Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 48/65

this by cooking meat, and taking the portions of the gods for the baking of bread.

Then he fell into such senselessness as to worship the remnant left over from his use, and to pray and to say:

'Deliver me, for you are my god.'

Ashes, then, and nothing else, is their heart, and they have gone astray, and no one could deliver the souls of those who have fallen into this—save only God, if he should so choose, who does all things, and transforms, and enlightens what is darkened, and turns back what has gone astray.

But the unprofitableness and vanity resides in the hand-carved gods, for they are dumb and senseless matter.

'But see'—that is, consider well—'and you will not say that there is a lie in my right hand.'

For all things among those people, he says, are false, both their names and their reputation.

But 'in my right hand'—that is, in the Son;

for the Son is everywhere named the right hand of the Father in the God-inspired Scripture;

nothing false would be found in him, but even if he be named God, he is true God;

and if he be called Lord, he does not possess this attribute as something bestowed from without, but rather by nature is he Master of all things;

and if king, if light, if life and power, if Creator—all these he is, not falsely so called;

for he is not created, but would be conceived as naturally beyond everything that has been brought forth into becoming, being God from God, and true light from true light.

Remember these things, O Jacob and Israel, for you are my servant;

and you, O Israel, do not forget me.

For behold, I have blotted out your iniquities like a cloud, and your sins like a mist.

Turn back to me, and I will redeem you. Christ said somewhere:

He who knows the will of his lord and does not do it shall be beaten with many stripes;

but he who does not know it, and does not do it, shall be beaten with few.

And the verdict pronounced upon each case is altogether just and holy.

For to those who do not know the Master's will, and then stumble and are held fast in the charges of transgression, one might grant pardon on the ground of their ignorance, receiving this as an occasion for mercy.

For the charges are those of manifest negligence.

In order, therefore, that Israel might become better than himself—having been caught in a great many charges, yet honoured with amnesty from God—he is commanded to remember both his own indolence and the gentleness of him who has compassion.

For 'Remember these things,' he says, 'O Jacob.'

And what things are these? Both those already spoken before, and that 'you are my servant.'

A servant, therefore, in this respect, and formed for this very purpose.

In what manner, we shall explain as best we can.

For a human being is fashioned, simply speaking, just as, of course, the forefather Adam also was, out of earth.

For God took dust from the earth, it says, and fashioned the man.

And things concerning us creep on, even to the present, according to the manner of creation.

For each one is fashioned in the womb of his own mother, and this is the way that leads to existence for those upon the earth.

But one is also fashioned into a servant of God, being spiritually conformed by the knowledge of the divine laws to an excellent form—that form which comes upon the souls of men through the good order of the virtues.

This may be understood as spiritual beauty.

And they are also fashioned, as it were, in Christ, through participation in the Holy Spirit, into the form that is toward him.

So the divinely-inspired Paul writes to the Galatians:

My little children, for whom I again travail in birth until Christ be formed in you. Now Christ is formed in us when the Holy Spirit implants in us a certain divine formation, through sanctification and righteousness.

For thus, thus does the express image of the substance of God and the Father shine forth in our souls, the Holy Spirit refashioning us, as I said, through sanctification toward him.

Accordingly the most holy Paul again said:

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God. And he says that a veil has been laid upon the hearts of the Jews, but that all of us, beholding with unveiled face the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord the Spirit.

We are therefore fashioned into a servant of God.

But since the name 'servant' is in a way a common one—

for it is applied both to household slaves and to sons—we say that it would be fitting for those fashioned under the Law rather to be fashioned into household slaves.

For there was a spirit of bondage upon Israel, and their negligence was not without penalty for them;

for the Law chastised them as household slaves.

But if one be fashioned in Christ, he is fashioned into a son of God, according to the ways just now described.

It is necessary, therefore, to remember also the loving-kindness of him who justifies, and that we have been fashioned for sonship and glory, and, as it were, to render back the recompense to God the Father for the things that have come to us from him.

And how this might come about, he teaches well, saying:

And you, O Israel, do not forget me.

Now one would forget God by making light of piety toward him, or even by wholly departing from it.

And even to this day there are some who, after faith, go backward, whose judgment is just, according to what is written.

And that to forget God signifies in many places a running away from the piety that is due to him, we shall learn from his own words spoken to those of the blood of Israel:

You who forget me, and prepare a table for the demon, and fill up a mixed drink for Fortune, and have forsaken my holy mountain—

I will deliver you up to the sword, you shall all fall by slaughter. And for this very reason he cried out against those of Israel through the voice of Jeremiah, saying:

Will a bride forget her adornment, or a virgin her breast-band? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. So then, forgetfulness would often intimate apostasy.

But memory is that which is steadfast unto faith, and unshaken unto love, and strong for every single thing that seems good to it.

For behold, I have blotted out your iniquities like a cloud.

And in this passage he says 'I have blotted out' in the sense of 'I will blot out,' and 'having dispelled it like some mist and cloud, I will make it vanish.'

For that he says 'I have blotted out' in the sense of 'I will blot out,' what follows makes very clearly manifest.

For 'Turn back to me,' he says, 'and I will redeem you.'

For how has he blotted out, when he is calling them to turn back? As of those who have not yet turned back, but who will come to this in due seasons, when Christ shines forth upon the world—through whom is all forgiveness of transgressions, and turning back and calling toward God, through faith in him, and evangelical conduct, and the noblest deeds of valour.

Rejoice, O heavens, for God has had mercy on Israel.

Sound the trumpet, O foundations of the earth; cry out, O mountains, for gladness, you hills and all the trees that are in them, for God has redeemed Jacob, and Israel shall be glorified. From this too one might discern without difficulty that the forgiveness of sins, and indeed the turning back and redemption of all, being destined to come about through Christ, is proclaimed beforehand in due seasons through the holy prophets.

For since God, being Lord, appeared to us and dwelt among those on earth as a man—the true Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world, the all-pure victim—

then indeed, then, this event became an occasion of festival for the powers above and in heaven, the rational powers, that is, the ranks of the holy angels.

For they sang, they sang at his birth—I mean that according to the flesh—and indeed they said:

the foundations of the earth sounded the trumpet, that is, the ministers of the evangelical oracles;

their piercing sound was carried everywhere, and like certain holy trumpets they rang out, proclaiming abroad the glory of the Saviour to those in every place, and calling to the knowledge of Christ both those of the circumcision and those who of old served the creation rather than the Creator.

But for what reason do we say they are named the foundations of the earth? For Christ is indeed the foundation and unshakeable footing of all things, he who upholds all and holds them together for well-being, the things that are firmly set;

for upon him we are all built up, being fitted together as a spiritual house through the Spirit into a holy temple, into a dwelling-place for him.

For he dwells in our hearts through faith; but the apostles and evangelists would be understood as foundations nearer at hand, and closer to us—men who became eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, and became also a firm ground for faith.

For having recognized that we must follow their traditions, we shall keep our faith in Christ straight and undistorted.

For it was said somewhere by him to the divinely-inspired Peter (when, wisely and blamelessly confessing his faith in him, he said:

You are the Christ, the Son of the living God)—

and upon this rock I will found my Church, meaning by 'rock,' I think, the unshakeableness of the disciple's faith.

And it was said somewhere also through the voice of the Psalmist:

His foundations are in the holy mountains. And by 'holy mountains' we should most fittingly liken the holy apostles and evangelists, whose knowledge is firmly set like a foundation for those who come after them, not allowing those who have been caught in the net through them to fall away into what is unapproved in respect of faith.

The foundations of the earth, therefore, sound the trumpet.

For Moses was slow of speech and heavy of tongue.

For the Law was not something heard far and wide, except among those who dwelt in Judea alone.

those who are ambassadors for the things of Christ

For their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. And He has commanded the mountains to cry aloud with gladness.

and by 'the foundations of the earth' He again means the mountains in these words.

For the divinely-inspired disciples were conspicuous and translucent, distinguished in both deed and word, and most widely known to men everywhere; to them also the prophetic word cried out:

Get thee up upon a high mountain, O thou that bringest good tidings to Zion;

lift up thy voice with strength, O thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem. These, then, are surely the spiritual mountains which He has commanded to cry aloud with gladness.

It is possible from this point also to see both the power of the Law and the superiority, unto that which is better, of the evangelical proclamations.

For the Law, threatening punishments to transgressors and casting those who are caught into inescapable penalties, did not so much cry out gladness as dejection;

but the ministers of the evangelical oracles and the servants of the gifts of grace that come from Christ proclaim gladness to the world.

For where there is forgiveness of sins, and moreover justification by faith, and participation in the Holy Spirit, and the splendour of adoption as sons, and the kingdom of heaven, and a hope, not falsely conceived, of good things beyond understanding — there indeed, altogether, is gladness and joy.

By 'hills and the trees that are in them' we again say are meant those who are inferior to the mountains and are seated somewhat lower, according to the measure of the good life that is in them, the holy apostles and evangelists being manifestly raised above them.

Hills, then, would be those who have subsided somewhat below the renown of those men and are inferior in the greatness of virtue, yet who themselves also stand aloft and are above earthly matters, and set their minds on things above, and have been allotted to be esteemed on high according to virtue.

And 'the trees that are in them,' those nourished by them, would be understood as those who through them have believed, and have as it were grown up into a perfect man, and have attained unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

These would also be teachers of peoples and leaders of flocks, winning over those who come to them by the spiritual fruitfulness that proceeds from themselves.

Therefore the hills and the trees that are in them have cried out together with the foundations of the earth the gladness that is conceived in Christ; and they rejoice because God has redeemed Jacob, and Israel shall be glorified.

For he was not only redeemed, having wiped off the defilements of sin and been delivered from fire and judgement, but he was also glorified, having become a member of God's household and being styled His son, and having obtained brotherhood with the one who is by nature and in truth the Son, that is, with Christ.

Thus says the Lord who redeems you, and who formed you from the womb:

I am the Lord who accomplishes all things.

I stretched out the heaven alone, and made firm the earth.

Who else shall scatter the signs of those who prophesy from the belly, and divinations from the heart? turning the wise back, and making their counsel foolish, and establishing the words of His servant, and verifying the counsel of His messengers. Most providentially indeed does the God of all things converse with us in these matters, and He seeks to give full assurance to those who have insulted His glory by transferring it to others — clearly to those who are not gods — proving that He Himself is the author of all things and their steward, the Creator and Maker even of those who are being instructed.

And since He was making promises concerning very many and wonderful matters, which it was likely would be disbelieved by some, He usefully, as I said, displays beforehand to them His own power and pre-eminence, that they might know that in every way and altogether whatever He should choose to accomplish, this will run on to its consummation.

For in what respect would He be inadequate, or how would He not be able to redeem any, He who formed them from the womb — that is, who called them into very being and brought into existence those who once were not; who accomplishes all things — that is, the steward of all, who administers and directs each thing according to what seems good to Him? And this is altogether well.

For God would not fall short of that which is most befitting to His own glory.

beyond all things, both mind and word, He who stretched out this vast heaven and made firm the earth? as also the Psalmist says:

He founded the earth upon its stability. And He who has ascended to such a height of power — or rather, who is all power — will assuredly bring to consummation whatever He should wish to do, with none hindering.

And He says that He alone stretched out the heaven, not thereby setting outside the account the only-begotten God the Word who is of His essence, through whom are all things and in whom are all things;

but rather because none at all of the falsely-named gods worked together with the God who is over all.

For those who altogether have no being, how could they be admitted as workers, or rather as fellow-workers, of the creating God? Therefore we say that in these words the distinction is not made against the Son who is by nature and was begotten of Him, but rather that the stretching out of the heaven, or the earth's having received unshaken foundations, was not the effect of some other god.

Having therefore through these things declared His own glory, and His incomparable pre-eminence, and the greatness of His power, He plainly shows and recounts in what follows of what things He will in due time be the accomplisher.

For who else, He says, shall scatter the signs of those who prophesy from the belly, and divinations from the heart? For while Christ, the Saviour of us all, had not yet shone forth to us from the heavens, the rapacity of the devil's tyranny was stretched out against all, and a deep darkness fed itself upon all who were on the earth.

For there were, indeed there were, throughout country and city, altars and sacred precincts, and a swarm of idols, and an innumerable multitude of falsely-named gods, and sorceries and false prophecies everywhere, and the deceits of demons, who feigned to know and to be able to foretell things to come, though in truth they said and knew absolutely nothing.

But when the true Light — that is, the only-begotten Word of God — had flashed round about with the evangelical oracles the whole earth under heaven, the mist of sin was driven away, and that deep darkness ceased, and those who had gone astray were called to the knowledge of the truth;

then indeed, then were scattered the signs of those who prophesy from the belly.

And by 'those who prophesy from the belly' he means the false prophets, that is, the pythonic ones, who belch forth from their own heart what seems good to them, and know nothing of the truth.

Concerning such persons the prophet Ezekiel also says:

For the Greek oracles everywhere fell idle, and those who among the gods of the Greeks were wont to speak falsely have been silenced;

and the wise also were turned back, and their counsels were made foolish.

And he seems in these words to call 'the wise' either the magi among the Greeks;

for among those people they were named 'wise';

or perhaps also those who among them had come to the reputation of wise men, and were sharp in understanding, and had force in speech, and were most excellent in eloquence, and were not inadequate in being able, by their own fine phrasing, to embellish falsehood.

Such persons we say have been turned back;

the wisdom in them being henceforth proved useless and unprofitable, being either merely psychical and earthly, or demoniacal.

And that the wisdom of the world has been made foolish — by God, clearly — the all-wise Paul also says.

And the wise having been turned back, he says, and all their counsel having been proved utterly senseless and foolish, God the Father established the words of His own Servant — that is, the evangelical and saving oracle which Christ Himself spoke to us.

And He proved true also the counsel of His messengers.

For 'messengers' would be understood as those who are ambassadors for the things of Christ, and who proclaim them to the world.

to bow the neck under His laws, and thus to run toward salvation and life.

Therefore the words that come from them are full of all truth;

but the things of the Greeks have been made foolish, not having the beauty of the truth;

for among those people all things are false — both prophecy and understanding, and the multitude of gods that exist only in seeming, which is unknown even to those very people who are led astray by them.

Thou shalt be inhabited, and in the cities of Judah:

Ye shall be built up, and her waste places shall spring forth. And thus too there follows the 'I am' — that is, 'O Jerusalem, I am He who redeems you, who accomplishes all things, and who stretched out the heaven.'

I am, therefore, He says, who say to Jerusalem:

For the Babylonians took her by force, having utterly ravaged the whole land of the Jews.

But they were redeemed by God, and put off the yoke of captivity, when he who had burned down Babylon — I mean Cyrus the son of Cambyses — permitted this to be done;

and indeed, having returned to Judea, they rebuilt both the cities and the temple, and dwelt in peace.

Most fittingly, therefore, the prophetic word, in saying that Jerusalem shall be built up, gives the hearers to understand that she shall in due time be taken and overthrown.

And He makes the foreannouncement of the things that shall befall them not from the grievous matters, but rather from those in which it was likely they would greatly rejoice;

together with also, as I said, their coming to a conception of the more sombre things.

Therefore, God commanding that Jerusalem shall be built up, the word of the prophecy signifies that she had altogether been taken beforehand at some point.

But if anyone should wish to cast himself into yet deeper contemplations, we say that the truer Judea — clearly the Church — is meant, of which those who bear circumcision in the spirit would be understood as inhabitants and citizens.

Him who was once desolate He showed to be teeming with a multitude of men, He who commanded this to come to pass — clearly God in Christ — and He caused her waste places to spring forth.

For she was found luxuriant with spiritual trees, and as it were most richly wooded, and having the lofty heads of the saints.

For it is customary for the God-inspired Scripture sometimes to liken the choir of the saints to plants and trees.

The God of all things, at any rate, said through the voice of holy men that 'I will set in the waterless land the cedar and the box tree, and the myrtle and the cypress and the white poplar.' And it has also been said, through the voice of the Psalmist concerning the saints, to God — at one time, that 'The trees of the plain shall be satisfied, the cedars of Lebanon which Thou hast planted'; and at another time again:

Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the face of the Lord, because He comes to judge the earth.

He shall judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in His truth. And we do not by any means say that rejoicing belongs to senseless trees, but rather the matter would befit the saints, whom indeed He says rejoiced when Christ shone forth upon the world.

For thus He judged the world in righteousness, justifying by faith those who had once gone astray, but condemning to destruction Satan and his angels.

'You shall be made desolate, and I will dry up your rivers.'

'Who says to Cyrus, Be wise, and he shall perform all My desires.'

'You shall be built, and I will lay the foundation of My holy house.' Israel had been carried away captive, as I said, in due seasons;

for the Babylonians took the land of the Jews.

But when the seventieth year had now been completed for the captives, and the time was at hand for the mercy to be shown upon them—clearly the mercy that comes from God—He raised up against the Chaldeans Cyrus the son of Cambyses, who ruled the empire of the Persians and the Medes, who captured them and released the Jews, having learned that the God whom they worshipped had foretold concerning him that, being strengthened by the succours that come from Him, he would prove mightier than his enemies, and altogether hard to encounter for any who wished to withstand him, and that he himself would raise up the divine temple.

That the land of the Babylonians, therefore, though exceedingly populous, was destined to be made utterly desolate, He signifies, saying:

For by 'the deep' in these words He named the multitude of the Babylonians, more numerous than can be counted;

and by 'her rivers,' the nations that flowed in unto her, which dwelt round about her, and possessed the neighbouring lands, and were summoned by them to their aid.

And it is again a custom of the divine Scripture to liken, in one way or another, the multitudes of the nations to rivers and seas and waters.

At any rate the inspired Psalmist spoke concerning both Christ the Saviour of us all, and the multitude of the nations which has been caught, as in a net, by His words:

'The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory has thundered, the Lord.' For indeed the voice of the Lord—that is, the evangelical and saving proclamation—was borne against all the nations, when it well-nigh thundered down upon them.

For the sacred and saving proclamation resounded, as it were, throughout the whole world under heaven.

'The rivers have lifted up their voices.' For we say that by 'rivers' in these words the holy apostles are named, whose voices—that is, their teachings—became known to men everywhere.

And it is said somewhere also concerning Babylon herself, and Nineveh, that her waters were as a pool of water.

It was, then, God who said to the deep:

'You shall be made desolate, and I will dry up your rivers.'

And it was He likewise who said to Cyrus to 'be wise'—instead of 'to do all things with understanding, and to fulfil all that seemed good to Him.'

And these things were: that the Babylonians should pay the penalty for what they had cruelly done in ravaging Judaea and burning the sacred and divine temple; and moreover that Israel should be set free, and should rebuild the house—that is, lay its foundation.

For this is the truer way of putting it.

For Cyrus commanded, and, providing funds as well, that the temple should be raised up, and he did lay down its foundations.

But when in the meantime he ended his mortal life, the advancement of the works was hindered, through the malice of certain persons, by him who came after him.

It was, however, brought to completion again even after this, God consenting.

And we have the exact account of the history in the God-inspired Scripture;

and to choose to spend long discourses on these matters I think would be superfluous.

Nor let any say that the divine word has proved false, on the ground that Cyrus did not do all that seemed good to God, seeing he was a man and an idolater.

For the saying, 'He shall perform all My desires,' has been laid down with reference altogether to those things which it is reasonable to suppose that God wills to declare: I mean the capture of the Babylonians' land, the deliverance of Israel from bonds and slavery, the raising up of the temple, and the rebuilding of the cities of Judaea.

'Thus says the Lord God to My anointed, Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, that nations should hearken before him; and I will break in pieces the strength of kings; I will open before him doors, and cities shall not be shut.'

'I will go before him, and I will level mountains; I will shatter doors of bronze, and break in pieces bars of iron.'

'And I will give you treasures of darkness, hidden ones; I will open unseen things to you, that you may know that I am the Lord God who calls your name, the God of Israel.'

'For the sake of Jacob My servant, and Israel My chosen, I will call you by your name.'

'But you did not know Me, that I am the Lord God, and there is none other beside Me, no God.'

'That they who are from the rising of the sun, and they who are from its setting, may know that there is none beside Me.'

'I am the Lord God, and there is none other.'

'I am He who prepared light, and made darkness; who makes peace, and creates evils.'

'I am the Lord God who does all these things.' We say that this prophecy was met with by the most valiant Cyrus, and that he was exceedingly delighted at the things foretold concerning him by God, and came to such a mind that even in the cities and lands under his hand he made proclamation of the glory of God, confessing plainly that He alone was God and Lord of all things, the One worshipped by the Jews.

And the force of the prophecy, or rather of the prophetic predictions, is, as I think, exceedingly plain.

let us make clear what is steep and hard.

For He names Cyrus 'anointed'—not as one of the saints, upon whom the name might be set, but by a certain misuse of the term, taken as it were from the being anointed; but because it was customary to anoint with oil those who were called by God to kingdoms, even if they were not any holy and venerable persons.

For we shall find that the holy prophets said to some of those advanced to this office: 'The Lord has anointed you to be king over Israel.' Cyrus, then, is 'anointed' as a king;

except that, because he prevailed through God, and was lifted up to surpassing glory, He gives us to understand, by naming him 'anointed'—that is, one called to kingship by anointing and by the decree that comes from Him.

Therefore He says that He held his right hand.

And this too would be a plain sign of support, according to what was said by the saints in the book of Psalms:

'You have held my hand, my right hand; in Your counsel You have guided me.' And He says that He held his right hand, so that nations should hearken before him—that is, be subjected and yield to him—and that the strength of kings should be broken in pieces.

For they say that there were seven kings under the one supreme ruler among the Babylonians.

And that the cities were destined to be opened of their own accord, and that nothing at all should altogether hinder Cyrus as he overran the strength of the enemy, He shows, saying:

'Cities shall not be shut.'

'I will go before you, and I will level mountains'—that is, I will make all things bare before you, and easy to traverse, so that there is nothing to withstand.

But even if anyone should come against you, and, like a mountain, confront your forces, this too I will level—that is, I will render it wretched, cast down to the ground, and powerless.

'I will shatter doors of bronze, and break in pieces bars of iron, and I will give you hidden treasures; I will open to you unseen things.'