is directed against those who imagine themselves to be in the light that comes from [false] knowledge.

"Make for her a covering of mourning continually."

Nadab and Abihu, having offered strange fire upon the altar, were burned to death.

And those who did not receive the true light, but instead received the one who transforms himself into an angel of light — if they come to perceive that they had been living in a mere semblance of knowledge, while in truth they had missed the mark of the truth, they will of necessity mourn for themselves.

"Make for her a covering of mourning continually."

For those who work grief over sins committed — whether in conduct or in [false] knowledge — such that some are brought to blessed mourning, these are the ones who make a covering of mourning.

I myself have seen some who were held fast by unmingled grief shut themselves up in a little chamber, blocking off every passage of light, and, as it were, punishing themselves through a manner of life spent in darkness.

In order, then, that the habitual conceit of wisdom — which, deceiving their understanding, is in truth darkness though imagined to be light — may not continue to trouble their senses, "Make," he says, "a covering of mourning for them," so that, by shutting out the deception coming from those of heterodox belief, you may give room for the true light to shine into the hearts of those who have believed in it.

Before, then, the day of the Lord comes, on which all the tribes of the earth shall lament, according to what is said in Zechariah — that "the lamentation in Jerusalem shall be great, like the lamentation of the pomegranate-grove;

and the land shall mourn according to tribes;

the tribe of the house of Nathan by itself, and their women by themselves;

and all the remaining tribes, each tribe by itself, and their women by themselves" — you, who teach the people and turn back sinners throughout the whole span of life, make her a covering of mourning, so that through your word those who were formerly harmed by wickedness may be led to blessed mourning.

"They shall flee in midday darkness."

Since, then, the truth can be understood from the creation of the world by those who apply themselves intelligently to the principles of creation, those who live in the world and are illumined on every side by the wisdom of God, yet suffer from ignorance of God — these are the ones who exist in midday darkness: while the things themselves possess the brightness of midday, darkness is present within the souls of those who are ignorant.

Such people, then, flee in midday darkness; they are "out of their minds," because the doctrines of such people differ in nothing from the delusion that the insane imagine.

And "derangement" is the explanation of the midday darkness, since those who are carried off course by some disorder of reasoning suppose neither that the sun is shining, nor that there is light in the air.

...it is manifest [madness], when things so evidently proclaim the power of him who made us, that men should attend instead to idols and figments, and deify what does not exist, and often through heretical doctrines be carried away outside the truth, and, as it were having stepped outside the light, spend their lives in darkness.

The word exhorts us not to be led by the persuasiveness of those who hold heterodox opinions:

for it is manifest madness to follow those who are out of their minds.

"Know them, that they have gone out of their minds."

They are outside the way that leads to God;

do not use them as guides, lest you be led by them into a precipice and a pit.

"For if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit."

"The fugitives of Moab shall sojourn with you."

"The fugitives of Moab shall sojourn with you."

"And these," he says, "shall be sheltered among you, suffering nothing from the presence of the pursuer."

For those who were once its allies will become its pursuers, waging war against it, because of its turning to the true God.

Since, then, they became like a fledgling taken away as the bird flies off, they were removed from evil patronage and were freed from the wicked ruler, who perished through pride and tyranny, trampling all underfoot.

Upon his being removed, the prophecy proceeds to add the good things that are to come:

which comes to pass not according to the worthiness of those who are about to be ruled, but according to the mercy and goodness of God.

"And he shall reign in a tent, until he executes judgment, judging over all."

The throne established with truth shows the abolition of falsehood.

"And he shall reign, until he executes judgment."

This sets forth his righteous judgment upon all, according to which he does not pronounce upon each person haphazardly, but, seeking what is fitting and proper, so as to bring the judgment for each to a good end, urgently hastening and pressing on righteousness — not slackly, nor at a leisurely pace, but working it out with all diligence.

"We have heard of the pride of Moab;

I have removed his arrogance;

and his insolence and his wrath — not so is your divination, not so."

for in the land of Moab all shall wail.

"For those who dwell in Sedek, mourn, and you shall not be ashamed."

These words must be read as beginning a new section, not as dependent upon what precedes.

In many places Scripture, after allowing the hearer to take a breath through kinder words, and to look upon the goodness of God and the outcome that will follow from it, resumes — for the sake of our conversion — the threats and the matters concerning punishments.

For most of us need such things, lest, despising the riches of his goodness and forbearance, we store up for ourselves wrath, according to our own hardness and unrepentant heart, in the day of wrath and revelation and righteous judgment of God.

For we find something of this sort also in the Psalmist:

"The Lord is good to all."

And having said many things about his goodness — that he upholds those who fall, that he gives food in due season — he did not end there, but adds:

"The Lord keeps all who love him, but he will utterly destroy all sinners."

So here too, then, the words spoken, having shown great goodness toward those who turn back, again threaten the harsher things, from a fresh beginning.

For this is the one who insults those in the Church — some as servile and, on account of their ignorance, no different from them...

This is the one who effects reviling against each one:

this is the one who persuades the leaders of certain heresies to speak wickedness on high, and, if ever they should condescend to engage in inquiry, teaches them not to test the argument, but to insult the one who is able to expose the absurdity of their doctrines.

Therefore, healing him, the Lord says:

"I have removed his arrogance."

For the removal of the evil passion of arrogance is like the removal of a disease.

"But also his insolence," he says, "and his wrath."

These passions are the peculiar possessions of Moab:

Moab is the master of wicked possessions: insolence, devised for the dishonor of one's neighbor, and wrath, a persistent and prolonged anger.

"Not so is your divination, not so."

He reproaches the ancient scheme of Moab, since Balaam's divination was able to accomplish nothing against Israel, because the Lord God turned his mouth from cursing into blessing.

"Not so," he says, "is your divination, not so."

For Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent for Balaam the diviner, in whose hands were the arts of divination, and said:

"Curse this people for me."

Not in this way, then, did he obtain the oracles he demanded, since Balaam answered him:

"How shall I curse him whom the Lord does not curse? And how shall I curse him whom God does not curse?" Then he prophesies a wailing for the land of Moab:

"For (he says) Moab shall wail;"

"for in the land of Moab all shall wail."

Since, then, the wailing-cry is a cry of pain uttered, for the most part, by women held fast in the heaviest mourning, by saying "Moab shall wail" it shows both the painfulness of the blow and the weakness of those who suffer it.

"To those who dwell in Sedec, a meditation."

This saying, being unclear, the other translators render plainly:

"Speak to those who rejoice in the wall of baked clay."

There are some who think highly of themselves on account of dialectic, and who wrap around their doctrines, as though it were an indestructible wall, the assistance derived from it.

These, then, rejoicing, are found to be within the wall of baked clay.

And in order that it might be shown what the wall of baked clay is, he added "Speak."

For what could be more easily taken than a piece of pottery? Those who pride themselves on cheap myths worth no account—these are the ones who rejoice, speaking within the wall of baked clay.

This is the meaning of "To those who dwell in Sedec, a meditation."

Good meditation, then, is to meditate on the law of the Lord day and night;

but evil is that of the Moabites, namely that there will be meditation for those who dwell in Sedec.

Those, then, who meditate on words worthy of shame will feel no shame.

The punishment for not feeling shame is the barrenness of the fields of Heshbon.

Now this is the name of a Moabite city, possessing a broad expanse in the environs surrounding it;

which, because of the evil meditation of its inhabitants, will be barren and unfruitful, providing no benefit to those who dwell there.

But if one must also take some occasion from the meaning of the word, Heshbon is interpreted "reasoning."

The multitudes, then, of vain reasonings (which have been called "fields") shall mourn, since the wickedness, as it were, of the impious doctrines advances to nothing.

"You who swallow up the nations, trample down her vines as far as Jazer."

"Those who were sent have been forsaken."

"for they crossed over the sea."

"And therefore they shall weep (as with the weeping of Jazer) for the vine of Sibmah."

"Heshbon and Elealeh have cast down your trees, for upon your harvest and your vintage I will trample, and all shall fall."

"And gladness and rejoicing shall be taken away from the vineyards, and in your vineyards they shall no longer rejoice, nor shall they tread wine into the vats;"

"The fields of Heshbon shall mourn;"

now it is added that also "the vine of Sibmah" shall mourn (the verb "shall mourn" being understood in common for both).

Of each nation, then, a certain vine is spoken of; for example, there is a vine peculiar to Sodom and Gomorrah.

So too there is the vine of the Egyptians, which God strikes, according to what is said:

"He killed their vine with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost."

But there is also a certain vine which the Lord planted:

"For I will sing to my beloved a song of my beloved concerning my vineyard."

"My beloved had a vineyard on a horn, in a fertile place."

Again, the kingdom of God is called a vineyard, as the Lord set forth through the parable of the husbandmen, who took the vineyard for themselves but did not render its fruits.

"For (he says) the kingdom of heaven shall be taken away from you and given to a nation producing its fruits;"

the divine oracles shall be taken away from you, the law and the prophets, because you do not conduct your lives according to their intent;

and their meaning shall be given to a nation which, through its manner of life, produces its fruits.

As, therefore, here the vine is the word of truth, so the vine of Egypt is the false word that dwells among the Egyptians, having been handed over to them for cultivation by the ruler of the darkness of this world.

And the vineyard planted in Sodom is that which is cultivated by the evil custom of life, by the wicked people there who work for hire for the devil.

Those, then, who have learned his teachings and cast away the doctrines of the Lord have uprooted themselves from the true vine of God, who said:

"I am the true vine."

But they took the vine-branch from Sodom and Gomorrah, wherefore they cultivate a grape of gall and a cluster of bitterness;

"and their wine is the venom of dragons, and the incurable venom of asps."

So then, the vine called Sibmah, since Sibmah is interpreted "conversion," is perhaps a certain contrived teaching, which pretends to have some piety and withdrawal from evil invitations, but by this pretense leads many astray into its own perversion.

You would also find many words among those who hold heterodox views that are apt to turn people back and exhort them toward an ordered life;

if we understand that these are not truly converting people, but are set forth as decoys with respect to piety before the multitude, let us fittingly declare that the produce of such men's cultivation is the vine of Sibmah—that is, teaching not concerning piety nor concerning sound theology, but certain precepts concerning dignity and concerning communal fellowship and generosity.

This is the vine of Sibmah, cultivated by the Moabites, which, producing many of its own offshoots, is said to swallow up the nations.

For those who champion foreign doctrines, through the dialectic in which they happen to be trained, and through every capacity in argument, overcoming those untrained in philosophy and many other men, as it were swallow up those who are captured.

The word, then, is directed against these: "You who swallow up the nations."

"Having despised such words, trample them down."

For by being occupied with these things you will not be able to join and unite yourselves with Jazer, which is interpreted "strength."

It is impossible, then, for you to receive the strength that comes from the Spirit, which arises in those who walk uprightly, unless you trample down the vines of Sibmah.

"Forget your desolation, and no longer linger in it;"

"but having wandered away from it and abandoned it, dwell in better regions."

"Those who were sent have been forsaken."

There are certain false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ, who have been forsaken by God.

Let them not, then, deceive you, as though they had strength in these matters;

for they are helpless and forsaken.

And these very ones also crossed the sea.

But what this also signifies must be considered:

for such is the meaning of "I have come into the depths of the sea."

The contestant, then, does not flee circumstances, nor cross over the sea, but goes to meet them directly and submits himself to every trial.

But those who, in order not to be persecuted, conform themselves to the nations, and who, in order not to struggle and labor against bodily appetites, give way to pleasures—these are the ones who crossed the sea.

Is it not, then, that the weeping of Jazer is the weeping of strength, which the strong weep in a blessed manner, groaning indeed over their sojourning in this life and being weighed down by it, yet longing in soul and fainting for the courts of the Lord?

Or is it not rather that, just as strength that has been withered away by sickness is wept over, because it is no longer present to the one who once possessed it, so also the weeping over the vine of Sibmah will come about, since it has withered away and is about to be handed over to fire?

After this it is said to the land of Moab:

"Heshbon and Elealeh have cast down your trees."

Therefore Heshbon and Elealeh have cast down the trees of the land of Moab.

But what is signified by these things too, come, let us set forth as far as possible.

Heshbon is interpreted as "reasonings";

and Elealeh, "ascent of God."

Therefore the alien vine is thrown down, and all the trees which the heavenly Father did not plant, and the planting of those of heterodox opinion is overturned by right reasonings and by the ascent that raises us up to God through good works.

"Blessed, therefore, is the man whose help is from you;"

"your ascents are in his heart."

He, then, who has God's ascents upon his heart, and who takes care of his own reasonings, will be able to overthrow the doctrines of those of heterodox opinion, badly planted and bearing fruit unto destruction.

Then he says, "Upon your harvest and upon your vintage I will trample, and all things shall fall."

For since the grain which he harvests and the wine which he treads are contrary to the bread that strengthens man's heart, and to the wine that gladdens man's heart, God, being good, tramples them, not allowing them to become food or drink for those who partake of them indiscriminately through ignorance of the harm coming from them.

Therefore, "Upon your harvest and your vintage I will trample, and all things shall fall."

"And gladness and rejoicing shall be taken away from the vineyards;"

"and they shall not rejoice, and they shall not tread wine into the vats;"

Gladness and rejoicing, then, have been taken away from the vineyards.

The kingdom of God has been taken away from Israel and given to a nation producing its fruits.

Or, since we said that the vine is the false word, it can also be understood that the gladness which arises in the deceived from all falsely-named knowledge — as though cultivated from a vine that produces an illusion of gladness, but not truth — is taken away, so that those who were deceived are no longer such.

For those who previously admired these things will no longer rejoice in them once they have been refuted, nor will those who have been taught the harm that follows for those who drink of it cultivate the Moabite grape-cluster.

Perhaps, too, the vats are the souls that receive the wicked teaching.

"her hand-made idols, so as to pray, and he shall not be able to deliver him."

"This is the word which the Lord spoke against Moab, when he spoke it."

The Prophet's belly, then, shall sound like a harp concerning Moab, that is, it will produce a harmonious and musical, well-measured sound, from the skill of him who strikes it artfully.

By "belly" he means what the Psalmist elsewhere called "that which is within":

"Bless the Lord, O my soul" (he says), "and all that is within me, bless his holy name."

For who is it that commands the things within himself to bless the name of the Lord, if not the nature of the reasonings that come forth from within? Of these the order is twofold:

for some happen to be wicked;

murders, adulteries, thefts, false testimonies, and an evil eye;

while others are seemly and salutary:

benevolence, temperance, sociability and good report, and testimonies according to God, and a pure eye, and things similar to these.