Commentary on Isaiah 1 part 5/24

In his days righteousness shall arise, and abundance of peace, until the moon be taken away. Then he adds:

The zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall accomplish these things.

For being moved with zeal, and hating the tyranny of the demons, and taking pity on the race of men, He wrought out this dispensation:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Let us therefore keep undefiled the faith which we have received, that we may enjoy eternal life by the grace of Christ who has saved us, with whom to the Father belongs glory, together with the all-holy Spirit, now and always and unto the ages of ages.

the invincibility of the race by reason of the seed hidden within it, and having foretold its offspring, and moreover the manner of that offspring's birth, he takes up again the discourse against Israel.

And he names the same one both Jacob and Israel:

for indeed the patriarch Jacob bore these two appellations, the one given by the fathers, the other bestowed by the God of all:

but 'Jacob' was the more natural name, while 'Israel' was an epithet of the virtue of his soul.

One must know, however, that the Other Translators said that a 'word,' not 'death,' was sent.

Yet nevertheless the interpretation contains no discord:

for they named the sentence of punishment a 'word.'

And all the people of Ephraim shall know, and those who dwell in Samaria, in insolence and haughtiness of heart, saying:

The bricks have fallen, but come, let us hew stones and cut down sycamores and cedars, and let us build for ourselves towers.

They attempted to construct a fortress against Jerusalem, calling their own kingdom rotten and like fallen bricks.

for Palestine is full of these things, and out of such timbers they roof their houses.

And God shall dash those who rise up against Mount Zion and against Jerusalem, upon them.

God appropriates to Himself the things done against Jerusalem, and threatens destruction to those who through her attempt to make war upon Him.

And He shall scatter the enemies of Judah — Syria from the rising of the sun, and the Greeks from the setting of the sun, those who devour My people with their whole mouth.

The Other Translators rendered it not as 'the Greeks' but as 'the Philistines':

and these were the neighbouring Foreigners.

And it was likely that certain of the Greeks also dwelt as colonists together with the Foreigners, as did the Cypriots and the Cappadocians:

for this we have been taught by the other prophets.

He says therefore: not only do I pronounce this sentence against Israel, but I also destroy their allies, both those dwelling toward the east and those toward the west.

For all this His wrath is not turned away, but His hand is still lifted high.

For while the impiety of men does not cease, neither does the punishment admit any pause.

And this too He has made clear through what follows.

And the people turned not until they were smitten, and they sought not the Lord.

and for this reason the hand is lifted high, because they sought not the Lord.

And the Lord took away from Israel head and tail,

great and small in one day.

And who is the great one? The elder, and those who show partiality to persons — this is the head.

By those who 'show partiality to persons' he means those who judge unjustly contrary to the law which says:

You shall not accept the person of a mighty man. Then he points out the other rank as well:

And a prophet teaching lawless things — this is the tail.

And those who bless this people shall be deceivers, and they deceive them, that they may swallow them up.

By these very ones he means those who falsely speak pleasant things and reap abundant wages from their hearers.

because all are lawless and wicked, and every mouth speaks unrighteousness.

For all this His wrath is not turned away, but His hand is still lifted high.

For just as the Master's loving-kindness follows upon the repentance of men, so, while lawlessness persists, His anger is intensified.

And lawlessness shall be kindled like fire, and like dry grass shall it be burned up by fire.

He taught precisely that those who transgress the law draw punishment upon themselves.

For he called lawlessness fire and dry grass:

living in transgression, a man both works sin and is destroyed by it.

And it shall be kindled in the thickets of the forest, and shall devour together all things round about the hills.

for indeed the forest is thick and dense, yet barren of fruit.

And by 'hills' he names the rulers, because of their loftiness and conspicuousness.

And the people shall be as one burned up by fire.

By these words he has indicated the fierceness of the enemies.

A man shall not have pity on his own brother.

For when a rout occurs in war, each man provides for his own safety, and neither father takes thought for son, nor son for father, nor brother for brother, in the hour of flight.

Then he foretells both the might and the victory of the adversaries:

But he shall turn aside to the right hand, because he shall be hungry, and shall eat of the left hand, and a man shall not be satisfied though he eats the flesh of his own arm.

In wars the victors at one time pursue those on the right wing, and at another advance against the left, and rage compels them to forget their own nature, and they resemble men gone mad who devour their own arms as though they were another's.

By these things, however, he also signifies the very dissension of Israel and the discord of the tribes.

For Ephraim, he says, shall eat of Manasseh, and Manasseh of Ephraim, for together they shall besiege Judah.

He speaks of things that have already come to pass as though they were still to come, according to the idiom of the Hebrew tongue.

For all this His wrath is not turned away, but His hand is still lifted high.

For neither was it fitting that the physician should withdraw from the treatment while the disease had not abated.

Turning aside the judgements of the poor, snatching away the just causes of the needy of My people, so that the widow becomes their spoil and the orphan their plunder.

And he accuses both the false prophets and the unrighteous rulers: the former as composing false predictions to the ruin of many, the latter as judging lawlessly and betraying justice.

Then he strikes fear into them by the reminder of the punishment:

And what will you do in the day of visitation? For he called the time of punishment a 'day of visitation.'

For just as he calls the long-suffering of God 'sleep,' so he names the punishment 'visitation.'

For your affliction shall come from afar.

The two things he signifies at the same time: both that it shall come from afar, and that the sins committed of old and from the beginning shall in the time of judgement be brought into the midst, and that penalties shall be exacted for them all.

And to whom will you flee for help? For while I make war, who shall help and profit you? This resembles what was said by the great Moses:

I kill and I make alive, I smite and I also heal.

'And there is none who shall deliver out of my hands. And where will you leave your glory, that you fall not into captivity?' The prosperity now present, he says, will not suffice for you when you are made captives;

for by 'captivity' (apagoge) he named the leading-away into bondage.

For thus also did Symmachus render it, and the rest likewise:

'And where will you leave your glory, so as not to be bowed down under a bond? And they shall fall beneath those who have been slain.'

Often, in wars, some who attempt to escape their adversaries hide themselves among the corpses of the slain.

Foreshadowing therefore the excess of their cowardice, he has indicated this also here.

'For all this his wrath has not turned away, but still his hand is lifted high.'

He continually repeats this, both to accuse their disobedience and to terrify them by the threat of punishment.

Having proclaimed these things to Samaria and to the tribes under her, he foretells also the onslaught of the Assyrians and the utter destruction that would seize them in the siege of Jerusalem:

'Woe to the Assyrians! The rod of my wrath and my anger is in their hands.'

He armed them against those who transgressed the law and lived impiously; yet these men wrought what they wrought not as ministering to the God of all, but rather, trusting in their own might and dominion, they strove to hold sway over all.

'I will send my anger against a lawless nation.'

These very ones, he says, are those into whose hand I entrusted the punishing rod.

'And I will give him charge against my people, to make spoils and plunder, and to trample down his cities and to make them as the dust of the roads.'

By these words he has indicated the great desolation.

Then he lays bare the reasonings of the king of the Assyrians:

'But he did not so intend, nor did he so reckon in his soul.'

He does not know, he says, that he is my minister and that he received from me the authority to punish.

'But his mind will turn to make away with and to utterly destroy nations not a few.'

He has resolved, he says, trusting in his own power, to blot out the memory of many nations.

'You are not the only ruler, and he will say:'

These words Sennacherib employed against Hezekiah:

'Let not your God deceive you, in whom you trust, saying:'

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

'Behold, have you not heard what the kings of the Assyrians have done to all the earth, how they destroyed it, and shall you be delivered? Did the gods of the nations deliver them, whom my fathers destroyed — both Gozan and Haran and Rapheс and the sons of Adan who are in the land of Thesmath? Where are the kings of Aimath and Arphad? And where is the king of the city Sepharim, of Aina and Gaua?' These things, then, that man wrote to King Hezekiah;

and here to those who say:

'You are not the only ruler,' he has said the like.

'Wail over the graven images in Jerusalem and in Samaria;'

'for just as I did to Samaria and to the works of her hands, so also will I do to Jerusalem and to her idols.'

And these words too the rest of the interpreters attributed to the same speaker.

For that boastful and impious man, supposing the God of Jerusalem to be like the other gods, made use of these mad words, and wrote also to Hezekiah:

'Let not your God deceive you, that he will deliver Jerusalem out of my hand.'

'And it shall come to pass, when the Lord has finished doing all things on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, that he will visit judgment upon the great mind, the ruler of the Assyrians, and upon the loftiness of the glory of his eyes.'

By 'the great mind' he means the arrogant one, who dares to reckon things beyond his nature.

By 'the loftiness of the glory of the eyes' he calls the surpassing pride, with which he threatens the destruction of the walls of Jerusalem.

Then he sets forth in detail his conceit, both of his words and of his reasonings.

'By the strength of my hand I will act, and by the wisdom of my understanding; I will remove the borders of the nations, and will plunder their strength, and will shake inhabited cities, and I will seize the whole world with my hand as a nest, and as eggs that have been left I will take it up; and there is none who shall escape me or gainsay me, opening his mouth and chirping.'

These things he had made known to Hezekiah both through his envoys and through his letters.

But he who hoped to snatch the whole world as a nest of fledglings, and to take it without toil like eggs left behind by birds that had flown away — this man, without a human hand, was stripped of his army.

'Opening his mouth and chirping' — this is said by the Scripture according to the usage prevailing among men.

For we are wont to say concerning those who are exceedingly frightened:

'He did not dare to make a squeak.' So then the phrase:

'opening his mouth and chirping,' means:

not only will no one dare to array himself against me, but no one will so much as attempt to utter a peep, like the sparrows.

Against this arrogance of his the God of all makes answer:

'...a saw without one who draws it? Likewise, if someone takes a rod or a stick.'

Does the axe cut wood without human hands, or does the saw divide it in two, in three, in four; or can a rod or a stick strike, when none is at work? How then do you think so highly of yourself, as though you had prevailed over the vanquished nations apart from my counsel? And fittingly did he liken him also to lifeless things, as one sick with insensibility and with utter irrationality.

I will not permit you, he says, to remain in this folly, but through punishment you shall learn who is the sovereign of all.

'But the Lord of Sabaoth will send dishonor upon your honor, and upon your glory a burning fire shall be kindled.'

For having marched to war with much glory, he fled with yet greater dishonor.

'And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and shall sanctify him in a burning flame, and shall consume and devour the forest like grass.'

By 'the light of Israel' he named godliness;

for the Psalm says, 'In the light of your countenance they shall walk.' This light will furnish to Israel its illuminating power, but against you it will use its burning power, and like some grass it will consume your whole army.

'In that day the mountains and the hills and the woodlands shall be quenched, and it shall devour from soul even to flesh.'

By 'mountains' he calls the king and the commanders after him; by 'hills,' the rulers subject to these; and by 'woodlands,' the remaining unfruitful multitude.

'And he that flees shall be as one that flees from a burning fire;'

'and those left of them shall be a number, and a little child shall write them down.'

Though their pursuers appear not, they will attempt with much haste to flee away, imitating those who are encompassed by flame and are trying to escape it.

And thus those who escape the punishment shall be so easily numbered, that even any chance child could write down their number.

And these things came to pass when, by a single angel, the hundred and eighty-five thousand were destroyed.

'And it shall be in that day that the remnant of Israel shall no longer be added to, and those of Jacob that are saved shall no longer trust in those who wronged them.'

King Ahaz, being warred upon by Pekah and Rezin, called the Assyrian king to his alliance.

The prophetic word therefore foretells that, having enjoyed the divine forethought, they will despise human aid, but will hold fast to their hope in God.

For this he makes clear through what follows:

'But they shall trust in God, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.'

'And the remnant of Jacob shall return to the mighty God.'

This godliness of the people, in which King Hezekiah instructed them, the fourth book of Kingdoms also bears witness.

And there were joined to Jerusalem, also from the ten tribes, as many as were able to escape Shalmaneser and Sennacherib, who, being delivered from error, followed the godliness of Hezekiah.

'And though the people of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant of them shall be saved.'

Since he delivered the ten tribes over to the kings of the Assyrians and disregarded the other cities of Judah that were being besieged, he teaches the reason for this: that he looks not to number but seeks godliness.

For this too will come to pass in the days to come, when the greater part of the Jews, after the incarnation of the Saviour, gainsay Him, while those who yearn for salvation eagerly receive the preaching of the apostles.

Then he teaches also the brevity of the preaching and the manner of the new covenant:

'For finishing the word and cutting it short in righteousness, because a shortened word will the Lord make in the whole world.'

This testimony the divine Apostle also called to mind.

What the Law, employing many commandments and sacrifices and punishments, had not the strength to set aright, this the evangelical word set aright, offering as a concise remedy of salvation the all-holy baptism;

which God has given to all men.

Having thus foretold concerning the new covenant, he brings the discourse back again to the former sequence:

'Fear not, O my people who dwell in Zion, because of the Assyrians, for with a rod shall he smite thee.'

By 'rod' here he named the moderate chastisement;

for indeed he laid siege to many of the subject cities.

'For a stroke do I bring upon thee, to see the way of Egypt.'

'And this chastisement too I brought upon thee not unjustly, but exacting from thee an accounting for thine Egyptian practices;'

'for the idolatry which thou hadst learned from the Egyptians, this thou dost persist in keeping.'

This sense Symmachus also rendered:

'With a rod shall he smite thee, and his staff shall he lift up against thee for the way of Egypt'—that is, on account of the imitation of the Egyptians;

for he often calls the manner of life a 'way.'

'For yet a little while, and my wrath against thee shall cease;'

'but my anger shall be upon their counsel.'

'And I will turn my wrath against those who war against thee.'

'And God shall stir up against them scourges according to the blow of Midian in a place of affliction'—

the one brought upon them through the great Moses, the other through Gideon.

Both were marvellous, but the second more marvellous still;

and this same penalty the Assyrians also paid;

for though no one shot an arrow, nor hurled a spear, nor made use of a sling, many myriads were sent to their death.

'At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, they slumbered who had mounted upon the horses.' And by 'slumber' he named the swiftness of death.

Then he relates how, after the siege of Jerusalem, he intends to rush against Egypt through the coastland; yet he shall not only fail of that, but shall be deprived even of what is in his hands, when the yoke that lies upon Jerusalem is broken.

'For his yoke,' he says, 'shall be destroyed from off your shoulders.'

Then he teaches of the wandering which he shall endure, fleeing and being scattered into diverse ways, and passing through Aggai and Mageddo and Machmas and Gabaon.

For Rama, the city of Saul, shall be in anguish and shall flee, yet shall suffer no harm; and Galim, imitating a horse tossing its head in pride, shall neigh against him; while Laisa and Anathoth and Madebena and Gabir shall be dismayed at the sudden reversal of affairs.

Having spoken these things concerning the others, the prophetic word consoles those who dwell in Jerusalem and charges them to remain and not to flee:

'Comfort ye this day, so as to remain in the way; comfort with the hand the mountain of the daughter of Zion, and the hills that are in Jerusalem and in Judah.'

Having thus prophesied these things concerning the Assyrians and foretold the marvellous salvation of Jerusalem, he teaches the cause of that salvation:

'Behold, the Master, the Lord of Sabaoth, shall confound the glorious with might, and the lofty in their pride shall be crushed, and the high shall be brought low, and the lofty shall fall by the sword, and Lebanon with its lofty ones shall fall.'

Not only, he says, shall He deliver to death those who wield power and think great things of themselves, but He shall also abolish the prevailing error of the idols.

For by 'Lebanon' he means the error, and by 'the lofty things' he named the idols honoured upon the high places.

For since a very great deception of demons held sway in Lebanon, he named the whole from the part.

'And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall come up out of the root.'

…he says, shall enjoy the providence of the divine rod.

Above, then, he had foreshown the birth of Emmanuel from a virgin; here he indicates the conception from the Holy Spirit:

'For I went in,' he says, 'unto the prophetess, and she conceived in the womb.' For in the virginal womb the all-holy Spirit fashioned the temple of the Word of God—the form of the servant—which the God-Word, taking it up from the very moment of conception, united to Himself.

and he taught His God-befitting titles: that He is Mighty God, that He is Ruler, that He is Prince of peace, that He is Father of the age to come.

But here he teaches also His kinship according to the flesh, that He sprang from Jesse according to the flesh:

'And the Spirit of God shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and godliness;'

'the Spirit of the fear of God shall fill Him.'

For each of the prophets received some partial grace, but in Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and according to His humanity too He possessed all the gifts of the Spirit;

'For of His fullness,' according to the inspired John, 'have we all received.' 'He shall not judge according to appearance, nor reprove according to talk.'

For He gave no heed to the power of the scribes and Pharisees, but with boldness convicted their lawlessness:

saying, 'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,' and all the other such things which those who wish may readily observe in the sacred Gospels.

'But He shall judge in righteousness the lowly with judgement.'

For some He freed from the madness of the demons, others He delivered from the dominion of the passions, and to those who believed He brought the profitable teaching that ushers in life.

'And He shall reprove in uprightness the glorious of the earth.'

This He did gently at His former appearing, but royally and with authority He shall do it at the second, seated upon the divine thrones and issuing the just verdicts.

'And He shall smite the earth with the word of His mouth.'

For by the God-befitting teaching of the apostles He made the earth a heaven, drawing many in every nation away from earthly affairs and preparing them to embrace the heavenly commonwealth.

'And with the spirit through His lips shall He slay the ungodly.'

This too the divine Apostle foretold concerning the Antichrist:

'For then,' he says, 'shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of His mouth, and shall abolish by the manifestation of His coming.' This same prophet also cries aloud a little further on:

'Let the ungodly be taken away, that he may not see the glory of the Lord. And He shall be girded about the loins with righteousness, and His sides bound with truth.'

these, he says, have become to Him both a garment and a girdle.

Then he tells the achievements of the … dispensation:

'Then shall the wolf feed together with the lamb, and the leopard shall rest together with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the bull shall feed together.'

For by the wolf he likens the rapacious character, by the sheep the tame and gentle; and again by the leopard the many-hued—for the beast is spotted—and by the kid the simple and guileless;

so by the lion the haughty and domineering, by the bull the bold, and by the calf that which is free from these.

Yet nevertheless he says that they shall be pastured together in the same place.

And we behold the fulfilment of the prophecy in the churches: kings and prefects and generals and soldiers and day-labourers and household servants and beggars all sharing together the same sacred table, listening to the same words, being deemed worthy of the same font.

'And a little child shall lead them.'

For those who exult in power and are puffed up with wisdom, the man who—according to the apostolic exhortation—is a babe in wickedness and adorned with the simplicity of the fishermen, leads and pastures.

'And the ox and the bear shall feed together, and their young shall be together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.'

And we behold the fulfilment of these things also;

'And an infant child shall lay his hand upon the hole of asps, and upon the den of the offspring of asps the newly weaned child shall put forth his hand.'

Such was the blessed Paul when he disputed with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, and delivered his public address on the Areopagus, and boldly braved the asps, striving to thrust his simple word, as one might thrust a hand, into their hearing, as into the den of wild beasts;

for their heart was indeed a den of demons.

"And they shall not do harm, nor shall they be able to destroy anyone upon my holy mountain."

To this the Gospel voice of the Lord bears a resemblance:

"Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Therefore he calls a holy mountain the lofty, strong, and unshakable mountain of his divine teaching, and to those who stand upon it he promises invincibility.

Then he shows the power of the preaching:

"For the whole earth was filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as much water covers the seas."

Truly greatest and most marvellous is this wonder, and it resembles a few droplets falling upon the sea, transforming the bitterness therein and rendering its quality sweet;

for in this way the Gospel word brought to an end the impiety of the whole world, and filled all land and sea with the knowledge of God.

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, and he that shall arise to rule the nations—in him shall the nations hope."

And he called to mind the divine promises and the predictions of the patriarch Jacob.

For God said to Abraham:

"In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." And this same promise he also gave to Isaac and to Jacob.

And the patriarch Jacob gave to Judah the blessing which he had received, and says:

It is fitting to lament the stupefaction of the Jews, who apply this prophecy to Zerubbabel—who did not even rule over all the Jews but only over a few, and over the nations not at all.

But let us, leaving them aside, hold to the interpretation.

"And his rest shall be honour."

For since he had spoken of his sprouting forth and of the achievements of the dispensation, and had pointed to his beginning, he now points also to the suffering that came to pass in the midst, after which he gained dominion over the world.

For being unknown by the nations before his incarnation, after the incarnation and the passion he receives from all divine worship, as maker and God.

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall further show his hand, to be jealous and to seek out the remnant of the people that was left, which was left behind by the Assyrians, and from Egypt, and from Babylon, and from Ethiopia, and from the Elamites, and from the risings of the sun, and out of Arabia, and from the islands of the sea."

The history of the Acts taught us that the divine apostles, traversing the world, preached first to the Jews.

Indeed, to those who opposed him the blessed Paul said:

"It was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken to you;

but since you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we are clean, and from now on we will go to the nations." Nevertheless many myriads did believe, and three thousand and five thousand at one time were caught alive by them, and the most divine James pointed out to the inspired Paul many myriads of Jews who had believed.

Concerning these things the grace of the all-holy Spirit also foretold through the prophet Isaiah, that he would both seek them out and count them worthy of salvation.

And this he has made clear also through what follows:

"He shall gather the lost ones of Israel, and the scattered of Judah he shall gather from the four corners of the earth."

And what sign is this but the symbol of the cross, through which he guided to the truth those who wandered both from Israel and from Judah? "And the envy of Ephraim shall be taken away, and the enemies of Judah shall perish;

Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not afflict Ephraim."

These things happened long ago, when the kingdom was divided;

but after the return from Babylon they regained their former concord.

"And they shall fly in the ships of the foreigners, plundering the sea together, and those from the risings of the sun, and Idumaea."