Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 25/65

But for those who had once slipped into this frame of mind, there was nothing of the base things left unpractised.

For this cause the God of all things very often let loose upon them wars and battles—on the one hand from the neighbouring nations, and on the other from the Persians and Medes;

and those who rose up against Judea, laying waste beforehand at times the other nations, made the sons of Israel to encounter dread and unbearable terrors.

But they—though it was their duty to appease the God of all things, and to depart from unholy pursuits, and rather to pass over to what seemed good to him, and to make defence to him whom they had grieved, by means of a running-back from the more shameful things to the better, and thus to seek the salvation that comes from him and him alone, and the hand that ever saves and defends—these wretched men did not do this; but, gathering up help from men as by contribution, at one time they called some of the neighbouring peoples to this, at another the neighbouring Egyptians, adding lawlessness to their lawlessness, as it is written, and provoking to wrath, even by this very thing, the God who is almighty over all.

And indeed he said through one of the holy prophets:

a silly dove, without a heart;

she called upon Egypt, and they went to the Assyrians. And indeed also through the prophet Isaiah himself:

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who trust in horses and in chariots.

For they are many, and in horses an exceedingly great multitude;

and they did not trust in the Holy One of Israel, and they did not seek out God;

and he, being wise, brought evils upon them, and his word shall not be set aside. So then, when Tanathan—and this man was a general of the king of the Assyrians—had made war on Azotus, and had taken it by force;

and this city was neighbour to the land of the Jews;

the sons of Israel expected that they too would presently and very effortlessly suffer the same things.

And for this cause, hiring the hand of the Egyptians, they wished to lead them out to defend them and to array them against the phalanxes of the Assyrians.

God therefore declares their hope to be vain;

and he foretells plainly that they too shall become the work [and prey] of the power of the Assyrians, and shall be captured in due season, and shall be in the rank of those taken by the spear.

For they say that in due season the land of the Egyptians came under the hand of the king of the Assyrians;

and having settled himself in it for a few years, three in number, and having taken the whole land by force, and holding a very great captivity, he returned to his own land.

God therefore commands the prophet to take on the guise befitting and customary for captives;

that is, nakedness and barefootedness.

For among those who have utterly conquered, little account is taken of the captives;

and those who have fallen into this misery, whether they be some of the well-born according to the flesh, or of the common throng, are held fast in one and the same net of wretchedness, having no cloak, or any other of the things that contribute to their adornment or rest, but going thus carelessly to whatever pleases their captors, as men coming under compulsion.

The divinely inspired prophet is therefore commanded, as I said, to take off the sackcloth from his loins, and to loose his sandals, and to go through the midst of Jerusalem naked and barefoot.

And he did this, taking no great thought for seeming to be a man of decent appearance, and adding nothing to what is pleasing to God, even if it might appear something grievous and full of reproach.

But perhaps to this someone will say:

To this we say that they did not give heed to the words of the prophets, but rather even rebuked those who wished to foretell the things to come, saying:

'Speak other things to us, and proclaim to us another delusion.' By this very sign, therefore, and most clearly, the temperate man, the orderly one, filled with every virtue, crowned with prophetic grace and illustrious in ascetic discipline, strips off even the sackcloth itself — not that it was a soft garment, but rather a coarse and cheap one;

and he also loosens the sandals from his feet, and walks about in such a fashion,

so that those who see him, marvelling at this very thing, might inquire into the reasons, and, being eager to know for what cause he had done this, might be fully assured

that they hold a vain hope in men;

and that they ought surely rather to yearn for the prosperity that comes from above, and to make it their delight to love the God who has ever been their Saviour.

So then, as the blessed prophet went about Judaea naked and unshod, and no small dismay arose among those who beheld him, 'The Lord said,' it says,

'As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and unshod, for three years there shall be signs and wonders to the Egyptians and Ethiopians.'

For as I said before, in a few years — three — the king of the Assyrians laid waste the land of the Egyptians, and indeed also the Ethiopians who dwelt beside it and were neighbours to the Thebans, taking a very great multitude of captives, and revelling in the calamities of the Egyptians;

then, at that very time, he returned home again in splendour.

'And the Egyptians shall be defeated and put to shame on account of the Ethiopians, in whom the Egyptians had trusted;'

'And those who dwell in this island shall say:'

'Behold, we had trusted to flee to them for help, and they were not able to be saved from the king of the Assyrians; and how shall we be saved?' Now the barbarous nations neighbouring the Thebans — these are the Blemmyes, who are also Ethiopians — have practised with the utmost skill the shooting of arrows.

And smearing these arrows with a most deadly poison, they let them fly against those who fight them;

and if they but graze a man, the one struck will altogether die, and like one bitten by a serpent will fall down on the spot.

It was therefore the custom and practice of the Egyptians, when war and battle were impending, to hire the phalanxes of the Ethiopians, and to be greatly confident in them;

but they were taken captive together with them, being overcome by the valour of the Assyrians.

'The Egyptians therefore shall be put to shame,' it says, 'on account of the Ethiopians, in whom they had trusted.'

For when these too were seized and conquered, those who dwell in this island will say:

'Behold, we had once trusted to flee to them for help — those who were not able to be saved from the king of the Assyrians;'

'and how shall we be saved?' Now he names Egypt an island, because of its being surrounded by rivers and girded on every side by lakes of waters;

and he brings in its inhabitants condemning their hope in the Ethiopians.

'For if these themselves were taken,' it says, 'how could they rescue those who trusted in them?' It is a good thing, then, to hope in the Lord rather than to trust in man;

and as the prophet Jeremiah says:

'Cursed indeed is the man who has his hope in man, and makes flesh his arm's support;'

'but blessed is he who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his hope.' And in some way the prophetic word ever profits us;

and even if perchance the narrative should not admit of a spiritual mode of interpretation, nevertheless the benefit from it is not small.

For Paul says that these things happened to the ancients as types, and were written for our admonition.

And it is not simply of an uninhabited and desolate land that he here makes mention;

but rather he names as a wilderness the land of the Babylonians, which once had inhabitants beyond number, terrible and most warlike;

yet it was so laid waste, wrath from above being brought upon it, that it remained utterly bereft of men, when Cyrus the son of Cambyses waged war against the land of the Babylonians.

Of him the prophet elsewhere also makes mention, saying:

'Thus says the Lord to my anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, that nations should hearken before him.'

'Cities shall not be shut up.' This man took by force her who was once arrogant and exalted herself against every nation, and was hard to withstand in battles — I mean Babylon.

And now too the prophet makes mention of her, and names her a wilderness.

And in what manner of wretchedness she sank down to this, he clearly relates, for two reasons, as I suppose.

For either it was that he might turn the Jews away from their hope —

for Ephraim was a silly dove, as one of the holy prophets says —

he was calling upon Egypt, and was going off to the Assyrians; or that he might comfort those who grieved, because their country had been ravaged, and the very temple burned, and they were carried off spear-won, women together with children, into Babylon.

And this was the act of one clearly teaching that God would rise up even against those who had ravaged them, if they should choose to live according to the law, and to become genuine keepers of His divine commandments.

The prophet, then, gives his narrative.

Yet the loftiness of the vision has changes of speakers.

For at one time, as an eyewitness of things to come, and having already become a beholder of them, he expounds the things shown to him by God;

and at another time he foretells by the prophetic Spirit what shall come to pass in due seasons;

and he also brings in, at times, the person of the Babylonians bewailing themselves over such dreadful and unexpected calamities.

So then, as one who had beheld the expedition of the Persians and Medes, and indeed also of the Elamites, against Babylon, he speaks thus:

'They shall ride and pass through the wilderness,'

{as though even a whirlwind of winds should pass through a wilderness} — that the dust rising up, all but confounds everything.

{'Because a fearful and hard vision was announced to me.'} For sufficient indeed, even bare and by itself, is the sight of the enemy, and the most valiant host of warriors arrayed for battle, to instil a hard terror in those who behold it.

But he says not merely that he beheld it, but rather also, 'It was announced to me,' he says;

for together with the sight, he was also taught the outcome of the events — and clearly that this was from God.

{'He who sets at nought sets at nought, and he who acts lawlessly acts lawlessly.'} The audacity of the assailants, he says, is not to be checked.

For they are not kindled by human reasonings toward gentleness;

nor does any one among them ponder anything of the things that are coming;

but he acts lawlessly without restraint, and sets at nought according to what seems good to himself, there being no sparing in him at all.

For they look not to mercy, but their zealous work will be, he says, to act lawlessly and to set at nought.

He said something of this kind also through the voice of the same prophet, to the inhabitants of the Assyrians' land:

'Behold, I bring upon you the Medes, who reckon not silver, nor have need of gold.'

'They shall shatter the bows of the young men.'

For when God brings wrath upon transgressors, there will be nothing able to give aid.

And a beast-like mind rather dwells in those who wish to lay waste those against whom they may rush.

'Against me come the Elamites, and the ambassadors of the Persians come against me.'

'Now I will groan, and comfort myself.'

'I did wrong in not hearkening, I was eager not to see.'

'My heart wanders, and lawlessness overwhelms me, my soul is set toward fear.' The word here has the force of a personification.

For the Assyrian is brought in, both dreading the onset, and not ignorant of the enemy's phalanxes, and against whom the aim of their war is directed.

'For not against certain others, but against me,' he says, 'the Elamites and the very best of the Persians have set out.'

'I will therefore groan and comfort myself.'

For to those who have come into the utmost calamity, there seems to belong a certain mode of consolation — namely, to lament and to bewail.

For the tear is pressed out from pain.

But it is a strange thing if the Assyrians lament, they who had ever been harsh and haughty, and exceedingly supercilious against all the nations, and who supposed that the resistance offered them was not easy to meet.

But those who are so audacious and puffed up with pride beyond what befits a man now welcome a womanish tear, and prepare a lamentation over themselves, broken down into weakness before ever they have made trial of war.

'For my loins have been filled with faintness, and pangs have seized me as one giving birth.'

But for what reason, pray, will such things befall you, he says, O Assyrian? You might well declare it to the one who asks:

'For I know that through much sin I have given offence to God who rules over all.'

'I did wrong in refusing to hear; I made it my endeavour not to see.'

In this, he says, I did myself wrong, that I practised much the refusal to listen, and made it my earnest business not to see—that is, to know who is by nature and in truth God.

For I did indeed hear of the worship of the Jews; yet by force I took the holy city and laid waste the temple.

From things overheard I gained a moderate knowledge of the commandments given to those of Israel.

Or rather even the prophet Jonah was sent from God, preaching and saying:

'Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.' And straightway, in terror at the threat, I did indeed repent; but again I did wrong by not hearkening, and I made it my earnest concern not to see the very things it was needful to see.

'For my heart has gone astray.'

'And sin has made me as one plunged beneath the waters, overwhelming me, as it were, and burying me.'

'For this very reason my soul stands fixed in fear;'

'for I have come to be in the terrors of the uttermost extremities.'

These, then, would be the words of the Assyrians.

For it is the custom of the holy prophets to put speeches into the mouths of persons, because of the profit thereby to their hearers.

'Prepare the table; drink, eat.'

'Rise up, you princes, prepare your shields.' I have said that the word of prophecy is at times very richly varied into many differences of persons;

and it is altogether necessary that those who would choose both to understand and to declare it aright should carefully attend to such matters.

For thus the knowledge of what is said would become clear, and would present no steep or difficult ascent.

He has therefore introduced the person of the Assyrians, weeping over themselves, shattered into cowardice, and in travail with an unbearable dread at the evils that were to come upon them.

Then he makes mention of the time in which it would come to pass that they should be taken captive and fall into irremediable calamities;

and indeed he sets forth plainly the very cause of the [wrath] that had come upon them.

'A thousand shekels of wine over against the thousand.' Then he says that he had also impiously carried off the holy vessels taken from time to time from Jerusalem, and that they drank from them—he himself, and his concubines, and his consorts.

And this was nothing else than to boast greatly against the glory of God;

and to exalt himself against the one set over those of Israel, as though he were in no way able to profit his own people.

So then, while Belshazzar was drinking, and all but mocking the holy vessels;

'There appeared,' he says, 'the knuckle-bones of a hand, and it wrote upon the wall: Mene, Tekel, Peres.'

It is this history, as I suppose, that he now calls to mind, and the prophet speaks as though addressing the very rulers, or rather the magnates, and indeed Belshazzar himself:

'Prepare the table; drink, eat;'

'rise up, you princes, prepare your shields;'

'revel,' he says, 'at profligate tables;'

and the expression is somehow after the manner of common speech;

'sate yourselves, drinking insatiably.'

And what after this? Wars shall succeed the festivity, and the suffering shall come not long after;

but from the very drinking-bout you shall run to arms, and shall seek out shields.

For it is truly a most grievous thing to exalt oneself against God, and to grow insolent against a glory beyond which nothing among existing things extends.

It being God's decree that they should suffer captivity, seeing that he had brought it upon them because of their much sin.

Yet they ought not, having chosen to fall into such ignorance and senseless notions, to think and suppose that the hand of the one willing to save them had been overpowered, and that they had become mightier than the ineffable power of Him who is above all things and who has raised up the creation as God.

'For thus the Lord said to me:'

'Go, set for yourself a watchman;'

'and whatsoever you may see, declare it.'

'And I saw two mounted horsemen;'

'a rider on an ass, and a rider on a camel.' It is the custom of the holy prophets, at the time of the divine vision, that is, of the revelations, to gather up as it were their mind within themselves, and with undistracted thought to contemplate the things shown by God, and, as though set on high and upon some secret watch-tower, to give ear to the divine words.

And so one of the holy prophets said:

'I will stand upon my watch, and mount upon a rock, and keep watch to see what he will speak within me, and what I shall answer concerning my reproof.' Some such thing the prophet now teaches, and he says that he heard from God:

'Go, set for yourself a watchman, and whatsoever you may see, declare it;'

and he was bidden to set up no other watchman, but altogether to make himself in every way ready for the divine vision, and, having become as it were a watchman raised on high in mind, to look down upon the things to come, and to receive with his eye the sight of the events.

'I saw, therefore,' he says, 'two mounted horsemen;'

And what this is, the lamentation of the Assyrians will teach clearly.

'Against me come the Elamites, and the ambassadors of the Persians come to me;'

and the Elamites are indeed a barbarous nation, practised in riding upon camels.

But who else would the rider on the ass be, save those chosen out from among the Persians? These, they say, are wont to go to battle mounted on mules and under parasols, so that no toil may unnerve them.

But whenever they catch sight of the field of battle, then, leaping down from their parasols, they use their choice horses.

The rider on the ass, then, he means the one who rides upon mules.

Though it is likely that in another way the prophet beheld the host of the enemy mounted on horses, and following after, a multitude of camels and mules, made ready perhaps for the carrying off of the spoils.

For this he says somewhere else:

'In tribulation and distress, a lion and a lion's whelp;'

'thence too asps and the offspring of flying asps, who carried their wealth upon asses and camels.' For by 'a lion and a lion's whelp' he called Cyrus, and those under him, both Persians and Medes.

'And asps and the offspring of flying asps;'

this means those from the other nations, practised in darting swiftly and being borne along on a level with winged things, for whom it was also a habit and a familiar practice to ride upon camels.

And who these might be, we have already said before, anticipating the point.

But since once he has beheld it, he is thereupon commanded to hasten to learn the things arising from the assault, and the dreadful narratives of the calamity of the Chaldeans.

For such a thing is, in truth, much worth the hearing.

Therefore the things that had befallen Babylon were dreadful, and beyond all telling, and had reached the very extremity of evils.

For thus did Cyrus take her, so as to make her utterly desolate for ever, and to destroy those within her, and to hunt down as with a net, even out of the very caves, those who had supposed they could altogether escape unseen.

'Rejoice not against me, my enemy, because I have fallen; for I shall arise;'

'for though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.'

'I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgement for me; and he will bring me forth into the light;'

'and I shall behold his righteousness.'

And my enemy shall look on, and she who says to me, 'Where is the Lord your God?' shall be clothed with shame; my eyes shall gaze upon her.

Now she shall be for a trampling, like mire in the streets.

It is a day for the plastering of brick; that day shall be your blotting out.

on which day, that is to say, she has been ravaged by the Persians and Medes and Elamites, and laid waste, as I have said.

'Hearken, then,' he says, 'to a great hearing'—that is, to the long and dreadful accounts concerning the capture—'and call Uriah to the watchtower of the Lord.'

They say that a certain Uriah was one of the most eminent among those who ministered as priests according to the Law.

'Take, therefore,' he says, 'as a witness of the scouting—that is, the vision—which is shown to you, this Uriah, and let the things that are to come be taught to him by you.'

For since, disbelieving the narratives of the prophets, they used to say:

'Speak to us other things, and announce to us another delusion'—for this very reason, and most providentially, the God of all made those held in highest honour among the Jews to be witnesses of the things shown from time to time, as in a prophetic vision, to those who possessed the spirit of prophecy; so that, if they would not be persuaded by the words spoken by these, they might at least take courage from those men who among them were honoured with the priesthood according to the Law.

'I stood continually all day, and in the camp I stood the whole night;

and behold, there comes a rider of a pair-drawn chariot.' The prophet, having been commanded to set for himself a watchman, and to declare plainly whatever should be shown to him by God—

'I stood,' he says, 'continually all day, and through the whole night;

and behold, there comes a rider of a pair-drawn chariot.'

Who, then, is this? The Persian and Elamite, that is, the commander of the army—that is to say, Cyrus.

'Babylon is fallen, and all her images, and her handmade idols are shattered to the ground.' When the prophet said:

'Behold, he comes, the rider of a pair-drawn chariot'—in what manner the things of the assault would be carried out, and, having very clearly beheld that it would come to pass in no long time—God thereupon answers and says:

'Babylon is fallen,' that is, the boaster, the insolent one, the hammer of all the earth, as Jeremiah says:

she who trampled beast-like upon all the nations, who lifted up her neck in arrogance, grinding down lands and cities.

'She is fallen,' he says, that is, she has utterly perished;

she is gone and trodden underfoot, cast down completely, and is now seen lying beneath the feet of those who have taken her.

And all her images and her handmade idols were shattered.

For it is a land of graven images, as another of the holy prophets says;

and she had greatly trusted in the falsely-named gods;

and, having expected to be saved by the aid coming from them, she has been trampled together with them, and was shattered along with her own objects of worship.

'Hear, O you who are left and grieving; hear the things which I heard from the Lord of Sabaoth; the God of Israel has announced to us.' Israel had indeed been carried off captive and had become enslaved to the Babylonians, God permitting, on account of much sin, that he should be overtaken by such long-lasting calamities.

Nevertheless, many remained both in Jerusalem and in Judea;

yet they continued groaning and grieving, since their land had been ravaged;

and the temple itself having been burned down, and Jerusalem laid utterly waste by force.

The prophet, therefore, usefully weaves for them the vision as a medicine of aid unto comfort, and says to them:

'Hear, O you who are left and grieving; hear the things which I heard from the Lord of Sabaoth.'

'The God of Israel has announced to us.'

For he knew—indeed he knew—that the calamity of the Babylonians would prove to them an occasion of gladness, and that the accounts against those who had grieved them would be a means of comfort to those thus ravaged.

For thus, and not otherwise, would those who read understand.

And Esau was called Edom, that is, 'earthy';

for such was his manner of life, and for a single meal he sold his birthright, as it is written.

But Jacob was a guileless man, dwelling in a house;

for the sacred Scripture spoke thus concerning him:

And from Jacob, who was also renamed Israel, came the Jews; while from Esau, that is, from Edom, came the Idumeans, that is, the Hagarenes, and these are the Saracens.

Therefore the Idumeans were brethren and near of kin to those descended from Israel;

and moreover the land of the Jews and the land of the Idumeans were bordering upon and adjoining one another.

But neither kinship nor yet neighbouring one another secured concord of soul for the two peoples.

And indeed, when those of Israel, having cast off the yoke of the Egyptians' oppression, were going up to the land promised to their fathers, 'Moses sent,' it says, 'messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, saying:'

'Thus says your brother Israel:'

'You know all the hardship that has found us;'

'and our fathers went down into Egypt, and we sojourned in Egypt many days;'

'and the Egyptians ill-treated us and our fathers;'

'and we cried out to the Lord, and the Lord heard our voice, and sending an angel he brought us out of Egypt;'

'and now, behold, we are in the city of Kadesh, on the edge of your borders;'

'we would pass through your land;'

'we will not pass through the fields, nor through the vineyards;'

'nor will we drink water from your well;'

'we will go by the king's highway;'

'we will not turn aside to the right nor to the left, until we have passed through your borders.'

And Edom said to him:

'But if not, I will come out against you to meet you in war.' You see how hard and unpitying the Idumeans became, and that toward brethren? But their offences did not stop even at these things;

for indeed they committed yet another deed, both unholy and savage.

For the Babylonian seized the land of the Jews, and having burned down the temple and laid waste Israel, wrought against the inhabitants deeds beyond all telling.

Then certain of those who had been saved from the Persian sword hastened to flee, as to a land bordering the Jews', and as to brethren and kinsmen;

but they, although it was fitting to defend them as brethren, and to have compassion on those who had fared so wretchedly, and indeed to receive them kindly, leapt upon them in beast-like fashion;

and they made the fugitives a work of their own savagery.

And for this very thing the God of all severely accused them through the voice of the prophet Obadiah; for it is thus written:

'In that day, says the Lord, I will destroy the wise men out of Idumea, and understanding out of the mountain of Esau;'

'and your warriors from Teman shall be dismayed, so that man may be cut off from the mountain of Esau, because of the slaughter and the impiety toward your brother Jacob;'

'and shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off for ever, from the day when you stood opposed against him, in the day when strangers led captive his army;'

'and foreigners entered into his gates;'

'and they cast lots over Jerusalem;'

'and you were as one of them.' Consider, then, how they became imitators of the Persian savagery, and, for this very cause, slew without mercy those who had hoped to be saved, coming to them as to brethren and neighbours.

So then, when the Babylonians had seized the land of the Jews and were now returning to their own country, they made the devastation of Idumea an incidental work by the way.

For they seized them all, and that with great ease, God letting loose his wrath upon them.

And so he spoke again through the voice of Obadiah:

In the manner that you have done, so shall it be to you;

your recompense shall be repaid upon your own head. This, then, is in brief the theme of the vision that lies before us.

And so now we must proceed to the several particulars, and, so far as it lies within our power, expound what is written.

'Call to me out of Seir.' This is the utterance of God who rules over all things, speaking to the prophet, to the effect that, as war would very soon fall upon the land of the Idumaeans, all its inhabitants would turn to flight.

Now Seir is an exceedingly great mountain of Idumaea, beneath which is said to lie a splendid city belonging to them.

So then, as those from Mount Seir, that is, the Idumaeans, were as it were on the very point of turning to flight, He says, 'Call to me,' that is, let those who flee thence come into Judaea.