Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 24/65

and likening to fishes the multitude of men, and moreover to papyrus and reed and the rest, of which the nature of the waters is the nurse.

And likening to fishermen, and to those whose work is in the waters, those who know how to net with a dragnet the multitude of the common herd, and who make them entangled as in nets by the words that carry them off into deceit.

These shall groan and grieve, and be sick at heart, since the discourse that is theirs is now in some way rendered ineffectual;

which we plainly affirmed by likening it to waters, because it has utterly failed, and all that is nourished by it shall be dried up.

For they do not offer wine that gladdens the heart of man, but a spurious and useless teaching, which, as they suppose, they dignify with subtle words.

For he hints, I think, at this in saying that they work fine linen, the exceedingly delicate kind.

For their teachings are like splinters of subtle talk;

yet utterly unprofitable, and filling men with cold speculations.

And the princes of Tanis shall be fools, the wise counsellors of the king; their counsel shall be made foolish. For as the inescapable calamity hung over the Egyptians, and the land was about to be captured, and all but ready to bow its neck beneath the yoke of others, even against its will perhaps, he who had been allotted to govern, being thrown into no small confusion and stricken with unbearable terrors, gathered together the so-called wise men, that is, the magicians;

and he inquired most earnestly whither the end of these matters would finally lead them, and by what means they might ward off the assault of the war.

But these men, he says, are so far from being able to say anything of the necessary, that is, the true, things, that they are convicted of downright folly.

For when God wills to bring evil, the counsel and power of every man would be rendered ineffectual.

For if he shuts against a man, who shall open? according to what is written.

So then he calls the wise men of Tanis those false prophets in her, and the keepers of those who are in the temple precincts.

Who, priding themselves greatly on the magic art, were shown up by the events themselves to be utterly nothing.

'We are sons of the wise, sons of kings from the beginning'? Where now are your wise men? Let them declare to you and say:

What has the Lord of Sabaoth purposed against Egypt? On the strength of what successes, he says, will you raise your brow high? What have you done to benefit the land of the Egyptians, that you should be admired by them, or by what words have you carried away the reigning king,

saying that 'We are sons of the wise,' that is, of prophets? Magicians and sprung from magicians;

who all but reigned over the whole land, having gained a notorious reputation among the worshippers of idols, and being ever in company and fellowship with those in power.

For they were accustomed to bring their counsels to bear upon everything that had to be done, while the falsely-named gods whispered to them the pursuit of what was advantageous.

Therefore, He says, when you are convicted of speaking falsehood, and are shown to know nothing of the truth, how will you say to the king:

'We are the sons of wise men; sons of ancient kings'? And in these words the prophetic message is addressed to us, that is, to those who suppose themselves to be wise.

Then he passes on to the very person of the one who has been allotted the office of leadership, and says:

Where now are your wise men? Let them declare to you and tell what the Lord of Hosts has purposed against Egypt.

For unless they are impostors, he says, or deceivers and buffoons, accustomed to speak falsehood and to utter merely the things from their own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord,

learn from them the things that hang over the Egyptians, and that will most assuredly and immediately come to pass by the counsel of the Lord of Hosts.

The passage, as it were, mocks those who do not know God, but lie as though in deep darkness, because of their being addicted to loving the worship of idols.

It is therefore an utterly dreadful thing, or rather altogether vain, to take courage in the deceits of false prophets;

for knowing absolutely nothing at all, either of things to come or of what God might bring upon men, they make false prophecy a pretext for the collecting of money, and feigning to invoke God, they belch forth only the things of their own contriving, and bewitch the mind of those who cleave to them.

For they speak whatever anyone might wish, and say only that which they judge will be pleasing to their hearers.

But the divine law commands us to depart from such men.

If you enter into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations.

There shall not be found in you one who purges his son or his daughter in the fire, one who uses divination, who practises augury and observes omens, a sorcerer, an enchanter, a consulter of a familiar spirit, an observer of portents, and one who questions the dead.

For everyone who does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God. And to these He adds, saying:

For these nations, whom you shall inherit, they will hearken to observers of omens and to soothsayers;

but to you the Lord your God has not so granted.

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brethren; him you shall hear in all things whatsoever he shall speak to you. For utterly godless, and stripped of every boast of piety, will be the man who gives heed to divinations and observings of omens, to auguries and to the impostures of sorcerers.

But truly full of good hope is he who applies his mind to the evangelical oracles, and who casts the vote of truth for whatever Christ may say.

The princes of Tanis have failed, and the princes of Memphis are exalted, and they shall lead Egypt astray tribe by tribe.

For the Lord has mixed for them a spirit of error, and they have led Egypt astray in all their works, as a drunken man staggers and one who vomits at the same time.

And there shall be no work for the Egyptians which shall make head and tail, beginning and end. In these words the prophetic message somehow smiles upon the playthings and empty babblings of the liars.

The ruler of the Egyptians asked the sorcerers and false prophets who were ever at his side, who were also called wise men, to what end the things he expected would come for him.

But since they failed in counsel, and were convicted of speaking falsely, and there was none among them to bring in the way of profitable counsel and helpful considerations,

they were reckoned as nothing, and other wise men were henceforth sought;

and indeed some marvelled at the princes of Memphis, that is, the priests and magi, those in Memphis, I mean.

For they seemed to be, as it were, choice men at that time, and having reached the summit of magical experience, they appeared to the idolaters to be altogether worthy of account.

Therefore, he says, the princes of Memphis have failed, that is, they were reckoned as nothing, those leaders of Memphis who seemed to be lofty and admired both by the king and by all who were about him.

Yet they too led Egypt astray tribe by tribe, that is, by cities and villages;

and not one by one only, but indeed in multitudes.

For they had taken courage in them, although they had nothing of what was necessary to say;

and they had taken courage in what manner? For the Lord, he says, mixed for them a spirit of error, that is, He shook off from their tongue every word of truth, so that they could neither understand nor speak anything at all of the truth.

For it was not fitting that truth should dwell in the tongues of idolaters.

They led Egypt astray, therefore, as a drunken man staggers and one who vomits at the same time.

For it is the custom of drunkards to fall into the uncleannesses that come from vomiting.

There shall be no work for the Egyptians which shall make head and tail, beginning and end.

For neither shall they lay hold of vigorous undertakings.

For this is the beginning and the head.

Nor indeed shall the things done reach a most desirable end for them;

for this is the tail and the end;

for every device of men is unprofitable, and every succour rotten and in no way able to help;

for when God afflicts, as I have said, and brings His all-powerful hand upon those who kick against Him, and turns the natures of things into what seems good to Him.

In that day the Egyptians shall be as women, in fear and in trembling, before the face of the hand of the Lord of Hosts, which He Himself shall lay upon them.

And the land of the Jews shall be a terror to the Egyptians.

Everyone who names it to them, they shall fear, because of the counsel which the Lord has purposed against it. For those who of old were bold and savage and despisers of every danger shall become full of dread, he says, and shall find their heart broken within them, so that they fall short in nothing of the weakest women, but as it were slide down into an effeminate cowardice.

By the hand of the Lord of Hosts in these words he indicates the all-powerful will of God, which subjects the nation of the Egyptians to the empire of the Romans.

But the divine counsel is altogether irresistible, and by all means it is necessary that what seems good to the deliberations of the supreme Nature be carried through.

And besides these things, the land of the Jews shall be a terror to the Egyptians;

and what indeed he means in these words, let us examine accurately;

for what is signified is exceedingly obscure.

Now the land of the Jews was of old kept safe, God being its defender and making it hard to overcome by all, so to speak, the surrounding kingdoms of the nations.

But although it had so great a helper, it was captured and fell under the Romans, and every city was burned, and houses and villages were left empty of men.

And what became the occasion of their being captured? Manifestly the counsel of the Lord, which He purposed also against it.

For it too, along with the others, has been delivered into the all-powerful hand of the Romans.

The land of the Jews, therefore, shall be a terror to the Egyptians.

For the word of the false prophets wished to encourage them, that they would be superior to the hand of those attacking, and would prevail in marching out against them.

But the fact that even the very land of the Jews had been delivered up to them, although it had God as its former champion, instilled in them a most dreadful fear.

For thence they expected that they too would in every way and by all means be subject to those who wished to lay them waste, since the land of the Jews had also suffered this, as I have said, not because its Preserver had grown weak, but because He had subjected it too to His own nods, and brought it under the sceptres of the Romans.

For when the God of all had wholly visited the Egyptians, and brought them over out of darkness into light, and turned them away from the customs of idolatry, and bestowed on them the knowledge henceforth of who is by nature and truly God, and the Maker of all things.

For they have believed in Christ;

and they have known the Father through Him and in Him.

For this reason, he says, out of very great fairness and reverence, the land of the Jews shall be to them a terror.

And when he says 'for a terror,' you shall understand the fear that springs from reverence.

For all men honour Jerusalem, because Christ was there, and there endured the cross for the salvation of the world, and was laid in a tomb, and again returned to life, and ascended to the Father.

Of old, then, the land of the Jews was hated by the Egyptians;

for their manner of religion was at war with them.

For the one worshipped the creation, and the works of their own hands;

but the other served the all-holy God, and being governed by the laws from Him, they became keepers of a pure polity.

The land, therefore, once hated, shall be to them as it were a terror and an occasion of reverence, because Christ came to be in it, as I have said, who called them out of darkness to His marvellous light.

In that day there shall be five cities in Egypt speaking the language of Canaan, and swearing by the name of the Lord.

'The one city shall be called the City of Asedek.' One might well marvel exceedingly at the blessed prophet's precision of speech in these matters; for he was in no way ignorant of anything that would come to pass in the land of the Egyptians at the appointed times of the Lord's sojourning, but foretold each particular, declaring plainly in what manner the evangelical proclamation would be set forth.

'There shall be, then,' he says, 'five cities in Egypt speaking the tongue of Canaan,' that is, the tongue of the Syrians, or rather that which is used in Palestine.

For the Phoenicians and the Palestinians speak one and the same tongue.

And again, the Palestinians and the Egyptians are close neighbours to one another, and nothing lies between them; but at the borders of Egypt—those, I mean, toward the east and toward the sea of the land of the Palestinians—the first entrances thereupon open up.

The land of the Egyptians, therefore, borders upon that of the Canaanites.

They are the first to receive the saving proclamation.

And these are five, of which we say that the first is the city now belonging to the people of Rhinocorura.

They too speak the tongue of Canaan.

For it has been the earnest concern of those in these cities not so much to adopt the speech of the Egyptians as that of the Syrians.

Some say that Josephus clearly recorded in his own writings that, after he had departed from the land of the Jews, a certain man named Jonias, being of the descendants of Levi and honoured with the priesthood according to the Law, took possession of these five cities that border on the Canaanites, having quarreled with certain of his own kinsmen, or perhaps even having endured persecution.

This man, they say, having gathered together a not inconsiderable multitude of Jews, dwelt in one of these five cities, which was also named the City of Asedek, that is, the City of Righteousness.

From this circumstance, they say, those dwelling at the borders of the Egyptians grew accustomed to, and came to love speaking in the tongue of the Canaanites.

'And they shall learn,' he says, 'also to swear by the name of the Lord.'

For it was the custom of those who worship vain things to make their oath by whichever of the elements of the world seemed good to each.

For some name the heaven, others the sun, and still others the things fashioned by hand in the shrines;

but in no way do they make mention of the God who is in truth.

But it belongs to those who have already come to knowledge and have believed, to swear also by His name.

So also the all-wise Moses led Israel, when it had come forth from the servile worship in Egypt, toward the knowledge of the God who is in truth, saying:

'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him alone shall you serve.' And to these things he added: 'And by His name shall you swear.'

A clear proof, then, that these five cities have received the faith, is that they swear by nothing of the vain things, but rather accept the name of the Lord for the use of the oath.

'In that day there shall be an altar to the Lord in the land of Egypt, and a pillar at its border to the Lord;

and it shall be for a sign forever to the Lord in the land of Egypt.' For the whole land of the Egyptians was filled with sacred precincts and crowded with altars;

and there were libations and sacrifices everywhere, on the one hand offered by them to the elements of the world,

and on the other hand, as I said, also to the images set up in the shrines, that is to say, to the pillars of demons.

And why do I say this, when, having set up even the forms of irrational animals, they bestowed upon them the glory that befits God alone? Behold, then, from what a state into what a state the affairs of the Egyptians have been transformed.

For those who of old were more superstitious than all others, and had unbridledly given themselves over to licentiousness, 'in that day,' he says—that is, at that season, at which the saving proclamation shall shine upon them—shall receive the worship of the God who is by nature and in truth God.

'For there shall be an altar to the Lord in the land of the Egyptians.'

The saying carries great emphasis.

For it is spoken with a note of wonder.

For how is it not marvellous that in the very land of the Egyptians an altar of the Lord should be seen? And in addition to this, also 'a pillar at its border to the Lord.'

By 'pillar' here he means, as it seems to me, either a holy temple of God, that is, the Church, or perhaps also that which is erected first of all at its border—namely the sign of the holy Cross, with which believers are wont to fortify themselves.

For we always employ this thing, overturning every diabolical assault and repelling the incursions of the demons.

For the Cross is to us an unbreakable wall, and the boasting in it is truly saving;

'But God forbid that I should boast, save in the Cross of Christ.' Marvellous, then, are the things foretold by the prophecy at that time, but now indeed brought also to their fulfilment: 'For there shall be an altar to the Lord';

and very many, indeed beyond number, throughout the land of the Egyptians;

and the sign of the Cross is an object of veneration to those who dwell there.

For they have believed in our Lord Jesus Christ.

...to name, and they say that this is the holy Gospel.

'Because they shall cry out to the Lord on account of those who oppress them, and the Lord shall send them a man who shall save them; and the Lord shall be known to the Egyptians.'

'And the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day.'

'And they shall offer sacrifices, and shall vow vows to the Lord, and shall pay them.' Observe for me again the sobriety of the prophetic skill.

For as though someone were inquiring and saying:

'What is the matter? What occasion has arisen for the Lord to come into Egypt upon a swift cloud, and to grant them this thing and that?'—the prophet, taking up the question, answers and says:

'Because they shall cry out to the Lord on account of those who oppress them, and the Lord shall send them a man who shall save them.'

For the father of sin, that is, Satan, leapt upon those throughout all the earth, and having laid upon all the yoke of his own perversity, he lured them away from the love toward God.

And holding them all but bound beneath himself, he bitterly and impiously oppressed them;

but the very nature of the case, having a grievous and unbearable excess of tyranny, cried out against his despotism.

Thus you will understand the Egyptians as crying out.

but as if God abhorred the very absurdity of the matter;

in the same manner, I think, one might understand it also concerning those who were accustomed to worship the unclean demons.

For even if they do not know the God of all, yet, inasmuch as they had been overreached by Satan, through the very nature of the case they have in a manner cried out, altogether seeking help for themselves.

Thus we say that the Egyptians too cried out to God, 'on account of those who oppress them'—that is, those who had made them subject to their own hand, and had pressed them down as with a most bitter servitude; and these, evidently, are the unclean demons.

'But the Lord shall send them a man who shall save them.'

And who is the man, if not clearly Christ? That is, the Only-begotten Word of God, having appeared in human form;

this One has saved not the Egyptians only, but indeed the whole earth as well.

And what does 'judging' mean? In place of 'bringing forth upon them a righteous judgement.'

For Satan who overreached them, and with him the unclean demons, He subjected to holy verdicts, and having cast them down into Tartarus in chains of darkness, delivered them over to be kept for the judgement of the great day, to be punished.

But those who had endured so unbearable a rapacity, He both saved and rescued, and made them His own worshippers, having flashed upon them the light of truth;

and having clothed them with the glorious things of freedom.

So also the Saviour Himself somewhere says:

'Now is the judgement of this world.'

'Now shall the ruler of this world be cast out.'

'And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to Myself.' Do you see that He has passed judgement upon the world, and has cast out Satan who of old tyrannized against it, and has drawn all men to Himself?

For the Egyptians too have come to know Him.

And indeed, having come to know Him, they offer sacrifices, and they vow vows also, and bring to fulfilment the things promised.

'Vow and pay to the Lord our God.' Behold, then, the newness of things.

For those who of old were accustomed to sacrifice to the demons, who brought offerings of worship to Satan and dedicated thank-offerings, and moreover diligently fulfilled vows, that is, their promises;

having been enlightened in mind through Christ, and made resplendent by the doctrines of truth, they shall flee from the ancient error, and having once come to know the Author and Lord of all things, they offer to Him the worship that is in spirit, fulfilling all-pure vows and bringing up sacrifices—no longer those through blood and the slaughter of irrational animals;

but rather spiritual ones, as I said, and acceptable because of their blamelessness.

'And the Lord shall smite the Egyptians with a great blow, and shall heal them with a healing.'

And they shall turn to the Lord, and he shall hearken to them, and shall heal them. Whenever God visits, he sometimes smites those who have acted impiously, and exacts penalties for the outrages they have committed against him; yet in this very manner he greatly benefits them.

For he does not bring the scourge as one overpowered, but rather to change men for the better.

For either he removes them from error into truth, or he teaches those who slide uncontrollably into baser wrongdoing to unlearn it and to hasten to pass over to what is pleasing to him.

Therefore, since the blessed prophets knew that this matter—I mean, being disciplined—brings profit, they cried out to him:

Chasten us, O Lord, yet in judgement, and not in wrath. And again:

O Lord, in affliction we remembered you; in small affliction was your chastening upon us. And he said somewhere also to the synagogue of the Jews:

By toil and by the scourge shall you be chastened, O Jerusalem.

He therefore chastens those whom he chooses and loves.

This grace, the prophet says, he will bestow upon the Egyptians also:

For the Lord shall smite them with a great stroke, and shall heal them with healing.

For even if perhaps they had been given over to the generals of the Romans, and the spear-bearers under them, armed with the law of war, had prevailed over the land, nevertheless, having received among these a place for the divine proclamation, they cast off the loss that comes from having been in error, and passed over to the divine and heavenly light; and having thrust away that ancient opinion, they thereafter possessed a healthy heart.

For they shall turn to the Lord, and he shall hearken to them—that is, those who of old, through much impiety, had come to be in a state of turning away from God, shall thereafter learn no longer to bring their supplications to abominations, on behalf of whatever they might chance to choose, but rather shall cry out to him who heals those broken in heart.

And God shall be to them not slow, but rather ready to assent, gracious and kindly disposed.

Therefore it would be the procurer of every good thing for every man, to know the one who is by nature and truly God, and the Maker and Lord of all things.

In that day there shall be a way for the Egyptians to the Assyrians.

And the Assyrians shall enter into Egypt, and the Egyptians shall go to the Assyrians, and the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrians. The blessed Paul writes concerning Christ the Saviour of us all, that he himself is our peace.

For he not only joined those on earth to the ministering and holy spirits above, but he also brought it about that nations should come into accord with nations.

For before his sojourn, land and city were estranged from mutual intercourse with one another; there were frequent uprisings and inroads of wars everywhere, and the prizes of the strong were the possessions of the vanquished; greed went unchecked, and to wrong whomever one could was reckoned to be a mark of glory and among the things most greatly to be admired.

But peace has come to us, and in this respect, Christ.

For since, flashing forth by the evangelical oracles over all that is under heaven, he taught all men the way of piety, and to cleave to love toward God and toward one another, those former things have long since ceased, and the old things have passed away, and things have become new, as it is written.

For peace has prevailed everywhere.

And this, I think, is what the prophet Isaiah also says somewhere else concerning all the nations:

And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles, and nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn to war any more. For having all come to be under one yoke—spiritually that which is under God, but bodily that which is under the Romans—they lead a quiet and untroubled life, apart from war; so that, every terror being removed, even those of old most hostile to one another are brought together into oneness of soul.

For the Egyptians, he says, shall have a way to the Assyrians, and the Assyrians to the Egyptians.

The Egyptians shall serve the Assyrians—not because the latter cast upon them a yoke of servitude, but because they hold themselves bound by the bonds of love, and make their mutual intercourse most sweet.

By 'Assyrians' he names those who dwell in the eastern land.

In that day shall Israel be third among the Assyrians and among the Egyptians, blessed in the land which the Lord of hosts blessed, saying:

Blessed be my people that is in Egypt, and among the Assyrians, and my inheritance Israel. Now Israel was named the firstborn among children.

But since he acted outrageously against Christ, he was placed behind the nations, and, as it were, received by lot a second rank.

For the season of his return has been reserved for him also.

It is written, at any rate, that When the fullness of the nations shall have come in, then all Israel shall be saved. Behold, then, behold him named third among these, among the Assyrians and Egyptians.

By 'Assyrians' he means in this passage, as I have said, those throughout all the eastern land, and especially the land between the rivers, in which they say there are genuine worshippers, who practise a discipline sister and neighbour to that of the Egyptians, so that they have an equal desire and eagerness for every good thing whatsoever, and indeed virtue as well.

Therefore the God of all things says:

Blessed be my people that is in Egypt and among the Assyrians;

and Israel is reckoned third in the count.

For he adds, And my inheritance Israel.

And the reason for this too the word has demonstrated to us beforehand:

And among the remaining ones he has become the firstborn.

In the year when Tanathan entered into Azotus, when he was sent by Arna king of the Assyrians, and made war on Azotus, and took it, then the Lord spoke to Isaiah, saying:

Go and take off the sackcloth from your loins, and loose your sandals from your feet;

and he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

In the manner that Isaiah my servant has walked naked and barefoot three years, there shall be signs and wonders to the Egyptians and Ethiopians;

and what these things are, I shall tell in few words.

For, disregarding even the very reverence due to the law given through Moses, and moreover making light of love toward God, they were most senselessly carried away to the point of falling into polytheistic error, and of serving the works of their own hands.