Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 14/24

And that which followed, far greater than that former marvel and more astonishing—I mean the miracle concerning the sun—struck the Babylonians the more amazingly.

For they understood that He who, without human hand, had for the sake of the godly king delivered over so many myriads to death, had assuredly for this same reason wrought this wonder also.

And they esteemed as of great worth the loving-kindness and alliance of God, who needs no weapons when He does battle, but invisibly destroys those who come against Him.

Then the prophet teaches us that Hezekiah was gladdened at their coming, and showed them the house of the nechotha, and of the silver and the gold, and of the myrrh and the incense, and all the storehouses of the vessels of his treasure, and all things whatsoever were in his treasuries;

and there was nothing which Hezekiah did not show them in his house and in all his dominion.

Symmachus rendered the house of the nechotha as the house of the spices, and called the stakte (myrrh) sweet perfumes;

and I hold the stakte to be balsam.

And by 'gaza' (treasure) he means the treasury.

But the God of all was displeased at these things when they had come to pass;

for the godly king ought not to have been proud over these things, nor to have displayed them to those who had come, but rather to have taught the power of God, and proclaimed His mightiest wonders, and led them to the truth, and made the embassy an occasion for instruction.

I am the cause of these things; for he who but a little before was warred upon by them and promised them tribute, now receivest from them gifts and tribute, and is entreated to become their friend.

They have come to me from a land afar off, from Babylon; again the prophet asked:

What have they seen in thy house? And when he had said that they had seen all things, both the manifest and the hidden, the prophet said:

Behold, the days are coming, when they shall take all that is in thy house, and all that thy fathers have gathered until this day shall be carried away to Babylon, and nothing at all shall be left behind;

and God said that even of thy sons who shall come forth from thee, whom thou shalt beget, they shall take and make them eunuchs in the house of the king of the Babylonians.

For it (fortune) has a shifting nature, and now makes this man illustrious, now that one.

Since, then, thou hast displayed these things, and not My forethought and providential care, know well that these things shall come under their dominion;

and besides these, even of thine own descendants some shall be carried away as captives of war and shall serve the king of the Babylonians.

And by 'spadontas' he means the eunuchs.

And Hezekiah said to Isaiah:

Good is the word of the Lord which He has spoken;

let there now be peace and righteousness in my days.

All things, he says, that have been spoken by the God of all are good and profitable;

for I have gladness enough, seeing that...

Therefore I ask to obtain peace throughout the whole of my life, and not peace only but righteousness as well;

for peace separated from righteousness is of no benefit.

The king is indeed to be praised for asking righteousness together with peace; yet the petition was not a kingly one;

for the guardian of his subjects ought to exercise every care on their behalf;

he ought therefore to have offered supplication to the benevolent Master also on behalf of his descendants, upon whom those calamities were to come.

But it befits us to take pride neither in wealth nor in strength nor in any other human thing, but even while possessing wealth and wisdom and power, to place our confidence in God alone, who is the giver of these things also, and to await the inclination of His favour;

to whom belong glory and majesty unto the ages of ages.

VOLUME XII. 'Comfort, comfort my people,' says God.

'O priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem.'

In the passages interpreted above he foretold the captivity that was to come at the hands of the Babylonians.

But King Hezekiah offered no supplication to the Master God, nor did he desire that the threat be undone, but took thought for his own preservation alone, saying:

'Let there indeed be peace and righteousness in my days.' For this reason the God of all, leaving the king aside, charges the priests to console Jerusalem, as though the threatened punishment had already overtaken it.

'Comfort her, for her humiliation is fulfilled.'

The matter of the threat has received a good end.

'Her sin is loosed, for she has received from the Lord's hand double for her sins.'

Here it is fitting to marvel at the Master's love for mankind;

for, being good and an abyss of goodness, and bringing upon them a punishment far less than their sin, He calls that small punishment—out of His great love for mankind—double the sin.

That the punishment was far less than the sin, the same prophet is witness, crying aloud:

'In small affliction was Thy chastening to us.' Yet nonetheless, tempering justice with abundant mercy, that which those who were punished called a small chastening, the Judge named double.

Then He teaches those who are to comfort her the manner of the consolation:

'A voice of one crying in the wilderness:'

'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight through the trackless place the paths of our God.'

...the Incarnation of God our Saviour, the deliverance from evils.

The first herald of this was the divinely-inspired John the Baptist.

The prophetic word therefore foretells the things concerning him:

for this the three blessed Evangelists also taught us, and the most divine Mark even made this the opening of his writing.

And the divinely-inspired John himself, when asked by the Pharisees whether he were the Christ, said:

'I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness:'

'Prepare the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said;'

'I am not God the Word, but a voice; for I proclaim the God-Word who became man.'

He calls the nations 'trackless,' as not yet having received the prophetic footstep.

'Every ravine shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low;'

'and all the crooked places shall become straight, and the rough places into plains.'

By these words he made plain the ease of the proclamation;

for by reason of this it filled the whole inhabited world in a short time.

The ravines being filled and the mountains and hills being brought low we are, according to the literal sense, to understand as the smooth road, freed from difficulty; but according to the deeper meaning, the ravines are the souls of the unbelieving, lying somewhere in the depths and possessing no lofty understanding, while the mountains and hills are the demons served upon the mountains and hills, whose deception the Incarnation of our Saviour extinguished.

Nor would one err in saying that this was spoken also concerning the Jews;

for having been of old conspicuous and admired on account of the divine care they enjoyed, they have now been brought low, having become bereft of it.

For this too the following words make plain:

'And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'

And here is the confirmation of what has been said:

'For He who uttered these things is without falsehood,' it says.

But I am utterly astonished at those who suppose that the prophet prophesied these things concerning the return from Babylon;

for they ought to have discerned that the prophetic word clearly foretold that God's salvation would be manifest to all men, whereas that recall was not made manifest to all; but the saving Cross and the Master's Passion reached even the very ends of the inhabited world.

'All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass;'

'the grass has withered, and the flower has fallen away, because the Spirit of the Lord blew upon it;'

'truly the people is like grass;'

'the grass has withered, and the flower has fallen away.'

Having foretold the salvation of all the nations, he foretells also the barrenness of the Jews.

For by nature, he says, the race of men resembles grass, while the glory and dominion that come upon it resemble the flower of grass.

And just as, when the grass withers, the flower falls away, so, when death comes upon men, both their dominion and their splendour are quenched.

Yet more truly do these things fit the people that was of old called by that name, which withered, not having the moisture of faith, and lost the grace that had flowered upon it.

And lest anyone suppose that the God of all chose this people in ignorance, he added:

'But the word of the Lord abides for ever.'

From above, he says, He both foreknew and foretold these things; yet, though He knew this their disobedience as well, He draws near, urging them toward salvation;

for He knew those among them who would receive the saving proclamation.

'Go up upon a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem; lift it up, fear not.'

Here the prophetic word rouses the apostolic choir.

For which reason, having framed the exhortation in the singular, he passes over to the plural and says:

Thus also the Master Christ said to them:

having freed them from the prison, He charged them to speak the words of life with boldness.

And He calls the height of the knowledge of God a 'mountain.'

'Say to the cities of Judah:'

'Behold your God! Behold, the Lord comes with strength, and His arm with dominion;'

'behold, His reward is with Him, and each one's work is before Him.'

These things signify the second coming of our Saviour;

for then He will both give the wage to the labourers and render to each according to his works;

for then each one's work will become manifest, according to the word of the Apostle:

'For the Day,' he says, 'shall declare it, because it is revealed in fire, and the fire shall test what sort each one's work is.' This too the Lord charged the holy Apostles to do:

For, He said, 'Go to the lost sheep of the house of Jacob.'

And as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of heaven has drawn near. It is possible, then, to see the prophet's oracles thus corresponding to the words of the Gospel.

As a shepherd he will tend his flock, and with his arm he will gather the lambs, and in his bosom he will carry them, and he will comfort those that are with child.

And let us learn the fulfilment of these things exactly and truly in the sacred Gospels.

For first of all the Lord himself said:

I am the good shepherd, and I know my own and am known by my own, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And he also gathered the lambs with his arm,

by the power of his teaching.

For now he said to the fishermen:

and at another time he even endured a harlot woman lamenting at his feet;

and he comforted the women with child, as though bringing them to birth unto salvation;

for learning of the destruction of death and the hope of the resurrection, they had in the expectation of what was proclaimed a sufficient consolation for their pangs.

And even while still being carried in the womb by the holy Virgin, he filled Elizabeth, who was herself with child, with gladness.

Then he teaches the wisdom, the knowledge, and the power of God the Word who became man, and he refutes the vanity of the idols:

Who has measured the water with his hand, and the heaven with a span, and all the earth with his fist? The divine is indeed incorporeal and without form, simple and uncompounded;

but since it is impossible for us, being men, to comprehend divine things otherwise than from human things, the prophetic word teaches us that the God of all is himself incomprehensible and uncircumscribed, yet holds all creation in his hand — the 'hand' being of course understood as a certain operation — so that the whole nature of the waters has the measure of a cup, the vaults of the heavens are contained within a span, and the whole earth differs in nothing from some tiny bit of matter held together by the five fingers of the hand.

Who has set the mountains by weight and the wooded valleys in a balance? This is equivalent to saying:

all things are possible to him, all things measurable to him, and each kind of created thing has come into being useful for some purpose; for nothing idle or superfluous was brought into existence.

Who has known the mind of the Lord, and who has become his counsellor to instruct him? Or who has shown him judgement? Or who has shown him the way of understanding? All of us men have need of instruction.

For even if someone is exceedingly wise, he refers what is to be done to another;

but the God of all is an abyss of wisdom and an ocean of understanding.

If all the nations were reckoned as a drop from a bucket and as the tipping of a balance, and shall be reckoned as spittle;

and Lebanon is not sufficient for a burnt offering, and all the four-footed beasts are not sufficient for a whole burnt offering, and all the nations are as nothing and were reckoned by him as nothing.

To whom have you likened the Lord, or with what likeness have you likened him? And in giving the law the God of all commanded, saying:

You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth; for I am the Lord your God — that is to say:

he wishes to show the boundlessness of the divine power; and being unable to teach men otherwise, he demonstrates its surpassing greatness from the creation.

For what a drop is to a bucket, and the tipping of a balance, and spittle — this, he says, is what the whole nature of men is in relation to that ineffable and unbounded power.

Then he teaches that all the kinds of four-footed beasts are but small and insufficient for sacrifice to the divine majesty, and that all the wood of Lebanon is not enough to feed the kindled fire.

What image, then, will you be able to fashion of such a One? Has not a craftsman made an image? Or has not a goldsmith, having melted gold, overlaid it with gold or fashioned it into a likeness? What art can imitate one so infinite, so unbounded? For the craftsman chooses wood that does not rot and wisely considers how he shall set it up as an image and how it shall not be shaken.

Concerning the God of all he spoke thus:

'Lebanon is not sufficient for a burnt offering'; but here, mocking the weakness of the idols, he shows the craftsman in need of wood for the shaping of the so-called god.

And not only, he says, does it receive both its substance and its form from a collection of contributions, but it also requires much art in order to attain to a likeness and to remain immovable.

Will you not know? Will you not hear? Was it not declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood the foundations of the earth? Did I not, he says, teach you from above the weakness of the idols? Have you not understood who it is that founded the earth upon its firm establishment? For this is what he added:

It is he who holds the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are as locusts.

He himself, he says, brought it into being; he himself upholds and governs it.

And men, when compared to the divine power, differ in nothing from locusts.

Then he teaches that he is not only the maker of the earth but also the creator of the heavens:

It is he who set up the heaven as a vault and stretched it out as a tent to dwell in.

For since the earth resembles a floor, and the heaven imitates an arched and domed roof, he fittingly likened it to a tent.

And having thus shown us the God of all as creator, the prophetic word also shows us his ineffable providence:

It is he who appoints rulers to rule over nothing.

For thus he brought down Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar and countless others.

And he made the earth as nothing.

For the power of the Maker is not measured by his works, but by his will alone;

for all things, he says, that the Lord willed he did — not as much as he was able, but as much as he willed;

for he was able to do many times more, but he made only what he judged to be good.

For they shall not sow, nor shall they plant, nor shall their root be rooted in the earth;

a wind blew upon them and they withered, and a tempest shall take them away like stubble.

This he said concerning the impious rulers whom he stripped of their dominion.

Now then, to whom have you likened me, that I should be exalted? said the Holy One.

To whom do you liken the One who has made these things, who continually works these things? What worthy worship do you offer? Lift up your eyes on high and see:

Who has revealed all these things? For behold, he says, the sun, the moon, the dance of the stars, the turnings of the year, the changes of the seasons, the equal alternations of night and day.

It is he who brings forth his ordered world by number.

By 'world' he calls the orderly arrangement of creation.

He will call them all by name.

He is ignorant of nothing, he says, but knows all things clearly;

for he himself has assigned to each thing even its name.

By reason of his great glory and in the might of his strength, nothing has escaped you.

He is mighty in all things, he is able in all things, he is ignorant of nothing that comes to pass, and he knows even the reasonings of men themselves.

For do not say, O Jacob, and why do you speak thus, O Jerusalem:

My way is hidden from my God, my judgement has passed him by? Do not suppose, he says, that I am ignorant of the counsels of your souls, nor imagine, when you devise wicked things, that you escape notice.

From this it is clear that he also made against these very people his indictment of polytheism.

And now have you not known? Have you not heard? These things the Three rendered more clearly:

'Have you not known or heard?' And Aquila:

'Have you not indeed known or heard?' And Theodotion:

'Have you not known or heard?' He says: You have no excuse whatever;

for through all the prophets and through countless wonders I taught you my power.

Then he reminds them of the things he had often taught:

This too the blessed Moses said:

But you, O Lord, abide for ever, and your memorial is unto generation and generation. And again:

But you are the same, and your years shall not fail. God who fashioned the ends of the earth.

This too the blessed Moses taught:

'He who lays the foundation of the earth and its security. He shall neither hunger nor grow weary.'

'Shall I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?' And 'there is no searching out of His understanding.'

This is also what the admirable Hannah said:

'The Lord makes poor and makes rich, He brings low and He lifts up,' and what follows.

'For youths shall hunger and young men shall grow weary, and chosen ones shall be without strength;'

'but those who wait upon God shall renew their strength; they shall put forth feathers like eagles; they shall run and not grow weary; they shall walk and not hunger.'

These things came to pass both concerning the Jews and concerning the divine apostles.

For as many as disbelieved were given over to famine and pestilence and war and enslavement;

but those who believed, made new by the all-holy Spirit, imitating the swiftest flight of the eagles, ran into all the inhabited world, contending as if in bodies not their own.

Having thus shown forth the course of the apostles, he foretells salvation to the churches throughout the inhabited world:

'Be renewed unto Me, O islands;'

'for the rulers shall renew their strength.'

He calls the churches islands, inasmuch as they receive the waves of their persecutors yet are firmly set upon the rock; and he names the heralds of the truth rulers, who after the calling came to be in place of others;

for they no longer caught fish from a single lake, but human beings from all the inhabited world.

He exhorts these same men to bring forward teaching that is in harmony, and to proclaim beforehand to all the judgment that is to come.

'Who raised up righteousness from the east? He called it to his feet, and they shall go; and He shall give it before the nations, and shall astonish kings, and shall cast their swords upon the ground, and their children shall be as driven stubble; and he shall pursue them, and the way of his feet shall pass through in peace, it shall not come.'

Concerning this righteousness the blessed Paul also said:

'Wisdom was given to us from God, both righteousness and sanctification and redemption.' When this righteousness had risen and coursed through the inhabited world, kings were astonished, tyrants were overcome, every kind of torment was refuted, and the persecuted conquered their persecutors, and as if enjoying the utmost peace they completed the course set before them.

'It shall not come'—this does not stand in the Seventy, but, as standing in the Others, it was added with an asterisk.

For the impious were unwilling even to give heed to the divine proclamations.

'Who has wrought and done these things? He who calls it has called it from the generations of the beginning'—that is, righteousness.

From of old, he says, He foretold the things concerning it.

These things He also foretold through the other prophets.

'I am God, the first, and unto the things that are coming I am.'

It is not one who gave the old covenant and another who legislates the new; the divine nature is one, ever the same and in the same manner.

The divine nature is one, ever the same and disposed in the same manner.

'I saw the nations and they were afraid; the ends of the earth were astonished.'

And the experience of events bears witness;

for men, forsaking error, learned instead the truth.

'They drew near and came together, each judging to help his neighbor and his brother.'

For those who of old were wandering, having enjoyed the light of the knowledge of God, do not endure to hide the radiance, but call all men into fellowship.

'And he shall say'—that is, the one who has been delivered from the darkness of ignorance:

'The craftsman prevailed, and the smith striking with the hammer, driving it at once, will sometimes say:'

'It is a good joint; they have strengthened them with nails; they will set it up, and it shall not be moved.'

These things, he says, those who have come over to the truth will say to those still held fast in the error of the idols, showing the weakness of these things;

for they can neither walk nor stand unless bound with nails.

'It is a good joint'—thus the Three have rendered it.

'But you, Israel My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, seed of Abraham whom I loved, whom I laid hold of from the end of the earth, and from its watchtowers I called you and said to you:'

'You are My servant; I have chosen you and have not forsaken you;'

'fear not, for I am with you;'

'do not be led astray, for I am your God who strengthened you; and I helped you and made you secure by My righteous right hand.'

For Israel he sometimes weaves praises and sometimes attaches accusations, doing not contrary things but things that are fitting;

for from Israel came those who believed, and from Israel those who crucified;

reasonably, therefore, he praises the one and accuses the other.

Here, moreover, he also reminded them of the ancient promises and benefactions, and how He led forth the patriarch from the land of the Chaldeans, and freed the whole race from the dominion of the Egyptians and counted them worthy of every kind of providence.

'Behold, all who oppose you shall be ashamed and confounded, for they shall be as those who are not; and all your adversaries shall perish. You shall seek them and shall not find the men who acted insolently against you;'

'for they shall be as those who are not, and those who war against you shall not be.'

Then he teaches the cause of the victory:

'Because I am your God, who holds your right hand, who says to you:'

'Fear not, I have helped you.'

These things came to pass in a typical way even concerning the Babylonians.

For the God of all, having overthrown their dominion and freed these from bitter servitude, brought them back to their ancestral land;

yet properly and truly it fits the holy apostles and the victorious martyrs;

for those who warred against them have come to shame, and their persecutors are now vanished and obscure, while the champions of the truth are renowned and illustrious.

'Fear not, O worm Jacob, O little Israel; I have helped you, says God who redeems you, the Holy One of Israel.'

And these things especially make clear that the prophetic word fits those who have believed in the Lord.

A small part of Israel believed, but the greatest part disbelieved.

'So also at the present time there has come to be a remnant according to the election of grace,' and again:

'The election obtained it, but the rest were hardened,' and again the prophet says:

'Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved.' And the name of the worm fits exceedingly well;

first, on account of the apparent lowliness—for the divine apostle too, wishing to display this, said:

'God chose the foolish things of the world, that He might put to shame the wise, and the weak things of the world and the despised and the things that are not, that He might bring to nothing the things that are.' For wishing to indicate the surpassing degree, and finding nothing comparable, he called them 'things that are not,' as if to say:

'Compared with the others, these are nothing'—and he calls them so also on account of another feature of the worm:

it consumes strength in a short time; so also the athletes of the truth, hidden and unnoticed, overthrew the error of the idols.

'Behold, I have made you as new threshing wheels of a wagon, saw-shaped, and you shall thresh mountains and grind small the hills and make them as dust and winnow them, and a wind shall take them and a tempest shall scatter them abroad;'

'but you shall rejoice in the Lord, in the holy ones of Israel.'

Since he had addressed them as a worm on account of the apparent lowliness, he now, on the contrary, displayed their hidden strength;

for just as the saw-shaped wagon grinds small the sheaf, so also you shall grind small and winnow away all the error that holds sway, which imitates the height of the mountains and the hills, and having scattered it as with a tempest, you shall consign it to oblivion, rejoicing and exulting on account of the multitude of those being saved.

'And the poor and needy shall exult.'

He means those from the nations who have believed.

For these were the poor, who had not received the prophetic wealth.

'They shall seek water, and there shall be none.'

'Their tongue is parched with thirst.'

These things they had suffered before their calling, passing their days in destitution and pressed hard by great thirst.

'I am the Lord your God; I, the God of Israel, will hearken unto them, and will not forsake them.'

For though I am named the God of Israel, yet am I the God of all.

Wherefore also I will open rivers upon the mountains and springs in the midst of the plains.

Those who have been entrusted with the gift of teaching He thus calls;

for in the holy Gospels also He said:

'He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.' 'I will make the wilderness into pools of water, and the thirsty land into channels of water.'

By 'wilderness' He designates the Gentiles;

and to these He had promised these same things in the passages before as well.

'I will set in the waterless land the cedar and the box tree and the myrtle and the cypress and the poplar; I will set in the Arabah the juniper, the daar and the thaasour together.'

These untranslated names Symmachus thus rendered.

'That they may see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done these things, and the Holy One of Israel hath shewn them forth.'

And the marvel of the things coming to pass shall point to the Author of them.

Having thus shewn the transformation of the wilderness, He again convicts the weakness of the idols.

'Your judgment draweth near, saith the Lord God;'

'your counsels have drawn near, saith the King of Jacob;'

'let them draw near and declare to you what shall come to pass, or tell what the former things were, and we will set our mind and know what the latter things are;'

'and tell us the things that are coming, declare to us the things that shall come at the last, and we shall know that ye are gods.'

'Your judgment draweth near'—thus Symmachus rendered it:

'Bring forward your case, said the Lord;'

'draw near with your mighty ones, said the King of Jacob.' Become, He says, judges between Me and the idols; bring into the midst the mighty ones, or, according to Theodotion, your strongholds, that is, the idols;

let them foretell the things that shall be, let them teach the things that came about from the beginning;

for I have continually done both.

For through Moses My servant I taught even the things that came to pass before the creation of mankind, while the things that shall be I made known both through him and through the other prophets.