Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 13/24

Now I, having judged it fitting to divide the interpretation of this prophecy into two books, give this ending to the former, and I exhort those who shall read it both to run vigorously and lawfully, to reach the turning-post, to seize the prize, to obtain the crowns, and to enjoy that blessed life, so that we too may glory greatly — may this come to pass by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father belongs glory, together with the all-holy and good Spirit, now and always and unto the ages of ages.

BOOK XI. And it came to pass in the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of the Assyrians came up against the fortified cities of Judaea and took them.

The fourth book of Kingdoms also makes mention of this history.

But the prophet, doing nothing superfluous, joined this to the prophecy, but rather showing the truth of the things foretold.

For since in the foregoing chapters he prophesied very many things concerning the Babylonians and the Tyrians and the Egyptians and many other nations, and especially concerning the incarnation of our Saviour and the unbelief and punishment of the Jews and the calling and salvation of the nations, and since he had also foretold the invasion of the Assyrians and the God-sent destruction brought upon them, here fittingly he makes mention of the history, in order to show the trustworthiness of the prophecy and that, just as the events concerning Sennacherib reached their fulfillment, so too all the other things which he had foretold shall be brought to fulfillment.

Now this Sennacherib, since he had enslaved some cities of the ten tribes and besieged certain cities of Judaea, hoped now to prevail over Jerusalem as well.

And he sent with a very great army a certain general Rabshakeh, so as to besiege it.

This man, having chosen a suitable place and encamped in it — the prophet also names the place — conveyed the message declared by the king;

for there had gone out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joahaz.

Of this Eliakim he made mention also in the foregoing passages, and adorned him with many words of praise.

And as for Shebna, some have said that he is the one accused above; but I do not think so;

for the former received many reproaches for indolence and luxury, whereas this man did not even bear without emotion the blasphemy which others dared to utter, but tore his garment.

To these Rabshakeh charges to say to Hezekiah that the king of the Assyrians says thus:

There is now no need of counsel but of combat;

it is not the time for words but for deeds, not for embassies but for battle-array.

But perhaps you take courage in the help of the Egyptians;

and yet they are like a reed, and that a crushed one, which not only fails to support those who lean upon it, but also wounds their hand.

This parable he brought forward, accusing both the weakness and the wickedness of the Egyptians.

For, he says, they are unable to help because of weakness, and they even do harm to those who flee to them because of their great wickedness.

And these words, then, are full of much arrogance and malice;

but the things that come after leave no excess of malignity behind, and they are these:

We have trusted upon the Lord our God; and indeed this is He whose high places Hezekiah removed and His altars, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem:

Employing evil craft and cunning, he did not proceed straightaway to blasphemy, but for the time being weaves against the pious king an accusation that was not displeasing to many of the subjects.

For the majority wished to sacrifice without fear, and laid bare this intent in the days of Ahaz and Manasseh and the others who in their times chose error.

For I consider that these so-called high places were indeed dedicated to God, but dedicated contrary to the Law;

for before the building of the temple, both in Hebron and in Gibeon and in Mizpah and in many other places they offered sacrifices to God; but after the building, those who conducted themselves according to the Law did not tolerate sacrificing outside the divine sanctuary, whereas the brutish ones, who stepped outside the divine way, offered their sacrifices in the high places — not to idols, as I think, but to God.

And this the history of the books of Kingdoms and of Chronicles makes clear to us;

for those who wrote those books, having praised both Asa and Jehoshaphat, said this also:

And Asa did what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, and removed the foreign altars and the high places, and broke down the pillars and cut down the sacred groves. Nevertheless the people still burned incense in the high places. For they demolished the places of the idols, but left standing in their form those dedicated to God.

But only Hezekiah and Josiah prevented this transgression as well.

This admirable zeal of Hezekiah, Rabshakeh reckoned worthy of accusation, and charges them not to trust in God, saying that He was angry, since the altars dedicated to Him had been torn up from their foundations and His worship had been confined to the consecrated temple alone.

Having taken courage in your strength, give proof of your power;

I will provide the horses, and you provide two thousand riders.

But if even this is impossible for you, how can you turn back to the face of one of the least of the lord's servants among the governors? You cannot, he says, withstand the assault of even one paltry governor of his.

They are servants who have put their trust in Egypt, in horses and horsemen.

But the Three Interpreters have rendered this thus:

And he took courage for himself in Egypt and in chariots and horses. But according to the Seventy it is to be understood thus, that those who have put their trust in the Egyptians are slaves and fugitives;

for since Ahaz used to pay a certain tribute to the Assyrians because of fear of the Syrians, but Hezekiah, taking courage in his piety, despised them and did not pay the tribute, he called them servants who had fled for refuge to the Egyptians.

Then he adds to what has been said yet another lie, wishing to lure away those standing upon the wall:

And now, was it without the Lord that we went up against this land to make war upon it? The Lord said to me:

Go up against this land and destroy it.

Either he had deserted and gone over to those men, or he had been led away captive when they enslaved the ten tribes, and so had embraced their impiety.

To these words, however, Eliakim and his companions replied, entreating him to use not the Hebrew but the Syrian tongue:

'For we understand their language too;

for it is not fitting that the things spoken should become plain to all.'

'I was sent neither to you nor to your master, but to this people who deserve every dishonour.'

Then, leaving these men aside and raising a very loud shout, he tries to deceive the multitude, claiming that the great king had declared:

'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you with words by which he can in no way rescue you;

and let not Hezekiah say to you that God will rescue you and that this city shall not be delivered into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.'

The Sovereign God left an overwhelming measure of longsuffering;

for this man, being unable to strike, kept casting his blows, while the Almighty bore with it.

He adds again to what has been said: that, if you desire to fare well, throw open the gates, come out to us without fear, and you shall obtain peace and enjoy the fruits of the land as well, until, he says, I come and take you into a land like your land, equally fruitful and fertile and bearing for its tillers fruits of every kind.

In addition to this, he enumerates the nations and the cities which he had compelled to submit;

and besides the others, he also brings up the mention of Samaria, boasting arrogantly and saying that none of them proved superior—neither king, nor general, nor the god who presided over them.

'For we have prevailed,' he says, 'over all alike, both men and gods; therefore neither shall your god escape my power.'

When Eliakim and his companions heard this unspeakable blasphemy, they gave the impious man not a single word in reply, but rent their garments and ran to the godly king, and made known to him, both by their words and by their appearance, the enormity of the blasphemy.

This same thing the wholly excellent king also did;

for having rent his royal robe and put on sackcloth in its stead, he ran to Him who was being warred upon together with him—to the Maker of all things.

And knowing how to discern the measures of virtue, he does not entreat the God of all things alone, but calls the prophet Isaiah to his aid and begs him to become an intercessor, sending to him both the men aforementioned and those of the priests most worthy of reverence, clad in mourning attire.

And when they had arrived, they spoke these things:

And from this it is possible to learn thoroughly the difference of disposition.

For Rabshakeh used to say:

'Thus says the great king of the Assyrians'; but these men, showing the modesty of the one who sent them, do not even call him king, but make mention of his name only.

This day is a day of affliction and of reproach and of rebuke and of wrath; for the pang has come upon her that is in travail, but she has no strength to bring forth.

He calls that man's blasphemy a 'reproach,' and the transgression of the people a 'rebuke.'

'For we are the cause of the blasphemy, living lawlessly and rendering ourselves worthy of punishment;

yet nevertheless we are angered because of the enormity of the blasphemy and long to punish the wretch, but we are no longer able to bring our zeal to its accomplishment; and we are like a woman who is with child and has received the onset of the pangs, but through weakness is unable to bring forth.

For he entreats God to come to his aid, not on account of his own godliness, of which he took much thought, but on account of the frenzied blasphemy of that accursed one.

For he reproached the One who truly exists, treating Him as like the gods that do not exist.

And you shall make supplication to the Lord your God concerning these that are left.

For since they had enslaved the ten tribes and besieged very many cities of Judea, he fittingly names those who had fled for refuge into Jerusalem a 'remnant.'

These things Hezekiah declared, and those who were sent made them known to the prophet.

But the God of the prophet anticipates the prophet's supplication, and through the prophet says:

Do not be afraid because of the words which you heard, by which the ambassadors of the king of the Assyrians reviled me.

'I have shared with you in the reviling; I will share with you in the battle;

I received the blasphemy, I will exact the punishment.'

Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and hearing a report he shall return to his own country and shall fall by the sword in his own land.

By 'spirit' he meant cowardice;

for so also the divine Apostle says:

...his homeland, but he shall receive his punishment there.

So, when these things had been fulfilled, that Rabshakeh returned, and abandoning the siege he overtook the king who had sent him, who was besieging Libnah—this being a city of Judea—for, as it says, he departed from Lachish and moved against that city.

Then the prophetic word teaches us that, when the maddened king learned that the king of the Ethiopians had marched against him, he withdrew according to the divine prediction; yet he did not cease from his rage, but declared these things to Hezekiah by certain messengers:

Do not let your God, in whom you have trusted, deceive you, saying:

'Jerusalem shall not be delivered into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.'

Then again he enumerates the nations and the cities and their gods, and says that all these were overthrown by him and by his fathers.

Sketching out beforehand this madness of his, the prophet—or rather the God of the prophet—said:

I will visit upon the great mind, the king of the Assyrians, and upon the loftiness of the glory of his eyes.

'By the strength of my hand I will do it, and by the wisdom of my understanding; I will remove the boundaries of nations and plunder their strength, and I will shake inhabited cities, and I will grasp the whole world like a nest'—and the rest, that I may not go through it all.

But the admirable king, on receiving these impious letters and beholding the blasphemy contained in them, ran again to the divine temple, and spreading them out he displayed them to the God who had been reproached, and offered up this supplication:

O Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, who sits upon the cherubim, You are God alone of all the <kingdoms of the> world.

'The Assyrian,' he says, 'thinks you one of the falsely-named gods; but I know you as Lord of the powers and Sovereign of Israel, having a throne not set somewhere below and upon the earth, but resting upon the cherubim.'

'Of the whole world and of the kings in it I know you both as God and as Sovereign, and besides this, as Maker of all things.'

You made the heaven and the earth.

Incline, O Lord, your ear and hearken, O Lord; open, O Lord, your eyes and see, O Lord, and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he sent to reproach the living God.

Since, then, the divine Scripture calls God's longsuffering 'sleep,' the admirable king fittingly entreats, saying:

'Open your eyes and incline your ear and hearken to the blasphemy, and behold the reproaches, and teach him that you are not one of the so-called gods.'

For it was their weakness that led him into this madness;

for since he has prevailed over them, he insolently boasts that he will prevail over your power also.

And this the following words also make clear:

For in truth, O Lord, the kings of the Assyrians have laid waste the whole world and their land, and have cast their idols into the fire.

And this too makes clear the king's wisdom;

for he called 'idols' the things that became fuel for the fire.

And showing the cause of their defeat, he added:

For they were not gods, but the works of men's hands, and they destroyed them.

'Fittingly,' he says, 'those things have perished and been consumed by the fire;

for it was by human craft that existence was bestowed on them.'

But now, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that every kingdom of the world may know that You are God alone.

'For when they see the others defeated, but us alone having prevailed, they will recognize the difference and will learn that You alone are God.'

When Hezekiah had offered up this supplication, God converses with him through the prophetic tongue and says:

I have heard what you prayed to me concerning Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians. 'I have received your supplication; take courage, for you shall obtain your request.'

This is the word which God spoke concerning him:

'The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and mocked you; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.'

He names her 'daughter' to show the closeness of the relationship.

He calls one and the same city both Zion and Jerusalem.

well supplied with horsemen, yet in need of Egyptian aid; and while threatening you with destruction, he shook his head.

Then he turns the discourse toward that one:

'Whom have you reproached and provoked? Against whom have you lifted up your voice? And you have not raised your eyes on high to the Holy One of Israel.'

'For by your messengers you have reproached the Lord.'

'You supposed me,' he says, 'to be one of the other falsely-named gods, when you ought rather to have looked up to heaven and learned of my sovereignty;'

'and even what had happened concerning Israel was sufficient to teach you of my power; but, presuming upon your strength and dominion, you were unwilling to perceive the difference.'

Then he brought his arrogant reasonings into the open:

'By the multitude of my chariots I have gone up to the height of the mountains and to the farthest parts of Lebanon; I have cut down the height of its cedar and the beauty of its cypress, and I have entered into the height of the region of the forest of Carmel; I have laid a bridge and dried up waters and every gathering of water.'

He has said all these things figuratively, calling the kings and local rulers 'cedars' and 'cypresses,' Lebanon 'the nations,' and Carmel 'Israel.'

Hence in the case of Lebanon he added 'the farthest parts of it,' but in the case of Carmel he said only 'a region,' showing that they had subdued all those nations, but not the whole of Israel;

for the mother-city remained unconquered.

By 'waters' he means the multitudes, and by 'bridge' both his might and his devices and the methods of his victory, and that, as by a bridge, he made use of those already captured against the rest.

Having thus laid bare that one's reasonings, he displays his own power:

'Have you not heard of old these things which I did? From ancient days I ordained it, but now I have brought it to pass, that fortified nations and those dwelling in strong cities should be laid utterly waste.'

But Symmachus rendered this as follows:

'Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, from ancient days; I formed it, and now I have brought it, and it has come to uprooting.' 'You ought,' he says, 'to have understood that the Maker of all things has not left the things he made ungoverned, for he provides for what he has made; and that you could have done nothing contrary to my purpose, for I ordained these very things which you now do from ancient days, and, foreseeing from afar, I so decreed that these things should come to pass, and that those dwelling in strong cities and ignorant of the Giver of good things should learn the weakness of idols.'

'I loosened my hands, and they were dried up and became like withered grass upon the housetops and like a weed that vanishes before it comes to fruition.'

'They flourished,' he says, 'for as long a time as I willed; then I stripped them of my care and cast off their former bloom.'

He names them 'weed' and 'grass' because of their unfruitfulness.

'Now I know your rest and your going out and your coming in;'

'but your rage, with which you raged against me, and your bitterness have come up to me, and I will put a hook into your nose and a bridle into your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.'

He treats as a brute beast the one who had corrupted his rational nature:

'For with bridle and hook,' he says, 'you will restrain the jaws of those who do not draw near to you.' He showed him also to have a servile nature;

for since they themselves put leather muzzles on their household slaves, he fittingly threatened, as to a wicked slave, that he would put the muzzle on him.

Then he gives Hezekiah a sign of his salvation:

'This year you shall eat what you have sown, and in the second year the remnant, and in the third year, sowing, you shall reap, and you shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.'

The Three interpreted this thus:

'Eat this year what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs up spontaneously, but in the third year sow and reap.' For since, being besieged, they were unable to till the soil, God gave them fruits that grew of themselves, and likewise in the second year, on account, it seems, of the scarcity of seed and of oxen; then in the third year he promised them an abundance of all manner of fruits.

'And those who are left in Judea shall be a means of escape;'

'to the utmost I will preserve their race.'

'For from Jerusalem shall be those who are left, and those who are saved from Mount Zion.'

But Theodotion interpreted this thus:

'For from Jerusalem shall be a remnant, and salvation from Mount Zion.' For there the salvation of the whole world blossomed, and their remnant, that is:

the divine apostles turned the whole world to the knowledge of God.

And the author of all these things is the God of all:

'The zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall do these things.'

For having become zealous both because of the reproach of Jerusalem and because of the blasphemy against himself, he will grant salvation.

Then he promises Hezekiah that the enemy shall not enter within the walls, nor even set up ramparts, nor bring forward shields, but shall return in disgrace.

These words are a reproof of those who inhabited the city;

'for that one was the founder of the city and my genuine servant.'

For if, even after these things had been so spoken, the history of Chronicles says that afterward the heart of King Hezekiah was lifted up, what would he not have suffered had he himself been named the author of the salvation? For this reason he did not call even Isaiah, though a prophet and a most distinguished prophet, a worthy ally of the city; but leaving aside the living, he made mention of one who had died, both restraining the arrogance and urging toward virtue by the memory of those who had passed, and teaching that with him the memory of the righteous flourishes continually.

In addition to these things, the prophetic word taught that an angel sent from God slew a hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrians;

yet some nonetheless escaped, not because they got the better of the angelic right hand, but so that they might become worthy heralds of what had befallen, and might proclaim the might of the God of the Hebrews.

For this very reason the impious king himself also escaped and reached Nineveh—for this was a royal city—but there he paid the penalty for what he had dared; and since he had stretched out his tongue against the Maker, he receives slaughter at the hands of his own sons, exacted of him as the most just recompense for what he had dared.

And not even the falsely-named god worshiped by him could help him as he was being slaughtered, but he received his slaughter at the very act of his worship.

One should know, however, that the accurate copies do not have 'Patarchos' but 'Patechros,' that is, the idol;

for so also the Three interpreted it:

'as he was worshiping in the house of Nesroch his god.' And they escaped into Armenia, and his son Nachordan succeeded to the kingdom;

but Marodach, having deposed even this one not long after, transferred the royal seat to Babylon.

Now Hezekiah about this time fell into sickness, and is instructed through the prophet to set his household in order, as death was drawing near.

For since he thought great things of himself, having obtained an unexpected deliverance—for this too the history of Chronicles declares:

'For his heart was lifted up,' it says, 'and Hezekiah was exalted in the eyes of all the nations, and many brought gifts to the Lord in Jerusalem and presents to King Hezekiah'—the best physician of our souls heals the soul by the sickness of the body.

'I said in my prosperity...'

having sent, he promised him life;

Again he reminds him of his forefather, showing the kinship of their character.

Then he says that he had heard his prayer and beheld his tears and accepted his supplication;

and he promises him fifteen years of life and unmixed peace and continual providence.

'For behold,' he says, 'I will turn back the shadow of the steps which the sun went down, the ten steps of the house of Ahaz your father; I will turn the sun back ten steps.'

This God both said and did.

Symmachus, however, rendered this thus:

Then, having enjoyed his deliverance, the blessed Hezekiah repays the God of all with hymns and says:

'In the height of my days I shall go...'

'When I was exalted and became conspicuous, then I receive the end of my life.'

'But I said in my prosperity:'

'I shall never be moved forever. In the gates of Hades I shall leave behind my remaining years.'

'Having received the sentence of death from God,' he says, 'I despaired of salvation.'

I shall no more at all behold the salvation of God in the land of the living.

No longer, he says, shall I see in this present life the wonders which God works for the salvation of men.

I shall no more at all see man among the inhabitants of the earth.

I have departed from my kindred; I have left behind the remainder of my life.

I have become a stranger to the living, an alien from my own kinsfolk.

It went forth and departed from me like one who strikes his tent, having set up my spirit within me.

He calls the body a tent, and the soul its dweller; and when the soul withdraws, the body resembles a tent that is being taken down.

Then he introduces yet another comparison as well.

I became like a web upon the loom when the weaver draws near to cut it off.

I resembled, he says, not only a tent being taken down, but also a piece of cloth still upon the loom, yet destined before long to be cut away.

For I was given over, he says, until morning as to a lion;

even so did he crush all my bones.

For from day even unto night was I given over.

But since, beyond hope, I have enjoyed salvation, I will imitate the ceaseless chatter of the swallow and the dove, weaving hymns to Thee, the Giver of life.

For my eyes have failed with looking to the height of heaven toward the Lord, who delivered me and took away the anguish of my soul.

For, having abandoned every human contrivance, I lifted up my eyes to Thee who dwellest in heaven;

and Thou, taking pity on me, didst free me from the anguish that pressed upon me.

O Lord, for concerning it report was made to Thee.

For concerning this, he says, I also offered my supplication to Thee.

And Thou didst raise up my breath, and being comforted I lived.

Behold, my bitterness is turned into peace.

My grief, he says, was changed into gladness.

For Thou didst choose my soul, that it should not perish, and Thou didst cast behind me all my sins.

For they that are in Hades shall not praise Thee, neither shall the dead bless Thee, nor shall they that go down into the pit hope in Thy truth;

the living shall bless Thee, even as I also do.

While he was sick, he displayed his own godliness to God, and having obtained salvation he hymns the loving-kindness of God, as having been through it delivered from death.

For Thou hast cast away, he says, my transgressions, and hast given me once more an occasion for the acquiring of righteousness;

for to those still living this is an easy thing to do;

for the dead have passed beyond such traffic.

There is none in death that remembers Thee;

and in Hades who shall give Thee thanks? For from this day I will make children who shall proclaim Thy righteousness, O Lord of my salvation;

I will not cease to bless Thee with the psaltery all the days of my life before the house of God.

And he foretells that he shall also be the father of children, since, that is, the divine grace was to work together with him.

And for this cause God both brought upon him the disease and pronounced the sentence of death; but after this, he says, he obtained the divine loving-kindness, and having received the gift of life he said:

From this time forth I will make children who shall proclaim Thy righteousness, O Lord of my salvation.

Now this interpretation has its plausibility, yet it seems to me to follow upon a rashness bordering on impiety, especially since the divine Scripture bears witness to the king's exceeding righteousness;

I think, therefore, that, having learned he would live fifteen years after his sickness, he undertook the care of begetting children, that having reared them he might leave behind heirs of the kingdom.

The prophet, however, bids him take a cake of figs, crush it, and apply it, and lay it upon the sore, and so procure his healing;

for this too is a gift of God.

But it behoves us not to trust in the art itself, but in the Giver of it;

for it avails only so much as He may will.

And often by small remedies it heals great wounds, but often by great ones it is proved powerless, that we may put our trust not in it, but in Him who gave it.

This is the sign, that I shall go up into the house of God.

I am confident, he says, that I shall both obtain my health and worship in the divine temple the God of all.

And at that very season Merodach, king of the Babylonians, the son of Baladan, sent ambassadors and gifts and letters to King Hezekiah, having learned of his sickness and his recovery.

But it must be inquired whence this man had learned the things concerning Hezekiah.