Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 10/24

For nothing flourishes among them, since they do not receive the rain of grace.

'Women who come from the spectacle, draw near';

'for it is a people that has no understanding.'

By 'women' he means the cities of the nations, or the churches within them, which behold the desolation of Jerusalem; and he exhorts them to flee the unbelief of those people.

For they are unwilling to understand what is profitable, and for this very reason they have also been deprived of pardon.

'And it shall be in that day that the Lord shall dam up the waters from the canal of the river as far as Rhinocorura.'

This the Other Translators rendered thus: 'From the mountain of the river as far as the wadi of Egypt he shall stop the streams.' For impiety is neither a river nor a canal, but a wadi formed from a common contribution and having only a temporary constitution.

'But you, gather together the sons of Israel one by one.'

The word gives this charge to the sacred apostles.

For it was they who, travelling round the synagogues throughout the world, first preached the word to the Jews and brought those who were persuaded by the divine proclamation to the Master.

'And it shall be in that day that they shall sound the great trumpet, and those who were lost in the land of the Assyrians shall come, and those who were lost in Egypt, and they shall worship the Lord upon the holy mountain in Jerusalem.'

For the sound of the heralds of the truth went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.

These men, gathering the wandering, lost sheep of the house of Israel, and gathering also the other sheep which are not of this fold, formed one flock for the Master, and they pasture this flock upon Mount Zion, showing them the height of theology.

And if one should name it the Jerusalem that is above, he would not stray from the truth.

'The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the tents of Jacob.' Let us also love these gates and continually attend upon them, that through them we may enter into that thrice-desired city, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father together with the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.

In what was recently expounded, having foretold the things concerning Jerusalem and announced beforehand the preaching of the sacred apostles, he now predicts what will befall the ten tribes.

'Woe to the crown of insolence, the hirelings of Ephraim';

for these men were always hired against Jerusalem.

By 'crown of insolence' he calls their arrogant kingdom;

for they both revolted from God and were haughtily minded against their brethren.

So too Symmachus said:

'Woe, a crown of pride. The flower that has fallen from glory upon the summit of the fertile mountain, those who are drunk without wine.'

By 'flower of glory that has fallen' he named the change from prosperity to misfortune; and by 'summit of the fertile mountain' I think the Assyrian is called, both because of the height of his kingdom and because of the grossness of his heart; and by 'drunkenness without wine' the madness for idols.

'Behold, the wrath of the Lord is something strong and hard from the Lord, and anger like hail carried down, having no shelter, carried down with violence, like a great abundance of water sweeping through a land; he shall make rest for the land with his hands and feet.'

He likens the wrath of God to the fiercest hail carried down upon certain people who have no shelter, and to a very great torrent flooding and sweeping away the adjacent land, permitting neither those who fall into it to stand with their feet nor to swim across with their hands.

'And the crown of insolence shall be trodden down, the hirelings of Ephraim.'

That is, his allies, in whom he was haughtily confident.

'And the flower that has fallen from the hope of his glory upon the top of the high mountain shall be like the early fruit of the fig tree;'

'which, when one sees it, before he takes it into his hand, he will wish to swallow it down.'

When Shalmaneser came against the ten tribes, and afterward Sennacherib as well, some escaped enslavement by hiding in the mountains, and after the withdrawal of the enemy they settled in a certain part of their own country.

Galilee too belonged to this;

for it was of the ten tribes.

For it says, 'The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, Galilee of the nations.' From this country was the sacred choir of the apostles.

He foretells, then, that they will be objects of longing to all, like the early fig, which is exceedingly desirable to those who behold it.

'In that day the Lord of Sabaoth shall be the crown of hope, plaited from glory, for the remnant of his people.'

Having pointed out the apostolic choir, he now points out their Master;

for it says that this One, having dissolved the crown of insolence, shall himself be a crown of glory to those who are left of his people.

'For they shall be left in a spirit of judgment for judgment, and as a strength restraining from slaying.'

For he himself, having restrained all from being slain, preserved some, foreseeing all things as God and judging righteously.

The phrase 'in a spirit of judgment for judgment' has this meaning:

and then, it says, he judged to save them, and again he keeps them for another judgment.

'For these are led astray by wine;'

'they went astray because of strong drink, priest and prophet lost their senses because of strong drink, they were swallowed up because of wine, they were shaken by the drunkenness of strong drink, they went astray.'

He accuses their luxury and profligacy, and to these he assigns the cause of their other evils;

and what is most grievous of all is that even the priests contracted this disease.

By 'prophets' he means the false prophets.

'Strong drink' (sikera) the Remaining Translators called 'intoxicating drink';

but I do not think that the drink prepared from dates is here called sikera, but rather wine mixed with spices.

This vision, indeed, Theodotion rendered thus:

'They erred in drunkenness, they lived profligately beyond measure;'

and the Seventy too, by the word 'vision,' indicated that they were reeling from drunkenness.

'A curse shall devour this counsel;'

'for this counsel is on account of covetousness.'

By 'counsel' he called the choice of their purpose, and by 'curse' the punishment.

'a message? Those who are weaned from milk, those who are drawn away from the breast.'

'Affliction upon affliction, expect it, yet a little while;'

'hope upon hope, yet a little while.'

Since those who know how to discern do not hearken to our oracles, we bring the predictions to those who have just been weaned from milk of their evils.

By 'yet a little while, yet a little while' he hinted at the assault of the enemy that was to come after no long time;

and 'hope upon hope' signifies the successive expectation of evils.

'This is rest for the hungry, and this is destruction, yet they would not hear.'

By 'another tongue' he calls the parabolic and figurative teaching of the prophets, and by 'disdain of lips' the reproaches uttered by them against the prophets.

For since they spat upon the things plainly spoken, he offered them prophecy that was veiled and parabolic, so that, being compelled to search out the depth of what was said, they might reap the benefit therefrom.

'And the oracle of the Lord shall be to them:'

'affliction upon affliction, hope upon hope, yet a little while, yet a little while, that they may go and fall backward, and be broken, and be endangered, and be taken, and fall.'

For since they were unwilling to reap any benefit from the divine oracles, they shall gather affliction upon affliction, and unceasing expectation of evils, and the experience of the dreadful things they anticipated.

I think, too, that the prophetic word hints at their reasonings;

for they hoped to be delivered from their evils and said to one another:

'Yet a little while, yet a little while, and there shall be a release from our sufferings.'

This too Symmachus rendered thus:

They would not hear, but the word of the Lord became for them 'commandment upon commandment, commandment upon commandment, expectation upon expectation, expectation upon expectation, a little longer, a little.' Through all these words he hinted at their unbelief and the divided mind of their judgment;

for at one time they received the divine oracles as a commandment of God, but at another they spat them out as though they were not divine.

We have made a covenant with Hades and agreements with death.

These things too agree with what has been interpreted before;

for through them he reproves their arrogance and folly;

for they always hoped that they would prove stronger than their calamities.

Where the other translators put 'men afflicted,' they rendered it 'men who scoff';

for they mocked the threats brought to them through the prophets.

He names the rulers of Ephraim as rulers of Jerusalem, not as though they truly were so, but as those who imagined that this would come to pass;

'If the rushing storm passes by, it shall not come upon us;'

'for we have made falsehood our hope, and by falsehood shall we be sheltered.'

These are the words of men gone mad and growing bold against the very justice of God.

Behold, I lay in the foundations of Zion a costly stone, a chosen cornerstone, a precious foundation for her foundations, and he who believes in him shall not be put to shame.

I consider it the height of folly to apply this prophecy to Hezekiah;

for the divine words forbid trusting in man;

for it says, 'Do not trust in rulers, in sons of men, in whom there is no salvation;' and again,

'Cursed is the man who has his hope in man;' and again,

'It is good to trust in the Lord rather than to trust in man.' But here the prophetic word praises the one who believes in this stone.

The cornerstone is the Master Christ, who has made both one, who has joined in himself those from the nations and those from Israel and has shown them to be one people.

And he is also called the foundation;

And I will set judgment for a hope, and my mercy for measuring-weights.

This Symmachus interpreted thus:

And I will set judgment for a measuring-line and righteousness for a level. That is to say:

For indeed the level shows the surface of the stones to be even, and the line straightens the courses of the building.

From this let us also understand the interpretation of the Seventy;

he says the hope is a just judgment and a mercy mingled with the righteous man.

For indeed the doorpost received its straightness by means of the builder's instruments.

And those who trust in vain are liars;

'that the storm shall by no means pass us by, nor take away from you the covenant of death, and your hope toward Hades shall by no means abide;'

'if the rushing storm comes upon you, you shall be trampled under it;'

'when it comes, it shall seize you.'

And these things Symmachus rendered thus:

And the bulwark against the hail, the false confidence, and the shelter against the water, shall it flood over;

and your agreement with death shall be blotted out, and your refuge toward Hades. He says: Nothing shall deliver you from the calamities being brought upon you, but the vanity of your hope shall be exposed.

For morning by morning it shall pass through, and by day and by night there shall be an evil hope.

By 'morning by morning' he means the swiftness, and he foretells the evils that shall be brought upon them by day and by night.

'We cannot fight, and we ourselves are too weak to be gathered together.'

As on the mountain of the breaches the Lord shall rise up, as in the ravine of Gibeon, with wrath he shall perform his works, works of bitterness.

For when the blessed Joshua son of Nun was leading the army and warring against the five kings who had marched against the Gibeonites, the God of all himself manifestly came to his aid, hurling down flakes of hailstones from above upon them.

So too now, he says, he shall display his power to punish.

But his wrath shall act as a stranger, and his bitterness as one alien.

For no longer does he take forethought for you as his own people, but as against those who have utterly failed to know him, he shall use his wrath against you.

And do not you rejoice, nor let your bonds prevail;

for I have heard from the Lord of Sabaoth of matters completed and cut short, which he will bring upon all the earth.

He charges them not to rejoice nor to be confident in their own strength;

'for what I have foretold, I have heard from the God of all;'

Give ear and hear my voice; attend and hear my words.

Does the man who plows mean to plow all day long? Or will he prepare the seed before working his land? And when he has smoothed its surface, then he sows a little black cumin and cumin, and again he sows wheat and barley and millet and spelt within your borders.

Having threatened the ten tribes with punishment, he transfers his word to those dwelling in Jerusalem and exhorts them to listen eagerly to the prophecy, and he shows that the husbandman does not always cultivate and sow their souls;

he calls them black cumin and cumin, and the other seeds the other men.

For just as the bread made from wheat and barley and spelt becomes more pleasant when it receives the cumin and the black cumin, so through these God provided benefit to the other nations.

This he also teaches more clearly in what follows;

And you shall be instructed by the judgment of God and shall rejoice.

For the black cumin is not cleansed with harshness, nor does the wheel of a wagon roll over the cumin, but the black cumin is shaken out with a rod, and the cumin with a staff, and it shall be eaten with bread.

He says: You I strike with a rod like black cumin and cumin, but the Assyrians, like spelt and barley, I will crush fine with a saw by means of a wagon.

For I will not be angry with you forever, nor shall the voice of my bitterness trample you down.

The Jews enjoyed this longsuffering while they were black cumin and cumin and a fruitful vine.

But when instead of these they sprouted thorns, they too were subjected to the Roman wagons.

The prophet, however, just as in the matter of the punishment of the ten tribes he said that he had received the verdict from the God of all, so here also:

And these wonders too came forth from the Lord of Sabaoth.

This Symmachus put thus:

And this came forth from the Lord of hosts; he made his counsel wondrous, he magnified salvation. He says: Beyond expectation he showed his goodness, and beyond our desert he gave us salvation.

But according to the Seventy the word hints at their coming utter destruction;

for not enduring the prophetic teaching but walking the contrary way, they were vainly beguiled by good promises.

From here the prophet passes to another prediction and foretells the calamities of Moab;

Ariel is called Areopolis;

and this is a notable city of Moab.

Gather your produce year upon year.

By Moab he means Kir-hareseth.

The word foretells the coming siege.

For in these times one must above all keep within the walls the supply of what is necessary.

'And her strength and her wealth shall be mine.'

Some say that after the return from Babylon the Jews, having the divine assistance as their ally, overthrew the Moabites.

And the prophetic word hints at this as well:

'For her strength and her wealth,' he says, 'shall be mine' — that is, they shall be brought into my temple.

'And your words shall be brought low to the ground beneath, and you shall be humbled;'

'you shall speak into the ground, and your words shall sink into the earth, and your voice shall be like those who cry out from the ground, and your voice shall grow faint toward the soil.'

Since they uttered blasphemies against the God of all — for they reckoned Chemosh to be greater, and on this account they mocked the Jews who worshipped the God of all — he threatens them with slavery and cowardice and disappearance.

By those who cry out from the ground he means the demons, who appear in the guise of the dead and utter dull, murmuring sounds.

To these he likens the voice of the Moabites.

He likens their power and their abundance to the dust of a wall being demolished and to dust borne along by a whirlwind.

'And it shall be as an instant from the Lord of Hosts.'

In a moment, he says, and swiftly shall she receive destruction.

'For her visitation shall come with thunder and earthquake and a great sound, and with a driving tempest and a flame of devouring fire.'

This God has done against other nations too, and the ancient histories clearly teach us so.

Then he likens to a dream the might of all the nations that campaigned against Jerusalem:

'For they shall be,' he says, 'like those who in sleep drink and eat, and when they arise their dream is in vain;'

'and just as one who thirsts dreams that he is drinking, and rising up still thirsts, and his soul has hoped in vain, so shall be the wealth of all the nations, as many as marched against Jerusalem and against Mount Zion.'

To the prophecy concerning the Moabites he joins also the things that befell Sennacherib:

he suffered what he had not expected;

and he was thus like one who is hungry and thirsty, but in a dream eats and drinks, and after waking perceives the deception;

for so too did that man, after the destruction of his many myriads, gain a perception of his own weakness.

'Be amazed and astonished, be deceived and utterly deceived, and be drunk, though not with wine, and reel, though not from strong drink nor moved by wine; for the Lord has given you to drink a spirit of stupor, and he will close your eyes and those of your rulers and of your prophets who behold hidden things.'

In place of 'stupor,' Symmachus has put 'torpor,' Theodotion 'ecstasy,' and Aquila 'a swooning down.'

The Jews, amazed at the destruction of the Assyrian, hoped that they would always be superior to their enemies.

This the prophetic word calls deception.

God is said to have stupefied them or driven them out of their senses, in that beyond all expectation he had granted them that marvelous deliverance.

But they ought to have understood that at that time they had furnished occasion to the divine loving-kindness by employing repentance.

After these things, however, having embraced surpassing wickedness, they took confidence in the divine loving-kindness without good reason.

They therefore deceived themselves, being unwilling to discern the wisdom of the divine dispensation.

'And all these words shall be to you as the words of the sealed book, which if they give it to a man who knows letters, saying to him:'

''Read this,' and he will say:'

''I cannot read, for it is sealed;''

'and this book shall be given into the hands of a man who does not know letters, and they will say to him:'

''Read this,' and he will say:'

''I cannot read, I do not know letters.''

By these words he made plain their disobedience, their contradiction, and their lack of understanding.

Nevertheless the divine word also foretells something else.

For of old neither could the Jews perceive the prophecies concerning the Lord, which were veiled and as it were laid up within seals, nor could the nations, who did not know the prophetic letters;

yet after the Master's manifestation, when the seals had been removed — for the events bear witness to the words — very many of the Jews learned the meaning of the prophecies, and the nations have learned the letters of true religion and read the book, which to the unbelieving among the Jews has remained sealed even until now.

The Lord himself was the first to remove the seals of the prophecy;

for entering into the synagogue and taking the prophet Isaiah and reading:

'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because of which he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach good tidings to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,' and he added what follows;

'Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.' The prophet, or rather his God, brings against them yet another accusation:

'This people draws near to me; with their mouth and with their lips they honor me, but their heart is far removed from me;'

And this testimony the Lord recalled when accusing the Pharisees and teaching that, despising the divine law, they employed their own legislations.

And the prophet Jeremiah too accuses them, saying:

'And they loved him with their mouth, and with their tongue they lied to him.' By these words he hints at the sharpness of their denial;

for just as the tongue is close to the lips, so, he says, their denial was close to their confession.

'For not only into Babylon will I lead them away, but I will also scatter them into all the inhabited world.'

'And I will destroy the wisdom of its wise men, and the understanding of its prudent men I will hide.'

For the things of the Pharisees and scribes are gone;

for their seeming wisdom was full of folly.

'...counsel, and not through the Lord; those who make counsel in secret, and their works shall be in darkness, and they shall say:'

'Who has seen us, and who shall know us, or what we do?' These words contain both a general accusation against those who suppose that they will escape the all-surveying eye of the Lord of all, and a particular accusation against the scribes and Pharisees, who, using deceit as their accomplice, brought many questions to the Savior, attempting, as the evangelist says, 'to ensnare him in speech,' and who moreover often took counsel to destroy him.

But nevertheless, to these and to all others who suppose that God is ignorant of the things done in secret, the all-holy Spirit says through the prophet:

'Shall you not be reckoned as the clay of the potter? Shall the thing formed say to him who formed it:'

''You did not form me with understanding?' and the work say to the maker: 'You did not make me with understanding?' How is it possible, he says, for the potter to be ignorant of the clay? But if that fashioner knows it, how much more do I, the maker of the potter himself?

'Shall you not be reckoned as the clay of the potter?'

But the clay does not contradict the potter, nor does it accuse his workmanship — and this though it has the same nature as he;

for he too is of clay — yet you set yourselves against God.

Learn, therefore, the harm that shall thereby come upon you;

for just as the potter is able to break down what has already been formed but has not yet met the fire, and to fashion others in their place, so I will thrust you away and take to myself the nations, and I will transfer the spiritual grace that flourishes among you to the whole nature of mankind.

For this he has made plain through what follows:

'Is it not yet a little while, and Lebanon shall be changed like Mount Carmel, and Carmel shall be reckoned as a forest?' By Lebanon he calls the nations because of their former impiety, and this mountain too belonged not to the Jews but to the nations.

and this mountain was very productive and very fruitful, lying in the land of Israel.

Figuratively, therefore, he teaches the exchange between the nations and the Jews:

for there shall be given, he says, to Lebanon — that is, to the nations — the fruitfulness of Carmel — that is, of the Jews; while Carmel — that is, the Jews — shall become a barren forest.

And we see the truth of the prophecy;

for indeed both in their multitude and in their barrenness they resemble a forest.

'And in that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book.'

Those who did not know letters, those from among the nations who came to believe, those unable to discern the prophetic character—these shall eagerly give ear to these words.

'And the eyes of the blind who are in darkness and in gloom shall see.'

Truly they were sitting in darkness and gloom, beholding the creation yet ignorant of its Maker; but nevertheless even these, he says, shall see the light of the truth.

'And the poor shall rejoice with gladness because of the Lord.'

He calls the very same people 'poor,' as those who had not yet possessed the riches of the all-holy Spirit.

'And those among men who had lost hope shall be filled with gladness.'

For, having been despaired of by the Jews, beyond all hope they came to enjoy salvation.

'The lawless one has failed, and the proud one has perished, and those who work iniquity for evil have been utterly destroyed, and those who cause men to sin by a word.'

Having foretold the salvation of the nations, he predicts also the punishment of the unbelieving Jews.

For these compelled their subjects to sin with the tongue;

and the Evangelist is a witness, teaching that they commanded all who confessed the Saviour Christ to be put out of the synagogue.

'And they shall make all who reprove in the gates a stumbling-block, and they turned aside the just man in unjust ways.'

Thus, he says, they fled those who reproved them with boldness, turning aside like a stone lying in the midst and made ready to cause stumbling.

And indeed by their deceitful words they also turned those who lived in simplicity away from the straight path.

The patriarch Abraham became the father of many children;

for both Ishmael was from Abraham and those born of Keturah;

and indeed Esau too traces his descent from that same source.

The word therefore hints at the beneficence of God, and that the righteous Judge does not regard nature but seeks faith.

For if, he says, I loved the lineage of Abraham, I would have deemed all who came from Abraham worthy of equal care;

but since I seek virtue, I have preferred Jacob above the others.

And it is he whom you boast to be the root of your race.

Then the prophet teaches which portion of the race he has meant;

'Not now shall Jacob be ashamed, nor now shall his face change color;

but when their children see my works, for my sake they shall sanctify my name and shall sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.'

'And those who erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and those who murmured shall learn to obey, and the stammering tongues shall learn to speak peace.'

By 'Jacob' he calls those who are descended from Jacob.

He accuses these of shamelessness and teaches that, though they received much instruction, they were not brought to repentance, but only after their calamities did they receive benefit;

for indeed after the return from Babylon they departed from the error concerning idols.

But the prophecy applies most properly to those of them who came to believe in the Saviour Christ;

for these truly first murmured, but afterward believed.

For the Jews murmured, he says, saying:

'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?' But those of them who afterward believed came to enjoy salvation.

'And the stammering tongues shall learn to speak peace;'

for in place of blasphemy they now offer up hymnody.

[From here he transfers the discourse to Egypt.]

For when Jerusalem had been burned and most of its people led away as prisoners of war, the rest escaped the hands of the enemy and gathered together against them.

Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had given them Gedaliah as ruler.

Ishmael, coveting the rule, slew this man.

The prophet Jeremiah, employing many words, tried to restrain these people, but he did not prevail over their disobedient and obstinate mind;

for they went down into Egypt.

To these God says through the prophet:

And he calls 'children' those who were unwilling to call him father, and he laments over these, imitating a tender-loving mother;

'You made a plan, but not through me, and covenants, but not through my Spirit, so as to add sins to sins.'

For the all-holy Spirit did not speak to them through the prophet, but they employed words blasphemous against the God of all, and dared to say that, ever since they departed from the worship of idols, they had fallen into calamities of every kind.

'You who set out to go down into Egypt, but did not inquire of me, to be helped by Pharaoh and to be sheltered by the Egyptians.'

Then he shows the folly of the flight;

'For the shelter of Pharaoh shall be to you a shame, and a reproach to those who trust in the Egyptians.'