Commentary on Isaiah 7 part 1/2

Chapter 7. 'And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah.'

What I have often said, this I shall say now also: that in olden times the prophecies were not made for this purpose, merely that the Jews might learn what was to come, but that, having learned, they might thereby gain profit, and by the fear of the threat become more temperate, and by the promise of good things become more eager for the practice of virtue — learning from both sides both the power of God and His care for them.

For it was on this account that the things spoken were foretold, and in order that they might not suppose that the events came upon them merely and by chance, according to some sequence of nature or course of affairs, but that they might know that both these things come from above and from the decree of God — which greatly profited them toward the knowledge of God.

which greatly profited them toward the knowledge of God.

But since, as I have already said before, the prophecy did not have its demonstration at that very moment, but the words were spoken then, while the events were to come to pass long ages afterward — some of the hearers often passing away beforehand and being unable to judge by the sequence of what was said — behold what God does and contrives.

He joins a nearer prophecy to longer-range prophecies, providing the one that came to pass in their own generation as a most weighty demonstration of those things that would come to pass long afterward.

But in the Gospels He arranges this kind of benefit in yet another manner, joining miracles to prophecies and confirming the one by the other.

The leper once came to Him and was cleansed; and after him again the centurion's servant was delivered from that grievous sickness; and these were great signs.

yet nevertheless He did not stop at the signs, but added a prophecy as well.

For since the centurion displayed that wonderful and great faith, through which he delivered his servant from the sickness, Christ went on to say:

'Many shall come from east and west, and shall recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.'

And these things He said, foreannouncing both the calling of the Gentiles and the casting off of the Jews;

which indeed has now come to pass in the events themselves, and is shown to all more plainly than the sun;

but at that time it was as yet uncertain and, to the unbelieving, not readily accepted.

For this reason, then, He took beforehand as a sign the thing that came to pass at that time, laying up in advance much faith for that which would come to pass afterward;

just as, then, the prophecy itself, now being manifest in the events, by the sign

that came to pass at that time, provides much confirmation.

For what could the unbeliever say? That the leper was not cleansed? Let him look at the truth of the prophecy, and from this let him also believe the sign.

And what could the Jews of that time say? That the things He foretells are not true? Let them see the leper being cleansed, and from the things done in his case let them not disbelieve concerning the things to come — those receiving as a most weighty pledge the sign of the prophecy, and those of the present time receiving the prophecy of the sign.

Do you see how the one is established through the other? This too one may see happening in the Old Testament.

For since Jeroboam too raged with that grievous madness and set up golden calves, the prophet came and both foreannounced the things to come and straightway gave a sign.

For in order that no one might disbelieve the things that would come to pass after three hundred years, he rent the altar and poured out the fatness and withered the hand of the king, providing from the things done before their eyes a clear demonstration of the things that would come to pass after much time.

And one may see many such things happening both in the New and in the Old Testament, God ordering our salvation in various ways.

This indeed has happened here also, and with greater abundance;

for He wove together not a sign only, but a prophecy together with a sign at the same time.

But in order that the things spoken may become clearer, let us go over the history itself with precision.

'And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Aram, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up against Jerusalem to make war against it, and they were not able to besiege it.'

'And it was reported to the house of David, saying:'

'Aram has made an agreement with Ephraim.'

What is said is indeed history and a narration of events;

but he who has understanding and sees sharply will reap much gain from this too, learning thoroughly the great wisdom of God and His care for the Jews.

For neither did He hold back the war from the outset, nor did He permit those who had come to prevail over the city; but letting the threat conveyed by words come to pass, He hindered the actual experience of it — at once rousing them from sleep and delivering them from their sloth, and at the same time displaying His own power: that it was possible for Him, even when the calamities had come to their very end, to keep those who had fallen into them unharmed, as though they had not even taken a beginning.

One may see Him doing this in many places;

as in the case of the Babylonian furnace, and of the lions' den, and in countless other affairs.

For indeed these came and besieged, and having laid hold of the walls and shaken the minds of those dwelling within, they availed nothing further.

And from this too one may see the lawlessness of the ten tribes: that not only did they take up a civil war, nor merely that they rose in faction against their brethren, but that they even joined themselves to foreigners and aliens; and those who were not even permitted so much as to have fellowship with them, these they called as allies, and made common cause and stood against the city.

For they stirred up Rezin, who was a foreigner, against the mother-city.

And the circumstances of the battle were unequal.

For on their side there was a boundless multitude, and cities and nations and peoples;

but here there was none of these, only a single city, the mother-city — so that from the abundance the strength of God might be made manifest.

For with no one moving weapons, nor going out and drawing up in battle array, those men fell away from these wicked undertakings.

'For they were not able,' he says, 'to besiege it.'

And yet what was it that hindered them? Nothing else, but the hand of God invisibly repelling them.

Nevertheless, as I said, He repelled the war, but did not immediately take away the fear.

'For it was reported,' he says, 'to the house of David, that Aram had made an agreement with Ephraim.'

'And his soul was shaken, and the soul of his people.'

Whenever God is about to do something marvelous, He does not immediately bring on the wonder, but first allows those who are to benefit from it to come to a perception of the calamities, so that after their deliverance from the calamities there may be no ingratitude.

For since most men, partly through pride and partly through sloth, forget the calamities after their deliverance from the calamities — or, not forgetting, wish to reckon the successes to themselves — He first allows them to be shaken by the grievous things, and then gives them freedom from the things that trouble them;

which indeed He has done here also.

He allowed their hearts to be shaken, He allowed them to come into great anguish, and then He brought on the deliverance.

This He did also in the case of the great David.

For since He was about to lead him forth into the battle array and to raise up that splendid trophy through his hands, He did not do this from the very outset of the war, but, having allowed them for forty days to be worn down by fear — when they had despaired of their own salvation, and while the barbarian was heaping upon them countless reproaches, and not even so did anyone dare to rouse himself and receive the adversary — then indeed, then, when their defeat had been acknowledged and their weakness had become manifest, He led the youth to the war and wrought that marvelous victory.

For if, even after these things and after so great a proof of their weakness, the king who had been saved, wasting away with envy and malice, plotted against David, having become wholly given over to his passion, and showed himself ungrateful toward his benefactor — if he had not given so great a proof both of his own cowardice and that of his whole army, what would he not have done? This very thing one may see God doing in many other places as well;

for since He is about to end the war and deliver them from their sorrows, He first allows them to perceive the calamities.

'For his soul was shaken,' he says, 'and the soul of his people, as a tree in a wood is shaken by the wind.'

And this too is proper to prophecy: to bring forth into the open their hidden things.

For it interprets to us the passion of each one's mind, and for the sake of clarity adds an image as well, so as to show the intensity of the anguish.

'For their soul was shaken,' he says, their spirit was cast down, they despaired of salvation, they thought themselves to be in the utmost straits, they expected nothing good, each one was betrayed by his own reasonings.

What then does God do? He foretells the deliverance, and then works it, so that they might not again reckon the freeing of the city to some other cause; and He sends the prophet to foreannounce the things to come.

'For the Lord said,' he says, 'to Isaiah:'

'Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Jashub who is left, at the pool of the upper way of the fuller's field;'

'take heed to be quiet, and fear not, neither let your soul be faint;'

'neither be afraid because of these two smoking firebrands of wood.'

'For when the anger of my wrath comes, I will heal again.'

What does it mean, 'Go out to meet'? Because of his fear and anguish the king was not quiet, nor could he endure to remain at home; but, as it is the custom for those under siege to do, he continually went out, surveying the walls, coming to the gates, busying himself and prying anxiously, to see how the affairs of the enemy stood.

'You and your son Jashub who is left?' Jashub in the Hebrew tongue means 'the return' and 'the manner of life.'

For this reason also Jesse, when he sent David, said:

'And you shall bring back their pledge'—

that is, 'You shall report to me their manner of life, and how they are faring in their doings.'

And here too, then, it seems to me, the prophet is commanded to take a multitude with him, so that when the things foretold come to pass, the king may not be able to plead ignorance, as though he had heard none of these things from the prophet.

'Go out to meet him, you and those who remain with you, those of the people who have been left behind.'

Do not be surprised if he calls the people his son;

'Behold, I and the children whom God has given me.'

For the saints held the rank of fathers, hiding all the claims of nature beneath the love and care they bore toward that people.

He calls them 'those who have been left behind,' because many had been carried off by the enemy.

'On the road of the fuller's field.'

This too seems to me to present great difficulty—if indeed those who were shut in and besieged, and who dared not even peep out, appeared outside the gates.

For this road now appears to lie outside the walls.

What then is the solution to this difficulty? That in ancient times the city was encircled by yet another wall;

for the city had double walls;

and this is easy to perceive from another prophet, for those willing to give heed.

Having gone out, therefore, he raises up their fallen spirits and bids them take courage concerning what is to come.

'Be still,' he says, 'and do not fear;'

and he calls the kings 'smoking firebrands of wood,' indicating at once both their fierceness and their vulnerability.

For it is on this account that he added 'smoking'—that is, being now near to being quenched.

Then, showing that the assault came not from their power but from His own permission, he says:

'For when the wrath of my anger is aroused, I will heal again.'

'And the son of Aram and the son of Remaliah, because they have devised an evil counsel—Ephraim and the son of Remaliah—saying against you:'

'We will go up into Judea, and afflict it, and having conferred together we will turn them over to ourselves, and we will set as king over it the son of Tabeel.'

'Thus says the Lord of Sabaoth:'

'This counsel shall by no means stand, neither shall it come to pass;'

'but the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin.'

'And yet sixty-five years, and the kingdom of Ephraim shall cease to be a people.'

'And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.'

'And unless you believe, neither shall you understand.'

Again the prophet furnishes a most powerful proof of his prophecy.

For since fear had shaken them, and the terrors were before their eyes, while the good things lay in hope and surpassed all expectation, and the hearers were not very ready to believe, see what he does.

He gives a most mighty sign of the things that are to come, bringing the enemies' plans out into the open.

For he tells their intent, with which they marched against the city, and what they said to one another, and what they agreed upon before returning; and he shows that the matter was either treachery (for 'having conferred with them,' he says, 'we will turn them over to ourselves') or that they were drunk with utter madness, thinking they had no need even of arms, nor of battle array and engagement, in order to take the city.

'For it is enough for us,' he says, 'merely to appear and to parley, and then to take them all captive and depart.'

Then, as is the way with the arrogant, being puffed up by this hope, they even deliberate about a king, as though the city were already taken, and about whom they must set over the mother-city.

'And their designs,' he says, 'are of this sort;'

'but God's purposes are destructive of all those things.'

And he did not stop there, but added, 'Sabaoth.'

For whenever he is about to announce something great, he calls to mind the power of God, and the kingdom on high, and that wondrous and marvelous dominion.

What then does God say? 'This counsel shall by no means stand, neither shall it come to pass;'

'but the head of Aram is Damascus.'

'His dominion,' he says, 'his authority, shall stand in Damascus, and shall advance no further.'

'And the head of Damascus is Rezin.'

'And the ruler of Damascus,' he says, 'and its lord, shall be Rezin;'

that is, he shall remain within his own bounds, and shall add no greater power to himself.

'And yet sixty-five years, and the kingdom of Ephraim shall cease to be a people.'

And it is the greatest proof of the truth, when the prophets foretell the very times as well, thereby providing to those willing to examine it with exactness the power of the prophecy.

'For now,' he says, 'they shall withdraw from the city;'

'but after sixty-five years the nation shall utterly perish, and the kingdom of Israel shall pass away, and the enemies shall take them and drive them all off.'

'Now, however, before that captivity, they shall gain nothing beyond what is their own.'

For lest the king, hearing that after sixty-five years they would perish, should say to himself, 'What of it? If, after taking us now, they are to perish then, what benefit is that to us?'—'Take courage,' he says, 'also concerning present matters.'

'For then they shall be utterly captured;'

'now, however, they shall possess nothing beyond what is their own.'

'But the head of Ephraim'—that is, of the ten tribes—'shall be Samaria;'

for there was their kingdom;

and it shall not be extended further;

'and the head of Samaria is the king of Israel;'

showing here the same thing he said concerning the Damascene—that they shall possess nothing beyond what they now hold.

Then, since he had spoken of things surpassing human reason, higher than the sequence of ordinary reasonings, and since what was said was prophecy, he fittingly added:

'Unless you believe, neither shall you understand.'

'Do not seek,' he says, 'how and in what manner these things shall be;'

'for it is God who works them, and you have need of faith alone, and you shall conceive the power of Him who does them;'

'you have received the full proof of the things that have been said.'

Wherefore the prophet David also said:

'I believed, therefore I also spoke.'

And Paul, fittingly laying hold of this saying, drew it out to greater matters, saying:

'But having the same Spirit of faith, according to what is written:'

'I believed, therefore I also spoke—we too believe, therefore we also speak.'

For if the things of old required faith, standing at as great a distance from those in the New as earth from heaven, how much more does the knowledge of doctrines so lofty, which had never even entered anyone's mind at any time.

Which very thing he himself also declared, saying:

The things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor which have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.

And the Lord again spoke to Ahaz, saying:

Ask for yourself a sign from the Lord your God, in the depth or in the height.

I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.

Hear now, O house of David:

Is it a small thing for you to weary men? And how do you weary the Lord? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign.

Behold, the virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.

Great is the condescension of God, and great the ingratitude of the king.

For he ought, having heard the prophet, to have doubted nothing concerning the things spoken;

but even if he did doubt, he should at least have believed upon receiving a sign, which is what many among the Jews have done.

For God, being a lover of mankind, did not refuse to grant even this repeatedly to those who were more dull, who crawled upon the ground and were nailed fast to the earth, as He did in the case of Gideon.

For since he was the most lowly of all and the most dull, behold to what point God again condescends.

He Himself draws him on and urges him to ask for the sign;

and yet this was no small sign—to expose his hidden things, to bring forth into the open his whole mind, and to convict all his hypocrisy.

For since the prophet had said:

'Ask for yourself a sign,' but he, feigning to be exceedingly faithful, said:

'I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord'—see how, with much vehemence, the prophet applies the cutting rebuke, fittingly making the accusation heavier after the exposure of his hypocrisy.

For this reason he does not even deem him worthy of an answer, but turns away toward the people, saying:

'Is it a small thing for you to weary men? And how do you weary the Lord?' The saying is obscure;

therefore the expression must be unfolded with precision.

For what he says is of this sort:

Are the words mine? Is the pronouncement mine? But if to disbelieve men simply and without reason is grievous and worthy of blame, how much more so to disbelieve God.

To weary, then, is nothing else than to disbelieve.

Is this, then, he says, no small charge? Is it a trivial accusation to disbelieve men? But if this is grievous, how much more so toward God.

And he said this too, that all might learn that the prophet remained undeceived, not being misled by the words that had been spoken, but rendering his verdict from the things in the mind of Ahaz.

This also Christ did often in the Gospels.

For before furnishing the proof from signs, He would bring into the open the wickedness of the Jews that was being brewed in their mind—and this was no small thing.

As He did in the case of the paralytic.

For when He had said to him:

'Your sins are forgiven you,' and they were saying within themselves:

He says—before He had knit together the paralyzed man:

'Why do you think evil in your hearts?'—thus furnishing the greatest proof of His divinity, namely the knowing of the hidden things of the mind.

For You alone, he says, know the hearts.

God who searches hearts and reins.

This too God often granted the prophets to know, that those who heard might learn that nothing of the things spoken was human, but that the whole verdict was brought down from above and from the heavens.

For this reason too this most eloquent Isaiah, when with much gentleness he had discoursed with the king, and had freed him from his terrors, and bade him take courage concerning the present circumstances, and furnished him proofs of this—by declaring the counsel of those who had marched against him, and convicting the treachery, and foretelling the utter and complete captivity of Israel, and adding the time—was not content with these things, but goes yet further, and does not wait for him to ask a sign, but urges him on even against his will, on account of his excess of unbelief;

and not simply so, but he even makes him lord of the choice;

for he does not say, this or that sign, but 'wherever you will,' he says;

rich is the Master, all-powerful is His power, ineffable His authority.

If you wish it from the heavens, nothing hinders;

if from the earth, nothing stands in the way.

But since not even so did he draw him on, neither here did he keep silent, but bringing forward a rebuke—and this too for the correction of the hearer and to show that he had not deceived nor misled—he uncovers a hidden prophecy, the one that would be for the salvation of the whole world and for the setting right of all things;

and he says that the sign is henceforth given, not to Ahaz, but to the common assembly of the Jews.

For at the beginning he directed the discourse to him;

but since that man declared himself unworthy, he addresses the common body of the people.

For this reason, he says, He will give—not to you, but to you all—a sign.

To you all—to whom? To those in the house of David.

For from there sprang the sign.

What, then, is the sign? Behold, the virgin shall conceive in her womb and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.

It must be observed, as I said before also, that the sign is henceforth not given to Ahaz.

And that it is no mere conjecture, the prophet himself both charged and accused, saying:

'Is it a small thing for you to weary men?' and he added:

'Therefore the Lord will give you all a sign.'

'Behold, the virgin shall have in her womb.'

But if she were not a virgin, neither would it be a sign.

For the sign must depart from the common course and transcend the custom of nature, and be strange and marvelous, so that everyone of those who see and hear may take note of it.

For it is on this account that it is called a sign, because of its being conspicuous.

But it could not be conspicuous if it were to be hidden by sharing in the community of other ordinary events.

So that if the discourse were about a woman bearing by the law of nature, why does he call a sign that which happens every day? For this reason too, at the outset he did not say simply:

'Behold, a virgin,' but 'Behold, the virgin,' hinting by the addition of the article at a certain conspicuous one, and the only one of such a kind to have come to be among us.

For that this addition indicates this, it is possible to learn also from the Gospels.

For when the Jews sent to John, asking, 'Who are you?' they did not say:

'Are you a christ?' but 'Are you the Christ?';

nor did they say, 'Are you a prophet?' but 'Are you the prophet?';

For this reason too John, at the beginning, did not say:

'In the beginning was a Word,' but 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.'

So then here too he did not say:

'Behold, a virgin,' but 'Behold, the virgin';

and with the dignity befitting a prophet, the word 'Behold.'

For it was almost as of one seeing the things that were coming to pass, and beholding them as in vision, and possessing great full assurance concerning the things spoken.

For those men beheld the things unseen more clearly than we behold with our eyes.

It is likely that the senses may also be deceived;

but the grace of the Spirit furnished a declaration that could not be deceived.

«And why,» they say, «did he not add that the birth would be of the Spirit?» What was spoken was a prophecy, and it had to be proclaimed in a veiled manner—as I have often said—on account of the perversity of the hearers, lest, having learned everything plainly, they should also burn up all the books.

For if they did not spare the prophets, much more would they not have kept their hands off the writings.

And that what has been said is no mere conjecture: a certain other king, in the days of Jeremiah, took the very books, cut them to pieces, and delivered them to the fire.

Do you see the intolerable madness? Do you see the senseless rage? It was not enough for him to make away with the writings, but he even burned them, wishing to give full vent to his irrational passion.

Yet nonetheless, even though he spoke obscurely, this wondrous prophet made the whole thing plain.

For a virgin, so long as she remains a virgin, from what other source could she conceive, if not from the Holy Spirit? For to break the law of nature belonged to no other than the Maker of nature.

So that by saying that the virgin would bear, he indicated the whole.

Having therefore spoken of the birth, he speaks also of the name of the one born—not the name given, but that derived from the deeds.

For just as he calls Jerusalem a city of righteousness—although nowhere was it named a city of righteousness, but it held this appellation from the deeds, because of the great change for the better that had come upon it and the protection of the righteous one (for indeed, when he calls it a harlot, it is not as though the city were ever so named, but he assigns the name from its wickedness;

so also afterward, from its virtue)—

the same, then, must be said also concerning Christ: that he assigned to him the name derived from the deeds.

For then most of all did God become with us, when he was seen upon the earth and dwelt among men and displayed his great care for us.

For no longer was it an angel, nor an archangel, that was with us, but the Master himself descended and undertook the entire restoration: conversing with harlots, reclining at table with tax-collectors, entering into the houses of sinners, granting boldness to robbers, drawing magi to himself, going about everywhere and setting all things right, and uniting our very nature to himself.

All these things, then, the prophet proclaims beforehand, speaking at once both of the birth and of that unspeakable and boundless gain of the birth-pangs.

For when God is with men, there is no longer any need to fear, nor to tremble, but to take courage over all things;

For indeed those ancient and immovable evils were dissolved, and the sentence against the common race was abolished, and the sinews of sin were severed, and the tyranny of the devil was overthrown, and paradise, impassable to all, was first opened to a murderer and a robber, and the vaults of heaven were flung open, and men were mingled with angels, and our nature was led up to the royal throne, and the prison-house of Hades became useless, and death henceforth remained a name only, deprived of its reality;

and choirs of martyrs, and women, shattered the stings of Hades.

Foreseeing all these things, then, the prophet leaped for joy and danced, and by a single word he indicated them to us, prophesying to us the Emmanuel.

«Butter and honey shall he eat, before he knows or chooses evil he shall choose the good.»

«Because before the child knows good or evil, he refuses wickedness, so as to choose the good.»

Since the child that was born was neither a mere man, nor God only, but God in man, the prophet with good reason varies his discourse, now saying this, now that, setting forth the paradoxes and not permitting the economy to be disbelieved because of the excess of the wonder.

For having said that the virgin would bear, which was above nature, and that he would be called Emmanuel, which itself too was beyond expectation—lest anyone, hearing «Emmanuel,» should suffer the error of Marcion and fall sick with the disease of Valentinus concerning the economy—he expressly added also the clearest proof of the economy, confirming it from the table itself.

But this could not belong to Godhead, but to our nature.