Commentary on Isaiah 3 part 1/2

Chapter 3. Behold now, the Sovereign Lord of hosts shall take away from Judea and from Jerusalem the strong man and the strong woman.

Just as the best physician, now cauterizing, now cutting, now administering bitter medicines, contrives the health of the sick,

so also the God who loves mankind, by manifold and diverse punishments tightening up what was dissolute and slack among the Jews, now by the assault of the barbarians strikes fear into the thankless, now, even before those men's attack, restrains them with other threats, by the variety of the threats keeping the fear within them ever at its height.

Now, at any rate, he threatens them with weakness and famine and drought—not merely of the necessities, but of those things which no less than the essentials sustain our life.

For not only is famine grievous, but also to be left destitute of those who govern affairs;

which is wont to make even abundance more grievous than famine.

For what profit is there that all things should flow abundantly as from springs, when civil wars are begotten and the sea is stirred up, and, while the waves rage, there is neither helmsman nor look-out man nor any other able to order the tempest of affairs and to establish calm? And when together with these there is also famine, consider the excess of the evils.

All these things, then, God threatens, and first the most grievous of all.

For behold, he says, the Sovereign Lord of hosts.

'Behold'—the prophets continually use it, whenever they wish to give the hearer full assurance concerning the things spoken.

And not only here, but also from above and from the beginning one may see that sins often preceded bodily weakness, as in the case of Cain;

for since he did not use his strength well, he was fittingly enfeebled.

So too the man at the pool;

for that the source of the palsy was his sins, Christ declares:

Behold, you have been made whole; sin no more.

For this reason many among you are weak;

since they were sinning, partaking of the mysteries with a conscience that was not pure.

And him who had committed fornication he delivers over to bodily weakness, exacting this penalty for his sins.

Yet this is not everywhere a penalty for sins, but there are cases where the matter becomes even an occasion for crowns, as in the case of Lazarus and of Job.

And not weaknesses only, but also other maimings of the body came about from sins, as the leprosy of Uzziah on account of the shamelessness of his purpose, as the hand of King Jeroboam which endured withering on account of his madness and his—

And the tongue of Zacharias was disciplined from no other cause than the sin of his soul.

Since, then, for the Jews to be in good bodily condition and vigorous, and to plume themselves on these advantages, became an occasion of madness, he cut away the root of their arrogance, admonishing them and making them better, and giving them more than he took away from them.

For what harm is it that the body should be weak, when thereby the soul is disciplined? Then, lest they should think the affliction that came upon them to be a natural weakness, the prophet proclaimed it beforehand; and he did not halt the threat at the men, but carried the punishment over to the female sex as well, since both natures had been corrupted; and going on, because of the excess of the outrage, he directs his words against the women themselves also, bringing against them charges which overturned the very city from its foundations.

For this very reason he encompasses them too with the pestilence;

for either he seems to me to be hinting at a pestilence when he says:

I will take away the strong man and the strong woman;

or some other bodily weakness that yields not even to the arts of physicians.

For such are the plagues of God.

The strength of bread and the strength of water.

Most grievous is the punishment, when it does not destroy the substance itself, but the power that arises from it, so that they are chastised even by the sight, never being satisfied, and are able from this very thing to perceive that the wrath was sent from God.

Scripture is always wont to call the strong man a 'giant,' or him who surpasses the multitude in the proportion of his limbs.

For indeed in the account of creation, when it says:

These were the giants, the men of renown—it does not say this as recounting that some other race had come into being, but it is hinting to us at the strong and robust and vigorous men.

And a man of war and a judge.

Unbearable is the punishment, and the things spoken are a proof of utmost destruction; and, though the walls and the towers stand, it could deliver up the city with all its men to the enemy.

For the security of cities lies not in stones and timbers and enclosing walls, but in the good sense of those who inhabit the city; who, when they are present, though enemies be at hand, fortify it more securely than anything else;

but when they are absent, though no one troubles it, they render it more wretched than a besieged city.

So that through these things the prophet taught both those men and all the hearers no small doctrine of wisdom, persuading them never to take confidence in the greatness of a city, nor in trenches and engines of war, but in the virtue of upright men.

So then, terrifying them, he says that he will strip the city of its security, snatching away not only those who know how to make war, but also those who understand how to judge, who contribute to the cities no less than the warriors, both ordering peace well and often repelling the wars that come upon them.

For since these wars too continually spring from the root of sins, it is possible for the guardians of the laws and those who preside over justice with exactness, by restraining the greater part of the sins, to do away also with the occasion of war.

For what reason, then, does God pluck them up? Because, when they were present, the people did not use them as they ought.

For just as his saving teachings brought much benefit to those who listened, whereas, when addressing the Jews, he hid the things spoken in obscurity because they did not attend to what was said;

so also these his great gifts, which bring us much salvation, he often takes away from our midst, whenever those who receive them are unwilling to reap any fruit from them.

Both a prophet and a diviner (seer).

And it is no small form of wrath, that the prophecies should fail.

When at any rate God turned away from the people of the Jews on account of the sins of the sons of Eli and the great wickedness of the multitude, prophecy failed;

For the word, it says, was precious, and there was no vision to distinguish.

'Precious,' that is, rare.

And in the case of Uzziah this same thing came to pass;

for from this too they would reap no small benefit, if only they were willing.

For to learn the things from God, and to prepare oneself for the dreadful things to come, and to inquire concerning things unseen, and when to attack—

one must know against enemies, and when to keep quiet, and how one ought to ward off all grievous things—this brought them much ease of salvation.

But since, though they learned, they did not act, on this account he took away from them even the very learning;

which was a proof of God's great love for mankind, that, though he foreknew the things to come and that they would not use his gifts for what was needful, he nevertheless bestowed on them all that came from himself.

And along with the prophet he says that he will also take away the diviner (seer).

Here, it seems to me, he is speaking of a man of conjecture, one who from great sagacity guesses at things to come, and does so from the very experience of affairs.

For conjecture is one thing and prophecy another.

For the one speaks by the divine Spirit, contributing nothing of his own;

but the other, taking his starting points from things that have already happened and rousing his own understanding, foresees much of what is to come, as it is likely that a man endowed with intelligence should foresee.

But great is the distance between the one and the other, as great indeed as is the difference between human understanding and divine grace.

But that I may make my meaning plain by an example as well, let us consider Solomon and Elisha;

for both of them brought hidden things to light and revealed what was concealed;

yet the two did not do so by the same power;

but the one, taking his starting points from human understanding derived from nature, in the case of those two harlot women;

while the other, employing no reasoning at all (for what reasoning could have been able to uncover the theft of Gehazi?), but by divine grace foreseeing things that had happened far off.

'And an elder and a captain of fifty.'

Together with these, then, he says that He will remove both the elder and the captain of fifty;

by 'elder' meaning not simply one advanced in years, but him who together with his grey hairs preserves the understanding befitting grey hairs.

And when he says 'captain of fifty,' he does not mean some one particular captain of fifty, but by this name he hints at all the rulers.

For there is nothing, nothing more grievous than anarchy, just as nothing could be more perilous than a ship that has no pilot.

And he does not even stop here, but threatens to remove yet another great safeguard: those who know how to give the best counsel, who bring to cities a benefit no less than that of arms.

'For I will take away,' He says, 'both the wonderful counsellor and the wise master builder.'

By this he does not mean the house builder, but the man experienced in affairs, who knows many things and understands how to order with sagacity all the concerns of the city.

For if this be lacking, even though all else be present, there will be no advantage to the cities; even though there be prophets, even counsellors, even men of power, yet if there be no one to hearken, all is in vain and to no purpose.

But it seems to me that here in saying 'I will take away' he means 'I will permit and let go,' just as Paul says:

'God gave them over to a reprobate mind';

not showing by this that He cast them into folly, but that He let go and left them, since they were foolish.

'And I will set young men as their rulers.'

This is worse than anarchy, and by far more grievous.

For he who has no ruler is deprived of one to lead him by the hand;

but he who has a wicked one has one who thrusts him down into the precipices.

And here by 'young men' he did not simply disparage the age, but from what predominates he displays their folly.

For it is possible both that the young should be sensible and that those who have grown old should live in folly;

but since the former is wont to happen only rarely, while the more prevalent case is the opposite, from that latter he named them foolish.

Since Timothy too was young, and yet more wisely than countless aged men he set the Churches in order;

and Solomon, when he was twelve years old, conversed with God and enjoyed much boldness, and was proclaimed and crowned, and made even the barbarians an audience for his wisdom; and not men only, but already women too, coming from afar, had this as the sole purpose of their journey, to learn something and to hear from that man's voice;

but when he came to old age, he greatly slackened in virtue.

And his father too, the blessed David, committed that grievous sin not when he was a boy

and a youth, but when he had passed beyond this age, then it was that he sinned.

But when he happened to be a small child, he set up a marvellous trophy and brought down the barbarian and displayed all wisdom, and his youth was no hindrance to him for these achievements.

And Jeremiah too, when he put forward the excuse drawn from his age, God did not accept it, but led him out to the people of the Jews, saying that he was in no way hindered thereby, if the powers of his mind were in vigour.

Being of this age, or rather much younger even than this, Daniel judged the elders.

And Josiah, when he was not yet even ten full years old, ascended the throne of the kingdom;

and at that time indeed he was of good repute, but afterwards, growing somewhat negligent, he marred the virtue of his soul.

And what of Joseph? Was he not young, and exceedingly young, when he took up that grievous war, contending not against men but against the very tyranny of nature, and out of the midst of a furnace and a flame far more grievous than the Persian one leapt forth unharmed, remaining no less unscathed than the three children? For just as those, bringing out then their bodies together with their very hair intact, showed that they came forth as from a fountain rather than from a furnace;

so also this man, being set free from the accursed hands of the Egyptian woman, came forth, having suffered nothing whether from the touch, or from the words, or from the sight, or from the garments, or from the perfumes—which kindled the flame of desire more fiercely than a faggot and pitch—nor from his very age suffering any such thing as it is likely a man should suffer.

And these three children themselves, being in the very flower of their age, both mastered the belly and trampled underfoot the fear of death, and prevailed over so great a host and a king who breathed forth wrath more fiercely than the furnace itself, and nothing dismayed them, but they continued throughout keeping their spirit unenslaved.

It is not then to disparage youth that he says these things;

since Paul too, when he says:

'Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil,' does not mean the young in age, but the newly planted, that is, the newly instructed;

for he calls to instruct and to teach 'to plant,' just as when he says:

'I planted, Apollos watered.'

And Christ too calls such a thing a planting, saying:

'Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up.'

Since, if by 'novice' he meant the young, he would not have raised Timothy—who was exceedingly young, and so young that he says:

'Let no one despise your youth'—to so great a weight of authority, nor entrusted him with the charge of bearing so many Churches.

'And mockers shall rule over them.'

Do you see how he does not simply disparage the age, but the corrupted disposition? For by what follows he made this clearer.

By 'mockers' here he means the deceivers, the dissemblers, the flatterers, those who by the charm of their words toast men over to the devil.

'And the people shall fall together, man against man and man against his neighbour.'

For just as, when the timbers that hold buildings together are decayed or even removed, the walls must needs collapse, there being nothing to hold them;

so also, when those aforementioned were removed—rulers, counsellors, judges, prophets—there was nothing to prevent the people from collapsing upon itself and great confusion from arising.

'The child shall behave insolently against the elder, and the base against the honourable.'

'The young man,' he says, 'shall set himself against the aged, shall look down upon him, shall despise him.'

These things were more grievous than any war, even before the assault of the enemy.

For when old age is dishonoured by youth, and the worthless and outcast trample upon those who were formerly held in reverence, such a city will be no better disposed than a ship tossed by the waves.

'For a man shall lay hold of his brother, or of one of his father's household, saying:

You have a garment; be our leader, and let my food be under your charge.'

'And he shall answer in that day, saying:

There is neither bread in my house, nor a garment;'

'I will not be a leader of this people.'

Here it seems to me that he is either hinting at some most grievous siege, which reduced them to the utmost straitness, or, apart from a siege, at some unbearable famine and a great scarcity of the necessities of life.

And he has employed a common manner of speaking;

and just as many say, 'If it should happen that the whole city were being sold for an obol, I could not have the means to buy it,' thereby indicating their utmost poverty;

so also the prophet says that even if for a single garment and a single loaf of bread the offices of rule could be purchased, there would be no one to buy them.

So great will be the scarcity of the necessities of life.

That is, it has been forsaken, laid waste, stripped bare of the providence of God.

'And Judea has fallen together';

it is filled, he says, with turmoil and uproar, with confusion and disorder.

'And their tongues, joined with lawlessness, are disobedient toward the Lord.'

Then he sets forth the cause of their evils: the unrestraint of the tongue.

This is what Hosea too rebukes, saying:

'Ephraim became a desolation in the days of reproof;'

'among the tribes of Israel I have shown things that are trustworthy.'

And Malachi likewise says the same things again:

'You who provoke God with your words;'

'In what have we provoked him? In that you say:'

'everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and in such men he himself takes pleasure.'

'And where is the God of justice?' This indeed is what he himself lays to their charge, bringing forward a twofold accusation: that they not only disobey and not only transgress the law, but that, when they ought at least to feel shame at this and to blush, to cover their faces and hang their heads low, they instead strive to outdo their former deeds, and, besides failing to do what is enjoined, utter grievous and burdensome words.

As though some thankless household servant, abandoning the commands of his master, should moreover grow insolent.

'Therefore now their glory has been brought low, and the shame of their countenance has risen up against them.'

Again he speaks of things to come as though already past, employing the customary manner of prophecy.

By 'humbling of glory' he means the captivity.

For it was no ordinary shame that those who ranked among the rulers of the world should be made subject to profane and barbarous men.

By 'shame of the countenance' he here means that which arises from sin.

For such was their manner of life.

Since therefore they had beforehand disgraced themselves by what they did, for this very reason the God of glory cast them out, handing them over to a lesser punishment than that which they had brought upon themselves.

For they were not so reproached when dwelling in a foreign land as when, possessing their own mother-city, they broke the law.

For then their wickedness was in some measure held in check;

but in their own homeland it was even lifted up to greater heights.

A great doctrine, then, the prophet was teaching them, everywhere persuading them to flee wickedness before punishment, and to cover their faces and be ashamed;

not when barbarians take and lead them away as slaves, but when the tyranny of sin holds them captive.

'And their sin they proclaimed and made manifest, as Sodom.'

What I have often said, I say also now:

that the prophet, showing forth God's love for mankind, foretells not what they are about to suffer, but rather what they deserved to suffer.

For their sins were equal to those of Sodom, but their punishments were far less.

For he did not snatch them away root and all, nor did he tear the city up from its foundations, nor did he blot out the remnants of the race.

The phrase 'They proclaimed and made manifest' is spoken in a more human manner.

For God does not learn what has been done when it happens (how could he, who knows all things before they come to be?), but he spoke thus in order to show the greatness of its vehemence.

'The cry of their wickedness has come up to me' — not that he thereby banishes God somewhere far off and shuts him up in heaven when he says these things, but that he declares the greatness of the sin;

so indeed here too, in saying 'They proclaimed,' he speaks to indicate the excess of their wickedness.

For since the lesser sins might even escape notice,

but those that are excessive and great are known and evident to all, even though there be none to accuse or convict,

it proclaims itself and makes itself manifest.

The prophet, wishing here to show the greatness of the evils, says 'They proclaimed and made manifest' — that is, with much excess and much boldness they did evil, neither ashamed nor covering their faces, but making a practice of wickedness.

'Woe to their soul, because they have taken evil counsel against themselves, saying:'

'let us bind the righteous man, for he is troublesome to us.'

It is an intensification of wickedness when men not only sin, and not only sin with boldness, but also drive away those who are able to correct such things.

For just as those held in the grip of frenzy have often beaten their physician, so these men too displayed this as the greatest sign of an incurable sickness — the casting out of the righteous.

and merely by appearing, it suffices to grieve one who lives in wickedness.

nor by rebuking; often the very presence of those who choose to live in uprightness is a burden to them.

The accusation here is twofold: both that they bind the righteous man and that they bind him as though he were useless.

When, then, someone not only fails to admit what is beneficial, but even reckons it to be harmful, what pretext for correction is left after that? Therefore the prophet, seeing them run aground upon the uttermost extreme, begins again from lamentation, not from accusation and charges, saying:

and what follows, with much discernment:

'Because they have taken evil counsel against themselves.'

And yet what was done seems to have been dared against the righteous man;

but if one should examine it accurately, the counsel turns not against the one who suffers, but against those who do it.

Here we learn that the good man, even should he suffer countless terrible things, will in no way be harmed by those who do them;

but rather those who plot against him — these are the ones who thrust the sword against themselves, just as these men do.

For in binding the righteous man they harmed him in nothing, but rather set themselves in greater darkness and desolation, in removing the lamp out of the way.

'Therefore they shall eat the fruits of their own works.'

it holds the punishment within itself.

Which is what he says here too, that is:

they shall reap the enjoyment of their own fruits, setting themselves in greater desolation and preparing for themselves many precipices.

'for evil things shall befall him according to the works of his hands.'

Do you see that the measures and the beginnings of punishment always come from ourselves? For this very reason the prophet again laments and mourns and is torn asunder, because the Jews plotted against their own selves and ruined their own salvation more grievously than any enemy could;

than which what could be more wretched? 'My people, your exactors glean you.'

This is the mark of an excellent teacher: to vary his discourse, and neither only to make it harsh nor only to make it gentle, but now to handle this form, now that, so that from the mixture much profit may arise.

For this very reason the prophet does not only accuse, but also laments — which is indeed weightier than accusations, yet inflicts a lesser pain;

and this is the marvel, that with the deeper the incision, the gentler the pang.

And he does not only lament, but also heals, and stirs up yet another admirable manner of teaching.

What kind is this? Not to rebuke all together under one head, but to separate the common people from the rulers and to turn the charges back upon the head of those rulers.

For so great is the gain of this method that even Moses employed it, and with even greater excess.

For this prophet, though all were liable to the charges, turns his discourse against the rulers;

but Moses, finding that at that time it was especially the people who had wrought that transgression, while Aaron was not deserving of so great an accusation, let go those who were most culpable and turned the accusation upon the one who was not so culpable, by charging him with the offenses against him giving him occasion, through conscience, to condemn himself to a punishment greater than their own;

For he had no further need of any other words addressed to the people, but those bare words spoken to Aaron sufficed to subdue so many thousands, as though they were a single man,

and to cast them down from such great insolence into fear and the uttermost anguish.

Foreseeing these very things, Moses came down at once, shattered the tablets, and said to Aaron:

'What did this people do to you, that you have made them a laughing-stock to their enemies?'

This too is what this prophet does, imitating that holy man in a twofold manner.

For Moses did not then merely bring the accusation, but taking upon himself the guise of one who suffered along with them, thus made that indictment.

So this prophet too imitated both things when he said:

'O my people, your exactors glean you clean.'

For he both accused those men, and, as one grieving together with the people, spoke these words.

By 'exactors' here he seems to mean those who demand payment;

but I think he is hinting at the rapacious, at those who exploit them out of greed;

or if not this, then those who levy tribute.

Observe his discernment here also.

For he does not cast out the practice itself, but the excess.

'They glean you clean,' that is, they strip you of your possessions, they rob you of everything under the pretext of collecting what is due.

He has used this expression by a metaphor drawn from those who glean.

For 'to glean' is said of gathering up, after the harvest, the ears of grain that have fallen from the reapers, and of leaving nothing at all upon the field;

which is indeed what these men too were then doing, snatching away entire possessions and leaving the people stripped bare.

'And those who demand payment lord it over you.'

And what was the more grievous thing: that they did not even stop here in their covetousness, but pressed their tyranny yet further, making the free into slaves.

'O my people, those who call you blessed lead you astray.'

Here he seems to me to be hinting at the false prophets, or at those who speak to them to win their favour, which everywhere becomes the cause of the uttermost corruption.

Accordingly, to show the harm arising from this, he added:

'And they trouble the path of your feet';

that is, they do not allow you to walk upright, but pervert you, enervate you, and make you the more slothful.

'But now the Lord shall stand up to judge, and shall set his people in judgment;'

'the Lord himself shall come to judgment with the elders of the people and with their rulers.'

He still continues in the same manner of correction, turning his rebuke from the common people toward the aged and the rulers, and handling his discourse in a more fearsome way;

and he brings in God himself sitting in judgment and passing sentence, and charging the rulers with the sins of the people.

'But now the Lord shall stand up to judge.'

For since he had spent his discourse upon accusations, and since to those who are dully disposed being accused is not so heavy a thing, but being punished is fearful, he says that matters will not stop at accusation, but that punishment too will follow upon the sins, since the very One who is to condemn now demands an accounting and enters into judgment with those who have transgressed.

This also shows the great condescension of God, in that he suffers himself to enter into judgment with those men; and it makes the discourse convicting, which is wont to cast even those who have understanding into great anguish.

And it is not only for that reason which I mentioned before that he turns his discourse toward the rulers and the aged, but also to teach all men that the accountings required of rulers are heavier than those of the ruled.

For the one renders account for himself alone, but the other for himself and for the people whose government has been committed to his charge;

and the elders too are not unreasonably required to give such an exact reckoning.

For what office is to those rulers, that age is to these.

For the young man too is worthy of rebuke when he commits grievous sins;

but he who has the exemption that comes with age, and is not besieged by so many waves of passions, but is able both to be temperate more easily and to endure more readily the other cares of life, and has acquired greater understanding from experience of affairs, would justly be condemned more than all, since he displays in old age the deeds of licentious youths.

'But you, why have you set fire to my vineyard, and the plunder of the poor

is in your houses?' Everywhere God has great care for those who are wronged;

and he is provoked no less over the sins committed against himself—nay, there are cases where he is provoked even more—over the transgressions committed against fellow servants.

For he permitted a man who had an adulterous wife to put her away, but not one who had a Greek wife;