Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 23/24

We were stripped of that all-embracing providence, and we have become like our own forefathers, who, while enslaved in Egypt, were not yet reckoned as your people.

If you open the heaven, trembling shall seize the mountains because of you, and they shall melt as wax melts before the fire, and fire shall consume your adversaries, and your name shall be made manifest to your adversaries.

But we have suffered these things not because of any weakness on your part, but because of our own transgression.

For when you make your own manifestation from heaven, the mountains are shaken, and, like wax approaching fire, are dissolved.

And fire shall devour our foes, and your power shall be made plain to all.

At your presence the nations shall be troubled;

when you perform your glorious deeds, trembling shall seize the mountains because of you.

All things are easy for you, all things effortless for you:

to shake the earth, to throw the nations into confusion.

From of old we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen a god besides you.

For neither have we beheld nor heard of any other whose works befit God.

For you are not like the artifices of the idols and their manifold deceits.

And you shall show mercy to those who wait for you;

for mercy shall meet those who do what is just, and they shall remember your ways.

He has shown the justice of mercy;

for neither is God's mercy without discernment, nor is his judgment without mercy.

Behold, you were angry, and we sinned.

You are indignant against us, and not unjustly;

for our own transgression whets your wrath.

So also Symmachus rendered it:

'Behold, you were angry while we were sinning.' For it was not that they sinned because he was angry, but that he became angry because they sinned.

When we had sinned, you were angry;

and being angry, you stripped us of your providence.

And we, stripped of it, wander here and there and are bereft of your holiness, having become defiled and unclean.

And all our righteousness is as the rag of a woman in her separation.

It is worth marveling at the prophet's insight;

for to the unclean rag he likened not their sin, but their righteousness.

But if their righteousness is likened to that, then their sin, being set beside it, has no image to compare it with.

And we have all fallen away like leaves because of our iniquities; thus the wind shall carry us off.

By these words too he showed the justice of the chastisement.

'We are paying the penalty,' he says, 'for our great transgression, and we have become like leaves borne away by a tempest.'

And there is none who calls upon your name and who remembers to lay hold of you; for you have turned your face away from us and have handed us over to our sins.

We have fallen into insensibility and do not perceive the calamities pressing upon us, nor do we ask for deliverance from them;

for, stripped of your care because of our great transgression, we were given over to slavery.

And now, O Lord, you are our father, and we are clay;

and you are our fashioner, and we are all the works of your hands.

He recalls the ancient act of creation, and calls him father and master and fashioner, and names human nature clay, so that by these means too he may open the fountains of mercy.

Be not exceedingly angry with us, O Lord, and do not remember our sins in the season.

For 'in the season,' Symmachus said 'forever,' equivalent to:

'Why, O God, have you cast us off unto the end?' and again:

'Be not angry with us forever,' and elsewhere:

'And their time shall be forever.' According, however, to the Seventy, let us understand it thus:

do not, in the season of the enemies' assault, remember our sins.

Zion has become a wilderness, as Jerusalem has become a wilderness;

the house of our sanctuary has become a curse, and the glory which our fathers blessed has become fuel for fire, and all our glorious things have fallen together.

'If we,' he says, 'who were once called your people, are unworthy of your loving-kindness, yet deem the city worthy of sparing for the sake of its founder;

for it has become a wilderness.'

And by the remembrance of the name he stirs him to mercy:

Zion has become a wilderness, as Jerusalem has become a wilderness.

'The house of our sanctuary has become a curse'—the Others rendered it 'unto utter destruction.'

But the curse too has a meaning suited to the calamity;

for all are wont to say:

'May you suffer what so-and-so suffered.'

That much-renowned temple, then, full of holiness, celebrated among all, was consumed by the fire of war, and lies exposed as a curse to those who mock it.

And for all these things you have held back, O Lord, and kept silence.

But beholding all these things being done by the enemy, you endured to be long-suffering.

And you have humbled us exceedingly.

For, in order to humble us and break down our proud spirit, you were unwilling to punish those who dared these deeds.

When this supplication had been offered by the prophet, the God of all replies, employing the very same tongue:

I became manifest to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me; I said:

'Behold, here I am, behold, here I am,' to a nation who did not call upon my name.

'I do not accept,' he says, 'the intercession on their behalf;

I have chosen another people, I will no longer bear with the ungrateful.'

Those in darkness have seen the light; those who did not know the Maker have come to know him; those who were not seeking have found the treasure; those who possessed no prophets believe in the one proclaimed by them.

I stretched out my hands all the day long to a people disobedient and contradicting, to those who walk in a way that is not good, but after their sins.

The nations, then, though they had received no prophet, recognized the Benefactor, whereas these, having obtained care of every kind, received no benefit from it, but persist in their accustomed transgression.

'All the day long I stretched out my hands' shows the care bestowed upon them throughout all time, and it also hints at the saving passion of the cross, in which he stretched out his hands.

Then too he lays bare their great impiety and transgression:

This people who provokes me to my face continually: they themselves burn incense in the gardens and offer incense upon bricks to the demons and to those that are not.

Knowing that I behold what is done and that I am present, they nonetheless render service to the demons, wishing by their audacious deeds to provoke me.

They sleep in the tombs and in the caves for the sake of dreams.

Having given themselves over to error and to the apparitions that come in sleep, they follow after them; and for this reason they even endure to sleep beside the graves and in the caves set apart for the demons.

Who eat swine's flesh and the broth of sacrifices; all their vessels are defiled.

He accuses them of transgressing the Law, teaching that it was not because they held fast to the Law nor because they cherished a life governed by the Law that they ventured that murder and nailed their Benefactor to the tree—for those who continually and fearlessly transgress the Law act lawlessly—but rather because, according to their habit, they proved ungrateful for the divine benefactions.

Keep far from me, do not come near me, for I am clean.

Such were those who accused the Savior and said:

Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? Such too was the Pharisee who said within himself:

If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him.

Such was the one praying in the temple and saying:

I thank you, O God, that I am not as the rest of men, unjust, extortioners, adulterers, nor even as this tax collector. Then, showing the harm of such conceit, he adds:

This is the smoke of my wrath; a fire burns in it all the days.

And this arrogance kindles my wrath.

Behold, it is written before me:

I will not keep silent, until I have repaid into their bosom all their sins and the sins of their fathers together, says the Lord.

Since, living in every kind of lawlessness, they nonetheless despise others as though they had laid hold of the highest virtue, they shall reap the wages of what they dare; and he teaches that not only in the present life but also in that which is to come they shall pay the penalty.

For it was for this reason that he said:

And the sins of their fathers together, says the Lord.

Who burned incense upon the mountains.

Concerning their fathers he says these things.

And upon the hills they reproached me.

I will repay their works first into their bosom.

He has made plain the judgment that is to come in the life hereafter.

Then he teaches for what reason he bore with them for so very long a time while they were thus transgressing the Law:

As when a single ripe grape is found in the cluster, and they say:

Do not spoil it, for a blessing of the Lord is in it, so will I do for the sake of him who serves me;

for this reason I will not destroy them all.

For, he says, just as when someone finds one ripe grape in a cluster he spares the whole cluster for its sake, in order to offer the firstfruit to God, so I, having promised to Abraham that in his seed I would bless all the nations, for the sake of that Seed bore with all Israel while it transgressed the Law; therefore I did not overlook them when they were enslaved to the Egyptians, and for this reason I set them free from the dominion of the Babylonians.

And I will bring forth the seed from Jacob and from Judah, and he shall inherit my holy mountain.

The prophetic word has plainly pointed out to us the one who was foretold;

for having called to mind the seed through whom God promised to give the blessing to the nations, he made mention of Jacob and of Judah.

For the blessing which Jacob received through his forefathers and from the God of his forefathers, this he gave neither to Reuben the firstborn, nor to Simeon the second, nor to Levi the third (from whom sprang the race of priests), nor to Joseph the beloved, but to Judah:

For, he said, the ruler shall not depart from Judah, nor the leader from his loins, until he come for whom it is laid up, and he is the expectation of the nations. For this reason the God of all said:

And I will bring forth the seed from Jacob and from Judah—that is, the expectation of the nations, through whom I promised to bless all the tribes of the earth.

Then, together with Christ the Master and the apostles who believed in him and the others who succeeded to their preaching, he makes mention:

And my chosen ones and my servants shall inherit, and they shall dwell there.

Then he also foretells the calling of the nations:

And in the forest there shall be folds of flocks, and the valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for my people who have sought me.

For Achar—or also Achor—who had stolen and had transgressed the law concerning the accursed thing, they stoned to death in a certain valley, and because of this suffering they were filled with deep compunction.

But you who forsake me and forget my holy mountain, and prepare a table for Fortune and fill a cup of mixed drink for the demon: I will deliver you to the sword; you shall all fall by slaughter.

First, that they forsook their Benefactor and despised the temple consecrated to God; then, that instead of God they served the demons who set themselves against God, and instead of the providence of God chose Fortune, and supposed that she governs human affairs, and offered to her the things supplied by God.

Because I called you and you did not obey, I spoke and you did not hearken, and you did what was evil before me, and you chose the things I did not will.

He called them indeed through the prophets, and they continued to resist;

and he called them also when he had become man:

If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink; and again:

Behold, those who serve me shall eat, but you shall be hungry;

behold, those who serve me shall drink, but you shall be thirsty;

behold, those who serve me shall rejoice in gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for the pain of your heart and shall wail from brokenness of spirit.

The setting side by side of opposites works a greater anguish for those who are being punished;

so then the Jews are not grieved by their own misfortune so much as they are pained by the prosperity of the Church.

For you shall leave your name for a surfeit to my chosen ones, but you the Lord God shall destroy.

For 'a surfeit,' the Three Interpreters have put 'a curse (an oath).'

For many are accustomed to speak thus:

May I not suffer what so-and-so has suffered.

And the rendering of the Seventy too is seen in fact;

for the very name of the Jews is abominable and loathsome.

But to those who serve me a new name shall be called, which shall be blessed upon the earth.

And already he has foretold this name.

And it is new and not old;

for after the appearing of Christ the Master, those who believed were called Christians.

And men offer this name in place of every commendation;

for whenever they wish to praise someone, after their many commendations they are accustomed to add:

And when exhorting someone, again they are accustomed to say:

Act as a Christian; do what befits a Christian.

Thus the appellation is full of blessing and commendation.

For they shall bless the true God—that is, those who are counted worthy of the new name.

And those who swear upon the earth shall swear by the true God.

For they shall cast away the remembrance of the idols and shall continually carry the true God upon their lips.

For they shall forget their former tribulation, and it shall not come up upon their heart.

He called error 'tribulation,' as being the procurer of calamities.

For there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, and they shall not remember the former things, nor shall they come up upon their heart, but they shall find gladness and exultation in it—all the things that I create.

This the Apostle also said:

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;

the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. So too through the prophet:

There is gladness, he says, and rejoicing in all that I create.

For the things brought into being by me shall furnish everlasting salvation.

And there has come to be a new heaven and a new earth for those who of old went astray and made these things into gods;

for they recognized the Maker of these things and learned that they are not gods but the works of God.

They are therefore new to those who now see one set of things in place of another;

for when the error had ceased, the work was seen to be a work and the maker to be a maker.

Behold, I make Jerusalem a rejoicing and my people a gladness, and I will rejoice over Jerusalem and be glad over my people, and no longer shall there be heard in her the voice of weeping or the voice of crying.

Having foretold the new creation, he of necessity names that Jerusalem concerning which the divine Apostle also spoke:

But the Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all, and again:

You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to a festal gathering and to the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. That city he says he will make a rejoicing, and her people a gladness; that city he names free from weeping.

But if the Jews are not persuaded, let them show their own Jerusalem set free from tears;

for this one was given over to many calamities, whereas that one alone possesses a life without sorrow and freed from tears.

And what follows also bears witness to this understanding:

And there shall no longer be there one untimely in his days, or an old man who does not fulfill his time;

for the youth shall be a hundred years old, but the sinner who dies, though a hundred years old, shall be accursed.

He assigns the same age both to the righteous and to sinners;

for immortal is both the enjoyment of the righteous and the chastisement of those who have sinned.

He also does away with the different ages, both the untimely and the overripe, and has set down the perfect number—that is, the hundred—for the life that has no end.

'A hundred years old'—according to the idiom of the Hebrews and Syrians he has set this down in place of:

And they shall build houses and dwell in them themselves, and shall plant vineyards and eat their fruits themselves;

and they shall not build and others dwell, and they shall not plant and others eat.

He has set these things down figuratively, according to his customary idiom, naming virtue as houses and vineyards.

So too the divine Apostle:

For whatever a man sows, that he shall also reap;

he who sows to his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to his own spirit shall of his spirit reap everlasting life; and again:

He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he who sows in blessings shall also reap in blessings; and elsewhere:

Each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For according to the days of the tree of life shall be the days of my people, and they shall make old the works of their toils.

How can these things be fitted to those who traverse this mortal life? For the prophetic word promises everlasting life.

For concerning that tree God said:

Lest Adam stretch out his hand and eat from the tree of life and live forever. But there has become for us a tree of life, the saving Cross;

for it received, as a kind of fruit, the life-giving Body, in which those who stretch out their hands and partake of the fruit live the everlasting life.

My chosen ones shall not labor in vain, nor beget children for a curse, because they are a seed blessed by God, and their offspring with them.

So too the divine Apostle said:

Your labor is not in vain in the Lord. And 'blessed children and offspring' he calls those who are regenerated through faith, concerning whom the divine Apostle also said:

For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet you have not many fathers;

for in Christ Jesus through the gospel I begot you. And writing to the Galatians he spoke thus:

My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you. And it shall be that before they cry out I will hear them; while they are still speaking I will say:

What is this? Thus, when Paul was imprisoned in Jerusalem, the Lord appeared to him, saying:

For as you testified the things concerning me in Jerusalem, so must you also bear witness in Rome. Thus in Philippi he shook the foundations of the prison and loosed the bonds; thus he led out from the guardhouse the chief of the apostles; thus he set free the whole choir of the apostles when they had been imprisoned.

Then wolves and lambs shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like an ox.

These things he had already foretold earlier, when he foretold the sprout of the rod out of Jesse.

And we see the fulfillment of the prophecy;

for at one and the same table rulers and ruled, kings and subjects, the wise and the simple, all have one table, the teaching of the Spirit.

For he called 'lambs' those who live in gentleness, and named 'wolves' those who reach after more; and 'lion' the one who has laid hold of the kingship, and 'oxen' those deemed worthy of the priesthood, and 'straw' the food set apart for oxen—that is:

the lion shall no longer be a devourer of flesh, but shall share in the food of oxen.

For this food the righteous Judge assigned to it from the beginning:

And upon your breast and belly shall you go, and you shall eat earth all the days of your life. And 'serpent' he calls the common enemy of mankind;

him he subjected to the ancient curses.

They shall not do wrong nor cause harm on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

But if the Jews continue to expect that these things will come to pass according to the letter, let them say what benefit will result therefrom;

for what will men gain if lions eat straw and serpents make the earth their food? But let us leave aside the folly of these men and hold to the interpretation.

Heaven is my throne and the earth is the footstool of my feet.

What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord; and what is this place of my rest? For all these things my hand made, and all these are mine, says the Lord.

By these words he does away with worship confined to a place, and shows himself to be the Maker of heaven and earth and the Creator of all other things, having no need of a temple made with hands.

If I have heaven for a throne, what kind of house can you build for me? I who fashioned all these things by a word have no need of your co-operation, and I made them not for my own need but for the benefit of mankind.

Then he teaches with whom he is well pleased:

And upon whom shall I look, but upon the humble and quiet and him who trembles at my words? A true house and a holy temple I have in the one who orders his life according to my commandments, who fears and trembles at the transgression of my precepts, who bears himself with a meek manner and a lowly mind.

But the lawless one who sacrifices to me a calf is as one who strikes a man; he who offers a sheep, as one who kills a dog; he who brings up fine flour, as one who offers swine's blood; he who gives frankincense for a memorial, as a blasphemer.

By these words he did away with the worship of the Law, teaching that it was for the sake of those men that he originally gave these ordinances, not being pleased with the sacrifices, but caring for them as for the weak.

For to sacrifice a calf and offer up a sheep and bring fine flour and frankincense was of old permitted by God; but to lift up unjust hands and to defile the tongue with blasphemy was utterly forbidden; and swine and dogs were reckoned unclean.

And they themselves chose their own ways, and their abominations which their soul desired.

They were not persuaded by my words but followed their own reasonings.

And I also will choose their mockings and requite them their sins, because I called them and they did not heed me, I spoke and they did not hear me, but they did what was evil before me and chose the things I did not will.

Since, he says, they chose not the things I willed but the things they themselves desired, I too will bring upon them punishments which they indeed do not want but which I will justly inflict.

For he called the punishments 'mockings.'

For I called them and they did not heed me.

Having thus foretold these things against the gainsayers, he transfers his discourse to those who have believed:

Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word: say,

'Our brethren, to those who hate you and abhor you, that the name of the Lord may be glorified and be seen in your gladness — yet they shall be put to shame.'

This same thing he also lays down as law in the sacred Gospels:

'Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken.' This too the Lord of all enjoins through the prophet upon those who tremble at his word — to call brethren those who hate and abhor them, so that the name of the Saviour may be glorified.

For this, he says, shall procure gladness for you, but for those others shame.

After this he foredescribes the siege of the city:

A voice of clamour from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the Lord rendering recompense to his adversaries.

Teaching the justice of the punishment, he said that the Lord of all exacts penalties from those who set themselves against him.

Having thus shown the destruction of the Jews, he prophesies the birth-pangs of the Church and speaks of the new people that sprang up in a moment:

Before she that travailed brought forth, and before the pain of the birth-pangs came, she escaped and brought forth a man-child.

He has made plain both the suddenness of the birth and the strength of the one born;

for by the word 'man-child' he intimated the strength.

Then in astonishment he says:

Who has heard such a thing, or who has seen it thus? Did the earth travail in one day, and bring forth a nation all at once? For Zion travailed and brought forth her children.

What the prophet taught by his words, experience shows clearly;

for when great Peter had delivered his address, grace brought forth three thousand at one time, and again when he had offered another teaching, it gave birth to five thousand in the same manner;

and these were all zealous for the law, as the divine James says.

These things the God of all foretold through the prophetic tongue, and this too he makes clear through what follows:

But I gave this expectation — and shall I not bring forth? I foretold, he says, and shall I not grant the fulfilment to my prediction? Nay, I indeed do these things, but those who live in wickedness, though they behold such a wonder-working, persist in their unbelief.

And you did not remember me, says the Lord.

Behold, have I not made her that bears and her that is barren? says the Lord your God.

You of old brought forth prophets, but the Church from among the nations was barren at that time.

But now the opposite has come to pass;

for you have ceased from bearing, but she has received the grace of a multitude of children.

Rejoice with Jerusalem and keep festival in her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her, that you may suck and be satisfied from the breasts of her consolation, that having drunk your fill you may delight yourselves from the entrance of her glory.

Together with those from among the Jews he summons those from among the nations, and exhorts them to share in the gladness of those who have been saved from these, promising through these to furnish them consolation;

for through the holy apostles those from among the nations who believed were both regenerated and nourished.

Behold, I turn toward them as a river of peace, and as a torrent overflowing the glory of the nations.

These things he says concerning the holy apostles, whom he made renowned and much-celebrated among all men.

Their honour and their fame he likened to a river and to an overflowing torrent.

Their children shall be carried upon shoulders, and shall be comforted upon knees.

This nourishment the divine apostle imparted to the Corinthians, saying:

I gave you milk to drink, not solid food;

for you were not yet able. And elsewhere too one may hear them saying:

As newborn infants, long for the pure, guileless milk of the word. So again the inspired Paul exhorts the Ephesians, saying:

I, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you; and to the Corinthians:

I beseech you, brethren, that you all speak the same thing; and to the Romans:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God; and again:

Our heart is opened wide toward you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged; you are not straitened in us. As one whom his mother comforts, so I too will comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem, and you shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the grass.

For not only in the present life will I bring you every kind of consolation through my heralds, but also in the heavenly city I will fill you with joy of every sort, granting you the resurrection from the dead.

For this he intimated when he likened the flourishing to grass springing up from the bones.

And the hand of the Lord shall be known to those who fear him, and he shall threaten those who disobey.

And teaching the form of the threat, he says:

Behold, the Lord shall come as fire, and his chariots as a whirlwind, to render his vengeance in wrath and his rejection in a flame of fire.

Like to these are also the things spoken in the sacred Gospels:

the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and glory, with the elect angels; and again:

The sign of the Son of Man shall appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth shall mourn.

For the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall as leaves fall from a vine. This 'rejection,' however, the Others rendered as 'rebuke.'

For in the fire of the Lord shall all the earth be judged, and by his sword all flesh.

So too the divine apostle said:

That it is revealed in fire, and the fire shall test each man's work, of what sort it is; and in the sacred Gospels the Lord says: