Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 17/24

and especially the Egyptians worshiped images of apes and dogs and lions and sheep and crocodiles, while the people of Ekron even had an image of a fly, and others worshiped likenesses of bats;

and these things the prophetic word denounced in the opening passages.

The ruin of all these it foretells:

'Take them up bound like a burden for one who is weary and has no strength, both hungry and faint, who will not be able to save themselves from war, and they themselves were led away captive.'

Just as other burdens, he says, cannot walk but must be carried, so too these, being motionless, compel those who bear them to toil.

And so great is their weakness that they cannot even, like men, flee in time of war.

'Hear Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of Israel, you who are borne from the womb and instructed from infancy until old age.'

Here he accuses the foolish teaching of the Jews;

for although instructed in divine matters from childhood, they became far removed from the truth.

'I am He, and even until you grow old I am He.'

You, He says, undergo many changes, but I have a nature that is unalterable;

you are subject both to old age and to death, but I am incorruptible and immortal.

'I bear with you; I have made you, and I will let you go, and I will take you up and save you.'

I endure your ingratitude, I bear with your lawlessness, I await your repentance;

for it was I who brought you into being.

'And those who pool their contributions, gold from a purse and silver on a scale, will weigh it out by weight, and having hired a goldsmith, they made it into a handmade thing, and bowing down they worship it.'

'They lift it upon their shoulder, and it is carried along;'

'but if they set it down, it stays in its place and will not move;'

'and whoever cries out to it, it will not hear, nor save him from his troubles.'

He has plainly ridiculed the weakness of the idols.

And since he had earlier made mention of the fabrication from wood, but the material of gold and silver is more precious than wood, and many, attending to the material, offered greater honor to gods of gold and silver, he of necessity teaches concerning these also: that gathering gold and silver by common contribution, hiring a goldsmith, and handing it over by weight, they deify the statue wrought by him—a statue that uses feet not its own, and, if these be lacking, remains motionless, and brings no help to those who worship it.

After this refutation he introduces an exhortation:

'Remember these things and groan; repent, you who have gone astray; return in heart, and remember the former things from of old, that I am God and there is none else besides Me, declaring beforehand the last things before they come to pass, and they were accomplished together.'

For I foretell what will be even many generations beforehand, and I fulfill what I foretell.

'All My counsel shall stand, and all that I have purposed I will do;'

'I have spoken and have brought it about, I have created and made it.'

All things are easy for the God of the universe;

for not only rational beings but even irrational ones yield to the divine command.

'Hear Me, you who have lost heart, who are far from righteousness:'

'I have brought near My righteousness, it shall not be far off, and My salvation, which is from Me, I will not delay.'

For even though you are unworthy of salvation, having become far from righteousness through your lawlessness, yet I will provide salvation, and I will bring a just retribution upon the Babylonians.

For all shall learn, through the salvation of Israel, My power, and shall know that I am truly God.

Having thus prophesied these things to Israel, he turns his discourse toward Babylon:

Come down, sit upon the ground, O virgin daughter of Babylon.

He calls her a virgin, not as one undefiled — for she was polluted and licentious — but as one who adorned herself in the manner of a virgin.

Sit upon the ground; there is no throne for you.

You have been stripped, he says, of your kingdom; you have received in exchange the rank of a slave.

Enter into the darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; you shall no longer be called tender and delicate.

You have cast away your former prosperity; you no longer take delight in the misfortunes of others.

Take a millstone, grind meal.

These are tokens of slavery.

Strip yourself of the royal robe, cast off the insignia of kingship.

For the kingdom of the Assyrians is said to have held sway for almost two thousand four hundred years.

Your shame shall be uncovered.

And by these words too he signifies the captivity;

for it belongs to captives to cross the rivers with bare feet.

Your reproaches shall be made manifest; I will exact justice from you, and I will no longer deliver you over to men.

He who delivers you is the Lord — Sabaoth is his name — the Holy One of Israel.

And these words Symmachus rendered thus:

And indeed let your reproach be shown forth;

I will take vengeance, and no man shall withstand me.

I will no longer deliver you over to men;

He who delivers you is the Lord — Sabaoth is his name.

But if one should wish to take the saying as applying to Babylon herself, he would perceive that she too was set free from many sins through her punishment;

for no longer possessing dominion, she no longer sinned, and so she too received benefit, being freed from greater sins.

Enter into the darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans.

For to those who dwell in you, even the light is darkness.

You shall no longer be called the strength of the kingdom.

I was provoked to anger against my people, because they defiled my inheritance.

For they set fire to the divine temple, and dedicated the sacred vessels to the idols, and treated the captives of the spear with cruelty.

And I gave them into your hand.

For you would not have conquered had I not willed it.

I delivered them up wishing to chastise them, not to destroy them utterly.

But you showed them no mercy at all; upon the aged you laid your yoke exceedingly heavy.

Nor did old age appear worthy of reverence to you.

For by this he displayed their great inhumanity.

Forever I shall be ruler.

You did not consider these things in your heart, nor did you remember your latter end.

You did not, he says, expect a change of your prosperity; you supposed that you would hold power for all time.

But now hear these things, you who are delicate, who sit at ease, who are confident, who say in your heart:

I am, and there is none other; I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know bereavement of children.

Fittingly he ridiculed her great arrogance;

for she imagined that she alone would rule the whole world.

But now these two things shall come upon you in one day: widowhood and childlessness; they shall come upon you suddenly.

By widowhood he means the loss of the kingdom, and by childlessness the estrangement of her subjects;

and she endured both at the same time.

Stand now in your great sorcery, in the mighty strength of your enchantments, in the great hope of your fornication.

I am, and there is none other.

Some of the copies have not 'fornication' but 'wickedness,' and thus also the school of Aquila rendered it.

And indeed the fornication accuses their great licentiousness.

But know that the cleverness of these things and your wickedness shall be to you for shame.

And you said in your heart:

I am, and there is none other.

And destruction shall come upon you, and you shall not know it.

Suddenly, he says, you shall receive ruin, and shall be pierced through with unexpected calamities.

A pit — and you shall fall into it; and misery shall come upon you, and you shall not be able to become clean.

But Symmachus and Aquila rendered this thus:

And a calamity shall fall upon you which you shall not be able to expiate — that is to say:

I will surround you with inescapable evils, and you shall not obtain pardon, for you have sinned beyond pardon.

And destruction shall come upon you suddenly, and you shall not know it.

For she did not expect a change, nor did she anticipate any reversal of affairs.

Stand now in your enchantments and in your great sorcery which you learned from your youth, if you can be helped, and if perchance you can prevail.

The prophetic word says these things to her ironically:

Make use of your accustomed trickery, make use of your habitual incantations; perhaps you may escape the evils that have encircled you.

Then he exposes the futility of these things:

You have grown weary in your counsels.

Let now the astrologers of heaven stand and save you, those who gaze at the stars; let them announce to you what is about to come upon you.

After the enchanters and the sorcerers, he refutes the folly of the astrologers who cast nativities.

Behold, all shall be burned up like stubble by fire — both those who deceive and those who are deceived.

And they shall not deliver their soul from the flame.

Those who boast youthfully of foretelling the future to others shall not free themselves from the flame of the enemy.

For you have coals of fire to sit upon.

You yourself, by your own doing, kindled the flame through your impiety and your great transgression of the law.

'Shall these be a help to you?' Those, he says, who cannot even assist themselves — will enchanters and casters of nativities and sorcerers rid you of the calamities that are coming upon you? 'You have grown weary in your changing from your youth.'

By 'changing' he means commerce.

And so also the Three rendered it:

'Your merchants have grown weary from youth.' And he called these same ones merchants.

From the beginning, he says, and from the outset until this very utter destruction, you continually made use of these as counsellors and helpers.

'A man went astray by himself, but for you there shall be no salvation.'

There are indeed, he says, among the other nations too those who choose a lawless law, yet not all embrace this manner of life.

But you pursued lawlessness as though it were law, and practised the utmost impiety as though it were the height of piety;

and for this very reason you shall not enjoy salvation.

But let us, from the punishment of these, reap salvation, and may their destruction become for us the procurer of benefit.

For when we behold what the wages of wickedness are, and travel the opposite manner of life, and, as it were a sacred anchor, hold fast the hope in the God of all, then both in the present life we shall obtain His providential care, and in that which is to come we shall enjoy the eternal good things, by the grace of our Saviour Christ, with whom to the Father be glory together with the all-holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages.

TOME 15. 'Hear these things, O house of Jacob, and you who are called by the name of Israel, and who came forth out of the water of Judah.'

By what has been said he attested to them their kinship according to the flesh with Jacob and Israel and Judah;

for he said that they were called by the name of Israel — not that they had that man's faith;

and that they were the house of Jacob — not the heir of his piety;

and by 'water' he named the seed.

'Who swear by the name of the Lord God of Israel, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not with truth nor with righteousness; and who cleave to the name of the holy city, and lean upon the God of Israel: the Lord of Sabaoth is His name.'

To these resemble the words spoken by the Apostle concerning certain persons:

'Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.' For the Jews too prided themselves greatly on Jerusalem, and boasted as having been chosen by the God of all, and carried the divine Name continually in their mouth — not honouring it in truth, but dishonouring it with falsehood.

For this very reason the prophetic word, showing this Name to be august and awesome, added:

For He is Lord not only of men but also of the heavenly powers.

'The former things I declared of old, and they went forth out of my mouth, and were made audible to you.'

The calamities that were brought upon you I foretold beforehand, so that, having frightened you with the threats, I might rouse you to repentance, and you might not take experience of the painful things;

but since you disbelieved the words, I will show by deeds the truth of the words.

'Suddenly I acted, and it came upon you.'

For you beheld calamities which you did not expect.

'I know that you are hard, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your forehead is brass.'

Having been taught this, the divine Stephen too said to the Jews:

'You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.'

And through the prophet Jeremiah again the God of all said to them:

'You had a harlot's countenance; you were shameless toward all.' This shamelessness is what the brazen forehead also hints at;

for just as the forehead of a bronze statue is not ashamed, so neither do you blush when you transgress, whether reproved or punished.

'And I declared to you things of old before they came upon you, I made them audible to you, lest ever you should say that my idols did it, and that you might not say that the graven and molten images commanded me.'

All things I foretold to you — both the captivity and the freedom — so that you might not attribute the causes of these to the idols, but might know that both I have wrought: the one because of your transgression, the other because of my love for mankind.

'You heard these things, and you did not know them;

but I have also made audible to you the new things from now on, which are about to come to pass, and you did not know them;

and now they come to pass, and not of old, and not in former days, and you did not hear them.'

'You neither heard nor knew, nor from the beginning did I open your ears.'

More clearly through these words he showed their disobedience;

for willingly they stopped up their ears, not wishing even to hear the divine words.

'For I knew that in setting at nought you would set at nought, and lawless you should be called even from the womb.'

But your lawless purpose did not escape me;

for I foreknew your ungrateful disposition, and that, as soon as you were delivered from the bondage of the Egyptians, you would forget the benefits and give yourself to impiety.

For by 'womb' he calls Egypt, and by 'birth' the exodus from there.

'But nevertheless, though knowing even these things, I continued to do good to you, since you are named my people.'

'For my name's sake I will show you my wrath, and I will bring my glorious things upon you, that I may not utterly destroy you.'

By 'wrath' he called the captivity, and by 'glorious things' the marvellous freedom.

'Behold, I sold you, not for silver, but I delivered you out of the furnace of poverty.'

Not out of need for money did I give you over to the Babylonians, but exacting from you the penalty of your lawlessness; yet nevertheless I will again bestow freedom upon you.

For just as in a furnace the fire is hidden, while only the smoke appears above, so those taken captive do not dare to lament openly, but, being consumed within by the flame of despondency, they send up their groaning like a kind of smoke.

'For my own sake I will do it for you, because my name is profaned, and I will not give my glory to another.'

For since the enemies suppose that they have prevailed not only over you but also over me, and that through my weakness they have gained mastery over you, I will free you from that bitter bondage, so that even those who know me not may learn my power.

'Hear me, O Jacob and Israel whom I call: I am the first, and I am unto the age.'

'I am the first, and I am unto the age.'

'My glory I will not give to another' — fittingly he added these words, teaching that He Himself both punishes and saves.

He Himself led Abraham out of the land of the Chaldeans; He Himself handed them over to the Babylonians; He Himself delivered them from the dominion of those men; He Himself will also give the new covenant.

'And my hand founded the earth, and my right hand established the heaven.'

'I will call them, and they shall stand together and all be gathered and hear who declared these things to them.'

'And I am the Maker of all things and the Master, and it is quite easy for me both to call and to present to myself even the inanimate creation.'

'The Lord, loving you, did His will against Babylon, to take away the seed of the Chaldeans.'

'I have spoken and I have called; I brought him, and I made his way prosperous.'

Concerning Cyrus he says these things;

for this man both overthrew the dominion of the Babylonians and delivered the Jews from bondage.

'Draw near to me and hear these things:

Not from the beginning have I spoken in secret, nor in a dark place of the earth;'

Since you disbelieved the gloomy predictions, at least believe the joyful prophecies.

For not like the idols do I utter false oracles in certain dark and secret places, but I thus know these things clearly even before their outcome, as though present at the very events and beholding each one.

'And now the Lord has sent me, and His Spirit.'

'Not of myself,' he says, 'do I speak, but sent forth by the God of all and by the all-holy Spirit.'

And here he clearly showed us, alongside the person of God, another — the person of the Spirit — for the refutation both of the Jews and of those sickened with the errors of Sabellius.

The Lord has sent me, and his Spirit.

For since he had discoursed many times concerning the one Godhead—now saying,

'I am the first, and I am unto the age'—and now,

'Before me there arose no other god, and after me there shall be none'—he of necessity teaches also the distinctive properties of the hypostases: at one time those of the Son and the Father, at another those of the Father and the Holy Spirit.

And concerning the Son and the Father he said,

'For God is in you, and there is no god besides you'; but concerning the Father and the Spirit,

'The Lord has sent me, and his Spirit. Thus says the Lord who redeemed you, the Holy One of Israel:'

'I am the Lord your God; I have shown you what is for your profit, that you might find my way in which you shall walk.'

'I did not permit you to wander astray, but pointed out to you the straight journey.'

And he teaches this more plainly through what follows:

'And if you had hearkened to my commandments, your peace would have become as a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea.'

'If you had ordered your life according to my laws, you would not have tasted the calamities of war, but would have enjoyed a peace that imitates the streams of an ever-flowing river, never once cut off.'

'And living in peace and following my ordinances, you would have gained the wealth of righteousness, overflowing and comparable to the waves of the sea.'

But since the Jews were unwilling to heed these things—being fixed fast in a carnal mind, and reckoning abundance of offspring to be happiness—the prophetic word fittingly adds these words as well:

'And your seed would have become as the sand of the sea, and your offspring as the dust of the earth.'

Then he shows the surpassing greatness of his goodness:

'And even now you shall by no means be utterly destroyed, nor shall your name perish before me.'

'Yet nonetheless, even though you have despised my laws, I will count you worthy of sparing, and again you shall be called my people.'

For this is what he has made clear in saying,

'Nor shall your name perish before me';

for its name is to be called the people of God.

'Go out from Babylon, fleeing from the Chaldeans.'

Then he foretells the good cheer that would come from this:

'Proclaim a voice of gladness, and let this be made heard; proclaim it to the ends of the earth; say that the Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob. And he did not let him thirst as he led him through the wilderness; he will bring forth water for them out of a rock; the rock shall be split, and water shall flow, and my people shall drink.'

He reminds them of their former liberty, and how, having been delivered from the Egyptians and passing through the wilderness, they enjoyed strange and marvelous streams of water.

For in the return from Babylon we have learned that nothing of the sort took place.

And the Three Interpreters likewise have rendered this as already having taken place:

And indeed, even after the return, Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi brought these streams to them; and the wondrous Zerubbabel, and Jesus the son of Josedech, the high priest, adorned with piety, set forth the divine teaching to them like water to those who thirst.

'There is no rejoicing for the ungodly, says the Lord.'

Knowing these things, therefore, flee the fellowship of the ungodly.

Here, having brought this prophecy to a close, he announces beforehand salvation to the nations through what follows:

'Hear, O islands, and give heed, O nations, after a long time.'

As for 'after a long time,' Symmachus said,

'Give ear, O nations from afar.' The word calls both islanders and mainlanders, and even those dwelling at the uttermost bounds, to the hearing of the things prophesied.

And according to the Seventy also, 'after a long time' is to be understood thus:

The Lord of all promised to Abraham that in his seed he would bless all the nations;

and this same promise he gave also to Isaac and to Jacob; and this same blessing Jacob too gave to Judah:

'The ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until he come for whom it is laid up, and he is the expectation of nations.' But a very great number of years had elapsed from the promise given to Abraham until the calling of the nations;

on this account the prophetic word says,

'Give heed, O nations, after a long time';

for the divine promise is without falsehood.

'From the womb he called me, and from my mother's belly he called my name.'

These things are spoken in the person of the Master Christ, who is the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, through whom the nations received the promise.

And he teaches that he received his appellation before his birth;

for the holy Gabriel brought it from on high and said to the Virgin,

'You shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.' 'And he made my mouth as a sharp sword, and under the shelter of his hand he hid me.'

For such is the discerning word which was brought forward by him to all mankind; and so too he himself said,

'I came not to cast peace upon the earth, but a sword, to divide a man from his neighbor, a son from his father, a daughter from her mother, and a bride from her mother-in-law.' And indeed the divine Apostle also says,

'For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.' 'He set me as a choice arrow, and in his quiver he hid me.'

Likewise these things too he has named figuratively, calling him an arrow as the one who wounds the souls that love him, each of which cries out:

These things too are to be understood according to his humanity;

for the form of the servant is not a servant.

For he bestowed on him a name above every name, that is, to be Son.

For just as the Master Christ, as God, was always Son, so as man he receives being a Son.

For that one is not one Son and this another, but he is the same, Son as God, and receiving to be Son as man.

'In vain have I labored, to no purpose, and for nothing have I given my strength.'

These things too are spoken in the person of the Master Christ, who is grieved at the unbelief of the Jews.

For he says: They gained nothing from so great a humbling, for they received no benefit from the miracles.

The Three Interpreters have put 'work' instead of 'toil.'

And he says that, even if these gained no benefit, yet nevertheless I have fulfilled my own work, and this is manifest to God.

One must, however, know that he says these things as man;

for indeed in the sacred Gospels also he uttered very many lowly things as man.

'I go to my God and your God,' and,

'I received a commandment what I should say and what I should speak,' and,

'I do nothing of myself,' and all such things.

'And now thus says the Lord who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to gather Jacob to him, and Israel shall be gathered to him.'

As for 'Israel shall be gathered to him,' Theodotion rendered it thus:

'And Israel shall not be gathered together,' and Symmachus,

'And Israel shall not be added.' For upon this, he says, I was fashioned, that I might save the wandering Israel;

but he abides in his wickedness.

These things the Lord also declares in the sacred Gospels:

'I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Jacob'; and again, to the apostles:

'But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' These things, then, He said in order to display His own lovingkindness, while at the same time convicting their disobedience.

And these things He spoke in another place also:

'You are not of My sheep;'

'for My sheep hear My voice.' Again He names Himself a servant, thereby indicating the nature which He assumed.

The appellation of 'servant,' therefore, is here indicative of nature, not of rank.

For if we, through the firstfruits, are not servants, much more that nature which was united to God the Word rules over all things and does not serve, on account of which we also have obtained our freedom.

'And I shall be glorified before the Lord, and my God shall be my strength.'

'It is a great thing for you to be called My servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to turn back the dispersion of Israel.'

And these things again must be understood in a human sense;

for God the Word did not hold it as a very great honour to be called a servant of God and Father;

for the Hebrew tongue and the Three Interpreters render 'My servant' as 'slave.'

Then, foretelling the disobedience of the Jews and the salvation of the Gentiles:

'Behold,' He says, 'I have given you as a covenant of the race, as a light of the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.'

As to the race of the Lord according to the flesh, the whole nature of mankind is common to it, but Israel is its own and near of kin.

Since, then, He came to Israel but enlightened the Gentiles through the apostles, 'I have given you,' He says, 'to these' — on account of the promise made to their fathers — 'but through you I shall enlighten the Gentiles and shall grant salvation to all men' (for this is the meaning of 'unto the ends of the earth'), 'and I shall put an end to the compacts made by Me with their fathers';

for the rest of the interpreters rendered 'covenant' as 'compact.'

'Thus says the Lord who delivered you, the God of Israel.'

The God of the universe speaks of those deemed worthy, who, chosen from among the Gentiles and from among the Jews, were being brought together into one Church.

'Sanctify Him that despises Himself, sanctify Him that despises His own soul.'

The Three interpreted 'Him that despises' as 'Him that is despised';

for 'being in the form of God, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.' He commands those who have obtained salvation to hymn and sanctify this One;

for He has placed 'sanctify' in the sense of 'hymn';

for so also in praying we say:

'Hallowed be Your name,' in the sense of 'let it be glorified.'

'Him that is abhorred by the Gentiles, the servants of the rulers.'

For 'the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing'; and again the same apostle:

'But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.' This too the prophecy here foretells — that the proclamation seemed ridiculous to the unbelieving, and that those enslaved to human rulers would not accept having the Lord of all as their Master.

But nevertheless, after the unbelief, He foretells the faith also:

'Kings shall see Him, and rulers shall arise and worship Him, for the sake of the Lord, because the Holy One of Israel is faithful, and He has chosen you.'

These things need no interpretation from us;

for we see both kings and rulers worshipping the Master Christ, who has chosen those who believe in Him.

'In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation I helped you; and I formed you and gave you as a covenant of the Gentiles, to establish the earth and to inherit the inheritance of the wilderness, saying to those in bonds:

Come forth; and to those in darkness:'

It is the height of folly to apply these things to Zerubbabel;

for he brought back the Jews from Babylon; he did not deliver the Gentiles from error, nor did he bring the new covenant to the Gentiles.