Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 20/65

For even if it did not befall him to receive the same lot as the others, yet he who was so conspicuous and haughty of neck, and who seemed to be lifted up on high with incomparable eminences, was brought low.

For 'they,' he says, 'have fallen asleep' not without honour, nor indeed anywhere apart from the dwellings that were most beloved to them.

But you, deprived of these things utterly, shall lie upon the mountains, loathsome and cast out — that is, stinking and unpleasant to behold.

For what could be more loathsome than a dead body that has no wrapping? You shall lie, then, together with the others who have become the work of a Median sword, with none lamenting over you, none shedding the tear that follows the dead, none honouring you with burial rites.

But so pitiable and cast out, as to differ in nothing from all the others — those who came under your hand and were utterly of no account.

But it is necessary to know that up to this point the lament will come to a stand.

'As a garment defiled with blood is no longer clean, so neither shall you be clean.'

'You have destroyed, and you have slain my people; you shall not remain for everlasting time.' Grievous impieties are hard to wash away, and one might behold them as dyed into those who have done them, like some stain of colour.

Indeed he shows that they have done deeds worthy of the indignation that comes to its full end, and are deserving of a judgment equal in weight to their charges.

'Therefore you shall not be delivered,' he says, 'from your transgressions, nor could you become clean and fit to be pitied.'

But you shall be so defiled, and shall bear the ineradicable charge of your bloodshed, just as of course a garment defiled with blood.

'For you have destroyed the holy land, and you have slain the people apportioned to me.'

'For when the Most High divided the nations,' he says, 'when he scattered abroad the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.'

'And the Lord's portion became his people Jacob, Israel the lot of his inheritance.' It is therefore utterly dreadful to rise up against the Lord's land — that is, the Church — and to fulfil the audacities of bloodshed against the people apportioned to Christ.

For in no way shall he be clean, who has plunged into charges so monstrous.

Someone, I think, might say this, having in mind the calamities that came upon Judaea and upon Jerusalem itself.

For did the tyrant of the Babylonians come as a deserter of his own accord and march against the land of the Jews, and take also the holy city, without God's having permitted him to do this — or rather without God's having given it to him? And yet the prophet Isaiah himself says to us that 'the Lord shall hiss for the fly, which rules over part of the river of Egypt, and for the bee which is in the country of the Assyrians, and they shall all come and rest in the ravines of the country, and in the clefts of the rocks, and in the caves, and in every crevice, and in every tree.' How then did the Babylonian, who had served the divine will, incur an inextinguishable charge and was so terribly chastised that beyond the wrath brought upon him nothing could be seen? Yes, and very fittingly so.

For the God of all things willed to convict Israel, who had turned aside to apostasy, and by measured chastisements to persuade him to run back to the worship customary to him — I mean, that is, the worship according to the Law.

But he, although brought to this end, was unrelenting like a wild beast, and gave free rein to his passions, and so indeed is accused, God plainly saying:

'I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy, and with great wrath I am angry against the nations that join in the assault;'

'for whereas I was but a little angry,'

'they joined in adding to the evils.' And just as, though Pharaoh was a vessel of passion and wrath and already subject to chastisement for his own faults, God stirred him up — as he himself says — that he might show forth in him both his own power and the exactness of his righteous judgment,

so also you shall understand concerning the Babylonians.

For being vessels of wrath, and justly owing to be chastised, they were brought against Jerusalem;

so that, having chastened Israel, they too might afterwards be required to render the chastisement most befitting and most suitable to them.

'O evil seed, prepare your children to be slaughtered for the sins of your father, that they may not rise up and fill the earth with wars.'

'And I will rise up against them, says the Lord of Sabaoth, and I will destroy their name and remnant and seed.' Nebuchadnezzar wrought utterly dreadful things against every nation, and those after him and sprung from him, down to Belshazzar, following the perversities of the father, even surpassed his deeds, and became savage and harsh against every nation, and set themselves against Israel, although these had been reduced to captivity and were engaged under the yoke of servitude.

They say, therefore, that the race of Nebuchadnezzar then perished root and branch, and indeed that of Belshazzar too, so that none at all of their blood after them ascended the royal thrones among them.

This, I think, the prophetic word signifies through the passage set before us.

For consider how the divine wrath advanced against all the evil seed.

'For prepare,' he says, 'your children to be slaughtered for the sins of your father.'

For since the fathers became impious, the whole race that would come from them has been brought to an end.

that is, in order that, not following the arrogance of the fathers, nor becoming zealots of ancestral impiety, they might not fill the earth with war — as indeed those men did — and become lords of it.

'And I will rise up against them, says the Lord of Sabaoth, and I will destroy their name and remnant and seed.'

For just as to those who had pleased him,

God promised that the sons of the kings of Israel, to the fourth generation, should sit upon their thrones, extending his blessing even to the race that would come from them;

so of those who had become exceedingly impious he cuts off the increase of the race.

'For the impious,' he says, 'shall be destroyed root and branch from the earth.'

Let him also hear, then — the enemy of all, the inventor of sin, who has become for us the cause of all evils —

'As a garment defiled with blood shall not be clean, so neither shall you be clean, because you have destroyed my land and slain my people.'

For he was not content to have shifted the beginning of our race toward transgression, but he even led astray all that is under heaven away from God, and, having carried off man on earth from the love toward him, he made him his own worshipper and cast him into the pits of destruction.

Therefore he shall not be clean, but neither has he remained for everlasting time;

for he has not prevailed forever over those he had wronged, since God reins in his greed and cuts short the onslaughts of his malice against us.

For he has perished together with his own children — that is, with the unclean demons;

'They have perished, cast down into chains of darkness in Tartarus,' as the Saviour's disciple says, that they may not rise up and inherit the earth, and fill the earth with wars.

For they have been cast out of their tyranny over us, and Christ has become our peace.

For as the blessed Paul writes:

'The peace of Christ, which surpasses all understanding, shall guard our hearts and our thoughts.' And in what manner it came about that they suffered this, the God of all things himself will make clear to us, saying:

'And I will rise up against them, says the Lord of Sabaoth, and I will destroy their name and remnant and seed.'

'And I will make Babylonia a desert, so that hedgehogs shall dwell in it, and it shall come to nothing;'

'and I will make it a swamp of mire, unto destruction.' The passage set before us seems to be a most concise recapitulation of the things spoken at length.

And since, as is likely, it has a very great inflow of waters — and they say too that a river cuts it in two — it has come about that, since none channels off the current of the streams to the places to which it would follow that they should go, the water is scattered abroad over the whole and produces a multitude of marshes, so that she who of old was brilliant and famed, named queen of the rest and most glorious, becomes a swamp of mire and, for those who fall into it, a means of destruction.

Thus says the Lord of Sabaoth:

'As I have said, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it remain, to destroy the Assyrians upon my land and upon my mountains;'

'and their glory shall be taken away from their shoulders.' The blessed Isaiah prophesies in the reign of Uzziah and Jotham and Ahaz and Hezekiah; but he seems to make these words concerning Babylon, I mean, or even the whole land of the Assyrians;

while Uzziah, who is also Azariah, was still surviving and holding the royal honour in his hands.

But since, when Hezekiah was reigning, Sennacherib the Assyrian marched against Judaea, and took very many cities of Samaria, but was convicted by the hand of God when he also fell upon Jerusalem itself;

for in a single night a hundred and eighty-five thousand of the foreigners died, consumed by the hand of an angel;

for this cause, lest any of the things spoken by God for the comfort of Israel should seem to fail, he foretells this also and says that 'As I have said, so shall it be;'

'for the land of the Babylonians shall go down,' he says, 'into a swamp of mire;'

'and it shall also be laid waste, and that too shall remain;'

'and in every way and altogether it shall come out,' he says, 'to a favourable end — that which I have both purposed and ratified by decrees from myself — to destroy the Assyrians upon my land and upon my mountains;'

'and they shall be for trampling;'

'and their yoke shall also be taken away, and their glory from their shoulders.'

For Rabshakeh had been sent by Sennacherib from Lachish to Jerusalem.

Then, having encircled the whole city round about with the Babylonian armies, he babbled against the glory of God beyond measure;

and he let forth a voice befitting a barbarian mind:

'Let not Hezekiah deceive you,' he says, 'saying that God will deliver you out of the hand of the Assyrians;' but seeking to cast a yoke of servitude upon those who were free from above, and clothing himself and his own master with great glory — that is, with renown — he was brought down to an unexpected calamity.

For rising early in the morning, it says, they found all the bodies dead. And he learned by experience that He who presides over the saints is all-powerful, and that nothing can withstand His divine commands.

This is the counsel that the Lord has purposed against the whole inhabited world;

and this is the uplifted hand against all the nations of the whole inhabited world.

For what God the Holy One has purposed, who shall frustrate it? And who shall turn back the uplifted hand? Now it must be understood once again that the force of the prophecy in these words does not come against the whole inhabited world, that is, everything under heaven; rather, the word of foretelling was directed against the whole land of the Assyrians, which he also calls 'the inhabited world' because it is vast and broad, and richly filled with countless nations beyond number.

Therefore the things spoken, he says, shall come upon the whole land of the Assyrians; for utterly and by every means the things foretold shall reach their fulfillment, since no one can undo what is brought upon them, nor is anyone strong enough to defend those who lie under the divine wrath. And he further declares, saying:

For what God the Holy One has purposed, who shall frustrate it? And who shall turn back the uplifted hand? For He utterly shears away the hope of the Babylonians;

and He usefully confirms those of Israel, that they may be firmly established in their disposition and mindset, knowing that utterly and by every means He will accomplish the things He has promised, being all-powerful and holding sway over all things—that divine and supreme hand.

For since they supposed that the might of the Assyrians was terrible and irresistible, yielding to no one and refusing to be defeated, and it was therefore likely that they would disbelieve the words of the prophecy;

for this very reason, and quite reasonably, He does not permit them to suffer this;

and He all but implores them, and shears away beforehand the disease of unbelief, saying:

Who shall turn back the uplifted hand? In the year in which Ahaz died, this word came to pass:

Rejoice not, all you Philistines;

for the yoke of him who smote you has been broken.

The God of all wished to transform Israel—hardened as it was and having spurned the divine laws—into a right mind, so that it should be minded toward better things; benefiting it in manifold ways, rousing His wrath against those who set themselves against Him, but restoring those who dwelt in the holy city, I mean Jerusalem, to good hopes, that they might know that the Lord of all is one and only, and that beside Him there is no other.

But they, attaching reverence to the creation rather than to the Creator, and bringing their zeal to gods falsely so named, gave no small offense.

The force of the prophetic lections set before us now also intimates some such dispensation.

For thus what is signified will be especially clear to those who read.

Now Uzziah, who is also called Azariah, reigned in Jerusalem over Israel.

This man was a careful practicer of piety.

For he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as it is written concerning him.

Indeed, having besieged many cities of the Philistines—that is, of the foreigners, that is, of the Palestinians—he captured and sacked them, and likewise cities from what is called Coele-Syria.

And it is written thus concerning him, in the second book of Chronicles:

And he went out and warred against the foreigners, and prevailed over the walls of Gath, and the walls of Ashdod, and he built cities of Ashdod, and among the foreigners.

The Lord strengthened him against the foreigners and the Arabs who dwell on the Rock, and against the Minaeans.

And the Minaeans gave gifts to Uzziah, and his name spread as far as the entrance of Egypt, for he grew exceedingly strong.

And when he died, his kingdom was succeeded by Jotham, who was born of him.

Then after him came Ahaz, a wicked and apostate man, one who had plunged into the mire of deceit.

For he served wood and stones, and all the host of heaven;

and he even passed his son through the fire, for he sacrificed him to the demons. And it is written thus concerning him also in the fourth book of Kingdoms:

And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and indeed he made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the sons of Israel.

And he burned incense on the high places, and on the hills, and under every leafy tree.

Then Rezin king of Syria came up;

and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up against Jerusalem to war;

and they besieged Ahaz, but could not prevail in the fighting; and after other things:

And Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser king of the Assyrians, saying:

Come up, save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, who rise up against me.

And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king's house, and sent gifts to the king.

First, then, Uzziah, who is also called Azariah, sacked the foreigners, and having laid waste all their land, he exacted tribute and taxes.

He also, having uprooted the whole land of the Palestinians—for he says these are the foreigners—carried off as captives into his own land those who were left over from the war.

But when Ahaz died, the cities of the foreigners leaped up over this, as though the one who kept beating them was out of the way, the one who, as it were, had laid upon them the unbearable yoke of oppression.

"Enough!" O foreigners then, he says, since as you say and suppose, now that Ahaz has died the yoke of him who smote you—that is, of him who crushed you—has been broken, do not rejoice over this.

And yet someone might say that Ahaz was an idolater, profane, and hateful to God;

how, then, does God check the laughter of the adversaries directed against him? Therefore the laughter was not at all directed against that man;

but rather, whenever it happened that any of those accustomed to afflict Judea came to be, the adversaries attempted to mock not so much those who suffered, but the hand of God that shielded Israel.

For they supposed that the all-powerful right hand had grown weak, and that the gods they had among themselves had become mightier than that of the One who guards Israel.

Therefore, even if Ahaz was profane, yet since the foreigners were exulting—as I said just now—over those of Israel, He restrains their gladness and, as it were, reins back their acclamation, saying that they have not been released from the oppressive yoke, but rather shall suffer the things it was likely they should, and shall be no little grieved, even against their will.

For what does He say? Rejoice not, saying that the yoke of him who smites you has been broken.

But know rather that out of the seed of a serpent shall come forth offspring of asps.

For Uzziah, who is also called Azariah, was, as I said, harsh and most warlike;

and he so subdued them that he even exacted tribute in an unaccustomed manner from their cities and villages.

Then after him Ahaz, even if perhaps not by his own hand and local forces, yet by that of the Assyrians did the same things against them;

and he even killed Rezin himself.

And when Ahaz died, Hezekiah, a righteous and pious man, succeeded to the kingdom.

And it is written concerning him also in the fourth book of Kingdoms:

And he rebelled against the king of the Assyrians, and would not serve him.

This man smote the foreigners as far as Gaza and its territory, from the watchtower to the fortified city. Therefore Ahaz came forth as an offspring of an asp from the seed of the serpent, Uzziah;

then after him came a flying serpent—that is, the swift Hezekiah.

For in a certain way they kept gnawing at the foreigners and consumed their cities.

But if Uzziah and Hezekiah were named serpents, although they were pious, yet it is fitting to consider this, and very prudently, that the aim of the passage is turned and looks especially to typifying the Philistines, that is, the foreigners.

It was therefore necessary to speak of them, not as being tame and gentle, but as terrible and swift, accustomed like serpents to leap upon their adversaries.

Therefore either you will understand the phrase 'Out of the seed of a serpent shall come forth offspring of asps' in this way, or, if you wish, in some other manner as well.

Ahaz hired Tiglath-Pileser the Assyrian and let him loose upon the land of the foreigners; and he, having laid it all waste, also killed, as I said, King Rezin himself.

But in the days of King Hezekiah, Shalmaneser campaigned against Samaria, he too being a king of the Assyrians.

And having first come upon the land of the Palestinians—that is, of the foreigners—he wrought upon all of them the deeds of barbaric savagery.

Therefore, as from the seed of a serpent, Tiglath-Pileser, there came forth an offspring of an asp, Shalmaneser—himself likewise a serpent, not sluggish in his onsets, not slow to move toward the necessity of laying siege, but swift, and like a winged creature settling upon the cities.

And the poor shall be fed through him;

and poor men shall rest in peace;

but He shall destroy your seed with famine, and He shall destroy your remnant. I said before that, when Ahaz had died, the foreigners spread themselves out into good cheer;

yet they were smiling scornfully not so much at him as at the all-powerful right hand of Him who saves Israel—I mean God.

...saying that out of the seed of a serpent shall come forth offspring of asps.

But since they trampled upon the divine glory, the prophet necessarily shows us in these words that He who is Israel's shield will also preserve Israel, and that upon those who are wholly and utterly opposed He will bring destruction.

For Shalmaneser besieged Jerusalem after he had taken the whole land of the Samaritans.

He laid siege by sending Rabshakeh from Lachish, as it is written; yet the God of all unexpectedly saved those of Israel.

For the Assyrians fell, an angel of the Lord consuming them.

But the seed of the foreigners, and every remnant left from the first siege that took place in the days of Tiglath-Pileser, was utterly destroyed and wholly perished, being no doubt pressed by famine.

For upon the besieging of cities there always somehow follows other harm as well.

Therefore the poor and men of humble mind shall be fed by God—that is, they shall pasture in their own land and shall rest in peace.

But your seed, and your remnant, He will destroy with famine.

It is therefore a fearful thing to mock those under the hand of God, and to exalt oneself against those who have come under His care.

For He will by no means overlook them, but will in every way defend His own, that His adversaries may not laugh broadly and reproach God as though He had not sufficient power to save those who had put their trust in Him.

So then, as though the assault were already mustered and the Assyrian army present, as though the siege-engines had already been brought up to the gates of every city, and the walls were now about to be shaken by their unbearable batterings—

He commands the gates to wail and the cities to cry out aloud, no longer exulting over those of the blood of Israel, no longer mocking the glory of the God who is mighty in all things, no longer dancing in triumph over the dead Ahaz, but rather practicing lament and mourning, and grieving in no measured way over the calamities that would very soon be present.

'For what reason,' He says, 'have I commanded the cities to lament? Because smoke comes from the north, and there is no way to escape being.'

By 'smoke from the north' in this passage He names that which sets out from the land of the Assyrians—either Shalmaneser himself, or the army that accompanied him.

For the land of the Jews lies furthest to the south, while that of the Assyrians is somewhat more to the north.

He likens the war-loving army to smoke, as being productive of tears for those who are captured.

For smoke always somehow draws the tear from the eyes.

Nor is it improbable that wars should be likened to smoke in yet another way.

For just as smoke, falling upon the eyes of the body, entirely deprives them of the sharpness of sight, so also the fear of death all but intoxicates the mind and clouds the heart, all but blackening it with dreadful and unbearable terrors.

Therefore smoke shall come from the north.

Then, what is the end of the assault? 'No more being,' He says—that is, with utter destruction He will lay waste cities and houses, and those within them.

'And what shall the kings of the nations answer? That the Lord has founded Zion, and through Him the lowly of the people shall be saved.' When the assault of the Assyrians had taken place, the cities of the foreigners were captured.

And the cities of the Samaritans were plundered no less.

But Jerusalem alone, beyond all expectation and above all the rest, was saved, since He who has power easily to accomplish all things laid His hand upon the armies of the Assyrians.

So then, when those from the north had burned the cities of the foreigners, and had also ravaged Samaria, the neighbor of Judea, and then, surrounding Jerusalem itself on every side, fell in a single night with none to oppose them—

then indeed, then and even unwillingly, He says, the kings of the nations shall confess that the Lord has founded Zion;

and that through Him the lowly of the people shall be saved.

By 'the lowly of the people' He means those who set their hope of being saved upon Him and Him alone—such as was the very king Hezekiah himself, and those about him who fell down before God and said:

'Hear, O Lord, look, O Lord, and behold the words of Rabshakeh, which the king of the Assyrians sent to reproach the living God.' But he in turn heard God plainly saying:

'O Lord God of hosts, blessed is the man that hopes in You.' For no one will destroy him who is aided by His divine promptings and well fortified by the favors from above.

For He deems those who love Him worthy of His care, and to those who most earnestly strive to think and to do what pleases Him He readily grants that they rest secure in the enjoyment of good things.

That is, against the mother-city of the Moabites and the whole land, and against the kingdom itself.

These too were a barbarous nation, hated by God, because they were wholly given over to the worship of idols, and above all put their confidence in the magic art, and exalted themselves against the glory of God, and were among the most bitter enemies of those of Israel.

And indeed, when, freed from the oppression of the Egyptians, they were on their way to the land of promise, they nearly all perished—so far at least as concerned the enterprise of Balak, who was at that time king of the Moabites.

And it is written thus in the book of Numbers:

'And all the sons of Israel encamped to the west of Moab, by the Jordan, over against Jericho.'

'And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorite;'

'and Moab was greatly afraid of the people, because they were many.'

'And Moab was distressed before the face of the sons of Israel.' Then what wicked scheme did he devise? He hired Balaam from Mesopotamia;

and this man was a false prophet and a soothsayer.

'For I know,' he says, 'that whomever you bless are blessed, and whomever you curse are cursed.'

And the modes of sorcery were performed by that man, with altars raised and sacrifices offered.

But Balak was cheated of his hope and failed of his purpose, since the very man who had been engaged to curse them unexpectedly blessed Israel.

And since the enterprise had turned out for him contrary to his hopes, he went about the matter of his ill-will against them by yet another method.

For he ensnared those of Israel, they being captivated by the beauty of the women, so as to make them apostatize from their love toward God and choose to worship Baal-Peor;

and this was an idol of the Moabites.

And again it is written thus in the book of Numbers:

'And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people were defiled, committing fornication with the daughters of Moab; and they called them to the sacrifices of their idols, and the people ate of their sacrifices;'

'and Israel was consecrated to Baal-Peor, and the Lord was angry in His wrath against Israel.' For since Israel, when God defended them, was terrible and hard to withstand, on this account, very bitterly and with love of mischief, by withdrawing His help from them, they persuaded them to offend the God who is over all.

And a witness to this is the blessed Jeremiah, saying in his vision against them:

'The horn of Moab is broken, and his arm is shattered.'

'Make him drunk, for he magnified himself against the Lord.' And again:

'For thus says the Lord: Kerioth is taken;'

'And Moab shall perish from being a people, because he magnified himself against the Lord.' For in due time there came the tyrant of the Assyrians and Babylonians to ravage Judea.

And he took the cities of Samaria.