Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 34/65

and indeed they supposed that they took counsel secretly among themselves, and laid hold of bitter undertakings, so as almost even to say, Who has seen us, or who will know the things that we do?' But they were ignorant that no counsel, nor a man's bitter scheme, nor the force of undertakings, could escape the divine and undefiled Mind, even if he should do the deed in darkness and in secret.

For they hired the traitor Judas, all but saying:

and indeed they delivered him to the cross, and, so far as lay with them, they slew the Author of life;

and when he had risen again from the dead, they set upon him fiercely, and secretly wrought the deeds that spring from an unholy and envious mind.

For having learned that he was risen, they gave abundant silver to the soldiers who guarded the tomb, that they should say that his disciples came by night and, escaping notice, stole him away.

Woe therefore, he says, to those accustomed to make such counsels, not rather through the Lord, but as it were in Beelzebul.

Shall you not be reckoned as the clay of the potter? Shall the thing formed say to him who formed it:

You did not form me?' or the work say to him who made it, You did not make me with understanding?' Having said that I will remove this people, he shows in these words that he will altogether and in every way accomplish the matter, and that quite without toil—saying that they shall be remoulded into whatever the Fashioner may will, just as, of course, the things wrought by the hands of the potter.

In such a manner, again, the prophet Jeremiah too was taught.

For 'Arise,' He says, 'and go down to the potter's house, and there thou shalt hear My words.'

'And I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was working a work upon the stones; and the vessel which he was making fell to pieces from his hands.'

'And again he made it into another vessel, as it seemed good in his sight to make it; and the Lord said unto me:'

'Shall I not be able, O house of Israel, to deal with you as this potter? Behold, as the potter's clay, so are ye in My hands.' For the Craftsman and Maker of all things easily reshapes and refashions whatever He has made into whatsoever He may choose.

'Is it not yet a little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into Carmel, and Carmel shall be counted as a forest?' He means that they shall become as the potter's clay, and shall be reshaped for the worse;

and precisely because of the very great abundance of sin in them, He plainly demonstrates in a certain manner what the matter is, and in a way makes clear that which seemed to have been said obscurely.

Now Lebanon is a mountain of Phoenicia, and all who dwelt on it and around it were among the most exceedingly superstitious of men; and likewise Carmel was a mountain in the land of the Jews, a very great one, on which Elijah the Tishbite is said also to have dwelt.

Therefore by the mountains, or rather by the regions in which the mountains are, He wishes to signify those who dwell in them; and He says that Lebanon shall be 'transferred,' that is, shall be changed, and shall become as the Carmelian mountain.

And the Carmelian mountain shall become as Lebanon; that is to say, those who once worshipped idols shall come to know the God who is adored in Judea, and shall be numbered in the rank of Israel the firstborn.

But those of the seed of Israel shall become like unto those who dwell on Lebanon and who once went astray.

For Israel has been cast out from familiarity with God, precisely on account of their impiety against Christ.

'Lebanon therefore,' He says, 'shall be transferred as the mountain of Carmel, and the mountain of Carmel shall be counted as a forest'; that is, as a mass of wild timber, whose end is for burning.

Or also, according to another interpretation:

'Let the pine tree howl, because the cedar has fallen.'

'Howl, ye oaks of Bashan, because the thick-set forest has been pulled down.' Observe then, that he too likens Judea to Lebanon, as differing in nothing from those of old who were in it, that is, from those who went astray.

And he calls those who have fallen in her the pine and the cedar, and indeed also the oak.

For being lofty, and lifted up on high, they have been consumed as if by fire, by the divine wrath.

'And in that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and they that are in darkness, and they that are in the mist.'

'The eyes of the blind shall see, and the poor shall rejoice with gladness because of the Lord, and they of the nations that were in despair shall be filled with gladness.' By the foregoing words He most clearly indicates the calling of the Gentiles.

And it is possible to see the nature of things coming to pass, as it were, by a reversal.

For He said that the book of the law, or rather of all inspired Scripture, should be sealed up, and that the knowledge of the divine oracles should be hidden from the mind of the Jews;

so that the man who knew letters says, 'I cannot read it, for it is sealed,' while the man who did not know letters says, 'I know not letters.' But He shows clearly that the nations shall be called to the knowledge of God, and shall receive into mind and heart the light of the evangelic proclamations, and shall understand even the law given through Moses, though they had once become deaf and unhearing, and as it were dwelling in mist and darkness, since they were established in ignorance and error.

And He says that they rejoice, not over any other things pertaining to this life, but over the Lord, that is, over Christ.

For being poor, and having nothing good in mind, but being in want of every virtue, and having no hope;

for they were without God in the world, according to that which is written;

they shall be filled with gladness.

For they shall be both free from sin and full of sanctification, and superior to death, and filled to overflowing with the hopes that are from God, partakers of unceasing gladness.

'The transgressor has failed, and the proud man has perished, and they that transgress in wickedness have been utterly destroyed, and they that cause men to sin by a word;'

'and they shall make all them that reprove in the gates a stumbling-block, and have made the just man turn aside in unjust things.' As though those of Israel had been removed out of the midst, and cast out from familiarity with God, though not utterly;

for the remnant has been saved, according to the voice of the prophet;

he says that the transgressor and the proud man have failed;

for they were transgressors, as not having kept even the law itself, but having turned rather to the teachings and precepts of men;

and exceedingly proud and dreadfully haughty, as having dishonoured Christ.

For at one time they said:

'Is not this the carpenter's son, whose father and mother we know? How then does he say that he has come down from heaven?' And again at another time:

'Abraham died, and the prophets died; and dost thou say, If any man keep my word, he shall never see death for ever?'

'Whom makest thou thyself?' And indeed also elsewhere one might see the Scribes and Pharisees speaking most impiously;

and these were they that caused men to sin by a word;

for carrying off, as I said, the peoples under their hand from reverence toward the law, they prepared them to sin, persuading them to keep their own word, that is, their own precepts;

and preparing them to regard these things as law;

and more impiously, they made those who reproved in the gates a stumbling-block.

For the holy prophets, conveying the words that were from above and from God, reproved those of Israel at times, and this openly and not secretly, but as it were in the gates.

But those who had obtained the leadership of the flocks under their hand, and who ought to have been guiding toward everything useful those who ran aside from the right and blameless way, made the profitable reproofs a stumbling-block, perhaps even naming them deceivers and false-speakers.

For their aim was always to pervert, in unjust matters, the power of the just.

For this, I think, is the meaning of 'They made the just man turn aside in unjust things'; as when the law said, 'Honour thy father and thy mother,' and, 'He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.' They themselves taught the children born of parents to say to those who had begotten them:

'Even if he says this, he shall in no wise honour his father or his mother.'

'It is permitted,' he says, 'not to honour father or mother.'

For this Christ reproached them, saying:

'Ye have made void the commandment of God because of your tradition.'

'Now Jacob shall not be ashamed, neither now shall Israel change his countenance;'

'but when they see their children, even my works, for my sake they shall sanctify my name, and shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.' Everywhere the word of the prophecy recovers itself, and foresees the malignity of those accustomed to fault-finding.

For he said, on the one hand, that 'The transgressor has failed, the proud man has perished;'

'they that transgress in wickedness have been utterly destroyed.'

But since it was likely that some, out of very great ignorance, should think that God had spoken falsely—

seeing that Israel had not utterly perished, but the remnant, as I said, had been saved;

for this reason, and very usefully, he makes mention of the hope that has been preserved for Israel in the last times of the age.

They too shall be called through faith which is in Christ, and shall run after the nations.

'For when,' he says, 'the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel shall be saved.'

'But they shall not now be ashamed,' he says, 'neither shall they now change their countenance'; that is, not immediately, at the very time when they had committed impiety against Christ, coming to a recognition of their own sin, shall they be ashamed and, as it were, withdraw, so as to be seen no longer such.

For this, I think, is the meaning of 'to change the countenance';

but as time goes on, when those born of them see my works—that is, when they behold the world under heaven called, and those throughout all the earth believing in me;

when they see the power of the devil shattered, and that ancient and profane error clearly abolished, together with the shrines of idols burned down—then shall they sanctify my name; which is to say, they too shall count me holy;

and they shall sanctify Him who is in truth the Holy One of Jacob, and the God of Israel.

And the way to salvation is always, in a manner, the fear of God.

For it is written that 'The fear of the Lord maketh life.' 'And they that erred in spirit shall know understanding, and they that murmured shall learn to obey, and the tongues that stammer shall learn to speak peace.' For having sanctified the name of Christ the Saviour of us all, and having firmly believed that He is the Holy One of Jacob and the God of Israel, they shall know understanding;

although once held fast by a spirit of error, and having the law sealed up;

and they that ever murmured shall learn to obey;

though they had charged the truth against Him with the force of an accusation.

For the Saviour of all named Himself Son of God and the Father, and declaring that the shadow of the law was nothing, He set forth the beauty of worship in spirit.

But they persecuted Him: 'Not only,' it says, 'because he broke the sabbath, but also because he called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.' Therefore they that murmur shall learn to obey, he says, and the tongues that stammer shall learn to speak peace.

For the tongues of those who were accustomed to speak wrongly concerning Christ used to stammer; but they shall learn, he says, to speak the things of Him and rather to utter forth the things that make for peace, no longer departing into their former madness, but rather submitting to Him the neck of their understanding.

And if anyone should speak peace to Jesus, saying: O Lord our God, take possession of us; besides You we know no other; we name Your name.

Woe to you, rebellious children, thus says the Lord. You have made a counsel not through Me, and covenants not through My Spirit, to add sin upon sins—

those who go down to descend into Egypt,

but Me they did not consult, that they might be helped by Pharaoh and sheltered by the Egyptians.

For Pharaoh's shelter shall be to you a shame, and to those who trust in Egypt a reproach; for there are in Tanis princes, evil messengers.

In vain shall they labor toward a people that will not profit them, neither for help nor for benefit, but for shame and reproach. Again He pronounces woe upon those of Israel as having become lovers of sin and rebels, exceedingly wicked and counseling bitter things, not through God.

For it is by no means lawful to take counsel with God for those who wish to be of one mind concerning any base thing.

But everyone who is godly and good and a lover of righteousness will take counsel with God and will proceed to the things that must be done.

For it is written that the reasonings of the righteous are judgments. He therefore accuses the reprobate Israel as having brought forward a purpose discordant with God concerning Christ.

What are we doing, seeing that this man works many signs? If we let Him thus alone, the Romans will come and will take away both your city and your country.

And a certain other of those appointed among the rulers said: You know nothing at all, that it is expedient that one man should die and the whole nation not perish. The Lord teaches this same thing more plainly, saying in the Gospel parables that the householder who planted the vineyard sent his own servants to receive the fruits, but the husbandmen killed them. And the charges of their impiety did not stop at these things;

but indeed, having seen the son also sent by the father after the servants, they said, he says, among themselves: This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize his inheritance for ourselves. Rebels therefore are the instigators of such bitter and unholy schemes, who add sin upon sin;

for they killed, as I said, the holy prophets;

then also, after those, the heir Himself, that is, the Son.

And that from far back their purpose had long looked toward apostasy from God, He tries to give assurance, saying:

Those who go down to descend into Egypt,

but Me they did not consult, that they might be helped by Pharaoh and sheltered by the Egyptians—He cast in through the middle the phrase, 'But Me they did not consult.'

But the sequence of the thoughts has this manner:

Woe, he says, to those who go down into Egypt to be helped by Pharaoh and to find shelter from the Egyptians.

For when war and battle were announced to them, and the king of Assyria had set arms in motion against the country of the Judeans, they ran off to the Egyptians and called for aid from them, although they ought rather to have appeased God and to have wiped away, by turning toward better things, the offenses whereby they had provoked Him.

The experience of things already past would confirm this to those who fight with their feet.

For whom have they not conquered? whom have they not overcome through God? But reckoning it as nothing to be saved by Him—or rather, ascribing to His all-powerful right hand the inability to save any—they sought help from men.

But this business, he says, will be to them for shame and reproach.

For there are in Tanis, he says, princes, evil messengers.

For those of Israel went down into Egypt, and they supposed, as I said just now, that the aid of the leaders in Tanis—that is, of the kings—would suffice for them.

But there came thither also certain ones announcing to the rulers of the land things grievous and hard to bear, for the Assyrian had advanced against the Egyptians, after the war against the Tyrians.

In vain therefore, he says, will those of Israel labor, running to a people that will in no way be able to profit them.

For it will be to them neither sufficient for aid, nor indeed able to deliver them from the evils that hang over them, but for shame and reproach.

For it always follows those who have withdrawn their heart from hope in God, that they fall into every evil in every way and altogether.

It is good to hope in the Lord rather than to trust in man.

And now the prophet makes for us the narration.

But I say that we must again call to mind the history concerning which his word was spoken.

For thus the force of what lies before us will be plainly visible to those who read it.

Now while Jechonias the son of Eliakim was reigning over the country of the Judeans,

and then when Israel had drifted far into apostasy from God and was addicted to the worship of idols,

and was exceedingly provoking the God of all against itself,

very many indeed were the words that came to them through the voice of Jeremiah, calling them to repentance and counseling them, very kindly, to cast off the blemish that came from having gone astray—or rather, to ward off the charges of their utmost impiety by moving over to what is better and running back to the truth.

But they were hard and unadmonishable, both shaking off the words of the holy prophets and making it so that they would experience actual troubles.

God therefore, who is powerful in all things, being whetted against them, raised up Nebuchadnezzar, who both took Judea and, having burned down the cities and villages in it, appointed Zedekiah in addition.

But when he too had leapt away in revolt, the Assyrian, being grieved, again campaigned against Jerusalem;

and indeed, having taken it, and having burned down the divine temple itself, he returned to his own land.

Then indeed those who were left behind and saved, and were able to escape the sword of the Babylonians, went down with their whole households into Egypt;

and this although God did not permit them to do it, but most clearly said through the voice of Jeremiah:

Do not go down into Egypt.

But since they nonetheless remained disobedient, they perished in Egypt.

For Nebuchadnezzar took it also, and together with those of Israel he destroyed the Egyptians.

This then is the cause and occasion of the vision, and, as it were, its whole circumstance.

In the affliction and the distress: a lion, and a lion's whelp from thence, and asps and the offspring of flying asps, who carried their wealth upon donkeys and camels to a nation that will not profit them for help, but for shame and reproach.

This is it. The all-holy Jesus—that is, the son of Nun—assigned by lot to those of the blood of Israel the land of the promise.

And they say that the tribe of Judah especially received by lot the parts toward the east and south of the country of the Judeans, the wilderness lying alongside them and conveying those who wished into the land of the Egyptians.

In the time therefore of the affliction and the distress—that is, when Nebuchadnezzar was besieging and pressing upon and crushing the cities of Judea—

a lion and a lion's whelp from thence.

And perhaps He calls lions those who were allotted to lead, and were most powerful, and were, in their strengths against others, of no small might.

And whelps, perhaps, those born of them;

and by an asp and the offspring of asps, again, others who are bitter and venomous, and nurtured in unmixed wickedness.

But if he should say 'flying,' you will understand those who move readily and swiftly toward anything whatsoever that is monstrous.

Wicked indeed are they all, and exceedingly bitter, confessedly, who have departed from the love toward God, and who say to the wood:

You are my father; and to the stone:

and who attach reverence to the works of their own hands;

these therefore carried off upon donkeys and camels the wealth that was left to them to a nation that will not profit them for help, but for shame and reproach.

For the business was wholly unprofitable to them, and vain became the encouragement—that is, what they supposed to be a comfort to them.

For they perished together, as I said, with those who dwelt in the country of the Egyptians, since Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it also by force.

It is therefore altogether dreadful to provoke God, even if He should bring wrath upon any.

For every deliberation of theirs was futile.

For who shall turn back the uplifted hand? according to what is written.

Now therefore, sit down and write these things upon a tablet,

and in a book, that these things shall be for days of seasons, and even unto the age.

For it is a disobedient people, lying sons, who would not hear the law of God;

those who say to the prophets:

'Do not report to us, nor to those who behold visions;'

'Do not speak to us, but speak to us rather, and announce to us some other delusion, and turn us aside from this way;'

'Take away from us this path, and take away from us the oracle of the Holy One of Israel.' Inasmuch as these things were to come to pass in due seasons, He commanded that they be written down and made a record, and He bids them be marked as a sign.

'For it shall come to pass,' He says, 'in the days of the seasons;'

and they shall be deemed worthy also of remembrance, a remembrance unto the age.

For they shall ever be the tokens of the prophets, even until the very consummation of the present age.

'It is needful, then, to mark it as a sign,' He says, 'for indeed they are a disobedient people.'

The matter shall indeed be for their benefit.

For if they should prove disobedient to the holy prophets who are to come at that season, it is altogether likely that they will be put to shame, since these things were foretold even through you.

He names them false, as I think, again on this account: because they did not keep pure their fidelity toward God in godliness, but falsified the promise which they had made in the seasons when, through Moses, God — who rules over us all — appointed for them the laws on Mount Sinai.

For we shall find that they plainly declared:

'All that the Lord God has said, we will do, and we will hearken.'

The Law, therefore, enjoining and saying:

'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve;'

'And you shall not make for yourself an idol' — they counted the commandment as nothing;

for they served idols.

For this reason, and very fittingly, He names them false sons.

'The enemies of the Lord have lied to Him;' and moreover, as from the person of Christ, 'Alien sons,' He says, 'have lied to me.' And the pretext of such a disease came upon them, that they held the Law worthy of no reverence, and dishonored even the very words of the holy prophets.

And this He teaches, saying:

'Who were not willing to hear the Law of God;'

'Do not speak to us, but speak to us rather, and announce to us another delusion, and turn us aside from this way, and take away from us the oracle of the Holy One of Israel.'

For upon many holy prophets, and full often, the men of Israel would fall bitterly, crying out and saying these very things.

One might see this most clearly, when, as Jeremiah exhorted them not to go down into Egypt, they answered him against these things with lies: 'The Lord has not sent you, but the son of Neriah incites you against us,' and what follows.

'Because you disobeyed these words, and hoped in falsehood, and because you murmured, and became confident in this word;'

'therefore this sin shall be to you as a wall falling suddenly, of a strong and captured city, whose fall came suddenly to pass;'

'and its fall shall be as the shattering of an earthen vessel, from an earthen jar broken so small that not a sherd is found among them, in which you might carry fire, or in which you might scoop a little water.' Because in every way and altogether the choice to disobey the admonitions of the holy prophets will issue for them into a most grievous end;

and to make falsehood their hope, and rashly to attempt to confirm whatever comes into their mind — this He endeavors to teach.

For since you rebuked the words of the prophets, calling them a delusion, and impiously asserting:

'Take away from us the oracle of the Lord' — for this very reason this sin shall fall upon you like the wall of a captured city, and this suddenly, that is, before long;

and I speak of a city so shattered as if an earthen vessel were broken into small pieces, so that each of the fragments is wholly useless, and none is able either to carry fire in it anywhere, or even to hold a scant gathering of water.

And He hints through these things that so great a judgment upon pretext and calamity shall leap upon those who have disobeyed, as to bring them down to the utmost wretchedness;

and that none at all shall be found among them who has remained outside of being driven to the limit of evils.

'Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel:'

'When you turn back and groan, then you shall be saved, and shall know where you were, because you trusted in vain things.' Having suspended over them the last of all judgments, and having usefully struck them beforehand with terror at the things to come, He straightway shows both the cause of the wrath against them, and the way of salvation.

'For when,' He says, 'you turn back as from a base and defiled way — I mean, from the compulsion to worship the creation, and to offer reverence to wood and stone — then you shall be saved, and thereupon you shall further learn how far gone you were in your senses, or rather, trusting in vain things through ignorance.'

For if they are not able even to help themselves, how could they bestow succor upon others? For what is weaker than an idol?

For are they not lifeless matter, and nothing else — the gods of them that go astray?

'Your strength has become vain, and you were not willing to hear;'

'therefore you shall flee, and "we will be upon swift riders;"'

'therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.'

For hearing that you should not go down into Egypt, but should honor with faith Him who promised to save, you were not willing to hear, but said, 'We will flee upon horses, and we will be upon swift riders.'

For you supposed that to run away from Judea sufficed for your salvation.

'Swift,' He says, 'shall be those who pursue you' — that is, winged and keen, and so dreadful and terrible to you — and to such a pitch of cowardice shall the mind of the disobedient sink, that at one of the enemy merely shouting aloud, a thousand shall turn to flight.

And if but five of the enemy make an end, many of the phalanx of the Jews shall flee;

and they shall endure their wretchedness so conspicuously that it becomes a spectacle, in no way at all unknown to any, but seen just as, no doubt, if one were to set up a mast upon a mountain, or a standard upon a hill.

By 'standard' and 'mast' He means the wood raised upon hills or mounds, bearing certain signs, by which those appointed to lead give signals to the armies — either that they have conquered and the affairs of battle happen to go well for them, or that they must gather together to them, in order that they might hear something of the holy things.

And again, 'God shall wait to have compassion on you;'

'and therefore He shall be exalted to have mercy on you, because the Lord your God is a judge.'

'And where will you leave your glory?' Again He has kept a hope for those of Israel.

For the remnant has been saved.

But you will say: 'And yet how was it not the mark of a good one to inflict no judgment at all?' But it is consistent to consider that, besides being kind, He is also a judge.

And it is the work of one who judges rightly and incorruptibly to mete out the penalties in proportion to each one's faults.

And it belongs again to a good one to reshape unto the better, by a gentle nod, those who have been chastened.

'But you,' He says, 'where will you leave your glory?' And instead of 'you will leave,' He says 'it will be left.'

For the God-inspired Scripture is at times indifferent regarding its expressions.