Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 39/65

On this clean way, therefore, those redeemed through Christ, and gathered together through faith into oneness of soul, shall walk; and forsaking the old track they shall turn back, and shall come to Zion, that is, to the Church—both that which is on earth, and having also in the heavens a gladness that cannot be told.

Exultation and gladness, and every kind of that delight which is in Christ, shall lay hold of them; and they shall be wholly untasting of sorrow and of sighing.

For those who have been called upon hopes so radiant, who are to be heirs of the life that endures unto the age, and who are destined to grow rich in the boasts of the glory from above, and who look moreover to take counsel together with Christ Himself—of what sorrow shall they be partakers? Or what sighing shall they admit? They shall parcel out and dissolve the wicked things of the beasts before the God of all.

For they shall rather rejoice, as those who in all things, everywhere, and in every way, shall be in what is good.

"And the king of the Assyrians sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem, to king Hezekiah, with a great force, and he stood at the aqueduct of the upper pool, in the way of the fuller's field." The account is plain to all who are more fond of learning the history.

Nevertheless I will speak, having abridged it as far as one can.

When Ahaz was reigning in Jerusalem, and then Pekah the son of Remaliah, together with Rezin the king of Syria, were laying close siege to Judaea, and had resolved to lay hands even upon Jerusalem itself, the aforesaid Ahaz, being too weak for resistance, dispatched an embassy, and indeed called to his aid Tiglath-pileser the king of the Assyrians, and by many gifts persuaded him to come to his defence and to check the covetousness of the kings who had made common cause against him—I mean the king of Samaria and the king of Syria.

And when this had come to pass, those who warred against him were utterly destroyed.

But he was one of the very basest of men.

For he was an idolater and hateful to God, and had perhaps surpassed all the rest in his perversities against God.

But when Ahaz had ended his human life, Hezekiah reigned in his stead, being indeed his son, yet a man beloved of God, and one who had taken up the boasts of the highest righteousness and piety.

"This man," it says, "rebelled against the king of the Assyrians."

For he would not endure to leave his own kingdom subject to tribute, just as, of course, Ahaz had done.

...enticing the common people.

"And there went out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, the steward, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder."

"And Rabshakeh said to them:"

"Thus says the king, the great king of the Assyrians:"

"Is a battle-array made by counsel, or by the words of lips? And now, on what do you trust, that you disobey me? Behold, you trust upon this bruised reed-staff, upon Egypt: whoever leans upon it, it will enter into his hand."

"This is Pharaoh king of Egypt, and all who trust upon him." The gates, that is to say, being shut, and the populace—surely the most warlike part—being stationed upon the walls to fulfil the office of envoys, there went out to Rabshakeh the men chosen by the king, and those pre-eminent among the sacred ministers.

But he, being of Persian savagery, and having a mouth speaking great things according to that which is written, waxed insolent against the glory of God.

And by a bare appellation he names Hezekiah, not having added "king";

...nor any other of those things which are most befitting to men in such positions of eminence.

But the king of the Assyrians he does not name thus simply, but even calls him "great."

And he says: "Is a battle-array made by counsel, or by the words of lips?" For since the Jews, having the Law given through Moses, were reckoned wiser than the other nations;

and indeed they used to say, "Blessed are we, O Israel, for the things that are pleasing to the Lord are known to us";

Rabshakeh brings down to nothing their boasting in this regard, saying that in the war and battle now at hand it will be wholly useless to them for aid—both their knowledge of the laws, and their sagacity and their bare counsels, and that very facility, as it were, in words.

And since some of those who had reigned over Judaea had called the hand of the Egyptians to their aid, though in doing this they acted strangely, the Assyrian now also supposed that Hezekiah trusted not so much in God as in certain others—rather, in those who held the land of the Egyptians.

For this reason he names it a reed-staff.

"For rotten somehow," he says, "and ever easily broken, is the hope resting on those men, and one that harms rather than has power to profit those who make use of it;"

"just as, of course, a reed-staff also: if anyone shall lean upon it, it will surely break in pieces, and it will do harm to him who took courage upon it."

"'Upon the Lord our God have we trusted.' Now then join battle with my lord the king of the Assyrians, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to set riders upon them."

"And how are you able to turn back the face of one governor?" Again he prates unbridledly, and lifts his horn on high, and speaks iniquity against God.

"For if indeed," he says, "you trust in Him, join battle with my lord"—that is, arm yourselves and stand for war.

"And I will even add to you two thousand horses; and this," he says, "will suffice for proof that you shall prevail over the hand of the Assyrians—if you can find those who will mount them, or who know at all how to ride in battle."

"Then how, being unable to fulfil even this, shall you prevail over one governor?" For the empire of the Assyrians was divided up, and it had subordinate kings under the one greater than all, who were also called governors.

Servants are those who trust in the Egyptians, for horse and rider.

"And now, have we come up against this land to make war upon it without the Lord?"

"Go up against this land, and destroy it." He wholly shears off the hope resting on the Egyptians, all but saying that those who trust in it are already reckoned among servants.

"For they shall easily be captured," he says, "who have put their trust in horse and rider."

Then he utters something bitter, and as it were out of the perversity that dwelt in him, affirming that not without the Lord was the battle against Judaea being raised.

"For if indeed," he says, "as you yourselves say, your God is great and most mighty, and champions the land, how have we come up against it? For if we have overpowered the strength of the One who defends it, He is not great; rather, He is small and feeble."

...wishing to lay waste Judaea;

"we did not come up against it without the Lord."

"And Eliakim, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah said to him:"

"Speak to your servants in Syrian, for we understand it;"

"and do not speak to us in Jewish."

"And why do you speak into the ears of the men upon the wall?" And Rabshakeh said to them:

"Has my lord sent me to speak these words to your lord, or to you? Is it not to the men who sit upon the wall, that they may eat and drink together?" The common people is somehow ever prone to fright, and exceedingly ready for faint-heartedness, especially when war is at hand, and slaughter is expected to come, and conflagrations throughout the city.

For this reason too, very prudently, those who were conversing with Rabshakeh say that he ought not to speak in Jewish, but rather to use the tongue of the Syrians.

For they did not wish that words full of barbaric madness should be poured by him into the ears of the common folk, especially since King Hezekiah was urging them on to valour, and clearly declaring that the Lord was with them, and that to those who trust in God the hope is unshakeable, while human things are easily overthrown, and are nothing at all—so I mean—as compared with His power.

But Rabshakeh understands, and is not ignorant of the reason why he was hindered from speaking in Jewish.

For this reason he says that his purpose in coming was not toward them, nor indeed toward the king, but rather that he might address those upon the wall.

And again he acts insolently, and belches forth words from an unclean heart, saying that for this cause they sit upon the wall guarding the city—that being famished, and having come into want both of bread and of water, they might be brought down to such necessity as to make of the utterly loathsome things food and drink even for the dogs, perhaps, themselves.

"And Rabshakeh stood, and cried out with a loud voice in Jewish, and said:"

"Hear the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians."

"Let not Hezekiah deceive you with words which shall not be able to deliver you;"

"and let not Hezekiah say to you, 'God shall deliver you, and this city shall by no means be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.'"

"Thus says the king of the Assyrians:"

"If you wish to be blessed, come out to me, and each shall eat of his own vine and his fig trees, and shall drink water of his own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own land, of grain and wine, and of bread and vineyards." He shifts the words now to those very ones seated upon the battlements, and eager to withstand those who wished to besiege them;

and up and down he calls the Assyrian a great king, and belittles the hope resting on God, and calls Hezekiah a liar and a deceiver, who says that they ought rather to rely upon God, and to fear in no way the assaults from men, since He defends them.

Then he promises to those who desert to him that they shall be in their own possessions for a time.

For this is the meaning of "Until I come, and take you."

And they shall enjoy their own fields; and he smooths over, as it were, the terror of the captivity, and hides the harshness of the matter with deceitful words, adding, "Until I come, and take you to the land, as your land is."

For he likens the land of the Assyrians to that of the Jews, all but saying:

"Even leaving Judaea, if you come to be with us, you shall find your own no less."

"For it is a land of grain and wine, and of bread and vineyards, the land of the Persians and Assyrians."

"Let not Hezekiah deceive you, saying:"

...to be judged. Again Rabshakeh acts the barbarian in his intent, and is weighed down with words against God, and has grown greatly proud that the Assyrians had captured very many cities of the nations, while not one had been saved by the falsely-named gods within it; but he was ignorant that those were wood and stones, and the artful handiwork of a human hand, and nothing else.

But the God of Judaea—rather, the God of the whole world—is the living and true God, not recently made, but rather the Maker even of the ages themselves, and Creator of all things, and Lord of the hosts.

Rabshakeh therefore supposes that it will be a most evident proof to the Jews that they shall be captured altogether and in every way, even if the great God should come to their aid—namely, that none of the gods among the Greeks was able to save a city, or a land in which it also had been honoured.

'Where is the god of Hamath and Arphad?' And he adds this also: 'Were they able to deliver Samaria out of my hand?' But, O thrice-wretched one, I would reply, they too worshipped the golden calves, and the land was taken because God withdrew his aid.

And, as I said before, if none of the gods among the Greeks was able to save its own land, this is nothing against the God who is truly, and by nature, and great.

For those gods received their portion from human craft, so as at most to be merely seen.

But he holds authority over all things, and has an unconquerable hand, being Lord of the hosts.

And no one answers Rabshakeh, since the king commanded silence, and very wisely so.

For at such untutored words, and a barbaric arrogance, and railings of the tongue against God, one ought rather to weep than to contend in reply.

'I set a guard upon my mouth while the sinner stood against me; I was made dumb, and was humbled, and kept silence even from good things.' And Eliakim the son of Chelkias the steward, and Somnas the scribe of the host, and Joach the recorder came in to Ezechias with their tunics rent, and they reported to him the words of Rabshakeh.

And it came to pass, when king Ezechias heard it, that he rent his garments, and put on sackcloth, and went up into the house of the Lord. At Rabshakeh's boastful speeches, and at the unbridled railings of his tongue concerning God, those who had been sent to him tear their tunics, and report to the king the things monstrously proclaimed out of Persian madness.

And he rent his robe, and changed his clothing for sackcloth, that is, a garment of mourning, and went up, it says, into the house of the Lord.

And what was the reason for tearing the garments? It was a custom among the Jews to do this at blasphemies against God.

And indeed the Saviour was handed over to the teachers of the Jews, and the Judge of the world was judged before them.

But he kept silence, not answering the voices of those who spoke falsely.

Then the high priest says to him:

'I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God.' Jesus says to him:

'Nevertheless I say to you, henceforth you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.'

Then the high priest rent his garments, saying:

Ezechias, then, has clothed himself with sackcloth, that is, a mourning wrap, and he goes up also into the house of God, and very fittingly.

For it is fitting that those who are in the very height of their troubles should mourn, and weep, and be worn down, and make God their hope of salvation, and sit before him, and frequent the holy places, where above all one might most fittingly offer supplications to him.

the elders of the priests clothed with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, and they said to him:

'This day is a day of affliction, and of reproach, and of rebuke, and of wrath, for the pang has come upon her that is in travail, but she has no strength to bring forth.'

'If perhaps the Lord your God may hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of the Assyrians sent to reproach the living God, and to reproach with words which the Lord your God has heard; and you shall make supplication to the Lord your God on behalf of these that are left.' Those pre-eminent in the priesthood and crowned by the law with the highest honours, together with the others, being no longer in their sacred vestments and in those garments more befitting the liturgy,

but rather clothed in sackcloth, that is, in mourning wraps, he commanded to go to the blessed prophet Isaiah, and to announce that a day of affliction and of reproach had fallen upon them.

For God, it says, all but reproaches those who dwell in the holy city, as having neglected the fair dealing enjoined by the law;

and he convicts them as having transgressed, and thus brings on the effects of his wrath.

And they affirmed clearly, under the pressure of circumstances, that things had come to such a pass that Israel resembled a woman in travail, who had come at last into extremity because she could not bring forth.

And he wishes that the God of all should, through the mediation of the prophet, hear the words of Rabshakeh, which he had heard by himself.

For nothing that exists escapes his notice, since already many in other cities had been destroyed, and houses set on fire.

Ezechias was exceedingly pious, entreating that the one honoured before God, namely the prophet, should become his helper.

It is therefore profitable to fall down before God through the intercession of holy men who are set over others.

For on their account he assents, and often has compassion, even upon the tear of those who are wont to be slothful.

'Thus shall you say to your lord:'

'Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the envoys of the king of the Assyrians have reproached me.'

'Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear a report and return to his own land, and he shall fall by the sword in his own land.' God gives courage, and not after a long time, but at once and immediately, to the one who trusts in him, and he has shown his hope to be profitable, and that running to the house of the Lord is not without reward, and neither is the letting fall, along with the prayers, of the tear that comes from toil.

And since Rabshakeh, cutting off from those of Israel the hope of being saved even if the all-powerful God should choose to preserve them, said impiously:

'Let not Ezechias deceive you, that God will deliver Jerusalem out of my hand.'

'Have the gods of these nations each delivered his own land out of my hand?' For this very reason, and quite fittingly, he frees them from their terrors, and does not allow them to be downcast at cold and old-wives' words, and barbaric loose-tongued babblings, but rather restores them to a much-longed-for hope, saying that the boastful tyrant would be brought back to his own land unwillingly, as an evil spirit terrified him and drove him into cowardice, unbearably, concerning his own kingdom; and that he would fall by the sword, having in no way been endangered in a foreign land, nor having exulted in slaughters against his enemies, nor grown rich in the splendid rewards of manliness against his foes;

but rather, while making his sojourn in his own land, he fell there in his own land, this happening beyond hope and unexpectedly.

For where he thought to make his sojourn free from terrors, there he fell, and at the hands of those from whom he might reasonably have been kept safe.

And who these are we shall know from what follows.

And Rabshakeh returned, and found the king besieging Lamna;

and the king of the Assyrians heard that Tharatha king of the Ethiopians had come out to besiege him;

and hearing it he returned, and sent messengers to Ezechias, saying:

'Thus shall you say to Ezechias king of Judaea:'

'Let not your God, in whom you have trusted, deceive you, saying:'

'...Jerusalem shall not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.'

'Or have you not heard what the kings of the Assyrians did, how they destroyed all the earth? Did the gods of the nations deliver them, whom my fathers destroyed, both Gaza and Charran, and Rapheis, which are in the land of Thaeman? Where are the kings of Aemath, and of Arphad, and of the city of Empharouim, of Ana and of Aua?' Lachis having perhaps been already taken and brought under the barbarian's hand, Lamna was besieged after it; there, it is said, Rabshakeh overtook the Assyrian.

For Tharatha king of the Ethiopians marched against him.

Then, fearing that if his land were seized he might be cast out from his most illustrious thrones, he leaves Judaea, and hastens rather to his own land;

yet he did not relax the cruelty that was in him.

But inflamed as it were with unmixed fits of rage, perhaps because those of Israel, that is, those dwelling in the holy city, were unwilling to be persuaded by the words of Rabshakeh and to desert to him, the wretch again lets his tongue run loose against the glory of God;

and he commands some of his own men to go in haste to Ezechias and to announce to him the things from him.

And these were clearly blasphemies against God, speaking thus:

since the gods of the other lands, that is, of the nations, had perished together with those who worshipped them, not even the God of the Hebrews himself would be able to rescue them and to snatch them out of the hand of the Assyrians.

Then he enumerates the cities that had been sacked, which indeed were likely able to prevail over many, from among whom others had suffered.

And Ezechias took the letter from the messengers, and opened it before the Lord;

and Ezechias prayed to the Lord, saying:

'O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who sits upon the Cherubim, you alone are God of every kingdom of the world.'

'You made the heaven and the earth.'

'Hear, O Lord; look, O Lord, and behold the words which Sennacherim has sent to reproach the living God.' Out of his very great piety toward God he unfolds the letter, not as though God were ignorant of the magnitude of Sennacherim's arrogance, but rather crying out against the barbarian's madness, and making the very God who holds authority over all things, as it were, a witness to that man's insolent speech.

And observe how he refers matters to the words of Sennacherim, lifting up his supplication.

For the one, so far as it lay in him, was mocking the glory of God, saying:

'Let not your God deceive you,' he says, 'in whom you have trusted, saying:'

'Jerusalem shall by no means be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.'

But the other confesses the greatness of his authority, naming him Lord of hosts, and God of Israel, and over all creation both above and rational.

'For you are,' he says, 'the one who sits upon the Cherubim.'

And he further confesses that, even if certain ones on earth are called kings,

yet the one who is king by nature and in truth, and who has all things under his feet, he alone would be also the Maker of earth and heaven, and the one who by a nod brought into being the things that once were not.

And he entreats him to hear and to look, that is, not to overlook and pass by such bitter blasphemies;

but in justice to punish the transgressor.

'For he reproached the living God,' he says, that is, one in no way resembling the gods of the nations, to whom that man impiously and insolently likened him.

For in truth the kings of the Assyrians laid waste the whole inhabited world and their own land, and cast their idols into the fire.

For they were no gods, but the works of men's hands, wood and stone, and they destroyed them.

But Thou, O Lord our God, save us out of their hands, that every kingdom of the earth may know that Thou alone art God. I have heard, he says, the barbarian saying:

Have the gods of the nations, each one, delivered his own land out of my hand? Even if someone should say this, I approve and am persuaded.

For they subdued the whole earth and burned the cities, since the falsely-named gods were able to profit nothing;

being the artful contrivances of stonework and of carpenters;

and for this reason they perished together with their own worshippers.

For this too is a proof, and it convinces all that is under heaven, at least as to how one ought to be disposed, and firmly so, that Thou alone art God.

For just as the capture of the lands of the nations testified against the falsely-named gods, that they are altogether nothing;

so also the escaping and being set beyond his hand of Jerusalem, which is under Thee and Thine, all but bears witness, and will make clear to all everywhere the proclamation of Thy might and undefiled glory, and that Thou alone art God in heaven and upon earth. And Isaiah the son of Amos was sent to Hezekiah, and said to him:

Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel:

I have heard the things which thou didst pray to me concerning Sennacherib king of the Assyrians. Not far off is the Saviour, but near, and as it were treading on the very heels of the prayer comes the fulfilment of what was asked.

For the prophet is indeed sent;

yet up to then he had kept silence about the things concerning the barbarian, and had not announced God's verdict upon him.

Thus says the Lord, he says, the God of Israel.

He strengthens the one who has believed, and does not declare the one who sent him to be some one of the falsely-named gods, but rather, making him of good courage, names Him Lord and God of Israel.

And He praises him, and as it were accepts him, saying:

I have heard the things which thou didst pray to me concerning Sennacherib king of the Assyrians.

For all but, he says, I accept thy zeal, I know thy love of God; thou didst make the blasphemy against me unbearable to thee;

thou didst come in tears, and as one grieving on my behalf, and didst make the reproaches uttered against me thine own sorrow.

Most praiseworthy, therefore, is the zeal of the saints, and when the glory of God is blasphemed, whenever they themselves grieve, God is well pleased.

This is the word which God spoke concerning him:

The virgin daughter of Zion has despised thee and mocked thee;

the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at thee.

Whom hast thou reproached and provoked? Or against whom hast thou lifted up thy voice? And thou didst not lift up thine eyes on high to the Holy One of Israel, for through messengers thou hast reproached the Lord. He then makes plain the verdict upon the barbarian;

and he says that the virgin daughter of Zion, that is, Jerusalem, will make mockery of him, and will shake her head at him.

And we say that he names Zion, that is, Jerusalem, a virgin and a daughter;

a virgin, as being undefiled and having no blemish of abominable idolatry;

a daughter, because He has apportioned to her the affection which is due from a father to the children born of him.

And she despised the Assyrian, or rather shook her head at him in a certain manner;

for she smiled at him when he was vanquished, and made his calamities as it were a song and a harmonious melody.

Whom hast thou reproached and provoked? Or against whom hast thou lifted up thy voice? For was it one of the falsely-named gods that thou wast grieving with words so heated? And yet, he says, how ought one not to have lifted up the eye of the mind on high, and to have considered who indeed and how great is the God of Israel? One ought, even from the very sight of created things, to have seen proportionately the magnitude of the Creator's power.

One ought to have gazed upon the height of the glory, and to have reckoned nothing of the lowlier things beside it.

But without having remembered any of such things, he says, thou didst reproach the Lord.

With the multitude of my chariots I have gone up to the height of mountains, and to the farthest parts of Lebanon, and I have cut down the height of its cedar and its beauty, and I have entered into the height of the forest's border, and I have set a bridge, and I have laid waste waters and every gathering of water. He sets forth the pomp of Persian arrogance, and the senseless swelling, and the magnitude of the boastful vaunting.

For by Lebanon he likens, as we also said before, both the land of the Jews and perhaps also that of the Samaritans, which the ten tribes inhabited.

For Lebanon is a mountain in Phoenicia, flourishing and thickly wooded with cedars whose timber is raised up very high.

And the land of the Jews is understood to be somewhat of this kind: lofty, because God was the one who defended it; yet dense, because those in it were seen to be beyond number.

But the Assyrian tyrants took Samaria, and along with it they also ravaged not a few cities of Judea.

Thou therefore, he says, O Assyrian, having a haughty spirit and attributing the outcome of what has happened to thine own powers, didst say: With the multitude of my chariots I have gone up to the height of mountains, and to the farthest parts of Lebanon — that is, against that very kingdom which belonged to those of Israel.

I have cut down the height of its cedar.

Of what 'its'? Of Lebanon, that is clearly, of Judea.

And by 'the height of the cedar' he means the kingdom among them, and 'he entered into the height of the forest's border.'

For, as I said, along with that of the Samaritans many cities of Judea perished together.

And thou didst say: I have set a bridge, and I have laid waste waters and every gathering of water.

For the Persians and Assyrians, attributing the power to accomplish all things to their own forces, in overrunning the lands would bridge the rivers, and very often would carry off — being so great in number that they were able to consume springs and gatherings of waters, so that not even the rivers themselves sometimes sufficed for men and horses that were athirst together.