Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 58/65

For the Saviour of all crowns as it were the souls of those who believe, and fills them with all joy, exultation and gladness, being glorified by them, and having become for them a lyre-string and a harp.

But wherever there is at all a call summoning to repentance and conversion, and to the washing away of sin—clearly that which is through faith in Christ—wherever there is the supply and grace of the Holy Spirit, the honour of adoption, the enjoyment of unending good things, and the hope of the kingdom of heaven, there assuredly is also the duty of rejoicing, and there pain, grief, and groaning have fled away.

For what place shall pain have, and over what shall there be groaning, where there is absolutely no occasion whatever for groaning and suffering, but rather hope prevails, hope of exultation and gladness, of imperishable joy and delight? 「I, even I, am he that comforts you.」

「Know what you are, that you were afraid of mortal man, and of the son of man, who were dried up like grass.」

「And you forgot God who made you, who made the heaven and laid the foundations of the earth.」

「And you feared continually all the days the face of him that afflicted you.」

「For in the manner that he purposed to take you away, even now, where is the wrath of him that afflicted you? For in your being saved he shall not stand, nor delay.」 The 「I am」 in these words, he says, stands for 「I live and I exist.」

This is a dignity befitting God, and extraordinary;

for to that Nature alone which is beyond all things belongs both being and living, since it did not receive these by participation from another, nor holds them as a thing given, but rather is itself the Life.

Therefore, 「I am,」 he says, 「he that comforts you」—that is, he who bestows all spiritual comfort, and sustains with succour so that one may be well established, in order to advance with all boldness straight toward every virtue.

Or perhaps in these words you may understand comfort also in another way.

For the Saviour, through the evangelical proclamations, called men to the washing away of sin—that is, I say, through faith in him—unto participation in the Holy Spirit, and the boast and glory of adoption.

「Of me who truly am you were not afraid, despising and scorning him who calls to life, but you feared corruptible man, and the son of man, who were dried up like grass.」

「Then you forgot God who made you, who fashioned the heaven and firmly set the earth, and you feared the face of him who afflicted you.」

In these words God brings a charge against the teachers of the Jews, who to the very end persisted in setting themselves against the glory of the Saviour, and, so far as it lay with them, declared it to be utterly nothing at all.

He worked miracles in manifold ways;

but they poured out bitter words against his more-than-marvellous divine signs;

for they said that he cast out the demons by Beelzebul the prince of the demons.

By his expositions concerning the law he often charmed his hearers;

but they sank down to such a degree of impiety that they rebuked those who praised him, and said:

「Why do you listen to him?」 They therefore dreaded the plots of the Pharisees;

and the blessed evangelist bears witness, saying:

「The rulers therefore knew that he is the Christ, but on account of the Pharisees they did not confess him. For the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess him to be Christ, he should become put out of the synagogue.」

And the Saviour himself also rebukes the teachers of the law, saying:

「And woe to you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves do not enter, and those who are entering you hinder.」 He therefore brings a charge against the multitudes of the Jews, as having, out of exceedingly great senselessness, despised the true and living God, who by his word raised up the heaven and laid the foundations of the earth, and as having rather preferred the fear of men, and received the voice of corruptible men, who are dried up like grass.

For that they were to undergo the last of all punishments, those who laid upon them the outlandish doctrine—

—and who on that account led them away from the duty of honouring him who calls to salvation, he has assured, adding:

「For in the manner that they purposed to take you away, even now, where is the wrath of him that afflicts you? For in your being saved he shall not stand, nor delay.」

For the wrath of the Scribes and Pharisees against the peoples under their hand was but temporary;

but they themselves went to destruction, and were given over to slaughter.

And those who believed in Christ rejoiced, being brought to safety, and having come outside the divine wrath.

But the others did not delay—that is, they were destroyed within no long time, when all Judaea was laid waste, the temple burned down, and Jerusalem utterly destroyed together with its inhabitants.

「For I am the Lord your God, who troubles the sea, and makes its waves to roar.」

「The Lord of hosts is my name.」

「I will put my words into your mouth, and under the shadow of my hand will I cover you, wherein I established the heaven and laid the foundations of the earth;」

「and Zion shall say, You are my God.」 Having brought a charge against those of Israel, as having feared men—namely those who obtained the office of presiding over the synagogue—and out of reverence toward these having senselessly plunged into the mires of disobedience, and having wholly disregarded the love toward him, he shows plainly in these words that he sets right, without toil, both the circumstances and persecutions which may befall those who have chosen to live piously;

and he renders the perverse dealings of those who insult them ineffective and powerless, changing hardships into what is easier, and diverting the onset of grievous things into good cheer.

「For I am he,」 he says, 「who troubles the sea and makes its waves to roar.」

As therefore the wave is sometimes arched up, and dashes violently against the dry land, being driven together by the force of the winds, but again straightway falls back into fair weather and calm when God so wills;

in this very same manner do I remove, he says, the things that are terrible and hard to bear and that carry off to the uttermost of every evil, having as it were merely nodded assent toward fair weather;

—for those who have chosen to contend to the utmost for piety.

And this, I think, is what is sung enigmatically through the lyre of the Psalmist:

「He commanded the storm, and it stood as a breeze, and the waves thereof were stilled.」 But that without any hesitation they might accept the assurance that in every way and by all means the things promised shall run to their fulfilment, and that the pledge of the succour given by him should never prove false;

of necessity he says that 「The Lord of hosts is my name.」

For if he is Lord of the powers, how shall he be too feeble to save any, or what thing is so difficult, or so steep among affairs, or even so impossible for the right hand that is mighty in all things? And he adds yet another thing sufficient for succour, and at the same time declaring that the wrath against them has been loosed, and the harm of the turning-away has ceased, and that henceforth they are held in account with him, and have been counted worthy of forbearance and love, such as would befit those who have come to know his manifestation.

「But to the sinner God said:」

「Why do you declare my ordinances, and take up my covenant in your mouth?」 For 「praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner,」 as it is written.

The wrath of God therefore drives away the profane and wicked man [in another reading: the law of God]

from remembering his words at all.

「Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.」 How is it not evident to all that those who have an evil heart could not utter good words? To the saints, then, it is most fitting both to hold the law of God in mind, and to bring it up, as it were, through tongue and speech.

The God of all therefore promises, as to those who are already righteous and sanctified in faith and who have received the boast of genuine sonship, to put his own words into their mouths, so that, frequently keeping the divine law in remembrance, they might know the path of what is profitable to their salvation.

For it is written concerning every righteous man that 「The law of his God is in his heart, and his steps shall not be tripped up.」 And again:

「In my heart have I hidden your words, that I might not sin against you.」 For the law of God upholds us so that we may be well established, and, having a mind that stands firmly, may hold to any and every one of the best pursuits;

and it does not allow us to fall down to worse things, and manfully carries us away from what is by nature prone to do wrong.

But since, as I said, he converses with them as with those already genuine, he promises beforehand yet another thing.

「For I will cover you,」 he says, 「under the shelter of my own hand.」

And this too is a possession worthy to be gained, and an exceptional good, and sufficient for salvation to those once counted worthy to obtain it.

For we understand the hand of God the Father to be none other than the Son who has shone forth from him, our Lord Jesus Christ.

But toward those who have become subject to Him, none of the things that are wont to inflict harm could do them any wrong.

For they shall be robust and most courageous, superior to every tumult and to temptations, unassailable by Satan, beyond all fleshly abomination, and set above the passions both of soul and of body.

That the Father's right hand is utterly mighty, He makes ready to show, adding:

By which I established the heaven, and laid the foundation of the earth.

For if by the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, as it is written, and the earth also has been fixed so as to stand unshaken,

how could it not suffice to save those who might choose to make much of taking shelter under Him? Then indeed, then, He says, shall Zion say:

Here observe for me clearly and vividly the confession of faith in Christ that is brought forward.

For of old, although He worked wonders in manifold ways and, by the splendour of His divine signs surpassing word and marvel, possessed glory, yet out of exceeding great impiety they professed not to know Christ—not that they truly did not know Him, but insulting Him.

For out of exceeding great stupefaction, or rather madness, and a God-hating mind, they dared to say:

He is God, but this one we know not whence He is. But those, He says, who of old denied Him and slid down into such impiety, taking my words upon their tongue and coming under the shelter of my right hand, shall come to know the Redeemer and shall confess, saying to Him:

Faith, therefore, is a saving possession, and a road that bears one to unending life—the power of the confession of Christ.

Awake, awake, arise, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk the cup of wrath from the hand of the Lord.

For the cup of downfall, the goblet of wrath, you drank down and drained, and there was none to comfort you of all the children whom you bore;

and there was none to take hold of your hand, nor from among all the sons whom you exalted. As to the Synagogue of the Jews, fallen and still lying prostrate, He addresses her and bids her arise, all but giving her His hand and taking pity on her as God.

And we by no means say that the raising up is bodily, since neither ought the fall to be understood as such, but rather as spiritual, as one consummated in unbelief.

Therefore the good of the resurrection in these matters lies in faith.

For confessedly they have fallen into ruin, since they did not receive the evangelical and saving proclamation, but gave heed rather to the teachings and commandments of men, though God spoke plainly through the voice of Isaiah:

My people, those who call you blessed lead you astray, and confound the path of your feet. For those to whom it fell to be leaders, forever expounding among them the law given through Moses, and continually crying out that:

We are blessed, O Israel, for the things pleasing to the Lord are known to us—these carried away the mind of their subjects from the love toward Christ, and by persuading them to disregard His grace, they led them astray and confounded the path of their feet, not allowing them to walk upright, that is, to come by a straight path to justification in faith, although the law brought nothing to perfection.

This is plainly that which was spoken through the voice of Paul: Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon you. And indeed this too, besides that:

That they have paid a penalty fitting and equal to their impieties, having outraged Christ and having dared—so far as it lay with them—to encompass with death the Author of life, He shows by saying:

You who have drunk the cup of wrath from the hand of the Lord.

For the cup of downfall, the goblet of wrath, you poured out and drained.

And by 'goblet' He means the judgement;

while the phrase 'you drained' would here signify not 'you poured out,' but rather this: that 'you have drunk it all up,' that is, you have received in full the wrath that comes from the Lord, and have endured an anger equal in weight to your transgressions.

For evil men have perished evilly—their whole land being ravaged, together with Jerusalem, and the far-famed temple itself being burned down, and moreover they have slipped away from hope in God and been thrust out from the flock of the saints.

And when all these things had befallen you, He says, and when you were as it were made drunk with fullest wrath, none of your children stood by;

there was none to take hold of your hand, there was none to comfort.

For very many among them were Levites and priests, scribes and Pharisees, luxuriating in the honours given by all, and lifted up on high because of their pre-eminence and presiding over the rest;

yet none out of all of them drove away from Judea the calamity brought upon her by the divine wrath.

There was none so great as to be able to bring even a moderate consolation to her who was gripped by unbearable evils.

Therefore they did wrong in leading them away from the love toward God, and in persuading them to make the faith in Him unacceptable;

yet they gained nothing at all, having slipped into the pits of perdition.

These things are set against you, and who shall grieve with you? Downfall and crushing, famine and sword;

who shall comfort you? Your sons, who are at a loss, who lie sleeping at the head of every thoroughfare like a half-boiled beet, full of the wrath of the Lord, undone by the Lord God. One might enumerate very many of the evils that befell the Jews at the time of the capture—I mean, that under Vespasian and Titus—when all the land of the Jews was set aflame, and no manner of calamity was lacking to them, but they passed through the extremity of every evil, this too having been foretold to them beforehand by Christ the Saviour of all.

For He was being led away by Pilate's soldiers to the place of the cross.

And when women followed Him weeping, He turned toward them and said:

Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. And again:

When you see Jerusalem encircled by armies, then shall you say to the mountains, Cover us;

and to the hills, Fall upon us. And through very many prophecies the weight of the irremediable calamity was foretold through the holy prophets.

And these things now the force of the verses set before us labours to bring forth.

For O wretched Jerusalem, He says, these two things are set against you—meaning, they contend and make war upon you.

And what are these? Downfall and crushing, famine and sword.

In these words, as briefly and in compressed form, the calamity of war is signified.

Yet that point must be considered not carelessly.

For having enumerated four, He calls them two.

For He said: Downfall and crushing, and famine, and sword.

And what then do we say? Or how could the things named be two? Even if they should seem to be more, the prophetic word here joins to the first ones the things that follow them.

Crushing altogether follows upon falling, and upon famine the sword, that is, death;

and following upon these are both crushing and sword.

When these things, then, have come to pass, He says, who is able to ward off and to drive away the onset of the calamity? For this is what 'comfort' here signifies.

For will your sons, He says, suffice for this? And yet these too one may see to be utterly at a loss, that is, having nothing that they might devise and do for their own consolation, for the benefit of their own souls.

For they sleep at the head of every thoroughfare.

For when the war had swooped down, the powerful men ran out from the land of the Jews and took possession of the extremities of the country, that they might be ready for flight.

For some hastened to seize the lands of the Egyptians as bordering neighbours, others those of the Moabites as adjacent, or the territories of the other neighbouring nations.

And they were at the head of every thoroughfare, that is, at the extremities of the land, as I said;

not awake, that is, able to do any of the things that are not unavailing for the benefit of the sufferers, but as it were drunken, and heavy-headed, and lying prostrate, thus with slackened wits and undone mind, like a half-boiled beet.

And what is the occasion of these things? For they have been filled with the wrath of the Lord, and this became for them the cause of their undoing.

For we are ever somehow so constituted that, when we are cast into calamities that end all things and admit no comfort, we all but have our mind beside itself within us, and find no resource able to save us, especially when the evil against us is God-sent.

Thus says the Lord God who judges His people:

Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of downfall, the goblet of wrath, and you shall no more add to drink it; and I will give and cast it into the hands of those who wronged you and who humbled you, who said to your soul:

Bow down that we may pass over, and you laid your middle level with the ground, for those passing by outside. The words are of one taking pity, and reining in His wrath, indeed rather releasing them into good cheer.

For He calls her humbled and drunken.

Calamities have the power both to bring down those seized by them to the extremity of evil, and to make drunk those who suffer—yet not from wine, as He says.

For the cup of the Lord is not to be understood as something perceptible by the senses in any way, nor is the mixture in it of such a kind as to be conceived as common.

But it is rather the custom of the God-inspired Scripture to call 'cup' the portion apportioned to each, whether it happen to be for an unrighteous person or even for a good one.

Fire, and brimstone, and a spirit of tempest is the portion of their cup. This lot has been prepared by God for those who know Him not, and a most grievous verdict shall overtake them.

For drinking down fire as well as brimstone, they undergo a perpetual and unconquerable penalty.

But to every righteous person it would fit to say:

I will take the cup of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. For to know at all and to call upon the Lord of all things would become, for those who are wont to do this, a saving draught.

Therefore God, who judges what is just, says that Jerusalem was made drunk not by wine, but by an incurable calamity and by hardship not to be borne.

'Nevertheless, behold,' He says, 'I have taken the cup of downfall as from your hand, and you shall no longer add to drink of it.'

For she shall be called, as I have said, unto the knowledge of Christ, and together with us she shall delight in the good things from on high.

And she too shall be a partaker of the holy gifts of grace, and shall possess spiritual riches.

And the prophet is a witness of this, saying:

So then, as long as she has not yet been called unto the grace that comes through faith, she has not yet laid aside the cup of wrath.

But when she shall honour Christ by faith, then indeed the cup shall by all means be taken from her, and she herself shall delight together with the others in the good things, concerning which it is written that 'They shall forget their former affliction, and it shall not come up upon their heart';

but rather there shall be gladness and everlasting joy over their head.

For pain, sorrow, and sighing have fled away.

Nevertheless, when the cup is taken from her, it shall be given to the swarm of those who wronged her.

And in what manner did they do wrong? By not allowing her to walk uprightly, nor even to tread a blameless path by which, ordering aright a life pleasing to God and clothed with the splendour of the evangelical way of life, she might, together with those who believed in Christ, arrive at the city above.

Who, then, may be understood as those who wronged her? As far as it pertains to speak of what is obvious and manifest: first of all, those who obtained the lot of leading the Synagogue, who indeed above all have drunk the cup of fury.

For by how much they had more distinguished good cheer than the others, by so much the more grievous did they experience the onset of the war, being cast out from honour and glory, from wealth and luxury, and from life itself.

Him who delivers from judgment, and draws out from the bonds of death — I mean Christ.

And a witness of this is Paul, who has written thus:

'But if our Gospel is also veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, in whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the illumination of the Gospel of the glory of Christ should not shine forth upon them.' Yes indeed, the Son Himself said that something of this kind had befallen the herds of the Jews, and He clearly convicted them of having become, by an unclean spirit, hardened and disobedient, and of being carried away into every manner of evil.

For He said that 'When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, it goes through waterless places seeking rest;

and when it finds none, it returns,' He says, 'saying:'

'I will return to my house whence I came out;'

'then it takes with itself seven other wicked spirits more wicked than itself, and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the former.'

'So shall it be also with this wicked generation.' For they had served, in Egypt, the gods of that place, and the unclean spirit was in them.

But when they had been redeemed through Moses, and were receiving the Law which defines what must be done (they heard it saying plainly:

'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve'), the unclean spirit was also driven out from their heart.

But since they did not have within themselves the fear of God, nor yet received Jesus as an indweller through faith (for He dwells in our hearts through faith, as it is written),

that ancient and unclean spirit, having beheld the place at leisure, entered in again, and dwelt in them, and the last state became for them worse than the first.

And that the inventor of impiety contrived that the traitor among the disciples should also become such a one, is not unapparent.

For it is written that 'after the morsel, Satan entered into him.'

So then, the Synagogue of the Jews has been punished, since Satan darkens her and does not permit her to see with the eyes of the understanding the Light of the world, that is, Christ.

But since they have been called unto conversion, and the cup of fury and the goblet of downfall has been given into the hands of those who wronged her,

the wicked and adverse powers have been punished, Christ the Saviour of all sending them down into Hades, and casting them into chains of darkness of Tartarus, delivered them to be kept for the judgment of the great day, to be punished.

For these were the ones saying:

'Jerusalem, bow down that we may pass over.' And she laid her middle parts level with the ground for those passing through her, that is, she spread herself out beneath and laid herself down for those wishing to trample her.

And this the wicked powers do, whenever they see a soul that is slackened and casting away its own mind, so as to be willing readily to lie subject to their own unholy and God-hated counsels.

(VOLUME I.) Awake, awake, O Zion;

put on your strength, O Zion, and put on your glory, O Jerusalem, the holy city;

the uncircumcised and unclean shall no longer pass through you. Hearing in these words 'Zion' and 'Jerusalem,' do not suppose that cities simply raised up of stones are being indicated.

Rather, the word of the prophecy signifies the assembly of those called through faith, that is, the Church, both from the Jewish ranks and from the nations.

And indeed, by saying 'Awake,' and that very frequently, He bestows upon them the most abundant consolation;

thus, where the bitterness of judgment is great, there is a consolation equal in weight to the calamities, or rather one far more ample than the faint ones.

And He has commanded her to put on her strength, and in addition to this, her glory.

And strength, that which is active according to practice, might reasonably be understood, according to which the soul of each one sets itself, with a youthful spirit, toward some particular one of the things that must be done.

'Put on our Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts.' And in addition to this:

'For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.' Yes indeed, the prophet Isaiah also brought in the person of the Church, as in the manner of a woman adorned in many ways, saying:

'Let my soul rejoice in the Lord.'

'For He has clothed me with the garment of salvation, and with the tunic of gladness.' Christ, then, is a robe most fitting for every holy one;

and He is a tunic of spiritual gladness, procuring for us strength and glory.

And He names the Church a holy city.

For she was sanctified not indeed through the worship according to the Law (for the Law perfected no one), but by becoming conformed to Christ and a partaker of His divine nature — namely, by participation of the Holy Spirit, in whom also we were sealed unto the day of redemption, having washed away all filth and been set free from every stain.

And this He teaches, saying as to Zion, that is, Jerusalem, which is the Church of the living God:

'The uncircumcised and unclean shall no longer add to pass through you.'

Historically, you would understand what has been said in this manner:

The nations dwelling round about Jerusalem might be understood as uncircumcised and unclean, knowing neither the God who is by nature and in truth, nor yet having obtained the tutelage that comes through the Law;

and they fought, and that very frequently, against those of the blood of Israel, so that they were even seen in many places to be superior in the power that was in them, and all but passed through her, holding her as one cast beneath their feet.

But from things happening historically, let us, come now, sometimes mould the spiritual meanings.

The hosts of the demons, that is, the world-rulers of this darkness, and together with them the profane Satan, have beneath their feet the souls not yet come to be under God, and as it were pass through them, none hindering or, that is, coming to their aid;

but when, being made close to God, they have Him as glory and strength, then indeed, then, the deeds of the greed of those powers shall cease.

For it is written that 'The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about those who fear Him, and shall deliver them.' Uncircumcised, then, and unclean might be understood as the abominable, and profane, and productive of all filth, and wicked, and adverse powers.

Shake off the dust, and arise, and sit, O Jerusalem.