Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 9/65

'And the Lord of Hosts was angry with wrath against his people, and laid his hand upon them, and struck them, and the mountains were provoked, and their corpses became like dung in the midst of the road.' The most wise Jeremiah rebukes the ignorance and arrogance of the Jews, saying:

'How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? In vain has the cord become; the scribe is false; the wise are put to shame, they are dismayed and taken captive.'

'What wisdom is there in them? For they have rejected the word of the Lord.' For they in no way accepted the gospel proclamation;

but neither have they honoured even the very law given through Moses.

For as Christ himself has said:

'If you believed Moses, you would believe me;'

For it was of me that he wrote. They have therefore transgressed on both counts, and the wretched ones rejected the word of God, neither receiving the prophecies given through the Law as true, nor yet approving the saving word of the Gospel.

For this reason God spoke concerning them through the voice of Jeremiah:

To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken.

Behold, the word of the Lord has become to them a reproach;

they will by no means desire to hear it. For they reviled the word of Christ, saying to those who listened concerning him:

They did not desire the law of the Lord of Hosts, but provoked also the oracle of the Holy One of Israel, that is, of Christ.

He was wroth, it says, in anger, and smote them, and the mountains were provoked.

And what mountains does it here mean? Plainly the dominions of the Romans, on account of their conspicuous glory and their exaltation in dignities. And from the provoking of the mountains, their carcasses became as dung — that is, the dead from the war, scattered everywhere, and perhaps lying in heaps, filling all their land.

And in another sense, it is directed against those who by their disobedience provoke God the Saviour of all.

For the spiritual mountains are provoked — that is, the principalities and powers, and the world-rulers of this darkness.

And when this has come to pass, there is every necessity that those subjected to them should undergo the death of the soul.

For when God who is mighty over all things gives His aid, even though the mountains be provoked against us, there is no account to be made of them.

For it is written: The angel of the Lord shall encamp round about them that fear him, and shall deliver them.

But when He withdraws His hand, and no longer consents to save, then shall we lie prostrate, and be as dung under the feet of our enemies.

For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still.

Therefore he will lift up a signal to the nations that are afar, and will whistle for them from the end of the earth.

And behold, swiftly, lightly they come;

they shall not hunger, nor grow weary, nor slumber, nor sleep, nor shall they loose the girdles from their loins, nor shall the thongs of their sandals be broken; whose arrows are sharp, and their bows bent.

The hoofs of their horses are counted as solid rock;

the wheels of their chariots as a whirlwind.

They rush like lions, and stand ready like a lion's whelp.

And he shall seize the prey, and roar like a wild beast, and shall cast it forth, and there shall be none to deliver.

And he shall cry aloud for them in that day, like the sound of a surging sea; and they shall look to the earth, and behold, a hard darkness in their perplexity. That the measure of the wrath against them will not be limited to these things by Him who judges righteously, but will proceed even further, the passage before us will make clear.

For although fiercely ravaged, pressed by famine and thirst, and fallen prey to the calamities of war, these wretched ones have remained in a state of estrangement from God, and have not passed beyond His wrath.

For this, I think, is what he signifies when he says, His hand is stretched out still, meaning that it is smiting those who have sinned.

For the hand of him who strikes is always somehow lifted on high.

Then who and how great shall be the provocation of the mountains, and who are they that shall serve their fury, and with how great courage and boldness they shall come, and with cruelty toward men unheard of, he makes plain, saying:

Therefore he will lift up a signal to the nations that are afar. For those who laid waste the land of the Jews and burned down Jerusalem and all the cities of the Jews were not their borderers and neighbours, but gathered together from lands afar and from all the earth.

and perhaps even beyond number were those who bore arms alongside Vespasian and Titus.

And a signal shall be given, he says, as in a time of war and battle.

For it is the custom of generals, when about to arm the multitude under their command for battle array, to give signals, raising on high what are called the standards.

Of which the prophet Isaiah also makes mention, saying:

It shall be left as a mast upon a mountain, and as one bearing a standard upon a hill.

For setting up masts upon high hillocks, they either set them upright, or lay them down, or even hang certain things upon them, toward which the fighting force looks.

And in this way one saw what was the general's intent.

Therefore he lifts up the signal, he says, and whistles for them.

For it is somehow customary for beekeepers to whistle to them;

and thus to lead them out of the hives to the flowers and grasses, and also to bring them back from the fields, and to make them lodge at home.

labours; sleepless and most nimbly girded, and equipped in tactics, and mounted on tireless horses, and rushing like a whirlwind, and equal to lions, and devouring like wild beasts.

And there shall also be a hard darkness — and by no means altogether that which is conceived as in mist and night, but rather that which comes from terrors and perplexity.

For the utterly grievous of evils darkens the mind.

Therefore the God of all things benefits us through all things.

the foretellings of things to come;

and He sets forth precisely the magnitudes of the evils;

so that, since we are often incorrigible and have made of no account the word that calls to repentance, at least, cowering before falling into such terrible penalties, we may receive within ourselves the divine fear, and, hastening away from wicked things, may transfer our heart to what is henceforth required — namely, to choose the good.

And it came to pass in the year in which King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord of Hosts, sitting upon a throne high and lifted up;

and the house was full of his glory.

And seraphim stood round about him.

Six wings had the one, and six wings the one.

And with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they did fly.

And they cried one to another, and said:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory. Not one by one, as it chanced, nor yet without intermission, did the blessed prophets receive from God the revelations of their visions.

But at the times in which He willed to do this — He who reveals deep and hidden things, and who knows the things concealed.

For after this there is light, according as it is written.

Therefore, while Uzziah, who is also called Azariah, was still living and governing the thrones of the kingdom in Jerusalem, the blessed prophet Isaiah made his discourses concerning the things that had already come to pass.

For Uzziah and Azariah was among those most exceedingly devoted to the contemplation of God, for he is said to have done what was right in the eyes of God.

Yet he did not preserve to the end the good and blameless glory of his piety.

For having prevailed through God over the neighbouring nations, and having wrought against them very many admirable deeds, he became drunk with the ways of prosperity;

and he slid down into arrogance.

For he came to such a mind that he even usurped the sacred ministry, and came uninvited to the duty of exercising priesthood before God.

For entering into the divine temple, he wished to offer the sacrifices to God not through the mediation of the Levites, that is, of the priests.

But leaping up to the divine altar itself, he sought to burn incense contrary to custom and the Law.

And he was reproved by the priestly tribe as doing unholy things, and as attempting to overthrow the Law.

But since, revelling in the boasts of kingship, he had assigned to himself also that priesthood befitted him;

and making of no account the counsels of the priests, he was straightway reproved by God.

For he was struck with leprosy, the affliction blossoming upon his very forehead.

But I think it is necessary, for an exact understanding of what has been said, to set forth also the divine oracles themselves, which are written concerning him.

In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah began to reign.

He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Chalia, of Jerusalem.

And he did what was pious in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Amaziah his father had done.

Nevertheless, he did not remove the high places;

the people still sacrificed and burned incense upon the high places.

And the Lord smote the king,

and he remained a leper until the day of his death. Now these things are told in the books of Kingdoms;

but in Chronicles, as I have said,

when he had grown strong, it says, his heart was lifted up to his own destruction;

and he trespassed against the Lord his God;

and he entered into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense;

and Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty-two priests of the Lord, valiant men;

and they withstood Uzziah the king, and said to him:

'It is not for you, O Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for us the priests, the sons of Aaron who are consecrated, to burn incense.'

'Go out from the sanctuary, for you have departed from the Lord,'

'and this shall not be to you for glory from the Lord God.'

and in his hand was the censer to burn incense in the temple;

and while he was in his wrath against the priests, the leprosy broke out upon his forehead, before the priests, in the house of the Lord, above the altar of incense.

And the chief priest and the priests turned toward him, and behold, he was leprous in the forehead.

And they hurried him out from there, and indeed he himself hastened to go out, because the Lord had smitten him. Now since the Law given through Moses commanded that the leper must by all means be sent forth from the camp as unclean, and that the leper defiled and rendered common in his uncleanness whoever was with him, Uzziah nevertheless remained in Jerusalem, thereby all but defiling the whole of Jerusalem.

For thus somewhere He speaks also to the blessed Ezekiel:

'And I will bind your tongue, and you shall be made dumb;

and you shall not be to them a man that reproves, for it is a rebellious house.' He fell silent, then, though thereby making manifest His indignation.

For Jerusalem was shaken, and the whole land of the Jews was made to quake.

And we shall learn this too from what the prophet Amos wrote.

'The words of Amos, which came to pass in Accarim, in Tekoa, which he saw concerning Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.' Now when Uzziah died, the season of silence also came to an end together with him.

And once again the God of all things gave visions of Himself to the holy prophets.

Therefore the prophet Isaiah says:

'And it came to pass in the year that King Uzziah died, that I saw the Lord of Sabaoth seated upon a throne high and lifted up.' Now that the prophet beheld the Son in the glory of God the Father, no one could doubt, since John writes plainly concerning Him:

'These things said Isaiah, when he saw His glory, and spoke of Him.' But consider with me the dignity of that supremacy befitting God, and His power over all creation.

For He is upon a throne high and lifted up, most excellently crowned with the most glorious splendors of kingship;

and the highest powers, beyond which nothing among created beings is said to exist, stand round about, holding the rank of servants, and honoring Him with their praises.

And he says that the whole earth is full of His glory.

But I suppose that we ought not to think the divine throne set in places of local elevation.

For such a notion is utterly foolish and senseless.

Rather the divine throne is set on high, inasmuch as the glory of the kingdom of God is understood to be beyond every intelligible nature.

And the sitting upon it seems to indicate, as it were, the firmness and the establishment and abiding permanence of good things in their self-sameness.

'God sits upon His holy throne.' And indeed the prophet Jeremiah also somewhere says to Him:

'For You sit throughout the ages, and we perish throughout the ages.' For always and in every time the created nature is corruptible, and this is the measure of things that have come into being;

but there sits, as I have said, the Wisdom who is the artificer and maker of all things—that is to say, she possesses an unshaken permanence in self-sameness.

And he says that the house is full of His glory.

the glory of God—that is, Christ—filled the house in Jerusalem.

But when they denied His kingdom, and fell into the unholiness of their ways,

for which cause they heard the voice saying:

'Behold, your house is left unto you.' Now he says that to each of the Seraphim six wings were attached, so that with two they covered the face, and with two the feet, and with the remaining two they flew.

For there is nothing cold among the powers above, which are indeed nearest to God.

In this same way we too, cleaving to Him through faith and through a good and most lawful manner of life, are made to be aglow with the Spirit, and fervent in our love toward God.

It is a symbol, moreover, that the Seraphim cover with their wings both the face and the feet, and fly with the two, of the fact that none can behold either the beginning or the end of thoughts or words concerning God.

For the head and the face signify the beginning, and the feet the end.

For the Godhead is without beginning and knows no ending.

And it is only with difficulty that we lay hold of the things in between—I mean those pertaining to the times, in which things that once were not were brought forth into existence.

They fly, indeed, as having nothing that is cast down.

But rather their mind is ever on high toward God.

For they do not, as we do, set their minds on things below, but the highest powers hold their proper mind in certain ineffable heights of thought.

Their mouth, too, is filled with praise.

For all things above are in due order.

Saying 'Holy,' they conclude their doxology with the words 'Lord of Sabaoth,' placing the holy Trinity within one nature of Godhead.

For we confessedly say that the Father subsists;

and so likewise the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And no argument severs each of those named into a difference of nature, but in three hypostases one Godhead is understood.

And this has been testified to us through the holy Seraphim themselves, who say that the whole earth is full of His glory, foretelling the things to come, and proclaiming beforehand the mystery of the dispensation accomplished through Christ.

For before the Word became flesh, the accursed demon, the dragon, the apostate, held dominion over all that is beneath heaven.

And the creation was worshipped in place of the Creator and Maker;

but when the only-begotten Word of God became man, the whole earth was filled with His glory.

'For to Him shall every knee bow, and every tribe, and tongues shall confess, and shall serve Him,' according to what is written.

'All the nations that You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord.' This, indeed, has been accomplished, now that the multitude from among the nations has been called;

and all worship Him who for our sake and in our likeness came to be, yet for His own sake remained above all things.

'And the lintel was lifted up at the voice with which they cried, and the house was filled with smoke.' For the prophet beheld the Lord of Sabaoth seated upon a throne high and lifted up, with the holy Seraphim standing round about in a circle, and glorifying Him with unceasing doxologies.

But now he says that the lintel was lifted up, and that the house was filled with smoke, and this from the very voice with which the holy Seraphim cried out.

Shall we then say that the voice became the cause of what befell the house? And yet how is it not exceedingly unseemly to choose to hold such a view? In what manner, then, shall we approach the meaning of the matters set before us? Most excellently and most wisely.

Before the incarnation and sojourning of our Saviour, while Israel still administered the polity under the Law unhindered and without rebuke, that renowned temple in Jerusalem, which Solomon built, was full of the glory of God.

For in it they performed the sacrifices according to the Law.

when He who had come from heaven in human form, and who had been proclaimed through the Law and the prophets, they did not receive—nay rather, they even killed the Author of life—He forsook His house, and abandoned His inheritance.

For He has turned away toward the nations, and the whole earth has been filled with His glory.

But the land of the Jews has been given over to desolation, and the temple itself has been burned with fire.

When therefore, according to the prophecy—that is, the foretelling, or rather the utterance of the holy Seraphim—the whole earth was filled with His glory, then the lintel of the temple was lifted up, and it was filled with smoke.

And so the phrase 'from the voice with which they cried out' is rather indicative of time, and not at all the work and effect of the doxology.

But the words 'The lintel was lifted up' signify, I think, that the temple was to be forsaken.

and the saying that it was filled with smoke.

But if anyone should wish to understand such things also in another way, and to say that they were done spiritually against the whole nation of the Jews, he would not err from fitting reasoning.

For when the whole earth was filled with the glory of our Savior, the nations having been called through faith, then all spiritual security was loosed from the mind of the Jews.

And like smoke the wretched ones, receiving into their mind the mist that comes from ignorance, became spiritually blind.

For this very reason the Savior also cried out to them, saying:

'While you have the light, walk in the light, that the darkness may not overtake you.' But that the mind of the Jews is insecure and easily captured by any passion whatever, being destitute of help from above—how could anyone of those accustomed to think rightly be in doubt? And I said, 'Woe is me, wretched one, for I am pierced with compunction, because being a man and having unclean lips, I dwell in the midst of a people that has unclean lips;'

and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Sabaoth.' The Law, given through the all-wise Moses, commanded that the profane should not be mingled with the holy, and among the Jews there was exceedingly great watchfulness in these matters.

And indeed, to the holy apostles while they were still fishing the Lord called out, saying:

'Let down your nets for a catch.' When this had been done, a great multitude of fish was caught; and the divine Peter, marveling at the power of the word, 'fell down,' it says, 'at the knees of Jesus, saying:'

'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.' But Peter would not really have wished Christ to depart from him.

Rather, since he knew the aim of the Law, he confessed indeed that he was a sinner, but he was afraid to be together with the Holy One, according to the custom that always prevailed among the Jews.

And when Christ had once come also into the country of the Gergesenes, and had then healed those savagely possessed by demons among the tombs, they marveled indeed at the divine sign.

And Matthew said that 'the whole city came out to meet Jesus;'

'and when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their borders.' And yet how ought they not rather to have laid claim to the Healer, and to have entreated Him to remain with them, and to become the worker of many other wonders? But it was a proof of reverence at that time, and a mode of the honor owed to the holy, that some declined to draw near to them.

When Matthew had been called and had followed Christ, and had then invited Him into his own house:

'And behold,' it says, 'many sinners and tax collectors came and reclined at table with Jesus and His disciples.'

'And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples:'

And God somewhere also brings a charge against those who were allotted to preside over the Synagogue of the Jews, saying through the prophet:

'They did not distinguish between the holy and the profane.' It was therefore a mode of reverence, as I said, and a tradition of the legal commandments, not to be willing to associate with the holy those who were held in suspicion of baseness and did not have a conscience free from sins.

The blessed prophet too is seen to have experienced something of this kind; for this very reason he says:

'Woe is me, wretched one, for I am pierced with compunction.' And he is wretched not because he has been pierced with compunction;

how would it not be foolish to understand it thus? But because he has been pierced with compunction, he says, by his conscience—it is clear that it was for this reason that I said:

'Woe is me, wretched one, for being a man and having unclean lips, I dwell in the midst of a people that has unclean lips;'

'and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Sabaoth.' For since the holy Seraphim were making their doxologies with pure and all-holy mouths, he himself feared the matter, being taught of God and not ignorant that praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner, as it is written.

For confessedly Israel had unclean lips;

for they blasphemed against our Lord Jesus Christ.

But if the prophet too should say that he himself has such lips, though he had no share whatever in the impiety of Israel, we say that he indeed speaks modestly as a holy man, and it is likely also that, being of the blood of Israel, he does not set himself outside the charge.

Rather, he takes upon himself the common transgression of the people, saving thereby those who had sinned;

or rather, he confesses the sickness of human nature.

'I said in my ecstasy:'

'Every man is a liar.' For the human mind is sick with falsehood, even if some are delivered from the evil, gaining that benefit by watchfulness.

But that one must sing hymns with pure mouths would become clear from what one of the holy disciples says concerning the tongue:

'With it we bless the Lord and Father,'

'and with it we curse men, who have been made after the likeness of God.'

'My brothers, these things ought not so to be.'

'Does the spring pour forth from the same opening both the sweet and the bitter? Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives? or a vine, figs? So neither can salt water produce sweet.' And one of the Seraphim was sent to me, and he had in his hand a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs from the altar.

And he touched my mouth, and said:

'Behold, this has touched your lips, and it will take away your iniquities, and will purge away your sins.' The divinely inspired Paul writes concerning the holy angels that they are all ministering spirits, sent out for service on account of those who are to inherit salvation.

And the matter is not without evident meaning.

For all things among the powers above are in order, and measures of honor—that is, of ministry—are established among them, and limits of the glory of each, by God who distributes all things according to what seems good to Him.

Therefore the mystery of Christ is prefigured before the eyes of the prophet, being very well ministered to by the powers above.

So then one of the Seraphim is sent, having a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs from the altar.

And this then was a symbol of Christ, who for our sake and on our behalf offered Himself to God the Father, as a pure and undefiled spiritual sacrifice and for a sweet-smelling savor.

For this very reason too it is very fittingly taken from the altar.

It is, however, likened to a coal;

and for what reason it is necessary to say.

It is customary for the divinely inspired Scripture to liken the divine nature to fire.

For thus it appeared to blessed Israel on Mount Horeb—that is, Sinai—on the day of the assembly.

Thus also to blessed Moses himself, while he was shepherding in the wilderness, He appeared from time to time in the form of fire in the bush, and spoke to him.

As therefore the coal is wood by nature, yet is wholly and throughout filled with fire, and has its power and energy;

so is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

For the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. But even though He was, in the economy, a man seen like us, yet all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him, according, I say, to the mode of the union.

For this very reason too He is seen to have, through His own flesh, most God-befitting operations.

For He touched the bier, and raised up the dead son of the widow.

And indeed, having spat, He put sight into the blind, anointing their eyes with clay.

Emmanuel then must very well be likened to a coal, who, if He should somehow come to be upon our lips, altogether and by all means takes away our sins, and will purge our iniquities.

Then how will He be upon our lips? Whenever we confess the faith in Him.

Thus also the divine Paul writes:

'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart;'

'that is, the word of faith which we proclaim.'

'For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;'

'for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.' Let then the divine coal be upon our lips—that which burns up the refuse that comes from sin, and melts away the filth that comes from iniquity, and renders us fervent in the Spirit.

But if it be said to be taken with the tongs, you will understand it elegantly to mean that we receive the faith in Him, and moreover the knowledge, as it were with some tongs, through both the legal and the prophetic instructions—that is, foretellings.

Whence too the word of the holy apostles is everywhere sealed up unto truth; for using the testimonies from the Law and the prophets, they persuade their hearers, and all but bring the coal themselves to their lips, preparing them to confess the faith in Christ.

And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:

'Whom shall I send? And who will go to this people?' And I said:

'Send me.' When the coal touched the prophet's lips and took away his iniquities, then he also heard the voice of the Lord; and he no longer feared, and fell silent from saying, 'Wretched am I,' but stood ready most eagerly for his mission, and, as it were, going over to it like a deserter to the other side, he said, 'Here am I, send me.' But if indeed God says:

'Whom shall I send? And who will go to this people?'—we do not say that the voice arose from any perplexity, nor as though there were a scarcity of one to be sent, but rather that He was arraigning Israel as exceedingly disobedient, yielding to none of those sent before, but rather having killed them.

For some of them they insulted, others they stoned, and others they killed, as Christ says, composing for us in the Gospels the parable concerning these things.