Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 22/65

and to dare to give offence to Him who is mighty in all things—how shall it not be the cause of every calamity? But it is a thing of salvation both to love to be subject to Him, and to know Him alone, and to flee from the snares of error, and to say to Him with a good disposition:

Lord, apart from You we know no other; we name Your name.

But she was impious and a fighter against God, and among those most utterly abominated by the all-holy God;

and she was an idolater, in no way yielding to the Assyrians in their abominations and their arrogance alike.

But they had also given offense in another way to God who is able to do all things.

For those of the blood of Israel — that is, the ten tribes and the half-tribe of Ephraim — having departed from Jerusalem and settled in Samaria, worshipped the golden calves, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat had brought them down to this and impiously thrust them into it;

having leapt away utterly from the love toward God;

and having let fall into oblivion the Law that had been given to them through the all-wise Moses.

Therefore, and most especially on this account, the God of all was indignant and grew bitter against them.

For they wholly forgot that they had been redeemed out of Egypt and had shaken off the intolerable yoke of slavery, that they had been led across through the midst of the sea, and then, having eaten the manna and been given water to drink from the rock, and having prevailed over every enemy, had become heirs of the good things promised to the fathers — yet these wretched men called upon aid from men, all but pronouncing sentence against God that He was unable to save them.

That the words we have spoken concerning these things are true, the prophet Isaiah himself will confirm, saying:

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.

Aram made a compact with Ephraim — that is, the Syrian with those in Samaria.

For Aram is interpreted as Syrian;

and Ephraim, as being from the tribe of Ephraim, signifies all Israel that dwelt in Samaria.

For since Jeroboam, who first reigned over them, arose from the tribe of Ephraim, and after him those who followed in succession — as from the reigning tribe, I mean that of Ephraim — the whole of Israel that dwelt in Samaria is designated.

And this in fact came to pass.

In what manner, then, this most warlike, all-powerful, and insolent city was utterly destroyed, the prophet again proclaims to us beforehand in these words, and says:

that it should rather be taken away — that is, be utterly destroyed and fall away completely even from being a city.

For it shall be, he says, left for a downfall forever;

and left by whom, if not surely by its own inhabitants — not as of those who had merely migrated away, but as of those consumed by the swords of their enemies?

And in saying that it shall be a fold for flocks, he has shown its complete desolation;

for shepherds would not have taken their rest, nor would the herds of cattle have lain down in it, if there had been any people in its houses.

For this reason, and very fittingly, he adds, saying:

For no one, he says, will rebuke the shepherds, that they have made a lodging-place of a city so splendid and renowned.

For you are no better than the sons of Israel, nor than their glory. For the accurate elucidation of what lies before us, I think it necessary to call to mind again a history recorded in the books of Kings.

For while Ahaz was reigning over Judah in Jerusalem, Pekah the son of Remaliah, reigning over the ten tribes in Samaria, was making war against Jerusalem.

And the blessed prophet Isaiah himself spoke thus:

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 went up (and it is interpreted 'of the Syrians,' or of Syria), and Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel, unto Jerusalem to make war against it.

Aram made a compact with Ephraim — that is, the Syrian with him of the tribe of Ephraim who reigned over those in Samaria.

And his soul was shaken, and the soul of his people, as when in a forest a tree is shaken by the wind.

And on account of this cause also, and very fittingly, he had given offense to God.

But neither shall there be a kingdom in it;

and together with it the remnant of the Syrians shall also grow weak — that is, the whole nation that was under her.

For you are no better than the sons of Israel, nor than their glory.

For if, he says, I did not spare even the portion allotted to me — that is, those of Israel who had transgressed against me — how shall you too not by all means and in every way endure the harm that comes from war, being in no respect better than Israel? Thus says the Lord of Sabaoth:

In that day there shall be an eclipse of the glory of Jacob, and the fatness of his glory shall be shaken. By 'Jacob' in these words he names those who descended from Jacob, that is, the ten tribes in Samaria and the half-tribe of Ephraim, who so leapt away from the love toward God and from placing rather on Him the hope of being saved, that they even trusted in themselves and lifted up a haughty brow over their multitude and glory alone.

And this too the prophet again declares to us most clearly:

Their glories are from births and birth-pangs and conceptions.

There shall be, then, he says, at that time an eclipse of the glory of Jacob — that is, the great and numberless multitude of those from Jacob, in which he gloried and attempted to be high-minded, shall be consumed by the swords of the enemies.

But the fatness of his glory shall also be shaken;

that is, among them too the kingdom shall be brought down.

For it is written in the fourth book of Kings, that while Hoshea the son of Elah was reigning in Samaria, Shalmaneser came and besieged Samaria for three whole years, took it, and removed Hoshea into Babylon.

By 'the fatness of the glory of Jacob,' then, might be understood he who reigned in Samaria at that time; or perhaps rather those throughout the whole land who were illustrious and more notable than the rest, surpassing the measure of the others in wealth and power, and reveling in luxuries and in the honors paid them by all.

And it shall be as when one gathers a standing harvest, and reaps the grain of the ears;

and it shall be as when one gathers an ear in a firm ravine.

the Assyrians making war; and in addition to this again, that it should not utterly and completely go to destruction, but there should be even some small remnant, the prophetic word has plainly signified to us in these words.

For those who have skill in reaping the ears of grain, cutting them off with craft, gather in the wheat;

but always leaving behind, as useless, the stubble, they run over the whole breadth of the fields of standing grain.

And those accustomed to gathering the fruit of the olive trees partly beat them down with a rod, and partly, handling them with their hands and snatching from the young shoots, gather them together;

but it is likely that three or four, or perhaps five, remain on the tips of the branches and escape the eyes of the gatherers.

Something of this kind, he says, shall befall those in Samaria;

for he strongly affirms that they shall suffer even as the ear of grain does when it falls into the hands of the reapers;

and that there shall be left, as it were, stubble in it — that is, a few of the more insignificant — or as two or three olive-berries that have escaped the eye of the gatherers, because of their being hidden among the topmost branches.

Thus says the Lord God of Israel:

In that day the man shall trust in Him who made him, and his eyes shall look toward the Holy One of Israel;

and they shall not be trusting in the altars, nor in the works of their hands, which their fingers made, but they shall be trusting in the Holy One of Israel.

And they shall not look upon their groves, nor their abominations. The most wise Paul, knowing that this thing — the being disciplined — is neither unprofitable nor vain among those who have been called through him unto the knowledge of the truth, writes and says:

If you endure discipline, God deals with you as with sons;

for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? And he adduces also the words from the God-inspired Scripture:

My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, nor faint when you are reproved by Him;

for whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. For since the Maker of all is good, He wills that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. On this account He admonished very often, through the holy prophets, those of the blood of Israel, and especially those who had migrated from Jerusalem into Samaria.

But they were uncontrollably bent upon what seemed good to themselves, and, having forsaken God who is by nature and in truth God, became worshippers of demons, and offered their acts of service to lifeless idols.

And since, being exceedingly ignorant, they did not even take counsel that it was fitting for them to repent, God thereafter chastised them.

For those whom the word does not profit, toil sets right, turning them about, as of necessity and by force, unto what is pleasing to God.

With bit and bridle you shall constrain the jaws of those who do not draw near to you. For just as those accustomed to breaking in colts — and these skilled men — turn about with bridles the more wild of the horses unto a disciplined course;

so also the God of all, by the necessities that come from toils, very often brings around unto choosing to live rightly the disobedient and unbridled man.

Having suffered something of this kind, those who dwelt in Samaria, after they had experienced the calamities of war, scarcely came to recognize Him who chastised and grieved them;

and they shook off the services rendered to idols, and turned the eye of their understanding toward the Holy One of Israel, evidently expecting that from Him would come their help and deliverance from the evils that had been brought upon them.

For they shall not be trusting, he says, in the altars, nor in the works of their hands, which their fingers made;

and they shall not look upon their groves, nor their abominations.

For it was their custom to occupy the tops of the mountains, and, beneath an oak and a poplar, as it is written, to worship the works of their own hands.

But they shall no longer look upon these, he says, having learned by experience that the thing is for them altogether vain and unprofitable — nay rather, even the cause of every calamity.

for which cause they were both utterly destroyed and given over to their enemies.

It is therefore best of all to guard oneself and to ward off the divine wrath with all one's strength, and not to wait to learn evils by bitter experience.

Rather, one should strip off, and that very promptly, the causes on account of which God would be angered, and, before the blow and the scourge, make one's defence to Him who has been grieved—namely, by shunning what is base, by honouring what is most noble, and by pursuing virtue in every way.

«In that day thy cities shall be forsaken, in the manner that the Amorites and the Hivites forsook them before the face of the sons of Israel;»

«and they shall be desolate, because thou hast forsaken God thy Saviour, and hast not been mindful of the Lord thy helper.» From the very things that have befallen them He persuades them to consider that their circumstances have been reversed to their disadvantage.

For formerly they used to conquer, since God was their ally, and they were an object of dread to the cities and lands of the nations.

For they took them without sweat, since God made easy for them everything that was steep and hard to accomplish.

But when they became imitators of the ungodliness of those people, they became, like them, cowardly and easy to capture.

For their cities have been made desolate, and were abandoned by those who dwelt in them, in the very same manner in which the Hivites and Amorites once fell, consumed by their own swords.

And He at once makes clear the cause of the weakness by which they slid down into this, and of their enduring so cruel and unbearable a calamity;

«For thou hast forsaken God thy Saviour,» He says, «and hast not been mindful of the Lord thy God.»

«These are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.» So then, when we are with God—that is, when we are eager to be minded as He is minded, and have chosen to accomplish what is dear to Him—

then assuredly we shall be stronger than our enemies, and we shall tread down principalities and authorities and the world-rulers of this darkness, the spiritual forces of wickedness; then shall we prevail, and that very swiftly, over aberrant pleasures and the impulses of the flesh;

then shall we conquer wicked thoughts, and the spirits of him who wields power shall find no place in us.

But if we neglect to cleave to God, we shall be weak and unmanly, and under the feet of our enemies, and no means whatever will beat back Satan as he gets the upper hand.

«But in the day in which thou shalt plant, thou shalt be led astray.»

«And if thou sow in the morning, it shall blossom into harvest in the day in which thou shalt receive thine inheritance; and as a father of a man, thou shalt cause thy sons to inherit.» I shall try, as far as possible, to make plain the meaning of the passage before us, which is clothed in much obscurity.

What He says, then, is something of this sort:

I said before that, deceiving and being deceived, and minding things not lawful, the men of Israel (that is, Ephraim—so that you may understand the ten tribes that were deported into Samaria) held their brow high, and supposed that none at all of their enemies could overpower their hand, on the ground that they were innumerable and exceedingly many.

But they were disappointed in their hope.

For they fell; and some of them were consumed by the war, while others were carried off into the lands of their conquerors, as captives and full of terror, and reduced to every kind of misery.

But after a season had run its course, they were brought back from the land of the Persians to the holy city; and then they ceased to have their kings ruling in succession by turns, and all of them dwelt in Jerusalem, and paid honour to the law of God;

and the successions ran on to children's children.

Something of this sort the passage teaches now as well, giving its riddle as though it were about grain and ears of corn.

For since, He says, thou hast not been mindful of the Lord thy God, for this cause whatever plant thou plantest—that is, the seed and offspring drawn from your midst—shall be untrustworthy and unsafe for preservation.

And when thou shalt plant, and shalt see it grown to a multitude, then shalt thou be led astray.

For thou shalt imagine, He says, growing confident in the multitude; but thou shalt not reckon aright.

For like ears of corn they shall fall, and thou shalt find utterly unprofitable the hope that rested upon them.

Then that which is planted, or rather sown, shall blossom into harvest—that is, it shall be brought to fruition;

for the untimely consuming of the ear of corn brings loss both of labour and of hope to those accustomed to till the ground;

whereas its coming to harvest gives the fullest hope of good things.

It shall therefore blossom into harvest—that is, thy planting shall be brought to fruition—when it becomes morning for thee, that is, when thou art found to be, as it were, in light and in day and in the knowledge of God.

«Then also, as a father of a man, thou shalt cause thy sons to inherit.»

For thou shalt pass on to thy sons, as it were an inheritance, thy good cheer and thy share in the succour from above.

«Woe to the multitude of many nations!»

«As a surging sea, so shall ye be troubled;»

«and the back of many nations shall roar like water;»

«many nations shall be as much water, as of much water borne down with violence.»

«And He shall spurn him away, and shall drive him far off, like the chaff-dust of those winnowing before the wind,»

«and like the dust of a wheel that a storm-wind carries away.» The God of all, being a lover of mankind, does not leave the men of Israel without comfort, but very often, and that by dispensation, He causes the hope of good things to break in together with the fear, so that by both He may benefit His hearers.

That their cities, then, shall be made desolate, has been plainly stated;

and what was the occasion of their suffering, He taught by saying, «Because thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and hast not been mindful of the Lord thy helper.»

But He who has smitten straightway promises also to bind up the wound.

He recounts a certain thing that came to pass, which it is necessary to relate as briefly as words allow, because of its usefulness.

While Hezekiah was governing the thrones of the kingdom in Jerusalem in those times, Sennacherib king of the Assyrians came up against the fortified cities of Judaea, and took them.

Then he sends Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to besiege it; and when he had arrived, he prated foolishly against the glory of God the Saviour of us all;

for the madman maintained that He was not able to save them, even if He should wish to do this.

But using a barbarous tongue and mind, he came to know, learning by experience, that it is a hard thing for any man whatever to exalt himself against the supreme glory.

For an angel of the Lord went forth, and slew in one night, from the camp of the foreigners, a hundred and eighty-five thousand;

and when they rose up in the morning, they found all the bodies dead.

And since he who had sent them was disappointed of what he had expected—I mean Sennacherib—he retreated in flight, and barely saved himself when he had reached his home, though even so he perished, and that not long after, at the hands of his own sons.

«For it came to pass,» he says, «while he was worshipping in the house of Asarach his patriarch, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with swords.»

This history the prophetic word here calls to our remembrance, and it foretells beforehand the onset of the Assyrians, and says:

For He pronounces them wretched, as being on the point of dying in Jerusalem, when an angel would destroy them.

And that it was not one nation, but rather very many, He clearly shows, naming them «a multitude of nations.»

And they came against the lands, or rather the cities, of Judaea, like much water and like something borne down with violence and causing tumults, all but overwhelming their adversaries after the manner of the sea.

By these terms He designates them, on account of the many nations being driven along by them.

And the pursuers run upon the backs of the fugitives, in every way and altogether.

Then what after this? «He shall spurn him away,» He says—that is, He shall send him back—«and shall drive him far off, like the chaff-dust of those winnowing before the wind, and like the dust of a wheel that a storm-wind carries away.»

For what is so easily scattered as dust from a wheel and a threshing-floor, when a furious wind sweeps it up? And that Sennacherib went off in flight, the God of all confirms, saying to him through the voice of Isaiah:

«And I will put a muzzle in thy nose, and a bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way in which thou camest.» «Toward evening there shall be mourning; before morning, and it shall be no more.»

«This is the portion of those who spoiled you, and the inheritance of those who took you for their inheritance.» I said before that Rabshakeh, having set his fighting force around Jerusalem and threatened to take it before long, perished with all his army before the light of day and the dawn.

There shall therefore be mourning, He says, toward evening, since those in Jerusalem had by all means expected that in the morning there would be also the assault of the war; but it ceased before the light of day.

There shall indeed be mourning toward evening;

but it shall not be before morning—that is, the weeping shall cease and come to an end;

and together with the terrors that came from the suffering it shall depart, since God gave His aid and marvellously destroyed the ranks of the enemies, and moreover drove out their leader from the land of the Jews.

«Weeping shall lodge for the evening, and toward morning there shall be exultation.» But this, He says, is the portion;

and this also is the portion of those who spoiled you and plundered you as though it were their own inheritance.

By these words He reproaches the men of Israel, because they themselves committed the things by which it was likely that their nation should perish root and branch; yet He again has pity, and punishes with death those who plundered the people that had been apportioned to Him.

For when, He says, the Most High divided the nations, when He scattered the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God;

«and the portion of the Lord became His people Jacob, the measuring-line of His inheritance, Israel.» But together with these things consider for me carefully that other matter also, and from the things that came to pass historically come to the innermost meanings.

Whenever the wicked and hostile powers, pouring themselves upon the soul like a violent flood, whether by casting outward temptations upon us, or by the innate stirrings of the flesh, press hard to lay siege to the godly mind—

let no one of those who know how to fight valiantly with God fall into feeble cowardice; but rather, having placed his hope in Him, let him be superior to every terror.

For that he will obtain succour from Him—how can there be any doubt? For the Lord knows how to deliver the godly from temptation, and the blessed Paul also writes:

The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear Him, and shall deliver them. But whenever the heretics, professing to be experts in the sacred doctrines, employing their own perversity, rise up against the worshippers of the truth, and there come upon them men fierce and insolent, either stirring up wars and persecutions, or heaping upon them afflictions and the fear of death—

these too shall in no way be less weakened;

for with a hidden hand the Lord wars against Amalek from generation to generation, as it is written.

Woe to the wings of the ships of the land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia!

who sends hostages upon the sea, and letters of papyrus upon the water.

For swift messengers shall go to a nation lofty and haughty, and to a strange people, and a harsh one.

Who is beyond it? A nation without hope and trodden down. One might well marvel, and indeed perhaps might reason within himself and say:

at various times those of Israel, having deliberately practised forsaking without safeguard the God who is the Saviour of all, went off into the error of polytheism;

and having utterly neglected the commandment given through Moses, they were disciplined by God, who at various times raised up wars against them and wasted them with the calamities that ensued.

But they—although it was needful to heal by repentance Him whom they had grieved, and to depart from their own baseness, and to be restored to what was pleasing to the Lawgiver, and to thirst for the succour that comes from Him—instead hired the alliances of the neighbouring nations;

and not only so, but learning also the religious rites of the nations that helped them, they hastened to emulate these as well.

He therefore transfers the discourse to the affairs of the Egyptians.

For those of Israel resorted to them also, and especially those dwelling in Jerusalem, and greatly sought their assistance and succour, particularly when the Babylonians were coming against them.

And so through the voice of the prophet He says:

Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, who trust in horses and chariots! And something of this sort came to pass.

For Nebuchadnezzar at various times campaigned against the land of the Jews.

And in the course of overrunning it, he plundered, so to speak, all the cities of the East.

But when he wished to capture the city of the Tyrians, which was then an island, and then found himself at a loss for ships to convey his forces across, using Persian resolve and taking courage from the multitude of his army, he commanded that the sea be made passable by raising up an embankment and making it into a broad highway from the mainland right up to Tyre itself.

But when Nebuchadnezzar had learned this, he moved his army to the necessity of seizing the land of the Egyptians, and took it without effort, God stirring him up against the Egyptians;

because they too, ever raising their brow high in pride, boasted arrogantly over those of Israel, as though they had no God able to save them.

For when called to give succour and to defend them, they declared that their own gods were mightier than the God of Judea.

And that the Babylonian captured Egypt after his toil against Tyre would become clear from God's saying to the prophet Ezekiel:

Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon made his army serve a great service against Tyre.

Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare;

yet he received no wages, neither he nor his army, for the hard service which they served against Tyre.

In place of this I have given him the land of Egypt. The prophet therefore pronounces upon her also the 'Woe,' and says:

Woe to the wings of the ships of the land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia!

By the rivers of Ethiopia, then, he means the seven mouths through which the wide and great river of Egypt mingles with the sea.

And the land beyond the rivers he names as that which is now Alexandria, but was then called On.

It was exceedingly populous, and had the most valiant inhabitants, and it stood but a little apart from the rivers of Egypt.

the Heracleion), lies apart toward the west by perhaps some eighty stadia in number.

And since it was the custom of those inhabiting the aforementioned city to sail up and down the river—which was ever navigable—and to carry to and fro their own goods to others and the goods of others to themselves, and to revel in the profits of trade;

on this account the prophetic word in these passages bewails the ships, and yet does not pronounce the 'Woe' upon the vessels themselves;

but rather upon those who were ever using them, rejoicing and reveling, as I have said, in the profits arising from them.

For when all the land had been seized by Nebuchadnezzar, all trade ceased, and the breadth of freedom to engage in it was cut off, since perhaps also those who owned them had perished.

Woe, then, he says, to the wings of the ships of that land which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia!

By the wings of the ships he names the sails, which the onslaughts of the winds, falling upon them, bear along like a winged thing through the midst of the waves.

who sends hostages upon the sea, and letters of papyrus upon the water.

It labours indeed to bring forth an account of a Greek tale, which we shall of necessity relate, not straying from what is fitting—that is, from what befits Christian discourse—but for the sake of making clear to the hearers the rendering of the meanings.

The account of the story runs thus:

Certain of the poets among the Greeks tell the myth that Myrrha was the daughter of a certain Cinyras, who, overcome by unbridled impulses toward pleasure, coupled lasciviously with his own daughter, and made her the mother of a child, whom he named Adonis.

But blushing at what had happened and at the laws of nature, being convicted of having acted impiously, he exposed the child, as they say, upon a mountain.

And certain of the nymphs there, whom they also call oread spirits, taking it up, nourished and preserved it;

who, when he had come to manhood and was already numbered among the youths, appeared to have the most comely bloom of beauty;

and he took to hunting, and made much of the pursuits connected with this throughout the woods.

Then, he says, Aphrodite among them (and this was a harlot woman) having beheld him, fell in love and consorted with him, and continued to dote upon him.