Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 4/65

And with such glory she crowns the King of all, both God and Lord.

Rightly, therefore, might the house of God be called a spiritual mountain.

And it is conspicuous, as one raised up upon hills.

And one might say of it, very fittingly, that which was spoken through the voice of the Saviour, as by way of a vivid example:

'A city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden.' And one might gather very many things, and quite easily, whereby it is possible to see in the God-inspired Scriptures that the height of the spiritual Jerusalem—that is, the loftiness of the Church—is likened to both hills and mountains.

But we shall proceed to what follows, leaving it to the lovers of learning to gather such things, if indeed they should choose to do so.

Let us see what it is that tends to the profit of those upon the earth.

From the fact that the house of God has thus become conspicuous to those in every place, so as already in some way to seem to be exalted upon hills, and to lie upon the tops of the mountains.

Accordingly, the prophet will give full assurance, saying straightway:

'And all the nations shall come to it;'

'and many nations shall go and shall say:'

'And He will declare to us His way, and we will walk in it.' That indeed all the nations have been gathered together, and have run together through faith into the Church, will not require of us many words for demonstration.

For the very outcome of the matters will itself be witness, and a true one.

Yet this is a thing worthy of all wonder.

For the multitude of the nations has been called, not through the tutelage of the Law, nor through the holy prophets;

rather, a certain divine and ineffable grace gathers them, shining upon them spiritually, and implanting within them the longing for the salvation that is through Christ.

For behold how, though no one had proclaimed it to them, they call out to one another;

and they promise to walk in the way of the Lord, plainly the evangelical way, which has as its first entrance the cleansing that comes through faith.

And in seeking to learn the way of the Lord, they seem first to have received the condemnation of that ancient and profane error.

For the longing for better things could not arise in us in any other way, unless we had first condemned the things of old.

Who then became their initiator into the mysteries? Who is it that leads them up to the knowledge of the truth, and persuades them to count the former things as ridiculous, and to hasten toward the latter? Is it not plainly God? He who, as I said, shone upon their mind and heart, and persuaded them to say and at once to be minded that 'Out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.' But this labours to bring forth a twofold meaning within itself.

For either they say this, that 'We shall receive a word from the house of God, and having come there we shall know the word of God;'

or else, that the Law has forsaken Zion and has as it were departed from her, and the Word of God has gone away from Jerusalem.

For since they behaved insolently toward Christ and denied his kingdom, he forsook them and left them orphans.

And this was that which was spoken through the prophet:

'And I said, I will not shepherd you;

let that which is dying die, and that which is failing fail, and let the survivors devour, each man the flesh of his neighbour.' Therefore the Law went forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

For vision and prophecy were sealed up after the cross of the Saviour.

And no longer is the Law and word of God among them.

And indeed the divinely-inspired Paul, all but wearied out, and seeing that the multitude of the Jews was beyond admonition, says: 'It was necessary that the word of the Lord should be spoken to you;

but since you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the nations;

for so has the Lord commanded us.' Understand then how the nations glory greatly in the grace of Christ.

For they say that the Law and word of the Lord have gone forth from Zion and from Jerusalem, and have altogether passed over to themselves.

For grace has passed over from those who chose to be disobedient, to those who were called through faith.

'And he shall judge among the nations, and rebuke a numerous people;

and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their pikes into pruning-hooks.

And nation shall not take up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.' Having foretold that the might of the devil shall both fall and pass away into nothingness;

and that the making of idols shall also become idle, as the nations call out to one another to turn away headlong from them;

For of old, when the earth was not under one yoke, but the nations were divided according to lands and cities, and each had its own ruler in particular, there was want of intercourse, and battles and wars, as those upon the earth everywhere ravaged one another, and continually plundered the goods of others, and reckoned greed and savagery against whomever they could as the highest glory.

Therefore they did not even have a secure dwelling, being always removed to another place, and thrust out from what they had seized by those more powerful.

But when the God of all brought all that is under heaven under the sceptres of the Romans, and thenceforth one kingdom over all was extended, the wars ceased, and battle and discord were stilled, and righteousness prevailed, and the security of good order, since no one was plundering;

no one any longer ravaging, and overrunning cities or lands;

no one having his covetousness go unpunished.

And not only this, but the use of arms is given only to the most warlike, and to those who hold the rank of soldiery, and are under the hand of the emperor.

And many of the nations were also proved weak, all those which, having shaken off the yoke of the Roman empire, come savagely against cities and lands.

For it is not possible for them to overrun freely, as they might wish.

For the arms of the Romans rise up against them, and compel them to be still, and terrify them like wild beasts, and by their own strength prove them to be unmanly.

Therefore the blessed prophet, as I said, defines the time of the calling and conversion of the nations.

And what sort of time is this? When, he says, the God of all, the King of kings and Lord, shall judge among the nations — that is, executes righteousness and judgment toward all the nations.

For unrighteousness had prevailed, as I said just now, the nations plundering one another, and in every manner bringing forth savagery and greed.

But when these things had been taken out of the way, righteousness and judgment were given from God, and, as I said, many nations were proved weak, being conquered by the arms of the Romans.

So that those under the emperor's hand no longer feared the incursions of any, but matters had already advanced to such a state of peace and prosperity for them, that they no longer had need of skill in warfare, but rather chose, and that most gladly, to occupy themselves with the works of peace, and to devote themselves to the labours of husbandry, and to give their care to the things of the fields;

for they refashion the implements of war for this purpose, so that even the broadsword is taken up for the use of a plough;

and they wholly unlearn war, and decline battle against one another.

For since Christ, who is our peace, has reigned over the nations, all discord and strife and battles, and every form of greed, have been taken out of the midst;

and the things that come from war have been removed;

harm, and the terrors that arise therefrom;

and his will has prevailed, who says to them:

'My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you.' 'And now, O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.'

For he sent away his people, the house of Israel. Having sufficiently terrified them by the foreannouncements of the calamities, he does not permit those who had given offence to perish through despair;

but he intimates that God will be gracious to those who choose to repent;

and to those who are willing to unlearn the more shameful things and to long for the better, he will again widen the way of salvation, and will receive them without remembering their wrongs, even though they have transgressed in exceedingly many and intolerable ways.

For this reason, he says, skilfully weaving into the rebukes a word of exhortation:

'And now, O house of Jacob, come, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.' And I think it fitting above all for the prophet to urge upon those of Israel the word concerning this matter, bidding them obey Christ, who says:

'While you have the light, walk in the light, lest the darkness overtake you.' And he himself is the light.

And indeed he plainly declared:

'I am the light of the world.'

'He who follows me shall not remain in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.' And the light of the Lord may most fittingly be said to be his preaching — that is, the evangelical message.

Let us refashion the writings of Moses toward the truth; let us receive the saving light.

But since the Jews, boasting in their forefathers according to the flesh, were always studying to lift up their brow in pride, as though they were beloved on their fathers' account, being styled the portion and inheritance of God, and a holy and chosen people;

and then, talking foolishly, supposed that in every way and altogether they lay within God's care and love;

even if they should do many things hateful to him;

even if they counted the Law as nothing;

even if they dishonoured and made unacceptable the very coming of the Saviour, that is, the grace of the dispensation in the flesh;

the prophet of necessity shows that the God of all is not thus disposed, saying:

'For he sent away his people, the house of Israel.' Something of this kind the God of all says through another prophet also, overturning the pride of the Jews, and rebuking them as being without understanding.

'For they coveted fields,' he says, 'and plundered orphans, and oppressed households, and magnified themselves against the Lord, saying:

Is not the Lord among us? No evils shall come upon us.'

And this is plainly that which our Lord Jesus Christ said to them:

'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to her, how often have I willed to gather your children together, in the manner in which a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!'

'Behold, your house is left to you desolate.' And indeed, through the voice of Jeremiah also, 'I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance,' he says.

'For their land was filled, as at the beginning, with soothsayings, like that of the foreigners, and foreign children were born among them.' The prophet now in a certain manner defends the judgments of God, and renders the reasons why, and that most justly, the house of Israel, that is, his people, was sent away by God.

and rebuking Israel for its fresh transgressions, proving them to be lovers of that which is godless, and much inclined to harshness, and going on unbridled toward every one of the condemnable things, and having much reproach from the Law.

For before the coming of our Saviour, giving little heed to reverence toward God and setting at naught the commandment given them through Moses, they were caught in transgressions of every kind;

and they wrought the worst of all deeds even against Christ Himself, the Saviour of all.

Accordingly he sets forth, at one time, the charges arising from their madness against the Law, and the penalties incurred on this account, which they justly suffered when the Persians and Babylonians, the Idumeans, the Elamites, and other nations warred against them in those days;

and at another time he lays to their charge the ways of their frenzy against Christ, and all that they suffered on account of this cause, when the host under the command of Vespasian and Titus made war upon the whole multitude subject to Judea.

So then the present discourse sets forth for us the transgressions of the Synagogue of the Jews before the coming;

and he says that for this cause His people were let loose, that is, given over by God into the hands of their enemies, because they chose once more to be sick with the sins of the beginning, and to run back to their former impiety.

For in Egypt they served the local gods, or rather demons;

then they were redeemed through Moses, when God had compassion on them, and were delivered at once from both spiritual and fleshly bondage.

For just as they shook off the yoke of the greed of the Egyptians,

so too they were delivered from the perversity of the demons, no longer serving the falsely-named gods, but rather being tutored by the Law given through Moses toward the truth, and acknowledging one God, both by nature and in truth.

For they heard Him giving the Law and saying at Horeb:

Thou shalt not make for thyself an idol, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth.

And if thou enter into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations.

There shall not be found in thee one who purgeth his son or his daughter in the fire,

one who divineth divination, or an observer of omens, or an augur, a sorcerer, an enchanter, a consulter with a familiar spirit, and a diviner of portents, and one who inquireth of the dead.

For everyone who doeth these things is an abomination to the Lord thy God.

Thou shalt be perfect before the Lord thy God.

For these nations, whom thou dost inherit, they will hearken to observers of omens and diviners.

But as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not so given to thee. And these things saith the Law;

but since they were easily led astray and exceedingly prone to apostasy—plainly, apostasy from God—He further gave them a law, saying:

And if the Lord thy God bring thee into the land into which thou goest thither to inherit it, and thou cast out great nations, both many and mighty before thy face (such and such a one, he says, and such and such a one), and the Lord thy God deliver them into thy hands, and thou smite them,

thou shalt utterly destroy them with destruction; thou shalt make no covenant with them, neither shalt thou show them mercy, nor shalt thou make marriages with them:

thou shalt not give thy daughter to his son, and thou shalt not take his daughter for thy son:

for he will turn away thy son from Me, and he will serve other gods:

and the Lord will be kindled with wrath against you, and will destroy thee speedily. For God devised every manner of safeguard for them, and, as the Sacred Writing saith, He gave a Law for their help.

But they, having despised commandments so venerable, turned aside contrary to all reason unto everything opposed to what was commanded.

For they gave themselves to observing of omens and to false divinations, and were eager to seek from those who cleave to idols the knowledge of things to come, and this while rebuking the holy prophets and saying:

But speak unto us, and declare unto us another delusion. And they consorted also with the daughters of the neighbouring nations, though the Law had forbidden the thing.

Having unlawfully brought into their homes women reared in the customs of idolatry, they became the fathers of alien children, who were also brought up in the customs of their mothers, pretending not to know, not even in the least degree, the Law given through Moses.

For this reason, he says, their land was filled, as it was from the beginning, with observations of omens, as with the land of foreigners, and alien children were born to them.

And it was exceedingly among the most monstrous things, and truly most shameful, that those inhabiting the holy city—the sons born to them of foreign women—should conduct themselves after Greek customs and live outside the Law.

And though God commanded that every male child be circumcised on the eighth day, and said plainly:

Three times in the year shall every male of thine appear before Me—yet they did not do this, but carried off their offspring to the demons, and in the sacred precincts of the idols performed sacrifices over them.

Dost thou see them trampling the Law in every way?

Then how was it consistent that those who had come to such a pitch of impiety, so as neither to be willing to know their Redeemer, should be named His people? Therefore the sentence upon them is a holy one, and the occasion of His turning away is not ignoble.

For the Judge of all is no respecter of persons. For their land was filled with silver and gold, and there was no number of their treasures;

and that the love of money is the root of all evils, the most wise Paul has clearly testified.

And that the thing of arrogance is hateful with God is plain to everyone.

For it is written that the Lord resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. What manner of baseness would one not behold present among those who wish to be rich? For such men make their gathering of money from interest and increase, from covetousness and injustice, from plunder and false accusation.

And there attaches to wealth also insolence, and an exceeding readiness to be carried away unto strange and most abominable pleasures.

For where there is luxury, there by all means are revellings, and drunkenness, chamberings, and wantonness, and every kind of licentiousness.

And who among those wont to be right-minded would not hold in loathing the haughty man who spits upon the weaker, who lifts up his lofty brow, who overlooks those in poverty, who cannot bear to suffer together with those in misery, who does not deign to pity those in distress and toil, and who is moreover ignorant that he too is dust and ashes? Therefore our virtue-loving God very reasonably lays it to their charge, as having a mind insatiable for the love of gain, as men riding upon horses and caught in the snares of vainglory.

And he says that their land was filled with horses, as though not one or two had fallen sick with contempt, but as if their whole land had been seized by the passion, and the evil had gone through all.

But he convicts them also by this of having offended against the Law and of having chosen to disobey God, who had spoken plainly:

And if thou enter into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee by lot, and thou inherit it, and dwell upon it, and say:

I will set over myself a ruler, like also the other nations round about me:

in setting him thou shalt set over thyself a ruler, whom the Lord thy God shall choose. Then he says concerning the one appointed:

And he shall not multiply for himself silver and gold exceedingly. He therefore lays it to their charge as making a hoarding of money, and this insatiably, and as multiplying for themselves also horses.

And this reproach touches, as is fitting, most of all those who obtained the lot of leadership, as transgressing the commandment—men whom it was fitting, even before the rest, to be seen honouring the ordinances, and rebuking the transgressors.

they worshipped the things which their own fingers made.

And man bowed down, and the man was humbled, and I will not let them go up. Again he charges them with the spiritual fornication, and with their having chosen to worship many of the falsely-named gods.

And he declares that they advanced unto such a measure of ungodliness as to drive on to the extremity of every evil, and to practise the most complete apostasy from God—who knows all things, who upholds all by His nod, and who brought them into existence.

And He seems, in a certain way, even to grieve exceedingly for the nature of man that has been outraged to the uttermost.

For the God of all honoured man by fashioning him with His own hand.

For he was not, like the other creatures, brought into being off-hand by a word, as indeed the words 'Let there be a firmament, and it was so'; but He took dust from the earth and made the man, according to the words of the all-wise Moses.

And he came to be after the image and likeness of God, and was appointed as a kind of ruler over the things upon the earth.

And besides this he was honoured also with a spirit of life.

For He breathed into his face the breath of life.

Therefore man, being in honour, understood not, according to what is written;

for he served the graven images;

and, as the prophetic word said, They worshipped the things which their own fingers made. And man bowed down, and the man was humbled.

And this is an outrage both against God Himself and against the nature of man.

And yet, though it was possible to see the Craftsman of these things by analogy from the beauty of the creatures;

For His invisible things, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; this indeed they did not do;

and they were unaware, as is likely, that they themselves were also grossly outraging their own nature, if indeed man is better than wood and stones.

For this cause the Maker of all things, justly indignant, says:

Man bowed down, and the man was humbled, and I will not let them go up. And by this He shows the unchangeableness of His wrath, if indeed on both accounts, as is likely, He has been moved against them.

Namely, that they both grieved the divine glory, and rendered their own nature most dishonoured.

And that their land was filled with abominations, declaring those caught in the charges of apostasy to be neither few nor easily numbered, and that their object of worship was not one, but each one worshipped what seemed good to him, and a manifold swarm of idols filled their whole land.

And indeed it was said through the voice of Jeremiah, that According to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah.

'And according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you set up altars to burn incense to Baal.' The making of idols, then, is a thing evil and hard for God to bear — whether of those perceived by the senses, I mean, or of those framed in the mind.

For Satan makes plunder of the souls of men, terribly and in manifold ways, by phantasms cast into the mind and heart, and at times, by the fashioning of idols, he drags them down into sins and carries them away into shameful and monstrous pleasures.

'And now enter into the rocks, and hide yourselves in the earth from before the face of the fear of the Lord,'

'and from the glory of His might, when He shall arise to shatter the earth.'

'For the eyes of the Lord are lofty, but man is lowly; and the loftiness of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.' Since Jerusalem was given over to idolatry — nay rather, since all Judaea had gone astray and was swerving unbridled toward every one of the things hateful to the virtue-loving God —

in a manner the war of the Babylonians was poured out over all Judaea; they, having laid waste everything, slew those they captured, but carried off the women and children to their own land;

and being in the rank of prisoners of war, they passed long periods of time

hiding themselves and taking refuge in trackless places, since all their power was feeble against the resistance of the invaders.

Therefore, as though terrors were all but already present — nay rather, as though they were already within the gates and upon the very land itself — He commands them to hide, and all but to bury themselves alive in the earth, from the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of His might, when He shall arise to shatter the earth, that is, to crush the earth.

That the divine counsels and deliberations are lofty and above all men, and that none of those upon the earth could contend against them, He makes plain, saying:

'For the eyes of the Lord are lofty.' By 'the eyes of the Lord' here He means, as it were, His foresight and counsels, and His judgements upon each matter.

For men, being small both in nature and in mind, devise small things and reckon lowly things.

But the God of all, being lofty and conceived in ineffable pre-eminences over all things, has counsel that none can war against.

For no one could bring forward in opposition either a counsel or an aid capable of warding off the assaults that come from the divine deliberations.

He says that they shall learn this — the Jews, who long knew it not — when the dreadful war descends upon them, and every defending hand grows feeble, and counsel too proves useless, along with the devices of human deliberation, by which perhaps they supposed they might somehow escape the calamities of war.

Therefore experience shall show, He says, that man is lowly, and the loftiness of men shall be brought low, but the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

As I said just now, when all their strength is convicted as impotent, the supremacy of the divine power shall become most manifest to those who put their trust in it.

It is therefore an utterly dreadful thing to give offence to God, and the matter becomes for us the cause of every calamity.

'For the day of the Lord of Sabaoth is against everyone who is insolent and proud, and against everyone lofty and uplifted;'

'and against every cedar of Lebanon, of the lofty and uplifted ones, and against every tree of the oak of Bashan;'

'and against every lofty mountain, and against every lofty hill, and against every lofty tower, and against every lofty wall, and against every ship of the sea, and against every fair spectacle of ships;'

'and the loftiness of men shall be brought low and shall fall, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.' By 'the day of the Lord' He names the time of the war, and the fulfilment of the wrath against them.

For this is the custom of the God-inspired Scripture.

'This is the day which the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.' He says, then, that the time of wrath shall come against every insolent and proud man.

And by 'the insolent' He seems to call those who dishonour the divine glory by not enduring to worship it, but rather cleaving to whatever gods they themselves might contrive;

and by 'the proud,' those who despise the divine laws and have made it their practice to set at naught the things ordained.

'The proud transgressed exceedingly.' And since there were very many throughout Judaea, and indeed in Jerusalem, luxuriating abundantly in wealth and clinging immoderately to their abundance of possessions, surpassing others and fortified with power, and having leapt up to no small measure of the renown among them, lifted on high and, as it were, puffed up —

for this reason He says that the effects of the divine wrath shall run against them most especially, hinting enigmatically at the rank, or rather the measure, of each one.

For He likens them both to the cedars of Lebanon,

and indeed also to the trees of the oak of Bashan, that is, to the oaks in the land of Bashan;

and this is a region in Judaea, now called Basanaia, an excellent nurse of plants, having thick and very tall cedars.

And He likens them in like manner to hills and mountains, and further to towers and lofty walls.

And that together with the land they shall also lose the resources of wealth, He adds, saying:

For when the war had already been proclaimed, and the Babylonians were expected to arrive, those of Israel, withdrawing their mind from hope in God, called upon the Egyptians for aid, and hired Tyre and the neighbouring nations round about.

Now all the Tyrians were seafarers and skilled in mercantile pursuits, and had ambitiously equipped their ships.

But when the Babylonian came, before reaching the land of the Jews, he plundered the land of the Tyrians.

Therefore the prophetic word here says to us either this, or else perhaps that other thing:

For very many of those who had reigned over Israel possessed merchant ships, which brought them goods from the land and country of the Indians, and from other lands and cities;

whence also their great wealth had been amassed;

from which they became lofty, equal to cedars and oaks, to mountains and towers.