Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 27/65

'For not all,' he says, 'who are of Israel are these Israel, nor because they are the seed of Abraham are all children; but as many as have been justified through faith, following in the footsteps of the father Abraham — these are also his children, and are called sons of the promise and Israel.'

So when Christ, the high priest of us all, had been manifested, 'There shall be,' he says, 'none to gainsay.'

'For an enemy shall not profit against him, and a son of lawlessness shall not proceed to afflict him.'

And in another sense also.

For Israel indeed gainsaid, but the nations were well-pleased to be ruled under him.

'Deliver me from the gainsayings of the people' — and concerning the nations, 'You shall set me at the head of the nations;'

'a people whom I knew not served me, at the hearing of the ear they obeyed me.'

'Strange sons dealt falsely with me, strange sons grew old, and went halting from their paths.'

For they have grown old and have come near to destruction, and they have got, as it were, a shattered mind, having become strange sons — that is, those of Israel. For of old he was the firstborn, but since they lied against Christ, they became strangers.

For they have thenceforth been called children of perdition, sons of Gehenna.

'But when,' he says, 'I shall manifest Eliakim' (which is interpreted 'the resurrection of God';

for the Word who is God has been raised up for our succour, he who also of old said:

'Because of the affliction of the poor and the groaning of the needy, now will I arise, says the Lord') — then, he says, every glorious one in the house of his father shall trust upon him.

And what other could the house of the Father of Christ be, than the Church? But if anyone is glorious in her, this one shall trust upon Christ; and not only the glorious one, but indeed even if anyone be lowly according to the world, I mean.

Thus says the Lord of Sabaoth:

'The man that is established in a sure place shall be moved, and shall fall, and the glory that is upon him shall be taken away, for the Lord has spoken.' After so long a narration, a concise and brief word is introduced, making manifest the severity of the divine judgements, and, as it were, like a king with fitting authority ordaining that these things come to pass.

And again the force of the pronouncement looks, if one should so wish, to Shebna the steward.

For those who seem to lie in the security of prosperity — for this is what 'being established' means —

who seem to be in a sure place, have both fallen and been stripped of the glory that was in them, with none to defend, nor any able to raise up those already cast down, for the Lord has spoken.

'For if he shut against a man, who shall open?' he says.

{THE VISION OF TYRE.} 'Howl, you ships of Carthage, for she is destroyed, and they come no more; out of the land of the Kittim she is led captive.' Come then, let us again, being eager to make plain as far as we can the things prophesied by God concerning Tyre also, first set forth the history, and make clear how she was taken and destroyed and led away captive, according to what is written.

So when the Babylonians, having laid waste Judaea and burned down the holy city itself, were carrying off Israel captive, the surrounding nations of the foreigners dwelling round about, opening a bold and unbridled mouth, undertook to mock the glory of God.

For they said that he had not been able to save them, but rather that even the God who succoured them had been defeated by the hand of the Assyrians; and they thought that their own gods were both mightier than the God of the Hebrews, and that these gods protected them and walled them about, and kept them beyond every assault, and showed them to be superior to the Babylonians.

And in yet another way they too joined in plundering the nation of the Jews, on the one hand falling upon them in their affliction and seizing those who were left behind;

and on the other hand dedicating to the falsely-named gods both sacred vessels, and as if by necessity sending off from the worship according to the law those who had come under the yoke of servitude to them.

And indeed God said through one of the holy prophets:

'And what have you to do with me, Tyre and Sidon, and all Galilee of the foreigners? Do you render me a recompense, or do you bear a grudge against me? Swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense upon your own heads, because you took my silver and my gold, and carried my choice and goodly things into your temples, and gave over the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel to the sons of the Greeks, that you might thrust them out from their borders.' Tyre then also was taken by the wrath of God, in some such manner as this:

for she was still an island, with a strait channel running through the midst, and separating her from the mainland by no great distances.

But when the Babylonian came, and sought to take her together with the others, he commanded the armies under his hand to fill up the sea that lay between, and to join her to the mainland, and to allow her no longer to remain an island.

And when this had come to pass, or was expected to come to pass before long, the greater part of those in Tyre — inasmuch as they had commerce for their trade and were accustomed to sea-faring — swam away from the island together with their children and their women, and departed to other cities and villages.

So the Babylonians, having driven in, slew those who remained behind, and took many, and did to them the things customary for the victors; except that they were not moderately grieved to learn that very many, and those of the more distinguished among them, had put their belongings into ships and fled.

The discourse also recalls the history and the prophecy of Ezekiel.

For thus the God of all spoke to him:

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

'Every head was made bald, and every shoulder was rubbed bare, yet no wage came to him or to his army, in return for the hard servitude with which he had served against Tyre.'

'In return for this I have given him the land of Egypt.' For after the capture of the Tyrians the Babylonian shifted the war against the nation of the Egyptians.

And it is clear that Tyre is to wail because she has perished, and men come no longer from the land of the Kitians.

Some say that the Kitians are the Grecian islands, that is, the Macedonian ones;

but others affirm confidently that by this term Cyprus is signified, as being named after one of the cities in it, so called.

'Wail,' he says—for what reason? For she has been led away captive.

And they thought greatly of themselves in having Tyre as their mother-city, at once the most renowned and the most valiant among the islands—those, I mean, in the East.

They say too that those from the land of the Kitians pride themselves upon her, and revel in the gains of her markets.

'Wail therefore,' he says, 'you merchants of Carthage,' that is, the ships, 'for she has perished.'

And let Tyre also wail, for men come no longer from the land of the Kitians.

'To whom have those who dwell in the island become like—the traffickers of Phoenicia, who cross the sea in much water, a seed of traffickers, as of a harvest being gathered in, the traffickers of the nations?' To what nations, then, he asks, shall we compare those who dwell in this island? Who have suffered such things, or been so plundered, as the traffickers of Phoenicia? For merchandise is the pursuit of the Tyrians, and to sail eagerly across the sea for the sake of gains and profits.

And by adding that they are 'a seed of traffickers,' he showed that their low birth was hereditary to them, and that they sprang from an evil root, and that their forefathers before them were, from of old, slaves to love of gain.

And he teaches that those who pursue so shameful a life among them are even beyond number, saying:

'As of a harvest being gathered in are the traffickers of the nations.'

For when grain has been reaped, that is, the ears in the field, great is the bringing in of the sheaves from every side, and the gathering of them into the threshing floor.

'Be ashamed, O Sidon,' said the sea;

'and the strength of the sea spoke, saying, I have not travailed nor given birth, nor reared up young men, nor exalted virgins.' The Carthaginians are colonists of the Tyrians.

Yet the Tyrians have Sidon as their mother-city;

for Tyre was from Sidon.

Yet, as over a splendid and far-famed daughter, Tyre, Sidon has greatly prided herself.

But when she was captured and led away captive, then, he says, the sea—that is, all the islands throughout the sea—will henceforth say:

'Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the fairest of your boasts has perished, and she who of old was formidable and most valiant, and most illustrious for her great wealth, has become vanished away.'

The sea, then, will say these things;

but the strength of the sea itself—that is, she who prevails over the islands, namely Tyre—wailing over her own calamities, when she is already stripped bare of her inhabitants and bereft of children, then indeed she will altogether say: 'I have not travailed, nor given birth, nor reared young men, nor exalted virgins.'

For I have become, she says, equal to those who have never at all borne or reared either young men or virgins, because all have been utterly swept away to destruction, and not one at all has been left remaining.

'And when it becomes heard in Egypt, anguish shall seize them concerning Tyre.' The prophet has not been ignorant that, as I have already said, after the capture of the Tyrians the Assyrian was about to remove to the land of the Egyptians.

'When therefore,' he says, 'these things become heard among the Egyptians, then they too, in every way and altogether, will be pained'—not because Tyre has perhaps been plundered, but because the evils of war have shifted over to themselves.

'Depart to Carthage, wail, you who dwell in this island.' The word of the prophecy is spoken with much figurative manner.

For he does not properly and truly bid them to remove from the land of the Tyrians and rather to migrate to Carthage, nor simply to wail, but as it were to reproach those who flee and are shattered by immeasurable cowardice.

He says that they must wail over themselves and over the calamities brought upon them.

Both these things are effeminate, and more fitting for boys and for those already past their prime.

For when war has been proclaimed, and is expected to come against a region or a city, everything that is in its prime prepares itself for battle, drills in tactics, and, against the phalanxes of the enemy—even if they are not yet present—rages with all the ardor that belongs to eagerness.

But women and boys practice for flight, and wail with weeping.

For a boy and a woman are always somehow ready for fear and lamentations.

Therefore the God of all smiles at the unmanliness of the Tyrians.

For those who of old were mighty in battles, formidable and hard to withstand, bold and unconquerable, now flee and wail.

'Is not this your pride from the beginning, before she was given over? Who has purposed these things against Tyre? Is he inferior, and has he no strength?' I said before that, when Jerusalem had been sacked and the very temple burnt down by the Assyrian army, the surrounding and bordering nations rejoiced over Israel as though ruined and utterly cut off, and shook their heads over them;

and they supposed that they had fallen under the hands of enemies not on account of their own sins, but rather because he who saved them had grown weak, and that the conquerors had become mightier than the hand of God.

'What then, O Tyrians?' he says. 'Did you not, before she was given over, commit this insolence against me? Did you not say that my strength was inferior and less than that of your gods? Who then,' he says, 'has purposed these things against Tyre? I, plainly—I whom you have dared to call inferior and powerless.'

'From the very facts, therefore, judge whether he is inferior to the gods among you, or has no strength. For I delivered up to the enemies the rebellious Israel, which had sinned against me.'

'But since you are rich in gods, and many among you are the ones honored, which of them, pray, planned such a design against Tyre? Which delivered her to the enemies?' It is a grievous thing, then, to learn by actual experience the things that one deserves to suffer.

'Her merchants were glorious, princes of the earth.'

'The Lord of Hosts has purposed to bring down all the pride of the glorious, and to dishonor everyone glorious upon the earth.' The word passes again to the necessity of stripping them of the arrogance within them, of their haughtiness, and moreover, along with this, of their insatiable love of gain.

'For being merchants,' he says, 'and having so shameful and lowborn a pursuit, they have advanced to such glory and preeminence that they have even bound about themselves the honors most befitting rulers, and have become most renowned with the crowns given for good fame.'

'But the Lord of Powers,' he says, 'has purposed to bring down the pride of the glorious, and to dishonor every such one.'

And when God determines such a decree against them, and brings a cutting judgment, who is able to ward it off, or who could avert the divine wrath? For who shall be mightier than the all-powerful authority? Or who shall turn back the uplifted hand, according to what is written? Let them not suppose, then, he says, that it was through having offended their own gods that they were brought down from glory into dishonor; rather let them know that a judgment has come from the Lord of Hosts, against whom they have dared to speak.

'That he is both inferior and has no strength.'

Therefore let us also say to those who transgress the law, 'Do not transgress the law,' and to those who sin, 'Lift not up the horn, neither impiously raise it up, nor speak unrighteousness against God who rules over all.'

'For ships come no longer from Carthage.'

'And your hand shall no longer prevail by sea, you who provoked kings.' He removes, he says, their zeal from mercantile pursuits to husbandry.

'For you shall not again employ those most beloved commercial ventures, nor shall those come from Carthage who gathered for you your measureless wealth and ran beneath your hand'—that is, your power.

'For you shall be utterly nothing any longer, although you were able to do much by the sea'—that is, having become most valiant against every island and city situated by the sea, and having provoked very many kings.

'But the Lord of Powers gave command concerning Canaan' (that is, concerning the land of the foreigners), 'so as to destroy her strength.' For the evils of war were brought about through the cruelty of the Assyrians, not upon Tyre alone from somewhere, but also upon others of the nations—the Moabites and the Idumeans and certain others.

And collectively all the worshippers of idols are named Canaanites, even those who are not of the blood of Israel; and so let anyone who hears be reproached as 'seed of Canaan and not of Judah.'

'When therefore,' he says, 'the harm from war advances alike against all the Canaanites, then some, understanding the causes of what has befallen them, will say:'

'You shall no longer add to insulting and wronging the daughter of Zion.'

For I said that they reproached Judea and mocked those of Israel as though captured, and bewailed Jerusalem, that is, Zion—not as though she had rather been overlooked by God who saves, but as though for this reason she had fallen to be captured and to suffer, namely that the God honored among them, to whom they rendered the services according to the Law, had been vanquished and grown weak.

'And if you go away to the Kitians, neither there shall you have rest;'

'and to the land of the Chaldeans—even it has been laid waste by the Assyrians, its wall has fallen.' When God drives men into sweat and toils, who is able to ward it off? When the all-powerful right hand makes war, who is so great as to deliver the afflicted from irremediable calamity? No one at all.

For the nature of things follows his divine nods, and whatever he wills to come to pass, this is in every way and altogether brought to completion.

'If therefore,' he says, 'you go away on a long journey, so as even to arrive among the Kitians'—

for they say it is one of the cities in Cyprus;

but the Kitians affirm confidently that it is Carthage itself;

'neither there shall you have rest'—that is, wars, and the fear of death, and the dangers concerning death, will find you out.

But even if, having become a captive, you should reach the land of the Chaldeans, not even so shall you have ceased from having to be grievously pained.

For there shall be no rest for you, in any way or manner whatsoever;

for it too has been laid waste, with the Persians and Assyrians ravaging it—Cyrus, that is, waging his campaign, when its wall also fell.

By 'the wall of the land of the Chaldeans' I think he means either the man who was set over it and reigned as king, or else the very rampart itself, in which above all the Babylonians, having placed their confidence, expected to suffer none of the grievous things, and that the assault of those making war upon them would prove ineffectual.

For it had been so constructed that, even when wagons came alongside passing one another, a broad road could be seen upon it.

And indeed through the voice of Jeremiah the God of all things speaks, shaking down this very hope of the Babylonians:

'The wall of Babylon has been made broad, yet being razed it shall be razed to the ground. Wail, O ships of Carthage, for your stronghold has perished.' A song and a lamentation is set in the middle of the beginning of the vision;

the discourse in a certain way confirms the prophecy, showing that it especially befits Tyre that such utterances should be spoken by all concerning her.

That the ships from Carthage should wail is on account of the destruction of their stronghold — that is, Tyre.

And the occasion of the matter has been clearly stated through the things that have already gone before.

'And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forsaken seventy years, as the time of a king, as the time of a man.' Tyre had mocked at the people of Jerusalem, as though they had been sacked, and she attributed the causes of their suffering not so much to the negligence of the Jews — as of those who had given offense to God by their insolence against the Law and against what seemed good to Him —

but rather she supposed that the one who presided over them, that is, the God of all things, had not been able to save them.

But she endured a desolation of the same duration as the captivity of those of Israel.

For they completed seventy years among the Chaldeans, bearing the grievous yoke of servitude.

'The days of our years among them are seventy years, but if in strength eighty years, and the more part of them is toil and trouble.'

'And it shall come to pass after seventy years, that Tyre shall be as the song of a harlot.'

'Take a harp, go about the city, O harlot that has been forgotten; play the harp well, sing many songs, that you may be remembered.' The woman who is common to many and lustful, and who sells off the bloom of her body to her lovers, so long as she is in her prime and young, ensnares many, and the flower of her body is itself a snare and, as it were, an enchantment to those who behold her.

But when she has passed her prime, then, precisely then, her bloom having withered away, she is now ineffective at the hunt, and she pursues by another means the ability once again to devise ways of gaining her wretched profits.

For song and melody becomes her pursuit;

for many take delight in her as she plays the harp.

Hence there will at times be for her some brief recollection of her past life, and some praise the beauty she had in her prime.

Something of this sort, he says, will befall the city of the Tyrians.

For she shall be as the song of a forgotten harlot, no longer possessing the adornment she had in the beginning.

She shall be a song and a melody to many.

'But you, O Tyre, like an old harlot past her youth, take a harp, go about as a city that has become like some forgotten harlot.'

For when, as I said, the bloom of such little women has withered away, even those who were once captivated by her and had become her lovers forget her.

'Therefore play the harp well, and sing many songs, that at least you may be remembered.'

'And it shall come to pass after seventy years, that God will visit Tyre, and she shall be restored again to her former state, and shall be a mart for all the kingdoms of the world; and her merchandise and her hire shall be holy to the Lord. It shall not be gathered for them, but for those who dwell before the Lord.'

But when Cyrus, together with the Persians and Medes, had by force taken the land of the Babylonians and had utterly ravaged all the country of the Chaldeans, Israel was released from captivity and returned once more to his own land, and settled in the holy city.

And the God of all things, bearing no grudge, also turned away His wrath from the Tyrians;

and she was rebuilt again, and returned to her former state, and became a mart and a place of lodging, just as of old, for all the kingdoms of the earth.

Yet observe the difference.

For of old the profit from her commerce was gathered only for those who plied this trade, and no fruits at all were brought by anyone whatsoever to God.

But when, the nations having been called to the grace that is through faith, she too came to know the Saviour and Redeemer of all things, and a holy temple was raised up among them, and a divine altar was set up, no longer is the profit from her commerce gathered for them alone;

but rather it shall also be holy to the Lord — that is, for a votive offering and a bearing of fruit — so that they may both eat and drink before the Lord.

For of old, resorting to the shrines of idols and to the sacred precincts of demons, they used to bring sacrifices, and celebrated festal assemblies over them, to the honour and glory of their own fabrications;

but when, as I said, they had come to know the true God, the profit of their commerce became holy to the Lord, and they eat and drink for a memorial before the Lord, plainly offering to God the thank-offerings for whatever prosperity they might enjoy.

'He shall destroy the world, and shall make it desolate, and shall lay bare the face of it, and shall scatter those who dwell in it.' I said before that Jerusalem was sacked, and that together with her the rest of the cities of Judaea were also ravaged.

The nations round about and dwelling nearby smiled upon her as she lay prostrate, and all but shaking their heads over her and laughing broadly, they said that God had been defeated by the hand of the Assyrians;

just as indeed Rabshakeh too, being full of Persian arrogance, said to those seated on the wall:

'Let not Hezekiah deceive you, saying that God will deliver Jerusalem out of my hand.' Therefore, since together with those from Babylon the other nations too, deriding the glory of God, said that He who of old presided over them had not been able to save them, for this very reason, and quite fittingly, being made to pay the penalty both for their transgressions and for their impious loose-tongued babbling to this effect, they too were given over to the Babylonians for desolation.

And the word of prophecy has recounted to us the vision concerning each of the nations.

Having therefore recounted the things brought upon each of the nations that were named, out of divine wrath, the blessed prophet, by the things set forth, all but makes a recapitulation of the whole discourse, and names as a worldwide ruin that which came upon many nations.

'Behold, the Lord destroys the world, and shall make it desolate, and shall lay bare the face of it.'

For it is not one and two cities that have fallen, but lands and nations were destroyed, according to the ways already spoken of before.

'Therefore,' he says, 'He will destroy and make desolate the world, and shall lay bare the face of it.'

For so long as the God of all things is longsuffering and defers judgment, the life of the ungodly is somehow hidden, and, as it were, the face — that is, the manifest appearance — of each one's life is concealed.

But when He brings on His wrath and imposes upon each the chastisement that is fitting and due, the face of those being chastised is laid bare.

For what sort of persons they are and have been, the manner of the punishment makes plain, if indeed it is true that God will render to each according to his works.

But I think it necessary to say this also.

For since the prophet named the world, and said that it would be destroyed;

and indeed also that it would come to desolation, some wish that the prophet, from a partial indignation, passed over to a general and universal reference in his discourse;

and moreover they say that he clearly foretells beforehand the things that will befall the world also at the time of the consummation.

It is necessary, therefore, that we, choosing to follow their conceptions as well, should make a twofold exposition concerning each of the things spoken.

He says, then, that the world shall be destroyed and made desolate, and that the face of it shall be uncovered — that is, plainly, the things done by each, whether good or base, being made manifest — and He shall scatter those who dwell in it. And if the force of the thought be applied to the nations, you will understand that, the lands that were named having been brought to desolation, of those who dwelt in them some were scattered, while others, having become captives, served in bondage to those who took them, and, forsaking the land that bore them, migrated to others.

'And the people shall be as the priest, and the servant as the master, and the maidservant as the mistress;

the buyer shall be as the seller, and the lender as the borrower, and the debtor as the one to whom he owes.'

'With destruction the land shall be destroyed, and with plundering the land shall be plundered; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.' When peace prevails, there is every necessity that both cities and lands be governed by the fitting laws, both divine and human, and that the ranks of dignities and preeminence be preserved, and that the wealthy have their wealth secure, and the free their freedom.

But if the phalanxes of enemies should swoop down, and a city or a land perchance become the prey of barbaric savagery, there will be a confusion of affairs, and nothing remaining in order.

For the honour of priests is gone, and in equal rank stand servant and master, maidservant and mistress, the buyer and the seller, the lender and the borrower, the debtor and the one to whom he owes;

and by these are signified the rich man and the poor man.

For the destruction and the plundering — that is, the pillaging and the despoiling — proceed in like manner against all.

And the prophet seals up what has been said as true, by adding:

'for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.'

And that at the divine tribunal too the judgment is without respect of persons, who is the one that dares to deny it? For preeminence of dignities does not save any, unless one should have the good fruits of a lawful manner of life;

and wealth in no way profits those who possess it, but on equal terms and in such a rank we shall all present ourselves before the Judge, whether small and great, rich and poor alike.

For there is no respect of persons with God.

Something of this sort is also written in Job:

'The small and great are there, and the servant does not fear his master.' 'The earth mourned, and the world was corrupted; the high ones of the earth mourned;

and the earth transgressed the law because of those who dwell in it.' The demeanour of those who mourn is always somehow gloomy, and their eyes and cheeks are full of dejection, and the brow grows pale;

for the grief over the dead consumes the human heart after the manner of fire.

One may see a city, or indeed a land and a country, that has been seized by barbarians, suffering something of this sort;

for all things become gloomy, since those in them have been consumed by the sword, and the houses burned down, and they have suffered the harm that comes from war.