Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 63/65

but the nations were far off, because of being altogether alienated both from holy teachings and from knowing the Author and Lord of all things.

But peace has been given both to these and to those by God the Father — the peace through Christ, that is, who made both one, and created the two peoples into one new man, and broke down the middle wall of partition, and abolished the law of commandments in ordinances.

Therefore through Him we have obtained the reconciliation and the undivided peace, both toward God and toward one another.

For Christ said somewhere to the Father and God in the heavens:

'I will that, just as I and Thou are one, so they also may be one in Us.' And the prophet adds to these words:

And the Lord said, I will heal them — making of this, as it were, a recapitulation of the whole discourse, and establishing as manifest the unlying promise of the God who rules over all;

for He promised, it says, saying that He would heal them;

but the unjust shall be tossed about thus, and shall not be able to find rest.

For since He had recounted the rewards of those who were to be called, therefore, and very fittingly, He also usefully announces the punishments of the disobedient, and the tossing that is among them, and the endless torments.

For there is no rejoicing for them, He says; the Lord God said it.

And since the Lord and God of all has removed their rejoicing, what manner of gladness will there be for them? And that even at the time of the calling of those from Israel, some will remain in disobedience, clinging to the son of lawlessness, the all-wise Paul will make clear, saying:

'Because they did not receive the knowledge of the truth, therefore God will send them a working of error.' And the Saviour Himself also said:

'I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me;

if another come in his own name' — that is, the son of lawlessness, as I said — 'him you will receive.' Therefore Israel shall in due seasons be called to the knowledge of Christ, and shall be enriched with the grace that is through faith in Him;

but some impious and unjust ones shall remain;

and then, having fallen as it were into an unstable tossing, and having utterly cast away rejoicing, they shall by no means be able to find rest;

for they shall be crushed, held fast by a long and unending punishment.

Cry aloud with strength, and spare not;

declare to the house of Jacob their transgressions. Having concluded the discourses concerning the calling of those from Israel, he passes to another manner of admonition, good and profitable, and productive of all comeliness, and effecting bright crowns;

and I say that it is necessary first to lay bare beforehand the aim of the prophecy to those who will encounter it, so that they may know toward what, henceforth, the meaning of what is said is directed.

Now then, in the foregoing discourses, which God made concerning those from Israel, there were manifest [foretellings] of war and of the inescapable calamity that was very soon to be present.

And you did not remember Me, nor did you take Me into your mind, nor into your heart;

And I, though I saw you, overlooked it, and you did not fear Me.

And I will proclaim My righteousness, and your evil deeds, which shall not profit you.

When you cry out, let them deliver you in your affliction. Now we were saying that here He speaks of the evils among those of Israel, namely their inventions concerning the idols.

When you cry out, let them deliver you in your affliction. There was, then, among certain of them a prior announcement of war, and this was noised abroad among the assemblies of the Jews.

But there were some among them who clothed themselves in a mere show of piety, doing without restraint the very things that are unlawful even to name, while adorning themselves with outward embellishments, and, as I said, snatching for themselves a reputation for uprightness.

These men also feigned fastings, and made frequent prayers, supposing that by this means they would ward off the effects of the divine wrath.

Therefore, since—having fallen into forgetfulness of their own transgressions—they supposed that for those accustomed to do the most shameful deeds, mere abstinence from food and prayer suffice for justification and sanctification,

God commands the prophet, saying:

Cry aloud with strength, and spare not;

lift up your voice like a trumpet, and declare to My people their sins. For do not speak secretly, He says, nor in a corner to a few;

but rather employ a lofty and elevated voice, and with all boldness reprove those who transgress, that they may learn their own transgressions, and from what they ought to abstain, if indeed they wished to be honoured before God and worthy of His sparing mercy.

They seek Me day by day, and desire to know My ways, as a people that has done righteousness and has not forsaken the judgment of its God. They join, He says, day to days, seeking help from Me, and wishing to know My ways—that is, My governance in each matter.

For war having been announced, and fear having thrown all things into confusion, they fasted indeed, but supposed that they would learn to what end the matter would come.

This, I think, is the meaning of: They desire to know My ways.

And they desire it as a people that has done righteousness and has not forsaken the judgment of its God;

that is, as men who have lived lawfully, and have become the best keepers of the ordinances given to them, and have a blameless life, and are clothed with the boast of a holy manner of living.

For to such men it would befit both to seek God—that is, to wish to be near Him and to enjoy His sparing mercy from on high—and moreover to know His ways.

It has therefore been said through one of the holy prophets:

Seek the Lord, and when you find Him, call upon Him.

And when He draws near to you, let the ungodly forsake his way, and the lawless man his counsel, and let him turn back to the Lord, and he shall be shown mercy;

for He will abundantly pardon their sins. They now ask of Me a righteous judgment, and desire to draw near to God, saying:

not boasting in deeds of valour, nor clothed with the radiance that comes from virtues, but through bare and mere abstinence from food alone:

We fasted, and You did not see;

we humbled our souls, and You did not know. And they say such things not as though God were ignorant of the humbling that came through their fasting;

but since they had not come to a perception of the charges against them, they say, You did not see, and, You did not know.

For we say that the God of all then knows the labours of certain men—those, I mean, through prayer and ascetic discipline—when He assents to their petitions.

How then did He not receive those who fasted, and made the supplications of those who had humbled themselves unacceptable? He makes His defence, saying:

For in the days of your fastings you find your own wills.

For fasting is indeed an excellent thing, and prayer too is profitable;

and to humble ourselves in the eyes of God has very great benefit.

My knees have grown weak from fasting, and my flesh has been changed for the sake of mercy—yes, and the very God of all also says:

Turn back to Me, He says, with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.

For He readily shows mercy to those who of their own accord undertake the humbling that comes through toil.

But it is among the most absurd of things that those who wish to be shown mercy should on the contrary provoke the Lawgiver, and call forth His wrath by loving to do none of the things commanded.

For those who draw near to God ought to be wholly holy, and to excel in good works, and to be seen free from every defilement.

For it is on account of this cause that He says:

You have indeed fasted, but I did not see—that is, I gave no heed;

you humbled your souls, and I did not know—that is, I deemed your humbling worthy of no recompense;

since in the days of your fastings you find your own wills.

But those of Israel by no means did this;

rather, they followed their own wills, dishonouring what seemed good to the Lawgiver, and they goaded even their subordinates into contention and quarrels;

and yet it was fitting to gather into concord those who set themselves against one another, and to award peace to those who had fallen into disputes.

But they turned their zeal to the very opposite.

They also struck the lowly, and not at all necessarily with hands, but with insults and greedy extortions, or in some other manner of injustice.

How then could it be to praise those who fasted, when such uncleanness was in them? Or how could the prayers of men so wicked be received? Why do you fast for Me, that today your voice may be heard in a cry? Not this fast have I chosen, nor a day for a man to humble his soul.

Not even if you bow your neck like a ring, and spread sackcloth and ashes under you—not even so will you call it an acceptable fast. The power of true fasting has an extraordinary cry before God who rules over all;

and if He sees men humbling themselves through toils and ascetic labours, without any delay He extends to them their petitions.

But that fast which is done carelessly and negligently, He rejects as a manner unworthy.

And we say that the fast befitting holiness is that which is accomplished from a pure conscience;

which one would perform having first vigorously departed from the ways of baseness, and having put away every stain from his mind, and having wiped off the filth of the love of the flesh, and having washed his hands in innocence, according to what is written;

and, in a word, having shown himself a diligent practiser of all good works.

But the fast which is not such—being as it were led astray, and being in the form of a fast, yet having absolutely nothing of what befits it—is laughable and unseemly.

having wholly neglected good things, and having accomplished beforehand none of the noblest deeds of valour;

then, pursuing profitless and useless abstinence from food as though it were some great thing and honoured before God;

they box as it were in vain, and beat the air;

for their toil earns no wage, because it is also unacceptable to God.

Why then do you fast for Me, He says, that in one day the cry of your voice may be heard? And by cry He means either the prayer offered—together, I say, with the unprofitable fasting—or the cry arising from the very deed.

For our deeds are said to have a certain voice toward God, according to what was said to Cain by Him:

The voice of your brother's blood cries to Me from the ground. But not this fast have I chosen, He says;

and what sort this is, He declared beforehand, saying that: In the days of your fastings you find your own wills, and you goad all your subordinates into contention and quarrels.

You fast, and strike the lowly with fists. Therefore, not even if you bow your neck like a ring, and spread sackcloth and ashes under you—that is, even if you practise humbling to the utmost, and drive along an unbearable path of toil, yet with such shameful charges attached—not even so will you call it an acceptable fast.

For if you wish, He says, to speak truly, not even you yourselves would name it an acceptable fast.

Not such a fast have I chosen, says the Lord, but loose every bond of injustice, undo the knots of violent dealings, send away the broken in release, and tear apart every unjust contract.

If you see one naked, clothe him, and you shall not overlook those of your own seed.

The voice of your brother's blood cries to Me from the ground. But not this fast have I chosen, He says;

and what sort this is, He declared beforehand, saying that: In the days of your fastings you find your own wills, and you goad all your subordinates into contention and quarrels.

You fast, and strike the lowly with fists. Therefore, not even if you bow your neck like a ring, and spread sackcloth and ashes under you—that is, even if you practise humbling to the utmost, and drive along an unbearable path of toil, yet with such shameful charges attached—not even so will you call it an acceptable fast.

For if you wish, He says, to speak truly, not even you yourselves would name it an acceptable fast.

Not such a fast have I chosen, says the Lord, but loose every bond of injustice, undo the knots of violent dealings, send away the broken in release, and tear apart every unjust contract.

If you see one naked, clothe him, and you shall not overlook those of your own seed. It was necessary that the manner of the true fast be shown by God to those who did not know it.

For from Him proceeds all wisdom and understanding, and from Him is made manifest the way that leads to all that is most excellent, whatsoever it may be.

'Guide me, O Lord, in Thy way, and I shall walk in Thy truth.' Accordingly He rejected the utterly artless fasting of the Jews, which in no way profits, but discloses the power of the true fasting.

For He says, 'Loose every bond of unrighteousness'—that is, cease from wishing to defraud others of their due;

for the bond of unrighteousness is covetousness, and the fastening of oneself upon some of the weaker sort, and, as it were, binding them fast with inescapable entanglements of accusations, in order to reduce them to terror, and thus to seek to extract from them whatever one may wish.

And by 'violent contracts, and those arising from crookedness'—that is, from perverse dealing—we say are meant chiefly the affairs of commerce, which are full of such things.

'And send away the broken in remission,' He says—that is, those who endure crushing, or toil, whether from the bond of unrighteousness or from violent contracts.

'Release them in remission'—that is, set them free from the distress that has been laid upon them;

grant to the labouring at last to find rest.

By this, as I suppose, He means the bonds of the moneylenders, drawn up as they often are for a sum not even matching the amount of money advanced, but for as much as the contract is in travail to produce.

'But when thou hast abstained from these,' He says, 'then add what is lacking.'

And this is to bring forth fruit unto one's neighbour, the good things that spring from love.

'For love is the fulfilment of the law,' according to that which is written.

And the fulfilment of love toward the brethren, and the demonstration of that compassion which is honoured in the sight of God, is this: to break one's bread to the hungry, to bring in the poor who are homeless, to clothe the naked, and to one's own kindred of the seed—that is, those of one's family—to apportion, I think, a sufficient measure of thrift, and to share with them the abundance of the plenty given by God.

But observe that to abstain from evils is not the same as to work the good.

Nor would it suffice as ground for boasting before God merely not to have done what is base; rather one must in every way and altogether follow on, and fulfil the obligation of well-doing, and hold fast to the zealous pursuits that lead to godliness.

For to dissolve the crookednesses of violent contracts, and every bond of unrighteousness, and to tear apart every unjust written agreement, is nothing else than merely to depart from baseness.

But to choose to fulfil the works of love, by breaking one's bread to the hungry, and bringing in the poor who are homeless, and clothing the naked, and moreover not to overlook any of one's own kindred of the seed—this holds a clear proof of the most excellent noble deeds.

For the commandments, 'Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not swear falsely,' have this force.

But the perfection and the fulfilment of every good was reserved for the ordinances given through Christ, from which we have learned to fulfil the works of love toward God and toward the brethren.

'Then shalt thou cry out, and God shall hearken unto thee.'

'Behold, I am here.' If thou wilt fast purely, He says, and show forth to God hands that are scoured clean, and a mind cleansed of every defilement—that is, when thou dost scour away the striking of the lowly with fists, and the goading of thy subordinates unto strife and quarrels, and the following after His [or: thy]

own] pleasures and self-indulgent desires; when thou dost break thy bread to the hungry, clothe the naked, and bring the poor who are homeless into thy house;

then shall thy light break forth early.

The saying carries very great emphasis.

And by saying 'early,' He teaches that it will descend even before its season.

For He knows—yea, He knows, the God who is the Steward of our affairs, the Giver of spiritual graces—the season befitting each man's acts of zeal.

But if anyone becomes noble and good, and moreover compassionate and tractable, to such a one the rewards from Him shall be given early, so that they spring up in him after the manner of ears of corn;

and there is a springing back of better things in return.

For when one is delivered from the sicknesses of the soul, he will by all means bring forth fruit—the longing and eagerness toward every good thing whatsoever.

Therefore, when the divine and spiritual light has shone brightly within us, there springs up together with it, in every way and altogether, our healing as well, since God tends us as with a probe and enfeebles the passions, and implants within us in their stead the will to do good and to be conspicuous in righteousness.

Wherefore He says that 'thy righteousness shall go before thee.' And it goes before, evidently smoothing the way beforehand unto godliness, transforming the rough into the smooth and passable, bringing down the steep places, and directing, as it were, the course toward all that is most excellent.

And He adds yet something further.

'For the glory of God,' He says, 'shall encompass thee'—that is, shall surround thee, and shall render thee a spectacle and a common benefit to many.

For the radiance of the saints profits in no small measure those who look upon them.

And indeed Christ said to the holy apostles:

'Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.' Therefore we shall be resplendent, when the glory from God goes about us and, as it were, clothes us—we upon whom He may bestow it, as [perhaps: of]

the] guardians of righteousness;

'when therefore these things belong to thee,' He says, 'thou shalt then cry out, and God shall hearken unto thee; while thou art yet speaking, He shall say:'

'For He hearkens to the prayers of the righteous,' according to that which is written.

And as the Melodist says, 'The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their supplication.' For He inclines toward those who ask, as being good; yet not to all at once.

But to those who have excelled in righteousness, without any delay He reaches out their requests, and lends them a most ready ear, so that at each of their requests they say rejoicing:

'He heard my voice out of His holy temple, and my cry shall come before Him, into His ears.' Therefore the words 'Behold, I am here'—to cry out while the righteous man is yet speaking and lifting up his supplications—plainly sets before us the unhesitating readiness of His bounty, and the exceeding promptness of the God who gives.

'If thou take away from thee the bond, and the imposition of hands, and the word of murmuring, and give thy bread to the hungry, and satisfy the humbled soul, then shall thy light arise in the darkness, and thy darkness shall be as the noonday, and thy God shall be with thee continually.' The choicest of teachings, even if often repeated to some, nevertheless retains its profit.

Thus the all-wise Paul writes to those who through him had believed:

'To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not irksome, but for you it is safe.' Therefore in manifold ways He comes to us saying the same things, making plain the ways of good repute, and recounting the splendour of the rewards that shall be given to the saints, in order that He may render men yet more zealous to choose to do those things by which they may become venerable, and find the bounty that is from above and from Himself.

Therefore, 'If thou take away from thee the bond, and the imposition of hands,' He says. And by 'the bond,' as I suppose, He means the wickedness of the nations, their perversity and contentiousness, and the fashioning, as it were, of bonds of affairs against certain persons, and the making of inquiries by crooked contrivances, so as at times to bind some fast, and to cast them into the inescapable nooses of calamities.

And by 'the imposition of hands' He perhaps somewhere means bribe-taking, and the coveting of shameful gains; for we sometimes say of certain persons that they have their hand stretched out to receive, while of those who reject shameful profits we say that they keep their hand drawn in.

And it has been said concerning the rulers of the synagogue of the Jews:

And the inspired Habakkuk said somewhere also:

'Judgment has come forth against me, and the judge takes bribes.' Therefore the term—that is, 'the imposition of hands'—will either be indicative of bribe-taking, which indeed He has commanded to take away, that is, to put far off;

or in another way it signifies requiting, and rendering evil for evil.

Thus the Psalmist said concerning certain persons that 'they stretched forth their hand in requiting.' And he adds, that 'they profaned His covenant.' Therefore the stretching forth of the hand may signify, as I have said, also the requital which one might make in avenging himself upon those who have grieved him, and in bringing back upon those who have offended the fruits of wrath.

And we remember the Saviour Himself saying, 'If any man smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.' For a proof of meekness and of freedom from anger unto the uttermost would be to know how to persevere amid acts of covetousness, and not to love to requite those who have grieved us, but rather to be disposed toward them without remembrance of wrong.

And besides this He wills also to take away 'words of murmuring.'

This indeed is what the children of Israel did as they traversed that deep wilderness.

For when God sent down the manna to them, they gave way to an inclination toward the baser things, saying, 'Would that we had died, smitten by the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of flesh, and ate bread to the full.' But the murmuring against God turned out for their destruction, for they perished by the serpents.

Wherefore also the most wise Paul says, 'Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed by the serpents.' Therefore it befits him who has care of all seemliness, and who longs for the choicest noble deeds, to be of a cheerful mind; and having taken away the word of murmuring, 'if thou give thy bread to the hungry, and satisfy the humbled soul'—that is, if thou become compassionate, a lover of the good, and a lover of thy fellows, generous in giving, and sociable, and loving thy neighbour as thyself—'then shall thy light arise in the darkness.'

But how then does this come to pass? For as day comes out of night, so within us, when the spiritual darkness is sent forth, the divine light is admitted in its stead, so that it seems to be at noonday—that is, at the peak of brightness.

For the orb of the sun, when it is at noon, then most of all pours forth its light in its fullest strength upon those on the earth.

Thus then shall thy God be with thee continually.

And this too, besides the rest, is exceedingly great.

For what of good things is lacking to those who have obtained this? Or of what graces will the man not be full, when God, who is mighty in all things, is with him, distributing with a lavish hand the things whereof He is the supplier and giver, and driving off the assaults of temptations, and making him so strong that he can stand up boldly even against Satan himself and against the outrages that come from the passions? 'And thou shalt be satisfied, even as thy soul desires, and thy bones shall be made fat, as a watered garden, and as a fountain whose water has not failed, and thy bones shall spring up as an herb, and shall be made fat, and shall inherit generations of generations.' And with what then shall ye be satisfied? He says.

With divine graces, plainly, and with food befitting the saints;

for as Christ Himself said somewhere:

'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.' This also was of old inscribed, as in a figure, for those of the blood of Israel, when God sent down the manna from heaven;

since in a certain manner it might be understood as bread of angels, and bread of heaven.

He wrought in them a blameless knowledge, and these we say were filled, and driven to satiety of the delight that is from above and from God;

but from this Israel has fallen away;

yet the nations have come into possession and holding of it through faith, and as many as, drawing near, receive the evangelical and saving word.

And accordingly our Lord Jesus Christ said to the holy apostles, that 'To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given'—to the unbelieving, that is—unto whom also the divine word cried aloud, 'They that serve Me shall eat, but ye shall hunger.'

'Behold, those who serve me shall drink, but you shall thirst.' For they hungered and thirsted, having become partakers of none of the good things that come through the Spirit, and wholly untasting of the graces that come through Christ, that is, of the divine and evangelical instruction.

For somewhere he spoke through one of the holy prophets:

'Behold, I bring a famine upon the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord; and from east to west they shall run about seeking the word of the Lord, and shall by no means find it.' For the life-giving and most nourishing Word of God has been taken away from the flock of the Jews.

'You have prepared a table before me over against those who afflict me;'

'you have anointed my head with oil, and your cup that inebriates me, how excellent it is!' Therefore all who have obtained knowledge of his divine mysteries, or rather have been filled with them, their bones have been made fat.

The word here is figured as if drawn from those accustomed to feast in a fleshly manner;

the soul of such persons would become like a garden that drinks its fill, that is, blooming and rich in trees, adorned with manifold kinds of flowers, and bearing fruits of every sort.

For gardens without water have a very great unsightliness;

for they are dry and destitute of all fruit, or perhaps even lacking the very plants themselves.

But those inebriated by the lavish, unstinted rushings of waters are, as I said, crowned with fruits of every kind.

Indeed the Church has become the garden of Christ, whose person the bride described in the Song of Songs also assumes, saying, 'Let my kinsman come down into his garden, and eat the fruit of his choice trees;' for what the choice-fruit tree is among plants, namely a fair fruit, this too in the souls of the saints is virtue, fair and most delightful to God.

Therefore, he says, your soul shall be like a garden that drinks its fill, yea, and like a spring whose water has not failed.

Such have the inspired mystagogues become, sending forth the streams of godly teaching as from an ever-flowing spring of their own heart, and richly watering the souls of those under instruction.

And the very dispenser of such choice graces confirms this, saying:

'He who believes in me, as the Scripture said, rivers of living water shall flow out of his belly.' And again:

'Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, it shall become in him a spring of water leaping up unto eternal life.' We say that the holy apostles and evangelists were such, and all who are ambassadors for the divine word, being on the one hand well established in doctrinal skill, and on the other revealing the way of splendour in deeds.

'And your bones,' he says, 'shall spring up like grass, and they shall be made fat, and shall inherit generations of generations.'

In these words it seems fitting to make plain the mystery of the resurrection;