Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 33/65

'If my people had listened to me, if Israel had walked in my ways, I would have humbled their enemies to nothing, and laid my hand upon those who afflict them. And you, do not rejoice, neither let your bonds be strong, for I have heard from the Lord of Sabaoth things finished and things cut short, which he will do upon all the earth.' Once again the person of the blessed prophet is introduced, both admonishing the teachers of the Jews and declaring that in every way and altogether it will be needful for them neither to rejoice—that is, not to exult in their reckless deeds against Christ, but rather to be downcast and to shed tears over their own acts of impiety—nor indeed to draw tight against the peoples under their hand the bonds derived from the Law, but rather to permit those who believe in Christ to pass outside the ancient commandment, and, forsaking the things that lie in shadows and types, to embrace the worship that is in spirit and in truth.

For God is Spirit, and he whom one must worship must be worshipped in spirit and in truth.

And that the Law was, as it were, a bond, justifying no one,

but rather binding fast, as though unto punishment, those who had grown weak and who stood convicted as liable for their transgressions—of this no one could be in doubt.

For this very reason the prophet says to them:

'Do not let your bonds be strong, for I have heard from the Lord of Sabaoth things finished and things cut short, which he will do upon all the earth.'

And what are these things finished and cut short? The gospel proclamation, the grace that comes through faith, the justification that is in Christ, the sanctification that is through the Spirit.

For the Law was neither cut short nor finished.

For it brought nothing to perfection, as I have said.

Rather, the truths contained in it lay as it were in circles and in the long, winding circuits of the letter.

But the saving proclamation has a most perfect and a cut-short (that is, a direct) way;

for through faith it leads on to righteousness and to sanctification.

And the Law was given to those of Israel alone, with Moses ministering.

But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, and no longer to those of Israel alone, but to all who are throughout the whole world under heaven.

For the divinely inspired Moses addressed those of Israel, saying thus;

but our Lord Jesus Christ, through the lyre of the psalmist, says:

'Hear these things, all you nations;

give ear, all you who inhabit the world. Give ear, and hear my voice; attend, and hear my words.' In these words again the person of the Saviour himself is introduced, all but chanting a charm over those of Israel, persuading them very plainly to receive the word of the gospel proclamations and his own utterances, and not to cast them behind the commandment given through Moses.

And that it behoves us to draw near to the divine and gospel things neither carelessly nor negligently, he makes plain, saying:

'Attend, and hear my words.'

For there is need of attentiveness, and moreover of ready obedience, on the part of those who come to this with good reasonings, so that they seek to fill the whole breadth of their own mind with the teaching that is above the Law—that is, plainly, with the teaching that comes through Christ.

For that, once he had been revealed, it is both perilous and hurtful for any to lay claim again to the worship according to the Law, Paul confirms when he says to those who, after their faith in him and the cleansing that comes through holy baptism, had out of very great folly slid back to the things of Moses, that is, to the things in the Law:

'You who are justified by the Law have been severed from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.'

'For we through faith wait for the hope of righteousness.' And it is likely that he hints at something else also by Christ's saying:

'Attend and hear my words.'

For if indeed, he says, you wish to apply your minds subtly to the shadows of the Law, and to deem the types worthy of due attention, you will in every case hear my words.

For I am written of in the types, and the power of my oracles has introduced nothing strange, if indeed the Law be understood spiritually.

'For if you believed Moses,' he says, 'you would believe me;

for he wrote concerning me.' 'Does the plowman mean to plow the whole day long,

or to prepare seed before working the ground? Is it not when he has levelled its surface that he then sows a little dill and cumin? And again he sows wheat and barley and spelt within your borders.' Very deep indeed is the riddle, and the meaning of the words set before us is exceedingly hard to discern;

yet I will speak of it as I am able, and so far as lies within my power.

The wretched Jews rejected the word of the Saviour, and their pretext was their loving to cling fast to the commandment given through Moses;

supposing that they were perhaps even acting piously, in that they laid claim to the things in the types, while they spat upon, as it were, the beauty of the truth.

For this very reason they even persecuted Jesus, as one who was diverting the power of the legal commandment somewhere else, and carrying them off to another worship—I mean, of course, the gospel worship.

'Does the plowman mean to plow the whole day long?' And what he wishes to declare is something of this sort.

The hearts of the idolaters are hard and unyielding, and like a kind of wild, uncultivated ground;

so that they might receive the seed that comes from above and from heaven;

and thus henceforth bear fruit unto God, namely their longing and eagerness toward everything that is good.

Something of this sort came to pass with those of Israel.

For in Egypt they were worshippers of the gods there, yet they were called through the all-wise Moses;

and a Law also was given to them, knowing how, after the manner of a plow, to cleave apart their tightly bound hearts and their uncultivated mind.

But it was necessary that they should not only be called to the beginnings of the spiritual husbandry, but that, now that Christ the Saviour of us all had already shone forth, they should bear fruit unto God—even the power of the worship that is in the Spirit.

Therefore, since, as I have said, they rejected the word that comes through Christ, preferring the things of Moses, for this very reason and quite reasonably he removes them from such a mindset, saying:

'Does the plowman mean to plow the whole day long?' Or does he who breaks up the unploughed, wild and thorn-bearing ground, he says, in order that it may become ready for the reception of the seeds—does he plow forever? But the one who wishes to work the ground, he says, will he prepare seed before taking this into his mind? Is it not when he has levelled its surface that he then sows a little dill and cumin? And again he sows wheat and barley and spelt within your borders.

For it was needful, it was needful, he says, that the heart of those under tutelage should first be levelled through the commandment in the types, and that, as it were the surface of some ground, it should be made ready, so as to be seen most prepared for being henceforth fittingly disposed unto the bearing of fruit.

But the husbandman, he says, even when he has levelled the surface of the ground, does not straightway nor from the very first make the sowing of the stronger seeds, but of whatever are for the time small and weak—that is, dill and cumin;

and when the ground has already been exercised unto the bearing of fruit, then, then indeed, he says, he sows also wheat and barley and spelt.

For this is the manner of skilful husbandry within your borders.

The Law therefore became for all, so to speak, a preliminary leveller, and like some most skilful farmer, sowing among those under tutelage, as it were a kind of dill and cumin, the small things and the things that are as in shadows, and such of the seeds as, by themselves and alone, are in no way edible, but which in every case require to be combined with others, so that they may be seen to be useful.

For if they be added to wheat and barley—that is, to loaves made from wheat or barley—then they somehow seem to be even most serviceable.

And of such a kind, somehow, is also the power of the worship according to the Law.

For if it does not, through a spiritual interpretation, seem to be brought into agreement with the more solid food—that is, with the gospel food—then alone and by itself it would possess nothing that profits.

'And you shall be instructed by the judgement of God, and shall rejoice.'

'For dill is not cleansed with harshness, nor does a wagon-wheel go round upon cumin, but dill is beaten out with a rod, and cumin shall be eaten with bread;

for I will not be angry with you forever, nor shall the voice of my bitterness trample you down.'

And these wonders went forth from the Lord of Sabaoth. Since the Law, he says, was feeble unto the cleansing of sins, the shadow has been set in motion (removed), and the things in the types have been shown to be useless, but there has been introduced the judgement that is life-giving and truly most profitable;

the only-begotten Word of God, having set forth a thing finished and a thing cut short—that is, the justification that is in faith.

'You therefore,' he says, 'O Israel, having placed your obedient neck under Christ the Saviour of all, shall be instructed by the judgement that comes from him'—that is, unto the learning of the way of the salvation that is from him.

'For thus you shall be in gladness.'

And since he has once made his discourse concerning dill and cumin, he receives something useful from them, and says:

'Dill is not cleansed with harshness,' and what follows.

For Israel was liable for transgressions, and was caught being slothful even toward the very keeping of the Law.

The God of all therefore said:

'This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far removed from me. And in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'

Would he not then have exacted penalties, and very justly too, for their slothfulness toward the Law? Yes, he says.

But the aim of the Lawgiver is loving toward mankind.

For just as dill, he says, is not cleansed harshly, nor does a wagon-wheel go round upon cumin—threshing it, that is, and crushing it fine, just as, to be sure, is done in the case of grain—but is rather cleansed, or rather beaten out, with a rod;

so likewise the Lawgiver shall deal with those who have sinned against the Law, not exacting harsh penalties, but rather with a rod, and with measured motions, cleansing them thoroughly.

And by adding that cumin shall be eaten with bread, he has shown that the outward appearance of the legal worship, by itself and alone, is useless for profit.

It will be both useful and necessary if it is joined to solid food, that is, to the evangelical oracles.

And, to make clear what he intends—namely that the black cummin is threshed out with a rod—he adds and says:

'For I will not be angry with you forever, nor will the voice of my bitterness trample you down.'

'For I will not be heavy in wrath,' he says, 'nor will I pronounce upon you the uttermost sentence, nor will I bring against you a bitter judgment, such as would become a trampling to those who fall under wrath.'

And that, having driven forbearance of evil to its very summit, the God of all things is shown here again, he further demonstrates, saying:

'And these wonders went forth from the Lord of Hosts.'

For it is truly a wonder, and a sign not without marvel, that Israel, being in so many transgressions, should be pitied, and that, when God took compassion, it should gain the remission of countless charges.

'Take counsel, exalt a vain consolation.' Promising them amnesty for the outrages they had committed, and having declared very plainly that he will not be exceedingly bitter against them, he commands them to lay hold of good counsel.

But he brings this charge against them: that, deeming their vain consolation to be some great and lofty thing, they are carried beyond what is fitting.

And what was the consolation that among them was reckoned great, yet was profitless? That one, assuredly, in every respect.

For they used to say: 'We will make a covenant with Hades and agreements with death;'

'if a rushing storm should come, it shall not come upon us;'

'we have made lying our hope, and by the lie we shall be sheltered.'

But those who pondered these things and held an empty hope, supposing that they would die before the terrors, heard plainly:

'If a rushing storm should come, you shall be to it a trampling.'

'When it passes through, it shall take you.'

'Gather in your produce year upon year.'

'And I will cast a rampart about you, and set towers around you, and your words shall be brought low to the earth, and into the earth your words shall sink.'

—setting forth the truth of things that befell the ancients as though in shadows.

The Jerusalem of the present, then, was once called Jebus.

And for what reason, we shall learn from the sacred Scriptures themselves.

For it stands thus, in the second book of Kingdoms:

that the blind and the lame rose up, saying, 'He shall not enter here.'

For he took possession of it; and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the lame and the blind, set themselves against Christ the Saviour of all at the time of his coming.

For they did not know how to walk uprightly.

But neither did they receive into their mind the divine light—those who did not admit the faith, especially the scribes and Pharisees.

'Alien sons lied to me, alien sons grew old and went lame off their paths.' And Paul also writes to them, saying:

'For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see;'

'and that those who see may become blind.' For the nations recovered sight, though they had never once seen.

But the multitudes of the Jews have been blinded, although they beheld the mystery of Christ, at least insofar as it came in the initiation given through the Law.

He therefore laments over Jerusalem and says:

He calls it Ariel, using the name that was customary among the many.

For Ariel is interpreted 'lion of God.'

And since, prevailing through God, Jerusalem made unbearable incursions upon all the other lands and nations, and like a lion seized and tore in pieces those who rose against it, it obtained such a designation.

'Woe therefore,' he says, 'O wretched city;'

which once, like a lioness, roared over the nations, but afterward fell into calamities so bitter and irremediable.

'Gather in your produce year upon year.'

For during two whole years our Lord Jesus Christ, going about the whole of Judaea, employed his all-wise teachings, and set before them the divine and evangelical proclamation.

'The season, therefore, being at hand,' he says, 'and granting the ability to gather spiritual nourishment and as it were to heap it up into a storehouse, into the mind and heart, do not be sluggish about this.'

'But casting away all sloth, gather it eagerly.'

The land of the Moabites once became most given to superstition, and there was in it no one at all who could bear to worship the God who by nature and in truth is God.

He therefore receives together, as from one idolatrous land, the whole company of those who go astray, and says: 'For you shall eat together with Moab.'

For the nations too have been called in, and the evangelical and saving proclamation, once given, has become common food both to those of the blood of Israel and to those very ones who go astray.

Then he adds and says: 'For I will straiten Ariel, and you shall render to it as at the first.'

For he had said: 'Woe, city of Ariel.'

Then, having inserted in the midst the things from the counsel, he again holds to his aim and says:

'I said: Woe, city of Ariel;'

'all its wealth and all its strength I will take;'

and this you will understand at once perceptibly and spiritually.

For their earthly wealth has been emptied out, plundered clearly by those who besieged it.

And their once great and far-famed strength has been shattered, for they were conquered by the hand of the Romans.

And besides this they have been stripped bare of the boasts that come from virtue, and, having sickened into poverty of every good thing, together with the rest they have cast away also the wealth of the wisdom that is in the Law.

And I say that 'I will encompass you with a rampart, I will set towers upon you'—this hints at the siege that came against Jerusalem after the cross of the Saviour.

And since the Pharisees became boastful and belched forth against Christ utterances both terrible and haughty—

'We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know whence he is'—for this very reason he says: 'Your words shall be brought low to the earth.'

And it is not the words themselves that will suffer this, in the strict sense, but those who dared to speak them will be cast down—those who of old were wont to speak burdensome and overweening things, brought low by the evils of war.

They shall have a small and utterly feeble voice, and they shall utter it thus, just like those who speak out of the ground—that is, the necromancers, who, whenever they pretend to bring up a soul, faintly whisper something thin and squeaking, as though the soul itself were speaking softly and from the earth.

'And the wealth of the impious shall be as dust from a wheel, and as chaff driven along, and it shall be as a moment, suddenly, from the Lord of Hosts.' He names as impious those who committed outrage against Christ, delivered the Redeemer to the cross, and dared to encompass with death the giver of salvation, even though he came to life again, as God, in the flesh.

He says that this wealth will vanish like dust and fly away like chaff from a wheel;

and this not in length of time, but in a brief moment, and as it were in an instant.

And that the matter shall come to pass from the Lord of Hosts, he has of necessity made plain, lest some empty hope should mock them as they expect that they will even escape.

'For there shall be a visitation with thunder and earthquake and a great sound;'

'a rushing storm, and a flame of fire devouring.' What the phrase 'From the Lord of Hosts' would mean, he makes clear, saying that there shall be upon them a certain visitation.

For God, even the Father, will by no means overlook the charges of impiety against the Son.

But he will bring on, he says, like a kind of thunder and earthquake, a rushing storm, and a devouring flame of fire—the onslaught of war.

'And the wealth of all the nations that campaigned against Jerusalem, and all who were gathered against it and afflicting it, shall be as one who dreams in sleep;'

'and they shall be as those who in sleep are hungry and eating, but when they rise up their dream is in vain.'

'And just as one who thirsts dreams as though drinking, but on rising is still thirsty, and his soul has hoped in vain, so shall be the wealth of all the nations that campaigned against Mount Zion.' Saying that the wealth of the impious—clearly of those who committed outrage against Christ—shall be as dust and as chaff from a wheel, he affirms that it shall not come into secure and settled possession even for those who plundered them.

'For they shall have grown thus rich,' he says, 'as if they were some of those who in a nighttime vision supposed they had grown wealthy, but had gained absolutely nothing.'

For, having awoken, they will recognize the deception of the dreams, and what they had reckoned to be true, this indeed they will assuredly find to be a shadow and a mere appearance.

Something of this kind may also be observed in those who happen to be gripped by hunger or thirst.

For the nature of the body necessarily craves the things that are its own.

And indeed, even when sleep has sometimes lulled the mind to rest, nature is no less caught up in desires for the things it might wish to obtain.

So let it be thus, he says: the wealth of all the nations, as many as marched out against Mount Zion.

But when or how these things came to pass, let it be left aside to tell.

Be faint, and be amazed, and be drunken, though not with strong drink nor with wine; for the Lord has given you to drink of a spirit of stupor, and he will shut their eyes, both of their prophets and of their rulers, who behold the graven images. Again he addresses those who despise the divine oracles, and who have made it their practice to reckon as nothing the divine and heavenly proclamation—I mean, the proclamation of the Gospel.

For although it lay before them, and that most readily, to reap the grace of the salvation that is through Christ, they bring forward the neck of their understanding unwilling to be led.

This, then, the wretched ones did not do; but puffing themselves up and thinking great things of themselves, they said unreservedly:

We are disciples of Moses;

we know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he is from.' Yet they heard Christ saying plainly:

I am the light of the world.' And again:

While you have the light, walk in the light, that darkness may not overtake you.' But since, even after hearing words so venerable, they had in no way become better or wiser than themselves,

but were henceforth caught out as hard and unbending,

then—yes, then, and very fittingly—they were overtaken by the darkness; they are in a manner enfeebled, and have departed from a sound mind, and, as though drunken from wine, they were easily driven to every kind of outlandish thing.

Signifying something of this kind, he says to them:

Be faint, and be amazed, and be drunken, though not with strong drink nor with wine.

For it knows—it knows how to intoxicate the mind—not at all and in every way perceptible wine, that is, the intoxicating draught, that is to say, strong drink.

Rather, calamities do this more violently, and a kind of hardening that befalls the understanding from the divine wrath—for this, I think, is what he teaches when he says:

And he will shut their eyes, both of their prophets and of their rulers, who behold the graven images.

For those of old, he says, who were made wise through the tutelage of the law, and who beheld the beauty of the truth as yet in dim shadows, and who understood in part the words of the holy prophets—of this very thing also they shall be deprived.

For he will shut the eyes of their understanding, though of old they saw the graven images [venerable...].

And this shall the ruler suffer, he says, and the prophet—that is, the leader and the priest.

For they used to call prophets those who busied themselves with the affairs of the holy prophets—the things of the prophets.

Now there were among the Jews certain masters and teachers held in repute for their knowledge of the law—such as, of course, Gamaliel, about whom there was much talk among them.

And all these words shall be to you as the words of this sealed book, which if they give it to a man who knows letters, saying:

Read this, and he will say:

I cannot read it, for it is sealed.'

And this book shall be given into the hands of a man who does not know letters, and one will say to him:

Read this, and he will say:

I do not know letters.' Our Lord Jesus Christ said somewhere to the Jews:

You search the Scriptures, because in them you think you have eternal life;

and these are they which testify of me, and you will not come to me, that you may have life.' Therefore in vain have those of Israel toiled, forever prating up and down about the commandment given through Moses, and pretending indeed to gather into mind and heart no ignoble understanding of the writings of the law, yet not seeking Christ, even though the law speaks his very mystery.

The God-inspired Scripture is one book.

For it is all one, and has been spoken through the one Holy Spirit;

but in what manner has it been sealed up? For neither can those who are able to read and who know letters understand any of the things in it, nor indeed, even if someone did not know letters, would he come to know any of the things hidden in it;

but the law shall be sealed for all in like manner, so that the power of its meanings becomes wholly incomprehensible even to those who know the wording.

Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their back continually. And the Lord said:

This people draws near to me with their mouth, and with their lips they honour me, but their heart is far removed from me.

And in vain do they worship me, teaching the commandments and doctrines of men.' For the Jews, hypocritically pretending to see the depth of the commandments of the law, and having upon their tongue the commandment long since defined for the fathers, measured in this alone the power of the service due to God.

For of the things ordained they did nothing at all, but, as it were dishonouring the will of the lawgiver, they turned aside to teaching, and to the commandments of men.

For, innovating certain idle traditions for themselves, they supposed indeed that they were lovers of God and good men, but they were convicted by the very facts of having senselessly leapt away from the love toward God.

Therefore, so far as concerned having the law upon their tongue, they reckoned themselves to be near to God, but through not enduring to fulfil it, they were convicted of straying away, and of having come to be somewhere outside it.

For that they clung rather to the commandments of men, this too may become plain from what follows.

For once the scribes and the Pharisees came to the Saviour, saying:

And to this the Lord said:

Honour your father and your mother;

and he that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death;

and you have made void the commandment of God because of your tradition.' And he brought forward to them the saying set before you;

for he said that: Hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy concerning you, saying, This people honours me with their lips. Therefore, since, having dishonoured their tutor and having deemed the law from God worthy of no account, they turned aside to the teachings and commandments of men, on this very account, and very fittingly, the book of the God-inspired Scripture was sealed up.

For it was not fitting that those who despised the God-inspired Scripture should be enriched with the understanding that comes through it.

For Israel was named the inheritance of God, and his portion, and his measured allotment;

for it is no longer reckoned to him as an inheritance, but has become a portion of foxes, and has been given over to Satan and to the unclean spirits for food; and it was also transferred from thinking rightly into a reprobate mind, from glory into dishonour, from strength into weakness, from being wise into utter folly.

For I will destroy, he says, the wisdom of the wise, and I will hide the understanding of the prudent.

For the scribes and the Pharisees seemed indeed to be wise and full of judgment, having the repute of knowledge of the law; but it has been hidden from them by God, and the understanding of the wise—that is, the law, or rather the God-inspired Scripture—was all but drawn in and withdrawn.

Woe to those who take deep counsel, and not through the Lord;

who in secret take counsel, and their works shall be in darkness, and they shall say:

the God of all defines certain things, and at once he brings forward the causes of the matter, and sets forth plainly the charges against those who have suffered, so that he may be seen also to be just, chastising all things in justice.

He said, then, that the peoples of the Jews would be wholly without understanding, once the law was sealed up and all the understanding within them removed, and that they would remain blind—spiritually, that is to say.

What, then, are the charges, and for what things it befell them to slip in this very matter, he makes clear at once.

For very many were the schemes that arose from them against Christ, and out of tune with God.

For this, I think, is what is meant by 'not through the Lord';