Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 16/24

Discoursing with those in Babylon, He promises to give the grace of the Spirit not to them, but to their descendants.

This He also foretold through Joel the prophet.

'It shall be in the last days that I will pour out from my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.' And this too received its fulfillment on the day of Pentecost, when, as the holy apostles were gathered together, the grace of the Spirit descended upon them, and they were speaking in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them to utter.

'water to those who journey in the waterless place'—He showed through whom He would give it.

'For I will place,' He says, 'my Spirit upon your seed, and my blessings upon your children.'

Then He foretells the flowers of those who are watered.

'And they shall spring up like grass amid water, and like a willow beside running water.'

He also foretells the fervor of their faith.

'I am God's,' and this one shall cry out in the name of Jacob, and another shall write with his hand, 'I am God's,' and shall cry out in the name of Israel.

And the facts bear witness to the prophecy.

For with boldness each of the faithful names himself a Christian, and glories in this appellation.

'Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, who delivered him, the God of hosts:'

'I am the first, and I am after these things, and besides me there is no God.'

If besides Him there is none, and yet the Son is not consubstantial—according to the blasphemy of Arius and Eunomius—how is He called God apart from them? But if He is God, and the prophetic word is true which says outright that there is no other God, then the Godhead of the Holy Trinity is one, however unwilling they may be to admit it.

'Who is like me? Let him stand and call and declare and prepare for me, ever since I made man for the age; and let them announce to you the things that are coming, before they come.'

'Let the ones called gods by you,' He says, 'tell you the things that have already come to pass, or foretell the things that are to be.'

'Do not veil yourselves, nor go astray.'

'Did you not give ear from the beginning, and did I not announce it to you?' 'Do not,' He says, 'plead ignorance.'

'From of old I taught you the truth; at the very outset of the giving of the Law I said:'

'You shall have no other gods besides me. You are my witnesses, whether there is a God besides me.'

'Examine the nature of things, and confess, you also, that there is no other God.'

'And there were not then any who fashioned vain things and carved unprofitable ones'—that is, at the time when I was giving the Law.

For it was after the giving of the Law that they made the calf.

'All are vain who make the things of their own desire, which will not profit them.'

For they are themselves the makers of them.

'They shall not see and shall not know, that they may be ashamed.'

'Who fashions a strong thing and casts a graven image into something unprofitable? Behold, all who share in it shall be put to shame.'

At the same time He showed the error both of those who fabricate them and of those who worship them.

For He called those who act impiously 'sharers.'

'And all who fashion a god shall be put to shame, and all who carve unprofitable things.'

'And all from whence they came have withered, and they are deaf, being from among men.'

And through these words He teaches their great senselessness, in that, though they see the uselessness of it, they worship these things as though they were benefactors.

'Let them all be gathered together and stand at once; let them be confounded and put to shame together.'

For the craftsmen are from among men.

The makers of the so-called gods are men, having the same nature as those who worship, and the one who has fashioned this thing worships it, though a man, as if it were a god.

'For a craftsman sharpened iron with an adze, wrought it in the coals, shaped it with an auger, and set it up, and made it with the arm of his strength; and he shall hunger and grow weak and thirst and shall not drink water.'

He showed that the so-called gods are put together from a common contribution.

For the maker of these things has need of a smith for the fashioning of his tools, and of a whetstone to sharpen them;

and the coppersmith has need also of coals and of the co-working of fire;

and he who fashions these things stands in need also of food and drink;

and out of all these things is fabricated the god worshipped by the senseless.

These things he also holds up to ridicule in what follows:

For he says that the craftsman, having chosen a piece of wood, first subjects the so-called god to measurement—yet the true God is not circumscribed by measure—then he shapes it with the tool of his craft—but it is proper to God to be without form and without shape.

And he made it after the form of a man and after the comeliness of a human being, to set it up in a house.

For he imitates, he says, not divine but human features, and modelling a human image he worships as a god his own likeness.

Then he teaches how the Creator has given men the woodlands and the groves upon the mountains, so as to supply fuel for the fire and thereby to provide for the needs of the body; but they, taking the holm-oak or the oak or the pine—which the God of all planted and nourished by the supply of rain, so that men might enjoy bodily goods in abundance—make gods out of them.

And teaching the excess of their folly, he added:

And having taken part of it, he burned it and warmed himself;

and when they had kindled it, they baked loaves upon the coals, but the remainder they wrought and made into gods, and they worship them.

He made it a graven image and falls down before it; half of it he burned in the fire, and upon the half he roasted meat and ate and was filled, and being warmed he said:

It is pleasant to me, for I have been warmed and have seen fire.

And the remainder of it he made into a graven god, and he falls down before it and prays to it, saying:

Deliver me, for you are my god.

If it is a god, he says, let the whole piece of wood be a god.

They have not known how to understand, for their eyes have been dimmed so that they cannot see, and so that they cannot perceive with their heart.

By these words he has made plain the darkness of their soul;

for this darkness lying upon them did not permit them to recognize the nature of the things that come to be.

And for a greater exposure of their absurdity he again says the same things, and at the last he adds:

Know that their heart is ashes, and they go astray, and no one is able to deliver his own soul.

For folly took hold of them, and having corrupted their reason, they are enslaved to unreason.

for there is no other way for them to learn the truth.

See, will you not say that there is a lie in my right hand? This the Others (the other translators) join to what precedes:

Because no one is able to deliver his own soul, nor will he say:

Is there not a lie in my right hand? And concerning those who have gone astray he said that they do not perceive the lie they are holding fast.

And according to the Seventy, this too, taken as spoken in the person of God, is to be understood thus:

Are my works, he says, such as those of the whetstone? Did a man fashion me? Am I an idol? Have I been fabricated out of stones or wood or gold or silver? Remember these things, O Jacob and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you as my servant, you are mine.

and you, O Israel, do not forget me.

Behold the difference between Him who truly is and the idols; behold their weakness and my power; consider my manifold benefits, and do not forget the good things you have enjoyed.

For behold, I have blotted out your iniquities like a cloud, and your sins like a thick mist.

Turn back to me, and I will redeem you.

He pardoned their transgressions indeed at the time when he delivered them from the bondage of the Babylonians;

but properly and truly it was after the Incarnation that he blotted out the iniquities of those who had believed in him, and dispelled the thick mist of their sins, and bestowed eternal life.

Let us then keep unquenched the remembrance of his benefits, and requiting our Benefactor with a pure life, let us abide unto the enjoyment of the good things we hope for, which may it be ours to attain by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father be glory, together with the all-holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.

Sound aloud, O foundations of the earth; cry out for joy, O mountains, and the hills and all the trees that are in them, because God has redeemed Jacob, and Israel shall be glorified.

Foreshadowing this, he calls the creation into fellowship of joy—not because these things are ensouled, but because when we are downcast they too seem to appear gloomy, and when we rejoice they naturally appear more radiant—not that they themselves change, but that they so appear to us.

But if anyone should wish to understand by the heavens the heavenly powers, and by the foundations of the earth the holy prophets, as those who uphold it, he would not miss the truth;

There is joy among the angels over one sinner that repents. In this way also the mountains and the hills and the trees in them will be understood;

for after the return of Israel the cultivated lands flourished and afforded joy to the mountains.

Thus says the Lord, who redeems you and who formed you from the womb.

Three things at once the word has taught:

that he is both Creator and Master and Guardian.

For the word 'Lord' signifies the mastery, the redemption signifies the guardianship, and the forming signifies the creation.

I am the Lord who accomplishes all these things.

I both brought upon you the gloomy things and will bring to you the gladsome ones.

Then he shows, from the things already brought to pass, his power:

I stretched out the heaven alone, and established the earth.

These things are sufficient to refute the madness of Arius and Eunomius;

For who is it that made these things alone? The Father? Then the Son is not Creator;

But is it the Son? Then the Father is not Creator;

but if both Father and Son, how are we to understand the 'alone'? Surely it is plain that it means the one Godhead of the Trinity.

But these matters have been sufficiently demonstrated by us also elsewhere;

let us then hold to the interpretation.

For no one will be able to scatter my works, but for me it is easy to quench their error.

Turning the wise back backward, and making foolish their counsel.

Not only will I show those who divine future things to be liars, but I will also expose the folly of those who plume themselves upon their wisdom.

This too the divine apostle said:

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? And confirming the words of his servant.

The prophet himself, who ministers to Him with these very words, he here called His servant.

And verifying the counsel of his angels (messengers).

And he says this not only of this one, but also of the others, as many as convey the divine words.

But he has said this here not simply, but for the confirmation of the things about to be said;

for in what follows he foretells the reign of Cyrus, the first to rule over the Persians, and the return of the people, and the building of Jerusalem, and the utter destruction of Babylon.

Confirming the words of his servant.

You shall be inhabited, and to the cities of Judea:

You shall be built up, and its desolate places I will raise up.

The word has shown the all-powerful might of the Maker;

for by a word I brought forth the creation.

'You shall be made desolate, and I will dry up your rivers.'

Here he named Babylon 'the abyss,' and its rivers the multitudes of its inhabitants, whom it received after the manner of rivers, imitating the waves of the sea.

'Who says to Cyrus, Be wise, and carry out all my desires.'

'I,' he says, 'will make Cyrus ready to be wise and to fulfil my will.'

And to show what sort of will this was, he added:

'You shall be built up, and I will lay the foundation of my holy house.'

'Thus says the Lord God to my anointed, Cyrus.'

The divine Scripture calls 'anointed ones' not only those who are anointed, but also those who are set apart by the God of all for some particular service.

Thus also, when he made mention of the fathers before the Law, he said:

'Touch not my anointed ones.' Here, however, he named Cyrus 'anointed,' teaching that he himself had appointed him king, so that he might both overthrow the dominion of the Babylonians, and release the Jews from their captivity, and build the divine temple.

'I will break the [strength] of kings, I will open doors before him, and cities shall not be shut.'

'I will go before him and level mountains, I will shatter gates of bronze and break in pieces bars of iron.'

'I will level mountains and shatter gates of bronze'—this is what it signifies:

'And I will give you dark treasures, hidden ones; I will open to you unseen things.'

That is to say, the treasures of the Babylonians, which Nebuchadnezzar and the other kings had gathered together and hidden away.

'That you may know that I am the Lord God, who calls your name.'

'From of old and many generations before, I appointed for you this name.'

And teaching who it was that did these things, he added:

For since those who were led astray supposed that there were many gods, he reveals himself through those who worship him.

Then he teaches the reason for his great providence:

'For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen one, I have called you by my name and will receive you.'

'My name,' he says, 'shall be laid upon you; and that name which I am about to take when I assume human nature, by that name I first named you.'

For he in a special sense was named Christ (Anointed).

'But you did not know me, that I am the Lord God, and there is no God besides me.'

'I strengthened you, and you did not know me.'

For he too was in bondage to the error of idols;

and though he received his kingdom from the God of all and obtained so great a help, he did not recognize the Giver of good things; yet nevertheless, even while he was in error, God counted him worthy of all these benefits, appointing him as the minister of the punishment of the Babylonians and of the liberation of Israel.

Some of the copies, however, I found to read thus:

'But you, Israel, did not know me.' Yet neither in the Hebrew did I find the word 'Israel' present, nor among the Other Translators, nor among the Seventy in the Hexapla.

For it is not the ignorance of Israel that he here reproves, but that of Cyrus.

Then he also teaches the reason for the liberation of the Jews:

'That those from the rising of the sun and those from its setting may know that there is none besides me.'

For those who heard of that new and marvellous release, and the honourable return, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the decrees of Cyrus concerning it, came to know that the God of the Jews alone is truly God.

'I am the Lord God, and there is no other.'

'I am he who made light and formed darkness.'

Here he calls 'light' the things that are pleasant:

the deliverance from bondage, and freedom, and the return; and 'darkness' the gloomy things:

the siege, the enslavement, the bondage.

'Both,' he says, 'I have made, these things and those:'

'I both used Nebuchadnezzar for punishment, and put forward Cyrus as the minister of liberation.'

And just as I am the maker both of light and of darkness, and brought forth each of these for the use of men, so also I brought upon Israel their bondage for their benefit, and bestowed their freedom out of loving-kindness.

'He who makes peace and creates evils, I am the Lord God who makes all these things.'

He plainly taught what he called darkness and light:

for peace he named 'light,' and the things that seem to be evils 'darkness.'

And he has called them 'evils' not as being evil by nature, but as being so reckoned by men.

'I have seen an evil day today'—not because the day was changed into some other nature, but because on it there befell painful things.

Then, to show the truth of what had been foretold, he again calls the creation into fellowship of joy:

'Let the heaven above rejoice'—the heavenly powers that rejoice together at the salvation of men.

'And let the clouds rain down righteousness.'

Here, then, the word charges these to offer the word concerning righteousness like a kind of rain.

And after the return they did see prophets—Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi.

'Let the earth spring forth mercy, and let it cause righteousness to spring up together.'

For it is fitting that those who enjoy such watering should offer fruits befitting the watering;

and the watering supplied the words concerning righteousness;

wherefore he requires of them the fruits of righteousness and mercy.

For by 'the earth' he named those who dwell upon the earth.

'I am the Lord who created you.'

'For I both in the beginning brought you into being;'

'and just as,' he says, 'the potter refashions the earthen vessel when it is shattered, so will I make you better than you were before.'

'Will the ploughman plough the ground all day long?' That is to say:

it is not fitting to apply chastisement continually; for neither does the husbandman for ever break up the ground.

'Woe to him who contends with his Maker.'

'Shall the clay say to the potter:'

'What are you making? Why do you not work, and [why do you not have] the work in your hands? Shall the thing formed answer back to him who formed it?' For since at that time there were many, and even now there are likewise those who pry into the divine providence and attempt to meddle busily—why do wars come about, why are there failures of the earth's crops, why untimely deaths, and all such things—he fittingly first lamented over those who demand an accounting from the Maker of all, and then, by the image of the clay and the potter, adequately stopped their mouths:

for just as the clay does not demand of the clay-worker an accounting of his idleness or his working, so neither is it fitting for you to pry into the things of God;

for what the clay is, that are you;

but I have the very greatest difference in comparison with the potter;

for the potter, although he is the maker of the earthen vessel, is himself of the same origin as the clay;

but I have a nature that is uncreated.

Yet nevertheless the clay does not speak out, but submits to whatever fashioning the potter may wish to impose upon it;

But you despise my providence.

'What will you beget?' — and to the mother:

'What are you bringing forth in travail?' He shifted his discourse once more into another image, showing the excess of their blasphemy.

For if he who contradicts his parents is a transgressor, what punishment will he incur who wags his tongue against his Maker? 'For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, who formed him, who made the things that are to come.'

He showed himself to be the fashioner and creator, putting the ungrateful to shame.

'Ask me concerning my sons and my daughters, and command me concerning the works of my hands.'

He has set these words down by way of irony.

Since, he says, you meddle with my providence, give me counsel, bring forward a proposal concerning the deliverance of my people.

He named Israel 'sons and daughters.'

Then through creation he displays his own wisdom and power:

'I made the earth and man upon it; I with my hand established the heaven; I commanded all the stars to shine.'

Behold the beauty of the things that are seen, their position, their order, their variety;

I am the maker of all these things.

But let us understand the 'hand' in a manner befitting God — not as a bodily part but as the divine energy.

'I raised him up as a king with righteousness, and all his ways are straight;

he shall build my city and shall turn back the captivity of my people, not with ransoms nor with gifts,' says the Lord of Sabaoth.

The Three rendered these words thus:

'I have stirred him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways straight;

he shall build my city and shall send forth my colony, not for a price nor with gifts,' says the Lord of hosts. This too he said concerning Cyrus.

And the Three followed the sense of the Hebrew more precisely, in that:

'I will make his ways straight,' that is to say:

I will grant him much ease for accomplishment.

He made his victory over his enemies easy for him;

for he was about to grant freedom to the people, receiving no ransoms but bestowing this freely as a gift.

Having thus foretold the kingdom of Cyrus and the return of the people and the rebuilding of the city, he also predicts the prosperity that would follow the city's restoration, and the conversion of the nations, and the change of the Egyptians and Ethiopians for the better, and the knowledge of the theology of the Only-Begotten.

'Egypt has laboured, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians, and the Sabaeans, men of stature, shall cross over to you and shall be your servants.'

But if they lack this proof — for no history teaches this — yet they confess the prophecy to be true, let them receive the true account and take their eyes as witnesses of the things that are said.

For they behold the Lord who sprang from them according to the flesh being worshipped by Egyptians and Ethiopians and all men.

For this — that which he took from them — is not the only thing that he is; but he is also the maker of all things and God.

For what follows teaches us this plainly:

'They shall follow after you bound with fetters, and shall cross over to you and shall worship you and shall pray in you, because in you is God, and there is no God besides you.'

Let the Jews behold a duality of persons proclaimed in one:

for 'in you is God, and you are God, and there is no God besides you.'

These words also refute the madness of Arius and Eunomius;

for if there is none besides him, how could the God who is in him be God? But the prophetic word teaches:

'Because in you is God, and there is no God besides you.'

For in those passages too the Lord said:

'I am in the Father and the Father in me, and I and the Father are one, and the Father who abides in me, he does the works.' Thus the prophetic word refuted both the Jews, who confine the Godhead to one person, and Arius and Eunomius, who attempt to introduce another nature of Godhead.

And what follows also proclaims the one Godhead:

'For you are God, and we did not know it, the God of Israel, the Saviour.'

These things, he says, the Egyptians and Ethiopians and Sabaeans who worship will say.

Through these words the discourse introduces the foreign nations saying that until now we were going astray and did not know you, the one who is truly God, who has ever been the Saviour of Israel.

But since not all were going to believe the saving proclamation, he foretells also concerning the unbelieving:

'All who oppose him shall be ashamed and confounded, and shall walk in shame.'

And the facts bear witness to the word;

for those from among the Jews and those from among the nations who have disbelieved have shame as the fruit of their unbelief.

'Be renewed unto me, you islands.'

For since he had shown those who dwell on the mainland worshipping, he fittingly promises the making-new to the islanders as well.

'Israel is saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation; they shall not be ashamed nor confounded for ever.'

Let the Jews say how this word fits them.

For that they are scattered over the whole inhabited world and are enslaved to the Romans, they could not deny, even were they exceedingly shameless.

For these truly enjoyed the everlasting salvation.

'Having displayed the earth and made it, he himself defined it; he did not make it in vain, but formed it to be inhabited.'

Continually he puts to shame those who contradict, showing himself to be the maker of all things.

And at the same time he teaches that from of old the salvation of men had been predetermined by him;

for he did not make the earth in vain, but bore with the impiety of men, having purposed the change.

'I am the Lord, and there is none else.'

And indeed the Son too is Lord;

for he says, 'The Lord said to my Lord,' and:

'The Lord rained down from the Lord.' But there is one Lordship just as there is one Godhead.

These words too, therefore, refute the madness of the heretics.

'I have not spoken in secret nor in a dark place of the earth.'

He has said these things, holding up to ridicule the deceit of the idols.

For their attendant priests, employing certain sorceries and taking the gloom as an ally of their deception, from certain shrines and dark places used to speak whatever they wished and to cheat those who heard, saying that the idols were uttering this voice.

But I, he says, both in giving the law and in prophesying, have said this openly.

On the contrary, I have utterly and altogether forbidden this.

For I, in giving the law, said:

'You shall not make for yourself an idol. I am the Lord who speaks righteousness and declares truth.'

Nothing unjust, nothing false is with me;

all things are true, all things adorned with righteousness.

'Gather yourselves together and come; take counsel together, you who are being saved from among the nations.'

'They have no knowledge, who lift up the wood of their carved images and pray to gods that cannot save nor give any answer.'

He sets falsehood side by side with the truth, and displays the very nature of the idols, the form imposed upon them, and the ruinous worship offered to them.

For he says it is but wood fashioned by a carpenter, unable either to save or to teach or to foretell anything.

'Let them draw near, that they may know together: who has made these things heard from the beginning? From that time it was announced to you.'

For indeed, when first giving the Law, He taught this before all else.

'I am God, and there is no other besides Me; a righteous One and a Savior, there is none apart from Me.'

And these words plainly teach us the consubstantiality.

For if the Father is God and the Son is God, and the Father is Savior and the Son is Savior, yet the prophetic word has set these titles down in the singular, it has most clearly shown the identity of essence.

For if besides Him there is no God, and apart from Him there is no Savior—

then if it is the Father who says these things, the Son is excluded from them, as though He were not consubstantial;

or again, if it be the Son who says these things, then the Father is deprived of them.

But if the Father is God and the Son is God, and the Father is Savior and the Son is Savior, while it is said in the singular that besides Him there is neither God nor Savior, then it belongs to men deranged and frenzied not to perceive the one Godhead.

'Turn to Me and be saved, you who are from the ends of the earth.'

Here too the word has plainly revealed the calling of the nations.

'I am God, and there is no other.'

'Truly, righteousness shall go forth from My mouth; My words shall not be turned back, for to Me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear by the true God, saying:'

And these words likewise convict the unbelief of the Jews.

The word proclaimed the knowledge of God to all the nations, and it accuses the madness and impiety of Arius and Eunomius;

for the things the prophet spoke here as in the person of the Father, these the divine Apostle applied to the person of the Son, saying thus:

'We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.'

'As I live, says the Lord, to Me every knee shall bow.' But He who says these things has repeatedly declared that besides Him there is no God;

therefore the word proclaims the one Godhead.

'By Myself I swear'—this shows the consubstantiality of the Son and the Father;

and the divine Apostle is a witness, speaking thus:

'Since He had no one greater by whom to swear, He said:'

This is the shame borne by those who have preferred unbelief to faith, whether Jews or Greeks.

'In the Lord shall they be justified, and in God shall all the seed of the sons of Israel be glorified.'

'All the seed of Israel'—for then the Jews would have seized upon the word—but rather:

'All the seed of the sons of Israel.'

Now the sons of Israel are those descended from Israel, and their seed are those among the nations who have been counted worthy of salvation;

for it was through those of the Jews who had believed that they received the seed of the teaching and reaped salvation.

Thus the prophetic word, having spoken of God, having pointed out those who believed and refuted those who disbelieved, also foretells the destruction of the idols:

Now this was an idol of the Philistines.

And some have said that Bel was Cronus.

'Their carved images became beasts and cattle.'

For they fashioned idols not only in the shape of men, but also in the likeness of wild beasts and cattle;